Hermes and the Horse with Wings Read online

  Contents

  Greetings, Mortal Readers

  1. Four Plus Four

  2. A Messenger Arrives

  3. The Flying Boy

  4. A Magic Wand

  5. Bears . . . or Birds?

  6. Ron for Short

  7. A Monstrous Tale

  8. Ambush!

  9. Ron to the Rescue

  10. Stars in the Sky

  About the Authors

  Greetings, Mortal Readers,

  I am Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, in Greece. I have the power to see the future. Hear my prophecy:

  Ahead, I see dancers lurking. Wait—make that danger lurking. (The future can be blurry, especially when my eyeglasses are foggy.)

  Anyhoo, beware! Titan giants seek to rule all of Earth’s domains—oceans, mountains, forests, and the depths of the Underwear. Oops—make that Underworld. Led by King Cronus, they are out to destroy us all!

  Yet I foresee hope. A band of rightful rulers called Olympians has begun to form. Though their size and youth are no match for the Titans, they are giant in heart, mind, and spirit. They follow their leader, Zeus, a very special boy. Zeus is destined to become king of the gods and ruler of the heavens.

  If he is brave enough.

  And if he and his friends work together as one. And if they can learn to use their new amazing flowers—um, amazing powers—in time to save the world!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Four Plus Four

  The morning sun shone on four Olympians as they made their way through the country side of Greece. One of them, a boy named Hades, was walking backward and talking to the others.

  “What is a snake’s favorite thing to study?” curly-haired Hades asked.

  “Um, animal science?” guessed one of the other Olympians, Athena, a girl with thoughtful gray eyes.

  “Nope! Hiss-tory. Get it? Hisssssss-tory?” Hades repeated, and then he started laughing.

  “Ha-ha,” replied Hephaestus in a flat voice. The boy walked with the help of a cane carved with skulls and topped with a skull-shaped knob.

  The fourth Olympian and the leader of the group, Zeus, frowned. “Hades, I don’t mind the jokes, but do they have to be all snake jokes?” the black haired, blue-eyed leader complained.

  “Sorry, Bro,” Hades replied sheepishly. “I know you’ve got a snake thing. But I guess I’ve got snakes on my mind, seeing as how we just took down a monster lady with snakes for hair.”

  Even though Hades and the others looked like mortal boys and girls, they were actually immortal, and their actions were courageous beyond their years. Their biggest mission was to stop their enemies—the giant King Cronus and the king’s band of minions, the half-giant Cronies—from taking over the world.

  “Excuse me, but I believe I took down the monster with snakes for hair,” Hephaestus pointed out, waving his cane. “I left her in pieces!”

  Athena shook her head. “Oh, really? Because I was the one who tricked her into looking into my aegis so that she turned herself into a stone statue first.” She patted the gold shield that she wore on her chest, covered by her cloak. “Beating up a statue is not such a big deal.”

  Hephaestus’s cheeks flushed. “Well, she was a scary statue.”

  Zeus rolled his eyes as his two friends continued to bicker over who had actually slain the green-haired Medusa.

  At least it’s better than the snake jokes, he thought.

  The four of them were heading back to a village that they had just left the day before. So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

  Twelve Olympians had started off on another quest given to them by Pythia. She was the Oracle of Delphi, and she could see the future—if not always clearly. (Sometimes her foggy spectacles made it so she couldn’t see well, which meant her instructions could be a little confusing!) Pythia had seen that Zeus and the other young Olympians, all of them gods with special powers, would one day overthrow evil King Cronus, who ruled the Terrible Titans.

  The twelve Olympians hadn’t always been together. Zeus had gone on his first quest with only two others, Poseidon and Hera. On each new quest they fought monsters and other mythical beasts. They found magical items. And they added new Olympians to their group.

  All twelve of them had traveled to the village yesterday. Pythia had told them to look for “hairy snakes.” Nobody had known exactly what that meant, so the twelve had split up into three groups to try to hunt down the hairy snakes. Now that Zeus’s group had succeeded, they were trying to meet back up with the other two groups.

