The Unclaimed (University of the Gods Trilogy Book 1) (24 page)

They were steadily going downhill and Cassandra could feel the different sizes of the rocks beneath her feet and stumbled more than once into a hole on the floor or hit her foot against a rock on the floor. Pandora beside her didn’t seem to have those problems and did not stumble or fall once.

When they were relieved of the blindfolds, Cassandra tried to remember something, anything that might help her find her way back but found she couldn’t. Pandora rubbed her eyes and grinned.

“Seriously, guys, that second time we passed the same corner wasn’t necessary”, she said and started to sniff around. “It took you way too long to get us here which means an unfair start with regard to the other contestants, but I will let it slip this time. Cassandra, ready to hunt the Minotaur?”

And with that she skipped right ahead into the darkness.

Cassandra called out for her sister to stop but all she could hear was her own echo. Torches lit the way through the tunnels but still Cassandra had to be careful not to stumble over loose rocks or step into one of the small craters along the way. It made her slower than she liked and when she still hadn’t caught up to Pandora after a couple of minutes, she started to feel worried. The tunnel her sister had rushed into hadn’t split yet but Cassandra knew that it was only a matter of time before she would have to make a decision to turn one corner or the other.

Why had Pandora run off like that? She hadn’t even looked back to see whether Cassandra was following. Cassandra silently chided Pandora for her recklessness and swore to give her a good talking to as soon as she found her. What good did it do to bring her sister when she had to find her way around by herself and was worried too?

She heard a noise and instinctively reached for her sword and swore when it wasn’t there. She bent down to retrieve the knife from her boot, all the while listening for the noise that had made her so alert. Instead of the scratching noise she heard before, she heard voices that were coming from a tunnel parallel to hers – one male, one female – and they seemed to be discussing something heatedly. There was the sound of waves crushing against rocks in the far distance. And then she heard it again: the distinct sound of metal scratching against a wall and a grinding noise like someone was dragging something heavy.

Then she heard a scream and started running. When she reached a junction that opened into a smaller cave from which five more tunnels opened up, she was stopped by Ben who, as soon as he saw her, disarmed her and pinned her to the wall.

“What are you doing?” Cassandra screamed at him. “Let me go, I need to help my sister.”

There was a fight going on directly to their left but despite the shouting and the sound of two heavy things clashing against each other, Ben wouldn’t let her go.

“Stop struggling”, Ben cried. “You can’t go in there, it is too dangerous.”

He pressed her against the wall but all that did was make Cassandra even angrier.

“Says who?” she cried back above the ear-deafening noise. “Let me go, Hades.”

Ben shook his head.

“My brother said not to look directly or it would kill us”, he cried. “He is getting my sword. He says it is the only thing that can help up against the creature in there.”

Cassandra continued struggling until Ben smashed her against the rocks so hard she couldn’t breathe for a moment.

“Don’t. Be. Stupid”, he said and Cassandra realized that it was not fear that was holding Ben back but the instinctive trust he held for his brother. She nodded and raised her hands to show that she wouldn’t struggle any more.

“My sister might be in there”, Cassandra said, coughing. “I heard River and Tiresia go in this direction, too. They are the only mixed couple in the challenge and they were walking straight towards whatever is making those awful sounds. They might be in danger, too.”

When Ben heard his friend’s name, his resolution to stay out of there seemed to waver but only for a moment.

“River’s safe”, he said. “He would never risk Tiresia’s life. They’ll have retreated by now and alerted someone. It is your sister that worries me.”

“You don’t say”, Cassandra said acidly, then approached the corner behind which the struggling was going on.

She took the knife Ben had thrown to the side, slid down close to the entrance from where the struggling could be heard and used it as a mirror. Ben’s brother had said not to look directly, he hadn’t said not to look at all. A moment later wished she hadn’t. When Ben asked her to let him take a look too, she grabbed his hand and told him to prepare himself.

Ben, who heard the catch in her voice, asked what was wrong but Cassandra only shook her head and let him see for himself. When he saw what she had seen, he gripped the knife tighter and made to turn the corner but this time it was Cassandra who stopped him.

