Just when the old man in the toga started to blow on the microphone and was about to say something, the door at the entrance opened again and a procession of seven Claimed marched in. They were striding through the center aisle, ignoring the commotion they caused.
Leading the group was a tall, slender beauty. Her long blond hair flowed down her perfectly arched back in one elegant cascade and her white and gold dress clung tightly to her flawless body. Right behind her were two boys that towered over her and diminished the rest of the room. One was wrapped in a bear hide and carrying a hammer in his right hand, the other had a wolf hide over his shoulder and was carrying a golden spear. When the second one turned to sneer at the crowd, Summer made a kind of choking noise but Cassandra was too busy watching what was going on in front of her to check on her.
There were four more Claimed walking behind them. One was almost as beautiful as the girl in front and she was walking hand in hand with a boy who looked like his hair was ablaze. Beside them was a boy who looked like his feet weren’t quite touching the ground and there was a slight, greyish girl trailing behind them who looked at first like she didn’t quite belong.
They stopped in front of the stage as if waiting for something to happen. Icarus, who didn’t seem to know what to do, kept shooting glances at the side door beside the stage as if hoping that someone might magically appear and help him through his predicament, but no one did.
The girl at the front finally put him out of his misery by curtseying slightly without lowering her eyes and then simply going up on stage. The girl waited until everyone was seated around her and then took a survey of the room. Cassandra wondered why they had left an empty space to her right but she couldn’t finish the thought because she suddenly felt a wave of pure rage directed towards them. It was over in a moment, but Cassandra had the distinct feeling that this had something to do with the glittery object in Pandora’s room. However, Pandora was too preoccupied with Summer who was quite clearly having a panic attack.
“We need to get her out”, Cassandra said when she saw Summer’s pale and sweaty face and Charlie, who had been staring at the Claimed, quickly recovered and instead of answering, swiftly took Summer’s other arm and helped Cassandra lead the girl towards the back. By the time they got her out, Summer was breathing in short, hacked breaths and was clinging desperately at Charlie’s arm.
They found a bathroom. It was every bit as opulent as the rest of the palace with its marble sinks, golden spouts, the snow white towels, the vials full of nice smelling liquids and soaps, the powder in little bowls and the big golden mirrors on the wall. Cassandra dragged Summer to a sink and let cold water run over her hands.
“Breathe, Summer”, she said soothingly. “Just breathe. In and out. No one is here to hurt you. We are your friends, ok? Just concentrate on my voice and you’ll be fine.”
Summer still had a look of utter panic in her eyes so Cassandra continued to stroke her back and talk to her in a low gentle murmur. Eventually Summer’s breathing returned to normal and some color returned to her cheeks. Pandora, who had been standing beside them the whole time, offered to take her home so that Charlie and Cassandra could quietly return to their seats.
It seemed they hadn’t missed much. Icarus was in the middle of giving a speech about the long, fascinating history of the university which would have sent most students into a kind of stupor but there was still whispering and pointing towards the row of Claimed that had taken the stage just when Charlie and her had left the room with the others. Apparently, no one knew who they were, not even Icarus.
“There are two of them now”, Charlie whispered and Cassandra nodded.
The girl with the ice-cold eyes had been joined by a boy that looked almost exactly like her.
“They’re twins”, Cassandra said and found she had a hard time not staring at the boy.
He had a perfect face with finely chiseled features, pronounced cheekbones, a strong nose and beautiful wavy blond hair. Unlike his sister, he had warm, turquoise eyes that seemed to burn directly into your soul. She found herself wishing to touch his face to see whether he was real.
“Now you know how we feel when she looks at us”, Charlie murmured and patted her hand.
But Cassandra had already redirected her gaze to the boy standing behind him like he was protecting the beautiful golden boy. The boy she had met at the top of the stairs wasn’t wearing his silver sword any more but Cassandra guessed that he would still be able to defend himself well enough without it. She also realized that he was taller than he had first looked. She was appraising the strength of his muscles, the way he held himself and found herself wondering whether she would stand a chance against him. She guessed she would find out soon. He looked like he had enrolled for pretty much the same classes she had.
