‘As I said, there is no time to explain. Please trust that I will bring the students back now that I know. But the longer you wait here, the longer it will take me to rescue them.’
Why is Amathia being so cryptic? Hailey sighed. ‘Okay, I’ll go.’ But she’d definitely be demanding answers once everyone was back.
***
Hailey was sitting in the packed main hall at a table with Demi, Alec, and Aaron; a bowl of uneaten Demeter Flakes sat in front of her. Her stomach was too queasy to even think about food. She glanced towards the archway, expecting to see the missing students file in.
‘Where’s Brax?’ Demi’s eyes were fixed on the archway too. ‘Hailey, you made it sound like he and the other students would be back already.’
‘Amathia sounded like she knew exactly what had happened to them,’ Hailey said. She’d filled in her friends as soon as Sir Bliss had deposited her back in the common room.
‘I don’t think Amathia would bring them here.’ Alec tapped his fingers on the table’s shell border. ‘She’d take them to the healing wing.’
‘You’re right.’ Demi pushed to her feet. ‘Let’s go.’
‘Look,’ Aaron said, nudging his head towards the archway. ‘Madam Grayson is probably about to tell everyone they’ve found the students.’
Madam Grayson made her way towards the front of the hall. Hailey frowned. That’s odd. Why wouldn’t Amathia come and tell everyone herself?
‘Quiet down, please.’
Silence descended over the hall as the students’ heads snapped towards Madam Grayson.
‘Thank you.’ Madam Grayson fiddled with a ring on her finger, and Hailey’s mouth turned as dry as the seaweed that covered the stable’s floor. She looked anxious, not relieved. ‘Um, everyone needs to know something… Madam Norwood and Amathia… well, they’re missing.’
23
Looking for Answers
Knives and forks clattered against the mother-of-pearl tables as gasps filled the hall.
Hailey just gaped. Amathia is missing. How can she be missing? She’d made it sound like getting the students back would be easy. She never even asked the other teachers to go with her—except maybe Madam Norwood, which explains why she’s missing too. This can’t be happening. The only person who knows where the students are is gone. What were they supposed to do now? Wait for their turn to vanish?
‘I know this is scary, but I and the other teachers have everything under control.’ Madam Grayson kept her voice calm. ‘We will find Amathia and the rest of the students. Classes have been cancelled for today. Please return to your common rooms once you have finished breakfast.’
‘Medusa,’ Alec gasped at the same time the hall broke into panicked chatter.
‘This is bad.’ Aaron raked a hand through his hair. ‘Are you sure Amathia didn’t say anything about where she was going, or who Stetho was?’ he asked Hailey. ‘Even the smallest detail could be a clue.’
Hailey shook her head, her stomach queasy. ‘She didn’t tell me anything. I… she sounded so sure. I should have made her tell me.’
Demi sniffed. ‘I thought Brax would be safe.’ She brushed away a tear. ‘What are we supposed to do now if Amathia is gone? Who’ll find out what happened to everyone?’
‘Maybe we can help.’
Hailey looked at Alec. ‘How?’
‘We ask Kallie to take us to a parallel world—preferably one where students are disappearing. If their Amathia is still there, we can ask her about Stetho. She should know who that is too.’
‘Alec, that’s brilliant,’ Hailey said.
‘Really good idea,’ Aaron agreed.
Demi jumped up and pointed a finger towards the other side of the main hall. ‘She’s over there.’
They wasted no time in abandoning their breakfast and scrambling over to Kallie’s table.
‘We need a favour,’ Hailey said, dropping into the chair beside Kallie.
‘Do you need me to take you to a parallel world again?’
Hailey nodded. ‘One that is similar to ours, where students are disappearing too. But one where Amathia hasn’t gone missing yet.’
‘How will that help?’ she asked.
‘Because I think I know the name of the person or thing responsible for everything, but I have no idea who they are,’ Hailey explained. ‘I’m hoping one of the other Amathias will be able to tell us.’
‘I think it’s best if I only take two of you,’ Kallie said, once Hailey and her friends had made it up to the deserted common room. ‘It’ll be easier to move around the palace without attracting attention. I’m pretty sure the teachers there won’t be happy if they catch us, especially when we’re from another world.’
‘I’m coming,’ Demi declared.
