Olympus Academy: The Complete Series

by Raine, Eliza

  ‘Fine,’ Vronti hissed. ‘Get on with it then.’ I shot him my nastiest look, then read the puzzle aloud to everyone.

  A precious metal, mined from the earth

  A word for someone long after their birth

  The power of Thanatos, whom all mortals hate

  The owner of this ship, Titan, true and great

  Oceanus’s opposite power, sending many to their graves

  Tethys’s favorite ocean creature living beneath the waves

  A stunning goddess born by chance from a Titan’s torture and pain

  A great woman whose efforts to save her children were not in vain

  The second I finished, they all started to speak at once.

  ‘Wait!’ I bellowed. ‘Let’s take each line at a time.’

  ‘The first line has to be gold,’ said Arketa.

  ‘Lots of precious metal is mined from the ground,’ pointed out my mom, leaning against the doorway.

  ‘We’ll write down gold for now,’ I said, scribbling it down.

  ‘I think the second line is ‘old.’ I looked at Vronti, his arms folded across his chest. He was probably right I thought as I reread the line.

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Thanatos is god of death,’ said Thom.

  ‘And the next line is obvious, the ship belongs to Oceanus,’ added Zali. ’So, Dora, what’s Oceanus’s opposite?’

  Everyone looked at me.

  ‘Um, fire?’ I said, tentatively. It was my gut reaction. ‘I guess he would portray fire as bad.’ A weird ripple of guilt fizzed through me as I said it, like my own fire magic was dancing under my skin, aware that it wasn’t welcome on this ship.

  ‘I agree,’ said my mom. ‘And I know what Tethys’s favorite creature is. Oceanus created the whale just for her. She loved them.’ Everyone was silent a moment, and I wondered how there was so much I simply didn’t know. With a sigh that was somewhere between impressed and worried, I wrote ‘fire’ and ‘whale’ down.

  ‘The stunning goddess born from Titan torture is Aphrodite,’ said Vronti.

  ‘Yep. Definitely,’ nodded Arketa. ‘She was born when Kronos used his scythe to cut off-’

  ‘Too much information!’ squeaked Zali, halting her mid-sentence. Vronti laughed, as Icarus said,

  ‘I think the last one is Zeus’s mother, Rhea. She saved the Olympians from being eaten by their father.’ I remembered Dasko telling us that in my first ever lesson at the academy. I was surprised to feel a pang of homesickness for the little curtained classroom.

  ‘So what words do we have?’ Vronti’s voice snapped my attention back to the room.

  ‘Gold, Old, Death, Oceanus, Fire, Whale, Aphrodite, Rhea,’ I read out.

  ‘That means noting,’ said Arketa.

  ‘Wait, stack the words on top of each other, and give them capitals,’ said Icarus. I did as he told me, then looked down at the list, then up at his beaming face.

  ‘Cracked it,’ he said, eyes gleaming. ‘First letter of each word.’

  God

  Old

  Death

  Oceanus

  Fire

  Whale

  Aphrodite

  Rhea

  ‘GOD OF WAR,’ I spelled out. Anxiety and excitement rocketed through me as I turned to look at everyone. ‘We’re going to see Ares.’

  One of the things I had been unwilling to leave behind when I left the academy was Nix’s feather, and as his grumpy voice sounded in my head as I clutched it to my chest in my room that night, I felt a wave of relief. I knew he’d disapprove of most of my decisions so far, but he felt familiar to me now, and I needed him. I really did care about the old bird.

  ‘Pandora, your thoughts are a complete mess’, he said tightly. ‘It’s no good, you’re going to have to talk me through them. What in the world is going on?’

  I started from the beginning, and told him absolutely everything, leaving nothing out at all. For a while after I stopped speaking he said nothing, and I started to worry.

  ‘Nix? Are you mad at me?’

  ‘Quite the contrary, young Pandora,’ he said, and his tone surprised me. ‘You are showing courage, and I admire that.’

  ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Thanks. Do you have any advice on finding or meeting Ares?’

  ‘Ares is hot-headed but predictable. Be polite, reverent and keep your mouth shut where possible,’ he said sternly.

