Hephaestus and the Island of Terror

by Joan Holub

  An arrow appeared on the stone, pointing north. A tiny voice said, “His-tip ay-wip!”

  Chip was another of Zeus’s magical objects. Most of the time, symbols appeared on it when Zeus asked a question. But Chip also spoke his own special language, Chip Latin. It was kind of like Pig Latin, only you moved the first letter of each word to the end of the word and added “ip.”

  “Thanks, Chip!” Zeus said. “A little to the left, you guys!” he shouted to Hades and Hera. His brother and sister Olympians shifted the sails just as a wind picked up, sending the ship forward. Fifteen minutes later they caught up to Poseidon.

  “Hey, Fishbreath! We’re going to beat you!” Zeus teased.

  Poseidon grinned, looking happy and wholly confident as he skimmed across the sea. “You wish! The sea is my element, Thunderboy. When I’m in the water, it’s like my whole mind opens up. I feel like I can do anything. It’s awesome!”

  Zeus had felt that kind of awesome feeling before, when Bolt was in his hand, and the wind and rain of a thunderstorm whipped around him. But that was before he’d battled Crius. Before the awesome feeling had been tainted by evil creeping into his heart. He shuddered, wanting to forget.

  Hades ran up to him, holding a basket filled with food. “Hey, I found some bread and sardines in the hull. Think we could borrow them, too?”

  Zeus’s stomach rumbled at the mention of food. “Sure. Poseidon can catch more fish to replace that food later. So, yeah, go ahead.”

  “Hooray! I’m so hungry, I would eat the shoe off a Crony’s stinky foot!” said Hades.

  “Ew!” said several of the girls. However, they all knew he liked things stinky. In fact, when some of the Olympians had been trapped inside King Cronus’s belly before Zeus had rescued them, Hades had actually been happy down there!

  A few minutes later the Olympians were munching bread and sardines as the wind carried the ship to Lemnos. Even Artemis woke up enough to sleep-chew.

  Zeus gazed upward. The sky was blue, the air was cool, and his belly was full.

  “What a beautiful day. Things are going our way,” Apollo sing-songed, echoing Zeus’s thoughts.

  “Don’t jinx us!” Hera warned.

  “Huh?” Apollo said. “There’s no such thing as j—”

  “Sea monsters!” Hades cried, jumping up from his seat near the sails. He was right! Two dragon-like heads had risen from the water by the bow of the ship.

  One of the monsters was the turquoise blue of the sea, and the other was emerald green. Instead of ears there were fins on either side of each monster’s head. And their teeth looked big enough and sharp enough to bite the ship in half.

  “Monster attack!” Ares yelled, his red eyes blazing. He lifted his spear, poised to throw it.

  “Wait! Don’t hurt them!” Poseidon warned. He zipped between the sea monsters and the ship, riding on his trident.

  “This ship holds my friends! You must let them pass safely,” he commanded the monsters.

  It worked! Recognizing him as the god of the sea, the monsters bowed their heads in awe. “As you wish, Lord Poseidon,” the green monster rumbled in a deep voice.

  “Wow. Impressive save, Bro,” Hades called down to him. “We were almost sea-monster food!”

  Poseidon shrugged, but he was smiling proudly.

  “Let us aid you on your journey,” the turquoise monster offered. “Where are you headed?”

  Zeus stepped forward. “To the Island of Lemnos,” he told them.

  Both monsters’ dragon-like heads jerked back in alarm, and their fin-ears flapped wildly. “No way!” said Green. “You’re on your own.”

  “We apologize, Lord of the Sea. But we are afraid. No one goes to that island,” Turquoise told Poseidon.

  “Why?” asked Poseidon.

  “Yeah, what’s the matter with the place?” Zeus asked.

  “It’s spooky and dangerous. Plus there’s something very, very weird about it. You should stay well away,” Green replied.

  “Spooky?” echoed Apollo.

  “Dangerous?” echoed Athena.

  Demeter leaned over the rail, her eyes wide. “And what do you mean by ‘weird’?” But the two sea monsters sank back into the sea without answering.

  “Maybe we should do as they say and turn back,” Hades said with a worried look on his face.

