The Girl Games (Goddess Girls) Read online

  16

  Athena

  Still Friday afternoon.

  MEANWHILE, ATHENA WAS ANXIOUSLY searching the skies of Mount Olympus and beyond for Pegasus and Bellerophon as she and Artemis sailed eastward in the deer-drawn chariot. Her hopes rose when she spotted something off in the distance winging its way toward them.

  Was it Pegasus? she wondered excitedly. Pointing, she called, “Look! Over there.” But as Artemis’s chariot drew closer, Athena’s heart sank. The winged thing turned out to be Hermes in his delivery chariot. He waved to them as he continued on his rounds, delivering packages.

  Minutes later her hopes were boosted again when she spied another winged figure. Only, this time it turned out to be a harpy—a winged bird-woman. With a shriek it swooped toward their chariot in search of food to snatch, but the girls shooed it away.

  “I think we should turn back,” Athena suggested reluctantly. “Just because Pegasus and Bellerophon started out going east, they might not have continued in the same direction.”

  Artemis must’ve been thinking the same thing because she nodded. “Yeah. They could’ve circled around before we even started out. Maybe they’re already back at MOA.”

  Athena nodded, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up only to have them dashed again. Where could they be? She was mad and worried at the same time. Mad that Bellerophon had ridden Pegasus so far away, leaving her to face Zeus’s possible—no, probable—wrath. And worried that something might’ve happened to them.

  Artemis called to her deer, and soon the chariot was circling back. They were nearing MOA when a dense layer of dark gray clouds formed behind them. Winds whipped up, knocking the chariot from side to side.

  “This is bad,” Artemis groaned. “I haven’t seen angry clouds like these since before Zeus met Hera, when he was all lonely and in a bad mood.”

  “Do you think this is my dad’s doing?” Athena had to shout to be heard over the wind. “Like maybe he’s mad because he found out about Bellerophon and Pegasus?”

  “All I know is that if this storm hangs around through tomorrow, the Games will be rained out!” Artemis shouted back.

  She looked really upset. Realizing she was struggling for control of the chariot, Athena grabbed the reins to assist. As they fought to keep from crashing, something enormous burst through the clouds right behind them. It was strange and terrifying. And it had killer bad breath.

  Artemis gasped. “Ye gods! A Chimera!”

  “W-what?” Athena sputtered, freaking out at this news. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes!” said Artemis, glancing over her shoulder as the monster gave chase. “Beast-ology is my best subject, remember?”

  Sure enough, the creature did have a lion’s head in front, a fire-breathing goat’s head in back, and a serpent tail. Artemis was right!

  “But I thought the Chimera only made trouble in the mountains and forests of—” Athena stopped, realizing what she’d been about to say. Lycia. A kingdom far to the southeast of Mount Olympus and across the sea. It was the king of Lycia who’d been visiting Zeus when she and Bellerophon tried to see him this morning!

  She remembered what Zeus had said: “Thunderation! You say it may be coming this way?” No wonder he’d been worried. And no wonder Ms. Hydra had predicted disaster for MOA. The king of Lycia must’ve been warning Zeus about the monster’s approach!

  Mega-bad storms always followed in the Chimera’s wake. If it attacked MOA, who knew what terrors might follow? There wasn’t time to tell Artemis any of this. Which was just as well. If that girl had one more thing to worry about regarding the Games, her head might explode.

  “It’s gaining on us!” Artemis yelled.

  Closer now, the beast’s serpentine tail thrashed about, snapping in the air like a whip. Its lion head gave a mighty roar.

  “Watch out!” Athena shouted as flames shot from its mouth.

  “Dive!” Artemis told her deer. They plunged downward in the nick of time and the flames sailed harmlessly over the top of the chariot.

  But the Chimera wasn’t giving up. It dove too. Probably it was anticipating a dinner of deer meat and goddessgirls! Catching up to them, it roared again. A fireball of bad breath and flames burst from its goat throat this time.

  Artemis’s deer veered left. Athena felt the heat as the stinky fireball shot by. It missed them by mere inches. P.U.!

  Artemis reached over her shoulder as if to grab an arrow from her quiver. “Oh, no,” she moaned. “I left my bow and arrows back in the gym!”

