by Joan Holub
“I like it!” said Lachesis.
“But where would we meet them?” wondered Atropos. “We have no fixed address!”
“Ooh! Ooh! Idea alert!” squeaked a small voice. Arachne, of course. Clotho groaned softly as Zeus and her sisters startled. Their heads turned this way and that as they searched for the owner of the voice.
Clotho pointed to her shoulder. “Um… that was my, uh, friend Arachne speaking.”
“Arachne? The woman my Theeny bested in that weaving contest and then turned into a spider?” bellowed Zeus.
“Hello? Do you think that just because spiders don’t have ears, I can’t hear you unless you shout?” Arachne informed him. “Just so you know, these legs of mine are not just pretty. The hairs on them detect sound!” As usual she couldn’t (or maybe wouldn’t) put the brakes on her mouth even in the presence of immortals. Including the King of the Gods!
Zeus scowled. “I remember you, all right. You dared to insult the gods with your rude weavings! You even made fun of me!”
“Yeah, yeah. Water under the bridge,” scoffed Arachne, shrugging yet again. Then to the three Fates she said, “Truth is, I get kind of lonely in my shop. If you’d agree to help me run it, I’d love to see it humming with customers again. You could meet and chat with mortals there.”
A smile blossomed inside Clotho at the little spider’s words. Arachne might be quick tempered and too blunt for her own good, but one had to admire her spunk! She just hoped that that spunk wouldn’t get Arachne in trouble again. What would Zeus think of her suggestion?
After a few more moments of pacing, he halted and held up a finger. “I just got an amazing idea,” he announced to Clotho and her two sisters. “How about if I tweak my rules a bit so that mortals are still assigned destinies, but they are allowed to overcome certain negative aspects in their destinies through smart choices and good decisions? And maybe they could meet with you occasionally at the IM for guidance. Maybe at that sewing shop that closed down.”
At this, Arachne was speechless for once, while the three sisters looked at one another with raised brows. Because Zeus had just suggested the very same things they and Arachne had come up with, only in his own words. Still, everyone knew Zeus liked to be the best at everything, especially at coming up with ideas. So, wisely, they all agreed with him.
“Excellent idea. And the meeting place is perfect. Halfway between the Earth and Mount Olympus!” said Clotho.
Atropos and Lachesis nodded energetically.
“Great!” boomed Zeus, gazing at each Fate in turn. “I order you to get started on my new plan right away!” With that he grabbed a plate holding another large piece of his thunderbolt cake, and headed out of Game On!
Eyes twinkling, Clotho turned to her sisters and clapped her hands together in glee. “Arachne’s shop is really cool. Come have a look. It’s right across the atrium.”
In minutes they were all pushing inside Arachne’s Sewing Supplies. Right away Lachesis spotted the huge loom in one corner of the shop. She squealed in delight.
“Here, I’ll help you string it,” offered Clotho. Once it was strung, Lachesis eagerly set to work, passing new threads over and under, and then pulling the threads tight at the end of each row.
Meanwhile, Atropos had wandered over to explore the craft section, eyeing with interest all the scissors and shears. Clotho left Lachesis at the loom and sidled up to Atropos. “Maybe you could teach art classes in paper cutting,” Clotho suggested slyly. “I bet mortals would love that!” Atropos’s face lit with excitement.
To both sisters Clotho said, “During the daytime we could take turns counseling mortals who need our guidance regarding their destinies. Whoever isn’t counseling could help run the shop with Arachne. What do you think?”
She held her breath as she waited for her sisters to shoot down her ideas. But to her astonishment, that didn’t happen for once.
Meow!
“Oh! Look—how cute,” said Lachesis as the shop kitten wandered in. She picked it up and held it, stroking a gentle hand over its soft white fur.
“Yeah, bonus! We could keep this kitten for our pet if we hang out here,” Clotho added quickly.
“Come look upstairs!” Arachne’s little voice called out. She leaped onto Clotho’s shoulder once more as they all went up. Together, the spider and Clotho showed Lachesis and Atropos how, since there were three empty rooms upstairs, each of the sisters could have her very own private space.
“Meeting mortals here during the daytime is one thing. But actually making this place our home?” Lachesis said thoughtfully. “I don’t know.”
“Yeah. Nomads no more? That’s a big step,” Atropos mused. “I’m not sure.”
“Oh, stop it,” grumped Arachne. “Just think of my shop as a place to stash your stuff, work, do crafts, and hang out. It’s not like you’re chained here and can never go anywhere else. A little spider like me can’t travel as easily as you on a whim. Count yourselves lucky!”
