“Form three lines,” Heracles bellowed.
We scrambled to get in the lines, as a protein bar and bottle of water were passed to each of us. I looked at the small bar and thought, This is all we get? I ate the bar; it tasted horrible but had a hint of cinnamon to make it at least edible. Then I washed it down with the water, which had a bitter tang to it.
After about five minutes, I started to feel a heat spread throughout my body. Eventually, my muscles felt stronger and bigger. My mind felt clearer. I smiled at Jasmine and Georgina, whose faces lit up with the same sensation I’d experienced.
“Damn. That’s better than drugs.”
The horn sounded, and we all exited the academy and gathered on the north training field as instructed. Hephaistos was there, waiting for us. All of our shields were resting up against a wooden rack like the one in the forge. Artemis stood beside him, as did Ares, albeit on the other side of Artemis. It was the first time I’d seen Hephaistos and Ares in the same area together.
“I’m not going to make some grand speech. It’s pointless.” Hephaistos hobbled forward. “You’ve essentially been training for this trial the entire time you’ve been in the forge. The shields you have created will be the determining factor whether you pass or not.”
That sent a concerned murmur through the group.
“Shut it. If you hadn’t already figured that out, you’re stupid.”
I couldn’t stop the bubble of laughter erupting. Both Jasmine and Georgina whipped their heads around and gaped at me.
“Melany Richmond,” Hephaistos bellowed. “You may as well step forward and get this trial started.”
Oh shit.
A path was made for me, and I stepped out from the group and onto the field.
Ares smirked and shook his head.
“Grab your shield.”
I ran to the rack, found my shield, and attached it to my arm. I looked at Hephaistos for the rest of the instructions.
“Now don’t get hit.”
I looked around wildly. “From what?”
Artemis raised her arms, her bow strung with a long, sharp arrow. Fire erupted between Hephaistos’s hands. Ares unsheathed his sword.
Oh shit.
“Start at the end of the field and run back here. If you can make it without being hit by an arrow, struck by a sword, or burned by fire, with your shield intact, you’ll pass.”
I ran as fast as I could down the field. Once I reached the end where a red flag was planted, I took a deep breath, made sure my shield was secure, and then ran toward the chaos.
I hadn’t even taken two steps before two arrows rained down on me. I blocked them both, the arrowheads pinging off my shield, and continued on. A fireball came next. It hit my shield, exploded, but I was safe behind it. All that sizzled were the ends of my hair.
I kept pressing forward. More arrows came; I blocked them from hitting me in the legs and arms and head. Other fireballs also soared through the air toward me. Some hit the ground where I’d just been, and others exploded over my shield. Then they came at the same time, and I had to do some fancy maneuvering and dodging, so I didn’t get an arrow through the shoulder and a fireball at my head. Hearing my friends cheering me on buoyed my step, and I kept running even faster.
As I got closer to the finish line, Ares came sprinting out toward me, his sword arched back. He swung at me, and I blocked it with my shield. He swung at me again, and again, and again. I had a sense he was going a little harder on me.
I blocked his next hard overhead blow and then pushed up with my shield, shoving him off balance. I sprinted like a cheetah to the finish line. When I crossed it, just about everyone cheered. Hephaistos greeted me and took my shield to inspect it.
Ares stormed back, his face beet red. “She cheated! She should fail!”
Hephaistos didn’t even acknowledge him but continued to inspect the integrity of the metal of my shield. He nodded. “Not a dent. Congratulations, you passed.”
Ares sputtered. “She cheated. I’m going to bring it up to—”
Hephaistos’s large, beefy hand around Ares’s throat stopped his words. “Don’t tell me how to run my trial.” Then he shoved the God of War away.
Still red-faced, almost purple really, Ares stormed off the training field. I didn’t know what stunned me more: that Hephaistos had moved so fast and bested Ares, or that Ares had left without a fight.
Hephaistos shrugged. “Guess someone else will be swinging the sword.”
I laughed, as did a bunch of others. We were rewarded with a quick but potent grin from the craftsman God.
Breathing a sigh of relief that I’d finished and passed trial one, I stayed and cheered on my friends and the rest of my peers. I even lost myself and clapped when Revana made it through the gauntlet virtually unscathed. It was a good day, as no one failed the trial.
The next day, we all gathered in the garden near the hedge maze. Demeter welcomed us there in her usual laid-back manner. It was a nice reprieve from all the tension from the day before.
“I imagine y’all are thinking that I’m going to put you through some impossible feat.” She shook her head. “Nah, man, I don’t believe in all that bullshit.”
There were some sighs of relief from people and some nervous giggles. I looked at Jasmine and Georgina and saw the same looks of relief on their faces. Especially Georgina. She’d passed through Hephaistos’s trial, but it hadn’t been easy for her, and she had suffered a bit of a burn on her arm from one of his fireballs.
“So, your task today is to get into teams of five and make it through the maze.”
I laughed. This was going to be too easy. I could walk the maze with my eyes closed.
“But…” This quieted some of the excited murmurs. “I did redesign the maze. I mean, I wasn’t going to make it that easy for you miscreants.”
Everyone laughed at that.
“Oh, but you are being timed.” Demeter grinned. “You’ll have twenty minutes to get through it to the center. Get into groups!”
Jasmine, Georgina, and I stuck together. Ren jumped over to our group, and Jasmine grabbed Mia and pulled her in. I looked over at Lucian. He met my gaze and gave me a smile. I wasn’t worried about him. He was smart, and he was in a driven, competitive group who wouldn’t fail.
Lucian’s group entered first. I was nervous waiting, hoping his team went through all right. After about fifteen minutes, Demeter clapped. “All right, who’s next?”
We jumped to the front of the line.
“On your mark, get set, and go!”
We went into the maze together, took an immediate right, and kept walking. Then we came to an intersection. I was about to suggest right when a tiny arrow flashed on the ground, showing us the way. I laughed. Demeter really did hate all of this stuff, and I wondered if she would get in trouble from Zeus for it.
No more than fifteen minutes later, we came out into the middle of the maze. The other group was still there, and they were happily munching on pastries and cookies and all kinds of other tasty foods. When Lucian spotted me, he rushed over and offered me a plate of chocolate cupcakes.
“I was hoarding them for you.”
I took one, peeled the wrapper, and shoved it into my mouth. I grinned at him around it.
For the rest of the day, we all chilled out in the middle of the giant hedge maze with our friends and peers and ate as many desserts as we could all fit into our mouths. Because we all knew we wouldn’t get another reprieve like this. Things were just starting to get hard.
The next morning after eating the allocated protein bar and drinking the water, it was Dionysus’s turn to challenge us. We met in his lab, where we’d been learning how to make different types of potions and tinctures, some of them for healing, others for more mischievous purposes.