  “I think that’s the village up ahead,” Athena announced. “I wonder if anybody else is back yet? I hope they remembered that this is our meeting place.”

  “They’re probably still out looking for hairy snakes, because they don’t exist!” Hephaestus said. “We’re the only ones who got it right.”

  “A monster with snakes for hair,” Hades said. “I think it was a good look for her.”

  Zeus smiled. His brother Hades was also ruler of the Underworld. He liked creepy things.

  “I’m sure the others beat us back here,” Zeus said. “At least I hope so.”

  The village was bustling with people shopping at the market stalls. Hades shook the cloth pouch dangling from his belt, and it made a jingling sound.

  “We’ve still got plenty of gold coins,” he said. “I’m going to get some more of that stinky cheese that I got yesterday!”

  “Not if you want to hang out with us,” came a voice behind them.

  Zeus, Hades, Hephaestus, and Athena turned around. Four of their Olympian friends stood there: Hera, Hestia, Demeter, and Poseidon!

  The girl speaking was Hera, Zeus’s blond-haired, blue-eyed (and sometimes bossy) sister. Hades ran up to her and gave her a hug.

  “You guys are back!” he cried.

  “Yeah, well, there were no hairy snakes in the mountains,” Hera reported.

  “Just a lot of goats,” Poseidon added.

  “Did you find the hairy snakes?” asked Demeter.

  “We did,” Zeus said, “but it’s kind of a long story.”

  “We want to hear it,” Hestia said. “But I think we’re all hungry. I’ll go make a fire over there, and we can talk while we eat.”

  Hestia pointed to a meadow just beyond the village.

  “I’ll help you,” Athena offered.

  “And I’ll help Hades do the shopping, so we don’t end up eating a whole bunch of stinky cheese,” added Hera.

  Hades shook his head. “You have no taste.”

  It wasn’t long before the eight Olympians were gathered around a small fire, started by Hestia and her magic torch. They roasted sausages on sticks and ate chunks of cheese while Zeus, Hephaestus, Athena, and Hades told their story. They explained how a young thief, Perseus, had led them to Medusa, a monster with snakes for hair—Pythia’s “hairy snakes.” Athena had tricked Medusa and turned her into a statue.

  “So, after my cane destroyed the statue, this horse with wings came flying out of it,” Hephaestus said.

  “A winged horse? Cool!” said Poseidon.

  “Not cool,” said Zeus. “He grabbed Bolt and flew away with it!”

  Demeter gasped. “No! You have to get Bolt back!”

  Bolt was one of Zeus’s magical objects. After Zeus had pulled Bolt from a stone at Delphi, he had used Bolt on all of their big quests. The lightning- shaped dagger could grow large or small at Zeus’s command. It had saved the Olympians from many monsters—and now it was gone.

  Zeus nodded. “The horse flew toward this village. But we can’t look for him until we find the others.”

  �
�And Pythia might have a new quest for us,” Athena reminded him.

  Poseidon looked around. “No sign of her yet?”

  “She might be waiting until all twelve of us are together again,” Hera guessed.

  “We’ve got four and four, but we need four more,” Hades quipped.

  Zeus looked back at the village. “I don’t see anyone here yet from our group. Maybe we should ask if anyone has seen them.”

  Then Hestia pointed to Zeus. “Look! Chip is glowing!”

  Zeus looked down at the smooth oval stone that he wore around his neck. Chip was his second magical object and helped guide the Olympians in the right direction. Right now a big red C was glowing on the stone.

  “That’s new,” Hera remarked.

  “Chip’s trying to tell us something,” Athena said. “Do you think the C stands for ‘Cronies’?”

  Suddenly the group heard a commotion in the distance.

  “Uh, yeah, Bro. . . . I think that C definitely stands for ‘Cronies,’ ” Hades said, staring past Zeus. His pale face was even paler than usual as he pointed a shaking finger toward the village.

  Zeus looked up from Chip. He could hear screaming. Out of nowhere, three hulking half-giants, soldiers of King Cronus, stomped through the market.

