Forge of the Gods 4

by Simon Archer

  “Stab him!” Hailey cried before Ashley put a hand over her mouth.

  I was so confused, I didn’t know what they were talking about. That was the most absurd request ever. While I didn’t like the Stratego--let’s be real, I hated him--that wasn’t enough of a reason to stab the man. He was an intolerable bastard for sure, but I wasn’t going to hurt him. That was a one way ticket out of the Military which, after I spent all this time saving it, was the last thing I wanted.

  “We can see him with the laurel leaf,” Kari shouted, spit flying out of her mouth as her words tumbled out. “You need to free him by stabbing him with the Ultimate Weapon.”

  “That’s enough out of you!” Brea said as she tied a cloth around Kari’s mouth. They sat her down on a step and began to tie her hands around her back. Both Hailey and Kari struggled against their restraints which bothered me all the more.

  Free him? Now that was an entirely different matter. I could certainly do that by releasing the Stratego from the restraints he wore but that didn’t require stabbing him.

  “Cameron,” came a softer voice from the other side of the stage. It was Alya, the daughter of Hera. She held out her hand, which had its own coating of blood and dirt on it. “There’s no need for this. You can hand over the weapon now and no one else has to get hurt.”

  Did she really think I was going to hurt the Stratego? It hadn’t even crossed my mind, except for the urgency that my friends struggled to tell me more. I wished someone would do something, but the entire amphitheater was silent. Soldiers tended to their wounds while others watched in earnest to see what would happen between me and the other Elemental Officials.

  I looked from Alya to Kari and to Hailey. Doubt froze my veins, and I didn’t move. All I did was clutch the Ultimate Weapon tighter, hoping that the metal would tell me something. When it didn’t, I knew that this was a decision I would have to make on my own.

  I trusted Kari and Hailey with my life. This was a crazy request but if what Kari was saying was true, that she and Hailey had the sight of the laurel leaf, which was said to bring true sight to anyone who ate it, then maybe this wasn’t as crazy as I thought.

  Finally, I did something I never thought I would do. I turned to the Stratego and looked to him for an answer.

  The man couldn’t reply to me, due to the covering on his mouth, but I could see his eyes. They swirled with their normal stormy gray, but there was something different behind them. Something I had never seen before.

  The Stratego was pleading to me.

  And I didn’t think it was for his life. When his eyes flicked from the weapon to me and back again, it was unmistakable to me that the Stratego wanted me to listen to Kari and Hailey. He wanted me to stab him.

  I pinched my eyebrows together, still unsure. I took a deep breath and thought about how I could believe Hailey and Kari’s words. They were honest and good and had never led me astray. Or at least they hadn’t whenever they were in control of their own actions.

  I closed my eyes and swung the scythe forward.

  The next few seconds seemed to happen in slow motion. Alya held out her hand and lunged for me, just as the blade sliced across the Stratego’s middle. It ripped through his intestines and bled out right away. The daughter of Hera ran into me and we both tumbled to the ground, wrestling for the Ultimate Weapon.

  “You traitor!” Alya shouted in my face. “I knew you were nothing but a low life, conniving--”

  But Alya didn’t get to finish her insult because there was a flash of light. It blinded the pair of us and the boom that followed after it was like fireworks were set off five feet from my head. The blast threw the both of us backward, Alya tumbling into the stands. I slammed the blade into the rock floor of the stage so I didn’t fall off in the orchestra pit.

  I had an unimpeded view of the light in the center of the stage, where the Stratego had once been. It morphed from the crumbled figure of the Stratego’s dead body to a massive humanoid figure, the size of a cyclops. The light slowly dimmed until we could see the new being that had taken his place.

  It was a man that stood at eight feet tall, with the same bush beard as the Stratego, though his was all white. This man’s face was free of wrinkles and his skin a healthy golden color. He wore an eggshell colored toga which left most of his muscular chest bare and covered his bottom half.

