Iris the Colorful Read online

  Is in for a very unpleasant surprise.”

  As understanding dawned, Zeus paled at what had almost happened. “ ‘Unpleasant surprise’?” He glanced at Iris. “Is that what you meant in my office when you said it was dangerous?”

  Iris nodded.

  Hera gasped. “You mean that thing is a lie detector? With a kick? And you wanted to use it on me?”

  Zeus nodded, looking more than a little chagrined. “I didn’t know about the inscription, though. Really, I didn’t! I’d never take a chance of anything unpleasant happening to you. Can you ever forgive me, sugar pie?”

  Hera stared at him, one skeptical eyebrow raised.

  Iris was pleased to see that Zeus looked pale at what could have happened, and repentant. He stared down at his feet. “You wrote a letterscroll to Ceyx,” he mumbled. “And I heard a rumor that he was your secret admirer.”

  Pheme! thought Iris. She must have found out about the pet names somehow and spilled the birdseed, um, beans.

  Hera folded her arms and tapped the toes of one sandaled foot, still looking annoyed. “That’s what this was all about? Two lovebirds in the IM calling each other ‘Zeus’ and ‘Hera’?” Then she quickly explained about the misunderstanding, including the part about the pet names.

  “Sorry, my love,” Zeus said sheepishly. “Still, you might have told me right away what was going on, and let me handle it. Good communication is a two-way street, you know, honeybun.”

  He had a point, thought Iris.

  “You’re right. I guess I should have told you. I was only trying to spare Ceyx and his wife from your anger,” Hera said, sounding less annoyed now. “I was worried your temper would lead you to do something . . . regrettable.”

  Zeus grinned. “Something involving thunderbolts and smiting, you mean?” Then he turned more serious. “I’m sorry I lost my temper and flew off the handle. Honestly, I didn’t have Iris fetch the pitcher to use it on you. I wanted it for . . .” He looked around the group and broke off what he’d been going to say.

  “You’re right that I would have gotten angry,” Zeus conceded. “But you would have calmed me down in the end and kept me from doing anything too awful.”

  Like smiting a certain pair of birdbrain shopkeepers, thought Iris.

  Zeus and Hera were looking at each other with lovey-dovey eyes now. Quickly Athena signaled to the other girls, and they all tiptoed out of the grove and made their way back to the Academy. They had just entered the main hall when the lyrebell rang for fourth period. Waving a quick good-bye, Iris hurried off.

  The halls were pretty much empty by the time she found Zephyr’s locker. After making sure the coast was clear, she pressed the crush letterscroll she’d written on behalf of Antheia against the lockers. Quickly she flattened it with the side of her fist, which allowed her to push it through one of the vent slots on the front of Zephyr’s locker. Done!

  Noticing the increasingly dark skies as she glanced out a window on her way to class afterward, she worried anew about Typhon. When would the Titan monster attack? Would Zeus and the wind-brothers be able to defeat him?

  Just then she saw Zeus heading off on Pegasus. Alone. Where was he going? Not to the IM to smite Ceyx after all, she hoped. But shouldn’t he be staying here to defend the Academy at a time like this?

  • • •

  After school was finally out for the day, Iris was about to head up to the dorms when Antheia ran over, looking freaked out. “In ten minutes it’ll be three thirty!” she announced.

  “You’d better get to the grove, then. If Zephyr’s coming to meet you there, you don’t want to be late,” said Iris. She started to turn away because she really did not want to think about the crush that might soon blossom between those two.

  Antheia shook her head, looking pale. There was a chicken-yellow halo around her whole body. “No! I can’t do it. Not by myself. What if I don’t know what to say to him? Can’t you come to the olive grove and just stand nearby and whisper stuff for me to tell him?”

  “What? That’ll never work,” said Iris, shaking her head emphatically.

  “Just try it. Please, please, puh-leeze,” begged Antheia. “I’m afraid that if I try to talk to him without your help, he’ll guess that it wasn’t me who wrote those secret crush letters. C’mon. I’m begging you.”

  Iris had never seen Antheia so panicked. “Okay . . . I’ll come,” she agreed hesitantly. What have I gotten myself into? she thought as she followed Antheia outside. She really did not want to be involved in this. Not. At. All.