  Zeus reached for Bolt around his waist out of habit—but of course it wasn’t there. “Quick! Put out our fire!” he yelled.

  Poseidon jabbed his magical object—a three-pronged trident—into the dirt. Water sprung from the ground. Poseidon pointed the trident at the fire, and water doused the flames.

  But it was too late—the Cronies had seen them. They charged toward the Olympians.

  “Cane, stop them!” Hephaestus yelled, waving his cane in front of him. But the cane didn’t do a thing. “Come on, cane!” Hephaestus cried angrily.

  Zeus did a quick check of the magical objects they had. Hades’s Helm of Darkness—a helmet that made him invisible, Demeter’s magic seeds, Hera’s future-telling peacock feather, and Athena’s Thread of Cleverness wouldn’t help them fight the Cronies.

  But maybe . . .

  “Athena, use the aegis to turn them to stone!” Zeus yelled.

  Athena reached for her cloak and was about to pull it away to reveal the magic shield underneath. Then she stopped.

  “But . . . they’re people. Sort of. They’re not monsters,” she said. “I don’t think I can do it.”

  The three Cronies were almost on them. One carried a heavy club. One carried a sword. The third carried a club with spikes all over it.

  “Well, look who we found,” yelled one of the Cronies. “A bunch of puny Olympians! Let’s squash them like ants!”

  CHAPTER TWO

  A Messenger Arrives

  Guys, I think this is the part where we run!” Hades yelled.

  “I got this!” Poseidon exclaimed.

  He aimed his trident at the three Cronies. A powerful wave of water shot from the weapon.

  Bam! Bam! Bam! It knocked down the Cronies one by one.

  “Now we run!” Zeus yelled.

  The eight Olympians raced away from the village. Zeus looked back over his shoulder. The Cronies were out cold. But they’d soon be back on the Olympians’ tail.

  “Chip, which is the safest way to go?” Zeus asked his magical amulet.

  “Hat-tip ay-wip!”

  Chip had its own special language, Chip Latin. It was kind of like Pig Latin, only you moved the first letter of each word to the end of the word and added “ip.”

  A black arrow glowed on Chip to show which way he meant.

  “To the orchard!” Zeus yelled.

  The eight Olympians dashed to the apple orchard at the edge of the meadow. Then they ran through the rows of trees until they emerged on the other side.

  “Eep-kip oing-gip!” Chip told Zeus.

  “Don’t stop!” Zeus yelled. “Keep going straight.”

  Hephaestus, who had been a little behind everyone else, stopped and put his hands on his knees. “You know, all this running isn’t so easy for me,” he said.

  Zeus nodded. He knew that as a young boy Hephaestus had been in a shipwreck that had hurt his leg. That was why Hephaestus used the cane.

  Hades jogged back to them. He held out his metal helmet. “Here, use this,” he suggested. “That way, if you fall behind, you’ll be invisible.”

  Hephaestus smiled and took it from him.

  “Nice teeth,” Hades joked. “Didn’t know you could smile like that.”

  Hephaestus put on the helmet, and disappeared.

  “I’ll catch up!” he promised.

  The Olympians kept moving. They traveled over hills and through a wheat field, until they came to the edge of a thick forest.

  “Afe-sip,” Chip said.

  “We can stop now!” Zeus announced.

  They all fell to the grass, sweaty and tired. After a few minutes Poseidon raised himself up and tapped his trident on the ground once more. A tiny spring bubbled up.

  “So thirsty,” he said, taking a big drink.

  “That was a pretty nice water blast you came up with back there, Bro,” Hades praised him.

  “I got lucky,” Poseidon said. “There was an underground spring right beneath us in that meadow. I just tapped into it.”

  Hera took a peacock feather from the pocket of her tunic.

  “Feather, please don’t make a fuss, but see if the Cronies are still chasing us,” she commanded.

  Her feather, which only obeyed her when she spoke in rhyme, flew away.

  Zeus turned to Athena. “What happened back there? Why didn’t you turn those Cronies into stone?”

