Alkyoneus and the Warrior Queen

  Greetings, Mortal Readers,

  It’s me, Apollo, the Oracle in Training of Delphi. An oracle is someone who can see the future, and I’m learning how to do that. Pythia, the original oracle, is teaching me.

  I’m not just a fortune-teller in training. I’m also an Olympian, the god of music! I play the lyre, and I sing, and I rhyme everything! The other Olympians and I defeated Cronus, and now Zeus sits on Mount Olympus, which is a bonus.

  As the new king of the gods, Zeus has to solve a lot of problems. Recently a kid named Hercules and a king named Eurystheus came to Zeus with an argument. Zeus asked me to help resolve it. I looked into the mist and saw that Hercules has to perform three tasks for the king, and then all will be forgiven.

  Zeus decided to help Hercules, and they completed their first task—getting a scale from a beast called the Hydra. Along the way, though, they made two other Olympians angry: Aphrodite and Poseidon.

  After Zeus and Hercules left for their second adventure, I tried to see into the future. I wanted to find out if they were going to make anybody else angry. And I heard this rhyme in my head:

  The boy who likes metal will boil like a kettle!

  I think I know what that means, but I’ll let you find out for yourselves. Because sometimes it’s more fun not to know what the future holds!

  Catch you later. Don’t be a hater! (Still gotta work on my sign-off.)

  CHAPTER ONE Bee Careful

  Zeus marched down the path, repeating the rhyme that Apollo had told them.

  “Hercules has brought the Hydra’s scale, but that is part one of this tale. Now it is time for task number two, and here is what young Herc must do: travel to the Amazon land so green, and get the belt from the warrior queen.”

  The brown-haired boy lagging behind Zeus kicked a rock. “You’ve been repeating that over and over since we left the Temple of Delphi!” Hercules complained. “I must have heard it, like, a million times on the ship over here. I almost jumped overboard.”

  “I wish you had,” Zeus mumbled under his breath, even though he knew it was a mean thing to say.

  “Excuse me?” Hercules asked.

  “Nothing,” Zeus replied. “Listen, I just want to try to remember exactly what Apollo said. I don’t want any surprises when we meet the Amazons.”

  Hercules laughed. “Why are you worried about a bunch of girls? On our last mission we had to face a monster. Getting the belt from the Amazons’ queen should be as easy as taking a fig from a baby.”

  “Girls are just as tough as boys, and they can be even tougher than monsters,” Zeus said, thinking of his sister Hera. “And anyway, the Amazons are different. They’re warriors.”

  Not long ago Zeus had encountered the Amazons on a journey to find the Spear of Fear for his fellow Olympian Ares. The warrior girls had surrounded the Olympians’ camp. Zeus remembered them wearing their hair in long braids. Each girl had carried a sharp spear.

  “We can handle warriors,” Hercules said. “We’ll fight them!”

  “I don’t think we’ll have to,” Zeus told him. “The Amazons are tough, but they’re nice. When we told them we were looking for the Spear of Fear, they gave it to us. We didn’t need to fight them.”

  “Well, I’m ready to battle if we have to!” Hercules said, punching the air. “I’m the mighty Hercules! Nobody can beat me!”

  Zeus rolled his eyes and kept walking.

  Why did I decide to travel with this kid? he asked himself. Oh yeah. Because I’m worried he’ll mess things up and King Eurystheus will declare war on Mount Olympus!

  “Take that, Amazons!” Hercules cried, and he punched a skinny tree on the path. The tree shook.

  Buzzzzzzzzzz! A swarm of angry bees flew out! They started to sting Hercules.

  “Ow! Ow! Quit it!” Hercules yelled, and he broke into a run. The bees chased after him.

  Zeus tried not to smile. He had a special relationship with bees. After his mother had rescued him from the jaws of his father, King Cronus, she’d brought him to the wilderness. He had been raised by a tree nymph, a goat, and a bee named Melissa. So he knew bee language very well.

  “Ow! Ow!” Hercules wailed.

  Zeus didn’t have to stop the bees at all. Getting stung some more would serve Hercules right for disturbing them. Then his conscience bugged him—in his sister Hera’s voice.

