by Joan Holub
CONTENTS
1 NIGHT
2 UNSUNG HERO
3 RUFFLED FEATHERS
4 ZEUS
5 REACHING FOR THE STARS
6 A CHARMED LIFE?
7 A NEW LOOK
8 GONE
9 FITFUL NIGHT, THUNDEROUS MORNING
10 THINGS GET WORSE
11 DAY AFTER DAY
12 HELP!
13 HAPPY SURPRISES
14 CAUGHT!
15 NIGHT AND DAY
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
To our mega-terrific readers!
McKay O. and Reese O., Natalia L., Madison W., Alejandra L., Amelia G., Maddie A., McKenna W., Micci S. and Brianna I., Caitlin R., Hannah R., Aurora DM., Lillia L., Ela N., Emily and Grondine Family, Kaylee S., Koko Y., Keny Y., The Andrade Family and Alba C., Sirena A., Kasidy Y., Derek H., Lorelai M., Brynn S., Lana W., Megan D., Aeryn B., Paris O., Tatiana T., Olivia H., Lori F., Kaitlyn W., Kiki V., Pinki S., Layla F., Laurie G., Caitlynn L., Thomas R. and Zoey R., Christine D-H and Khanya S., Ally M., Sabrina C., and Keyra M., Virginia Anna J., Shelby Lynn J., Samantha Grace J., Moira S., Elizabeth A., Abigail A., Caroline A., Kira L., Claire C., Ava Lee S., Sofia H., Madi T., Liliana G., and you!
—J. H. and S. W.
1
Night
NYX, THE TWELVE-YEAR-OLD GODDESS OF the night, hovered high in the dark velvet sky in her horse-drawn chariot. With both arms, she began reeling in the starry blue-black cape that currently stretched overhead like an enormous canopy.
Darkness was giving way to the dawn of morning, and people on the ground far below were beginning to wake up. But it was Nyx’s bedtime.
She let out a big yawn. After she finished her job here, she would normally go home and sleep the coming day away, awakening in the afternoon to hang out and do stuff. Then, toward evening, she’d fly back up in the sky to expand her cape and darken the heavens once more. However, this day was going to be totally different from usual. And she might not get any sleep at all!
As she continued to expertly tug at her cape and fold it smaller and smaller, Nyx spotted Eos, the rosy-fingered goddess of the dawn, entering the sky below.
Graceful as a dancer, Eos waved her arms, sending glistening rays of pink, purple, and orange to fan out along the horizon. The goddess, who Nyx figured was about her same age, wore a bright saffron-colored robe embroidered with lovely flowers. Which was pretty much the exact opposite of Nyx’s outfit—a dark plum-colored gown studded with winking stars.
By now Nyx’s expansive cape had magically shrunk to the size of a pillowcase. She gave it a few final folds to form a neat square no bigger than a sandwich, and then tucked the cape into the pocket of her gown. Picking up the reins of her chariot, she shot another quick peek at Eos and then looked away again before Eos could catch her watching. The two of them had never spoken, and Nyx sometimes wondered if Eos was afraid of her. Many people were.
Eos was sooo lucky. Because everyone loved the dawn, Nyx thought with a twinge of envy. Night, however? Not so much. It was kind of frustrating that mortals and immortals alike didn’t understand or appreciate her as much as they did Eos. Just why the soothing darkness her cape provided should inspire fear in some was something she’d never understood. To her, night was cozy . . . and necessary. It was a time of rest and renewal. A time to dream.
Simply thinking about sleep caused her to yawn again, even bigger. Her purple gaze flicked to Eos and she froze. Because this time, Eos’s pale eyes were looking her way, too! The goddess of the dawn had caught her mid-yawn with her mouth wide open. Nyx quickly snapped it shut. How embarrassing!
For half a second, their eyes met. She had a weird feeling Eos was about to say hi or start a conversation or something. What if she made a friendly joke to Nyx about the yawn?
How would Nyx answer? She didn’t know how to be funny back! Startled, Nyx quickly looked away and pretended to get busy with the reins. She always felt shy around people she didn’t know well. Time to get out of here!
“Home, Erebus!” Nyx urged her horse quietly. As the colors of dawn replaced the night, he pulled her purple and gold star-studded chariot lower in the sky. Down, down, down they went.