  Her gray eyes looked down toward the shield, hidden beneath her cloak. “Remember on Medusa’s island, when we saw all those people she had turned to statues?” she asked, shuddering at the memory. “I don’t want to do that to people. Not even Cronies.”

  Zeus nodded. “I see what you mean. I guess I’m so used to fighting now that I don’t always think about who we’re fighting.”

  At that moment a cane came floating up to them—a cane with an invisible Hephaestus attached to it. He took off the helmet and appeared before them.

  “That was a close one!” he said. “It’s a good thing I—hey!”

  Hera’s peacock feather brushed against his face as it flew back to her. She held it in front of her and looked into the feather’s colorful eye.

  “See any Cronies?” Zeus asked.

  Hera raised an eyebrow. “No,” she replied, “but it looks like there’s another kid coming toward us.”

  “Anyone we know?” Poseidon asked hopefully, but Hera shook her head.

  “Hestia, Poseidon, have your magical objects ready,” Zeus commanded.

  “What about my cane?” Hephaestus asked.

  “Uh, you need to learn how to work that thing first,” Hera snipped. The boy frowned, but he stood next to the rest of the group, cane down.

  The tall wheat in the field next to them began to rustle, and then a boy stepped out. He was about the same age as the rest of them, ten years old, but he was skinnier than any of them. He had dark hair, and his bright blue eyes looked weary with exhaustion as he flopped down next to the group.

  “Finally!” he said, clearly winded. “You guys are not easy to find. I had to take a boat, and a cart, and another boat, and then walk. I hate walking!”

  “Who are you, and why were you trying to find us?” Zeus asked suspiciously.

  “I’m Hermes,” he said. “And I have a message for you from Pythia!”

  CHAPTER THREE

  The Flying Boy

  The Olympians gasped.

  “How do you know Pythia?” Zeus asked. He had never seen her speak to anyone else but the group of Olympians.

  “I don’t—I mean, I didn’t until a few days ago,” Hermes replied. “I was flying past her at Delphi, and she—”

  Hera interrupted him. “Wait, did you say ‘flying’?”

  “That’s what I said
,” the boy answered.

  Hera snorted and turned to Zeus. “He’s obviously making all of this up. Do you see any wings on him?”

  Hermes rolled his eyes. “Do you guys want this message or not? Of course I don’t have wings. I’m not some Harpy,” he said, annoyed. “I use my winged sandals to fly. Or at least I used to, until some jerk stole them from me.”

  Athena’s eyes narrowed. “You mean those winged sandals, the ones that Zeus is carrying?” she asked, pointing to the sandals hanging from Zeus’s belt.

  “Hey! Where did you get those?” Hermes exclaimed. “Listen, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you the message from Pythia, but only if you give me back my sandals.”

  Athena looked at Zeus. “Hera could be right. This might be a trick to get those sandals from you.”

  But Zeus remembered something. Perseus, the boy who had given Zeus the sandals, had said they had been stolen from an Olympian.

  “Are you an Olympian?” Zeus asked.

  Hermes shrugged. “That’s what the lady with the glasses said. And then she started babbling about destiny and ‘overgrowing the tight ones,’ or something like that. She kept saying the future was foggy.” Zeus noticed that Hermes talked really fast.

  “That sounds like Pythia, all right,” Hades piped up.

  “Yeah, it sounds like she meant that Hermes is supposed to join us so we can overthrow the Titans—not overgrow the tight ones,” added Poseidon.

  “Whatever,” said Hermes. “Just please give me my sandals back, and I’ll give you the message.”

  Zeus untied the sandals from his belt and held them out.

  “Boltbrain, what are you doing?” Hera snapped. Her blue eyes flashed with alarm.

  “I believe him,” Zeus replied. “Besides, we’ll know if he’s lying once he puts them on.”

  Hermes’s eyes lit up as he took the sandals from Zeus. He strapped them onto his bare feet.

  “Woo-hoo!” he cried. To the amazement of the other Olympians, Hermes began to lift right off the ground!

  “See? I told you!” Hermes crowed, a big grin on his face.

  “Okay, okay, you got your sandals. Now what’s the message?” Hera demanded.