by Raine, Eliza
‘It is simple. You can go with me, or that,’ she pointed at the giant octopus through the wave.
‘You wouldn’t let that thing kill me!’ I stared at her in disbelief.
‘My patience is wearing thin, child. What are you called?’
It was like being punched in the gut. She didn’t know my name. Of course she didn’t. I mean, how could she? But it still hurt.
‘Pandora,’ I whispered, tears pricking my eyes.
‘Pandora, listen to me. I liked your father. I was glad to bear him a child. But I did not belong in this world, or with you. That is the way of things. You have a chance to be much, much more than you are now. If you take it, we may talk again. Perhaps even be friends one day.’
I looked into her eyes, fierce and roiling and the color of the ocean.
‘What would I have to do?’
‘There is a school for children of the gods. If you prove yourself there, you will be accepted in Olympus.’
‘Children of the gods? I thought you were just a sea nymph.’
A frown darkened her face.
‘I am not just any sea nymph. I am descended from Oceanus himself,’ she said fiercely. ‘Now make your choice. Me or that,’ she pointed at the wall of water again, five tentacles now pushing through, probing the air.
‘What about dad? And Mandy?’
‘For the sake of Zeus!’ the woman snapped. ‘They are just mortals. Do you not want to live in a world where every creature you can imagine exists, where you can bend water, create fire, ride the winds and fly through the skies? A world made up of cities of ice, underwater palaces, mansions in the clouds and tropical paradises? A place where the possibilities are infinite?’
Her eyes sparkled as she spoke and my breath caught. Could such a place exist? Could the excruciating, restless boredom I spent every day of my life fighting be because I was meant to be somewhere so much more exciting than here? But… could I leave dad and Mandy? Like she had left me?
‘Could I visit them?’ I asked, my voice small.
‘If you graduate from the academy and are accepted in Olympus then no. Unless you became exceptionally powerful.’
My gut twisted. I couldn’t go. I couldn’t never see my dad or my sister again. But that voice inside me, the one that forced me to stop and look whenever anything was out of the ordinary, the one that made me push every limit I could find to its boundary, the one that always got me into trouble, spoke. She said you could see them again if you became exceptionally powerful. What if you are exceptionally powerful? Those two little words beat around my skull.
What if…
‘What happens if I don’t graduate?’ I asked.
‘Then you are sent back here and demons will be drawn to you for the rest of your life. If you care about them, then you will have to leave your family to keep them safe.’
I stared at her in dismay.
‘So either way I lose them?’ I whispered.
‘Yes.’
I couldn’t go home.
The words sank in, slowly. If I stayed I would be risking their lives. That just wasn’t an option. Anger and sadness overwhelmed me and I let out a cry of frustration, hot tears spilling down my cheeks.
‘This isn’t fair!’ I shouted, balling my fists.
‘Nothing is fair. I have run out of time. Make your choice.’ She stepped to the side so that I could see the demon, and spray from the sea water that was making up the churning wall cooled my burning face.
‘Like I really have one,’ I spat. I swallowed hard and looked her in the eyes. ‘Take me to the academy.’
3
I tried to pull against her as she stepped close to the wall of water, but her grip on my arm was too tight.
‘My shoes!’ I yelled, as freezing water sloshed over my feet. I knew it wasn’t the most rational thing to be concerned about. The sea demon we were stepping towards and the relentless, seething ocean she was dragging me into should have been much more alarming, but all I could see when I looked down at my soaked, ruined shoes were dad and Mandy’s faces when they’d given them to me the day before. Tears filled my eyes once more and I tried to tug my arm away.
She turned, and hissed something at me, but I couldn’t hear her over the roar of the waves. She shook her head as I glared at her, then stepped into the wall of water. I had a split second to gape, before I felt a sharp tug, and I was heading in after her. I barely had time to take a huge gulp of air before the freezing cold hit me. I squeezed my eyes shut as the salt water began to sting them, my head spinning. What about the sea demon? Was she going to let it kill me after all?
