by Joan Holub
Contents
Greetings, Mortal Readers
1: Under Attack!
2: Sea Journey
3: Fiiissshh
4: Sea Serpents and Merpeople
5: Trident Trouble
6: In Hot Water
7: On the Island
8: Titan Transport
9: The Androphagoi
10: The Oracle
About Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
For our heroic husbands:
Mark Williams
—S. W.
George Hallowell
—J. H.
Greetings, Mortal Readers,
I am Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, in Greece. I have the power to see the future. Hear my prophecy:
Ahead, I see dancers lurking. Wait—make that danger lurking. (The future can be blurry, especially when my eyeglasses are foggy.)
Anyhoo, beware! Titan giants now rule all of Earth’s domains—oceans, mountains, forests, and the depths of the Underwear. Oops—make that Underworld. Led by King Cronus, they are out to destroy us all!
Yet I foresee hope. A band of rightful rulers called Olympians will arise. Though their size and youth are no match for the Titans, they will be giant in heart, mind, and spirit. They await their leader—a very special, yet clueless godboy. One who is destined to become king of the gods and ruler of the heavens.
If he is brave enough.
And if he accepts that sometimes he must share the cage—um—stage with fiends. Oops. Friends!
For only by working together will these young rulers-to-be have a chance at saving the world.
CHAPTER ONE
Under Attack!
A SPEAR WHIZZED BY TEN-YEAR-OLD Zeus’s ear. He ducked his head but didn’t stop running. Neither did his two companions, Hera and Poseidon. They were right behind him.
“Halt in your tracks or you’re dead meat, Snackboy!” a cruel voice boomed.
He’d know that voice anywhere. It was Lion Tattoo. That was what Zeus had nicknamed him, anyway. He was the leader of the three half-giants who were after Zeus. They were soldiers in King Cronus’s army and stood as tall as trees.
Just three days before, they’d snatched Zeus from his cave in Crete and brought him here to Greece. He’d already escaped them—twice. But he might not be so lucky a third time.
“When we catch you, we will eat you!” hollered a second voice. Blackbeard’s. Another of the half-giants.
Then the third one—Zeus had dubbed him Double Chin—added his two cents. “Yeah! And we’ll chomp your friends for dessert! Ha-ha-ha!” He followed this up with a loud burp.
A shiver ran down Zeus’s spine. They were probably bluffing, though. Their orders were more likely to take him, Hera, and Poseidon back to King Cronus. So that the king could swallow them whole!
They approached a ditch. Zeus jumped in and hunkered down, waiting for Hera and Poseidon to catch up. Within seconds Hera dropped in to crouch beside him.
“We’ll never reach the sea at this rate. Somebody else is going to find that trident thingie before we do. Do something, Thunderboy!” she hissed.
Zeus liked the nickname she’d given him. But she sure did know how to make it sound like an insult sometimes.
“Don’t be so impatient. We’ll get there,” he told her. “We’re on a quest, remember? You can’t expect it to be fast or easy.”
An oracle named Pythia had sent them on this quest to search for a magical trident. Which was going to be a challenge, since none of them knew what a trident was. But they did know their destination—the sea.
Just then Poseidon dove between them, thumping their shoulders as he fell.
“Ow!” Zeus and Hera complained at the same time.
“Half-giant soldiers? This is all we need,” Poseidon complained back. “My feet are killing me.”
Zeus’s were too. No wonder. In the past two days they’d journeyed over hills, across valleys, and through forests.
Hera rolled her eyes at Poseidon. “Wuss.”
“I am not a wuss!” he objected. “I’m an Olympian.”
“Well, then act like one,” Hera snapped.
“What makes you the boss of how Olympians act?” Poseidon snapped back.
“I’m an Olympian too, remember?” said Hera. “You don’t hear me whining.”
“Would you two stop arguing for half a second?” Zeus pleaded. “Those soldiers are going to hear you.” Hera and Poseidon had been fighting almost the entire trip!
“I don’t hear anything,” Poseidon whispered a few minutes later. “Think we lost them?”