“You can’t help him”, Cassandra said and the fighting noises behind them increased once again. “There is nothing you can do for him. I am so sorry.”

Ben bit his fist and there were silver tears gleaming in his eyes but eventually he nodded.

There was constant bashing and smashing interspersed with shouts so shrill they were almost too high to hear behind them. Cassandra wanted to postpone the certainty of River’s death, wanted to uphold the hope that Tiresia wasn’t hurt and that her sister was somewhere else entirely. But she knew that all of it was only wishful thinking.

“Medusa is in there. She must have turned him into stone”, Cassandra whispered, feeling sick to her stomach. “She is the only creature that can turn a living thing into stone with her gaze.”

Ben, who looked at Cassandra with realization dawning, came very close to her.

“Tell me that you didn’t know”, he said and Cassandra made herself look him in the eye and say that she hadn’t known.

And it was true. She hadn’t known what her sister was, not until that day, not until she had seen her in the cave behind them with Medusa. But somewhere deep down she knew that it was a lie. She had always known that there was something different about Pandora. She just hadn’t known how different it would be.

“Pandora would never hurt anyone”, Cassandra whispered. “Whatever is going on in there, that is not her anymore. Please, let me talk to her.”

Ben slammed his fist against the wall beside her head.

“And how do you think this will work?” he said, anger and hurt distorting his face into an ugly mask. “Medusa, the real one, is in there. And if that other creature in there is indeed your sister, she is probably as dangerous as Medusa. She certainly looks that way.”

“Pandora would never harm anyone”, Cassandra repeated, clutching at that belief like it could save her. “She is not evil. She is… she didn’t do this.”

“River is dead and your sister looks like a bloody dragon on two feet so don’t tell me she didn’t do this”, Ben now shouted furiously, his anger crushing her. “She killed my friend and she is going to pay for it.”

Cassandra held on tight when he wanted to turn the corner and without thinking twice pressed her knife against his throat.

“You are not going to hurt me”, Ben panted, his eyes wide with surprise.

“Don’t tempt me”, she hissed. “Now listen to me: if you go in there, it is you who is getting killed and not my sister. And I am telling you again, she didn’t do this. This was an accident. Do you hear me?”

Ben struggled, his eyes burning into hers, but he stopped when her knife drew blood.

“I don’t want to hurt you”, Cassandra said, calmer now. “My sister is not a monster and I think you know that.”

“How can you be sure?” Ben said, fighting hard to keep himself under control.

Cassandra released him.

“The same way that you can be sure that you can trust your brother despite what he is”, Cassandra said and Ben closed his eyes.

“It’s not the same”, he said, shaking his head and nodding at the same time.

“Yes, it is”, Cassandra said. “He is your brother. That is how you know.”

They heard the heavy thud of something getting smashed against the wall and then it was quiet except for some scratching and an occasional hiss.

“You can come in now”, an old voice said, sounding shaky and out of breath, and it was only later that Cassandra realized that she had heard it in her mind alone. “I won’t harm you.”

Cassandra breathed in and then stepped around the corner. Ben swore, then followed her with his back to the room, holding a silver knife he had produced from out of nowhere raised so he could look at what was going on behind him in its reflection.

“You could at least have given me a warning”, he said through gritted teeth while taking up position beside her. “If you don’t want to be turned into stone, you shouldn’t look directly at Medusa.”

The hissing grew louder but just as Cassandra had expected, no one was attacking them. But it wasn’t because Pandora had recognized her; in fact, Cassandra was pretty sure her sister had no idea who she was any more. The only thing holding her back was Medusa, whose long snakelike tail had wrapped itself around the creature that had once been her sister.

Ben was right: Pandora looked like a human dragon with her body covered in blue scales and hair that had turned into tiny little snakes hissing angrily at them. Instead of fingers she had sharp metal claws and her eyes, yellow, uncomprehending reptile slits, were staring hungrily at the intruders. When Cassandra saw an actual tail whipping nervously back and forth, it took all of her self-control not to start screaming her head off.

