Poseidon's Academy and the Deadly Disease

by Sarah A Vogler

  The nereids snarled and shouted as Hailey’s fists and feet pummelled into flesh. But instead of retreating, they tightened the circle around her, clawing at Hailey’s arms and tearing at her hair. A blow to the stomach pushed the air from her lungs, and she collapsed to her knees, gasping.

  The nereids loomed around her, breaking their tight circle to let Nemertes in. She held one of the poisonous urchin darts that had taken down Aaron and Madam Grayson. ‘This death is far too kind for you. But I would rather watch you die now than allow you time to escape while we devise a more painful end.’

  ‘Gee – thanks,’ Hailey puffed out, clutching her aching stomach as she tried to regain her breath. ‘Glad to know – you no longer plan – on feeding me to the – sea-monsters.’

  Nemertes paused, and Hailey noticed a very slight raise of one eyebrow. ‘I never planned on feeding you to the sea-monsters.’ Realisation smoothed her features. ‘Ah, you were spying. I was not speaking about you.’

  ‘Then who were you talking about?’

  ‘Get away from her!’ Hope stood by the palace doors, a few yards away.

  Nemertes laughed, not at all worried by Hope. ‘I don’t think so. And if you were wise, you would leave.’

  Hope sucked in a breath before pitching something into the circle of nereids. Hailey recognised the vial she’d taken from the Hecate room, right before it shattered on the ground. Gold liquid leaked over the diamond floor before exploding into a shower of dust that rained over the grounds like a glitter bomb.

  Hailey pinched her nose and clamped her lips shut, not wanting to inhale a single fleck. The nereids collapsed almost instantly, their eyes drooping shut. I guess they can sleep if there’s a spell involved.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Hope stepped over the fallen nereids and helped Hailey up. ‘Did they poison you?’

  Hailey blinked, too shocked to answer. The nereids had been about to kill her, and a vial of gold liquid had taken them all out. Her luck was barely comprehensible. Thank you, Tyches.

  Hope shook her shoulders. ‘Hailey. Did they get you with poison?’

  ‘No,’ Hailey finally said, snapping back to reality and letting her breath out. ‘But they got Aaron and Madam Grayson.’ She glanced at their bodies. They look so still.

  ‘Madam Mendem needs to heal them. I’ll get her.’ Hope bolted for the palace.

  Hailey settled down beside Aaron, glancing anxiously at the nereids. Their bodies twitched, but they didn’t get up—they were still asleep, for now. ‘It’ll all be okay,’ she told Aaron. ‘Hope’s getting help. She took out all the nereids. Which is weird since she’s supposed to be sick,’ Hailey continued, voicing her thoughts aloud. ‘But she looks fine. Unless she died and her powers brought her back. But she hasn’t been sick that long… Maybe Poseidon’s Plague works differently in immortals—maybe it only makes them sick for a little while. It doesn’t matter. That’s not important. I just hope she gets back here soon with Madam Mendem.’

  ‘I’m here – it’s okay,’ Madam Mendem said five minutes later. She was puffing, but she didn’t bother stopping to catch her breath; she moved straight to Aaron, plucking the darts from his legs and placing her hands over the small wounds. ‘Poison is tricky,’ she told Hailey. ‘It’ll take me a little while – to draw it out.’

  ‘But he’ll be fine? And Madam Grayson too?’

  Madam Mendem nodded. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Hailey.’ Hope lingered behind Madam Mendem, biting her lip. ‘Can you come with me? Please.’

  ‘I want to wait until Madam Grayson wakes up. I need to know what she saw.’

  ‘Please, Hailey. It’s important. It won’t take long.’

  Hailey didn’t want to leave, but Hope looked desperate to talk to her. ‘I’ll be back,’ she told Madam Mendem who had her eyes closed, deep in concentration. Hailey followed Hope towards the palace, the cuts on her legs beginning to sting again now that her adrenaline rush had worn off. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked when Hope led her into the entryway and through the left archway.

  ‘I need to show you something,’ she said, not slowing. ‘So you understand.’

  ‘Understand what? And why aren’t you sick? Did you die?’

  Hope didn’t answer. She kept walking.

