Chapter 36 A Mist Opportunity
AS SOON AS I DO, all six of us are back in the field with Dr. Minthe. And unlike getting through the door, getting out lets us stay on our feet. Even Rhea, whose shaking legs and impossibly strong lungs seem to have made a full recovery.
“Nice job,” Dr. Minthe says, grinning at me as he holds his hands out for the key. “You’re the first group back.”
“The first group? Really?” Sullivan sounds surprised.
Which makes sense, considering it felt like we were in there forever.
“The first group,” Dr. Minthe confirms. “So, how was it in there? You all look a little worse for wear.”
“Worse for wear?” Rhea screeches. “We were attacked by snakes. What did you think we were going to look like?”
“Snakes?” Dr. Minthe looks at each of us in turn. “There shouldn’t have been any snakes in there. Just vines and—”
A chill runs down my spine, though it feels more like a warning. “The vines turned into snakes,” I tell him. “They even tried to bite us.”
“Did they?” His confusion turns to alarm. “Did they actually bite any of you?”
“No, though one did scratch Ellie’s cheek.” Fifi shoots me an apologetic look, but I don’t mind her looking out for me. I don’t think it injected me with any venom from that one light brush, but I’d definitely feel better if a teacher checked to be sure.
“Are you the only one they got close to?” Dr. Minthe asks as he takes off his shades and steps forward to look at my cheek.
“They were on all of us,” I answer. “But I think I’m the only one they actually succeeded in laying a fang on. It didn’t break the skin, though.”
“Interesting.” He narrows his eyes in thought. “Very interesting.”
“Are we supposed to know what that means?” Rhea asks, and though she still sounds mad, she’s definitely calmed down a lot.
“I’m not sure what it means,” Dr. Minthe answers, deliberately misunderstanding her before turning back to me. “Your cheek will be fine, Penelope.”
“That’s what I thought.” I start to back away, but he stops me with a raised hand.
“You did very well today—”
“I don’t think that’s true.” I shake my head. “The snakes—”
“I’m not talking about the snakes.” He lowers his voice so the others can’t hear him. “The things you said about the Pandora’s box myth were very insightful. I like the way you think.”
“Oh.” I flush with pride. “Thank you.”
He glances over my head with narrowed eyes, and it takes me a second to realize he’s trying to see if anyone in my group is watching us. They’re not—they’re too busy reliving the last hour of our lives to pay any attention to what Dr. Minthe and I are talking about.
That doesn’t stop an uncomfortable feeling from taking root in my stomach at his secrecy. Especially when he finally says, “It’s very important that you keep doing that.”
“Keep doing what?”
“Delving beneath the surface. There’s a lot here at Anaximander’s that is not quite as it seems.”
My throat goes dry at his tone—serious, dark, mysterious. But before I can ask him what he means, two other groups of students finally stumble through their doors. Dr. Minthe gives me a long, searching look before heading over to greet them.
A long, serious, unsettling look. Not knowing what to think about his warnings—or any of the rest of this—I walk over to Fifi and Arjun, both of whom still look a little shell-shocked.
“Why did you do that?” Fifi asks, throwing her arms around me in a huge hug.
“Do what?” I answer, wondering if they overheard Dr. Minthe’s warning.
“Why did you let those snakes try to bite you? You could have died!” For the first time since I met her, she sounds really angry.
I’m not sure what to say to that, especially since I don’t have much time. The fourth team just piled out of their door, so class will resume soon. On the plus side—or maybe the negative side—every single person who walks through the bright red door looks like they had it worse than us.
In the end, I just tell her the truth. Because it’s a fairly wild story and also because no one seemed to know what I was talking about when I mentioned it before.
“This is the second time I’ve seen snakes like that.
It happened to me on the bridge crossing to Anaximander’s.
The lattice on the bridge turned into snakes that came at me. ”
That’s not all that happened on that bridge, but for now it seems like the most important part, so I focus on it. “They swarmed me until one bit me, and then, once it did, all the rest of them retreated. I thought maybe that could work again in this situation.”
“That actually seems logical.” Arjun looks more contemplative than angry as he studies me.
“Yeah, logic that nearly got her killed! Think about me before you do something like that next time, will you? Imagine the trauma I’ll carry if my roommate and new bestie gets herself killed on our very first day. I’ll never recover.”
