The Unclaimed (University of the Gods Trilogy Book 1) (30 page)

All heads, including those of Zeus and Hera, turned to see what was going on. The sea was once again raging and roaring but this time it was more like a wave approaching, like something big was coming towards the shore at high speed.

Down at the shore the people stopped to see what was going on, thinking that this might still be part of the ceremony. Cassandra ran to the edge of the cliff, shouting at them to get away from the shore but the noise down there was just too loud. She saw Ben bending down and screaming at the crowd, too, but it was too late. The wave had almost reached the shore and no one would be fast enough to escape it now.

They had to watch helplessly as it crashed down on the shore and tons of water flooded the beach below them. Alexander was talking to Mia who had finally taking her hands out of her pocket and was blowing on something small that looked like some kind of musical instrument. Behind Mia, Arissa was holding on to her shoulder with her eyes closed as if she was in some sort of trance. Alexander screamed at them to stop and made a move to reach Mia but his wheelchair had gotten stuck on a rock and he couldn’t move.

Ben and the others up on the cliff were still too preoccupied with what was going on down on the beach to notice what was happening up here and seemed to be frozen in shock; only Bear was calmly drinking something from a bottle in huge gulps. Once he was done, he threw it away, his eyes glowing red. Zeus, realizing what Mia was holding, screamed at her to stop but again Mia didn’t seem to hear.

She kept blowing the magical object called the Pipe and then raised her hands and pushed them upwards. A huge tentacle shot up in the air, slashing right through Zeus and then the world turned into utter chaos.

Cassandra immediately recognized the monster rising from the water: the moment Scylla raised herself out of the water and slashed through the projection of a maddened Zeus without harming him, Cassandra knew that there would be more than one casualty that day.

Tons of water came crashing down as Scylla continued to raise herself from the water, revealing a body covered in fish scales and tentacles the length of several ships. The latter were dripping with slime and even from up there, Cassandra could hear the ugly sucking noise the suction cups made. Then there was a high-pitched yapping sound and three doglike creatures attached to Scylla’s stomach barked wildly when they ascended from the water.

But the worst thing about Scylla was her head. Or rather the lack of it. Scylla had no eyes, no nose, just an enormous round, grinding mill with thousands and thousands of teeth mashing and grating against each other. She bent to the side as if looking for something and then roared with spittle flying. She was angry, disoriented but most of all she was hungry.

Ben screamed at Sol and Wolf to get out of the water but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t row away fast enough. The dogs, picking up their scent, went crazy. Beatrix lay on the bottom of the boat, pale and unconscious, and with one abrupt movement, Scylla turned away from the shore, ripped open her mouth and went down on the little boat. Ben cried out in helpless anger and Cassandra felt sick at the thought that their friends had just been swallowed alive.

Scylla slumped down in the water and with one swift movement raised herself again, moving towards the shore, again pushing an enormous wave before her. There was movement in the water from people trying to swim away but more than one head disappear under water never to come up again. Cassandra desperately tried to get a view of her brother or Summer or Jim but there was too much chaos.

Except for Heracles and Hippolyta, all the other teachers had fled the plateau. Hippolyta tugged at Cassandra, indicating towards Mia and Arissa, who were still in that unnatural position at the edge of the cliff with Mia chanting and Arissa holding on to her. Beside them, Heracles was checking the Minotaur’s pulse. It seemed like the beast had tried to separate Mia and Arissa and had somehow been immobilized doing so or worse.

At the same time, Ben was kneeling at the edge of the cliff, clutching at Alexander who was bleeding from a deep gash at the side of his head. She guessed that Alexander had been pushed out of his wheelchair and lost consciousness. Ben was looking desperately between the creature approaching from the beach below and Bear and Sam going at each other like they were crazy.

Or rather it was Bear who was attacking Sam with blows so heavy it looked like he would crush every single bone in Sam’s body with his hammer. Sam was a seasoned fighter and he hadn’t grown so old because he was easily surprised, but it seemed like Bear had caught him completely off guard. Sam was hurt in a bad way and barely able to ward off the heavy blows raining down on him by the son of Hephaestus who once again received unnatural strength from that terrible drug that made him wild, uncontrolled and unstoppable.

Ben, who couldn’t lift Alexander by himself, cried at Heracles to carry Alexander to safety and then started to run towards his brother. But Scylla had already made her way half-way up the steep wall of rocks towards them and was slashing her long tentacles towards them, making it difficult for him to move.