  ‘Right,’ I said. Not the easiest advice for me to follow, but I could try my best.

  ‘Good luck,’ he said, and I was sure I could hear the nerves in his voice.

  We chatted a while longer, but he had nothing else to tell me that would help me with the war god. After safely stowing his feather on the bookshelves I tried to settle down to sleep, but I felt restless and tense, and in the end I gave up, deciding to get some fresh air instead.

  It never got fully dark in Olympus, but the sky was a rich and dark blue when I stepped out onto the top deck, making the sparkling swirls of silver that raced past us stand out even more than they did during the day. I walked to the railings and leaned my elbows on them.

  ‘I can’t believe we’re going to Aries,’ said a voice behind me, and I span around, my breath catching.

  ‘Icarus? What are you doing up here?’ He gave me a small smile.

  ‘I thought some fresh air would do me some good. And somebody told me that I just had to see some solar sails.’ We both looked up at the magnificent sails, taught and huge, glittering silver shimmering across the fabric. ‘You were right,’ he breathed. ‘They’re amazing.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘This ship is amazing.’

  ‘Isn’t it? I would never have dreamed that something like this could exist, before I came to Olympus.’ Icarus gave me a pained look and joined me by the railings. He winced as he moved.

  ‘Are you sure you should be up here?’

  ‘I was going mad down there. I... I don’t like to be cooped up much.’

  I nodded. He still hadn’t told me about what had happened to him as a child and there was no way I was going to push him about it.

  ‘How’s your arm?’

  ‘I can’t feel or move it at all,’ he said, and I could see the fear flicker in his eyes. If that meant he couldn’t fly...

  ‘When do you think you’ll be strong enough to test your wings?’ I asked, and smiled as they fluttered behind him.

  ‘Soon, I hope. Are you missing the water as much as I’m missing being up there?’ he asked.

  ‘It called me on Gemini, but they were just streams. Nothing so powerful as the ocean.’ Icarus chuckled.

  ‘Don’t let anyone on Gemini hear you say that. The river nymphs there are fierce.’

  ‘River nymphs?’

  ‘Yeah. I’m guessing your mom didn’t go with you? They’d kill a sea nymph on sight.’

  ‘Wow. How do you know that?’

  He shrugged.

  ‘Same way I know everything.’

  ‘Books,’ I smiled at him.

  ‘Not having any friends for years gives you a long time to read.’

  ‘Well, you have friends now,’ I said, and stepped close to him, touching his cheek. His piercing green eyes seemed to come to life at my touch.

  ‘I know,’ he said and kissed me.

  ‘You now, speaking of friends,’ I said, as we leaned over the railings together, watching the sky. ‘Are you still mad at Thom?’

  Icarus let out a big breath.

  ‘I’m not mad at him. I just... find it hard to be around him.’

  ‘You know he didn’t do this to you on purpose, right? He can’t control his shifted form yet,’ I said. Icarus looked sideways at me, a small smile on his lips and a slight look of disbelief on his face.

  ‘You think that’s why I’m awkward with him? Because of my arm?’

  ‘What else would it be?’ He stared at me, eyebrows raised.

  ‘You really don’t know?’

  ‘Wait,’ I said, the penny dropping. ‘Yo
u’re still worried about me and him?’ My mouth fell open and my heart hammered in my chest.

  ‘I’m not worried,’ he said quickly. ‘Like I said, I just find it awkward.’

  ‘Icarus, he’s not interested in me, I promise you. He had just never found anyone so interested in manticores before and he got a little… overexcited.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘I know.’

  Icarus looked back out over the clouds.

  ‘OK. I’ll make more of an effort with him, I promise.’

  ‘Thank you. He feels terrible about your arm.’

  ‘That wasn’t his fault, he warned us of the danger.’

  ‘I know. Hopefully his practicing with Zali will pay off.’

  ‘Hopefully.’

  I looked at Icarus’s face a heartbeat longer, before staring back at the clouds, a happy little bubble expanding inside me, forcing out a little of the anxiety.

