The Legacy of the Sky, Book 1: Chapter 10

Chapter 10: We Make an Escape

The tester was mad. He was glaring at me with a look of disgust with a slight hint of horror and awe. Apparently, test subjects never did things like that before. They were both glaring at me, and Nathan and Kelsey were staring at me suspiciously.

“That was an interesting solution to the challenge. Although, you cannot cheat in real life,” Nathan commented.

“What kind of a test was that? To see how we die?” Elissa asked.

“The test was made so that you would experience fear, and see how you would react to it,” growled a voice, and I realised with a start that it was one of the testers that spoke.

“You’re Phobos, aren’t you?” I asked, acting on a suspicion. “And you would Deimos, then? The gods of fear and terror, right?”

“Your instincts serve you well,” said the other one, who had a much gruffer voice.

“The point of the experience was to see how you reacted to true fear,” Kelsey interjected. “It was meant to test your discipline, character, decision making, and it gives us an illusion to your ability to command a battalion, and what you would do when facing an impossible situation with no real answer.”

“You can get all that from our minds?” Lily asked, looking a little worried, like they might have found some secret things inside of her head.

“''We are gods. We can see most things that go on inside of your heads. Especially, what you fear'',” said Phobos with a maniacal grin. With a start, I realised what Lily was getting at. With complete access to our minds, they could have found out our fatal flaws, our weaknesses, and the fact that we were actually demigods.

“Nevertheless,” Nathan continued, “we will convene to decide whether or not you will be allowed to join our operation. We will let you know within the hour. Until then, you may roam around the camp,” he finished, and then led the others out of the room, and leaving the door open behind him. We made our way back to our room as casually as possible. We entered the hallway, and then rushed to our room in a flurry, then quickly shut the door behind us in total panic.

“They’ve got to know. They would have to be really stupid gods not to see that,” Elissa whispered loudly.

“We have got to get out of here, as quickly and discreetly as possible,” I said quietly, just in case we were being overheard.

“What do we tell camp? Chiron told us to contact him when we got to camp. Do we even know where we are?” Lily asked.

“You’re directly on the boarder between Colorado and Nebraska,” said a vaguely familiar voice from the door. We all wheeled around with weapons drawn to see the demi-titan that had retrieved us for our morning testing, Emily Parker, daughter of Eos. I looked her up and down, and realised there was something different about her. Something about her appearance had changed. Her hair was longer and now brown, her slender figure had grown slightly, and she had chocolate coloured eyes behind glasses that weren’t there before, but she was still recognizable as Emily.

I raised my spear. “What are you doing here?” I asked suspiciously.

“Trying to help you. I’m not actually a demi-titan. My mother is actually the goddess of magic, so I’m good at disguising myself,” she explained.

“How do you know we’re demigods?” Elissa questioned hesitantly.

“It was kinda obvious when you got here. Plus, Phobos and Deimos kind of saw it, and they told Nathan and Kelsey during testing. I was watching from another room. I bet they’re sending up guards to arrest you now,” she said a little too casually.

“Do you know how we can escape?” Lily asked.

“Of course I do, or else I wouldn’t be offering the way out. Follow me, and be as discrete as possible,” she instructed. We sheathed our weapons and then gathered up all of our supplies into our backpacks. We exited the personnel quarters hallway and came into the entrance hall. Demi-titans were milling about, exiting various rooms and entering them, all laden with various things. It was probably a usual day at Camp Othrys, which sounded way better than making a run for our lives. Emily led us out of the Hexagon, flickering between her two different appearances depending on who was looking at her. We broke fresh air for the first time in over twelve hours, and she was leading us to the camp armoury when a voice from a PA system rumbled across the grounds.

“Would the three latest recruits please report to the testing room, immediately,” echoed the familiar voice of Nathan Frost.

“Uh-oh,” Lily whispered.

“You’ve got to go to them, or they’ll be on you faster then you can say Olympus,” Emily said, which didn’t freak us out in the least bit. We left Emily standing there as we sprinted to the Hexagon, and back into the room where we were tested. Only one thing had changed: there was a rectangular metal table with five metal chairs seated around it; three on one side, and two on the other. Nathan and Kelsey occupied the two chairs on one side of the table, while we were indicated to take the three remaining ones. When we fully entered the room, we found that Phobos and Deimos were standing in one corner, while Carly Leroy stood in the opposite corner, a stony look on her face.

“Sit down,” Nathan instructed forcefully, and we took our seats. He stared at us coldly, his sea green eyes boring down on the three of us.

“We have gone over your tests, and we are not quite sure what to make of them,” Kelsey said coolly. I gulped silently and as discretely as possible. Phobos smirked, as he could probably feel my discomfort.

“They were very interesting solutions. Nobody has ever done that before. It is a unique way of thinking,” Nathan commented, talking mainly to me. “Never before have we seen anybody go through the gods to bring another to them.”

“Thanks, if that’s supposed to be a compliment, but I think we deserve to know what is about to happen to us,” I said as calmly as possible.

“Please, tell us how you did it,” Kelsey said, and something about her words changed, they became calming, and they relaxed me. I started slouching, but then shook my head to remain alert.

“I have my ways,” I said defiantly. Kelsey stared at me, and her gaze was comforting, and I found myself slipping away again, until I pinched myself to snap out of it. Something Kelsey was doing was making me too calm and relaxed, making my guard go down. I had to resist, but just her mere gaze was affecting me.

“Please, tell us. You are truly unique at this camp, and we wish to understand you,” she said soothingly, her words washing over me, and my mind went temporarily blank. I came back, and I was still in the room, but Nathan was not in the chair, and Carly wasn’t standing in the corner.