Though Clotho agreed with what the spider had said, she figured her sisters would respond better to persuasion than to grumpiness. “If we have a home of our own, it’ll be easier to keep track of our stuff,” she said. “And wouldn’t it be awesome not to have to drag all of it with us everywhere we go?” This was an argument she thought might appeal to her sisters, though it wasn’t the main reason she wanted to move in here.
Finally, for what seemed like the millionth, possibly billionth, time, Clotho asked them the question that revealed her deepest desire. “Wouldn’t it be great to have our own home? A place we truly belonged?” Taking a big breath, she braced herself for disappointment. For them to say no as usual.
Only, this time, her sisters surprised her. “Maybe…,” mused Lachesis.
“Possibly…,” pondered Atropos.
Then: “Yeah, let’s try it,” her two sisters said at the same time.
A grin spread over Clotho’s face. Woo-hoo!
14 Tantalize
CLICK CLACK CLICK CLACK WENT Clotho’s knitting needles. It was the following Friday, and she was sitting in a comfy chair knitting a family of merpeople for a mermaid friend of Poseidon’s named Amphitrite. Pausing, she gazed around Arachne’s shop—her cozy new home. The green-eyed shop kitten, which she and her sisters had named Destiny, was playing with a ball of orange yarn at her feet.
After doing their official jobs here each night for the past week, the Fates had then spent their days cleaning the sewing shop from top to bottom. The paper covering the windows was gone and so was all the dust, making everything much cheerier. Bolts of cloth now stood straight upon the shelves, and balls of yarn were neatly displayed according to color in various baskets and cubbies.
Using the shop’s loom, Lachesis had woven a large, new sign they’d hung out front. It read:
Arachne’s Sewing Supplies
(and Home of the Fates)
Clotho had finished her green serpent puppet family earlier. Tonight they planned to work in the land of the Amazon women, which was near Colchis. So it would be easy for her to drop the new green puppets off for the lonely serpent that lurked under the tree. She hoped the creature would enjoy them. Perhaps having them around would improve its disposition, even if they were only puppets. Because Arachne, Destiny the kitten, and the Colchis serpent had made her realize that immortals and mortals weren’t the only ones who sometimes got lonely. Creatures did too. Everybody needed friends.
Lifting her gaze from her craftwork briefly, she spotted Arachne. High in the shop’s corners, the spider was busily spinning new sayings in her webs. Gone were the insults. From now on, she’d promised her webs would only contain perky announcements such as SALE ON KNIT KITS AND RED THREAD and REGISTER FOR DATES TO MEET THE FATES and SIGN UP FOR WEAVING AND PAPER-CUTTING LESSONS! Turned out, Arachne had a talent for advertising.
Clotho turned her gaze on Lachesis. At this very moment she was happily weaving fabric for a wedding dress that Hera had designed for a bride-to-be w
ho’d ordered it at her shop. And Atropos was contentedly cutting out snowflake garlands for a display Cassandra had requested to decorate her family’s bakery.
Jingle-jangle! The bell they’d hung on the sewing-shop door alerted them to a new arrival. It was Hermes, coming by to deliver their mail.
“Hey, new neighbors! Welcome to the IM!” he called, dropping a large box just inside the door. After he departed, Clotho eyed the box like it was stinky bird poop. Would the letterscrolls inside be filled with rude complaints and cruel criticisms from mortals? It took all her courage to sort through and read them with her sisters.
To her surprise, though there were mean letterscrolls among them, far more were kind. Some even contained praise and thanks for the work she and her sisters did.
There were also helpful suggestions. Like that the Fates should write a column in Teen Scrollazine with advice on how to improve one’s destiny. Cool! Maybe one day soon she’d go talk to the scrollazine’s editors about this idea! There were also requests for one-on-one meetings in the shop in the upcoming weeks, and suggestions for future craft-class offerings. All of this gave her hope that someday mortals would see the Fates in a better (or maybe good) light. Not as enemies to be feared.
Later that afternoon when the shop bell jangled, Medusa leaned inside. Propping the door open with one foot, she waved Clotho and her sisters over. “You’ve got to come see what’s going on at Game On!” she called out.
The Fates glanced at one another, then jumped up and followed the snake-haired girl across the atrium. As they entered the Game On! balcony and went to stand at its railing, they saw that the new Tartarus Two game was in progress down in the arena. Athena and others had already gathered to watch.
Atropos elbowed Clotho. “Look! Tantalus is one of the players!”
“He can only score points to move ahead in the game if he can grab snacks and drinks,” Athena informed them.
“He doesn’t look too happy,” noted Clotho. While the others playing the game seemed to be having a good time, he obviously was not. He frowned with frustration as he stood knee-high in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low-hanging branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches jerked away from his grasp. If he bent for a drink of water, the water drained away before he could get even a sip. It was impossible for him to score.
