by Raine, Eliza
Eventually we reached the edge of the slab, and as I approached the swirling current that bordered the garden the turquoise bubbles began to uncoil themselves from my limbs. I said a grateful mental farewell, took a massive breath, and swam through the current, kicking hard. The academy pool came into view as my lungs were just starting to protest and I pushed through the dome and broke the surface happily. I had done it. No, we had done it. The fire rafes were planted. We were one step closer to helping catch the soul snatcher. Zali popped up beside me in the water, her eyes sparkling.
‘Eeee!’ she squeaked as she pushed her hair back from her face. ‘I spoke to the eel! Not just the eel! I spoke to so many fish! That place… Dora, it’s so incredible!’
‘It’s beautiful,’ I agreed, smiling at her. ‘Thank you so much. I couldn’t have gotten the eel out of the way without you.’
‘That’s OK. I just asked it nicely,’ she beamed.
‘Of course you did,’ I laughed.
I went to sleep that night hopeful for the first time since Icarus and I had broken into the advanced tower. Zali had enthusiastically volunteered to help check on the progress of the plants growth and now I had four weeks to find a manticore feather. And not flunk my exams and get kicked out of the academy.
Between my never-ending detentions with Neos, my extra classes with Dasko and the ramp up in assignments for all our classes, the next week flew by. I looked for Icarus every time we were in the temple or in a class together, but he avoided my eye so deliberately I couldn’t bring myself to go and talk to him. It was so obvious he didn’t want me to. Incredibly, Thom did though. He stopped me after breakfast one morning with an awkward wave.
‘I, um, wondered if you’d learned everything you needed to about manticores yet?’ he asked me, leaning against a column as we stood in the main temple.
‘Oh, I’m sure there’s always more to learn,’ I said, smiling. I liked talking to him, even if I did feel slightly uneasy about Icarus when I did. He was nice, and genuinely friendly.
‘Well, there are some really good books in the library. Maybe we could check some out together. Maybe tomorrow night?’
I faltered. Was he asking me on a date? The slight unease about Icarus exploded as my mind flashed on the hours Icarus and I had spent between the bookshelves over the last few months.
‘Oh, I can’t, I have detention. Sorry,’ I said quickly, and darted off towards the temple exit before he could say anything else. I felt bad for running off, but my head had filled completely with green eyes and black wings and I didn’t trust myself to talk to him any longer. I didn’t know what I would say.
Tak and I had sword training later that morning and as we faced each other, wooden weapons in hand, he cocked his head at me.
‘So, when are you and Icarus going to make up?’ he asked.
I sighed.
‘I can’t force him to talk to me.’
‘No, but you could try talking to him.’
‘He clearly doesn’t want to.’
‘Attack!’ Bellowed Agrius, and Tak lunged forwards with his sword, tapping me hard on the shoulder.
‘No fair! You’re distracting me!’ I protested.
He shrugged with a grin.
‘You’ll be plenty distracted in a real battle. It’s good practice.’
I lunged back, pretending to aim for his arm and dropping the sword and smacking into his exposed hip at the last minute.
‘Ow!’
I grinned back at him.
‘What about Thom then?’
‘What about Thom?’ I asked sharply.
‘Well, he told me in last class that you blew him off.’
I said nothing, but parried the blow Tak aimed at my thigh.
‘If you’re not interested in Thom, and you’re still into Icarus, go and sort it out!’
‘It’s not that simple. I wish it was.’
‘Then you’re over-complicating it.’
I glared at him, but part of me clung to his words. Was he right? Was I making this worse than I needed to? Maybe Icarus was waiting for me to go and talk to him.
A clopping sound of hooves drew my attention and I saw Chiron approaching the training field. Slowly everyone stopped wielding their wooden swords and straightened as Agrius stomped over to meet the centaur.
‘Vronti,’ called Chiron when he reached us.
‘Yes, headmaster,’ the silver-haired boy said, stepping forwards. I noticed for the first time that he wasn’t training with Astra. In fact, she wasn’t in class. A chill rippled through me. ‘Do you know where she is?’ Vronti asked tightly, and I realized his skin was paler than usual. Oh no. I was getting a bad, bad feeling.
‘Yes.’ Vronti visibly sagged in relief at Chiron’s response. ‘But I’m afraid it’s not good news.’
Vronti stiffened again, and he clenched his jaw, his face now white. The fear in his eyes sent stabs of anxiety jolting through my body.
‘It got her, didn’t it,’ he whispered. It felt like ice was spreading through my body. No, please, please not the death demon. What about the potion?
Chiron dipped his head.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
A wail, unlike anything I had heard a human make, escaped Vronti. My impulse was to rush to him, but two students got there first, catching his elbows as he stumbled forwards, his head in his hands. An image of Mandy flashed into my head, and tears filled my eyes. I understood his pain. If anything happened to my little sister… I would be broken.