Medusa, who was filling half the cave, had turned her head away from them and Cassandra wondered how a creature so ancient, vile and evil was able to make a conscious decision not to hurt them.

Cassandra risked a quick look at Tiresia who lay sunken at River’s feet but was still breathing.

“I didn’t want to hurt them”, the creature hissed, again in Cassandra’s head. “The girl, she is blind, I couldn’t…”

Pandora, snapping hungrily at Cassandra, took that moment to rip out a big chunk of Medusa’s flesh and Medusa, fed up with the tiny creature attempting to hurt her, made a high-pitched noise that sounded like a command and then sent Pandora flying against the wall. Pandora’s head met the wall with an ugly popping sound but when she hit the ground, she had turned human again. She was bleeding from a wound in her head but otherwise seemed fine.

Slowly, carefully, Cassandra approached the tiny body of her sister, wary of yet another change but when that didn’t come, she crouched down and took her sister into her arms, cradling and rocking her back and forth, whispering to her that they would get through this together.

Ben again took position beside her. Cassandra looked up and saw that Medusa, too, had turned into someone recognizably human.

“Blood of my blood”, the woman said hoarsely, looking in wonder at her hand where a drop of Pandora’s bluish-black blood had landed on her. “It will hold off the curse only for a moment.”

She looked at Ben as if she recognized that his hurt was the bigger one.

“Tell Poseidon that it was an accident, son of Hades”, she continued. “And that I will await his punishment.”

Ben, who saw that Medusa meant no harm, inclined his head to the old woman.

“I will make sure the message reaches him, Medusa”, he said and the old woman smiled when he said her name.

“Medusssa”, the old woman said, her voice brittle but far from broken. “That was my name once, young Hades. I was so sweet and innocent and beautiful.”

She looked at Cassandra and her face became hard.

“You look exactly like her”, she said and for a moment Cassandra was sure Medusa would kill her then and there.

“She doesn’t know I exist”, Cassandra said and Medusa hissed angrily, her eyes glowing dangerously yellow again.

“Your mother turned me into what I am after I refused to lie with Poseidon in her temple”, Medusa said. “He took away my innocence, my joy, and she punished me for that, not Poseidon. And now there you are, daughter of a virgin. Tell me, child of Athena, how is that possible and why shouldn’t I punish you for your mere existence.”

Ben stepped forward but Cassandra raised her hand to show that she could handle it.

“Thank you for saving my sister”, Cassandra said and gently laid Pandora down on the floor to get up again. “I love her very much and I can see that you love her too.”

Medusa didn’t say anything but she didn’t attack Cassandra either.

“My mother, Athena, she did something terrible in punishing you instead of Poseidon”, Cassandra said and felt Ben tense beside her. “They took away your innocence, your freedom to choose and I am sorry for that. But it wasn’t my choice and it wasn’t me who turned you into a monster.”

Medusa lowered her head even further to the side, her whole body writhing, parts already returning to its former state.

“Monssster, iss that what I am?”, Medusa said, her voice barely human anymore..”

She looked at Pandora and there was love in her eyes.

“Take care of the child of my child”, Medusa said. “Pandora called me here. It’ss not her fault. It’ssss in her blood.”

According to the myth, Medusa had given birth to two children upon her death. One of them had been a mortal, the other one a flying horse. Cassandra doubted that Pandora descended from the latter.

“I will call to Possssseidon’s children to sssssave themmmmm”, Medusa said, again only in Cassandra’s head, and then she changed into her natural state and was gone.

Cassandra had no time to process the thought because Ben, with one last look of regret towards his friend, immediately went after her. Cassandra quickly checked Tiresia’s pulse and prayed to the gods that Pandora wouldn’t wake up before she came back. Something in the way Medusa had said her good-byes was bothering her and she could have kicked Ben for running off like that. But she knew for a certainty that she had to get to the Minotaur’s lair and that she had to follow Ben which were hopefully the same way. She remembered her dream.