  The two girls hurried over to the olive grove. “Good. He’s not here yet,” Antheia noted, glancing around. She sat on the bench, which was positioned in front of an olive tree that grew thick with blue-green leaves. “Get behind the tree,” she instructed.

  “Huh?” Iris said.

  “We can’t let him see you. That would give it away. If you hide behind me, you can whisper answers to whatever he says to me and I can repeat them to him, okay?”

  Reluctantly Iris went behind the bench and hunkered down behind the tree.

  “You okay back there?” Antheia asked after a few minutes had passed.

  “Yes,” Iris whispered back. “But I think this is a really bad idea. Think how embarrassing it’ll be if—”

  “Shh! Someone’s coming,” hissed Antheia. Then her voice changed to a sweet, flirty one, and she said, “Hi, Zephyr.”

  “Antheia? Where’s Iris?” He sounded surprised and not altogether pleased, Iris decided. Uh-oh.

  “Iris? Oh, I don’t know where she is,” Antheia fibbed. From her place in the bushes, Iris could see Antheia cross her fingers behind her back so as not to get jinxed by her own fib.

  “But I thought . . . So the notescrolls were from you?” asked Zephyr.

  Iris peeked out and saw him stick his hands into the pockets of his tunic. He shifted from one foot to the other, looking uncomfortable.

  “Yes. Um . . .” A small silence fell.

  Iris could tell that Antheia didn’t know what to say next. The girl reached back, waving a hand behind her that only Iris could see. She wanted help.

  Quickly Iris whispered. “Say this: ‘So I’m glad you figured out the clues in my notescroll.’ ” Maybe that would get the conversation rolling.

  “So, I’m glad you figured out the shoes in my notescroll,” Antheia repeated brightly. Then she cleared her throat and said. “I mean the clues in my notescroll.”

  “Yeah, it was clever,” he said. Silence again.

  “Ask him how the anemometer is coming,” whispered Iris. Ye gods. Was she going to have to carry the burden of this whole conversation?

  “Ask him how . . . I mean, how is the anemometer coming?” said Antheia.

  Iris groaned silently at Antheia’s second bumble.

  “Okay, I guess,” Zephyr replied.

  Antheia didn’t seem to have a follow-up question, so Iris went on feeding her ideas. “Do you know when Pygmalion will finish it and if—”

  “Did you just hear someone whispering?” Zephyr asked, looking around. He peered beyond the bench at the tree, his eyes searching among its branches. Iris froze, then curled into a ball, hiding as best she could.

  “Whispering? No!” said Antheia, scooting over on the bench in the hopes of shielding Iris. But she sounded kind of guilty.

  “I did,” Zephyr insisted. “It was coming from somewhere behind you.”

  Before Iris could even try to get away, he ran around the tree. He looked as shocked to see her as she was to see him. Caught, she stood up.

  “Iris? What are you doing here? Is this some kind of a joke?” He looked back and forth between the two girls.

  “Yeah, we were just joking around,” said Antheia, grinning weakly.

  Zephyr stiffened, looking hurt. “Well, your little prank was not funny. Not at all.” With that, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the olive grove.

  “Huh? What went wrong?” Antheia said, staring after him wit
h a look of surprise.

  “He’s mad and hurt!” exclaimed Iris. “He thinks we were playing a joke on him. Don’t you get it? Imagine how you’d feel in his place.”

  “Oh no! This is a disaster. He’ll never like me now!” Antheia leaped from the bench and rushed off in tears.

  Iris ran out of the grove after her, then paused. Zephyr was stalking across the courtyard past other students to her right. Antheia was going up the steps to the Academy to her left. For half a second she wasn’t sure who to follow, but then she went after Zephyr.

  When she caught up to him, he just stood there, arms folded. “I thought the secret crush notescrolls were from you,” he said flatly.

  “Really?” Even though he was obviously mad, delight shot through her that he’d actually come to the grove to see her. Not Antheia. “How’d you know?”

  He gave a snort. “Not hard to figure out. They were written and decorated with multicolored pens. I saw your writing in Ms. Hydra’s sign-in book yesterday in Zeus’s office, remember? And then you gave me one of your pens to sign my name.”

