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How badly I wanted to shout that I wasn’t dangerous. But of course that was the furthest thing from the truth.
I kicked the bag filled withmyrequired items. Alexander took great pleasure in describing my course schedule too. Lots of training, fighting, and learning to kill in the most brutal institution of all the dominions. One flash of fear and an opponent would see talons where my fingernails should be. One well-timed “boo!” and huge beast eyes would glare at my scarer.
They would see something they weren’t supposed to. They would ask questions they shouldn’t. And the goddess would make me kill them.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” I shouted through my gag. “Please, let me go!”
“What was that?” Alexander cupped his ear. “Speak up, Aella. Can’t quite hear you.”
I kicked the bag, imagining it was his head. Was there a worse man alive than Alexander Jackass?
“Just relax,” he called back. “Enjoy the view.”
I flipped on my back to make sure my obscene gesture pointed where it was meant. I got a chuckle for my troubles.
Screaming in frustration, I threw myself against the cart and gave in to my surroundings. Let one thing be said about my home, there was no part of Olympia that wasn’t beautiful. According to long-ago tales from my mother, the reason there were so few children of Demeter was because the goddess chose to scatter herself among the dancing trees, fields of grain, and each petal of sweet-smelling flowers. She’d make roses, daisies, and chrysanthemums rain in my tiny, cramped room as she told me that’s why every blade of grass was vibrant with life. They were touched by a goddess.
I could believe it as we rumbled down the dirt path. The leaves swirling in the wind were greener than green. One look evoked lily pads floating on a clear stream; the first cut into a juicy, ripe avocado sailed from the island where they grew; the shore lapping at your toes; snow dripping off stems.
Alexander’s eyes.
I jerked at the sudden intrusive thought, a frown marring my lips. Where had that come from?
“...is the way...” Voices floated on the air. “...say no...”
I raised my head, and there it was, shining on the horizon. My prison: Deucalion Academy.
Though, I don’t think anyone who wasn’t forced through the gates would see it that way. I wasn’t gazing at a schoolhouse the likes of which I remembered—a little stone hut with no windows, creaky desks, and a teacher who didn’t care to stop scratching his butt in our eyeline when he turned to write on the board.
The place I spoke of knew nothing of the palace before me. Pristine white stone glinted in the early morning sun, blinding me so I couldn’t stare too long at the towering statues lining the stone steps beyond the gates. I counted three—four—five floors stacked on Corinthian columns and each one topped with a piedmont depicting a different historical battle scene.
I could tell this from that far away because every part of the academy was larger than life. Even from a distance, I couldn’t see all of it in one look.
“Peace is the way.” I sat up on my knees as we approached the gates, peering over the guards’ heads. “Say no to violence. No to war.” The chant popped the wall of silence, letting a flood of noise in.
It was as though we emerged from our own private path to rejoin the world once again. Carts and horses lined alongside the gates, letting out demigods from all over the land. Winter coats and boots worn by the northern mountain demigods. The sleeveless tunics and short-style pants of demigods from the isles. The glitters and jewels of the demigods of the cities, though I assumed those particular city folk were of the noble variety.
Gathered near the entrance were a group of people dressed in all white, from their woven boots to the flowers in their hair. They chanted to people who walked past like they didn’t see them.
“Peace is the way,” said an older woman with a scar on her cheek that curved her mouth unevenly on one side. “You can say no to violence. Say no to war.”
“Children of Eirene,” Jason said to my unasked question. “They protest conscription, the army, the academy, and campaigns to hunt down monsters. None of them actually have the power of the goddess though. She doesn’t choose humans as her host.”
“Because whatever these simpletons think, there is no such thing as peace without war in a human society,” Castor said, glaring at the poor woman. “There comes a time in everyone’s life where they must choose violence, or surrender their life, liberty, or loved ones to an enemy that will.” He turned that glare at me. “Is that it? Are you one of these Eirene fools? Is that why you refuse to use your power on us?”
I gave him a flat look. To my surprise, he removed my gag to let me answer.
“No,” I said clearly. “I’ve never heard of them, but I already know your explanation doesn’t give them credit. I doubt they believe we should all lie down and expose our bellies if furies blow into town.”
“They don’t.” Our cart slowed to a stop behind a gathering line. “They believe the only students who join the academy should be those who choose to enroll,” Jason said. “They’ll be taught self-defense, and then sent home to their villages to form local protection forces. If a monster attacks, they’ll defend their homes. Otherwise, they live their lives.”
I inclined my head. “Doesn’t sound unreasonable to me.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Alexander said flatly. “Fifty more typhons were bred during the course of this conversation. Campaigns to hunt down and slaughter them are the only way to keep their numbers down, and that’s just to keep them down. We’ll never win this war because we’ll never kill them all, but the same can’t be said about us. One year without the army, and they’ll outnumber us fifty beasts to one demigod. It won’t be a war then. It’ll be a slaughter.” He locked on to me over his shoulder. “That’s why all of us—every single one—must fight. You don’t get to say no.”
I didn’t fool myself. That last sentence was just for me.
“There is more than one argument to every debate,” I said in a tone that sounded fair to me. Alexander peeled his lips back like I headbutted him again.
