Typhon and the Winds of Destruction Read online

  “Is everyone okay?” he asked.

  The others nodded, looking dazed. Then Hades, Hera, and Hestia ran up.

  “I can’t believe it! I thought I was going to have to welcome you guys to the Underworld,” said Hades.

  “We were so scared,” Hestia added. “We saw you climbing down, and then that monster appeared.”

  Zeus sat straight up. “Typhon! We’ve got to run.”

  “I wouldn’t worry,” Hera said, pointing. “The beanstalk whacked him on the head on the way down. He’s out cold.”

  “Typhon is beat! Now, that’s really sweet!” Apollo sang out.

  Hera made a face. “Um, who’s he?” she asked Zeus.

  “Apollo,” Zeus explained. “He’s an Olympian, like us.”

  “And he really likes to sing and rhyme,” Poseidon added.

  “Yeah, I noticed,” said Hera.

  “But what about the Magic Seeds?” asked Hestia. “Did you find those too?”

  Demeter climbed down from the leaf pile. She took the pouch from around her neck.

  “We did find them,” she explained. She spilled the seeds out into her hand. Each one was about the size of a pumpkin seed. They were golden yellow, and glittered in the sunlight. Quickly she counted them. “There are twenty.”

  “And Demeter is carrying them because . . .” Hera asked.

  “The pouch of seeds was giant-size when we found it,” Zeus replied. “But it shrunk when Demeter touched it. Seems like the seeds are connected to her somehow.”

  Hera’s lips got tight, but she said nothing.

  “Um, so what do you want to do about the big snaky guy?” Hades asked.

  The Olympians cautiously walked up to Typhon’s fallen body. The normally slithering snakes were still. Typhon’s eyes were closed. But his hairy chest moved up and down as he breathed.

  “Ew! He’s hideous,” said Hera. “Is he a—”

  “Creature of Chaos,” Zeus finished for her, nodding.

  “One that definitely needs to be locked up in Tartarus in the Underworld,” Hades put in. “He can keep the Titans we’ve already sent there company.”

  “We’d better do it soon,” Poseidon remarked. “Because I think he’s waking up.”

  Typhon’s eyelids were starting to flutter. His serpent legs were stirring.

  “I can’t just send a hurricane-blasting giant down to the Underworld,” Hades said. “He could wind up freeing the Titans.”

  “Anyone have some giant handcuffs?” Poseidon asked. “Or a muzzle?”

  “Why not try a Magic Seed? It might be exactly what you need,” Apollo suggested.

  “What can the seeds do? Cover him with flowers?” Hera scoffed.

  Demeter looked down at her pouch. “If Apollo heard Typhon right, the seeds can grow anything,” she said. “Bet they could grow vines strong enough to hold a giant. Even one this big!”

  “Do it!” Zeus urged.

  But Demeter frowned. “Pythia said that the seeds would help us regrow the land. I don’t want to waste even one.”

  Typhon’s snakes opened their eyes. Their red tongues flicked out.

  “When Typhon wakes up and gets going again, there won’t be any more land,” Poseidon pointed out.

  Hera looked at her friend. “It’s just one seed. I think you should do it.”

  Demeter nodded. She plucked one of the seeds from the pouch. Then she got as close to Typhon as she could and planted it in the ground.

  Immediately something burst from the dirt. But it wasn’t a vine. It was a strong metal chain!

  “Wow, those are Magic Seeds, all right!” Poseidon exclaimed.

  More and more metal chains snaked from the seed, slipping over and under Typhon. Within seconds the chains completely contained him.

  “Nice,” Hades said. “Now let me do my thing.”

  He clapped his hands. “Chariot, appear!”

  Typhon’s eyes flew open when he heard the clap. He glanced down at the chains binding him.

  “Rawwwwr!” His lion roar shook the fallen beanstalk as he struggled to break through the chains.

  “Um, Hades?” Poseidon asked nervously. But just then . . .

  Boom! A huge hole opened up right near Typhon. A chariot drawn by four black horses emerged from the hole.

  “Take this beast to Tartarus!” Hades commanded.

  “Nooooo!” Typhon wailed as the chariot dragged him into the hole.

  Then the hole closed up. Poseidon gazed worriedly at the broken earth.

  “I sure hope those chains can hold him,” he said.

  “Don’t worry,” Hades said with a grin. “Cerberus and the Furies will be waiting for them.”