  Lightning crackled all around him and clouds appeared overhead out of nowhere. That was an added bonus because I had already figured out the identity of this immortal being.

  “You were fucking Zeus all along!” I shouted as I got to my feet. I couldn’t help myself as the annoyance bubbled in my blood.

  It was a foolish choice, I knew, but I stomped right up to the head of the gods and stuck the scythe as far up in his face as I could get it. Zeus held up his hands in surrender, even though he was tall enough to crush me like a bug.

  “Alright, buddy, you better start talking,” I threatened through gritted teeth. “I want a full explanation and I want it now.”

  The other demigods were stunned by my boldness. And by the fact that arguably the most powerful god graced us with his presence. Some bowed reverently while others stared openly with their mouths open. Even a couple of soldiers fainted.

  “I think we should start by letting the daughter of Apollo and daughter of Prometheus go,” Zeus said with a nod in the direction of my friends who were still held captive by the Elemental Officials.

  “Fine,” I grumbled. I shot a quick glance over my shoulder to Brea, Effie, and Ashley. “Do what the god says, let them go.”

  Ashley dropped Hailey in a heap whereas Brea and Effie set Kari down gently as if they were stepping away from a bomb. As soon as they let me know they were okay, my attention turned back to Zeus. I thrust the Ultimate Weapon up a little higher, letting him know I meant business.

  “Now, start talking,” I demanded. “And you better tell the whole truth because trust me, I am not afraid to send you away for the next hundred years either, no matter who you think you are.”

  Zeus’s bushy eyebrows rose in surprise at my brash words. “I believe I do owe you an explanation, son of Hephaestus, for saving my life.”

  “Damn right you do,” I muttered but let the god continue.

  “Eris’s attack on the campus is my doing,” Zeus announced to the Academy as a whole. His voice echoed nicely in the amphitheater so that everyone could hear him. “I was the one who removed her invitation. The daughter of Hephaestus, Katlynn, was not to blame.”

  Anger flared inside of my chest and it took all of my self-control not to chop off his big toe with the scythe right then. I let Zeus continue speaking without interrupting him.

  “We had gotten into a tiff over a mortal and the mortal chose her,” the god of lightning said with a casual shrug. “I really didn’t think she would take the insult so seriously but then she did. When the other Olympians got word that it had been my fault to anger the goddess of chaos, who threatened to endanger their children, let’s just say they weren’t happy.” Zeus’s rubbed his hands on his toga, suddenly uncomfortable. “Hephaestus led the charge against me, especially when he figured out he punished his daughter for something she didn’t do. The Olympians voted and decided to punish me by forcing me to be mortal until the prophecy came true.”

  “Like when you punished Apollo and Poseidon when they threatened to overthrow you,” I recited, the knowledge coming to the surface unintentionally. “You stripped them of their divine powers, including their immortality.”

  “Yes, son of Hephaestus, just like that,” Zeus grimaced as if he didn’t want to be bothered with that memory.

  “No wonder you hated me,” I scoffed. “I represented my father in your eyes who put you in this position.”

  “Yes, I did resent you,” Zeus confessed with a frown. “But I also needed you to complete the prophecy so I could return to my immortal form. It was quite the dilemma.”

  “I bet it was,” I said as I lowered the U
ltimate Weapon ever so slightly.

  “We are honored to have you in our presence, Mighty Zeus,” Alya said with a slight bow of her head.

  I rolled my eyes at her brown-nosing but bit my tongue so I didn’t say anything I would regret.

  “How would you like us to move forward from here?” Alya asked.

  That question pissed me off. Why was she asking the god? Wasn’t it our responsibility to think for ourselves? We had a campus to clean up, a graduation ceremony to get to, an army to rebuild. Didn’t she see that?

  “I have no requests of you,” Zeus said with a shake of his head. “My only request is for Cameron.”

  “Me?” I said as I pointed to my chest, surprised that he used my name rather than “son of Hephaestus”.