As if he felt her stare, he did a quick sweep of the room and when their eyes met once again, he frowned. This time his gaze lingered a millisecond longer on her, then he concentrated on something else. Cassandra felt anger rise in her but what had she expected? That he would recognize her strength across the room? Challenge her now of all times? That was ridiculous and she knew it. Still, his fast dismissal stung.
Finally there seemed to be an end to Icarus’s history lesson and when he said “Thank you for your time”, he was greeted by polite applause. He pressed his thin lips together, then asked the dean to take the stage. The dean, it turned out, was the jolly old guy drinking wine and nodding off beside the other teachers. Cassandra felt disappointed. Somehow she had imagined him to be, well, more impressive. The dean needed a nudge from Hippolyta and a little help from Ajax before he could stand up and get to the microphone. He still managed to stumble over his long black robe on his way there and swayed a bit, looking lost until Icarus coughed audibly and the dean seemed to remember where he was. He belched loudly, broke into a hacking cough before he straightened himself and suddenly said “Welcome!” in a booming voice that seemed to fill the whole room. In an instant, everybody was awake again, listening.
“Welcome”, he said again and then bowed to the row beside him. “Welcome Alexander, son of Zeus. Welcome Arissa, daughter of Zeus.”
Cassandra gripped her chair in surprise while everyone else in the room was frozen with shock at the revelation.
“I thought there were no more of them”, Cassandra murmured at Charlie and Charlie, who looked like he had seen a ghost, shook his head.
“It’s impossible”, he said but apparently it was not.
The boy called Alexander inclined his head and smiled towards them while his sister simply gave a short, derisive nod.
“The gods have really blessed us this year”, the dean continued, still waiting for people in the room to realize what he had just said. “We also welcome Beatrix, daughter of Aphrodite, who really does her mother credit.”
The beautiful girl giggled and waved and her boyfriend looked at her admiringly.
“Sol, burning as bright as his father Apollo, please try not to incinerate the palace with your hair”, the dean said and Sol ruffled his hair but was good-natured enough to laugh along with the rest. “Wolf, son of Ares and Bear, son of Hephaestus – be welcome, too. And if you were wondering – those really are their names.”
His laugh came deep from his belly and resonated through the room.
“And of course we have River, son of Poseidon, and sweet Mia, daughter of Hestia, who we welcome with all our heart”, he continued and bowed to the boy who had seemed to float on air and the mousy girl who blushed so bright red, you could see it all the way in the last row. “And last but not least we welcome Ben. Son of Hades.”
Finally, the reality of his words hit home. Quietly at first but then continuing to grow in volume, the crowd began to clap, then to cheer and finally to stand up and go crazy. Cassandra, who felt it hard to believe that there were true demigods among them, remained seated along with the other Unclaimed who apparently saw no reason for joy in that revelation either.
> The dean held up his hands and after some time the room quieted down enough for him to continue speaking.
“My name is Heracles, as you well know”, the big man at the podium boomed and suddenly looked much younger and stronger and it wasn’t so hard to imagine that he had once been a fearless fighter and had been called the greatest hero of all time.
He opened his arms as if he wanted to take them all in.
“But I want to welcome all of you here, new arrivals as well as those who have been here before”, he continued and placed his right hand on his heart. “This is our university. We are all here to learn.”
Cheers again and Heracles, smiling, waited until the room had quieted down.
“Serve and Protect”, he said and seemed to look at everyone in the room individually. “That is our motto and you should attempt to live up to it, every minute of every day. You were chosen to come here. All of you have special talents. Some of you will be healers, some of you scholars looking into the secrets of the universe. Some of you will be craftsmen and scientists working on the mightiest weapons. But most of you will be trained to become Protectors.”
