by Raine, Eliza
‘He’ll be unconscious for a few days. And that arm probably won’t work very well for a while. But that fall broke his back. It would have killed him.’
‘You saved him?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘I told you. Olympus needs Titans. You two can reset the balance.’
‘Thank you,’ I whispered, tears still spilling onto Icarus’s cheek.
‘The other teachers will be here soon. Let me do the talking,’ he said, and sprang to his feet, the red fading from his eyes. I looked around. Zali had her arms around Thom, who was visibly shaking and pale. Arketa was standing a few feet from me, her arms wrapped around the box.
‘Keep that safe,’ I told her. She nodded. ‘What happens now? How do we get the souls back?’ I asked Neos, dimly aware of the clop of Chiron’s hooves below us.
‘Now, you need to find Oceanus,’ he said.
‘I just don’t understand why it has to be so difficult,’ I sighed. ‘Why can’t Hades just give the souls back if we give him his Keres demon back?’
‘It doesn’t work like that,’ Neos said. We were all sitting in the infirmary, around Icarus’s bed. Thom had received treatment for shock, and was slowly starting to look and sound more like himself. He’d barely spoken in the hours since the rooftop. Arketa was sitting on a bed, arms and legs crossed, her face a permanent scowl. There was no denying how much we’d needed her help fighting the death demon, and she didn’t seem to be going anywhere now. Zali was sitting next to me, squeezing my left hand, whilst my right gripped Icarus’s.
Neos had told Chiron, Dasko, Fantasma and the others that we had stolen the box from Chiron’s office and baited the demon with it. He convinced them that he had stumbled across our rooftop battle just as we vanquished the demon forever, and destroyed the box. His cloaking magic had hidden it from everyone else's view, and Arketa hadn’t let it out of her sight since.
‘Maybe we could convince him,’ said Thom.
Neos raised his eyebrows.
‘You think you could talk to Hades, Lord of the underworld, most elusive and mysterious almighty Olympian god? You’d never even get close to him.’
‘Doesn’t Hermes work for Hades? Can’t he talk to him?’
‘Hermes isn’t going to cash in favors for a few kid’s souls. Olympians live forever. He doesn’t care enough about a few mortal demigods.’
Zali bristled beside me.
‘He gave us the potion and seemed angry the gods wouldn’t remove the demon,’ she protested.
‘Because he cares about his reputation and this school. You know you’re competing with the other academies?’
I frowned. I hadn’t known that.
‘Well what about Zeus? One of the souls is Astra, his descendant.’
Neos snorted.
‘Do you have any idea how many offspring Zeus has? Unless he’s in the mood to pick a fight with his brother, he won’t approach Hades.’
‘He might, if Vronti asked him,’ I said.
Neos shook his head as a cold voice said,
‘He’s right. Zeus isn’t interested.’
Everybody leapt to their feet as Vronti stepped into the little room.
‘How long have you been there?’ I gasped.
‘Long enough. Did you really catch the death demon?’
I nodded, as did Zali and Thom. Arketa said nothing.
‘Yes. But you can’t tell anyone. We want to get the souls back as much as you do.’
He stared at me for a long moment, then his eyes flickered to Icarus’s unconscious form.
‘I went to Zeus. I asked him if he could get Astra’s soul back if I caught the demon. He refused.’ His eyes were hollow and hard as he spoke and my heart went out to him. I sat back down slowly, and everyone followed suit except Neos, who clapped his hands together.
‘See? If you want Hades to listen, you need someone important enough for him to listen to. Who owes you a favor.’ Neos fixed his eyes on me. ‘Pandora, you can find Oceanus. If you free him, he’ll be obligated to help you.’ I couldn’t help the little part of my mind that flicked the Nix and the promise I made him. Imagine finding a long lost Titan…
‘How do you know he’s trapped? He just disappeared all those years ago with Prometheus. Maybe he left on purpose and doesn’t want to be found.’
‘I was one of the last to see him. And I assure you, beings that powerful don’t just disappear.’
‘Who trapped him?’
‘Zeus, I would imagine. He’s the only one strong enough.’