  The chariot jerked this way and that like a storm-tossed ship as the panicked deer zigzagged first one way and then another to avoid the Chimera’s wrath. Though they were agile and quick, they were tiring. They were no match for this fiendish monster!

  Terrified, Athena couldn’t take her eyes from it. What if Pegasus and Bellerophon had met up with this Chimera too? She shuddered to think that by granting Bellerophon’s wish, she might have doomed them all.

  The Chimera roared again, and another fireball blasted from it. Again, Athena felt its heat. She thought they had dodged it, though. That is, until Artemis yelled, “The chariot’s on fire!”

  Ripping a wide swatch of cloth from the hem of her chiton, Athena beat at the flames and managed to smother them. But now the Chimera was nearly upon them. She braced for another fireball.

  Just then, from high above them, she heard the beating of wings. She looked up. “Pegasus!”

  With Bellerophon astride him, the winged horse parted the clouds and swooped directly at the monster. Athena tried to wave them off. “No! You’ll be fried!”

  But at the last possible second Bellerophon leaped from Pegasus to straddle the Chimera’s back and Pegasus zoomed away. When the startled lion’s head opened its mouth to let out yet another roar, Bellerophon wrapped his arms around its throat in a choke hold. Smoke shot out of the monster’s ears.

  “I think a fireball got trapped in its throat,” Athena told Artemis.

  “Couldn’t happen to a meaner monster!” Artemis gloated in satisfaction.

  As they watched, the Chimera’s eyes bugged out and its tail drooped. Still, Bellerophon kept his arms firmly locked around the creature’s neck. Athena could see he was tiring, though. What if he couldn’t finish the job? The Chimera might finish them off instead!

  Thinking fast, she leaned over the side of the chariot, calling out to the beast. “Hey, you—Chimera! If you’ll agree to let me put a banishment spell on you, we’ll let you go.”

  The monster’s lion head and goat head looked at her and then at each other. Then they both nodded desperately. Wasting no time, Athena recited a spell, which would only work when a beast agreed to it first.

  “From Mount Olympus,

  I thee banish.

  Go, Chimera—

  vamoose, vanish!”

  “All right!” Bellerophon shouted in victory when she finished. Immediately, he let go of the Chimera’s neck. It shook its head and coughed out a series of smoke rings.

  All this time Pegasus had been hovering overhead. Now he swooped lower. Reaching up, Bellerophon caught hold of the golden bridle and leaped onto Pegasus’s back. “See you at the Academy!” he called to the girls. Then he shouted, “Yaaah-hooo!”

  As he and Pegasus winged away, a subdued-looking Chimera flapped in the opposite direction, toward Lycia. Fortunately, the dark clouds went with it. As the clouds lifted, the sun began to shine again. Athena and Artemis looked at each other and smiled.

  “Phew! That was quick thinking,” Artemis told her admiringly.

  “Thanks,” said Athena. Zeus was going to be pleased to know that the Chimera was no longer a threat to MOA. She only hoped he didn’t find out about the rest of this fiasco, though!

  17

  Artemis

  Friday, early evening.

  AS SOON AS ARTEMIS AND ATHENA ENTERED the Academy, Artemis headed for the marble staircase that led to the dorms. “I’ll take my dogs out and meet you in the
cafeteria in a few,” she told Athena.

  “Okay,” Athena replied.

  Artemis raced upstairs. When she opened her door, her dogs immediately crowded around her. They sniffed her all over. Had some of the Chimera’s stinky breath stuck to her? Or were they just smelling her deer? Hard to say. “Come on, boys. I’ll take you outside,” she told them.

  It couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes later when she and her dogs joined Athena at the goddessgirls’ usual table. Yet news about the Chimera had already started to spread. “Did you hear?” Pheme said, rushing up to them. “The Chimera tried to wage an attack on MOA!”

  “Oh, no!” said Athena, faking surprise.

  “Oh, yes!” said Pheme. Then she dashed off, running from table to table. Naturally, she was delighted to have a new story to pass around.

  “That Bellyache—” Artemis huffed.

  “Bellerophon,” Athena corrected.

  “Uh-huh,” said Artemis. “Well, he has a big mouth. He should’ve known better than to brag about his adventures with a horse he practically stole from Principal Zeus.” She looked around but didn’t see the boy anywhere. “Lucky for him, he’s not here. Or else he’d get a piece of my mind!”