  Hailey grabbed her shoulder, spinning her around. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘We need to get to Amathia’s classroom.’ Hope tried to turn back, but Hailey tightened her grip.

  ‘No. I want to know what’s happening. Right now.’

  Hope hesitated. ‘Okay. But promise me you’ll let me explain afterwards.’

  ‘Explain what?’ Hailey didn’t have time for this. She was two seconds away from turning back.

  ‘Please, you have to promise.’

  ‘Okay. Fine. I promise.’

  Hope took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly before speaking. ‘It was me. I’m the one who made everyone sick.’ She drew back a little, as if expecting Hailey to hit her. But Hailey only frowned.

  ‘What do you mean it was you?’

  ‘My name isn’t Hope. It’s Pandora.’

  32

  Pandora

  ‘What in Tartarus are you talking about?’ Pandora was a woman the gods had created and sent to earth with a box filled with every evil imaginable. ‘Pandora was alive when the gods were. She’s been dead for centuries. And she had a box that contained evil. All you had when we found you was a sword.’ Hailey was starting to think the island had destroyed Hope’s sanity.

  ‘History is wrong. Yes, I was alive when the gods ruled, but they didn’t create me and give me a box of evils—that’s nothing more than an exaggeration. The true story is that my father was Zeus, and my mother was a mortal he had an affair with. I am a demigod who has the power to spread a deadly disease.’

  ‘What? You’re serious?’

  Hope nodded and reached for Hailey’s arm.

  Hailey ripped it from her grasp. ‘Don’t touch me!’ Hope flinched as if she’d slapped her. ‘You did this? You made Demi, Jayden, Alec—everyone—sick? We rescued you from that island. We befriended you.’

  ‘I know.’ Tears glistened in Hope’s eyes. ‘That’s why I couldn’t go through with it. The price for my freedom was too high.’

  Anger tore through Hailey’s confusion, possessing her like a bloodthirsty minotaur. She grabbed the front of Hope’s shirt. ‘Make it stop!’ she demanded. ‘Make everyone better.’

  ‘I will. But first you need to understand. You promised you’d let me explain.’

  Hailey tightened her grip. ‘No. Cure them now! Demi is about to die because of you.’

  ‘I know.’ Tears streamed down Hope’s face. ‘But she still has a few more days left. You have time to hear why I did what I did.’

  Hailey shoved her back, Hope stumbling against the crystal wall. ‘There is no explanation—absolutely none—as to why you would kill an entire school.’

  ‘I can show you why,’ Hope pleaded. ‘Please, come to Amathia’s classroom.’

  Hailey didn’t want to go anywhere with her. She couldn’t believe it. This whole time it had been Hope—Pandora—causing Poseidon’s Plague. And what made it worse was that Hailey had brought her to the Academy.

  ‘I won’t hurt you,’ Pandora promised, sensing Hailey’s trepidation. ‘I’ve kept you safe. I protected you from the disease—and the nereids.’

  Hailey ground her teeth, wanting nothing more than to strangle Hope—she’d come back to life after all… and then Hailey could strangle her again and again until she cured Poseidon’s Plague.

  ‘I’ll only tell you how to stop the disease if you come with me,’ Pandora said, sensing Hailey’s thoughts.

  ‘Fine,’ she gave in. She followed Pandora to Amathia’s classroom, her mind reeling, trying to comprehend how the person who’d pretended to be her friend for the past few weeks was actually Zeus’s daughter and had come here to kill them all. Hailey stared around the Ancient History classroom. ‘What’s in here that
will make me understand?’

  ‘This.’ Pandora touched the memory ball on Amathia’s desk.

  The world flashed white, and Hailey was overcome with the sharp metallic scent of blood as she re-emerged in front of a mud brick house. She was sitting in the dirt, crying over a woman whose head rested in her lap. The woman’s lips were blue, and blood poured from her empty eyes.

  ‘Mama, come back.’ Hailey wept, or more like Pandora did.

  ‘She’s dead.’ Hailey’s head snapped up and her body went cold. A man she recognised from Ancient History stared down at her. A crown of gold leaves rested in his silver hair, and the air around him seemed to hum with electricity. ‘They all are.’

