Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
The place I spoke of knew nothing of the palace before me. Pristine white stone glinted in the early morning sun, blinding me so I couldn’t stare too long at the towering statues lining the stone steps beyond the gates. I counted three—four—five floors stacked on Corinthian columns and each one topped with a piedmont depicting a different historical battle scene.
I could tell this from that far away because every part of the academy was larger than life. Even from a distance, I couldn’t see all of it in one look.
“Peace is the way.” I sat up on my knees as we approached the gates, peering over the guards’ heads. “Say no to violence. No to war.” The chant popped the wall of silence, letting a flood of noise in.
It was as though we emerged from our own private path to rejoin the world once again. Carts and horses lined alongside the gates, letting out demigods from all over the land. Winter coats and boots worn by the northern mountain demigods. The sleeveless tunics and short-style pants of demigods from the isles. The glitters and jewels of the demigods of the cities, though I assumed those particular city folk were of the noble variety.
Gathered near the entrance were a group of people dressed in all white, from their woven boots to the flowers in their hair. They chanted to people who walked past like they didn’t see them.
“Peace is the way,” said an older woman with a scar on her cheek that curved her mouth unevenly on one side. “You can say no to violence. Say no to war.”
“Children of Eirene,” Jason said to my unasked question. “They protest conscription, the army, the academy, and campaigns to hunt down monsters. None of them actually have the power of the goddess though. She doesn’t choose humans as her host.”
“Because whatever these simpletons think, there is no such thing as peace without war in a human society,” Castor said, glaring at the poor woman. “There comes a time in everyone’s life where they must choose violence, or surrender their life, liberty, or loved ones to an enemy that will.” He turned that glare at me. “Is that it? Are you one of these Eirene fools? Is that why you refuse to use your power on us?”
I gave him a flat look. To my surprise, he removed my gag to let me answer.
“No,” I said clearly. “I’ve never heard of them, but I already know your explanation doesn’t give them credit. I doubt they believe we should all lie down and expose our bellies if furies blow into town.”
“They don’t.” Our cart slowed to a stop behind a gathering line. “They believe the only students who join the academy should be those who choose to enroll,” Jason said. “They’ll be taught self-defense, and then sent home to their villages to form local protection forces. If a monster attacks, they’ll defend their homes. Otherwise, they live their lives.”
I inclined my head. “Doesn’t sound unreasonable to me.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Alexander said flatly. “Fifty more typhons were bred during the course of this conversation. Campaigns to hunt down and slaughter them are the only way to keep their numbers down, and that’s just to keep them down. We’ll never win this war because we’ll never kill them all, but the same can’t be said about us. One year without the army, and they’ll outnumber us fifty beasts to one demigod. It won’t be a war then. It’ll be a slaughter.” He locked on to me over his shoulder. “That’s why all of us—every single one—must fight. You don’t get to say no.”
I didn’t fool myself. That last sentence was just for me.
“There is more than one argument to every debate,” I said in a tone that sounded fair to me. Alexander peeled his lips back like I headbutted him again.
“An argument more valid than preventing our extinction?”
“It’s not about more or less. When you choose a stand like preventing our extinction, you twist every action you take into a moral one, and dismiss anyone who disagrees with you as a traitor. That kind of black-and-white thinking is why they’re shouting outside the gates instead of sitting down with someone who is at least willing to listen.
“None of those people down there want the demigod race wiped from existence, and I’m pretty sure you know that. So what’s the harm in trying to listen and understand where they’re coming from? Even if you disagree in the end, you’d probably be a lot less angry if you accepted that just because a mother wants her son to come back from war, it doesn’t mean she devalues the sacrifices of your mother’s son.
“We’re not fighting a war just to survive. It was never about that,” I said. “We’re fighting for children sleeping safe in their beds. Couples falling in love. Families laughing and eating around the table. We fight for everything that makes a war worth fighting. And the Children of Eirene are too. They’re just doing it in a different way. Jackass.” No, I couldn’t have left that last insult out, but I didn’t think that’s why I was getting the looks I was.