  She dreaded to think what would happen if the Chimera tale reached Zeus’s ears. He’d be glad to know that the Chimera had been banished, of course. But if he found out that she and Athena had been involved . . . well . . . it was pretty much a Zeus-aster waiting to happen.

  Aphrodite and Persephone soon joined them for dinner. As the four goddessgirls ate, they chatted about all that had gone on that day. Artemis noticed that the tension between Aphrodite and Persephone seemed to have eased. Maybe their scare over almost losing Adonis in the Underworld had knocked some sense into them!

  She also noticed that Aphrodite’s floppy poppy bag was sitting on a chair between the two of them. And it was wriggling. “Adonis? Are you crazy?” she said. Until the bag began to move, her dogs had quietly lain at her feet. But now they lifted their ears and sat up. “Stay,” she commanded. Luckily, they obeyed.

  Athena shook her head. “Yeah, I can’t believe you’d risk bringing that kitten here again.”

  “After all he’s been through, we couldn’t just leave him alone in the dorm,” said Persephone. She sneaked a bit of fish from her plate into the bag.

  “And we were so traumatized at losing him that now we can’t bear to let him out of our sight,” Aphrodite added in her usual dramatic way. She stuck her hand in the bag to pet the kitten.

  Persephone nudged her with an elbow. “Show them the collar Hephaestus made.” Hephaestus, who also attended MOA, was the godboy of blacksmiths and metalworking. He could craft the most beautiful things from gold, silver, and gemstones.

  Eyes sparkling, Aphrodite drew a jeweled collar from the pocket of her chiton. “It’s for Adonis,” she said as she passed the collar to Athena. “I haven’t even had time to put it on him yet. Hephaestus just finished it.”

  “Ooh! Pretty,” said Athena. Artemis also leaned in to look. It was pretty! Maybe she should get Hephaestus to make collars for her dogs too.

  “The windflower design was my idea,” Persephone said proudly. The colorful “flowers” were gold-linked together like a daisy chain. Each flower was made up of jeweled petals around an amber center. And hanging from the middle of the collar was a tiny golden bell.

  Artemis reached out and flicked it, and it made a cheerful tinkling sound.

  “The bell was my idea,” Aphrodite explained. “So we’ll be able to hear Adonis if he ever wanders away from us again.”

  Artemis noticed she was saying “we” and “us” instead of “me.” She and Persephone were definitely getting along better. Just then, out of the corner of her eye, Artemis happened to notice Pheme standing near the cafeteria door. She was staring their way, and she looked kind of . . . shocked.

  “Quick, Pheme’s watching. Hide the collar,” she whispered.

  Aphrodite hurriedly stuck it back in her pocket.

  “Where? I don’t see her,” Persephone said, looking around.

  Artemis glanced over again, but Pheme had gone. “Well, she was here and I think she saw the collar. If she asks, let’s all say it’s a dog collar for Suez. Anyway, I thought we were all trying to keep Adonis a secret. But now Hades and Hephaestus know too.”

  Aphrodite frowned. “Two more people. That’s not so many.”

  “Besides, Aphrodite’s going to tell my dad soon anyway. Right?” Athena hinted. Aphrodite quickly changed the subject, and fifteen minutes later lunch was over.

  They were just getting ready to leave when a hush fell over the entire cafeteria. The kind of hush that usually occurred when . . . Uh-oh!

  Artemis looked up. Sure enough, Zeus was looming in the doorway, scanning the students. Everyone ducked or looked away, probably hoping his thunderous gaze wouldn’t settle on them. Suddenly his arm rose from his side. His finger pointed across the room. At their table!

  “YOU FOUR!” his voice boomed. “THEENY . . . APHRODITE . . . PERSEPHONE . . . ARTEMIS! GET TO MY OFFICE. NOW!” Then he swung his arm around and pointed in the direction of his office. As if they didn’t know where it was.

  The four goddessgirls exchanged worried glances as they jumped up from their seats. Artemis’s eyes fell on the ugly floppy poppy bag as Aphrodite picked it up. They couldn’t just leave it here with Adonis inside, of course. So Adonis would have to come with them. This was going to be bad.

  All eyes were on the girls as they picked their way toward the exit. Artemis’s hounds trotted along behind her, obediently ignoring the bag Aphrodite was carrying.

