Poseidon's Academy and the Deadly Disease

by Sarah A Vogler

  ‘I need everyone to take a necklace from this box.’ Master Anderson dumped a small wooden chest at his feet that made a clink as it hit the diamond ground.

  ‘I’ll get them for us,’ Jayden offered.

  ‘On each of the necklaces is a conch shell, which has been shrunken by a Hecate to make it lighter,’ Master Anderson explained. ‘Should you decide to quit the race, blow on the conch and someone will return you here. But remember, you’ve entered this race as teams, so if one member quits the race, your whole team forfeits.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Hailey said when Jayden handed her a necklace, which was just a piece of knotted string with a conch the size of a hermit-crab shell tied to it.

  ‘Gross, I don’t want to wear that thing.’ Venus crossed her arms, refusing to take the necklace from Jayden. The twins followed her example.

  ‘Good,’ Aaron said. ‘That means we can abandon you in a snake pit and feel assured no one will rescue you.’

  ‘Fine. I’ll take the stupid shell.’ Venus snatched it from Jayden, the twins doing the same, acting as if they didn’t have the capacity to think for themselves.

  ‘Okay, now that you’ve all got your necklaces, let’s discuss the race,’ Master Anderson said. ‘Your objective is to finish the course. In order to do so, you’ll face several obstacles, where you’ll need to work as a team and use your powers to pass through each one. Teams will be spread out to avoid clashes. As you already know, the obstacle course takes place on an island designed for this race. That means there are no monsters, and we have implemented safety measures to ensure no one dies.’ Master Anderson smirked, and a few students laughed nervously. ‘But if you do get hurt, there are Asclepiuses standing by,’ he added. ‘Okay, your first obstacle starts here. Each team needs to climb across the ropes to get to the Isle of Trials.’

  ‘I was hoping he wouldn’t say that,’ Hailey mumbled.

  ‘I can’t get my hair wet.’ Venus held her curls protectively. ‘This isn’t going to work.’ She lifted the conch shell towards her mouth.

  Aaron grabbed her hand. ‘Don’t you dare.’

  ‘Calm down. I know what to do—and it doesn’t involve us getting wet,’ Demi said.

  ‘Everyone find a tree and wait for the conch shell before beginning,’ Master Anderson instructed.

  ‘You better have a good plan,’ Venus warned Demi as they ambled towards an emerald tree a few feet away.

  ‘Welcome to Poseidon’s Academy’s Third Biennial Obstacle Course Race.’ Amathia stood in front of the palace’s entrance, her voice ringing clear across the grounds. ‘Madam Norwood, Master Anderson, and I have designed these games to test your powers and ability to work as a team. Some of the obstacles you face may seem dangerous, but I promise we have taken measures to ensure your safety. And, as Master Anderson said, if you want to resign from the race, simply blow on your conch shell. I wish you all the best of luck. Begin.’

  Master Anderson blew into a regular-sized conch shell, the sound bellowing across the sea and sending the teams into a frenzy.

  Demi reached her hand towards the emerald tree. A shudder tore through it, its coral trunk vibrating as it shrank down several feet. The bottom seaweed rope tied to it now rested on the diamond ground, and the upper one was at head height. Venus pushed forward.

  Demi shoved her back. ‘You and the twins go last.’

  ‘Why? So you can leave us behind?’

  ‘I wish,’ Demi said. ‘But then you’d run to Madam Grayson.’

  ‘Enough,’ Jayden chided. He stepped onto the seaweed rope and grabbed the other piece of rope above his head.

  Alec and Aaron followed his example.

  Venus put her hands on her hips, tapping her foot impatiently. ‘So can we go on now?’ she asked once Hailey and Demi had positioned themselves on the rope.

  ‘Sure,’ Demi said, and lifted her arm, growing the tree up high enough that Venus couldn’t reach the bottom rope.

  Hailey wobbled on the seaweed, which felt so flimsy she was positive it would snap. Alec must’ve felt the same way, because his face paled. Hailey swallowed her nerves and clung tighter to the rope above her so that if the one beneath her snapped, she wouldn’t fall and break her neck.

  ‘Hey!’ Venus cried. ‘We’re meant to be a team.’

  Demi shrugged. ‘Guess you’ll have to climb after all.’