  “Yeah.” It was getting hard to see his face. Iris squinted, then looked up at the sky, which was now several shades darker than it had been even minutes before.

  “Oh no!” she murmured in a terrified voice. His gaze followed hers to the enormous, dark gray tornado that was swirling around in the distance. It was headed their way.

  “Godsamighty!” said Zephyr. “It’s Typhon. He’s coming!”

  10

  Terrible Typhon

  ZEPHYR USHERED IRIS OVER TO MOA’s front steps. “Go. It’ll be safer inside. I’ll come back when I can. I have to find my brothers so we can fight this monster! We must protect Zeus at all costs!” Then he took off into the air, winds swirling.

  “Wait! I saw Principal Zeus riding away on Pegasus a few hours ago!” she called to him, but Zephyr didn’t hear over the roar of Typhon’s approaching winds. The giant tornado filled the sky now, heading right for MOA. Upon seeing it approaching, everyone in the courtyard ran for cover.

  Iris rushed to the top of the granite steps. But she didn’t go inside, as all the other students had done. She needed to do something to help fight the monster. Only, what could she do? Her hair whipped across her face as she looked around wildly. The linen drape that the sculptor had left covering the completed anemometer in the courtyard blew off right then in a gust of wind that was far fiercer than the winds of Zephyr and his brothers. The anemometer began spinning around like a top, its cups a complete blur!

  She pinned her arms to her sides to keep her chiton from flying up over her head. This was just all so horrible! Typhon was almost upon them, having finally made his move. And it seemed that MOA was completely unprepared. No one knew where Zeus was, and the four winds had been caught off guard too.

  Zeus had said Typhon wasn’t all that bright, and Iris couldn’t help wondering if Gaia was the one behind this plan. Had the goddess told her son to lurk nearby awhile, doing nothing? Had the two of them been hoping this would throw Zeus off so that Typhon could take the Academy by surprise? If so, the ploy had worked! Except for one teeny thing. They must have thought Zeus was still at MOA, since he was the one Typhon really wanted to destroy above all else.

  By now the entire sky looked like swirling, thick gray cotton candy. Iris gazed up at her beloved Mount Olympus Academy. Its usually sparkling white marble walls looked dull in the gloom that hung over everything. For a girl who was all about color, seeing the world around her turn so dark and dreary in the middle of the day was awful. Not to mention that she was worried about all of her friends.

  Within minutes the tornado monster touched down at the far edge of the courtyard. “ME HAVE COME!” rumbled a deep, powerful voice. Iris pressed back against the Academy’s big bronze doors as the words blasted out at her.

  Now that Typhon had landed and stopped whirling, she could see him more clearly. He stood there, so tall that the clouds crowned his head. His whole body was covered with black feathers, and he had dozens of long thin, curly legs.

  “ME HERE!” he bellowed, beating his chest. “AND ME SCARY!”

  Huh? Typhon had very poor grammar, thought Iris. Was Zeus right about the monster? He certainly didn’t sound very bright. Maybe they could use that against him somehow.

  As he skittered closer, she heard hissing sounds. Then she saw that all those legs were actually gigantic serpent tails that coiled and uncoiled as he traveled. And his fingers were tipped with dragon heads that breathed real fire! Though he’d stopped whirling, strong winds still whipped around him, ripping up the torches that ringed the courtyard, and throwing them up into the air like giant batons.

  By now the anemometer was spinning so fast, it seemed it would fly apart at any moment. Iris wrapped her arms around one of the tall Ionic columns in front of the school to keep from being blown away.

  Suddenly Artemis and a group of godboys burst from the doors behind her and rushed down the school steps into the courtyard. Apollo and Artemis carried their bows and arrows. Ares held his spear. Poseidon had his trident. But they and their weapons looked puny and useless compared to the ginormous Typhon!

  Bravely Artemis and Apollo notched arrows and drew back their bows. Zing! Zing! Their arrows bounced off Typhon like toothpicks. Poseidon and Ares had no better luck with their weapons.

  “HEH, HEH, HEH!” Typhon laughed at them. Their efforts must seem pathetic to him! Fire flashed from his dragon fingers and his eyes, striking fear into the Olympians. His attackers scattered, looking for safety.