  After they exited the cafeteria, Artemis noticed Aphrodite edging toward the stairs that led to the dorms. She was obviously hoping to sneak up to her room and drop off Adonis.

  “You!” Zeus thundered at her before she could escape. “No detours.” Then he headed down the hall for his office. The girls followed, of course. Including Aphrodite. No one dared disobey.

  It wasn’t fair, Artemis moped. Why was she in trouble? The Bellerophon thing wasn’t her fault, if that’s what Zeus was mad about. Well, she supposed it was true that she hadn’t gotten permission to fly her chariot as far as she had when she’d helped Athena go after Bellerophon and Pegasus.

  But if they hadn’t, the Chimera might’ve destroyed the Academy! So really, they’d done the whole school a favor. She hoped Zeus would see it that way. She crossed her fingers that he wasn’t mad enough to cancel the Games.

  Principal Zeus halted in the doorway of his office, waiting. As they all tromped past, he pointed to some chairs lined up in front of his desk. “SIT!” he said sternly. Immediately Artemis’s dogs plopped their bottoms down on the floor in the middle of the doorway. They looked alertly up at him as if awaiting his next command.

  “He didn’t mean you,” Artemis whispered, nudging them to move. “C’mon.” The middle chair in the row facing Zeus’s desk was already occupied. By Bellerophon. Artemis and Athena made yikes faces at each other. Since Bellerophon was here, that must mean Principal Zeus already knew about Pegasus being “borrowed” without his permission. This was going to be stupendously bad.

  Persephone and Aphrodite sat on one side of Bellerophon, Athena on the other side. Artemis started to sit by Athena, but seeing something on the chair seat, she picked it up. It was a tube of lip gloss. Orange lip gloss. Pheme had been here! Spreading gossip, no doubt. Artemis set the tube on the edge of Zeus’s desk, then sat. Her dogs settled at her feet.

  Zeus plunked down on the golden throne behind his desk, not seeming to notice the tube. But she knew that all her friends had seen it, and they’d realize exactly who’d been bending his ear with gossip. One of these days, all that gossip was going to turn around and bite Pheme on the patoot!

  Elbows on his desk, Zeus steepled his hands together. Artemis held her breath as he opened his mouth to speak.

  Only instead of speaking, he scrunched up his face in a fu
nny way. And then, he . . . sneezed. “Ah-ah-ah-CHOOO!” The sneeze was so strong, it blew his office door shut with a bang. All five kids jumped.

  Athena looked at him anxiously. “Are you catching a cold, Dad?”

  Zeus’s thick reddish brows rammed together. “Of course not. I’m never sick. As King of the Gods and Ruler of the Heavens, I don’t have time to be sick!” He paused. “And do you know what else I don’t have time for?” His piercing blue eyes pinned his five victims to their chairs.

  “What?” squeaked Artemis when no one else answered.

  “RULE BREAKERS!” Zeus thumped his desk with a fist. Tiny thunderbolts shot out from between his knuckles making scorch marks on the wall to the right of his desk.

  “We’re sorry,” Athena said, shifting nervously. “We didn’t mean to break any rules.” The others nodded.

  “Uh . . . what rules did we break?” Artemis dared to ask. Because she really didn’t know—none of them knew—what Zeus had found out. Exactly what was he so mega mad about? Was it the Pegasus-stealing? The Chimera-battling? Or the kitten-keeping? They’d been breaking a lot of rules lately.

  Zeus looked about to speak, but then his face scrunched up again. “Ah-ah-ah-CHOO!” Whipping a monogrammed handkerchief from his desk drawer, he blew his nose with a loud honk. Immediately he was attacked by another series of sneezes.

  Trying to communicate without words, he began flapping his arms like wings. Then he flicked his head in a way that reminded her of a horse. “NEIGH-CHOO!” he sneezed.

  “Is this about Pegasus?” Artemis guessed when nobody else made a peep. Seriously, they’d be here all day if no one spoke up.

  “EGG-GG-XACTLY!” Zeus spoke-sneezed. Bellerophon and Athena shrank lower in their chairs. “No one rides him without my permission,” Zeus went on. “And especially not to fight the Chimera!” He eyed Athena as he pointed at Bellerophon. “This boy could’ve gotten . . . gotten . . .” For a few seconds he seemed to hang on the brink of another humongous sneeze.