  Madam Grayson, who was standing a few trees away, exaggerated clearing her throat and gave their team a reproachful look.

  Demi sighed and lowered the tree. Venus shot her a glare before stepping on with the twins. Demi raised it for a second time, and slowly—very slowly—they began making their way across, the diamond ground beneath Hailey quickly replaced by the sea.

  Hailey’s movements were wobbly at first, and she kept expecting to lose her balance or the seaweed to snap. But with every step that didn’t end in her falling, she became more confident and began thinking she could make it to the other side.

  ‘This isn’t so bad actually,’ Alec said, a bit of colour having returned to his face. ‘A Hecate must’ve spelled the seaweed to make it unbreakable.’

  A scream whipped Hailey’s head around. Waves pelted the other groups as they climbed across the sea. ‘I don’t—’

  A wave slammed into Hailey’s back, the water’s icy chill biting into her skin.

  ‘My hair!’ Venus shrieked in unison with the twins.

  Hailey bit back a laugh. For the first time ever, Venus and the twins’ pristine curls didn’t look professionally styled, with their hair drenched and lank.

  ‘Incoming,’ Aaron warned.

  Another wave hit them, this time from the front. There was no reprieve: another wave followed, and then another, until Hailey was shivering from head to toe.

  ‘Do something!’ Venus demanded, shoving Jayden with her hand. Hailey figured the shove was meant to spur him into action, but it knocked him off the rope.

  ‘Jayden!’ Demi cried, and moved to jump in after him.

  ‘Wait.’ Aaron grabbed her arm. ‘He’s a Poseidon.’

  Jayden soared up on a wave, balancing on top of it as if he were riding a surf board. He stepped back onto the rope. ‘Next time just yell, don’t shove,’ he said to Venus, who didn’t bother apologising.

  ‘You’re the Poseidon. Get these stupid waves to stop.’

  Another wave surged towards them, and Hailey braced for its icy chill. Jayden’s hand shot up, and the wave froze for a second before folding back into the sea with a splash.

  ‘I can only control one side,’ Jayden said. ‘I need my other hand to balance.’

  ‘I’ll use my powers on the other side.’ Aaron stretched out his palm, his force field rippling as a wave smashed against it. ‘Okay, let’s get moving again.’

  Hailey inched her way across the rope, struggling to keep her grip on the now slippery seaweed—it didn’t help she was shivering, or that her arms were beginning to burn like fire. She glanced back at the other groups. Most of them had worked out some way to hold the waves back: the team closest to them had a girl who was freezing the waves, creating wave ice sculptures across the sea. Other groups weren’t as lucky to have people with powers that could stop the waves, and did their best to shimmy across while being pelted. A few students lost their balance and fell. But they didn’t give up; they fought against the waves, swimming towards the island.

  ‘Everyone hang on.’

  Demi’s voice drew Hailey’s attention back, and she realised with a sag of relief that they’d made it to the Isle of Trials, where each team’s seaweed ropes were securely tied around a coconut tree. Demi lowered their tree enough for them to jump off.

  ‘I’m glad that’s over,’ Hailey remarked, rubbing her aching arms. Now that she was away from the crashing waves, she could enjoy the sun’s warmth, which banished her shivering.

  ‘Don’t try anything like what you did to Jayden again,’ Aaron warned Venus.

  ‘Or what?’

  ‘Or we’ll
leave you out here. Your powers won’t get you anywhere.’

  ‘We have our shells,’ Venus contradicted.

  ‘Yeah,’ Nerissa said.

  ‘We’ll…’ Cleo scratched her head. ‘What were the shells for again?’

  ‘We’ll blow them and tell Madam Grayson all about how Nerissa, Cleo, and me tried to be team players and you left us here to die,’ Venus threatened. ‘You’ll be the ones getting neutralising bracelets and detentions then.’

  ‘I don’t even care,’ Aaron snarled.

  ‘Stop it.’ Jayden stepped between them. ‘Venus didn’t mean to push me off the rope. Let’s just get through this, and then we can go back to keeping out of each other’s way.’

  Hailey scoffed. Venus made it a priority to get in their way. She pushed Venus’s harpiness from her mind and tried to focus on their next obstacle—a sand dune. It stretched down the length of the beach like a giant wall, barring anyone from entering. About seven other teams were already there, trying to hike up the dune, with each team spread about fifteen yards apart. The team directly to Hailey’s right was attempting to sprint to the top. They got about a quarter of the way up before one of them slipped and tumbled backwards, bowling down three of their team members before crashing back on the beach.