‘Um, Demi, I think it’s best you stay here,’ Aaron said.
Demi whipped towards him. ‘Why?’ she demanded. ‘I want to see if Brax is okay in this other world.’
‘Brax is why you shouldn’t go. You’re distracted right now, and distraction leads to making mistakes. I think it’s best if I go—and I’ve had training in avoiding detection.’
Demi crossed her arms. ‘That’s not fair.’
‘I don’t think I’ll be getting to go either if it makes you feel better.’ Alec sighed, acting as if he’d won a trip to the Acropolis, only to be told he couldn’t go.
‘I promise I’ll come back with answers,’ Hailey said, touching Demi on the shoulder.
‘A one-way portal to a parallel world coming up,’ Kallie said. A sphere of light glowed between her hands like a blazing star. She threw it forward, the light exploding into a portal of swirling colours.
Hailey followed Aaron through it, and stepped into the hallway outside the Ancient History classroom.
‘The door is closed. That means she’s probably teaching,’ Kallie said, coming up behind them.
‘I’ll take a quick peek,’ Aaron said, turning the pearl doorknob so slowly it was like time itself was slowing down.
‘… Prometheus was imprisoned for helping the humans…’ Madam Grayson’s voice drifted into the hallway as Aaron cracked the door open a slither.
‘Amathia must’ve given up teaching in this world, too, to look for the missing students,’ Hailey remarked as Aaron closed the door.
‘Where do you think she would be?’ Kallie asked, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
Hailey thought about it for a second. ‘Well, when I last saw her she was in the nereids’ room. Maybe that’s a good place to start.’
‘So what’s the name of this person or thing who’s taking people from our world?’ Kallie asked as Aaron led the way through the hallways.
‘Stetho,’ Hailey said. ‘Sir Bliss had a premonition about Amathia saying the name Stetho. But that was it. Nothing about who Stetho was. Amathia knew exactly who Sir Bliss was talking about when he told her the name though. And then she vanished.’
‘I guess that means Stetho is in the palace.’ Kallie sped up her pace to keep up with Aaron.
‘Which means the students, Amathia and Madam Norwood are probably still there too.’ Hailey imagined them crammed into a room, screaming for help. I’m trying to help; I just need a little more time.
When they reached the nereids’ room they stopped, staring at the closed mother-of-pearl door. ‘A closed door doesn’t look like a good sign,’ Aaron said.
‘Let’s at least check.’ Hailey couldn’t be bothered with knocking; she pushed the door open, her fingertips tingling at the same time. Her heart stopped instantaneously as she realised she’d forgotten to ask Kallie a very important question: did the nereids still live in the palace in this world?
It was too late now. And she already knew the answer. Six nereids sat on the chaises, and six pairs of glaring eyes fixed on Hailey.
The nereids sprang up. Nemertes prowled towards Hailey, Aaron, and Kallie like a chimera guarding its territory. ‘Humans! How dare you enter our chamber,’ Nemertes hissed, and th
en stopped suddenly, her eyes narrowing at Hailey. ‘You. You’re supposed to be dead.’
Ah, another world where Hailey had never met Aaron and Alec and had died in the Underworld.
Aaron darted in front of Hailey, throwing his palms up. His force field rippled as Nemertes bumped into it. ‘What is this?’ the nereid hissed, ramming a fist against it, sending more ripples streaking across the force field.
‘We’re looking for Amathia.’ Aaron kept his palms up.
A vicious smile tweaked Nemertes’s lips. ‘You are too late. Amathia has already been taken.’
Hailey stepped out from behind Aaron. ‘By Stetho?’
Surprise flashed in Nemertes’s eyes. ‘How do you know that name?’
‘Who is Stetho?’ Hailey demanded.
Nemertes cackled. ‘Why would I tell you?’
Aaron shoved his palms forward, his force field sending the nereids stumbling back a step. ‘Tell us.’
‘Never,’ Nemertes spat.
Aaron shoved his hands forward again; this time a few nereids tripped over the chaises. Nemertes growled, steadying herself against Poseidon’s glass statue.
‘Tell us or I’ll squash you against the wall.’
Nemertes’s eyes turned as deadly as a hydra’s bite. ‘Insolent, human, you do not command us!’