  Help the poor guy, Boltbrain! This may be funny, but he can’t complete his mission if he’s full of stingers!

  Zeus sighed. You’re no fun, conscience! he thought. But he knew that the voice in his head was right. This mission was important. If Hercules didn’t perform all three tasks, then there would be war. And Zeus didn’t want that.

  “Buzz, buzz, buzz. Buzz, buzz!” Zeus called out, and the swarm immediately flew back to the hole in the tree. Then Zeus jogged up to Hercules.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Hercules replied. “Nothing can hurt the mighty Hercules.”

  But Zeus noticed the angry red welts on the boy’s arms. He looked at the plants growing along the path and plucked some leaves. Then he found a flat rock. He placed the leaves on a rock and mashed them up with another rock. He took the mushy leaves and placed them over Hercules’s bee stings.

  “What are you doing?” Hercules asked, and then his eyes widened. “Hey, that feels better. How’d you know what to do?”

  “When you live with bees, you get stung sometimes, even if they like you,” Zeus told him.

  “When did you live with bees?” Hercules asked him.

  “I’ll tell you while we’re walking,” Zeus replied. He grabbed the smooth, oval-shaped stone that he wore around his neck on a cord.

  “Chip, are we still going in the right direction?” Zeus asked.

  The stone replied, “Es-yip!”

  Chip was one of Zeus’s magical objects. Chip spoke to Zeus using a language called Chip Latin. To speak it, you moved the first letter of the word to the end of the word, and added “ip.”

  Zeus and Hercules continued down the path. It led across a meadow and into a forest. It twisted through the trees and then let out into a clearing at the foot of a tall hill. Then the path ended.

  “Where to, Chip?” Zeus asked. “Do we climb the hill?”

  “Anger-dip! Anger-dip!” Chip cried.

  “Danger?” Zeus asked. “What do you—”

  Rooooaaaaaaaaaaar!

  A monster charged down the hill toward them. It had the body and sturdy legs of a rhinoceros, and a huge head with a shaggy mane, like a lion. It opened its mouth, and fire streamed out, aimed at the boys!

  CHAPTER TWO Take That, Sparky!

  Whomp!

  Zeus dove at Hercules and brought them both down onto the ground. The first blast streamed over their heads. Zeus could feel the heat on his hair.

  “Hey, what’d you knock me down for?” Hercules complained.

  “You’re welcome,” Zeus said. He jumped up and reached out a hand to Hercules. “Now run!”

  The boys raced toward a boulder just as the monster attacked again.

  Rooooaaaaaaaaaaar!

  This time the fire danced at Zeus’s heels. He ducked behind the boulder, and Hercules followed.

  “What is that thing?” Hercules asked.

  “I need to get a good look at it,” Zeus replied. He peered over the boulder. The creature was stomping its feet and swinging its massive head from side to side. Red light shone in its eyes. It seemed to be confused about where the boys had gone.

  Then Zeus realized something—the creature was made of metal.

  “It’s not flesh and blood,” he reported to Hercules. “It’s made of metal. It reminds me of the creatures Hephae
stus used to make.”

  “Hih-feh-who?” Hercules asked.

  “Hih-feh-stus,” Zeus pronounced for him. “One of the Olympians. He makes things out of metal. I haven’t seen him since we defeated King Cronus. He and Ares, the god of war, went to find a volcano so they could build more things. They must be nearby.”

  Rooooaaaaaaaaaaar!

  The creature seemed to have figured out where the boys were. It stomped toward the boulder.

  Zeus reached for his other magical object, Bolt. The thunderbolt-shaped dagger hung from his belt. He grabbed it and held it above his head.

  “Bolt, large!” he commanded.

  The dagger instantly grew until it was as tall as Zeus. He moved away from the boulder and hurled the sparkling, sizzling thunderbolt at the creature.

  Bolt struck the creature’s back but didn’t penetrate the metal. Golden sparks shot up as Bolt made contact, and the creature shuddered. Then it shook its head and roared again, this time even louder.

  ROOOOOAAAAAAAR!

  “You made it stronger,” Hercules said.

  “I—that shouldn’t have happened,” Zeus said as Bolt returned to his hand.