No sooner did the horse’s hooves touch the earth than . . . crack! The ground magically split open. Erebus skillfully sailed down through the crack and took Nyx and her chariot into Tartarus, the deepest place in the Underworld.
A mist-shrouded stone palace loomed on the misty path ahead. Her home. The moment her horse and chariot landed beside the black wrought-iron fence that surrounded the palace, Nyx leaped to stand in a patch of ground covered with fragrant star-shaped white flowers. They were called asphodel, and great fields of them grew in the Underworld, where little else would grow.
“Back in a few, Erebus,” she murmured, giving her horse a quick hug.
Tiny blinking stars followed in her wake as she dashed through the wrought-iron gate, up the walkway, and through a polished ebony wood door. Inside the palace, her footsteps echoed across the black-tiled great room and down a hall. Within minutes, she burst into her favorite place in the whole castle—her bedroom!
She had painted its walls a lush midnight blue and studded its ceiling with white stars that could magically rearrange themselves into various constellations. It was so cool!
No one else had ever seen the room though. Because the only friends she had in the Underworld were either shades, aka the dead, aka human souls. Or else they were guys like Hypnos and Thanatos, the twin gods of sleep and death who helped check in newly deceased arrivals to the Underworld. Due to her nighttime job in the sky, it wasn’t like she could ever have a sleepover even if she had friends her own age around here!
Zooming straight to her canopy bed, Nyx shoved open the heavy black brocade curtain that enclosed it. After pulling her folded square cape from her pocket, she dropped it into the travel bag she’d packed earlier and left atop her bedcovers. The bag was stuffed with a week’s worth of clothes—pairs of black leggings, some black chitons, and her black cotton nightgown as well as makeup, money (though she wasn’t sure she’d need that where she was going), and other belongings.
She yawned again. Argh! She had to shake off her tiredness. She had places to go and immortals to see!
Quickly, she grabbed the two papyrus scrolls—one an invitation and the other an essay—that lay on her bed by the bag. Though she had practically memorized both scrolls by now, she remained worried and confused by them. This is how the invitation went:
Dear Nyx,
We are writing to tell you that we won an essay contest celebrating an “unsung hero.” That is, a hero whose good deeds aren’t well-known enough to be celebrated in any songs. And guess what? Our essay was about you!
Principal Zeus said we could invite you—our unsung hero—to visit Mount Olympus Academy for a week, so immortals can meet you and celebrate your good deeds. We hope you will come! You can bring your cape and do your job in the sky every night from here, no problem, right?
See you on Sunday! (hope, hope!)
Thanks, hero!
—Athena and Artemis
Nyx could hardly believe that the two mega-awesome goddessgirls Athena and Artemis had written to her, much less that they considered her a hero! The essay they’d sent told of how, under cover of Nyx’s darkness, the mortal Odysseus (a definite hero) was able to sneak home after the Trojan War and reclaim his estate. This was true, but it wasn’t like Nyx had provided the darkness specifically to aid him. She’d simply been doing her job!
Night was a great concealer of actions. Another of its beauties was that it allowed what was done by day to be undone. Which was how, as Athena and Artemis’s essay had noted, Od
ysseus’s wife, Penelope, was able to thwart unwanted suitors. Thinking Odysseus dead in the war, they had hounded her to marry one of them. But she told them she first had to finish a special weaving. She worked on it every day. Then, while the suitors slept during the night Nyx brought forth, Penelope tricked them by undoing her work.
Here again, Nyx’s nightly help had been merely accidental, though. Real heroes like Odysseus did great things on purpose. What if Zeus or other immortals at MOA realized she really wasn’t a hero after they met her? Would Athena and Artemis soon regret their invitation?
Nyx poked the two scrolls into her bag. They were too long to fit, so she left the bag partly open with the scrolls sticking out of the top.
Her stomach fluttered uneasily. The moment she had both dreaded and looked forward to during the last few days had finally arrived. She was going to Mount Olympus Academy. Although she felt anxious, she was determined to show up. Because despite doubting whether she deserved to be called a hero, this could be her best chance of educating immortals about the importance of night and how little they had to fear from it (and from her)!