I felt her grip tighten on my arm as my feet left the ground, water taking my weight instead, and my lungs began feeling too large for my chest. I thought dimly about how all that practice holding my breath as a kid may pay off, before panic started to set in. I could feel water rushing past me, we were moving now. My skin tingled as fear-fueled adrenaline flooded my body, disorientation making me feel sick. My lungs starting to burn, I opened my eyes, unable to deal with not being able to see what was happening around me. I barely stopped myself from opening my mouth and gasping in shock. We were deep. So deep it was getting dark. I looked back over my shoulder, able to see the faint outline of the giant purple octopus way above us. Panic, real and dangerous, gripped me as I looked back down, nothing but inky black sea fast approaching. I pulled hard on the woman’s arm, trying to get her attention and we slowed as she turned to look at me. I pointed desperately at my mouth, my chest, my throat, hoping she would understand. She frowned a moment, coming to a stop, then her eyes widened and she waved her hand through the water. Tiny, sparkling turquoise bubbles glittered in the wake of her hand, then rushed towards me. I blinked and shook my head as they swirled around my face, my eyes stinging and my chest feeling like it was about to explode. Suddenly my throat convulsed and terror washed over me as my mouth opened involuntarily and I took a huge, choking breath.
A breath of cool, clean, crisp air. I coughed and spluttered, grasping at my neck with my free hand. I was breathing. Underwater. I looked down at my heaving chest as I panted. The little turquoise bubbles were swirling all around me, glittering in the dimming light. Magic. It was magic. A wave of delight shot through me, a mixture of relief and elation. Since I was a child there was little I’d wanted more than to be able to breathe underwater. And now I was doing it. For real. I felt a tug on my arm, and then we were off again, shooting through the water, heading deeper. As my fear ebbed I realized my eyes weren’t stinging any more and I looked around, trying to drink it all in. There were fish. Lots of fish. And the darker it got as we descended, the brighter they became. Some glowed, pulsing with light that looked almost like electricity as they flitted away from us. Others could only be seen when they got close to us, the glow of the turquoise bubbles around me illuminating them. A small part of me wondered what I would do if a shark appeared alongside us, but somehow I knew we were safe. Didn’t my Mom say she was descended from Oceanus himself? A bone deep sense of hope engulfed me as I considered that. What if I could learn to breathe underwater myself? Or even control water, like I’d tried to when I was twelve? What if I had the power of Oceanus too?
Just as I started to picture myself turning somersaults under the water, surrounded by dolphins and turtles, there was an almighty flash of white light so bright that I yelled out as it seared my eyes, then everything went dark.
‘Um, did you warn her about the light?’
The voice sounded distant and muffled as I came to, my head pounding.
‘No. Should I have?’
‘Yes, you should have. Humans are far more sensitive to it than most.’ The male voice sounded annoyed and I opened my eyes slowly.
‘Well how was I supposed to know that?’ the female voice snapped back. My mother’s voice, I realized, my blurry thoughts sharpening as a world of blue started to come into focus.
‘Pandora?’ the male voice said gently. I was lying on my back, the floor hard an
d cool beneath me. We had gone underwater, I remembered, dragging at my scurrying memories. To the academy so that my dad and Mandy would be safe. The blue above me… it was the sea. I stared up at it, trying to make sense of that. I was dry. I held my hand up in front of my face. The turquoise bubbles were gone. Maybe it wasn’t the sea? I drew a sharp breath in as the blurry shape of a whale, bigger than my dads house, swam slowly over my head, far above me. Definitely the sea then.
‘Pandora, are you alright?’
‘No!’ I answered, before I could stop myself. ‘Where am I?’ I pushed myself up onto my elbows, pain pounding through my head as I squinted around. There was a building ahead of me, I thought, but everything was so blurry.
‘You’re safe. It’ll take a few moments for your eyes to get back to normal, the flash when you cross over is a bit intense.’ I turned in the direction of the voice, a dark brown figure looming over me to my right.