  ‘I’ve read a few books on hiking up hills like this one,’ Alec said, craning his neck to look up the dune, ‘and the best way is to link together and help pull each other up.’

  ‘Okay, sounds like a plan.’ Aaron grabbed Hailey’s hand, and she joined up with Alec, Demi, and Jayden.

  Jayden stretched his hand out to Venus. ‘Come on.’

  Venus gazed at the dune, as if deciding whether she could make it on her own. ‘Fine,’ she grumbled after a second, slapping her hand onto Jayden’s.

  Hailey wasn’t fussed about hiking up a giant sand dune, but it was better than waves pummelling her. Aaron took the lead, dragging Hailey up behind him. She felt as though she were part of that game Barrel of Monkeys, but instead of collecting monkeys, their goal was to avoid breaking the link.

  Inch by inch they climbed the dune, Hailey’s calves burning with every step she took in the soft sand.

  ‘You actually have to climb,’ she heard Jayden say. ‘I can’t drag you the whole way.’

  ‘We’re trying,’ Venus barked back.

  ‘Not very hard,’ Demi retorted. ‘You keep yanking us backwards. So stop being a princess and climb!’

  ‘Hey, you can’t talk like—’

  ‘Enough!’ Aaron yelled. ‘We’re about halfway up. Keep moving.’

  Hailey wanted this climb to be over as quickly as possible. The heat was no longer pleasant. Beads of sweat dripped down her neck and legs, and her hands were so slippery she doubted she’d be able to keep her grip if she or Alec stumbled. Just a little further, Hailey told herself. The dune’s peak was about fifty more calf-burning steps away. She counted each one down, and sighed in relief when Aaron finally reached the top. One more step.

  A gust of wind shoved her backwards before her foot could touch the peak. Aaron’s grip tightened, but her hand slipped free. Medusa! she screamed in her head, falling backwards and realising she was probably about to break her neck. She slammed into Alec, and everything after that was a lot of rolling and smacking into legs and arms before Hailey and her teammates landed in a crumpled pile at the dune’s base.

  ‘Everyone okay?’ Aaron called down from the top of the dune.

  ‘Get off me!’ Venus screamed.

  Jayden rolled off her. ‘We’re fine,’ he called up to Aaron.

  ‘Your idea to link arms was stupid!’ Venus shouted at Alec, who was sitting beside her. He flinched. ‘Come on, girls, we’ll do it ourselves.’

  Hailey watched Venus, Nerissa, and Cleo begin ascending the sand dune and smirked, imagining them rolling down in a giant ball again and again.

  ‘Do you want me to come down and help you?’

  ‘No,’ Jayden called back to Aaron. ‘We can do it.’ He looked at Alec. ‘I think your idea is the best, and the only way this’ll work.’ He held out his hands.

  ‘Let’s do this.’ Demi grabbed one hand.

  Hailey grabbed Jayden’s other hand and linked back up with Alec. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said as Demi started up the sand dune.

  ‘It wasn’t your fault, Hails,’ Jayden said.

  ‘The wind was designed to knock us down,’ Alec added.

  As if on cue, Venus and the twins—who were about a quarter of the way up—screamed and tumbled down the dune, thanks to a gust of wind. Luckily, they weren’t directly in front of Hailey and her friends, so they didn’t take them down with them. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t stop. It bellowed around them, whipping up the sand, which bit at Hailey’s skin and scratched at her eyes.

  ‘They don’t like making things easy, do they?’ Jayden’s words were followed by coughing—no doubt he’d gotten a mouthful of sand.

  ‘Are you such a pathetic Zeus you can’t make the wind stop?’ Venus shouted from somewhere below.

  More than anything Hailey wanted to let her suffer, to increase the wind so it knocked her down again. But that would mean hurting her friends too. Hailey swished her hand, and the wind cut off in an instant. She laughed when she saw Demi, Jayden, and Alec. Sand clung to their damp clothes and hair, making them look like sand monsters.

  ‘My hair is ruined!’ Venus shrieked.

  Hailey glanced back and saw Venus trying to comb out clumps of sand from her tattered curls with her fingers. The twins were busy doing the same.