“Zeus named this feature ‘Tantalize,’ ” Medusa told them.
“He purposely based the word on Tantalus’s name,” Athena added. “Dad hopes that even after Tantalus’s punishment ends, mortals will always remember his fate. It will serve as a warning of what can happen when one offends the gods.”
“This punishment stinks!” Tantalus yelled, stomping a foot in the pool and splashing himself in the process.
“Poor Tantalus.” Clotho couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for him. Not only did he have to endure four weeks of this frustration, he also had to endure the teasing of the other players.
“Serves you right, Ambrosia Boy!” Ares mocked.
“Yeah, Nectar Nose!” Apollo hooted. Then the two godboys successfully played through a far more entertaining punishment nearby involving grabbing dangling vines to swing over a steaming pit of lava.
As they moved on to enjoy another part of the game, Tantalus sighed and scowled after them. “Rub it in, why don’t you? I can’t believe I’m stuck having to come here and do this after school every day for a whole month! Guess it could be worse, though.” He snatched at the branches again, never catching hold of the tempting fruit dangling above his head.
He was so right, thought Clotho. Despite the boy’s grumbling, his punishment could’ve been much worse. He was fortunate that Zeus had been convinced not to send him to the real Tartarus.
As she and her sisters headed back to Arachne’s shop, she reflected on how very lucky they were that Zeus had “adopted” their ideas. Letting them tweak the absoluteness of mortal fate and also mix with mortals to bring about friendlier relations was big!
Pride surged through Clotho when she thought about how, instead of accepting her fate, she’d used all her powers of persuasion to convince Zeus to alter some of his rules for the good of both mortals and the Fates. As a result, she now had a pet and a home. And all the time in the world to work on her beloved knitting projects.
Plus, lots of new friends had begun popping into the shop to chat or get crafty advice. Just this morning, for example, Atalanta had come by. She’d invited Clotho to be on her team in a new Argonaut-themed game in Game On! that would open later today. And yesterday Cassandra had asked for her help in writing some fortunes for her Opposite Oracle-O cookies. Clotho wasn’t the only one with new friends either. Athena had surprised and pleased Arachne the other day by asking for her advice on a new weaving she was doing.
Clotho sighed, a soft smile curving her lips. Her new life was a dream come true. Surrounded by friends, her sisters, a pet, work she enjoyed, plus yarn and other crafty stuff, Clotho wasn’t lonely anymore. She was something else.
Happy.
More from this Series
The Girl Games
Athena the Brain
Persephone the Phony
Book 2
Aphrodite the Beauty
Book 3
More from the Authors
Skade and the Enchanted…
Idun and the Apples of…
About the Authors
JOAN HOLUB is the New York Times bestselling author of over 150 books for young readers, including Little Red Writing, Zero the Hero, Mighty Dads, This Little Trailblazer: A Girl Power Primer, and What Is the Statue of Liberty? She also coauthors the Thunder Girls series with the amazing Suzanne. Visit her at joanholub.com.
SUZANNE WILLIAMS is a former elementary school librarian and the author of over seventy books for children, including the award-winning picture books Library Lil (illustrated by Steven Kellogg) and My Dog Never Says Please (illustrated by Tedd Arnold) and several chapter book and middlegrade series. She also coauthors the Thunder Girls series with the fantastic Joan. Visit her at suzanne-williams.com.
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READ ALL THE BOOKS IN THE
GODDESS GIRLS SERIES
ATHENA THE BRAIN
PERSEPHONE THE PHONY
APHRODITE THE BEAUTY
ARTEMIS THE BRAVE
ATHENA THE WISE
APHRODITE THE DIVA
ARTEMIS THE LOYAL
MEDUSA THE MEAN
GODDESS GIRLS SUPER SPECIAL:
THE GIRL GAMES
PANDORA THE CURIOUS
PHEME THE GOSSIP
PERSEPHONE THE DARING
CASSANDRA THE LUCKY
ATHENA THE PROUD
IRIS THE COLORFUL
APHRODITE THE FAIR
MEDUSA THE RICH
AMPHITRITE THE BUBBLY
HESTIA THE INVISIBLE
ECHO THE COPYCAT
CALLIOPE THE MUSE
PALLAS THE PAL
NYX THE MYSTERIOUS
MEDEA THE ENCHANTRESS
CLOTHO THE FATE
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 author’s 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 2019
Text copyright © 2019 by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
Cover illustrations copyright © 2019 by Glen Hanson
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Book designed by Karin Paprocki
Library of Congress Control Number 2019943156
ISBN 978-1-4814-7024-7 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-7023-0 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-7025-4 (eBook)