by Joan Holub
“Um, about that,” Zeus said. “I’m thinking maybe we should pass the aegis around and see who it belongs to. . . .”
“What?” Hera asked, her blue eyes blazing. “But I found it!”
“Right, but usually when a magical object and its owner meet, something magical happens,” Zeus pointed out. “And when the Titans were fighting us, the aegis didn’t do anything.”
Hera frowned. “Well, that was only one battle. Maybe its magic just hasn’t kicked in for me yet.”
“We need you to guide us with Chip,” Zeus said, trying to reason with her. “And Hades entrusted you with his helm. With the aegis, that’s three magical objects to juggle. Too many for one person.”
“It’s bad battle strategy,” Ares agreed. “One soldier shouldn’t hold all the weapons.”
Hera sighed. “Fine,” she said, slipping the aegis off. “It’s kind of heavy anyway.”
She handed it to Poseidon, who tried it on.
“Nothing,” he said. Ares tried it on next, and then Apollo, and then Zeus.
As Zeus touched the aegis, he felt a little tingle in his fingertips. What could it mean? Was the aegis his? But he already had a magical object. Two if you counted Chip.
“I think Apollo should wear it for now,” he said. “Because, Ares, at least you have your spear. And your birds.”
Ares nodded. “The birds don’t always come to me if I’m too far away from the swamp,” he said. “But Apollo can have the aegis.”
“Sounds fair to me,” Hera agreed, and Poseidon nodded.
So Zeus handed the tasseled aegis back to Apollo, and then nodded at Ares. “Can you get us to the coast?” he asked him.
“Sure, follow me,” Ares said. He made a fist and thrust it high in the air. “To battle!”
“I hope not,” Hera mumbled.
They started to walk again, with Hera using Chip’s glow and Zeus using Bolt’s shine to light their path.
“Um, are we going to sleep tonight? Ever?” Poseidon asked after a while.
“Let’s get out of this forest first,” Zeus said. “Besides, we might spot Hades, Hestia, and Demeter. We’ve got to keep our eyes open.”
After walking for another half hour, a strange sound interrupted the quiet night. Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump . . .
“It’s like drums beating,” remarked Zeus.
They were nearing the edge of a cliff. Zeus got down on his knees and crawled to the brink of it to look over. The others followed him.
In the canyon below they saw thousands of Cronies—the half-giants that made up King Cronus’s army. They stood in a circle around a huge bonfire. And next to the enormous blaze sat a giant, brass urn. The soldiers marched in formation around the fire and the urn, their heavy feet stomping on the canyon floor.
“What are they doing?” Poseidon asked out loud.
“They’re marching around a giant urn, but what it contains, we may never learn,” Apollo sang softly in rhyme-speak.
Ares jumped to his feet. “It’s battle time!” he yelled. “Let’s charge them!”
“Ares, get down!” Hera hissed, pulling on his leg.
Down below, some of the marching Cronies stopped and gazed around. One of them pointed up at the Olympians.
“Look! More Olympians! Get them!”
“More Olympians?” Zeus exclaimed. “That must mean they have Hades, Demeter, and Hestia! We have to rescue them!”
A small group of Cronies scrambled up the rocky cliff side, headed right for them.
Zeus froze, suddenly unsure what to do. Things had never looked so bad. Three Olympians had been recaptured. Pythia seemed to have abandoned them. And the Cronies were hot on their heels.
“Come on, Bolt Breath!” Hera yelled at him. “You know what we have to do!”
“Put our magical objects together?” Zeus asked.
“No time. Let’s run!” Hera yelled.
Zeus didn’t argue. He and the others turned and raced into the darkness with the Cronies pounding after them. Just another typical day for the Olympian heroes in training, thought Zeus.
He picked up his pace, determined to find Pythia. Because he had a hunch that wherever the oracle was, she needed rescuing too!
Joan Holub is the award-winning author of more than one hundred and thirty books for young readers, including Zero the Hero, Vincent van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars, and Shampoodle. She lives in North Carolina. Visit her at joanholub.com.
Suzanne Williams is the award-winning author of more than thirty-five books for young readers, including Library Lil, Ten Naughty Little Monkeys, and the Princess Power and Fairy Blossoms series. She lives near Seattle in Washington State. Visit her at suzanne-williams.com.
ALADDIN
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
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DON’T MISS THE OTHER ADVENTURES IN THE HEROES IN TRAINING SERIES!
Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom
Poseidon and the Sea of Fury
Hades and the Helm of Darkness
Hyperion and the Great Balls of Fire
Typhon and the Winds of Destruction
COMING SOON:
Ares and the Spear of Fear
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 authors’ imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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First Aladdin hardcover edition April 2014
Text copyright © 2014 by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Craig Phillips
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Jacket designed by Karin Paprocki
Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia
The text of this book was set in Adobe Garamond Pro.
Library of Congress Control Number 2014930550
ISBN 978-1-4424-8845-8 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-8846-5 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-8847-2 (eBook)