“How’re you doing this? What are your powers?” I mumbled out to her, my head lolling to one side.

“I am a daughter of Rhea, Titaness of Comfort and Ease. It is in my nature to calm people down,” she said with a smile, and I almost slipped into unconsciousness, but I forced myself to stay awake, and it took all of my willpower.

“I won’t tell you anything. I can resist,” I struggled to get my words out. I reached for the knife on my belt, but it was no longer in its sheath, so my right hand went for my left middle finger.

“Don’t resist. We have many other ways to get information out of-” she started, but her words comforting words were lost when my spear tip came to her throat. I heard a splutter of surprise from behind me, and I saw that both Nathan and Carly had silver knives at each of my friends’ throats. I used my left hand which was holding my spear to expand my shield onto my right arm, which I brandished towards Nathan and Carly.

“Rules are never broken on my watch, and pointing a weapon at the leader of this camp is very much against the law,” Carly snarled.

“You can not possibly escape. If you get away from us, you will never get out of this valley,” Nathan taunted. Kelsey sneered, and Nathan and Carly dug their daggers slightly deeper into my friends’ chins.

I realised this was another no-win scenario. The only problem being that this one wasn’t in my head. This was real, and one or all of us would probably die.

So you see what we were thinking of accomplishing through our testing. The voice of Phobos rang in my head, and I suddenly realised that neither god was in the room with us any more.

''Not so glad you cheated now, are you? ''Deimos asked inside my head with an amused tone. Seconds, or maybe minutes passed with all of us literally at each other’s throats. I took another glance at each demi-titan, looking through possibilities.

Deimos was right. I’m not glad that I cheated anymore.

Before I could think of a plan where we could get out, the unexpected happened. All three demi-titans fell to the floor, apparently asleep. We quickly recovered and spun around with our weapons once again facing Emily Parker.

“You’re welcome,” she said brusquely. She walked through the room, and retrieved our weapons that had been confiscated from Nathan and Carly.

“You’re helping us again?” I asked in disbelief, regaining my composure and sheathing my weapons.

“You’re fellow demigods; it’s what I have to do. It’s a simple sleeping spell, so it won’t last forever. I’ll bring you to the armoury, and then I’ll bring you to the stables. The pegasi we have are some of the fastest,” she said. Once we were all packed up, we followed her out into the entrance hall. Her image changed back to the one in which we had just met her, as there were campers milling about. We exited the Hexagon for a second time and actually made it to the armoury this time. Once inside, Emily handed each of us a short silver sword that wasn’t of any Greek design that I had seen at Camp Half-Blood.

“Divine silver,” she explained. “It will kill monsters, just like Imperial Gold and Celestial Bronze.”

Imperial Gold? I thought. My spear was gold. Maybe that’s what it was made out of. Before I could finish my thoughts, the sound of a large gong reverberated throughout the camp.

“Alarm?” Elissa asked, probably already sure about the answer.

“Yeah, that’s the alarm. They know you’re gone. I’m sorry, but I can’t stick around. Extra clothes are in those cabinets, medical supplies, nectar and ambrosia, next to it, and other emergency rations on the other side of that. There’s money in there, you know, mortal, drachma, and aureus,” she pointed out various drawers and cabinets, and then she pulled a piece of folded paper from her jacket. “Oh, and give this mission report to Jason. Good luck!” And with that, she took off through the door. I didn’t know who Jason was, but I quickly shoved things into my backpack: I blue Camp Othrys shirt, and orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, and a purple shirt with an extra pair of jeans. I also resupplied on rations some extra nectar and ambrosia. I slipped Emily’s letter into my coat pocket, and then led the way out of the armoury. Soldiers clad in silver armour were pouring out of the Hexagon, most likely to begin a search for us. We stealthily made our way towards the smell of horse manure, which was a safe guess as to where the stables were. Sure enough, where the smell was the strongest, we found the stables, with several pegasi and normal horses in pens. I grinned at the pleasant memories these brought back, but I pushed them aside to remind myself of the seriousness of the situation. I came to a stall with a light brown pegasus with a black mane, and the name plaque on his stable door read ‘Gunner.’

“Hey Gunner, I’m Matthew. I’m gonna take you out for a little fly around, okay?” I told it in a soothing voice. He didn’t object when I led him out of his stall, holding on to his reins tightly.

“I’ve never ridden a horse before,” Elissa was saying as she was opening the stall of a pegasus named Ariel. Lily led one from a stall that read ‘Phillip.’ It appeared that Gunner was the only brown pegasus in the stable, as all the other ones were white or speckled white. I took a saddle and strapped it up to Elissa’s pegasus, using my knowledge from past ridings to do it. I put another one on Phillip for Lily, and then saddled up Gunner. I helped the girls mount their steeds, and then swung up onto Gunner.

“Is it hard?” Lily asked, looking down at her mount.

“Nah. Just follow me, and let him do most of it. You just steer him using the reins, and squeeze with your legs when you want to him to speed up. Cake,” I instructed, then led the three pegasi out of the stables. I could see the soldiers of Camp Othrys starting to spread out through the camp. About a quarter were going to the earthen wind tunnel, and another quarter going to the armoury, while a quarter was going back into the Hexagon, and the rest marching towards the stables. Lily and Elissa also seemed to notice this, and we took off running together, our pegasi galloping along the fields, gaining speed for take-off. I heard people shout and a horn blow, which was then followed by the whiz of arrows. I ducked my head as they flew past, and Gunner extended his wings and took off, soaring into the air. We flew over the hills, and then above the mountains that protected the valley. I sat up and felt the wind at my face.

Freedom felt good.

Chapter 9: We're Tested for our Lives

Chapter 11: I Figure out the Puzzle