  “Turn chicken, you mean?” Hera scoffed as their ship continued to speed over the waves toward the island. “We can’t. This is our quest.”

  “Hera’s right,” Zeus agreed. “We’ll have to see for ourselves what’s there.”

  “The island may be spooky and weird, but I’m sure it’s nothing to be feared,” added Apollo.

  Hera scowled. “There you go, jinxing us again!”

  “Not everything I say can be a jinx, can it?” Apollo protested, but the Olympians all looked worried now. An uneasy silence fell over the ship as they sailed on.

  After what seemed like days, they heard Poseidon call out. “Land ho!” Finally!

  The nine Olympians on board all rushed to the bow to see an island ahead, shrouded in fog.

  “What’s that dark thing looming in the middle of the island?” Hestia wondered aloud.

  Others made guesses. “A mountain?”

  “A volcano?”

  “A Titan?”

  And then they heard it: Boom! Boom! Boom! “Is that someone—or something—playing the drums?” wondered Athena.

  “Oh, good. Maybe the islanders like music,” Apollo said hopefully. As they sailed closer, the sound became clearer.

  “I don’t think it’s drums. It sounds like hammers hitting . . . metal,” Ares remarked. Their ship ran aground about twenty yards from shore.

  “There are two rowboats on board,” Zeus said. “Let’s split up and then meet onshore.”

  “How will we find one another in that fog?” Hera asked.

  “I’ve got Bolt, and Hestia has her flame,” Zeus replied. “We’ll each go in a different boat and flash our lights if we get separated.”

  After lowering the boats to the water, Zeus, Hades, Athena, Apollo, and a sleepwalking Artemis climbed into the blue rowboat. Hera, Hestia, Ares, and Demeter took the gray one. Poseidon zipped off toward shore, riding on his trident alongside them.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  What the Oog?

  Rowing to the island seemed to take forever. Zeus could hear Apollo next to him, singing softly. He wondered why the fog was so thick, like a big, white blanket covering the island. He couldn’t even see when their boat hit the shore—he could only feel it.

  Bump!

  “Bolt, we need light,” said Zeus, holding up his dagger. But nothing happened. The thunderbolt’s usual glow didn’t come to pierce through the fog. Though he continued to shake Bolt, no light shone from it. “That’s odd,” he said.

  Hades and Athena climbed out of the boat after him, and then they helped Apollo with Artemis. “Foggy,” Artemis muttered and then yawned.

  “Dark and spooky. I like it,” said Hades. He sniffed the air, his face breaking into a big smile. “It even smells like the Underworld.” Hades was god of that dank place, which lay beneath the earth.

  “Ew! You mean the Underworld smells like rotten eggs?” Athena asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

  “Rotten to you, awesome to me,” Hades replied, and Athena shook her head.

  “Since your bolt isn’t working, Hestia’s torch would be very useful about now,” Apollo remarked.

  “Yeah, where is she? And the others?” Zeus asked, looking around as they waited. “Hera? Hestia?” he called out.

  There was no answer. Zeus grabbed Chip.

  “Chip, take us to the other Olympians,” Zeus said. Like with Bolt, nothing happened.

  Before he could try again, Athena shrieked. “Look out!”

  Whoosh! An arrow sliced through the air and whizzed past his ear. Zeus heard it splash into the water behind him. Through the fog three more arrows came at the five Olympians.


  “Duck! Run!” Zeus yelled.

  “Which one? You’re confusing me!” Hades yelled back as an arrow flew over his head.

  “Both!” Zeus cried. “Head to the right! The arrows are coming from the other direction.”

  Too panicked to think clearly, Zeus covered his head with his hands and raced into the fog. The four other Olympians were at his heels. After about a hundred yards he stopped, trying to catch his breath. The fog was thinner here and he could see Hades, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis around him. “I guess we’re safe here for now,” he told them.

  Just then a line of warriors stepped toward them out of the fog. “Uh-oh,” said Artemis sleepily.

  Each held a drawn bow loaded with an arrow pointed right at the Olympians. Bare-chested and bearded, they looked ferocious.

  Hades quickly put on his magical object, an invisibility helmet. But it didn’t work. He stayed visible.

