City of gods - Hellenica (14 page)

“Tell me Horus,” asked Gunnar, “how did Heracles clean the stables on his fifth labor?”

“The Augean stables were much worse than this,” said Horus, “and he had to clean it in a day. So he diverted both the Alpheus and Peneus rivers to wash it out.”

Gunnar came up with a plan and knew even Alkippe would take part. Rowan was still unconscious, so the three of them went to work alone. They found the main water supply of the stables, and then went on a search for a hose strong enough to take the pressure. Years of stealing supplies in the Agoge had given Gunnar a sense for these things, so he broke into the materials-testing lab and eventually found a water cannon Hephaestus had made for riot control. Gunnar and his team brought it up to the stables, connected it to the water supply and turned the pressure up.

The water cannon had wheels and a long hose so they could go from stable to stable, from cage to cage, and clean each animal in a matter of minutes. The Celtic Wildman couldn’t get enough of the spray. Though the pressure was enough to knock a man down, he somehow stayed in its blast and yelled incoherently when it stopped.
The Wildman is quite small when wet
, thought Gunnar with a smile.
He now looks like a lap dog in the rain.

Gunnar couldn’t help it and awoke Rowan with a blast from the hose. Rowan jumped up and demanded justice but Gunnar paid him no mind; the Griffin was squawking too loudly to hear anyway. Rowan tried to attack Gunnar, but Alkippe caught him and held him back. The Berserker stormed off in a huff, vowing something.

They cleaned the Griffin’s stables and the great creature loved the water as much as the Celtic Wildman. After that, they cleaned the regular horses’ stables, and they were done. The waste had all gone down into a grate, and what could not pass into the grate they decided to leave there. They put fresh straw in the stables, gave another bucket of slop to the Wildman, and they were done. They all smiled, in particular Horus.

“It appears we did it,” said Horus. “The most odious of the labors is over, and only eleven more to go. Alkippe, will you join us when we steal Hippolyta’s belt back from Heracles?”

Alkippe stopped smiling and her face became red.

“No need,” she said. “I’ll steal it back from Heracles myself.”

THE LEGGED SNAKE

Tommy awoke to see a shadow jump around his room and then disappear.
It’s a hallucination
, he thought.
You’ve got to get some rest.
He couldn’t fall back asleep, and couldn’t stop thinking of home; he missed it so much that he started to cry. He stopped crying, but still he missed home. He missed Kojo’s pock-marked face and kind eyes. He missed High Priest Elazar and his morning rituals. He missed the structure, the safety of Lepros. But most of all, he missed having a
place
. He had no place here amongst the gods; he was simply a contagious boy who had built a suit, and nothing more.

Tommy didn’t like it here. This Academy was a place of competition, of violence, of learning the skills of death. Tommy started crying again when he realized he might never leave this place.
You’ll be here forever
, he thought.
Lepros is a place for the sick. If you ever get back there, Kojo will probably be dead.

Then he saw a shadow jump across the room again, and it wasn’t a hallucination. Tommy’s thin jaw tightened, and he instinctively reached for his suit. He moved cautiously because he didn’t want to fall in the dark without the protection of his armor. He had fallen before, and his bones had always found a way to break, and he didn’t care to spend the next two months in a cast. Tommy cautiously worked his way into his suit, and then slowly put on his mask and turned the night vision on. He waited three minutes and saw the shadow again; it was under his desk.
He didn’t want to move, lest he scare it away, so he brought out an ultraviolet light from his belt and placed it on the bed. It illuminated the room just a bit, but Tommy turned on his UV vision and got to see everything.

The creature was small and slithery and had hidden most of its body behind Tommy’s desk. Tommy couldn’t quite figure out what it was; he saw countless little legs tucked underneath its body and wriggling slightly. Tommy opened his face shield and smelled the creature.
It smells like a snake
, he thought,
but not quite.

He was going to put his visor back down, but the small creature jumped out of the darkness and pushed him over. He wrestled the creature away from him, but it was too slithery and kept hissing at him. He threw it off against the far wall and its short legs grabbed hold and it stuck. It ran to the ceiling and then crawled down the wall to hide under the bed again.

Tommy put down his face shield and locked the door.
With this suit I’m invulnerable to small, slithery creatures,
he thought,
but I can’t say the same for the others. Whatever it is, I can’t let it out.

He looked under the bed and saw it scurry back up the wall and hold on to the ceiling.
It’s a snake,
he thought,
a snake with many legs.