‘Who are you?’
‘I’m Chiron. The headmaster here this semester. We rotate, you see.’ My head pounded again.
‘Headmaster?’
‘Didn’t you tell her anything?’ I heard Chiron snap.
‘I didn’t have much time, there was a sea demon in the way. I’ll… I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Mom?’
‘I, er, I have to go now. Good luck at the academy. I’ll… I’ll visit if I can,’ she answered.
‘Wait! You can’t just leave me here!’ I scrabbled to sit up, and a wave of nausea rose from my stomach, up through my chest.
‘Easy, easy now. It’s quite a trip you just made,’ Chiron said, his blurry form leaning close to me. I took a few long breaths, waiting for Mom’s reply. But none came. A hollow, painful feeling settled inside me.
‘She’s gone, hasn’t she,’ I said quietly. There was a long pause.
‘Yes. I’m sorry. But we’ll take good care of you here.’
‘Right. And where is here, exactly?’
‘You’ll see, in a moment,’ he answered.
I scowled and rubbed hard at my eyes until they stung. When I opened them again, and my vision finally cleared, I gasped.
‘Welcome to Olympus Academy,’ Chiron said.
4
I’d never paid much attention in history class, but I knew enough to recognize the building in front of me as a Greek temple. It was massive. It had a triangle shaped roof made out of white stone, with hundreds of white columns, with swirly, ornate tops, holding it up. Taking up most of the triangle there was a carving of a laurel wreath with an ‘O’ in the middle. Directly in front of it was a smaller temple, with a set of steps leading up to giant wooden doors. To the left and right were more buildings, with shallower roofs but taller columns and solid stone walls lined with arched windows. In the distance, behind the buildings, I could make out two cylindrical towers, one of them stretching up and up so high I couldn’t see the top in the blue above us.
‘Let’s get you signed in and settled,’ said Chiron, and I turned to him, my mouth still hanging open.
‘Are we underwater?’ I asked, the words tailing off as I took him in properly for the first time. He was half horse. I stared, blinking. Half horse. His bottom half… it was a horse's body. Then a man's chest, arms and head were where the rest of the horse was supposed to be.
He smiled warmly at me, from a lined, weather beaten face that for a flash reminded me of my father's. He had long dark hair pulled into a pony-tail and his brown eyes shone with something that seemed to ease my racing heart.
‘Yes. We are underwater.’
‘How am I dry?’ I asked him, unable to process the millions of questions whizzing around in my brain and settling on one.
‘The school is protected by a giant dome. Think of it like a bubble. There are lots of buildings like this in Poseidon’s realm, Aquarius.’
‘Poseidon’s realm? Are we in Olympus?’
‘Yes. Your mother told you that much then.’
‘She… she told me I couldn’t go home,’ I mumbled, feeling dizzy and sick again.
‘She’s right. She was only able to make the crossing to bring you here. Rumors of Olympus exist in your world as Greek mythology. Do you know much of it?’
I shook my head, regretting it as it pounded with pain again.
‘A shame,’ he said, trotting his hooves on the ground as he said it.
‘I know little bits, I think.’ I frowned at him, thinking. ‘Are you a centaur?’
He beamed at me.
‘I am,’ he answered. ‘Well done.’
‘And I’ve heard of some other stuff too. Satyrs? And harpies?’
Chiron nodded.
‘Yes. We have a few of those here. And many other races besides. I know it’s a lot to take in, but you’ll need to try to be as accepting of this situation as possible, if you want to make new friends.’
Make new friends?
‘People don’t stay friends with me for long,’ I mumbled, leaning forward and rolling onto my knees slowly.
‘Why-ever not?’
‘I get into trouble a lot. They don’t want to be associated with me.’ I got carefully to my feet, the world wobbling around me.
‘Well, Pandora, we don’t tolerate trouble-makers here.’ The centaurs voice was stern and I looked up at him.
‘I don’t make the trouble. I just… seem to be wherever the trouble is.’
