City of gods - Hellenica (7 page)

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They walked up to the Acropolis and saw the city as a whole. The city wall was imperious and impenetrable with clean, sharp lines that wrapped around Hellenica completely. The wall was so high that even from the Acropolis, Kayana could barely see the city beyond. She saw enough though; there was a fire in Little Asgaard and pollution coming from Dagon’s docks. The Yōkai district’s shantytown piled upon itself and seemed like it was ready to spill over Hellenica’s walls at any minute.

But still
, thought Kayana,
within these walls, it is as it should be. Children still die, plagues still come, but Hellenica is as it should be.

Kayana noticed a few more young recruits coming to the Academy with their mercenary handlers. There was a shirtless boy who looked normal at first, but she noticed that his feet were cloven hooves and his legs were covered with brown fur. She saw a thick girl almost two meters in height shrug off her guard and try to enter the Acropolis by herself. She saw another young man with green, scaly skin, sharp teeth and a long snout.

They entered the Acropolis one by one. After the thick girl entered, Kayana heard some clashes and then saw the girl burst out, followed by some Spartan mercenaries. The thick girl eventually calmed down, shrugged off one more mercenary and entered the Acropolis again.

“She’s an Amazon,” whispered Cassander. “Amazons and Spartans don’t get along.”

When it was Kayana’s turn, Cassander nodded towards her to go, and they entered the Acropolis. It was enormous, dark and vacant, much as it always had been. They walked towards the far end, Spartans opened a door, and soon they were in a brightly lit interrogation room.

There was a woman sitting down at the table who had an attractive but odd face; she looked something like a cat. Behind her stood a tall, imposing man with green-shaded skin.

“You may go, Cassander,” said the cat-faced woman, “and thank you.”

Cassander smiled and then knelt down in front of Kayana. Though he was a Spartan, he had a strong kindness in his eyes that Kayana hadn’t seen before. She wasn’t certain of what he was trying to convey, but if she had to guess, she’d say that Cassander was being
fatherly
.

“Good luck, okay?” he said. “And stay out of the shadows.”

Cassander left the room, and the cat-faced woman nodded at the green-skinned man.

“Please remove your gloves, Ms. Marx,” said the cat-faced woman.

“I wouldn’t advise that,” said Kayana.

“We’re well aware of your powers, Ms. Marx,” said the woman, “and I assure you, ours will protect us. Remove your protective gloves.”

Kayana took off the gloves and the cat-like woman took Kayana’s hands in hers, analyzed them and then put them down.

“My name is Bastet,” she said. “As you may have ascertained, I am a feline goddess. Behind me is Osiris. We’re going to ask you some questions, and I would highly suggest you tell the truth. Osiris will be able to sense your lies before they leave your mouth.”

“I do not lie,” said Kayana. “You should be aware of that, as well.”

“Then be sure to tell the
whole
truth. Osiris can also sense when anything has been withheld. Let me preface this by stating that you’re free to go at any time; you aren’t here against your will. However, the goddess Mnemosyne will erase your memory of this place if you choose to leave. Do you understand?”

“Neither Mnemosyne nor any other god will be able to erase my memory,” said Kayana, “and if she dares peek into my thoughts, she will see such horrible things that it will leave her crippled.”

Bastet stared at Kayana, unimpressed.

“But yes, I understand,” said Kayana.

“Good,” said Bastet. “Now to move forward, your past must be wiped clean. Our enemies will scour the conurbation to hurt your loved ones, so we must erase all ties. Mnemosyne will find your loved ones first and erase their memories of you. Do you accept this?”

“I have no loved ones,” said Kayana, “so I accept.”

“Let’s be sure,” said Bastet, flipping through a digital holographic tablet with her paws.

Kayana had seen technology before, but she hadn’t seen anything as advanced as the display in front of Bastet. The tablet displayed a three-dimensional representation of each member of her previous families, in perfect color and detail. As the cat goddess swiped her paws over the screen, new representations of people showed up, most with the word
deceased
above their heads.

“Now, it says here you’ve had several foster families, most of whom perished after being exposed to your touch?”

“Yes,” said Kayana. “Have Mnemosyne track any remaining living members down and take away their memories of me. You’d be doing them a favor.”

“Understood,” said Bastet. “Now, did you acquire any friends during your childhood?”

“None.”

“No friends? Not even acquaintances?”

“Perhaps one man.”

“Who’s that?” asked Bastet.

“The mercenary Cassander, who drove me here,” said Kayana. “And tell Mnemosyne she need not worry about erasing his memory. If any entity were to harm him, I’ll know, and I’ll make sure they regret it. Now please, destroy whatever you can find of my past, erase whatever you need to erase, and show me what plans you have for me, so that I might accept or reject your terms.”

Bastet looked at Osiris, and he smiled with admiration.

“Put your gloves back on and proceed downward,” said the cat-like woman.

Kayana did as she was told, but before she left the room, Osiris beckoned her to stop.

“I’m glad you’re out of that dreadful institution,” he said. His deep voice came out as a quivering whisper. “You’ve glimpsed but a fraction of your power. You’re destined for great things.”

Osiris released Kayana and gave a nod to Bastet, who pressed a button to summon two Spartan mercenaries. They took her back out to the inside of the Acropolis, and she saw a small boy in a mechanized suit walk in.

Such a soft face, such a harmless disposition,
thought Kayana,
but I sense a dark power. He can kill more than I could without even knowing it.

The two mercenaries
escorted her to an escalator and they began to descend. The underground was cavernous and seemed to match the size of Hellenica above. Kayana knew that Hephaestus had designed an underworld to correspond to the city, but she hadn’t imagined it would be this beautiful. Doric columns of steel supported the ceiling, and she looked up to see bas-reliefs of the past thousand years of human history. Every generation had left a mark on the ceiling, and the ceiling was large enough for ten thousand more years.