Hera peeked out of the ditch. “The coast looks clear. So what now?” They both looked at Zeus.
Zeus lifted the amulet that was strung on a leather cord around his neck. He’d found it at the temple in Delphi. He studied the amulet, a chip of rock about the size of his fist.
“Which way?” he asked it.
The strange black symbols on the chip’s smooth, gray surface began to move around. Acting like a compass, they formed an arrow pointing east.
“That way,” Zeus told the others. Hopping out of the ditch, he was off again. Hera and Poseidon followed.
But no sooner had all three left their hidey-hole than another spear whizzed over their heads. “Yeeoch!” It came so close it nearly parted Zeus’s dark hair.
“Fee, fi, fo, fum. Look out, Snacklets. Here we come!” Stomp, stomp, stomp. It was the unmistakable sound of half-giant sandals pounding toward them.
“They’re baaack!” shouted Zeus. He and Hera took off, running neck and neck.
Poseidon surged past them. His turquoise eyes were round with fear. And he seemed to have forgotten all about his feet hurting.
Hearing a caw overhead, Zeus glanced up. A seagull circled above them. He pointed at it. “We must,” he said, panting, “be getting close to the sea.”
He was right. Around the next bend in the road, they spotted the Aegean Sea off to their left. It was bright blue and dotted with little islands. Weird, wispy steam rose from its surface. Its waters churned and bubbled.
Zeus recalled the oracle’s words—words that had prompted their quest and led them to this sea: Trouble, trouble, boil, and bubble! You must find the trident. One that will point the way to those you seek. One that—in the right hands—has the power to defeat the first of the king’s Creatures of Chaos.
Hera glanced down at the sea as she ran. “I hope we make it that far,” she said breathlessly.
Just then a sharp electric jolt zapped Zeus in the ribs. “Ow!” he yelled. But the jolt reminded him that he did have a weapon to use against the soldiers.
“You guys keep going!” he called to Hera. “I’ll catch up later!”
“Okay!” Hera’s long, golden hair whipped in the wind as she kept running.
Zeus slowed, reaching for his zigzag dagger. It was tucked under the belt at his waist. He freed it, then spoke a command. “Large!”
With a sound like the crunching of a glacier, the bolt expanded. In an instant it became a glowing thunderbolt as tall as Zeus. It sparked and sizzled with electric energy.
Grasping it tightly, Zeus drew it back. Then he sent it soaring. “Zap them, Bolt!” Immediately the thunderbolt took off after Hera and Poseidon.
“No! Not them,” Zeus called in the nick of time. “The Cronies!” That was what everyone called King Cronus’s soldiers. Not to their faces, though, because they didn’t like it one bit.
The bolt screeched to a halt in midair. Then it switched directions and buzzed off toward the soldiers. Zeus ran the other way to catch up with Hera and Poseidon. He would have to be more exact in his commands from now on. He’d nearly fried his friends!
; Zzzpt! “Ow!” Zzzpt! “Ow!” The air behind him was soon filled with yelps and curses. Bolt was zapping one soldier after another.
Then Lion Tattoo’s voice rang out, “Retreat!”
CHAPTER TWO
Sea Journey
ZEUS LAUGHED AS THE SOUND OF THE half-giants’ stomping sandals grew distant. “Ha! Take that!” he yelled. Lion Tattoo pretended to be fierce, but he’d been afraid of a little bee back at Zeus’s cave on Crete. A thunderbolt must seem a hundred times more terrifying to him.
Zeus jogged down the steep, rocky hillside. Below him fishermen were mending nets on the shore. Hera and Poseidon were there too, waiting on a dock overlooking the sea.
Zeus could hear the roar and crash of waves as he moved lower. This was one angry sea!
Just as he reached the beach, his thunderbolt zoomed back. Shrinking to dagger size, it slid into place beneath his belt.
“Good boy, Bolt,” Zeus told it. Happy little sparks sizzled from between his fingers as he gave it a pat. The thunderbolt glowed with pride.
To think that he’d once been desperate to get rid of it! He’d found it stuck in a huge cone-shaped stone on display at the temple in Delphi. It was the same temple where he’d first met Pythia, the oracle.