‘Then wouldn’t I be risking Zeus’s wrath if I found him and freed him?’
‘The world has moved on. Those two need to work out their differences, for the sake of Olympus.’ He was echoing Dasko’s words. What was happening in Olympus? I wished my warm-eyed tutor was here now, assuring me that this was the right thing to do. But I knew what he would say.
‘How do I find him?’ I asked.
Neos’s red eyes gleamed and a grin spread across his face.
‘You need a ship. A ship crafted by the great Titan himself. It is so tightly bonded to him that it will seek him out, if his own flesh and blood is standing at the helm.’
I gulped. So it really was only me who could find him.
‘Where’s the ship?’
‘At the bottom of the sea. One more test, set by Oceanus. Only a true descendant of his could raise it from the ocean floor.’
‘OK,’ I breathed. ‘Where?’
Neos spread his arms wide.
‘Aquarius was Oceanus’s realm, long before it belonged to Poseidon. It’s right here, little Titan, hidden centuries ago along with the box.’
Arketa stood up suddenly, lifting the box from the bed beside her.
‘Let’s go then.’
‘Now?’ I gaped.
‘Yes. Why wait?’
Neos grinned as he stood up.
‘I heartily agree,’ he said.
‘But what about Icarus?’
‘He’ll be fine here. You don’t need him to raise the ship.’
Panic thudded through me. I did need him. I needed him to tell me this was the right thing to do.
‘If Oceanus can help get Astra’s soul back, then we’re doing this,’ said Vronti. I looked between him and Arketa, memories of the way they’d treated me washing over me.
‘This isn’t your choice, either of you,’ I said as fiercely as I could manage. ‘You’ve made my life as difficult as you could since I got here for being a Titan, and now you both need my Titan magic.’
‘And whose fault is that?’ spat Arketa.
Ouch. I couldn’t argue with that. I ignored her, looking at Vronti instead.
‘I’m pretty sure you’ve tried to kill me a few times,’ I said, my heart skipping as his eyes dropped to the floor. It was him.
‘Zeus… Zeus asked us to make sure you didn’t do well at the academy. He didn’t want you to survive your first year.’
Neos let out a long, low whistle. Zeus, who trapped people in an eternal hellhole, didn’t want me to live?
‘Because I’m a Titan?’
Vronti shrugged.
‘Did he want you to kill Icarus?’
‘No.’
‘So it was you who trapped me in the manticore pen? And set fire to the attic last semester?’
He nodded, not meeting my eyes.
‘Me and Astra, yes. And all the other little accidents you’ve had here.’
Anger seethed through me.
‘Why? Why does he want me dead?’
‘I don’t know. I didn’t ask. It’s difficult not to do what your told by the Lord of the gods.’
I glared at him. I didn’t buy that he didn’t want to carry out Zeus’s commands. I knew he’d enjoyed tormenting me. But enough to try to kill me?
‘I say, if Zeus has got it in for you anyway, maybe finding an all-powerful ally isn’t such a bad idea,’ said Neos.
My mind raced, trying to process what I knew. Tak’s
face, his eyes filled with that awful empty blackness blocked out the rest of my thoughts though. We had to save him.
27
I took a long, steadying breath as we all crammed into the hauler in the pegasus tower. All except Icarus, I thought, nervously. Gods, I wished he was with me. If I’d been told that morning that I would find myself heading to the top of the pegasus tower with Neos, Zali, Thom, Vronti and Arketa, to raise Oceanus’s own ship from the depths of the ocean, I would never have believed it. When we reached the top, I walked briskly to the edge. The salt air filled my lungs and power crackled to life inside me.
‘You’ll need to push your senses deeper than you ever have before, little Titan. Oceanus made that box. Feel it. Absorb its energy, so you know what to look for,’ Neos told me. Arketa reluctantly handed the box to me. I didn’t want to touch the thing, but did as he told me. I closed my eyes and pressed my hands around the box, like Fantasma had taught me in magical objects. For a moment, I could hear the ocean, crashing and churning around me. Immense power, so huge it wrapped around the entire world flickered into my conscious. It was him. Oceanus’s signature. I pushed the box back at Arketa, opening my eyes.
