The Sky Throne

by Chris Ledbetter

  “Guess we’re just one big happy family here, huh?” I filled my plate.

  She turned back to me. Her eyes softened to the color of sage. “So, what are you thinking?”

  I smiled and popped a grape into my mouth, determined to maintain the mystery. I walked past her to grab some shaved goat meat. She followed me with her eyes, studying me as if I were some curious scroll or something.

  She bit into a fig and wiped her mouth seductively. “Where you from?” she managed between chews.

  I hesitated, unsure of how much to offer. “The island of Crete. You?”

  “Ahh, Eastern Crete, huh? When I went to lower academy on Samos, I used to own them in running and throwing events,” she answered.

  “I throw a pretty mean spear myself.”

  “That right?” She raised her eyebrows. “You have a name?”

  “Zeus.” My gaze shifted from her eyes to her lips.

  “Hera.” She extended her hand. A brass armlet coiled around her bicep with lions’ heads on the ends.

  “Nice to meet you.” My palm melted into her smooth grip as we shook hands. “So what’s this about reading minds?”

  “Don’t listen to Shade. He’s just mad because I can tell him what he’s thinking before he says it. He’s a little slow.” She clenched her plate tighter. “I don’t read minds. I just think faster than anyone else. It’s a blessing and a curse.” Her words hung in the air as she abruptly wheeled around and left the Andron, nibbling on her food.

  Hmmm. Interesting. Beautiful. Intriguing. Off limits. Move on.

  I returned to the table. Shade set a plate in front of Meter, who looked at him quizzically.

  “You know I’m a vegetarian,” Meter said. “What’s all this for?”

  “You need meat to keep up your strength,” said Shade.

  Meter flexed her bicep. “You wanna arm wrestle?”

  I smiled as I took my seat. Don and Tia strolled through the door at the far end of the room, arm in arm. Great. My eyes rolled before I could stop them. Luckily no one saw. Tia’s hair bounced as she walked. The room looked as if it had been flooded with more sunlight.

  Tia joined us while Don paused to talk to Ouranos and the burly man. When Tia took her seat at our table across from me, my skin warmed, like those sunny days back on Crete. Days when life was much easier.

  “Everyone has met Zeus, right?” Tia asked.

  I tipped my chin upward.

  “Sure,” Meter said.

  “Shade?”

  “Yeah. We met Spruce all right.”

  “Who?” Tia’s face wrinkled.

  “Spruce.” Shade pointed to me, laughing. “He’s smaller than a tree branch.”

  “Yeah. It’d be so much funnier if you’d actually made up the name,” I fired back.

  “What’d you say?” Shade rose to his feet. His dark eyes glared and narrowed to slits.

  The Kouretes always said to match my opponent’s movements in a square off. I mirrored his intensity. The girls tensed, all eyes on me.

  “Do we have a problem here?” Don’s voice rumbled behind me. He placed his free hand on my shoulder. It was so heavy it almost collapsed my spine. “Gentlemen, we have much more pressing concerns.” He paused, looking around at the whole group. “Like … who’s up to watch some wrestling this evening?”

  The tension broke and laughs circled the table.

  “At Othrys?” asked Tia. “Count me out. I have to wait for sundown to finish up my Astro project.”

  “Meter, you game?”

  “If you’re not wrestling, Don, I don’t care about it.” Meter smiled, twisting the ends of her hair. I caught myself staring at her again. “Besides, that’s way too many people in one hostile environment. I’ll be in my cabin curled up with a nice scroll. Next week at your championships, though, I’ll be there all abloom.”

  “Guess it’s just me, Shade, and Spruce then.”

  “Zeus—” I interjected.

  “Whatever.” Don tore into his leg of lamb. When he came up for air, he added, “meet us at the Cloudwell at dusk.”

  I returned my attention to my grapes and olives, pondering the offer I’d been made; the proposal to go with the muscle-heads to some unknown place. It wasn’t an actual offer. It was more like a dare. A triple-goat dare.

  If I did go with them, no doubt trouble would find me. It always did. But if I stayed back, I’d never prove myself to these guys. Never become one of them.

  Wait … Kronos founded Othrys. He might be there. I searched my mind for something to say.