After he’d pulled the thunderbolt out, it had stuck to his hand like glue. He had tried everything to get rid of it. Nothing had worked.
He’d had a good reason for not wanting to keep it. It scared him. He’d been struck by lightning dozens of times back on Crete, and it wasn’t fun. But now that he’d realized Bolt wasn’t out to zap him, they were getting to be, well, friends. It was a little worrisome.
“Don’t get too attached to me,” he warned the bolt. “Because you’re not really mine. Pythia said you belong to some guy named Goose. He’s destined to become king of the Olympians.”
After crossing the beach, Zeus stepped off the sand onto the wooden dock. Being king of the Olympians wasn’t a job he’d want. This Goose guy was going to have his hands full—whenever Zeus found him. After all, Hera and Poseidon were Olympians. Ruling over them would be a pain in the butt!
“Soldiers gone?” Poseidon asked as Zeus came up to him and Hera. The three of them eyed the hillside where they’d been attacked.
“For now, anyway,” Zeus replied. “But more will come.”
“Then let’s get out of here,” Hera said impatiently. “Any idea where to start looking for this so-called trident?”
At her question the chip amulet around Zeus’s neck twitched. He looked down at it. The black symbols had formed a new arrow. This one pointed straight off the end of the dock toward the sea. Zeus held the amulet up so Hera and Poseidon could see it too.
“So we’re supposed to dive into the sea? And just start randomly searching?” Hera asked skeptically.
Poseidon’s eyes went wide. “No,” he said, backing away. “I can’t swim! And if I fall into seawater, I’ll—I’ll melt!”
Hera frowned. “Wuss,” she taunted. “It’s pointing to the sea. We have to go.”
Zeus held his ears. He wasn’t used to so much blabbering. Until three days ago he’d lived a boring life in his quiet cave on Crete with a silent nymph, a bee, and a goat.
“Did you fight like this the whole time you were in the king’s belly?” Zeus asked with a frown. But his companions were arguing too loudly to hear him. He sometimes couldn’t help wondering if freeing them had been a mistake!
He could still picture how surprised King Cronus had looked when Zeus had thrown his thunderbolt down the king’s throat. How the giant Titan king’s face had turned red as he’d choked. And then green as he’d barfed up Poseidon, Hera, and three more Olympians—two girls and a boy.
Zeus couldn’t remember the names of those three now. They had been quickly recaptured by King Cronus and his Titan buddies.
The bickering slowed, and Zeus let go of his ears. He was just in time to hear a tiny voice pipe up. “Hip-sip,” it said.
Startled, Hera and Poseidon jumped. Then they stared at the amulet, since that’s where the voice had come from. “Did that thing just talk?” Hera asked.
Zeus nodded. “Guess I forgot to tell you it does that.”
“ ‘Hip-sip’?” said Poseidon. “What’s that mean?”
“It’s Chip Latin,” Zeus explained. “Like Pig Latin. Only, you move the first letter of a word to the end and add an ‘ip’ sound instead. As in ‘chip.’ ”
“So ‘hip-sip’ means ‘ship’!” Hera exclaimed. “Where can we get one?” She looked at the amulet as if waiting for a reply. But the chip of stone was silent.
Zeus shrugged. “Guess we’re supposed to figure that part out on our own.”
“Oh.” A look of intense concentration came over Hera’s face. She squeezed her forehead with her fingertips.
“What are you doing?” Zeus asked.
“Trying to use my magic powers to get us a ship. If you can command a magic thunderbolt, it must mean Poseidon and I can do magic too. After all, we’re all O— Ow!”
Poseidon had just elbowed her sharply, shaking his head.
“We’re all what?” asked Zeus, looking from one to the other of them.
“Nothing,” she said, looking away.
“Hera and I don’t know for sure that we have magic powers,” Poseidon explained. “All we know is that King Cronus fears us. And the others.”
The other three Olympians who’d been in Cronus’s belly, he meant. Who knew where they were now.
“He may fear you,” Zeus said, “but I think he fears me, too. Just wish I knew why.”