  Then he kneeled down on the Academy steps and spread his arms wide. Toward Iris. She froze, expecting the worst. But the crushing blow never came.

  Instead Typhon hardly noticed her as he reached for the Academy building instead. His hands slid around it as if he would hug it to his chest. His face pushed through the bronze front doors. His dragon fingers went from window to window, peeking inside. He must be looking for Zeus!

  Fear for her friends and all the students and teachers at MOA unfroze Iris. She took a step toward the monster. Someone had to do something to stop him!

  “He’s not here!” she yelled.

  Typhon didn’t hear. Before she could shout again, the monster suddenly howled and lurched upright, whipping around. Zeus had flown in from behind him, riding on Pegasus! He was hurling thunderbolts at Typhon’s back. Zap! Zap!

  Hooray! thought Iris. But would even Zeus be a match for this terrible monster?

  “OW! OW!” yelled Typhon. He fell backward, his coiled legs knocking over several statues as he tumbled down the steps. He was soon on his feet—er, serpent tails—again, however.

  And he began to fight back. Uncoiling his tails, he struck Zeus with a mighty blow that sent him and Pegasus spiraling through the air. They quickly recovered, and Zeus hit Typhon with another thunderbolt.

  “OW!” yelled Typhon.

  Just then Zeus spotted Iris and yelled something to her. But his words were lost in the ferocious winds.

  “What?” Iris yelled back, cupping a hand around her ear. But he was already off again. He and his mighty winged horse flew this way and that, dodging serpentine tails as the monster lumbered after them. Zeus was methodically leading Typhon away from the Academy!

  What had he yelled to her a minute ago? Pincher? Or picture? No! He must’ve said “pitcher”! Iris gasped. He wanted her to get Styx’s pitcher. She was sure of it! Although she didn’t know why he wanted it, at least it gave her something to do. A way to help. Was it in his office? She hoped so. She flung open the bronze doors and raced into the Academy.

  Inside, students were running up and down the stairs and halls calling to each other as they searched for friends to make sure they were all safe for the moment. Ms. Hydra, Coach Triathlon, and some other teachers and students were barricading windows.

  Mr. Cyclops, Professor Ladon (the Beast-ology teacher), Athena, and some of the godboys stood around a table they must have pulled from a c
lassroom. They were bent over a map of the Academy with all its outbuildings and grounds. It looked like they were trying to formulate a battle plan to defend MOA against Typhon.

  As Iris turned down the hall to Zeus’s office, she passed Aphrodite and Persephone, who were helping to calm a crying student.

  Then she ran into Antheia. “Thank godness! I’ve been looking for you,” said her friend. Concern was etched on her face. “I saw you from a window a minute ago. I can’t believe you were outside. Don’t you know it’s dangerous out there?”

  “Tell me about it!” said Iris, barely slowing as Antheia fell into step beside her. “Zeus just arrived to fight Typhon. He told me to fetch a special pitcher that belongs to the Goddess Styx from his office. Help me find it?”

  “I knew it!” said Pheme, overhearing as she fluttered up to them. “Zeus has a plan for defeating Typhon after all!” But then she frowned. “Only, how much help will a pitcher be? Hitting the monster over the head with it probably wouldn’t do much good.”

  “I think he must have some other plan for it!” Iris called back as she ran.

  Pheme paused, then flapped her wings and flitted the other way. Usually flying was banned in the hallways at school, but none of the teachers called her on it. This was an emergency! “I’ll spread the word,” she called back over her shoulder. “Everyone will take heart if Zeus has a plan—even if it’s a lame one. And we could all use a bit of good news right now.”

  “Thanks!” Iris and Antheia kept running down the hall toward Zeus’s office. Mere seconds after they got there, Athena, Aphrodite, and Medusa joined them to search for the pitcher too. Pheme was amazingly great at spreading the word in a crisis.

  Quickly Iris described the pitcher to Antheia and Medusa, who’d never seen it. Then they all dove into the search. “We’ll never find anything in this mess!” Medusa fretted at first. Then the snakes on her head pointed toward the desk.

  “Good idea,” said Aphrodite, and she and Medusa started rummaging through it.

  “Why does my dad want the pitcher anyway?” Athena asked breathlessly as she checked the shelves along the walls.