  “Yes,” Zeus said as he straightened his back, seeming to regain some of his confidence now that I didn’t have the Ultimate Weapon pointed directly at him. “Even though now you are the only male demigod in the entirety of the military, I would like you to hand over the Ultimate Weapon to me.”

  “Hell no!” I yelled defiantly as I took a step away from the god. “You’ve got to be kidding. This is the only leverage we have against you gods and you think I’m going to give it up, just like that. You’re crazy.” I didn’t comment on the male demigod portion, because it was a little odd to think that I was the only male now that we had found out that the Stratego was Zeus all along.

  “That’s exactly the problem,” Zeus said, a deep growl at the back of his throat. “You mortals cannot wield this level of power over the gods. It goes against the balance of the universe.”

  “Maybe the universe has been out of balance this whole time,” I countered bravely. “Ever thought about that?”

  “That’s just the way things are,” Zeus said insistently.

  “It doesn’t have to be,” I argued. I clutched the scythe close to my chest. “I think my fellow demigods would agree that we don’t appreciate the gods being able to fuck with us all willy nilly like you do.”

  To my surprise, and relief, there was a series of murmurs and cries of agreement from behind me. My face hardened with confidence as I knew that my comrades were in agreement with me when it came to this matter.

  “So I think we’ll keep this bit of leverage, thank you very much,” I concluded.

  “You know I can’t let you do that,” Zeus threatened, the storm clouds in his eyes swirling dangerously.

  I met the god with as much courage that I could muster, but he was a massive being with powers I couldn’t even fathom. I knew that he could send one of his lightning bolts right out of the sky and strike me dead, taking the weapon for himself. But he wasn’t.

  Why? I wondered. If Zeus wanted the weapon so badly then why didn’t he just take it from me? My gaze narrowed at him as I tried to figure out why the god was asking rather than stealing.

  My mind couldn’t come up with an answer to that question, but it did come up with a compromise. I bit the inside of my cheek as I considered it.

  “I’ll tell you what,” I said suddenly as I held the scythe in both hands. I unscrewed the middle so that the chain appeared, giving the weapon a little bit of slack.

  Then, I snapped it over my knee.

  There was a collective gasp that echoed around the arena like the wave at a baseball game. There was a series of whispers popping up from behind me as people wondered what the hell I was doing. But my focus, my attention never left the head of the gods.

  “I swear that this weapon will remain in two pieces,” I said, holding the two scythes aloft. “It is useless as two and needs to be connected in order to work. Trust me, I made it. The demigods are going to keep both pieces, but separate. We won’t connect them unless it is absolutely necessary for our protection from the gods.”

  Zeus opened his mouth to argue, but I held up a hand and interrupted him, probably my ballsiest move yet. “No, I can’t promise this for the rest of the demigods here, but I give you my word.”

  A tense silence crackled in the air. As much as I wanted to see the reactions of my friends and fellow Elemental Officials, I knew I couldn’t waver. I didn’t want Zeus to see an ounce of weakness in me, anything that he could exploit. I wouldn’t give it to him, just like I wouldn’t give him this weapon.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Zeus cocked his head at me and said, “I hear your word is worth a lot, Cameron, son of Hephaestus. I will agree to your terms, but if I find out that you have--”

  “I won’t,” I assured him, cutting him off once again. “My word, remember?”

  “Indeed,” Zeus said. The god broke eye contact with me and addressed the crowd of soldiers once again. “As much as I wish I could have attended your graduation today, I think it is time for me to get back to Olympus. It has been much too long for me.”

  With that final note, the god of lightning flashed once more. Everyone shielded their eyes from the bright light and when we looked center stage once again, the god was gone.

  There was a single moment of silence before several figures ran into me and enveloped me into giant hugs.

  “Cameron!” Jade squealed. “That was amazing!”

  “The way you stood up to Zeus,” Bethany mimed her head exploding.

  “I still can’t believe that was the Zeus,” Daniella said as she rubbed her glasses on her shirt.