  “Did you hear me, Spruce?” Don asked after chugging semi-thick nectar from his goblet.

  “Yeah, sure.” I didn’t look up from my plate, but the prospect of running into Kronos lifted my spirits. “Cloudwell, right?”

  “Dusk, Spruce. Got it?”

  “Don’t be late,” Shade added with a tip of his pointy chin.

  I cocked an eyebrow toward Shade and resumed eating my goat meat, figs, and bread. After evening meal, I strolled to the Cloudwell after dropping off my class schedule scrolls at my bungalow. The setting sun looked as if it had exploded on the horizon. Pluming hues of yellow bent into a flaming coral fan. I wished the sun had exploded. My blood roiled with thoughts of Hyperion.

  Don and Shade passed me, wearing black tunics emblazoned with that familiar ‘Ω’ on the chest. It occurred to me that Don had changed from his earlier white tunic at dinner. Perhaps I should’ve changed as well.

  “You coming?” Shade shot over his shoulder.

  I caught up to them. “So, why do we wear a sole Omega letter on our uniforms?”

  Don stopped and turned. “Pride.” With lion-like speed, he shoved his hand toward my chest and grabbed a handful of tunic right above the symbol. The force nearly crushed my lung. I inhaled sharply, trying to recapture my breath.

  Don released my tunic, now wrinkled horribly. “This symbol, Omega—” He moved his forefingers around in a circle from top to bottom. “Means that we all come together as a team.” He moved his fingers apart in a sharp line under the circle he’d left hanging in the air. “And keep everyone else out. We are the ultimate. The Great Omegas. Mighty Olympians.”

  I studied Don’s face. The strength of his jaw. The intensity of his voice. The cadence of his speech. It was different from any previous interaction we’d had. As per usual, Shade stood off to the side.

  “Do you feel what I’m sending you?” Don asked.

  I nodded.

  He walked off. “Good.”

  We snaked through the torch-lit path and arrived at the campus exit, a covered gateway guarding the edge of the mountain. In the background, for as far as I could see, the sun’s last rays spilled through the valley below like lava. In the foreground, thick white clouds hovered near the sheer face of the mountain we called home.

  Don and Shade showed no signs of slowing as they approached the ledge. I stopped mid stride, my limbs freezing as they stepped right off the cliff and walked straight across the cloudbank. My face wrinkled. Was something solid under the clouds?

  Don and Shade began to descend the cloudbanks. As Shade turned, I could only see their upper bodies. “Come on, Spruce,” he jeered. “Just step out onto the clouds. They certainly should carry your weight.” They both chuckled.

  I extended my foot and swept it through the tufted cloud. I closed my eyes, and stepped out, immediately sinking about a foot or so. My stomach rose into my throat as if I had fallen down the side of the cliff. I clutched the air and gasped involuntarily.

  The cloud buoyed my weight and I exhaled slowly, taking another careful step, and then another, sinking farther and closer to the ground below each time. I soon caught up to Don and Shade, who stood next to a glowing blue post at the bottom of the Cloudwell.

  “Hurry up,” Don barked. “You don’t know enough to teleport on your own yet, Spruce. So any time you need to go off campus, you’ll need one of us or
a professor. Now this … ” he pointed to the post, “is a Hurler. This is how we get around. All you have to do is think about the place you want to go, and touch the Hurler, and it will teleport you there.”

  I eyed the post warily, and remembered the blue post back near the columns on the beach where Headmistress first approached me. And the post back on Crete. “I can go anywhere?” I asked.

  “As long as you’ve actually been there before and can conjure a vivid picture of it in your mind.” Shade’s voice was laced with impatience.

  A grainy image of Amalthea’s face materialized right before my eyes. Her olive-toned skin. Her dark curly hair. My chest warmed at the sight of her smile. I sighed, missing her deeply. Then a vision of Telesto invaded my thoughts. Her aquamarine hair and iridescent eyes. With this Hurler, I could return home anytime I wanted now.

  “Snap to it, Spruce!” Don clapped his large hands in front of my face, right through Telesto’s image. Bastard. She dissolved into the air. “Put your hand on here so we can go.”