A loud cheer rose up again.
“Once you are finished with your training, we will send you out into the world. And you will protect and serve humankind. Because that is why we are here on this earth. This is our destiny.”
It took several minutes for the room to abate.
“As usual, we will issue the challenges again this year.”
Cheers yet again and Cassandra wondered what he meant by that.
“Let me congratulate the three best third-year contestants from last year. Come on up to receive your prize.”
The prize was a small golden needle and a certificate.
“Not much of a prize”, Cassandra muttered and almost choked when Charlie whispered into her ear what the certificate was worth. Enough to pay their way through university and then some. Heracles announced the three names and Cassandra wasn’t surprised however that it was three Claimed who took the prize.
Heracles shook their hands and waited until they had taken their seats again.
“Serve and protect”, he boomed again. “Never forget. Classes for Protectors start the day after tomorrow at seven in the Colosseum. Everyone else has to be in the classroom at eight the day after tomorrow for their first lecture. Which brings me to the last point on my agenda – sending you all downstairs for a round of well-deserved champagne. Go ahead, celebrate the beginning of the new academic year, get to know each other, have a little fun.”
He bowed to the demigods and then left the stage. The golden twins acknowledged that with a gracious nod. Arissa, the ice-queen, proceeded to stand up from behind their table and stepped a little to the side. Cassandra expected her brother to do the same; except he couldn’t. With a shock, Cassandra realized that he was bound to a wheelchair. The son of Hades pulled him back from the table and started pushing him off the stage.
Everyone waited silently until the beautiful boy and the rest of his friends had passed them. Cassandra thought that she should have noticed that there was something off about the way he had moved. But she had been distracted by Shadow boy, she had to admit. There was something about him that kept her teeth on edge. Passing them, he kept shooting menacing glances at everyone around them while the beautiful boy called Alexander was attempting to smile upon the rows and rows of staring Claimed and Unclaimed alike. It was a tired smile though and one that barely concealed his underlying pain.
With a sigh Cassandra followed Charlie downstairs and saw that he had already organized two glasses of champagne for them and was trying to stop Jim from obtaining one as well. Despite what Heracles had said about them all having been accepted because they were something special, it was obvious that there still was a clear distinction between Claimed and Unclaimed. The Unclaimed stayed back, quietly nipped at their glasses and looked like they would rather be anywhere but here. The Claimed formed small groups but most were either staring at the demigods or trying to get a word with them.
The ice-queen Arissa was bored and made no attempt to hide it. She only spoke to her friends and basically ignored everyone else. Her brother, on the other hand, smiled and seemed to try to say a kind word to everyone. Cassandra wondered what would happen if she simply walked up to him. Nothing good she guessed. The son of Zeus was finally relieved by the dean who asked the demigods to retire to another room with him. Just before they exited, Arissa pointed out Cassandra to the two boys called Bear and Wolf and Cassandra felt her stomach tighten.
The two huge demigods started moving deliberately towards her. Cassandra did a quick calculation. They wouldn’t take her on in here – or would they? The room practically parted before them and Cassandra made a split-second decision.
“You, my new friend”, she said and took Charlie by his sleeve so he couldn’t run, “are coming with me.”
No one could ever say that alcohol didn’t sharpen the wits of a descendant of Dionysus, so when Charlie turned around and saw Wolf and Bear coming their way and Cassandra heading for the stairs holding on to him tightly, he said “ohnonononono” and tried to get away but Cassandra had him in an iron grip.
“I am going to need your diplomatic skills with them”, Cassandra said through gritted teeth and cursed herself for listening to Pandora and not wearing her belt. “And if everything goes as I expect it to go, you’ll be a witness that I didn’t attack them first.”
Charlie muttered that he didn’t think that would matter because they’d both be dead soon anyway.
“Where the hell are we going?” he cried once she had managed to drag him upstairs.