‘Ah. I see. Many demigods born to the human world suffer insatiable restlessness. Boredom drives them to seek trouble. That will change here, I am sure.’
Demi-gods. My mind tried to process the word.
‘That’s a big school,’ I said, staring up at the crest on the building. ‘Do the gods have lots of children?’
‘Yes. They suffer from boredom too,’ he answered dryly. ‘Come along.’
He started up the marble path we were standing on, towards the academy. I hesitated, my chest aching as I looked around. There was blue everywhere I looked. I was surrounded by water. Trapped. Separated. What would dad think? That I’d been abducted? Run away? Tears began to burn the back of my eyes again. I hadn’t even been able to say goodbye.
‘We will get a message to your family,’ Chiron said softly, turning back to me and stopping.
I glared at him. He was clearly trying to be kind, but how could he understand what it felt like to ripped from the only people you loved?
‘Why couldn’t I have said goodbye myself?’ The tears escaped, sliding hot down my face.
‘I’m sorry, Pandora. If the demons had already found you then there was no time left.’
‘So if Mom had turned up on the right day, on my actual birthday, I would have had time to say goodbye?’ Chiron said nothing. Anger and regret burned inside me and I rubbed viciously at the tears with my palms. I’d get back to them. I’d learn how to use magic and how to ward off demons and I’d get back to them.
And I never wanted to see my mother again.
Chiron waited, quietly, until the tears stopped. He said nothing as I took a long, heaving breath, then began to stamp down the path after him. He just turned and walked along beside me. His horse shoulders, where his human part started, were the same height as my own shoulders, making his head way up high. I craned my neck as I looked up at him.
‘Mom said she was descended from Oceanus,’ I said.
‘Yes,’ he answered, after a pause.
‘Are there many others here descended from him?’
‘Not exactly,’ Chiron said, not looking at me. ‘Most of the students here are descended from Olympian gods.’
‘Oh. What’s the difference?’
‘There’s no short version of the answer to that. We’ll go through it once you're in and settled.’
I looked apprehensively at the huge doors we had just reached at the top of the stone steps. Settled seemed a long, long way away.
5
Chiron pushed open the doors and we stepped into the temple. The floor was checkered with black and white marble sq
uares and the ceiling stretched high above me, giving off a twinkling light. In the middle of the farthest wall was an ornate staircase, that split and ran off up and around both sides of the building, creating a mezzanine level, but my attention was drawn to the enormous statue dominating the middle of the temple. It was of a muscular man hunched over, holding up a globe made of interconnecting rings on his shoulders. It reminded me of the statue outside the Rockefeller Center, except his life-like face had been given a pained expression.
‘This is the front temple. That statue is of a famous Titan, Atlas. These are all teacher's rooms,’ said Chiron, gesturing at the many closed doors on the ground floor, underneath the mezzanine. ‘And up there is the headmaster's office, along with all the rooms for the visiting gods.’ I stumbled as I followed him towards the back wall.
‘Visiting gods?’
‘Yes. They all visit at some point or another. Athena and Hermes are here often as they both take turns as headmaster. They created the academies.’
‘There’s more than one academy?’
‘Of course. There are three, but this is the only one that accepts demigods born into the mortal world.’
‘Is everyone in Olympus immortal?’
Chiron laughed.
‘Great Zeus, no. Immortality is the most precious thing any citizen can achieve. We just call your world the mortal world, as it has no immortals.’
‘Right,’ I said, trying to peer through an open door. A woman with glasses perched on a wonky face and greasy, leathery looking wings was sitting at a desk, peering at a pile of papers. I was in a school where people could be half horse or have wings. I squeezed my eyes shut a second. Dad told me about this, six years ago. I could handle it, I told myself. I continued my mental pep talk all the way up the marble staircase, and all the way along the mezzanine floor, until we reached a door marked ‘Headmaster’.
‘If you please, Pandora,’ the centaur said as he opened the door and gestured me inside.