  I hesitated, extending my hand, then pulling it back. My mind raced. “So, let me get this straight. I can go anywhere I want as long as I’ve been there before and can picture it in my mind?”

  “Well, his ears work,” Shade joked.

  “Yeah, Spruce. And, provided the place has a Hurler, otherwise you can’t get back. To go somewhere on your own, you need clearance through the Headmaster’s office. Put your hand on here already.”

  I inched my hand overtop of the Hurler and dropped it into place, landing on the back of Shade’s hand. In seconds, fire raced through my body like I’d been engulfed in flames. I closed my eyes tightly as the inside of my body liquefied. All at once, the three of us vaporized into the air.

  Strangely, though I could see nothing, I heard everything. The air shooting past me. Owls hooting. The valley sighing as night draped down upon her. Then, as quickly as we’d become one with the wind, we reappeared. My body reformulated, from my hair follicles to my toenails, my hand still atop Shade’s. I glanced around, my knees buckling, to see we were standing over another Hurler post. As Don and Shade strode off, I ran to the woods’ edge and launched my evening meal.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Don turned around and laughed heartily at the sight of me clutched over. “Come on, weakling.”

  Great. Throwing up would go a long way toward earning their respect. Whatever had just happened to me, an odd, queasy pressure still perched near the top of my stomach, like more of my dinner wanted to come up. I struggled to suppress it.

  Rubbing my quaking torso, I caught up to Don and Shade as they hiked up a steep hill. In the foreground, a circular arena dominated the landscape. In the distance, torch-lit paths snaked between well-illuminated, columned buildings. Raucous noises rose from the structure we approached. A single story of linked arches enclosed the arena. Orange torchlight flooded each archway. My eyes widened as we blended into a flurry of spectators filing through the colonnaded entry. A sign overhead announced, Home of the Titans.

  “Stay close, Spruce! You don’t wanna get lost in this crowd.”

  “You think Kronos will be here?” I asked.

  “Who cares about him?” Shade fired back.

  My heart rate sped as we stepped through the final arch into the heart of the structure. I shifted my gaze to check out the spectators as if I knew what Kronos looked like. A crowd of people were scattered randomly over the stone risers. Four huge contestants bounded around the sandy floor of the arena, preparing for the wrestling matches. I wrestled in the lightest division back home. These guys were definitely heavy weights.

  Don and Shade eventually stopped and leaned against a stout column on the upper rim. They both crossed their arms, broad and intimidating. I followed suit, trying to fit in.

  “Good,” Don said. “They haven’t started yet.”

  Girls pooled in gaggles of three and four. It reminded me of Eastern Crete with the sea of Oceanids. Moving. Mingling. Laughing. There were certainly more girls here than at MO Prep. Of course, even if they did go to my school, I wouldn’t be able to pursue them romantically anyway because of that stupid rule.

  One group of girls strolled, almost glided, toward us. Their long flowing chiton dresses clung to their slender frames as if they’d been custom-made. I stood straighter than before. But I didn’t move. Or at least I didn’t think I had. But, Don caught my shoulder. Apparently, I must have stepped in front of him.

  “Watch it, Spruce.”

  The girls giggled. His calling me that in front of them made me want to hit him square in the jaw. My fists clenched. “Don’t call me that.”

  Don ignored me and stepped toward the girls. He grabbed an athletic girl with dark indigo hair and crushed a kiss on her lips. Her leg lifted as she leaned into him. “You’re on your own, boys,” Don said, after he came up for air. He walked off with his arm draped over her shoulder. One of the other girls shot me a half-smile before walking off.

  “Look,” Shade said in a dry manner, “we’re in hostile territory here. Let me give you the rundown. You see that bald-headed monster down in the ring?” He pointed to a wrestling contestant down on the arena floor.

  I nodded, still pissed that Don had embarrassed me in front of those girls. Tos never would’ve done that.

  “That’s Menoetius, best wrestler at Othrys. They call him Money because he doesn’t lose. He will absolutely eat your lunch. Steer clear of him.”

  I tipped my chin upward. “Mkay.”