  Justice at last, she thought. Blue skies.

  ‘Come on, let’s go while the wind is gone.’ Jayden tugged Hailey’s hand.

  The trip was quicker this time. Sure Hailey’s legs burned worse than before, but she was terrified—much like everyone else she suspected—that her powers would wear off and the wind would return. She wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to attempt a third climb up the dune.

  Thankfully the wind stayed away, and they made it to the top. A row of vines dangled over the other end of the dune, dropping down to more sand. From here Hailey could see a forest far below—past about ten yards of sand—and a couple of teams already running towards it, vanishing into the greenery. She shivered as she looked towards the trees, absentmindedly rubbing her heart pendant between her thumb and forefinger.

  ‘Hurry up,’ Demi yelled at Venus and the twins, who were still making their way up.

  ‘Grab the vines and climb down,’ Aaron ordered, not bothering to wait for the evil trio.

  Hailey grabbed one of the leafy vines near her feet and tugged it to make sure it wouldn’t snap. It held firm, but that didn’t make her feel any more comfortable about what she was about to do. At least if she did fall, the sand below would make for a soft landing.

  Hailey leaned her body out and slowly began walking backwards as she slid her hands down the vine, its leaves scratchy against her palms.

  Demi was climbing down the vine next to Hailey’s. ‘Watch this,’ she whispered to Hailey. She aimed her hand at Venus and the twins, who were twenty feet above them, and then crushed her hand into a fist.

  Venus and the twins’ vines snapped as if they’d been severed. The evil trio squealed and toppled down the dune, flipping head over heels a few times before they hit the bottom.

  ‘Nice work.’ Hailey grinned.

  ‘Demi.’ Jayden’s voice brimmed with reproach.

  ‘HELP!’ Venus, Nerissa, and Cleo screeched.

  Hailey gazed down, her smile vanishing when she saw the evil trio getting sucked into the sand, which was up to their knees.

  ‘Quicksand,’ Alec said with fascination.

  ‘That stuff actually exists?’ Demi raised her eyebrows. ‘I thought it was just something they made up in the movies.’

  ‘Get us out of here!’ Venus yelled.

  ‘Please,’ Nerissa added

  ‘Yes… please,’ Cleo said the last word slowly, as if she’d never used it be
fore.

  ‘Alec, what do we do?’ Jayden asked him as the five of them stopped descending halfway down the dune. Hailey clutched her vine tighter—no way was she letting quicksand swallow her.

  ‘Well, it doesn’t look like the quicksand is directly at the bottom of the dune, so we can climb down the rest of the way. And then Aaron can stretch his force field across the quicksand so we can walk over it.’

  ‘What about us?’ Venus demanded.

  Aaron ignored her. ‘Let’s climb down—carefully.’

  The leaves on Hailey’s vine rustled against her hands as she scaled down with her friends, concentrating very hard on not slipping.

  ‘Wait, I’ll touch the ground first,’ Aaron said when they neared the end of their vines. He dropped onto the sand and stood for a few seconds, kicking the ground. ‘All clear.’

  Please don’t swallow me, sand, Hailey thought, right before releasing her vine. Her feet hit the ground. Thank you, Tyches.

  ‘Get us out!’ The sand was up to Venus and the twins’ waists now.

  ‘Us first.’ Aaron held his hands above the ground. ‘Everyone on board.’

  Standing on his force field felt like standing on solid ground to Hailey, except there was a slight energy that radiated from it, prickling her feet with pins and needles.

  She raced across the quicksand with her friends, afraid that if she didn’t move fast enough, Aaron’s force field might fail and she’d end up like Venus and the twins. She thanked the Tyches again when she made it safely across.

  She glanced back and watched the evil trio try to pull themselves out by grabbing the edge of Aaron’s force field. He didn’t warn them when he dropped it, and with a shriek, the trio’s hands slipped into the sand. They pulled, only to get sucked in up to their elbows.

  ‘Struggling only makes it worse,’ Alec warned them.

  ‘GET US OUT!’ Venus roared. ‘If you let us die I’ll kill you!’

  ‘Yeah, I think we’ll leave you here.’ Demi tightened her ponytail. ‘And it looks like you don’t have your hands anymore, so you can’t blow on your shell and get us into trouble.’