  “Hey!” Hades complained. “There’s something wrong with my helmet. I should be invisible, but I’m not!”

  “Tell me about it,” said Zeus. “Bolt and Chip won’t work either. There’s something about this island . . .”

  “Droog-ee-ur-woo-pongs!” barked one of the warriors. At least, that was what it sounded like to Zeus.

  “What the ‘oog’ did he say?” Apollo whispered.

  “Ponged if I know,” Zeus whispered back.

  “Root noog!” a different warrior said.

  “Droog themoo!” added another.

  “The moo? Do they want us to find them a cow?” Zeus wondered aloud.

  “Doubt it. I think they want noodles,” said Hades. “Where are we supposed to get noodles at a time like this?”

  “Droog-ee-ur-woo-pongs!” the first warrior repeated impatiently.

  Athena’s gray eyes lit up. “No! I think he’s saying ‘Drop your weapons’!”

  “No way!” Hades yelled. “We’ll be helpless. Let’s fight them!”

  Athena shot him a frustrated glance. “What? Are you Ares now?”

  Zeus thought fast. His and Hades’s magical objects weren’t working for some reason. Athena had her Thread of Cleverness and the aegis. Still, their magic probably wouldn’t work either. Apollo had no magical object and wouldn’t be able to fight even if he’d had one, since he had to prop up his sister. Also, they were outnumbered.

  Zeus dropped Bolt and held up his hands, but he kept Chip just in case the stone began working again. “See? We mean no harm.”

  The head warrior nodded. Reluctantly following Zeus’s lead, Hades dropped his helmet, and Athena took off her aegis.

  “We’re doomed,” said Apollo.

  “Yeah. Maybe our objects’ magic would’ve started working soon. But now there’s no way we can fight them off,” Hades muttered, his hands in the air too.

  Zeus felt a pang of regret. Had he done the right thing?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Hef-es-tu-soo!

  Their weapons seemed to amuse the warriors. One of the men put on Hades’s helmet, and another tried to put the aegis on his head. A third tried to use the sharp tip of Bolt to pick his teeth.

  Zeus felt Athena press something into his hand.

  “I didn’t give them my Thread of Cleverness,” she whispered. “I’ll use its magic to weave a large net so we can get away from these goons. Just hold on tight to your end.”

  It was worth a try, thought Zeus. Before he could nod, the warriors surrounded the five Olympians and began herding them forward. Zeus and Athena walked side by side, their hands close together. But as they walked, the thread didn’t grow any longer, like it had before.

  “What is going on?” Zeus whispered after they had gone inland from the shore a little way.

  Athena frowned. “Either the thread’s magic isn’t working, or I forgot how to do it.” With a sigh, she took the other end of the thread back from him.

  “Those sea monsters were telling the truth. There’s something weird about this island,” said Apollo.

  “Yeah, and I have a feeling we’re going to find out what that something is whether we want to know or not,” said Hades.

  Artemis giggled, which sounded kind of spooky in the fog.

  Zeus could only hope the other five Olympians hadn’t been captured as well. “Keep an eye out for the others,” he whispered.

  As they marched toward the center of the island, the clanging metal sounds they’d heard earlier grew louder and louder. Though the fog thinned out more and more around them as they kept walking, it still hung in the air like a wispy, smoky blanket. Zeus could see they were heading toward the large thing at the island’s center that they had seen from the ship.

  “It’s a volcano!” said Athena. Fog flowed from its top in big plumes, then curled outward to hug the edges of the island like a doughnut.

  “That’s not a volcano. It’s a fog-cano,” said Hades.

  “And what’s that? A fog monster?” wondered Apollo as they passed a strange object. It was a metal box that sat on top of three metal legs. It was twice as tall as Zeus. Foggy smoke billowed out of a grate at the front of the box. A huge tube that looked like it might stretch all the way to the volcano snaked into the back of the box.

  “It’s some kind of . . . machine,” Athena noted. “I think the steam from the volcano is being sent through the tube and then shot out of the box.”

  “So it’s . . . funneled fog?” Hades asked.

  Athena shrugged. “Something like that,” she replied.