‘Vronti, you need to tell me, why didn’t she drink the potion?’ Chiron said, with quiet urgency.
‘We… we had a plan,’ Vronti gasped. He wasn’t crying, but his breathing was heavy and ragged.
‘Have you drunk yours?’ Chiron took a step towards him as he asked the question, as others stepped back nervously.
Vronti lifted his head and looked up at the centaur. Slowly, he shook it.
‘No,’ he whispered.
‘Drink it now, fool boy!’ roared Agrius, stamping forwards and grabbing Vronti’s bag from the floor. He rummaged carelessly through it until he found a small bottle of the potion we were all drinking every morning. He thrust it at Vronti, who took it without looking at him. He wasn’t looking at anything, his eyes glassy and his breathing now shallow.
‘Drink it,’ said Chiron, gently. Vronti unstoppered the bottle and tipped the liquid into his mouth without a word. ‘Come with me,’ the headmaster said, and everyone stepped aside as the centaur moved towards him, laying a hand on his shoulder and guiding him towards the temple.
Nobody made a sound long after they had disappeared from view. I felt sick. I thought I’d had time. I’d even started to feel hopeful, less guilty. I’d been an idiot. We weren’t safe. Until the demon was stopped, nobody was safe.
19
Dinner that night was eerily quiet. The clack of knives and forks on plates was audible over the hum of nervous whisperings and my appetite was unusually absent.
‘I hope Gida doesn’t go through with his plan to lure the demon like that,’ said Zali quietly.
‘Me too,’ I mumbled, looking around for the satyr. I spotted him, sitting with the older students he was always with when he wasn’t with us.
‘He’s not stupid,’ said Tak.
‘Nor was Astra,’ Roz said, giving him a look.
There was a pause.
‘True.’
‘Do you think it’s coincidence that only girls have been taken?’ Zali asked.
‘I wondered that too. It does seem odd, four girls and no boys.’
I thought about that. Did death demons have a preference?
After dinner, in my nightly detention in the fire room, I decided to ask Neos.
‘Why has the demon only taken girls?’
He sighed, and folded his arms across his chest, his red eyes flicking to mine. He kept them red the whole time we were alone together now.
‘I don’t know. It might just be coincidence.’
>
I raised an eyebrow.
‘Really?’
Neos shrugged.
‘There’s no reason for her to only take girls. But both twins refused the potion and only Astra was taken. So there may be something we don’t know.’
Great, I thought. That was just what we needed. More mysteries.
‘But I wouldn’t recommend the boys stop drinking the potion. Death demons are a tricky sort. Now, show me a fireball.’
I frowned, but conjured up a large fireball between us.
‘Good. Now make it taller, and thinner.’
I did as he asked, making a column of fire almost as tall as I was.
‘Now I want you to try something new. Put you hand in the flames.’
‘What? No!’ The fire in front of me died instantly.
‘It won’t hurt you. Not if you’re truly connected to it.’
I considered that, trying to compare it to what I knew about my water powers.
‘Then how come when I connect to the water, I can’t breathe it? Isn’t that the same thing?’
‘You can breathe underwater, if you leave your body and become the water. I know that’s how you defeated the sea demon.’
I stared at him.
‘That’s different. You’re not asking me to leave my body, you’re asking me to put my hand in fire.’
‘And if you open yourself to the flames, they will not hurt you. Your magic will act as a barrier. Watch.’
He held up his arm, and tipped his head back. His eyes burned a brilliant scarlet, then suddenly his whole body was alight. I gasped, stumbling backwards, but he tipped his head forwards again and laughed, holding his arms wide. Flames licked over them, dancing away from his body then leaping back again, every inch of him red and orange with fire.
‘How…’ I trailed off, staring.
‘Only a fire demon, or a God, could do this Pandora. But you… You have Titan power in your veins. You have more potential than any student this school has seen for thousands of years.’
My breath caught. Was that true? Dasko had said something similar, though not such a bold claim. Thousands of years?
‘You know, our detentions finished over a week ago.’
His words cut through my thoughts.
‘What?’
‘You didn’t need to keep coming here after dinner. But you have anyway. You know the fire is within you. You need it as much as it needs you.’ Flames leapt from his shoulders and he stepped towards me, his voice intense and seductive. ‘Let it in. Embrace it. Use it. You could be incredible.’
He was right, I realized. About the detentions ending, about the fire. I could feel it inside me. I’d seen it in the suit of armor, I’d seen it in the goblet. A turbulent future. A future filled with fire, or water? Both, I thought, clenching my jaw in determination. I could control both, surely?
Tentatively, I opened my mind to the flames rolling across Neos’s body. They rushed in and all at once I was more alive than I’d ever felt. Power and energy that was fierce and fast and erratic and desperate filled me. Neos held his hand out to me and before I could think, I took it.