Cassandra could smell Scylla’s rotten stink and knew that Mia was making the creature go against its natural instincts out of the water and up a vertical wall. Scylla howled and screamed when the sharp rocks pierced through the skin on her stomach but still she wouldn’t stop.

Cassandra, throwing a quick look down at the creature, decided to go for Mia and Arissa, because it was the only way to stop this mess. Suddenly Arissa ripped her eyes open and Cassandra thought twice about Arissa orchestrating the whole thing.

The daughter of Zeus looked like she wanted to scream but couldn’t. Her mouth was wide open but no sound came from her lips and her eyes, usually cold and ice-blue, had turned entirely white and looked like they were about to pop from their sockets. She moved like she tried to let go of Mia but Mia clutched at her hand and Arissa froze and shut her mouth. From one second to the next, Arissa’s hair turned white and her skin started sagging and shriveling as if Mia was drawing the life source directly from her.

Running towards them, Cassandra wondered whether it was really possible that Mia was that strong or whether it was just the object in her hand that made her so powerful. When one of Scylla’s tentacles thumped down beside her, Cassandra stumbled from the impact and almost fell. She ducked just in time to avoid another tentacle and hit her knee hard on the stones. She risked a quick look at Ben and Sam and knew it was a mistake the moment she did.

Sam was lying on the ground, unconscious, and Ben was fighting Bear. The huge son of Hephaestus was beyond crazy. He seemed like an automaton, bent on destruction. Cassandra had seen him fight on drugs before but never like that. There was nothing human about him anymore but before Cassandra could finish the thought, she was lifted off the ground and swung towards the open sea by one of the tentacles.

Cassandra caught a brief glimpse of Scylla from behind and saw that she was bleeding black slime from her stomach. Then all air was pushed from her lungs and she lost consciousness for a moment. When she regained it, she felt herself being hurled towards the cliffs. She heard the creature’s panicked cry when it slipped and fell but drew no satisfaction from the thought that the huge monster probably wouldn’t survive the fall. Because she wouldn’t survive the impact either.

Cassandra smashed sideways into the ragged rocks and felt her left shoulder shatter, then her head smashed against the wall and several ribs broke with an ugly popping sound. Her fall towards the water was abruptly stopped by a ledge sticking out. The pain on impact was so immense that Cassandra immediately passed out.

When she woke up a few moments later, she was in a world of pain. She tried to move but her body wouldn’t let her. It was threatening to shut down entirely when something wet touched her lips. Cassandra didn’t hesitate and drank. A small fire started in her stomach and took away some of the pain. All she wanted to do was curl into a ball but she knew that she couldn’t.

There was a reason that she was still alive. And she needed to get back up there.

“You’ll be better soon”, Sam whispered hoarsely, his voice full of exhaustion that went beyond being hurt.

Cassandra drank again, greedily, feeling the divine nectar treat most of the lighter cuts and bruises and helping her body heal itself. Some of the less severe breaks mended almost immediately but Cassandra knew that it wouldn’t be enough to heal the shattered bones in her shoulder. Ambrosia and divine genes only went so far.

When the pain subsided to a bearable level, Cassandra gingerly opened one eye and met Sam’s gaze. If possible, he looked even worse than he sounded. His skin was ashen and his eyes, usually full of grim sarcasm, were dim and bloodshot. She moved a little to see where he had been hurt but all she could see was a little cut above his neck. Then he moved and the smell from the black pus coming out of the wound hit her in full.

“That bastard used a silver knife dipped in holy water”, Sam said, a cough rattling his whole body. “It’s poisoning me from the inside.”

He winced.

“I am sorry”, Cassandra said, croaking and trying to sit up straight so she could see what the noise down from the water was.

“Damn it”, she said when she saw that Scylla was already making her way up again.

Sam gave the shadow of one of his toothy grins.

“Yeah, she is almost as hard to kill as you”, he said and coughed again.

This time, he was spitting up black matter; it wasn’t hard to guess that it was his blood but when Cassandra offered him Ambrosia, he shook his head.

“It’s not for me”, he said and his fear of dying was almost palpable.

“We need to stop Mia” Cassandra said, standing up and testing whether her shoulder would hold her weight but she couldn’t even lift her left arm above the level of her hip without wanting to scream. “They must have realized by now that she is the one controlling Scylla.”