  8

  My sleep that night was plagued with dreams which all ended the same way, with me destroying the Tethys, and killing everyone on board. Sometimes I drowned the ship, sometimes I set fire to the ship, and sometimes my power erupted form me in a chaotic blend of the two, blinding me before I could see the devastating result. I woke up earlier than I wanted to, and my skin tingled and throbbed, as though the fire was dancing over currents of water in my body. Restlessness filled me, and a panicked feeling began to swamp my mind. I needed to release this trapped energy, I needed to use my powers. I jumped out of bed, pulled my jeans and hoodie on and made my way hurriedly to the top deck. I wasn’t surprised to see my mom when I got there.

  ‘You’re up early,’ she said.

  ‘I need to practice my powers,’ I said quietly. Why did she have to be here? I didn’t need an audience.

  ‘Can I help?’ I looked at her, trying to squash the child in me that had wanted my magic sea goddess mom’s help all her life.

  ‘If I start a fire can you put it out?’ I asked her.

  ‘I can summon water,’ she answered, frowning. She took a step towards me and cocked her head. ‘But why would you be starting a fire?’

  ‘I need to practice both powers,’ I said shortly. I could feel the ocean far below us pulling at me, and I closed my eyes briefly, letting the feeling overtake me. The ship dropped sickeningly, and I cried out as I threw my thoughts at the Tethys. No! Don’t go towards the ocean, carry on to Aries! It leveled out immediately and I let out a long breath. Now listen to me, I thought sternly. I’m going to be concentrating on a few things for a while. I need you to ignore them, and carry on to Aries. You got that? I felt a fizz of joy bolt through me, and took that for the Tethys’s consent. I opened my eyes and saw that my mom’s blue eyes were fixed on my face.

  ‘Pandora, do you practice fire magic?’ she asked me slowly.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And… are you good?’

  I snorted.

  ‘I don’t know about good, but I’ve been told I’m strong, yes.’

  She let out a string of words in a language I didn’t understand, and her eyes looked more alive than I thought was possible for her.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me this before?’ Annoyance spiked through me.

  ‘If you’d ever bothered to check in on me at the academy, then you’d already know,’ I barked. Zali’s words came back to me, about her knowing about the boy with wings. ‘And it’s not like you’ve not got your own secrets,’ I shot at her.

  ‘True enough,’ she said calmly. ‘Please. Practice. I shall deal with any rogue flames.’

  I huffed and gave her a sideways glare as I stamped past her. I was annoyed now, and that was a poor way to practice. But she’d reminded me of my true motivation, which was the key to keeping control. She’d reminded me how much I wanted to get back to my real family.

  When I reached the railings, I leaned over and looked down into the churning ocean. As I stared into the blue I gave my conscious up to the water, and a shiver of delight came over me as my vision changed. I could sense everything in the water around me, the lone sharks stalking their prey, the crowded shoals of fish, the pods of dolphins playing, the odd unidentifiable monster, lurking in the deep. That sense of enormity and of giving life filled my whole body and I returned to myself with a small laugh of happiness. I lifted my arm, and a column of water erupted form the sea, blasting up past the Tethys and spraying her sails. I held out my other hand and my now familiar rope of water leapt from my palm towards the column. It wound around it like a lasso, then I heard a footstep behind me and the whole thing collapsed as I turned around.

  ‘That’s impressive, Pandora,’ said my mom.

  ‘You were supposed to be staying out of the way!’ I protested. ’Now you made me lose control of it.’

  ‘You have trouble keeping control of the water?’

  I ground my teeth as I looked at her, and I was sure I could feel my eye twitching. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to this woman about my failings. ‘That is a psychological problem,’ she said. I let out a hiss of air, annoyance churning into anger. ‘Try keeping a small band of water moving around your wrist, like a bracelet,’ she said, and held up her arm. A shimmering ribbon of water flowed from her palm, then began whizzing around her narrow wrist. ‘If controlling a large body of water becomes overwhelming, focus on the smaller band. As long as the band spins round your wrist, then you know that you are in control.’ I considered her words, watching the water bracelet spin around her arm. I held my own up, pulled back the sleeve of my hoodie and copied her. The water felt cooling as it swooshed around my skin, and my anger ebbed away. I looked back out over the ocean, and called the column of water again. It roared up from the waves. Again, I sent out my rope and twined it around the column as though it were dancing.