“What are you?” he asked. “And what do you want?”

The creature looked at him and just as it did, a blunt force hit him right in his temple. He tried to move, but instead became dizzy and couldn’t breathe. He fell to the ground and soon all he knew was darkness.

/***/

Tommy woke up that morning with a splitting headache and his helmet taken off. Kayana was in his doorway and in a panic he went to cover himself.

“Relax, Alderon,” she said. “I don’t get sick, even from a vector as strong as you. I had a dream that you were in danger, trapped deep underneath the earth, so I came to investigate.”

“Thanks,” he said. “How did you open the door?”

“A lesson the Death Class learned yesterday,” said Kayana. “Apparently we have a gift for bypassing locked doors.”

I’ve heard that
, thought Tommy.
We left our doors unlocked back home because there were ‘no criminals on Lepros but Death,’ and Death was a thief that couldn’t be locked out.

Kayana came in close to Tommy to touch him and he withdrew; this was the first time a girl had gotten this close to him, and he didn’t know how to react. She put her hand close to his neck and rubbed it; her fingers were cool and soft, even beneath her thick gloves.

“I …” said Tommy.

He was struck by Kayana’s beauty. Her porcelain skin was flawless against her dark hair, and the way she looked at him with pure black eyes put a lump in his throat.
She’s an angel of death,
thought Tommy,
but an angel nonetheless.

“You look dreadful, Alderon,” said Kayana, before turning herself away.

Tommy was mortified. He took a deep breath and snapped himself back into reality.
A girl like Kayana doesn’t fall for a broken, crippled thing like yourself,
he thought.
It’s embarrassing that you’d even consider it.

Tommy wanted to hide; he wanted to fall into a deep, dark hole, far away from pretty girls like Kayana. He wanted to be swallowed deep into the earth and find his place with the ugly gods like Hephaestus. He wanted to pound coal into diamonds and then send them to the surface, so Kayana could see his love without having to see his small, crooked body.

He thought Kayana was going to leave the room in disgust, but instead she looked around, found a hand mirror and brought it to him. She showed him his neck and Tommy’s heart rose back up again.
She didn’t mean
I
look dreadful,
thought Tommy,
she was referring to these bites.

His neck was covered with small bumps, and each one had a pair of puncture marks. They were red and scabbed over, but Kayana didn’t seem to mind; she was even closer than she was before.

“What are they?” she asked.

“I was attacked by a creature last night,” he said. “I think.”

“You think?”

“It looked at me and I blacked out,” he said. “It was like a legged snake. It must have opened my helmet.”

“Snakes bite like this,” said Kayana, “but they don’t open helmets. How do you feel?”

“My neck itches,” he said. “It’s annoying.”

Kayana narrowed her eyes and thought for a moment.

“I’m going to try something,” she said. “If you feel any pain, let me know.”

Kayana took off her right glove and then breathed in deeply. She put her finger on one of Tommy’s bite marks and it felt cool.

“How does this feel?” she asked.

“Good,” he said. “It’s stopped itching.”

She put her whole hand on Tommy’s neck and it felt even better. Her hands were smooth and gentle; it was like nothing he’d felt before. But before he could catch his breath, she removed her hand and put it back in her glove.

“My touch is death to most,” she said, “but my teacher says that the Horsemen and a few other gods are immune to it.”

“It felt like it healed me,” said Tommy.

“Perhaps,” she said. “Perhaps I killed an infection inside of you. Regardless, no snake can unscrew a helmet, let alone knock you out with a look.”

“What was it?”

“I don’t know, but there will be more; we’ll see more of these creatures before our schooling is through,” said Kayana. “This Academy is buried in a strange, deep place, so deep that it’s the domain of neither gods nor men. There will be many creatures that come in and pinch us in the neck while we sleep.”

“I don’t like that,” he said. “On Lepros there were no creatures that—”

“You need not fear neck-pinchers,” she said, interrupting. “You’re immune to both poison
and
disease. You need to fear the creatures that will come in here and rip your neck
open
.”

Tommy rubbed his neck and worried; he wasn’t used to creatures biting him in his sleep, let alone creatures that ripped necks. He felt vulnerable, even in his suit. He wanted to go back to Lepros, or at least to a place so deep in the earth that the neck-rippers couldn’t find him.
But she dreamt that I was trapped under the earth,
he thought.
Perhaps neck-rippers are waiting down there to eat me alive.