‘I’ve got it,’ I mumbled, and stepped to the edge of the platform, looking down at the deep blue sea. Here we go, I thought, and my senses left my body, plunging into the waves.
I was immediately aware of the turtle family, a whole bunch of sharks, a pod of whales, all within half a mile of the academy. I ignored them, moving deeper. The garden beneath the academy glowed in my mind’s eye, a humming fizz of life covering the underside of the slab. I moved down farther, the light beginning to fade as my consciousness merged with the water, that feeling of becoming part of it taking over. There were intermittent sparks of life around me, some as massive as a whale, some as tiny as a shrimp, and I ignored them all, sinking myself further into the dark depths. I reached out all around me, searching for that feeling of power, the sense of immensity. The darkness was becoming suffocating, the sparks of life fewer and fewer. My breathing felt shallow and strained, and I knew that the bodiless me that was sinking to bottom of the ocean didn’t need to breath, so it must be my real body that was struggling. A sense of danger was rising in me, a feeling of wrongness. I was too deep. But what if the ship was close? It had to be.
And then I felt it, pricking the edges of my senses. Crashing waves in the still blackness. Unbindable power, wrapping around the world and giving it life. I pushed myself down, the sensation drawing me in. Suddenly, color and light filled my vision. An ancient ship, rotten and broken, glowed on the ocean floor below me. I reached for it, launching my failing power towards it. I heard a shout, a real human shout, and blackness began to close in around me. My real body was losing consciousness, I realized. No, I was too close! I pulled desperately at the ship but it wouldn’t budge, that feeling of colossal power too strong for me. What if… A wave of bone deep fatigue washed through me and the blackness closed in again. I focused on the glowing wreck of a ship, trying to drag my thoughts into place. Oceanus’s power was part of the sea. I was part of the sea. Pulling against his power was wrong, I realized. With a last burst of energy, I opened myself to the ships power, to Oceanus’s power, like Dasko had taught me in the pool.
Life, pure and strong and incredible filled me. Power surged through me and I rose, swiftly, shooting up from the darkness, soaring through the sea. And then I heard Zali saying my name and I realized I was back, back in my own panting body.
‘Dora! Dora you’re not-’ her words cut off as I turned to her and I heard Thom shout.
‘Look!’
I looked out over the ocean with everyone else, in time to see the ancient ship burst from a churning, swirling mass of water below us, the word Tethys clear on the prow.
Peto whinnied when he saw me a few hours later. I had hidden the rotting ship a mile away from the academy, but we needed to be on it and away before Chiron, or even worse - Hermes, could stop us.
‘Hey boy. We’re going on a little trip. And we have a passenger,’ I told him. Thom helped me lift Icarus onto Peto’s broad back, then went to find his own pegasus. Thom had said he wouldn’t come initially, that he would be a danger to us all, but Zali insisted we could work on his shifting. He had recognized our voices and stopped his attack, and she convinced him that meant there was hope.
Vronti and Arketa were coming, whether I wanted them to or not. They were both powerful, and smart, and there was no denying I needed the help but they both hated me. The thought of us all being on that ship together was seriously unsettling. Neos wasn’t coming. He said that it would send the wrong message to Oceanus, bringing a demon that he had trapped. That sounded highly suspicious to me, but there was nothing I could do about it. He’d saved Icarus’s life, and for now I had no choice but to trust him.
As we touched down safely on the deck, I had no doubt he was telling the truth about the ship belonging to Oceanus. The ancient wood tingled with power as my red converse hit the planks, and it was almost overwhelming. The others touched down beside me, the deck easily large enough to accommodate five pegasi. Zali and Thom helped me get Icarus down and my nose wrinkled in disgust as we laid him down on the slimy, filthy planks. We took our saddlebags loaded with food, water, blankets and clothes off the pegasi and I bade a reluctant farewell to Peto. Much as I wished he could come with us, there would be no stables on board, and we didn’t have enough food for ourselves.
‘How do we steer?’ asked Zali as they took off, looking around the broken ship distastefully.