Kayana could see that the mercenaries were bringing her towards a small auditorium. The room was filled with heavy, regal chairs with thick seatbelts that would constrain both waist and shoulders. The seats were each a meter apart and laid out in concentric circles of ascending layers, and they were attached to the floor with thick steel spikes. Several of the other recruits were sitting peacefully in their chairs and some had already buckled their heavy seatbelts and were strapped in like prisoners. They looked calm and in no danger; the only one who seemed to be under stress was the Amazon girl. She refused to be restrained and was fighting the guards.

Another girl had a pet hyaena with her. The guards had anticipated this and placed it in an iron cage below her seat, and the hyaena lay with unusual calm beneath her.

Kayana allowed herself to be buckled in and counted the other recruits. There were sixteen in all in the concentric circles, with twelve on top and four at the bottom. The mercenaries allowed a grey-looking man to come into the auditorium, and then the guards closed the door and strapped themselves in on the third row above the recruits. Once the door had closed, Kayana noticed that the room wasn’t as large as she’d previously thought. It was big enough to hold everyone inside, but no bigger. It had three rows, a space in the middle where the grey-looking man was standing, and circular walls that led her to believe that the room was in a tunnel. She felt her seat shake and realized the room was descending; it was then she realized that they were not in an auditorium, but a
vessel
.

The man walking on the bottom floor of the vessel wasn’t old; in fact he looked quite spry and handsome, and his hair was brown. But he appeared
grey
, as if he had lived a thousand years and seen everything there was to see. He came down to the center of the auditorium and spoke with a stern voice.

“Good evening. My name is
Charon
, and I am honored to transport the first class to the Academy. We are prepared to make the journey underground,” he said. He then looked at the defiant Amazon. “Though seat constraints aren’t required, they’re highly recommended. We have a saying here at the Academy:
technology trumps the deities.
You may have slayed a Hydra and survived a demon, but you’re no match for the speed at which we’ll travel, and you’re no match for our ability to
stop
.”

As Charon said the word
stop
he pressed a button, and the vessel came to a jarring halt. Kayana shook a bit, and the Amazon went flying forward and hit a wall. She got up, looked around with a scowl and strapped herself into her chair.

“Good,” said Charon. “Now we’ll begin the descent.”

Charon pressed a button and the auditorium began to pick up speed. The ride was smooth, and soon it felt as if it were not moving at all.

“It’s on levitating rails,” said the boy with cloven feet. He was smiling, as if he was withholding a secret. “You can’t feel it, but we’re going
fast
. Faster than Hermes, with more range than Artemis and more agility than Apollo—”

Boom
!
The entire vessel shook, and they felt still once more.

“Maybe not quite as agile as Apollo,” he said with a smile. “In any case, my name’s
Pan
. Pleased to meet you, everyone!”

They traveled onward. Some of the young kids began talking with each other, and one of them laughed at how the Amazon girl fell out of her chair. One young man named Rowan heard this exchange and took offense on her behalf.

“Silence, all of you!” he bellowed in a thick Asgaard accent. “This Amazon will not be bound by social grace nor buckling of seat! I am the great Berserker Rowan, and I’ll not tolerate the insults towards her!”

After a moment of awkward silence, the cloven-hooved boy Pan spoke up.

“We apologize for insulting her,” said Pan. “We just thought it funny how she flew into a wall.”

The Amazon was frowning and slightly embarrassed. She was clearly not interested in being the center of attention.

“I thank you for standing up for me, Rowan the Berserker,” she said, “but I take little offense from the laughter of fauns.”

“I take great offense at the laughter of a coward,” said Rowan. “Are you a coward, faun?”

“Yes,” said Pan, laughing, “a coward through and through.”

Rowan took more offense at the cloven-hooved boy’s tone and was about to unbuckle his seatbelt when a tall boy put his hand on Rowan’s chest and prevented him from standing up.

“I wouldn’t,” said the boy.

“I’ve heard of you,” said Rowan. “Gunnar Redstone, the cowardly Spartan dropout. Now, remove your hand from my seatbelt before I remove your hand from your arm.”

The room made a violent shake and then almost turned upside down. It stopped again, and Gunnar removed his hand.

“There,” said Gunnar, “stand up and attack the faun if you must. They’ll sing songs of you for years to come,
Rowan the faun-slayer
.”

The room laughed and Rowan’s jaw began to quiver with rage; he stared down Gunnar, muttered some words to himself and looked away in disgust. The talk amongst the students resumed, and from the din Kayana heard Pan singing a tune.

Rowan the faun-slayer insulted by one

He will always stand up for his re-demption

Rowan the faun-slayer stands in his seat

A slight left turn and he’ll be thrown from his feet

Kayana scanned the room and found it a mixed crew, to say the least. Some looked more or less human, but many were clearly gods or monsters. There was a huge, brutish young man who must have been three meters tall and was covered in icy white fur. She listened to the conversations around him and learned that he was a young Frost Giant named K
örr.
Frost Giants and Berserkers are blood enemies,
thought Kayana.
This Academy is bold indeed.

She looked at the green scaly boy again and watched as he sat almost motionless, as if he were some sort of plant god. But she knew this couldn’t be the case; his mouth held rows of sharp teeth.
He must be Sobek
, she thought,
the Egyptian god of crocodiles.

There was a hawk-faced boy and a dog-faced boy;
the Egyptian gods Horus and Anubis.
She sensed an odd connection between herself and dog-faced Anubis, and when his eyes met hers, his pupils glowed red.