Persephone the Grateful

by Joan Holub

  “Yeah, no joke,” said Pirithous. He pounded a fist into the palm of his other hand. “I want a trophy! Mistakes like this aren’t helping.”

  Persephone wanted a trophy too, but not as much as Pirithous, apparently. He seemed really mad and a little desperate. And his expression became even more annoyed by what happened next. The white blackbird (or snow finch?) was still perched on the straggly tree beyond them, and Athena and the rest of Team One caught sight of it right away.

  “There it is!” Kydoimos yelled. As his teammates began exclaiming over it, a movement caught Persephone’s attention. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Makhai stuffing the rest of the stone bird figures into his pockets. She blinked. Huh? Had she seen what she thought she’d seen?

  Just then Kydoimos glanced Makhai’s way too. “Is that box the container we were supposed to find?” he asked.

  Makhai quirked an eyebrow in his direction. “Maybe,” he said unhelpfully.

  “C’mon, quit wasting our time,” Ares groused. He’d landed next to Kydoimos, and now he stepped over to Makhai and held out his hands for the box. Makhai’s eyes went a little shifty. Still holding on to it, he began to back away.

  Impatiently, Ares tapped the toe of one of his sandals. “Hand it over!” he commanded. As the godboy of war, he could be pretty intimidating, so finally Makhai held out the box to him. But as soon as Ares touched it, it disappeared!

  “I think your team will need to cross the beams of your scroll-gadgets to make it reappear,” Antheia said. Just then, all of Team Four’s scroll-gadgets went bling!

  “Don’t help them!” yelled Makhai as Team One quickly did what Antheia had suggested. Ignoring the new message on her scroll-gadget for now, Persephone watched the box reappear on the ground within the circle of green light that Athena’s team’s gadgets had created.

  In an instant, the beams disappeared. Athena picked up the box. The lid lifted easily this time. Makhai seemed to freeze when she popped it open to reveal the remaining six carved bird figures. Persephone saw him ram a hand deep into one of his pockets, then quietly gasp in surprise and yank his hand back out.

  What was up with that? she wondered.

  “Oh, how adorable,” said Iris, peering at the figures inside the box. Athena took out one of the white stone birds and gave it to Heracles to hold in a leather drawstring bag that was tied to his belt. Then she looked down into the box again. “Five left, I see. I guess that means we’re the first two teams to arrive here and solve the first clue?”

  “Uh-huh,” Antheia replied. As Athena closed the lid of the box and set it back down on the ground, it magically disappeared again.

  Persephone’s mind was racing. If there were five figurines left in the box after two had been removed, Makhai couldn’t have taken more. She’d been so certain she’d seen him stuffing them into his pockets. If he hadn’t done that, then why had he seemed so nervous, and why had he checked his pockets? It was all very odd. But clearly he hadn’t cheated the other teams out of getting their proof after all. Which was a good thing.

  Maybe this was another example of “seeing what she expected to see,” she mused. In the past, Makhai and Kydoimos had been known to cheat. Once they’d even stolen an answer key from Muse Urania’s desk for a Science-ology quiz. So maybe she’d expected the worst of him.

  Bling! Persephone’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a new message arriving on Team One’s scroll-gadgets. Undoubtedly it was a repeat of the same message that Team Four had gotten just moments ago. After that message had arrived, she’d glimpsed Pirithous talking to his scroll-gadget and tapping away on it feverishly even as she’d been watching Athena and Makhai. So at least he’d read the message and gotten the next clue. Her team had better move fast, because now Team One had caught up to them!

  As Team One moved away to huddle together with their scroll-gadgets, Persephone unrolled hers at last and tapped on the flashing green triangle. The golden head of Theophrastus appeared. “We love frolicking in waves and sunning ourselves on beaches,” it said. “To see us is an omen of good fortune. Our image is even on a coin! Can you find us?”

  9

  Clue Two

  PERSEPHONE AND HER TEAMMATES QUICKLY formed their own huddle some distance away from Team One, so that they could discuss the new message clue in secret. “Got to be some kind of sea creature,” she said.

