Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1)(24)
Author: Jennifer Estep

"So, we know why Loki was chained up the first time-his actions resulted in the death of another god. But why was Loki chained up a second time centuries later and why does he remain imprisoned even now?" Professor Metis asked.

"Because he started the Chaos War," Carson piped up in front of me.

"Yes and no, Carson," Professor Metis replied. "Loki was chained up because he was Chaos. Each of the gods has his own place in the natural order of things. Loki was a mischief god. But Loki wanted more than to just pull pranks-he wanted to rule over the other gods. Over everyone and everything, gods, mortals, and all the creatures in between. Loki was smart and very, very clever. He knew that he couldn’t overthrow the other gods by himself. He didn’t have the power for that. So he started talking to others-gods, mortals, and all the creatures in between-whispering of how things would be different, of how things would be so much better, if he was in charge. He went from being a mischief god to sowing discord, to turning people against each other, to making them lust for power and do anything to get it-even kill each other."

I got the sense that it was a little more complicated than all that, that perhaps Metis was dumbing it down for our teenage minds, but I got the gist of things. Loki: bad. Other gods: good.

"Eventually, Loki convinced others to follow him, and he created his own army of gods, creatures, and mortal warriors. He called them the Reapers of Chaos. And when he had enough followers, when he’d amassed enough power, Loki came out of hiding, rose up with his army, and challenged the other gods, who banded together with their own warriors and creatures to form the Pantheon," Professor Metis continued. "So the Reapers fought the members of the Pantheon, and the world was plunged into the Chaos War. Brother turned against brother, sister against sister; families were torn apart, slaughtered, or worse. It went on for the better part of a century, and Loki was on the cusp of victory when one god dared to challenge him to single combat. And who was that god?"

Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Somehow, I knew the answer even before Metis said the words.

"Nike, the Greek goddess of victory," she finished. "Loki laughed, but he agreed to Nike’s request, that the winner of the battle would also win the war. Which meant that the Chaos War would either stop or consume the entire world."

By this point, we were all on the edges of our seats, even me, Gwen Frost, the Gypsy girl who didn’t really believe any of this. We all wanted to hear how it ended, how Loki was defeated when all hope was lost. Even if it wasn’t true, it was still a great story, as good as any of the comic books that I had stashed in my dorm room.

"Of course, Loki thought he would win," Metis said. "He had grown impossibly strong by that point, and no one god, warrior, or creature could stand up against him. But he forgot one small thing-that Nike was the goddess of victory."

"So what?" a Viking guy asked behind me. "What did it matter if she was the goddess of victory if Loki had all this power?"

That was pretty much the same thing that I was thinking. But instead of being upset by his question, Professor Metis gave him a triumphant smile.

"Because Nike is much more than just the goddess of victory-she is the very embodiment of it, the very spirit of it. Just the way that every god is the essence of something. Nike is victory herself, and thus, she can never be defeated."

Metis paused, letting us all try to wrap our minds around that odd statement. Nike, a kick-ass warrior goddess. Got it. Like Xena, but cooler.

"But Nike wasn’t without help. She took her great sword of victory into battle, along with a special shield given to her by one of the Spartan kings. And there were other artifacts that the members of the Pantheon used to overcome the Reapers. With Nike at all times was a single warrior, a personal guard who killed all those in the goddess’s path so that she could reach Loki unscathed. Loki, of course, being the trickster that he was, tried to have Nike assassinated before she could reach him for their battle, but Nike’s guard kept that from happening."

Metis paused a moment to catch her breath. A rosy flush painted her bronze cheeks, and her green eyes glinted behind her silver glasses. This was the most excited and animated I’d ever seen the professor. She must really enjoy talking about this particular battle. She was certainly making it come alive for me.

"So Loki and Nike fought a great battle. And it wasn’t just them alone, fighting. All of their followers were there as well. Reapers and members of the Pantheon. Some historians claim that the battle lasted for days; others say it was weeks. But when she finally got close enough to strike, Nike did what no other god could do-she defeated Loki."

We flipped over to the next page in our textbooks, and there was a pen-and-ink drawing of Nike.

The goddess towered over a man on the ground beneath her. Her sandaled foot rested on his chest, her sword against his throat. A round shield hung down by her side. She looked proud, strong, and somehow serious all at the same time. Even though it was just a drawing, there was a cold, hard, terrible sort of beauty to her.

Her regal figure was in stark contrast to the man at her feet-Loki. He looked the same as he had in the other illustration. His mouth open in an angry scream, his eyes narrowed to snakelike slits, his melted features twisted into something dark, dangerous, and ugly.

For a moment, the image flickered in front of me, the figures moving back and forth as though they were real, as though I was actually there watching the battle with my own eyes. I could smell the blood, feel the thick smoke clogging my lungs, hear Loki’s vicious curses ringing in my ears-

I blinked. The feelings vanished, and I was once again looking at a simple illustration. That was a little creepy. I leaned back away from the book. Okay, a lot creepy.

"After the battle, Nike and her followers chained Loki once more, sealing him away from this world, the mortal realm, with the help of the artifacts that they and the Reapers had created. To this day, Loki remains imprisoned. But he still has his followers, his Reapers, people, gods, and creatures who want to free him and plunge the world into a second Chaos War. Which is why all of you are here."

Metis’s bright green gaze went from student to student, face to face, until she’d looked at everyone in the room, including me. "You are all the descendants of the Pantheon’s finest warriors, here to learn how to control and harness your magic and fighting skills so you can protect the world from Reapers and keep them from freeing Loki and plunging us all into a second Chaos War-"

The bell rang, cutting off the rest of Metis’s lecture, but she’d captivated the entire class with her talk. Several students blinked, shaking off the spell of her words, before reaching for their bags. I did the same.