Chapter 13
“Well, that was rude,” said Skop as I threw myself down on my bed.
“I wish they'd stop flashing me about all over the fucking place,” I fumed. “Why can't they just use doors and stairs like normal fucking people?”
“I like it when you swear,” Skop said as he jumped up beside me. “Feisty women are just my type.”
“Not now, Skop. I am seriously not in the mood. I thought you were here to cheer me up.”
“I am. Would you like me to take a shit in one of his shoes?”
A bark of laughter escaped my lips.
“Very much, but I'm not even sure he wears shoes. He's made of smoke.”
“Nah, he's got clothes on under there.” I raised my eyebrows at the dog.
“You can see through his smoke?”
“Yeah.”
“What does he look like?” I hated myself for asking, but I was incredibly curious.
“I'm mostly into women, but he's pretty tasty.”
“Right,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“You'll see him soon enough,” Skop said, trotting about in a little circle on the covers, then settling down in a tight ball.
“I doubt that. He just told me never to talk to him again.”
“Which is angry-man-god-speak for: I'd very much like to have sex with you.”
“Don't be ridiculous,” I said, but a frisson of something skittered through my core at his words. Smoke. He's made of smoke, fills your head with dead people and has just demonstrated that he's a total dick. Do not go there.
Hades was definitely one bad boy too far.
I spent the next half an hour trying to learn how to talk to Skop in my head, like he did to me. I had to project the words I was thinking to him, which was harder than it sounded. After a while though, I started to get the hang of it.
“Will I be able to talk to everyone like this?” I asked him silently.
“Nope, only sprites, magical objects you've bonded with, or powerful beings.”
“What about Hecate?”
“I dunno, you'll have to ask her.”
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door and it swung open before I could answer.
“Speak of the devil,” I muttered, as Hecate strode into the room, a large tray laden with sandwiches in her arms.
“I am so, so sorry,” she said, then frowned. “The devil? Isn't that what you call Hades in your world?”
I gulped.
“Yes. And you sent me for lunch with him without even telling him!”
“I know, I know, I thought it was a good idea for you two to catch up!”
“Well, it wasn't.”
“Tell me about it. I've just had my ass handed to me. I'm surprised I didn't get demoted,” she said, blowing out a sigh and setting the tray down. “You look smoking hot by the way. Love your hair like that.”
Once I'd forgiven Hecate for her misguided attempts at my marital reconciliation, I got changed into leather fighting garb and she took me to where I would be learning combat.
Mercifully, we did use stairs and doors to reach the training hall, the maze of blue-torch-lit tunnels rendering me lost in a matter of minutes.
“Can you remember how to get back if I ever get lost?” I silently asked Skop, trotting along at my side.
“Course I can,” he told me cheerfully.
The training hall was a large cavern, with the same daylight glowing ceiling as my room had, and a distinctly Greek vibe about it. Columns lined the walls, and the space behind them was filled with open crates. Hecate made her way straight to one in particular and began to rummage about.
“Did you bring the dagger I gave you?”
“Course,” I said, pulling it from the little sheath that was attached to my belt. The fighting clothes had straps and pouches and loops for weapons all over them.
“Good. Put it down over there and don't come anywhere near me with it.”
“OK,” I said, and laid it on the floor. Skop sniffed it, then trotted away quickly.
“Here,” Hecate said, straightening and holding out a similarly sized dagger. I went to her, taking it and peering into the other boxes. They were filled with weapons. “The floor will absorb shock when you land on it, so you won't hurt yourself,” she said.
“When I land on it?”
“Yup,” she said, then out of nowhere kicked her leg out towards me.
She managed to swipe both my ankles at the same time, and I yelped as I crashed to the floor, the dagger skittering away from me.
She was right about the floor—it morphed beneath me into something spongy as soon as I landed, but my ass still hurt as I hit.
“Lesson number one: when you're in this room or any fighting pit, you need to be constantly vigilant.” I glared at her.
“You think you could have told me that before we came in here?”
She grinned at me.
“Lesson number two: nothing is fair.”
“Lesson number three: your teacher is an asshole,” said Skop in my head, and I suppressed a smirk.
Hecate spent the next hour teaching me how to use a dagger in close combat. It mostly involved hiding what your intentions were, or finding gaps to get the thing through, and in no time at all I was frustrated and tiring.
“I need to get back to running,” I panted, as Hecate whirled easily out of my grasp for the fifth time.
“Running? Being fast will only get you so far. We need to build up your tolerance, teach you how to take a few hits,” she said, dancing on the balls of her feet, her fists raised.
“Am I the only human in the Trials?” I asked her, mostly just to lengthen the pause and get some energy back.
“Yup.”
“What about the current winner, what's she?”
“A mountain nymph. She has earth powers.”
“Huh. So living underground's not a problem for her, I guess.” I thought about what I'd learned about my own supposed powers in the throne room. “And my powers were to grow plants?”
“Kind of, yeah.”
“Kind of?”
“Stop asking questions, Persy,” she said, and danced towards me. I lifted my arms quickly into a defensive position, flicking my dagger out towards her.
It seemed my short break was over.
Eventually Hecate announced we'd done enough, and I should save my energy for that evening's Trial. I didn't know what energy she was referring to, I was wiped out. But when we returned to my room, Hecate produced some of the wine she'd given me when I'd first arrived.
“This will revitalize you,” she grinned, and poured us both glasses. “We have an hour until the Trial.”
I drank some of the wine, immediately feeling more alive, more alert. Weird. Wine in my world dulled the senses.
After a while, we began to talk about what to expect in my next Trial. Hecate thought it was unlikely that I would be fighting again, so soon after the last fighting Trial, and it wasn't likely to be a hospitality test either, as that would be covered by the masquerade ball.
“So it's going to be intelligence or loyalty,” she mused. “Or glory in a different way from fighting.”
“How do they test loyalty?” I asked. She looked sideways at me, an uneasy expression taking over her face.
“To be honest with you, Persy, that's usually the worst Trial. It'll be something you won't expect, and you won't always be told the world is watching.”
“So they'll try and trick me?”
“Yes.”
“And I won't even know I'm in a Trial?”
“Not necessarily. If there's no chance of you beating Minthe, they might let you off lightly.”
“Is Zeus designing all the Trials?” I asked, taking another sip of fortifying wine.
“No, all the Olympians are involved.”
“Do they get on with each other?”
Hecate snorted. “Absolutely not.”
“What did Hades do to upset Zeus?” I asked the question casually, although I was burning to know the answer.
“He broke one of their very few sacred rules. He created new life in Olympus.”
“Life? But he's all about the dead.” I frowned at Hecate, and she cocked her head at me.
“Hades isn't like the other Olympians, Persy. There's far more to him than people see.”
I thought about those silver eyes, so full of emotion. But then the fire, the taste of blood, the smell of burning filled my head and I sighed.
“People only see smoke,” I said.
“He wasn't always like that,” she answered quietly. Something in my stomach tightened.
“What happened?” I asked, but deep in my gut, I already knew the answer.
“You.”