  “Yeah, this must be the clue Poseidon made up, since it’s about the sea,” Makhai said in a low voice.

  “I’m going to check all my coins,” Theseus said, emptying his pockets of drachmas and obols. “Anybody else got money?” He spoke quietly and turned away from Athena’s team so they wouldn’t see what he was doing and think of doing the same thing.

  No one else on Persephone’s team had coins, unfortunately.

  Pirithous drifted away from the group again to continue tap-tap-tapping on his scroll-gadget. What could he possibly be doing? Persephone wondered. But her attention was drawn away from him when Antheia whispered, “Maybe the sea creature is a dolphin. They like to frolic in waves.”

  “True,” said Persephone. “But I’ve never seen them lying around on sunny beaches.”

  She bent over her scroll-gadget. “How long can dolphins survive on land?” she asked the head of Theophrastus.

  In its jerky fashion, the golden head replied: “Most dolphins can only survive for a few hours on land before becoming dehydrated, especially in warm weather. Because they don’t have the proper limbs to walk on land, they can become stuck in sand and unable to return to the sea.”

  “So, not likely to be a dolphin,” Antheia said disappointedly.

  “Aha!” Theseus crowed suddenly. He did a little happy dance. Then, remembering that Team One was nearby, he huddled with his Team Four teammates (all except Pirithous, who was still tapping on his scroll-gadget a short distance away) and held up a coin. “Monk seal,” he said, passing it around so they could see the image of its head on the coin.

  “How long can seals survive on land?” Persephone asked her scroll-gadget.

  “Who cares?” scoffed Makhai. “We just need to find some so we can get our next proof!”

  Antheia scowled at him.

  Persephone glanced at Theseus. “I don’t doubt that you’re right about us needing to search for monk seals. I’m only curious to know the answer.”

  Bling! This time she got a written reply.

  “What’s it say?” Pirithous asked, coming over to rejoin the group. He took a look at Theseus’s coin, then handed it back to him. For some reason, there was a self-satisfied smile on Pirithous’s face, as if he’d been the one to figure out the message clue instead of Theseus.

  Persephone read the reply aloud: “ ‘Most seals are able to spend several days to a week out of the water. If you see one on the beach, it’s usually because it wants to be there and isn’t in trouble or anything.’ ”

  “Here’s an even better question: Where’s the best place to find monk seals?” Pirithous asked his scroll-gadget. Bling! “ ‘Monk seals are numerous in parts of the Mediterranean, especially the Aegean Sea,’ ” he read aloud.

  Antheia pointed upward just then. “Uh-oh.” Persephone looked skyward to see that Team One was leaving.

  “They must be figuring things out ahead of us,” said Theseus, “Let’s get a move on!” As he said this, three more of the seven Science-ology teams touched down on the mountainside to look for the white blackbird.

  For some reason, Pirithous just calmly grinned at the departing and arriving teams. “Don’t worry. I have a feeling we’ve got this competition in the bag,” he said, wearing a sneaky expression.

  Persephone wished she felt as confident as he sounded. Already she was untying the laces that bound the wings at her sandals’ heels. Recalling her concern about the mortal boy’s seeming crush on her, she was about to suggest again that he fly with Makhai for a while, when Makhai launched upward ahead of the rest of them. His purple cloak billowed ar
ound him in the wind as he flew off. Maybe she could get Theseus to trade? Too late! Pirithous grabbed her hand before she could suggest that.

  “Woo-hoo!” Pirithous yelled. As they rose into the air again, he seemed in strangely high spirits. He did funny poses to make her laugh, like moving his hands and kicking his feet as if he were swimming up through water. “Flying is awesome!” he shouted to the skies. When Persephone giggled at his enthusiasm (it was impossible not to be affected by it), he gave her a sweetly goofy puppy-dog look. “Especially with you, Persy.”

  Argh!

  After flying back over the Gulf of Corinth again, Persephone and her teammates headed overland in a northeast direction. “I don’t see Team One,” Theseus called out. “Think they were misled by the clue?”

  Persephone shook her head and called back, “Doubt it. Like you said, Athena’s really smart. If we could figure out the right answer, I’m sure her team did too.”