She grabbed her bag in one hand and dashed off. Reaching the palace entryway, she screeched to a halt and lifted a tall dome from a table with her free hand. About three feet tall and two feet wide, the dome had a handle on top and was draped with a cloth. Quickly she tied a cord around its middle to keep the cloth in place.
Minutes later, she was stowing her stuff in the back of her chariot. When that was done, she leaped in. Flicking her horse’s reins, she shouted, “Onward to Mount Olympus!”
As the chariot lifted on a path that would take her out of the Underworld, she gazed up at the narrow slice of sky that showed through the crack in the earth overhead. She could just make out the last of the dawn’s faint pink glow as it gave way to the blue sky of morning. Although pink wasn’t at all her, it was the perfect color for the bright and pretty Eos, who probably would have fit right in at MOA. Better than Nyx, anyway.
Just before Erebus burst out of the Underworld, carrying her and her chariot with him, Nyx heard a flapping sound, like a flock of bats. Her horse must’ve heard it too because he bucked nervously. “Whoa, boy!” she soothed. After gaining control of him, she frowned and looked around.
Seeing nothing amiss, she flew on, never noticing the shadowy stowaways that had zoomed into the chariot as it rose up from Tartarus. After folding their wings, they slipped into the opening at the top of her bag and huddled together, as quiet as death itself.
2
Unsung Hero
EREBUS LANDED IN THE WHITE marble courtyard of Mount Olympus Academy just before lunchtime. Grabbing the cloth-covered dome and her sparkly black bag, Nyx hopped down from her chariot.
“Thanks for flying me here, buddy,” she said, patting her horse on the nose. “Cross your hooves Athena and Artemis aren’t too disappointed when they meet me.” They might be, when they discovered how socially awkward a loner like her could be. Plus, she probably wasn’t going to be the heroic type they expected!
Gazing into Erebus’s big brown eyes, she snapped her fingers. Poof! At her command, both her horse and chariot magically disappeared in a burst of silver glitter.
As Nyx crossed the courtyard and then started up the granite steps that led to the Academy’s front doors, she was aware of being stared at. Since it was Sunday, classes weren’t in session. So instead of being inside, many students were out in the courtyard chatting with others, playing games, or sitting on benches to study. Their bright-colored chitons or tunics were in sharp contrast to Nyx’s goth style of makeup and dress. With her pale face powder, dark eyeliner, purple lip gloss and eye shadow, plus her sparkly black fingernails, black velvet chiton, and black fishnet stockings, she looked and felt very out of place here.
She knew she should act cool and probably wave or casually say hi to a few of these immortals and mortals, but she was pretty rusty when it came to small talk or friendly overtures. Sometimes, when she felt anxious like this, a dark misty cloud would appear and swirl around her. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself before that could happen now. The mist was a defense mechanism, but it would only draw more attention. She quickened her step and kept her head down, letting her long dark hair curtain her face.
Nyx found her way to MOA’s main office without having to stop and ask for directions. When she pushed through the office door, the nine-headed lady behind the counter looked up. Her nine variously colored heads and Nyx’s one head all did surprised double takes as they looked each other up and down. Although Nyx was accustomed to seeing the three-headed guard dog, Cerberus, in the Underworld, it wasn’t every day she ran into a multiheaded person! And her goth appearance seemed to be just as surprising to this lady.
The office lady’s yellow head seemed to recover quickest. “May I help you?” it asked in a cheerful voice.
Nyx set her stuff on the floor. “I’m Nyx,” she announced. “Athena and Artemis are supposed to meet me here, but I’m a half hour early. I wasn’t sure about the travel time between Tartarus and Mount Olympus,” she babbled on. “My horse and chariot got me here faster than I thought they would.”
“Tartarus?” Nine pairs of eyes bugged out in alarm. “That’s the place in the Underworld that Typhon came from!”
Nyx nodded. “Um, yeah.” It was true that Tartarus didn’t have the best reputation as a place to be from. In fact, most saw it as the worst place in the Underworld. It was where the rottenest people ended up after they died. It was also where a giant creature named Typhon had been imprisoned for many years until he’d escaped to terrorize Mount Olympus not long ago. That probably made Tartarus seem very scary to this lady. However, Nyx found it perfectly comfy there. Especially since it was the darkest place in the Underworld!