  Zeus nodded. Cerberus was Hades’s three-headed dragon dog. And the Furies were three fierce flying guardians of the Underworld. They worked for Hades now, but the Olympians had faced them when they hadn’t been so friendly. All together, they would be every bit a match for Typhon!

  “So what do we do now?” Poseidon wondered aloud.

  Just as he finished speaking, a cloud of glittery mist appeared before the Olympians. A face framed by long black hair appeared in the mist.

  Apollo smiled. “Pythia!” he exclaimed.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Brothers and Sisters?

  Zeus was confused. “You know Pythia?” he asked Apollo.

  “Sure,” Apollo replied. He nodded to the oracle’s face in the mist. “So, are your spectacles still fogging up?”

  “As a matter of fact, they are,” Pythia replied. She took off her glasses to polish them. “Are you keeping up with lyre practice?”

  “I try to play, almost every day,” he sang in reply. Then his smile faded. “Pythia, do you know where Artemis is?”

  “Who’s Artemis?” Hera interrupted.

  “My twin sister,” Apollo explained. “She was captured by the Cronies at the same time I was.”

  “I see that she is safe, but her location is unclear to me,” the oracle answered. “Although I fear there are bubbles brewing.”

  “Bubbles?” Poseidon asked hopefully.

  He must be missing the sea, thought Zeus.

  Pythia polished her glasses again. “Oh dear. I meant ‘troubles.’ There are troubles brewing.”

  Apollo’s face darkened. “Then I’ve got to find her.”

  “You will, in time,” Pythia said. “But for now I must congratulate all of you. You have found the Magic Seeds.”

  Demeter stepped forward. “They’re in this pouch. There were twenty, but I had to use one to imprison Typhon. We thought it would grow vines, but instead metal chains grew, right from the ground.”

  Pythia nodded. “Yes, the seeds can transform into anything. And it is right that they are in your care, Demeter. But I warn you not to use the seeds for silly purposes. Plant one in every village you reach. From each seed many different kinds of crops will grow.”

  Demeter gazed at the pouch of Magic Seeds in new wonder. “I promise, I will.”

  “And now begins a new quest,” Pythia said. “You must find the aegis. It’s a shield that one wears over a tunic. A hundred tassels of pure gold hang from it.”

  “Where will we find it?” Zeus asked.

  “You must travel to the shores of Lake Stymphalia, near Corinth,” she replied. “But obtaining the aegis will not be easy. You must win it through battle.”

  “So what else is new?” Poseidon mumbled.

  “Well, good luck, guys,” Apollo told the others. “I’m off to find Artemis.”

  “Apollo, no!” Pythia warned. “All of the Olympians must stay together. You must work as a team. That is the only way you will ever defeat the dark forces that are gathering.”

  Apollo sighed. “Whatever you say, Pyth.”

  Zeus felt bad for him. He kind of knew how Apollo must be feeling. Ever since his journey had begun, he’d wanted to find his mother. But Pythia always had a new quest for them. She’d told him to wait.

  “So I guess I can’t loo
k for my mother yet?” Zeus asked sadly. “Do you remember what her name is this time? Rhea? Lea? Mia?”

  “I’m certain that it’s Rhea,” Pythia answered as her image began to flicker in the mist.

  “That’s weird,” Poseidon said slowly. “I never told you guys this before, but Oceanus said my mother’s name is Rhea.”

  Pythia’s image brightened again for a moment, and she cocked her head. “Well, of course it is,” she said. “Rhea bore six of you Olympians. All except Apollo. Though, of course, there are more of you, as yet undiscovered.”

  The Olympians gaped at her in surprise as her image began to fade again. Then suddenly the mist disappeared completely, and Pythia with it.

  “So except for Apollo we’re all brothers and sisters?” Zeus said, staring around at the others. His eyes settled on Hera. “Did you know this? Just like you knew I was an Olympian but didn’t tell me for a long time?”

  For a moment Hera’s eyes slid away from his. But when she looked back at him, she said, “To tell the truth, I kind of guessed it. But I didn’t know for sure. I promise.”

  “I never knew my mother, or her name,” Hades added.

  “Me neither,” said Hestia.

  “Or me,” Demeter chimed in.

  “I always thought I was an only child,” said Zeus, feeling dazed.

  Apollo patted him on the back. “Congratulations. Looks like you’ve got more siblings than you can shake a stick at—or a thunderbolt, anyway.”

  “Looks like you, me, and Hades are bros, Zeus,” Poseidon said. “High-five!”