‘Someone needs to bond with it,’ I answered. ‘Me, according to Neos.’ Remembering what I’d learned about ships in geography class, I strode over to the giant mast, looking up at the torn and tattered sails. They shimmered faintly in the light. I took a deep breath, and laid my hand on the mast.
Oceanus’s power swelled inside me, and an unbridled joy filled my whole body. I watched in amazement as the sails began to knit themselves back together, beginning to gleam as they billowed. I heard the others gasping and muttering and turned to see the rotten planks of wood repairing themselves, shining like they’d just been polished. A red carpet appeared out of nowhere, leading up to the quarterdeck at the back of the ship and a massive spoked wheel righted itself on its previously broken post. The rotten sea-weedy smell was fading, replaced with a crisp, delicious ocean scent. Within a few minutes, the Tethys was ready to set sail.
I tentatively asked the ship to go to Gemini, as it was the nearest realm where we could get supplies, and it rose slowly but surely from the surface of the sea. We rose higher, and higher, until swirling pastel colored clouds surrounded us as we stood gaping on the deck. Spirals of glittering dust flew past us, reflecting off the beautiful sails. Hoping the ship was going where I’d asked it, I set about exploring. My priority was to find somewhere comfortable for Icarus, until he woke up. We found that there were three levels below decks, all accessible by haulers on each side of the ship, and one at the back of the quarterdeck. The first level had cabins with beds, a galley and an infirmary. We made Icarus as comfortable as we could in the largest cabin I could find. The next level down was filled with huge slingshot type guns that Vronti told me were called ballistas. The bottom one was a cargo deck, and I marveled at the number of crates and boxes filling the hull. Small round portholes let in less light than the decks above and curiosity burned inside me as looked around at the massive shadowy space. What could be in the cargo hold of a ship this old? The sound of footsteps froze me in my tracks as I wandered amongst the boxes.
‘Guys?’ I called. Thom was up with Icarus and Arketa had insisted on doing nothing until she’d had a bath in the cabin she’d claimed. And I’d thought Vronti and Zali were behind me. I turned around, and spotted them prising the lid of a waist high crate ten feet behind me. ‘I heard something,’ I said, jogging back to them. Vronti dropped the lid and strode forward.
‘We appear to have a stowaway,’ he said, purple energ
y crackling to life around his raised hands.
I frowned and stepped up next to him, squinting into the the dark shadows of the hull.
‘Who-’ I said, but my words faltered as a figure stepped forwards, into the light. My mouth fell open.
‘Mom?’
<<<<>>>>
The Jinxed Journey
Book Three
1
’Mom?’ I repeated, staring at the blonde-haired figure as she stepped fully into the dim light of the porthole.
‘Pandora,’ she said, with a slight incline of her head. ‘You are surprised to see me.’
‘Uh, you think? What are you doing here? How did you even get on-board?’ The questions got louder as anger and confusion took over my from my shock. The last time I had seen her was when she had dumped me in a world a million miles from home, without even apologizing for the fact that I’d never got to say goodbye to my family. How dare she show up now! ‘Why?’ I shouted, hot tears pricking the back of my eyes as I looked into her impassive face. ‘Why are you here?’
‘You are going to need my help on your quest,’ she said simply.
‘My quest? How do you know about that?’
‘This is Oceanus’s ship,’ she shrugged. ‘There can only be one thing you would be doing on it.’
I stared at her, unsure what to say as thoughts crashed through me.
‘Dora?’ I heard Zali’s hesitant voice behind me.
‘Zali, Vronti, this is my mother. The one who turned up late for my birthday, meaning that I never knew the last time I saw my dad or sister would be the last time I EVER saw them,’ I hissed, then wheeled around, running for the hauler. I knew as I ran across the planks that losing it like that would make me look immature and weak, but I couldn’t help it. The thought of Mandy’s eager little face filled my mind, followed by dad’s soft, weatherbeaten face grinning at me, and tears spilled hot down my cheeks as I skidded to a stop in the hauler. It began to move up almost instantly, and I heaved a deep breath as sobs tried to work their way out of my chest. I instinctively felt for the ocean far below us, drawing on its power to control myself.