Sam had managed to make himself stand beside her.

“Get me up there”, Cassandra said but he shook his head.

“I am too weak”, Sam said, gritting his teeth and then shaking himself from her grip. “I can’t help you.”

“Then why are you even here if you are just going to leave me here to rot?” Cassandra cried.

It was getting pretty noisy again with Scylla roaring next to them.

“Wasn’t my decision”, Sam growled. “He told me to save you. And now I am wasting the last of my strength on someone who can’t even evade a tentacle. You are alive, I have kept my promise, I need to help my brother now.”

And with that he crawled up the wall with surprising speed. Cassandra howled in frustration and then risked a quick look down to see whether she could chance a jump but the water was too far away. At the same time she saw that there was much more movement down there than she would originally have thought possible after the two huge waves had hit the beach earlier. But there were still too many who lay lifeless or were being resuscitated and the Nereids kept diving for those who hadn’t been found yet.

Cassandra closed her eyes in grief and frustration and then she had an idea.

“I know you can hear me”, she cried after Sam who had almost reached the edge. “Use the rope with which Alexander was carried here. Or tell someone else to do it. Please. I need to get up there as well.”

She had no idea whether Sam would do as she had asked and when a minute passed with nothing happening, she guessed he hadn’t heard her after all. Then something thumped down beside her. Sam’s face reappeared shortly over the edge, then the rope started dancing. Cassandra tugged at it once to let him know that she had understood.

It took her several tries to get it in position. Eventually she had a makeshift knot bound around her waist, praying to the gods that it would hold her for as long as she needed to get up there. She pulled on the rope to indicate that she was ready and felt herself lifted up. After only a moment, the rope started to loosen, just like she had feared. She held on as tightly as she could with her good arm and somehow made it to the top.

She was drawn over the edge just when her strength started to fail her and for a moment she just lay there, panting, devoid of any power or strength, unable to move, or fight or care.

From the corner of her eye she saw Heracles and Hippolyta fighting Scylla. They looked pale and shaken and neither of them had much strength left in them while they had barely made an impression on Scylla.

Mia was still chanting and if Cassandra hadn’t known it was Arissa standing behind her, she would have thought it was a mummy who had taken her place. Arissa looked
shrunken
, completely drained and if it hadn’t been for the eerie white glow in her eyes, Cassandra would have been sure she was dead. Cassandra felt an immense power pulsating off of them but it was hard to tell whether it was coming from the girls or from the Pipe or from the combination of all three.

Sam was leaning against a rock, sitting upright. The only indication that he was still alive was his head that was swaying slightly from left to right. He had pulled her up and it had cost him the last of his strength. She called out to him but he didn’t react. Black pus was oozing from the wound at his neck and then she saw that Ben and Bear were still fighting.

Bear had pushed Ben back into the corner where Heracles had put Alexander so that he would be safe from Scylla. But it wasn’t Scylla going for Alexander, it was Bear and all that was standing between the son of Zeus and the huge son of Hephaestus was Ben who could barely lift his right arm anymore and was fighting with his left only.

Alexander, who was conscious again, had propped himself into a standing position against the rocks and kept shouting at Bear to stop. Every time he said something, Bear hesitated but then he continued as if he had no choice. Bear was bleeding from his nose, ears and eyes and he was even sweating blood but still he wouldn’t stop.

Ben needed help but Cassandra knew that they needed to stop Scylla before she killed them all. She threw a quick look around and saw Zeus’s and Hera’s projections still watching from above, Zeus in distress, Hera with cool disinterest. Cassandra suddenly hated her with all her might.

“Why aren’t you helping us?” Cassandra screamed in wild desperation. “Don’t you see that we are all dying here? Why aren’t you doing anything?”

Hera wrinkled her nose in disgust but when her eyes met Cassandra’s she felt her own iron-hot wrath not nearly match the ice-cold hatred of the goddess.

“We don’t meddle in the affairs of our
children
”, Hera said and Cassandra felt a lump of ice form in her stomach.

Hera hated them, all of them. Even those she could have considered her own. But maybe that was the problem. Hera had never had any half-blood children. She had no connection to those creatures down here on earth, no compassion for them, felt no interest in their lives and certainly no love for them. Zeus, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He obviously loved his son very much.