  “We can,” Kari said as she approached with Hailey at her side.

  I didn’t even bother listening to her explanation about the laurel leaves and true sight and that shit. I dropped the Ultimate Weapon and ran into Hailey’s arms. Her lips pressed into mine with a desperation and urgency I’d never felt from her before. It felt as though we were sharing the last kiss between a man and a woman, relishing it for all it was worth. Her hands roamed over my hips, my back, my neck with a familiarity that eased all my tensions. For a solid minute, I let myself be consumed by her and the world melted away, along with the mission, the direness, and the finality.

  Until Khryseos and Argyreos barked in unison.

  Their sharp sound broke us apart and reality crashed back down around us. I blinked for a couple of seconds before I righted myself. I bent down and picked up the two scythes.

  “You don’t want to lose those,” Hailey said with a chuckle. “Those are a hot commodity around here.”

  “Right, right,” I said, unable to take the smile off my face. “Gods, it’s good to see you.”

  “It’s good to see you too,” Hailey said, her white teeth shining through the blood and the dirt, marks of battle.

  “I believe there will be plenty of time for a reunion,” Jasmine said from behind Hailey. The six of us turned to look at her. She held her hands behind her back, looking surprisingly good after having fought in a war. “But for now, we have a graduation ceremony to finish.”

  “Or start,” Noel, daughter of Poseidon, added with a chuckle.

  “Cameron,” Jasmine said as she stretched out her hand. “Would you please join the group of candidates today?”

  I looked to where she was pointing and saw a row in the front with other fourth years who were supposed to graduate this morning. Instead, they found themselves in a battle for their lives. I blushed slightly at the sight and turned back to Jasmine.

  “Seriously?” I wondered if the whole thing was a joke.

  “Seriously,” Jasmine said with a gentle nod.

  “Wait a moment!” Alya said as she held up a finger and stepped in. “He hasn’t completed any of his exams. He ditched the last several weeks of class. Cameron cannot possibly be allowed to graduate.”

  “Give it a rest, Alya,” Ashley said as she rolled her eyes. “He saved our lives. That’s bigger than any test we’re going to be able to give him.”

  “I demand that we put it to a vote,” Alya said as she literally stamped her foot like a petulant child.

  “Fine,” Jasmine said with a strained smile on her face. “All of those opposed to letting Cameron graduate today, raise your ha
nd.”

  “That’s not how we vote!” Alya protested.

  “It’s how we’re voting today,” Jasmine snarled and Alya, surprisingly, back down. Then she shot her hand into the air, but no one else’s followed. A sense of pride welled up in my stomach and Hailey put her arm around me with a squeeze.

  “All in favor,” Jasmine said in order to follow through with the proper procedure.

  All of the Elemental Officials’ hands rose in the air. But theirs weren’t the only ones. Jade’s, Daniella’s, Bethany’s, and Kari’s joined in. Hailey held up her too. I looked out onto the crowd of soldiers and every single one of them had their hand up in support of letting me graduate on to being an official soldier.

  I was speechless. The sight overwhelmed me, and I nearly fell to my knees with gratitude. But Hailey kept me upright as we took in the sight together.

  “There,” Jasmine declared. “It’s settled. Cameron, now please join the rest of the candidates.”

  And so, we held a graduation ceremony, among the carnage of monster bodies, remnants of dust from immortals, and while most of us were battered and bruised. It seemed appropriate considering all that we went through together.

  As my name was called and I walked up onto the stage, the crowd cheered the loudest, like a thunderstorm. When I journeyed across the stage, I walked right into the sunlight. The sun shone high in the sky. It signaled not only a new day but also a new dawn for the demigods and the Demigod Academy for the Elemental Military.

  Just like the prophecy said it would.

  Author’s Note

  Hey, if you got here, I just want you to know that you’re awesome! I wrote this book just for someone like you, and if you want another one, it is super important that you leave a review.