Everything happened so fast from there. Nemertes’s hand slipped into her dress, and she tossed something that looked like a spiky ball over Aaron’s force field.
Hailey realised too late what it was. The sea-urchin bomb hit the ground. At the same time, Aaron barrelled into her and Kallie, stretching his body over theirs as they landed on the pearl floor.
The whizzing sound of things flying through the air encompassed the room, and Hailey imagined hundreds of spikes shooting out in every direction.
Aaron grunted, his entire body tensing before he shifted off Hailey and Kallie.
‘Aaron!’ Hailey cried, her breath catching when she saw the dozen needles sticking out of his arms, legs, and back.
‘I’m almost glad you’re still alive,’ Nemertes said, her and the other nymphs no longer held back by Aaron’s force field. ‘It means I will have the pleasure of killing you myself.’ Nemertes lunged for Hailey.
‘Open the portal, Kallie!’ Hailey shouted, darting out of Nemertes’s path. The other nereids slithered towards her.
Hailey leapt back from them, smacking into something hard. She whirled around to find a sneering Nemertes. ‘You have nowhere left to run.’ Nemertes’s hands shot for Hailey’s neck as Hailey drew her hand back and smacked it against the nereid’s cheek.
‘Ah!’ Nemertes shrieked, a hand flying to her red cheek as she stumbled back a step, stunned.
‘Hailey, help me!’ Kallie was gripping Aaron’s wrists, dragging him inch by inch towards the portal of rainbow lights behind her.
Hailey used Nemertes’s shock to her advantage and kicked her in the shins. The nereid collapsed like an uprooted tree as Hailey darted to Kallie’s side.
‘I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!’ Nemertes roared, shooing away the other nereids who had rushed to help her up.
‘Too slow,’ Hailey said, and helped Kallie yank Aaron through the portal. The wisps of red, yellow, green, and blue dimmed, fading back to white before disappearing altogether.
‘Oh my word. What happened? And where did you come from?’
It took Hailey a second to realise Kallie had brought them to the healing wing. Madam Mendem scrambled over from the other side of the room and crouched beside Aaron, who was lying next to the double doors.
‘A parallel world,’ Hailey explained as the nurse began plucking sea-urchin spikes from Aaron’s skin. ‘A sea-urchin bomb exploded. We got him back here in time, didn’t we? You can heal him, right?’ Aaron’s skin was as pale as a Thanatos’s victim, and his breathing shallow.
‘Poison is tricky, as you’ll remember. It will take me some time, but he will be fine.’
Hailey’s body sagged, and she plunked down on the nearest bed. Kallie dropped down beside her. ‘That was scary. I’ve never met the nereids before. I understand now why Amathia banished them.’
‘They’re pure evil.’ Does a parallel world exist where they’re good? Impossible.
‘I’m sorry Amathia was gone. I was at that world yesterday and she was still there.’
‘Is there another world?’ They couldn’t be out of options. She glanced at Aaron as Madam Mendem pressed her hands to the tiny puncture wounds peppering his skin. Aaron couldn’t be on the verge of dying for nothing.
‘I can look. I’ll find…’
‘Kallie?’
Kallie’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as she flopped backwards on the bed.
24
Another Detention
‘Kallie?’ Hailey shook her.
‘She’s been poisoned too.’ Madam Mendem pointed a shaking hand at Kallie’s dangling leg.
A spike stuck out of her ankle—her jeans must’ve absorbed some of the poison, that’s why it took so long to knock her out. Hailey plucked it out, careful not to let the pointed tip stab her as she tossed it away. She half-expected Kallie to wake up. But she didn’t even twitch.
Madam Mendem dropped onto the bed near Aaron, sweat trickling down her brow as she gasped in tiny breaths of air. ‘I need more – Asclepiuses. There’s too much – poison for me to handle – on my own. Much more poison in these – spikes than the ones used in the library.’
‘I’ll find Kora.’
‘You can’t go out there alone.’
‘I’m not letting anyone die.’
Hailey sprinted through the double doors and down the stairs, racing through the hallway towards the entryway.
Will Kora be strong enough to save Aaron and Kallie? Madam Mendem said she needed Asclepiuses—plural. But I don’t know any other Asclepiuses. How am I supposed to find enough in time?