Tommy looked up to ask Kayana about her dream, but she was gone.

/***/

Tommy had a hard time concentrating in his class later that day. He was grouped with the Elements: a Djinn, who represented fire; Körr the Frost Giant, who represented ice; and a Japanese goddess named Mazu, who represented water. Their teacher, Professor Verminus, was lecturing endlessly about their
importance
, but all Tommy could think about was the next creature that would come in through his window.

“There are many Classes at this Academy,” said Verminus. “We have a group of Warriors led by Heracles; a Class of Death; and a Class of Nature. They’re impressive, but they aren’t the Elements. They aren’t you: fire, ice, water, and poison.”

Verminus, though he droned on and on, snapped Tommy to attention with his odor each time he walked by. The decaying professor smelled odd, like old, sweet cheese. The other students thought Verminus to be mean and ugly, but Tommy liked him. Verminus’s scarred face and sad eyes reminded him of Kojo.

“Yes, Thomas, though they call you Pestilence, here we call you poison,” said Verminus. “For at the Elemental level, Pestilence is merely an evolving and self-replicating poison. You are both, and you are just as strong as your classmates. Now I ask you, what makes our Class so great? Why are we superior to the others?”

There was silence, and then the Djinn put up his smoldering hand.

“It’s
control
,” he said. “Men can choose not to fight, and they can pave over nature. But they cannot control the Elements. When we come, there is nothing they can do.”

“True,” said Verminus, “but what of Death? Can men control Death?”

“No, but they can ignore it,” said the Djinn. “Death comes for all men, yet still they build cities. When our kind comes, they can’t ignore us.”

Verminus took a deep breath and then exhaled. He smiled to reveal yellowed teeth with blackened roots.

“Very good,” said Verminus. “Wars, Nature and Death may hinder mankind, but they cannot
stop mankind
like we can. Humanity might have a hundred generations of peace and progress, but if we send an Ice Age on the hundred and first, they’ll eventually starve, fight and become cannibals.”

K
örr the Frost Giant laughed under his breath, but it came out with a
boom
and soon the other classmates joined in.
They’re laughing at Körr
, thought Tommy,
but he’s laughing at humans becoming cannibals. It’s not right.

“The Elements can do more than destroy,” said Tommy. “They …
we ...
we can also build.”

“Precisely,” said Verminus. “
That’s
why we’re
truly
superior to the other Classes. So tell me, what can we build?”

Tommy thought, but had no answer; Mazu soon picked up her hand. She was a thickly built girl with smooth, pale skin and dark hair. She wore long, flowing , bright red robes that were made to be seen by fishing boats, and she wore a flat-topped, bejeweled hat that was covered with hanging beads.

“Water builds cities,” she said. “The rain feeds crops and the river brings trade. When Poseidon looses the ocean currents, a thousand of Dagon’s boats harvest the fish.”

“Brilliant example,” said Verminus. “Poseidon and Dagon are mortal enemies, yet their Elemental battles have only served to build! Poseidon’s anger keeps his ocean pristine, and Dagon’s machinations keep his docks thriving! What else?”

“Fire separates man from the animals,” said the Djinn.

“Another great example,” said Verminus. “For though fire is destructive, Prometheus’s gift brought warmth to the tent and illumination to the night. Where would humanity be without fire? Thomas, what of your Pestilence; can it build?”

“Yes,” said Tommy, “but I don’t know how.”

Verminus laughed.

“Neither does humanity,” said Verminus. “This I know. Perhaps sickness is a bit more arcane in its benefits than a warm fire and an ocean full of fish. But humanity has grown with vermin and unseen bacteria since its inception, and yes, Thomas, those harmless bacteria that live in man’s intestines: those are under your purview as well.

“And perhaps their less savory cousins, the bacteria that eat the dead—those creatures are under
my
purview. Without them, humanity would be in a bind, would it not?”

Verminus looked at the Frost Giant and was about to ask him to talk, but the creature cut him off.

“Not make me speak,” said the Frost Giant.

“Surely you feel the concept of
ice
has been used to build,” said Verminus. “From food preservation to—”

“Not make me speak!” yelled Körr again. “Say you that the humans need us! But how they show?”

Körr pounded his fist into the desk, shattering it. Though his strength was unquestionable, Tommy didn’t find him threatening. The Frost Giant wasn’t showing anger; he was only showing his own pain.