In lieu of an answer, Cassandra pushed him into the Ladies’ room. She quickly surveyed it again and guessed it would do. She couldn’t have taken them on outside, not unarmed, not like that. At least here she would greet them on her own terms and would maybe, just maybe, stand a chance. She breathed in deeply, closed her eyes and imagined her moves. When they entered, Cassandra was ready for them.
3 Broken Mirrors
Two pretty Claimed girls came out of the stalls in the Ladies’ room giggling but when they saw a long-legged girl wielding a towel in one hand and a vial with multicolored liquid in the other hand, they quickly left. Charlie pressed himself against a corner, looking pale and scared when the two huge demigods called Wolf and Bear entered through the bathroom door.
“Look look, who’s here”, Wolf said, casually leaning against the wall and playing lightly with his spear.
He made it all look easy but it was clear that he wouldn’t miss if he decided to use his weapon. He was almost as tall as the doorframe, thin but muscular. He had shorn off most of his pitch black hair and had the rest drawn back into a ponytail.
Wolf’s skull was covered in thin black lines reaching down his neck, disappearing into his shirt and coming out again at his sleeves, revealing an intricate net of tattoos that undoubtedly covered the whole of his body. His teeth had been filed into sharp little triangles and when he stuck out his tongue, he looked like a reptile licking its lips because his tongue was split at the front.
The only thing he hadn’t changed were his almond shaped eyes that looked at the world with cruel detachment and barely concealed disgust. Cassandra had a fleeting thought that if he hadn’t worked so hard on looking tough, he would have an almost effeminate beauty that, despite all his efforts, was still quite hard to hide.
Bear was almost as tall as Wolf but twice as broad and packed with muscles. He had gotten rid of the bear hide somewhere between downstairs and coming into the bathroom and was now basically only wearing shorts, exposing a well-trained, v-shaped torso, thighs that were as thick as tree trunks and arms that looked like they could crush an ox. His skin was dark brown from too much sun and looked kind of leathery. His head, too small for his body, was covered in short, dirty brown hair and his face, although covered by a full beard, still looked like it had been kneaded by a child who had lost interes
t in its work, had stuck two raisins in for eyes and dug two holes where the nose was supposed to be and one for his mouth. But despite his bulky frame, he moved with surprising grace and Cassandra knew it would be a mistake to take him for a brainless brute.
With a roar that shook the bathroom he raised his hammer, accidently smashing it into the ceiling.
“Where is it?” he growled and stepped a little closer. “If you tell me now, I might consider letting you out of this alive. If not…”
He indicated towards his hammer and Cassandra tried very hard not to show her fear.
“I have no idea what you are talking about”, Cassandra said calmer than she felt and stepped a little to the side because Bear’s hulking frame was obstructing her view of Wolf.
“Your tiny companion took something from us”, Wolf said, cleaning his teeth with a knife he seemed to have produced out of thin air. “As she seems to have left the party early, we wanted to give her some incentive to give it back to us.”
By going at me, Cassandra thought and didn’t have much hope of getting through this in any shape to chide Pandora for having lied to her. If she survived this, they would definitely have to talk about boundaries. Again.
Cassandra inched a little to the right, following Bear’s movement with her eyes and registering Wolf’s changed stance when he saw that someone else was in the room with them. But when he realized that it was only Charlie crouching near one of the stalls he relaxed. No threat to them. No help to Cassandra either.
Bear came closer but Cassandra had been expecting that. There would be no playing cat and mouse; simple violence worked just as well for him. Cassandra didn’t wait for him to get close enough to her that he could swing his hammer. She threw the bottle she had been holding at him instead. It was made of light glass and filled with some soapy liquid that exploded in his face and spread its oily content s all over him. It didn’t hurt him but distracted him long enough for her to run up the bathroom wall, wrap the heavy towel round his neck and use the force of the momentum to smash him into the mirror that covered the whole side of the bathroom.
The Unclaimed (University of the Gods Trilogy Book 1) Page 3