There was heat, but it didn’t burn. It tingled and fizzed, then surged, spreading through my body. I pulled my hand back slowly, holding it up and watching mesmerized as a solitary flame burned around my finger tips. I narrowed my eyes as the frantic feeling built, then, suddenly, fire was bursting from my hand. It flew down my arm and I screamed as it engulfed my chest, the heat now intense and real.
‘Call the water!’ shouted Neos. I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the roaring oranges and reds. I thought of the ocean around me, drawing as hard as I could on its strength and its power, its cool and solid presence. I gasped as cold water gushed from the water-wall, pouring over me like I was standing under a faucet and completely dousing the flames. I severed my connection with the water and it stopped just as abruptly as it had started. For a moment there was only the sound of water dripping from my clothes onto the stone floor and my ragged panting. Then Neos began to laugh.
‘I’ve never seen anything like it!’ His eyes were sparkling with excitement. ‘Do you know how few people can work with water like that? To douse out fire you were controlling-’
I cut him off.
‘I wasn’t controlling the fire though! It’s so frantic, so fast, I can’t keep it where I want it.’
He waved his hand dismissively.
‘That will come in time. Fire is a playful power, eventually you will learn its games.’
‘I’m not sure I want to,’ I said, my hands starting to shake. I wouldn’t admit to him how scared I’d been as the flames had begun licking up towards my face. But I also wouldn’t admit how I felt inside, holding those flames in my hand. Compared to water, fire was untrustworthy, but the feeling of life and freedom and building energy was… it was delicious. There was no better word I could think of to describe it. And the truth was, I wanted more.
My dreams that night, and all the following nights, were filled with giant tidal waves crashing against the beach back home, except it didn’t look like it had the last time I saw it. Forks of crackling purple lightning tore across the ink black sky and the stones covering the shore were jagged and cruel looking. The monstrous waves hammering them over and over were lit by the eerie scarlet glow of flames that rippled and danced under the surface, impossibly beautiful and terrifying at the same time. I awoke from every dream with my heart pounding in my chest and sweat rolling down my face and back.
My struggle to control both water and fire not only plagued my dreams and my elemental classes, but it was also beginning to take its toll on my other studies. We were given practice tests in History of Mythology and Ancient Greek and I managed to fail both. I knew I shouldn’t, but instead of revising for my written tests, I was still going to my nightly fire class with Neos. Every time I sat down with a book in the library with the others to try and learn the Greek words for animals, or the flying ship classes of Olympus, or the names of ancient river nymphs, burning energy swamped my body and I simply couldn’t sit still. It was like the ocean around me was restless and the only way to calm it down was to use my power.
‘Dora, do you want to help me revise for our practice geography test tomorrow?’ Zali said pointedly to me at dinner a little over a week after Astra had been taken.
‘Yeah sure, but I have to go to my fire class first,’ I said around a mouthful of pasta.
‘I think Neos would let you off the night before tests,’ said Roz from across the table.
‘Yeah, I mean, having elemental powers is kind of pointless if you get kicked out of the academy anyway,’ added Tak. ‘You’d have to go and live back in the mortal world, where you couldn’t use them.’
I shrugged.
‘I’ll just cram before the actual tests. It’s easier to learn stuff like that quickly. Elemental stuff takes time and practice.’ I could hear Neos in my words, it was the same thing he and Dasko told me all the time.
‘Hmm, well, the exams are only ten days away now. That is pretty close,’ said Zali doubtfully.
‘I’ll be fine,’ I told her.
But the geography test went so badly Chiron asked me to stay behind after class.
‘Pandora, you got half of the questions on this test wrong,’ he said gravely to me.
‘I’m sorry,’ I answered.
‘It’s not about being sorry, it’s about making sure you learn enough to stay in the academy and become a productive member of Olympus. Is there anything wrong?’
I looked up at his warm, open, honest face that reminded me so much of my father’s. I let the death demon out, I have fire magic inside me that scares and thrills me, Fantasma says I have a turbulent future, I can’t sleep and Icarus hates me. I squashed my thoughts and said,
‘I just know so little about Olympus, coming from the mortal world.’
Chiron frowned at me.
‘That’s no excuse, Pandora. Would you like extra classes?
I’m sure Dasko would be happy to help and so would I.’
I snorted involuntarily and the centaur raised his eyebrows.
‘Sorry. It’s just, I’m having a lot of extra classes already.’
‘In fire and water. Yes, I heard. You know, all the classes here at the academy are deemed integral to your survival once you leave the academy. That’s why you must pass them to stay. You do understand how important they are, don’t you?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘For you, they are even more important. You have no family or place in this world currently. You will be starting from scratch when you leave here, meaning nothing in your arsenal could be more helpful than knowing everything you can about the geography of Olympus, how gods and demigods and demons live, and how to read and speak the language.’
I stared at him. I was so determined to be able to get back home, I hadn’t considered what he was saying. I would be starting from scratch. If I graduated, I would be sent out into Olympus with nowhere to go and no clue how to live there.