Hera and Poseidon traded secretive looks. Before Zeus could open his mouth to ask what that was all about, a fisherman came by. “Looking for transport?” he asked them.
When they nodded, he led them to a small sailing ship about ten feet long. “It washed up onshore this morning,” he told them. “No one’s claimed it, so you’re welcome to it. But you’re crazy if you go out in these rough seas. I’ve never seen them this angry.”
“Look at the name painted on the side!” said Poseidon, pointing to the boat. “No way. I’m not getting into a boat named Sinker!” He backed away.
Zeus peered more closely at the painted lettering. “Wait! There’s a t that’s faded out. So it’s not named Sinker; it’s—”
“Stinker?” finished Hera doubtfully. “Oh, much better.”
Zeus didn’t like to rush into things, so he walked around the boat, studying it. It looked a bit leaky, but it would have to do.
They thanked the fisherman and bid him good-bye. Then they shoved the Stinker into the water and hopped aboard.
And they were off. Into the furious sea!
CHAPTER THREE
Fiiissshh
ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO STEER A boat?” Zeus asked once they’d set sail.
Poseidon didn’t answer. Struck dumb with terror, he was gazing at the steaming, boiling sea around them.
“I’m sure I can figure it out,” said Hera, brimming with confidence. She stood to go to the tiller, a lever used to turn the boat. “Yikes!” She stumbled when a wave knocked them unexpectedly. Then she toppled over the side!
“She’ll be boiled alive!” Poseidon shrieked.
When she bobbed to the surface again, Zeus grabbed her arm. He and Poseidon reeled her back into the boat.
“Weird,” Hera said once she was inside. “The water’s not that hot, even though it’s boiling.”
“Hmm. Maybe its fury is just meant to scare people off,” said Zeus. “To keep them away from the sea, so they won’t come searching for the trident.”
Taking the tiller, he figured out the basics of sailing after a few tries. To go in the direction the chip amulet pointed, he actually had to move the tiller the opposite direction.
Hera and Poseidon managed to angle the sail into the wind. Soon they were speeding over the choppy sea.
“I feel seasick,” Poseidon complained after a while.
“Then hang your he
ad over the side of the ship!” Hera said in alarm.
Poseidon leaned over the ship’s bow and threw up. “Hey, I feel a lot better now,” he said after he straightened again. “In fact, I’m hungry.”
“Me too,” said Zeus. His stomach was growling. Except for a few apples they’d snatched from an orchard that morning, they hadn’t eaten all day.
Hera looked at Zeus. “The sea must be full of fish. Maybe you could spear one with your thunderbolt?”
Zeus put a protective hand over Bolt. He stared at Hera in horror. “Are you kidding? If this thunder bolt gets wet, it could electrocute us all!”
Hera was smart about some things. But she obviously didn’t know that lightning and water don’t mix.
Poseidon licked his lips. “Fiiissshh,” he said dreamily. He stretched his arms out in front of him. “I wish I could catch one right now.”
To everyone’s astonishment, a huge silver fish suddenly leaped out of the water. Thump! It landed neatly in Poseidon’s outstretched arms. He staggered backward under its weight.
“Whoa!” Zeus caught hold of Poseidon’s tunic before he could topple overboard too.
“Fiddling fishscales! That was close,” said Poseidon. He gazed at the water with renewed fear.
After Zeus broiled the fish with his thunderbolt, the three ate their fill. “Yum!” Poseidon pronounced, licking his fingers. “I could eat seafood every day of the week.”
“It’s good,” said Hera, “but I wouldn’t eat it every day.”
“Me? I’m on a seafood diet,” said Zeus. “When I see food, I eat it!”
The three of them laughed. For the first time since meeting the two Olympians, Zeus almost felt like they could become friends. But then again, maybe he only felt that way because his belly was full. And because no one was chasing them. Not at the moment, anyway.
Little did he know that this peace wouldn’t last long.
Keeping an eye on the direction the amulet’s arrow was pointing, Zeus adjusted the tiller. The Aegean Sea continued to boil and bubble. The wind blew steadily as they forged ahead.