  “Doesn’t seem like Team One could have gotten that far ahead of us already,” Makhai shouted over.

  Persephone nodded and glanced around. “Yeah. Maybe they’re looking for monk seals in some other body of water? I hope we haven’t made a mistake in our thinking.”

  “Don’t worry,” Pirithous told her as they flew north of the city of Athens, named after the super-smart Athena. “Like I said, I just know we’re going to win this competition. And trophies, too! I’ve never won one before.”

  “Me either,” said Persephone, feeling momentarily encouraged by his certainty. “I mean, I’d like that too. But how can you be so sure of a win?”

  “Oh, just a hunch,” he said matter-of-factly, but his eyes looked a bit shifty, like Makhai’s often did. “Athena may be smart, but so am I. And, unlike her, I’ll do almost anything to get what I want.”

  Leaping Olympians! thought Persephone. This boy had more confidence than any mortal she’d ever met! Except maybe Heracles. Or did Pirithous know something the rest of them didn’t?

  They’d reached the near shore of the Aegean Sea when Makhai, who had slowed some to allow the others to catch up, gave a whoop. “Found some! Look!”

  Sure enough, she saw a group of monk seals sunning themselves on the beach down below. The adults among them were mostly dark brown or black with light gray bellies, but the pups had black wooly coats with white or yellow patches on their bellies.

  Wup! As her team swooped lower in their winged sandals, the playful growling sounds the seals were making became louder. Wup! Wup! Wup!

  Persephone watched a young pup burrow its nose in the sand, then use one of its flippers to toss sand over its back. “Oh, how cute. They remind me of Cerberus a little bit.”

  When Pirithous raised an eyebrow at her in question, she added, “That’s Hades’ dog. He likes to lie around and relax too.”

  Overhearing, Antheia said, “I wonder what Hades and Muse Urania decided we’ll have to search for in the Underworld—when we get to that clue.”

  Before anyone could hazard a guess, Makhai whipped out his scroll-gadget and shouted, “Scroll-gadgets at the ready, everyone!”

  Still in the air, the rest of the team pulled their gadgets out too. Instantly, green beams shot from the tips of their scrolls again. The beams intersected at a point on the beach a safe distance from the seals they’d discovered.

  And right at that spot another container appeared—this time a large pink clamshell. Yes, this was definitely Poseidon’s clue, Persephone decided. Seals and shells and the sea all went together. She wondered if he and Hades had fashioned the containers and the objects that went with them as well as creating the clues. Probably. That would explain why they’d both been too busy to make it to the cafeteria for dinner last night, because just coming up with a clue didn’t seem like it would’ve taken that much time.

  All five team members zipped over to the shell in their winged sandals and landed. Either they’d been lucky enough to find the exact group of monk seals the clue was pointing toward, or any group of monk seals would’ve made the magic container appear, Persephone thought. Didn’t matter. Either way, they’d been successful. What a relief!

  Makhai got to the shell first and opened it. Inside were carved figurines of monk seals. They were about the same size as the bird figures had been, and shaped from some kind of hard black wood.

  Persephone quickly counted the figures inside. “Seven!” she shouted in triumph. “Which must mean we’re the first team this container has appeared to so far.”

  “Yes!” said Pirithous doing a happy fist pump.

  With the rest of Team Four looking on, Makhai took out one of the black wood figures. He handed it to Persephone so she could slip it into her backpack to join the bird. “Too bad we can’t take all of them,” he remarked. “Then, even if another team got ahead of us, they wouldn’t have proof they were here.”

  “No way. That would be cheating!” Antheia protested.

  “So? I’m in this to win this!” said Makhai. “But you can relax anyway. Those figures are steal-proof. They’ve got some kind of magic spell on them to prevent any team from taking more than one.”

  Persephone frowned at him. “And you know that because… ?”

  Makhai avoided her eyes. “I figured it out. That’s all.”

  Humph, thought Persephone. It seemed she’d been right about him trying to pocket all the bird figures back at Mount Cyllene. Luckily, the container’s magic had somehow stopped him!