  As they continued to walk along, they passed a second machine just like the first one. Only this one seemed to be heading for the trees nearby. It was walking on its three legs, and then it scurried right up the thick trunk! Creak! Creak! It was also attached to a long tube—longer than the one on the first machine—that snaked through the tree as the box clambered up . . . up . . . and up.

  The Olympians craned their necks, and realized there were more of the strange boxes among the leaves, supported by the thick branches that jutted out.

  “How are the boxes moving around and making fog?” Hades wondered.

  Zeus frowned. “It must be magic. There’s probably a Titan on this island.”

  “And we don’t have our weapons,” Hades said.

  “They don’t seem to be working, anyway,” Athena pointed out. “Hmm. I wonder why a Titan’s magic would work here but ours doesn’t.”

  “No idea,” said Zeus. Facing a Titan without weapons would not be easy, he thought. “Where are you taking us?” he asked their captors in his most demanding voice.

  “Toog ur leader-oo,” one of the warriors answered.

  “They’re taking us to their leader,” Athena translated.

  The warrior next to her laughed. “Leader-oo!” he sang out in a high voice.

  Apollo began to sing too. “The heroes were marched to a fiery hill. Being scared to death was part of the thrill.”

  He kept it up, but Zeus couldn’t hear because the loud clanging ahead drowned Apollo out. They started up a slope toward the base of the volcano.

  Then Hades gasped. “Awesome!” In front of them loomed a huge bronze door covered with designs that looked like human skulls.

  Two of the warriors approached the door and started pounding on it. “Hef-es-tu-soo!” they shouted. The other warriors took up the chant. “Hef-es-tu-soo! Hef-es-tu-soo!”

  Hefestusoo? Is that the name of the Titan? Zeus wondered.

  Suddenly the loud clanging they had been hearing as they’d marched along stopped.

  The bronze door swung open. A voice shouted from inside. “Enteroo!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  In the Heart of the Volcano

  A blast of heat hit the Olympians as the warriors led them inside. The door had opened into a hallway with a low ceiling. Both the walls and the ceiling were lined with bronze. This was no ordinary volcano. It was a building with rooms and halls and doors.

  “Phew! It’s hot in here,” Artemis said, fanning her face with her hand. Zeus
stared at her in surprise. It was the first complete sentence she had said in days that actually made sense! Her eyes were a little more open than usual, and she wasn’t leaning on her brother. Maybe the potion was finally wearing off. Or was it something else?

  The warriors marched their captives down the winding hall. Every time they passed another warrior, they all called out to one another. “Hullooo!”

  Eventually the hall opened up into a big, high-ceilinged workshop. Here more bare-chested warriors hammered metals and used bizarro tools to create strange-looking wonders. There was a mechanical falcon made of black metal sitting on a perch, stiffly flapping its wings. And a round ball of metal with eight spidery legs was skittering across the floor. Not to mention the giant metal cages hanging from the ceiling with various other mechanical pets hanging inside them.

  The Olympians gazed around in amazement. Zeus had never seen anything quite like it—and he had seen a lot of crazy things on these quests.

  And then he noticed it. The very thing they’d come for! There, hanging on the back wall, were six fine silver arrows and a gleaming gold bow.

  Suddenly Artemis perked up. “Mine!” she cried, and moved toward them. But one of the warriors pushed her back into line.

  “Hey!” Apollo complained, pulling her away from them. He, Hades, Athena, and Zeus exchanged glances as they all moved into another hallway. Somehow, at some point, they had to get those arrows and that bow for Artemis.

  After more marching, they found themselves standing in front of a new bronze door. Flanking it were two tall statues, both beautifully crafted. A silver lion sat on the left, and a snarling gold dog on the right. Zeus shivered when he looked at them. He knew they were only metal, but they looked as if they could spring to life and attack at any moment.

  “Hephaestusoo! Hephaestusoo!” the warriors chanted. But Zeus noticed that none of them pounded on this new door like they had the first one. Instead they waited with growing excitement.

  “What are we waiting for?” Hades whispered to Zeus.

  Then they heard a sound. Thump! Thump! Thump! It came from behind the door. Hearing it, the warriors’ chanting grew more excited.