  My mom stamped hard on the planks behind me and I almost turned, startled, when I realized she was testing my concentration. The column began to fall, but I focused on the band, still whizzing around my wrist. My mom was right. I could keep that in place with barely a thought, which meant... it meant I was in control. I felt like a long-lost memory had snapped into place, and when I looked back at the column it leapt up, the water rope whipping through it, then splitting into five, which spread out and laced around it, like a curvy cage.

  ‘Well done.’ I let the column drop, slowly and carefully back into the ocean and turned to her.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You’re welcome. Now let me see this fire of yours.’

  I didn’t give her much of a show, just sent a few fireballs of differing sizes up into the air above me and let them hover for a moment, before extinguishing them nervously. The truth was that using my water powers had settled most of the restlessness, and I was reluctant to use my fire magic without Neos. Especially on a wooden ship. Many, many times Neos had dealt with my unruly flames in the stone elemental classroom. I wasn’t sure what would happen without him, but I knew I had to be extremely careful. I wondered if there was a trick like the water bracelet for fire?

  ‘You are talented, Pandora,’ my mom said, as Zali appeared on the other side of the deck.

  ‘Err, thanks,’ I said, awkwardly.

  ‘Dora, can we go for a swim soon? It’s been days since we’ve been in the water and I’m getting desperate,’ Zali said as she reached us.

  ‘That makes two of us,’ said my mom.

  ‘We’re going to reach Aries late afternoon, and I don’t want to land at night, so we’ve no time today,’ I said, assertively, despite wanting nothing more than to submerge myself in water too. ‘Once we’ve been to Aries, then I promise we’ll take some time to swim.’

  ‘That’s wise,’ my mom said as Zali nodded.

  ‘Yeah, that makes sense,’ she said glumly.

  ‘You can use my washroom in the meantime? The tub is probably big enough to shift in,’ I said, and she beamed at me.

  ‘Thanks, Dora. I’m sure that would help a lot. You’ll have to let me in though, no-one else can use
your door.’

  ‘Captain’s prerogative,’ I grinned as we headed to the hauler.

  A few hours later we were all lined up on the top deck again, watching as Aries came into view. It looked like it was completely covered in sand, just a pale brown, lumpy mass of land.

  ‘I always wanted to come here,’ breathed Vronti.

  ‘You mean you’ve not already been? So you’re not going to be insufferably arrogant about everything?’ said Icarus sarcastically. It looked like he was well and truly done taking grief from Vronti, I thought as I watched the silver-haired boy’s startled expression.

  ‘I still know plenty about the realm, if that’s what you’re asking,’ he huffed.

  ‘Do you know why Ares named the realm after himself?’ asked Thom, sounding genuinely interested.

  ‘Vanity,’ shrugged Vronti.

  ‘Do you think it’s as dangerous as people say it is?’ asked Zali.

  ‘Definitely,’ replied Thom.

  ‘I guess we’re about to find out,’ I said, as adrenaline pulsed through me.

  We had decided as a group to land somewhere fairly central on the island. The realm of Aries was massive, and we figured that if we were roughly in the middle, we had a better chance of being near somewhere we could contact Ares from. None of us were wearing modern clothes now either. Zali, Arketa and I were wearing leather fighting pants, with a toga-like wraparound shirt that Zali had needed to show me how to put on properly. A wide leather band wrapped across the shirt tightly, to protect the wearer’s chest, I presumed. I’d seen older kids wearing them on the training ground at the academy but had never paid much attention. It wasn’t especially comfortable, but I was sure that the clothing would help us blend in, in the land of war. The boys were dressed similarly, except instead of a band they had a sort of vest made from leather. Icarus wasn’t wearing one, as he couldn’t get it to work around his wings. And I wasn’t sure they would help us fit in. They fluttered nervously as I looked.

  ‘You OK?’ I asked him quietly.

  ‘Yeah. I can’t wait to get off this ship,’ he said. I felt a stab of defensiveness on the ship’s behalf, but reminded myself that Icarus didn’t like to be trapped in one place. He was born to fly, be free.