  Still in a daze, Zeus slapped Poseidon’s hand, and then Hades’s hand too. He had grown up all alone, raised by a bee and a goat and a nymph. He’d thought he had no family. And now he had five brothers and sisters?

  “Yeah, we’re all one big happy family,” Hera said, rolling her eyes. “So which way now, Shock Boy?”

  Zeus tried to get used to the idea that she was his sister. Just like Demeter and Hestia! And he knew how bad Hera must feel about not having a magical object. Besides Apollo, Hera was the only one without a magical object now. At least Apollo had his lyre. Hera had nothing.

  Zeus slipped the cord from around his neck. “Here, why don’t you ask Chip,” he said. “You can wear him if you want.”

  Hera’s face softened. “Sure, thanks.”

  She slipped Chip over her neck and then held the amulet in her palm. “Okay, Chip. Which way to Corinth?”

  An arrow appeared on Chip’s surface. It spun around, and then it stopped, pointing northeast.

  “Northeast it is,” Hera said. “To Corinth!”

  Leaving the fallen beanstalk behind, they started toward the nearest road.

  “Isn’t it amazing that six of us are related?” said Hades as he walked alongside Zeus. “I mean, we’re all so different.”

  “That’s for sure,” said Poseidon.

  Hestia was playing with her torch, twirling it like a baton. She glanced over at Apollo. “Even if you’re not our brother, we’re all Olympians, right?”

  “Right!” six voices chorused in reply.

  Another thought occurred to Zeus. “So does anyone know who our father is?”

  Everyone shook their head.

  “I guess it’s a mystery,” said Demeter. “For now, anyway.”

  As they walked, Apollo strummed on his lyre and sang a song.

  “Some brave Olympians climbed the beanstalk

  And fought a giant who roars like a beast.

  They freed the captive and got Magic Seeds,

  And now we’re all headed to the northeast.”

  Zeus shaded his eyes against the sun to see what the land ahead looked like. Something glinted in the sky in the distance. Squinting, he realized it was a flock of birds. They slowly flew in a circle. When the sun hit them, they sparkled. Huh? What kind of feathers sparkled?

  “Those birds sure look weird,” he said, a little nervously.

  “Worried they’ll peck your eyes out?” Hera teased.

  “No, but I’m just saying, they’re shiny,” Zeus replied. “Almost like they’re made of . . . metal, or something.”

  He turned to Poseidon, who was making water bubbles with his trident. Demeter giggled as she tried to catch them as they floated in the air.

  “Do you see what I mean?” Zeus asked.

  Poseidon shrugged. “We just fought a half-dragon, half-giant with snakes for legs. I’m not worried about some shiny birds.”

  “Poseidon’s right. We should have a little fun while we can,” Hestia said, tossing her flaming baton into the air.

  Hades grinned. “Okay, then, here’s a joke. Why do hummingbirds hum?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Hera.

  “Because they don’t know the words!” he replied, cracking himself up.

  Hera groaned and shook her head.

  Zeus laughed at Hades’s joke, but then he glanced up at the birds again. Was he the only one who was worried about them? Or about what troubles they might find in Corinth? As the Olympians headed toward the huge flock of birds, Zeus wished he could shake the bad feeling he had.

  The feeling that there was going to be a peck of bird-pecking trouble up ahead!

  Joan Holub is the award-winning author of more than one hundred and thirty books for young readers, including Zero the Hero, Vincent van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars, and Shampoodle. She lives in North Carolina. Visit her at joanholub.com.

  Suzanne Williams is the award-winning author of more than thirty-five books for young readers, including Library Lil, Ten Naughty Little Monkeys, and the Princess Power and Fairy Blossoms series. She lives near Seattle in Washington State. Visit her at suzanne-williams.com.

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  DON’T MISS THE OTHER ADVENTURES IN THE HEROES IN TRAINING SERIES!

  Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom

  Poseidon and the Sea of Fury

  Hades and the Helm of Darkness

  Hyperion and the Great Balls of Fire

  COMING SOON:

  Apollo and the Battle of the Birds

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors’ imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  First Aladdin paperback edition December 2013

  Text copyright © 2013 by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

  Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Craig Phillips

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  Cover designed by Karin Paprocki

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  Library of Congress Control Number 2013950783

  ISBN 978-1-4424-8842-7 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-8844-1 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-8843-4 (eBook)

  n and the Winds of Destruction