THIRTY-NINE
I stepped down from the podium and sat back on the front bench. Athena put her arms around me but said nothing. She didn’t have to.
“Cranus always was a miserable turd,” Hades said loudly enough for half the courtroom to hear. Athena glared at him.
“You did well, Helen. Honestly,” she said. I shrugged. I wasn’t convinced.
“Now, I’m afraid we have a gathering of Mount Olympian officials to look forward to,” Athena continued. “Let us make our way to the dining hall.”
“Will Dad be there?” I asked. The gods were still on the stage, bound by the canopy of green vines.
“But of course! We’re dining in his honour,” Athena said. “Now, upstairs.”
We left the courthouse and trudged our way up a dark spiral staircase. Eating was the last thing on my mind (I must have been really upset) but I did want to sit down with my family. I wanted to hear about the trial from their perspective and tell them all about my run-in with Cranus.
We reached a windowless candlelit room, all wood panels and tapestries. A long table ran through the middle, with enough place settings for fifty people. Dozens of men and women, dressed in togas like us, stood beside the table. Everyone looked up as we entered. They were waiting for us.
Athena raised her hand to silence the room. “Greetings, fellow Mount Olympians. It’s good to see you, albeit not under the greatest of circumstances. My father and family will join us shortly. Please, do be seated.”
The Mount Olympians checked the place settings to find their names on the table. The older men and women seated nearer the front were closer to the gods, and didn’t half look smug about it. I squinted in the candlelight to find my place name, but it became clear I wasn’t going to be sat with my family. Was this an admin error? Or just another “formality” the Council insisted on?
I finally found my place name – and it was nowhere near my family. I was surrounded by a few other people my age. Sons and daughters of the Mount Olympus officials, I assumed.
I smiled at the girl and boy sitting opposite me. They had to be related. They shared the same long faces, and silvery-blond hair fell in wisps around their shoulders. They responded to my smile with a curt nod. They didn’t look too thrilled to be sitting close to me.
I turned my attention to the table. No plates or cutlery, just bronze goblets and jugs. Weren’t we meant to be eating? Then the people around me began helping themselves to whatever was in the bronze jugs. The liquid pouring into the goblets glinted gold in the candlelight. It looked like … honey?
The ghost twins filled their goblets and sipped, like drinking syrup was a perfectly normal thing to do.
“Um, why are we drinking honey?” I asked.
The boy smirked at me. “You mean you’ve never had ambrosia before?”
Ambrosia! I’d heard about this before, mostly from Aphrodite raving about how much she missed it at home. It was a food unique to Mount Olympus. Only those with immortal blood could eat it.
I ignored his unkind smile and poured a small portion of the thick ambrosia into my goblet. I took a sip and I suddenly realized why this stuff was such a big deal.
Oh my gosh. It didn’t taste like honey at all! The first sip tasted like hot chocolate with whipped cream. Then the second sip tasted like hot chips with salt and vinegar. The third and final sip was the most delicious of all: it tasted exactly like mum’s chicken stew with rice. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I drained the goblet and poured myself an even bigger glass.
“It tastes like all of my favourite meals in one!” I said.
“Ambrosia is a divine food of the immortals,” the girl said. “It couldn’t possibly compare to any dreadful mortal food.”
The ghost twins radiated nasty vibes. It was obvious that they had nothing nice to say to me. They chatted in a language I didn’t know, never looking in my direction. It wasn’t until their mother fixed them with a few short, sharp words that they looked at me. Why was she so keen for us to talk?
The girl gave me a bland, watery smile that couldn’t be faker if she tried.
“My name is Phaedra, and this is my brother Flavian,” she said with the same fake grin fixed on her face. It didn’t reach her eyes.
I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. It couldn’t hurt to make new friends from Mount Olympus.
It could end up being my home.
“I’m Helen. Nice to meet you both,” I said, returning the smile with all the social energy I could muster.
Flavian snickered. “Oh, we know who you are.” He leaned in across the table. “Mother hasn’t stopped talking about you for some reason.” His gaze flickered across my face in a way that made me feel instantly judged.
“Quiet, Flavian,” Phaedra said, but she smirked all the same.
She punched him playfully in the ribs. I noticed the band, silver and delicate, wrapped around her upper arm. It was shaped like a snake, with diamonds for eyes.
“Ooh, sick armband,” I said. And I meant it. It was beautiful in a dark, twisted way.
“Sick?” Phaedra said, looking as though I’d spat in her ambrosia. “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘exquisite’. This is the most valuable thing I own. It’s the exact replica of an armband that Hephaestus gave to Aphrodite. It is of great significance to our culture.”
“Oh, you don’t get it. Where I’m from ‘sick’ means good. It’s, like, slang,” I said.
“Where we come from, slang indicates a lack of refinement,” Flavian said, looking like he’d sucked on a lemon.
Phaedra continued to look as though my “insult” caused her physical pain. “I would never have believed that she was a daughter of Zeus unless I saw it with my own eyes.” She spoke to her brother but glared at me.
Phaedra muttered something I couldn’t understand, and her brother sniggered. They both looked at me. Just so that I knew for sure that was why they were laughing.
I drained my goblet of the last sip of ambrosia, but the bitterness I felt didn’t budge. So far, Mount Olympians were rude and dismissive. I couldn’t wait to get away from them.
The gods were all present and seated, but they were deep in conversation with the people surrounding them. Why hadn’t Dad or Eros checked in on me yet? And why were they having fun? I wanted them to be miserable like me. Maybe it was the ambrosia or spending time with immortals for a change, but they didn’t look at all unhappy to be there.
That morning, I’d felt a small comfort knowing we were all in this trial together. But there I was, sitting at the other end of the table near people who thought I was beneath them. I was an outsider again. A feeling I knew all too well, whether it was in London or amongst Mount Olympians.
We couldn’t be found guilty at the trial. My testimony had to persuade the Council. Or else I’d have a lifetime with nothing but awful creatures like Phaedra and Flavian for company.
FORTY
The feast felt like it went on for hours. Long after the novelty of the ambrosia had worn off, I was still sat there. The ghost twins blanked me for the rest of the gathering (I guess even tormenting me got boring after a while). Athena introduced me to a few dry-looking officials with greying beards and cold eyes. Another formality. Mount Olympians seemed to be dead keen on those.