  “That’s okay. I got this,” Hercules replied.

  He charged out from behind the boulder and grabbed the creature by its metal tail. Then he thrashed the creature from side to side, slamming it against the ground.

  “Take that, Sparky!” Hercules yelled cheerfully.

  Zeus’s mouth dropped open at the display of strength in front of him. Hercules had bragged about being really strong, and Zeus had seen him thrashing in the water with a ten-headed Hydra on their last adventure. But this was even more impressive.

  Bam! Bam! Bam! Hercules bashed the metal monster again and again until it was dented and the red light in its eyes had faded. Finally the monster stopped moving.

  Hercules stared at the broken and twisted metal with his hands on his hips.

  “Looks like your burning days are over, Sparky,” he said.

  “What have you done?” yelled a voice.

  Two boys were climbing down the hill. The one who had asked the question was dressed all in black, with a silver belt around his tunic and silver buttons along his sleeves. His thick dark hair was slicked back with oil, and his eyes were flecked with gold. He walked with a limp and used a silver cane with a skull-shaped knob on the top.

  The boy next to him had brown hair that stuck out all over his head, like spikes. Instead of his eyes being blue or brown or some other common color, they were red.

  “Ares!” Zeus ran to the boy with the red eyes and hugged him. Then he nodded to the boy with the cane. “Hey, Hephaestus.”

  Hephaestus scowled. “You haven’t answered me,” he said. “What have you done to Leonidas?”

  “Oh, you mean Sparky?” Hercules asked. “I pounded him pretty good, right?”

  “YOU did this?” Hephaestus asked.

  “Well, he did try to fry us like a fish stick,” Hercules replied.

  Hephaestus glared at him and walked to the side of the metal beast. He opened a panel on the creature’s back and looked inside.

  Ares nodded at Hercules. “Who’s the new guy?”

  “His name is Hercules,” Zeus explained. “He’s on a mission, and I’m going along to make sure he doesn’t mess it up.”

  Ares grinned. “I knew you wouldn’t be happy sitting on your fancy throne for too long,” he said. “Guess you needed some adventure.”

  “Yeah, well, living on Mount Olympus isn’t very exciting,” Zeus admitted. “I just sit around all day, listening to problems. And then Hera tells me I’m doing everything wrong.”

  “You should come here and live with me and Heff,” Ares said. “We’re having fun. Even if Heff is in a bad mood most of the time.”

  Zeus looked around. “Where do you guys live?”

  Ares motioned for Zeus to follow. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  “Excuse me, but I don’t want either of these brutes near our operation,” Hephaestus said. “It’s going to take me weeks to repair Leonidas.”

  “We won’t touch anything, promise,” Hercules said. “I could use a break. You know, maybe take a bath. And some food. Do you have any hummus? How about some figs? This bread and cheese we’ve been eating day after day is weighing me down.”

  He flexed his arm muscle. “My fans expect a lean, mean Hercules.”

  “If you were trying to convince me with that argument to let you come, you failed miserably,” Hephaestus told him.

  “Aw, come on, Heff,” Ares urged. “Let’s bring them up. I want to show off what we’ve done.”

  Hephaestus sighed. “All right, I guess.”

  They walked to the top of the hill, and now Zeus could see a volcano stretching out before them. A plateau of red rock, dotted with craters, surrounded the volcano’s peak.

  Hephaestus and Ares led them into an opening at the base of the volcano.

  “This is where we built our workshop,” Ares explained as they walked through the twisted corridors of the cavern. They passed underground rooms filled with metal scraps and glistening jewels.

  “I forge the metal over the lava pools in the volcano’s center,” Hephaestus explained.

  “Ooh, that sounds cool,” Hercules said. “Can I see?”

  “Only a god can withstand the heat of my forge,” Hephaestus replied.

  “No problem. I’m half god,” Hercules said.

  Hephaestus looked at Zeus and raised an eyebrow. “Is he?”

  “He says he is,” Zeus answered with a shrug. “He might be. He’s really strong.”

  “Forget the forge. This is the coolest room,” Ares said, and he led them into a cavern with a wide ceiling.