‘Hailey Woods!’
Hailey could have run up and kissed Master Anderson when she ran into the entryway and saw his furious face. ‘Master Anderson – thank the Tyches,’ she puffed as he marched towards her from the left archway.
‘This is the second time I’ve caught you wandering around the palace alone. Do you think you are above the rules? Because—’
‘I’m sorry, there’s – no time,’ she cut him off. ‘Madam Mendem needs help. Aaron and – Kallie are dying. They’ve been poisoned by a – sea-urchin bomb. I need to find as many – Asclepiuses as possible. I’m going to get – Kora. Can you get more?’
Master Anderson’s anger fizzled to confusion. ‘Dying? Poison? What are you talking about? Are you trying to get out of detention?’
‘No. I’m telling the truth – please, Master Anderson, we’re running out of time. You need to – get the other Asclepiuses to the healing wing.’
‘Okay.’
That was all Hailey needed to hear. She flew up the stairs, not bothering to look back at Master Anderson to check if he was following. She stopped in her common room, puffing in gasps of air as her eyes combed over the studying and chatting students, searching for Kora. But she wasn’t there.
‘Hailey, over here.’ Demi and Alec were sitting on floor cushions near a sofa. Hailey ignored them and ran for the girls’ dormitories, jogging down to Kora and Tahlia’s dorm.
‘Whoa, it’s called knocking,’ Kora said when Hailey threw open the dorm door. Kora was lying on her bed, a nail polish brush poised over her thumb, ready to paint her nails the same blue colour as the palace’s crystal walls.
‘Sor – ry – no – time.’ Hailey pressed a hand to the stitch clawing at her side. ‘Madam – Mendem – needs – you – in – healing – wing. Aaron – and Kallie – dying.’
The nail polish brush dropped. ‘What?’
‘Please – just go.’
‘What in Tartarus is going on?’ Demi rushed into the dorm as Kora rushed out of it.
Hailey held a hand up so she could catch her breath. ‘The nereids cau
ght us in the parallel world,’ she explained when her lungs stopped burning. ‘Aaron got hit with a sea-urchin bomb. It was too much poison for Madam Mendem, so she sent me to get more Asclepiuses.’
‘Medusa!’ Demi exclaimed. ‘We need to go back there.’ She grabbed Hailey’s wrist and yanked her from the dorm.
Alec was waiting right outside the girls’ dormitories door, chewing his lip so hard Hailey thought he’d bite it off. ‘Where’s Aaron?’
‘He got hit with sea-urchin spikes,’ Hailey said. ‘Madam Mendem is trying to heal him.’
Hailey expected Alec to be his usual cautious self and tell them that they had to wait in the common room as he didn’t want to risk an invisible monster kidnapping him—or a detention for walking around in a group of three instead of five or more. But to her surprise, he ran for the staircase, disappearing down it so fast that Hailey had to jog to keep up.
The stitch was back to clawing at her side when she finally made it to the healing wing. Her knees wavered, ready to collapse in relief when she saw Aaron sitting on a bed, gobbling down a plate of scrambled eggs.
‘Aaron, you’re okay.’ Alec flew to his side.
‘Hailey made it sound like you were dying,’ Demi said.
Three students and the school nurse were asleep on the beds opposite Aaron, sweat glistening on their skin as they shivered beneath the blankets. A dematerialiser must have brought them here—that’s the only way they could have had enough time to have already healed Aaron and Kallie.
‘So did you find out who Stetho is?’ Demi asked Aaron, her voice desperate. ‘Do you know where the missing students are?’
Hailey didn’t want to relive the failure of their mission, so she drifted towards Kallie. She sat two beds away from Aaron, spooning Tyche Charms into her mouth.
‘Feeling better?’
Kallie nodded, chewing on a mouthful of cereal. ‘Much. I didn’t even realise I got hit. Everything started spinning, and then the next thing I knew I was waking up to an Asclepius staring down at me.’
‘I’m sorry you got hurt,’ Hailey told her.
‘It was worth it.’ Her spoon clinked against the gold bowl. ‘And I meant what I said. I’ll look at some more worlds and ask Amathia about Stetho. I’ll let you know when I find out who that is.’
Poseidon's Academy Box Set Page 82