Not knowing what else to say, Nyx shifted from one foot to the other and remained silent.
“Principal Zeus usually alerts me when new students are expected,” the office lady’s green head went on in a disapproving tone of voice. She began unrolling a scrollbook on her desk as if searching for some notation she’d overlooked about a goth-looking student coming to MOA.
The star and moon charms on Nyx’s long, heavy silver necklace clinked against her sparkly black bag as she bent and grabbed the invitation. As she slid it across the counter, a voice piped up, saying, “She’s a visitor, not a student.”
Nyx turned to see that two goddessgirls had entered the office behind her. She had seen their pictures in Teen Scrollazine and Greekly Weekly News articles many times. The one with wavy brown hair and gray-blue eyes was Athena, well-known for being the brainiest student at MOA and also Zeus’s daughter. The goddessgirl with the glossy black hair, who had a bow and quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder, had to be Artemis. She, along with her brother, Apollo, were champion archers.
“Welcome, Nyx!” the two goddessgirls chorused, coming closer. When neither of them seemed taken aback by the way she was dressed, Nyx relaxed a little.
“We saw you arrive in the courtyard a minute ago,” said Athena.
“We were out on the sports field for Cheer practice,” Artemis added.
Nyx frowned slightly. She had no idea what “Cheer” was, and she didn’t want to ask since it might make her seem odd (or worse, dumb!). There was an awkward pause. Then, worried that the girls would think her unfriendly, she smiled at them.
They smiled back. “So, are you hungry?” Athena asked her.
Nyx nodded vigorously. She’d had nothing to eat except for two Hotter than Hades spicy nut snack bars she’d brought on her trip.
“Let’s get lunch first, then,” said Athena.
“Yeah, I’m starving,” said Artemis. “Plus, we want to introduce you around. Everyone’s dying to meet you.”
Nyx perked up at the mention of dying. Living in Tartarus, she was surrounded by death and found it comforting and familiar. But before she could ask about these dying friends, Artemis corrected herself. “Well, not lite
rally dying, of course. Most of the students here at MOA are immortals like Athena and me, who, you know, live forever.” Stooping, she hefted Nyx’s bag in one hand.
Before Athena could take charge of the dome, Nyx picked it up herself. The goddessgirls eyed her curiously, but they didn’t get a chance to speak because the office lady interrupted before they could utter another word. “A minute, please, girls.”
The lady held up the invitation and gestured (without touching it) to a blazing gold Z shaped like a thunderbolt that was embossed at the bottom of the letterscroll. When Nyx had first received the invitation she’d made the mistake of touching that gold Z. Immediately, a burst of electricity had buzzed her fingertip and she’d dropped the scroll. The office lady obviously knew better than to do that.
“I can see that this is official,” she said. “But it’s not like Principal Zeus to forget to tell me to expect visitors.” Her pink head looked from one goddessgirl to the other. “So maybe you can fill me in on the details?”
“Sure, Ms. Hydra,” Athena said patiently.
So that was the office lady’s name. Nyx filed it away for later as Athena proceeded to explain why Nyx was there. Just as Athena’s explanation wound to a close, Artemis gasped and dropped Nyx’s bag. Startled, everyone whirled to look at her.
“Did you guys see that?” Artemis asked, backing away from the bag.
“See what?” Nyx, Athena, and Ms. Hydra chorused. Had Artemis been startled by a glimpse of her star-studded cape inside the bag? Nyx wondered.
“Some kind of shadowy thing just whooshed from that bag and out through the door!” Artemis blurted before Nyx could wonder further.
“Huh?” Nyx said in alarm. Ms. Hydra’s heads all looked at one another uneasily as the three goddessgirls ran to the door to peer both ways up and down the hall.
“I don’t see anything unusual,” Athena noted.
“Me neither.” Nyx went over to her bag and peered inside it. It was still neatly packed and nothing seemed out of place. “Hmm. Shades are pale and wispy. But if any of them had tried to hitch a ride out of the Underworld with me, Cerberus would have sniffed them out and barred their way,” she said to Artemis. “You must be imagining things.”