  “Whoa!” Zeus exclaimed. The room was filled with half-built metal creatures. One was a long snake with a body as thick as a Titan’s arm. One looked like a man with a head stuck to the middle of his chest, instead of on his neck. Another had the front half of a horse and the back half of a rooster. The largest was an enormous metal dragon whose head grazed the top of the cavern.

  Zeus stared at them with his mouth open for a second. This was impressive! “They’re Creatures of Chaos,” he said.

  “Aren’t they awesome?” Ares asked. “We got the idea to re-create all the monsters the Olympians fought.”

  Hercules tapped the dragon’s leg. “Pretty cool!”

  “Don’t touch!” Hephaestus snapped. “And these creations are not just ‘pretty cool.’ They’re brilliant!”

  “They are,” Zeus agreed. “You guys are doing some amazing things here. I wish I could stay and see more of your volcano, but Hercules and I need to find the Amazons.”

  Ares’s red eyes flashed. “The Amazons? Can I come with you?”

  Hephaestus frowned. “Why would you want to go see the Amazons?”

  Ares tapped the metal spear strapped to his back. “When they gave me the Spear of Fear, they laughed at me. They thought I’d never figure out how to use it. I want to show them they were wrong.”

  “You should definitely come!” Zeus said eagerly. Having Ares along would make it a lot easier to deal with Hercules.

  “You should come too, Heff,” Ares said.

  “No thank you,” Hephaestus said. “I’ll be fine here. I’ve got plenty of projects to keep me busy. Let’s go pack up some provisions for you guys.”

  They left the workshop and made their way down the corridor.

  “We don’t have any hummus, but there are some dried figs in the storeroom,” Hephaestus said. “But I shouldn’t be giving you anything, Hercules, since you owe me for destroying Leonidas.”

  “Yeah. Hercules and I are—” Zeus began, but then he realized something. “Hercules?”

  The boy wasn’t with them. But then he came racing out of the workshop.

  “Run!” he yelled.

  CHAPTER THREE Who’s Afraid? Not Ares!

  I am not going anywhere unless you tell me—” Hephaestus be
gan, but Zeus grabbed him by the arm. He had known Hercules long enough to learn one thing—where Hercules went, trouble followed.

  As the four boys exited the volcano and stepped into the sunshine, a loud BOOM! exploded behind them. The whole volcano trembled, and gray smoke spewed from the top.

  “Let me guess,” Zeus said to Hercules. “You touched something.”

  “Just a little bit,” Hercules admitted. “It’s not my fault that the thing caught on fire. And then the fire spread to the other monsters. And then—”

  “All my work! Ruined!” Hephaestus cried, running his hand through his hair. He glared at Zeus. “You know, the first time I met you, I lost everything too. You’re nothing but trouble, Zeus!”

  “Hey, I didn’t touch your monsters. He did!” Zeus pointed at Hercules.

  “Yeah, but you brought him here,” Hephaestus argued.

  Ares stepped between them. “I can’t believe I’m the one saying this, but you two need to chill out and stop fighting,” he said. “Heff, if Zeus hadn’t found you, you never would have known you were an Olympian. Or figured out that your cane has magical powers.”

  “Right. Weird, scary magical powers,” Hephaestus grumbled, and Zeus knew why. When they’d been fighting a monster called Medusa, the cane had transformed into a silver sword without warning, and chopped off the monster’s head! Hephaestus had been completely freaked out by that.

  “Well, that’s not the point,” Ares argued. “Listen, I’ll help you rebuild the monsters as soon as I get back. A lot of them had kinks to work out anyway.”

  Hephaestus didn’t say anything else. He glared at Zeus and then turned and walked back into the volcano. He loudly banged his cane on the ground as he went.

  Zeus turned to Hercules and shook his head. “Why do you always have to mess things up? You act like it’s an accident, but sometimes I think you’re doing it on purpose.”

  “Why would I do that?” Hercules asked. He patted his belly. “We never got any food. Do you think Hephaestus would mind if—”

  “I think we should leave Hephaestus alone,” Ares said. “He can get more fiery than me when he’s angry! There’s a village a few hours’ walk from here. We can get something to eat and camp for the night.”