  All? Hailey wiped at her tears and running nose, and gazed around the village. Bodies littered the ground, lying in pools of blood. Hailey spotted one person collapsed against the door of a mud brick house, dried blood caking their face. It looked as if they’d been trying to get home before the sickness claimed them, but they never made it inside.

  Nausea twisted Hailey’s stomach; if she’d been in her own body, she would have vomited. Instead, she was overcome by another burst of tears.

  ‘I don’t understand.’ Her voice was thick with grief. ‘Why am I alive when they are all dead?’ She looked up at the man, her vision blurred.

  He stepped towards her, face impassive. ‘Do you know who I am?’

  Hailey shook her head, wiping at her eyes again.

  ‘I am Zeus. Your father.’

  Hailey shifted her mother’s head to the ground and rose to her knees, bowing her head. ‘Forgive me, I did not recognise you.’

  ‘Enough of that.’ Zeus lifted Hailey’s chin so that she saw his azure blue eyes—the same eye colour she wore most days. ‘You are a demigod and my daughter. You bow to no one.’

  Gingerly, Hailey stood, the grey tunic she wore resting a few inches above the ground. ‘I do not understand. My mother never mentioned you.’

  ‘I asked her not to. My wife, Hera, has a special love for torturing the women I share my bed with. I managed to keep my affair with your mother a secret, which is why I have never visited you before. For your own protection.’

  ‘So why have you come now?’

  ‘I felt you needed me.’ He surveyed the dead bodies. ‘You killed them, you know.’

  ‘What?’ Hailey stumbled back, losing her balance and hitting the ground. ‘I didn’t kill anyone. They became ill a few weeks ago. They did not recover. They just died.’

  ‘Because of you,’ Zeus said, not bothering to help her up. ‘You’re a demigod, which means you have a power. Your power is to spread disease.’

  Hailey gasped in tiny breaths of air, feeling as though she were suffocating. ‘No. You’re lying.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Pandora, but it’s true. Why do you think you are the only one the disease spared?’

  ‘I… I…’

  ‘It’s all right. It’s a lot to take in,’ Zeus said. ‘But I came here to help you. I can teach you to control your powers so that you never harm anyone again.’

  ‘Really? You would do that?’

  ‘You are my daughter.’ He reached a hand down to her. ‘Come with me.’

  Hailey didn’t take it. ‘What about my mother?’ She crawled to where she lay, dirt smearing her tunic. ‘I cannot leave her here.’

  Hailey could sense Zeus’s impatience, but he did a good job of masking it. ‘I cannot restore her, but I can grant her new life.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Move away and I will show you.’

  Hailey pressed a kiss on the dead woman’s cold forehead and shuffled away, standing back up beside Zeus, who waved a hand. Hailey gasped, watching in complete awe as tree branches sprang from the dead woman’s arms and head, her skin flaking off as bark grew over her body. In the blink of an eye, she transformed into a cedar tree, with markings that resembled a face staring from its trunk. Just like the trees on the island, Hailey realised.

  ‘See, now she can live for eternity.’ Zeus smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He held his hand out to her again. ‘Come with me.’

  Still, Hailey didn’t take it. She walked to the tree and pressed a palm against the rough bark, inhaling the rich scent of wood and sweet smell of sap. ‘Are you in there, Mother?’

  ‘She’s a tree,’ Zeus said, impatience progressing to his voice. ‘She cannot speak.’

  ‘Oh.’ Hailey’s shoulders slumped. She regarded the other dead bodies. ‘What about them? Can you gift them with eternal life too?’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I murdered them, and I couldn’t live with myself if they were just dead. They deserve something.’

  Zeus sighed, acting as if she’d asked him to do something menial, like wash up dishes. ‘Fine. But then we are leaving.’ He swished his hand around the village, creaks and moans filling the air as branches sprang from the other bodies. Houses shattered as trees sprouted through roofs, and soon the village resembled a copse. One that looked exactly like the area Hailey and the other second years had met the dryads in. But this wasn’t a forest, and this wasn’t in the middle of the sea, so it couldn’t be the same place. But why do the trees look like they have faces?

  ‘Satisfied?’

  Hailey nodded. She brushed her fingers against the tree that was once the dead woman. ‘Goodbye, Mama. I love you.’ She took Zeus’s hand.