  “Now look at those guys way over there. They’re all brothers.” Shade nodded to some guys standing across the arena opposite us. As he pointed, they looked directly at us. We were caught. The guys, three in all, began to stalk around the upper ridge toward us.

  “All right. Looks like we’re going to have some visitors. Quickly, the two thick necks are Epimetheus and Prometheus. Epic does whatever he’s told. He has the really close shave. Notice him walking to the rear. Promo is the smartest of the bunch. Maybe too smart for his own good. He’s the one with hair ‘round his ears.”

  “And the long-haired one with the fruit fuzz on his chin?”

  “Atlas. He’s vicious and vindictive. He was dropped on his head as a baby.”

  “What? No nickname?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Shade rolling his eyes.

  “Here’s the deal. We don’t get along too well. Never have. So just stay cool. We’re in their house. If we were home, it’d be different.”

  The brothers marched over in their red tunics. After Shade’s preamble, my nerve endings stood on end. I delivered my best nonchalant stare as they squared up to us.

  “Well if it isn’t the rat pack,” Atlas said, rubbing his jaw that was lightly covered in facial hair. “Or is a group of rats a herd? I forget.” Epic and Promo chuckled behind him.

  Shade didn’t move an inch. “We’re just here to enjoy the matches. What do you and your peanut gallery want?”

  “Rumors and resolution.”

  “Pardon me?” Shade shot back.

  “You heard me. The Oracles in the Agora have claimed that you all will beat us handily in War Games this year. Psssht. They’re obviously mistaken. Or lying,” Atlas said. His straight eyebrows barely moved. “I had to laugh at such a preposterous notion.”

  “Oooh, that’s a big word for you,” Shade said with a stone-faced expression. “Besides, if the Oracle said it … must be true.”

  “Who’s going to lead the charge? Certainly not you.” He pointed at Shade. “Don’s left you in his dust the last two years. Tired of living in his shadow yet?”

  “Look at yourself … ” Shade stepped forward. “You tired of losing to Money in wrestling every year?”

  Atlas’ smile straightened. “If I didn’t know you so well, I’d consider that an insult.” His eyes tightened and intensified. They were the oddest hue of golden brown I’d ever seen. “That’s all right. Money will take care of Don
in the championships next week.”

  “I wouldn’t bet on it,” I piped up, remembering the training I’d seen earlier.

  All eyes shifted to me. Something inside me came to life, like the collective attention ignited an internal torch.

  “Did I ask you what you thought?” Atlas stepped toward me, then edged backward. “Damn, your breath stinks!” His voice carried around the entire arena. “Did you throw up on yourself? Go chew some mint leaves or something.” He held his nose while laughter cackled around him.

  Embarrassment stung my cheeks and the back of my throat closed. I wanted to turn invisible.

  “Great Gaia! You smell like rhino’s ass.” He continued his assault. “No wait … that’s not fair to the rhino.” More laughs rang out. Atlas squared to me again. “Look kid, I don’t know you. But then again, a person of your stature would surely escape notice.”

  “That makes us even, doesn’t it? I don’t know you either.” I stiffened my back and puffed out my chest. Goat testicle. Shade unfolded his arms and stepped in front of me. But I didn’t need his help.

  A crowd gathered around us, the throb of their energy pulsing at our backs. The Othrys professors must have noticed the tension, because several muscular men in red cloaks strolled over and stepped in. “Move along boys, unless you want demerits. Tartarus is lovely this time of year.”

  Atlas gave me one last glare, driving his hands through his shoulder length copper hair from front to back. “We’re done here … for now.” He clapped his brothers on their backs and walked away.

  One Othrys professor turned to us. “Don’t make us send Headmaster Ouranos a message that you’re over here causing trouble.”

  I exhaled slowly and smiled to myself. Atlas didn’t want any part of me. I studied the professor’s face. “You’re not Kronos, are you?”

  He bent down close to my face. “No I’m not, boy. But more stunts like that … and you’ll meet him faster than you’d like.”

  Shade yanked my arm. “Are you trying to get us in trouble? What did I tell you?” Shade barked. “If we’d gotten in a fight off school grounds, Don would have been DQ’ed from the championship next week. And besides that, Atlas is more dangerous than he showed you just then. A lot more.”