She puts a dramatic hand to her head and Arjun and I both laugh, as she intends. But the look she shoots me afterward tells me she isn’t actually joking.
A sudden lump appears in my throat, and this time, I’m the one who links arms with her. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“You should be,” she answers with a glare.
Before I can think of something else to say that might actually calm her down, Dr. Minthe claps his hands three times.
“You’ve all done well here today,” he says as his eyes meet mine. “Some more than others. Class will be over shortly, but before I send you on your way, please take out a notebook. I have a few things I’d like to discuss with you.”
He waits for us to do as he asks before continuing, “I know I let you go through those doors with little to no explanation. Class won’t always be like that.
But I’d like you all to take a seat and reflect in a journal entry on what you learned while you were behind the doors.
It may not seem important now, but you will meet many challenges here at Anaximander’s.
My hope is that this morning helped prepare you to face them. ”
Again, his eyes meet mine, and for a second it feels like he’s talking directly to me and only me. But that doesn’t make any sense. My whole group played a part in getting us back through the door—even Rhea and Sullivan. Plus, the other groups all found their ways back as well.
So why is he still looking at me?
I pull my eyes away from his odd, swirling ones and focus on my journal, where I end up writing down all the confusion I’ve felt since getting to this school. I’ve written nearly three pages before Dr. Minthe calls time.
“Thank you for being honest with yourselves,” he tells the class. “Now, we have one more thing to discuss before I dismiss you. And that is the yearly hall competition.”
A cheer goes up from several of the Athenas and Zeuses in the class, including Sullivan, Rhea, and Paris. While I don’t shout anything like they do, a zing of excitement works its way through me as I lean forward, pen and a clean sheet of notebook paper ready.
If this really is my key to Athena Hall, I don’t want to miss one thing that he says.
“As we discussed earlier, seven things escaped from Pandora’s box when she opened it. Which means this year’s competition will be…a scavenger hunt!”
Elation blooms in my belly. I’m good at scavenger hunts. Like, really, really good. My parents always do an elaborate one on our birthdays so that Paris and I can find our presents, and I always find everything superfast.
I always thought it was just a fun game they liked to set up for us, but now I can’t help wondering if it was also their way of preparing us for Anaximander’s.
The thought melts a little bit of the anger that’s been growing inside me about how I thought they let us come into this thing totally blind.
“Although something tells me this scavenger hunt will be a little different from what any of you are used to,” he continues as a fog starts to form around us.
We mill around uneasily, expecting the worst, but Dr. Minthe’s voice remains calm and steady as he explains, “While the list of objects is the same for all halls, the objects meant for your hall will be marked with the symbol of your god. This is so that all students have a chance to learn the lessons the hunt will teach them—not just those belonging to the house that finishes first.”
His voice rises and falls as he talks, and it’s obvious he is as excited about this hunt as we are.
“While each of you will get the list of things your hall is required to find, clues will be revealed throughout the next few weeks only to those who are paying very close attention. Whichever hall finds the seven objects meant for them first will win this year’s competition, so take very close notes. ”
Dr. Minthe pauses to make sure everyone is paying attention and, yet again, his eyes find mine even through the now thick fog. Then he holds up a hand and twists it ever so slightly.
As soon as he does, the fog begins to move.
“The first thing to fly out of Pandora’s box was…” His voice rings over the field as the fog moves eerily around us.
At first I don’t get what’s happening, but then Fifi gasps and says, “Look, you guys!”
And so I do, watching in astonishment as the fog stops drifting aimlessly and begins coiling itself into something.
“What is it?” Arjun whispers excitedly.
I shake my head, because I can’t tell yet. I turn back to my notebook, trying to record what I’m seeing.
At least until Fifi hisses, “Ellie, look!” as she elbows me gently in the ribs.
I pull my attention away from my notebook just in time to see the fog form a picture—a girl, crumpled on her knees next to a large candle, her face buried in her hands. As we watch, the candle flame flickers several times before eventually going out, extinguishing all light from the image.
Seconds later, Dr. Minthe booms out, “The unlightable candle illustrates despair for us.
“The second thing to come out of Pandora’s box,” Dr. Minthe continues in his announcer’s voice, “is disease.”