  White light flooded the memory, and Hailey expected to re-emerge in the classroom. Instead, she appeared in an ancient city, drifting through a marketplace crowded with stalls and carts, the stench of fish mingled with stale sweat heavy in the air. The people around her coughed and sneezed. A woman beside her collapsed to the dirt. ‘Please help,’ she begged, reaching a hand towards Hailey as blood streamed from her eyes.

  ‘This can’t be happening again.’ Hailey shook her head. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she told the woman. ‘I’ll fix this.’ The woman’s head lolled to the ground, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth. ‘Zeus,’ Hailey called. ‘Zeus, please. I need your help.’

  Forks of lightning struck the ground, sending dirt puffing into the air, as Zeus materialised. The people in the market dropped to the ground, bowing their heads low towards the god.

  ‘Yes, Pandora?’

  ‘It’s happening again, Zeus. Everyone here is getting sick.’ She waved her hand around at the bowing people, who muffled their coughs and sneezes against their hands. ‘I cannot control it.’

  Hailey caught a flicker of something in Zeus’s eyes—satisfaction? ‘That is unfortunate. I will take you somewhere else.’

  ‘No. I do not wish to make anyone else ill.’

  ‘Once you leave, everyone’s health will return. And we can focus more on controlling your powers.’

  ‘Really? They will recover?’

  ‘Yes.’ Zeus held his hand out. ‘Come, daughter, let us find you a new home.’

  Hailey took his hand and soon found herself in another city. She visited two more after that one, each having the same ending: people became sick and Zeus took Pandora somewhere else, promising that everyone would get better if she left.

  And then came a memory of her sitting in an orchard of olive trees, hugging her legs and crying. ‘Make it stop! Please, make it stop!’

  ‘You cannot hide, Pandora.’ A man gripping a scythe glowered down at her through bleeding eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Hailey stumbled to her feet. ‘I didn’t mean to make you ill. If I leave you will get better.’

  The man laughed bitterly. ‘Better? Perhaps you would like to tell that to the three cities of dead people.’

  ‘What? No. You’re lying. Zeus said if I left they would recover. They would live.’

  ‘He lied. The gods lie. Do you not know that? Word is travelling throughout the lands to beware of Pandora, the bringer of death.’

  ‘I promise I don’t want this. I can’t control it.’

  ‘You might only be a child, but your reign of death ends now.’ The m
an drew back his scythe, the sharp blade glinting in the sunlight.

  Hailey screamed and bolted through the trees.

  ‘Our blood is on your hands, Pandora!’ the man yelled.

  Hailey didn’t look back to see if he followed her. She kept running until her legs gave out. She collapsed in a field of barley, deep wrenching sobs tearing through her body. Hailey felt for Pandora, imagining how awful it would have been to be responsible for killing your mother and your entire village, not to mention everyone you came in contact with. But those had been accidents. What Pandora did at Poseidon’s Academy was on purpose, and that washed away Hailey’s sympathy.

  It wasn’t long before Zeus appeared in his usual strikes of lightning. ‘Time to move again?’

  ‘You!’ Her voice was pure fury. ‘You lied to me.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘About the people I infected. You told me if I left they would get better. But I know they all died. Why did you keep taking me to cities knowing I would kill everyone? You were supposed to be teaching me to control my powers.’

  Zeus considered her for a second and then shrugged. ‘Well, I suppose there is no point in lying. All those people you killed deserved death. They were humans who had begun straying from worship. Humans that were speaking out against me and my kin. I will not tolerate such insolence from the creatures I created. You were a tool to teach them and send a message to others—not to cross the gods.’

  ‘You used me!’ Hailey cried. ‘I hate you! I never want to see you again!’

  ‘Think carefully before banishing me from your life, Pandora. Without me you will be completely alone in this world. Is that what you desire?’

  ‘Yes! I would rather live alone than have you use me as a weapon. I never want to harm anyone again.’

  ‘You will. You will never learn to control your power. Enjoy your life of loneliness.’ Zeus dematerialised.

  The world flashed white and Hailey appeared in a sunlit copse, lying under a cedar tree with a face on it. She recognised it as the tree that had once been Pandora’s mother. It wasn’t long before what looked like a moon beam hit the ground. A young woman appeared in it, carrying a gold bow and wearing a crescent moon diadem.