  “I’d rather lose than not play fair and square,” she informed him. And this was true. Much as she longed to have a trophy, how could she enjoy it if she knew their team had only won because they’d cheated?

  “I agree,” said Theseus. He looked over at Makhai. “What you tried to do wasn’t cool, dude.”

  Makhai had the decency to hang his head at this, even though the scolding was delivered by a mere mortal.

  Pirithous shrugged. “I want to win this thing too,” he said. “But Makhai’s right. Taking all the figures won’t work.”

  Huh? Had he also “just figured it out”? Persephone wondered. Were he and Makhai both would-be cheaters? She hoped not.

  Suddenly Pirithous snatched a figure from the clamshell, which Makhai still held. “Here’s how the magic works.” He opened his hand wide so that the little wooden monk seal was easily visible on the palm of his hand. His teammates (all except Makhai, that was) gasped in surprise when the little wooden monk seal vanished from his hand seconds later. “Look,” he said, tilting the open shell so everyone could peer inside.

  Antheia leaned over to count the figures. “One, two, three, four, five, six!” she exclaimed. “The one you tried to take wound up back in the shell!”

  Pirithous nodded. “I accidentally discovered the magic spell myself when I was examining the bird figures back in the first challenge to see if they were all identical. Which they were, by the way. But every time I picked up a figure, it would disappear from my fingers a few seconds later and reappear in the box. The container somehow senses when a team removes more than one figurine, and magically summons it back.”

  Phew, thought Persephone. Her concern a moment ago was wrong. It seemed that Pirithous had only been experimenting with the first container they’d found. He hadn’t really been trying to steal its figures after all. But Makhai had!

  “Anyway,” Pirithous went on, as Makhai snapped shut the lid of the shell and set it on the beach, where it instantly vanished. “There are other ways to increase our chances of winning that don’t involve stealing.”

  Bling! Before Persephone or anyone else could ask what he meant by this, their third clue message arrived.

  “Yay, us!” Antheia said excitedly. “Only two locations to go!” She glanced over at Makhai. “We can win this fair and square, so no more attempts to cheat. Okay?”

  Was it just her imagination, or did Makhai’s face turn a shade pinker at this? Persephone wondered. Maybe his conscience was pricking him? Looking down at his sandals, he mumbled, “Okay.”
>
  “Time for our next clue!” Pirithous called out cheerily, drawing everyone’s attention from Makhai. With that the teammates unrolled their scroll-gadgets and tapped on the green triangles to call up the statue head of Theophrastus.

  Just then, shouts came from high overhead. They all glanced up. Persephone could see Teams Two and Six racing each other. Some of them glanced down and waved. They couldn’t miss seeing the seals on the beach. Strangely, however, they didn’t stop, but only continued to sail over the gulf and then head south. “Where in the world could they be going?” she wondered aloud.

  Pirithous chuckled. “Seems like they’re a bit confused about clue number two. Good luck to them, though!”

  10

  The Last Two Clues

  THE THIRD CLUE WAS AN easy one: We grow on low shrubs in sunny meadows with dry, rocky soil. Our delicate petals never last long, but every day we bloom afresh.

  Easy for Persephone and Antheia, at least, given their knowledge of botany. Neither had any trouble identifying the described shrub as a rock rose. After they high-fived over their mutual guess, their team began winging its way in a northeasterly direction over the Aegean toward Asia Minor. Turned out the girls just happened to know of a large meadow of rock roses that grew on the island of Cisthene, across from the island of Lesbos.

  The shrubs in the sunny meadow were in full bloom, covered with pink and yellow flowers, each with five petals that looked and felt like papyrus. “Mmm. Don’t you love their scent?” Persephone said to Pirithous after inhaling deeply. To her nose, the leaves of the rock roses smelled like a mix of honey and pine.

  “Mm-hmm,” Pirithous replied distractedly. He was fiddling with his scroll-gadget again, doing who knew what. He’d barely even glanced at the roses after Persephone had carefully landed with him in a grassy spot between shrubs so as not to crush any of the delicate blossoms.