The Mystery of the Tenth

by Chantel Acevedo

  “What were you doing back there?” Ari asked me quietly. “You know I don’t like it. The last time someone used magic on me . . . well, you know.” She shuddered.

  “Sorry,” I whispered. “I was just . . . testing it. My magic. It’s different from what it used to be.”

  “Different?” Ari asked.

  I nodded. “Yes. Easier, too,” I confessed.

  Ari thought for a moment. “There’s something scary about that, you know?”

  I did know. What did it mean to be different from the others? Why was I different, anyway?

  We got off the train and began the long trek back to the manhole at street level. Ari grumbled about her snotty tapestry the whole way.

  “Three down, one to—” Thalia started, then stopped and stared.

  “Oh no,” Mela and Nia said at the same time.

  I looked up and saw what they meant.

  There, standing before us, were the last people I thought we’d see—

  Clio.

  Paola.

  Elnaz.

  Tomiko.

  I looked up at the manhole, its cover off, and saw Etoro in her wheelchair, peering down at us, too.

  There they all were—the grown-up muses, with their arms folded, their faces stern, and a look that said, “You are all so very deeply busted.”

  Chapter 26

  Busted. Again.

  I fully expected one of Clio’s scowls, the one that usually came before telling us how we’d disappointed her. I hoped we wouldn’t be stripped of our muse powers, which had almost happened last year when we nearly broke the law trying to rescue a killer whale.

  What I didn’t expect was for Clio and the other muses to stand there, smiling at us and nodding their heads.

  “What is happening?” Thalia asked without moving her lips.

  “Just go with it,” Nia said, similarly stiff.

  I put my hand in the air in a weak wave. “Hi, everybody. What are you doing here?”

  Then the muses laughed in an “Oh, Callie, you are a treat!” kind of way.

  Soon they’d circled us. I caught a glimpse of Ari cringing while she shoved the still-damp section of the tapestry down the back of her pants, making her look like she had the world’s biggest butt.

  “You really did it! Elnaz and I had our doubts, but you did it!” Tomiko was saying.

  Paola was clapping her hands, the bells on her belt jingling happily. Clio was just beaming at us. And overhead, Etoro was smiling so hard she had her hands on her cheeks, as if to keep her smile contained.

  Clio approached Ari, extending her hand. “This must be the tenth muse. I am Clio. Muse of history.”

  “What?” Ari asked, backing away from Clio’s hand.

  “Each time a muse receives her gifts, she does something very special, like saving a lost child, or rescuing a friend in danger. Something that most people would say is heroic. Tell me, child, how was your gift first revealed?” Clio went on.

  “She’s nervous, Clio, can’t you see?” Elnaz said.

  “Pish-posh, she’s not nervous! Right?” Thalia interrupted, and pushed Ari forward so that she stumbled into Clio.

  “I’m not—I’m not—” Ari started to say.

  Clio beamed. “We all felt it—a surge in magic around us tonight, didn’t we?” she asked the other muses, who nodded, smiling.

  A surge in magic? I knew it had to be the emblems, Aphrodite’s gifts, making that happen.

  I watched as, slowly, Nia, Thalia, and Mela hid their emblems behind their backs. They realized the same thing I had.

  “We’ll have to find out what her gift is, no? The tenth muse probably inspires something different. Something special. Technology?” Paola suggested.

  “Hey! That’s my thing!” Nia put in, holding up her phone with her app on display.

  “Ah, sí. How about gardening? The world could use more flores y árboles!” Paola continued.

  I felt a hand clutching mine. It was Mela. “Tell them the truth, Callie.” I nodded.

  “She isn’t the tenth muse,” I said out loud, but at this point, all the muses were talking at once except for Clio, who had taken a step back and was looking at everyone as if she could see through us. Mela and Thalia had their hands behind their backs, and there was a suspiciously bright light behind Nia.

  “Emblems. Who gave them to you?” Clio said, cutting through the noise.

  Everyone fell silent. Tomiko’s eyes widened. Elnaz’s mouth dropped open.

  “My aunt brought them,” Ari said.

  Clio took a step toward Ari, then another. “Who is your aunt?” she asked slowly, as if each word was a sentence.

  “Aphrodite. You know. The Aphrodite. But she’s not my real aunt. She’s sort of, like, my guardian.”

  The grown-up muses could not have looked more stunned if Ari had dumped a bucket of ice down their shirts.

  Only the bells of Paola’s belt tinkled softly as she moved forward. She took Ari’s hands in hers. “Don’t be afraid. Tell us. Who are you, niña?”

  Ari looked at me, and then at the rest of the Muse Squad. We nodded at her. Go on, I thought. You can trust them.

  “Arachne. You know. The Arachne. I’m on a quest to retrieve this.” She tugged at the tapestry in her pants, pulling it out and letting it float to the ground. “There are four sections. This is the third. There’s one more out there. We just don’t know where the last one is.”

  I cleared my throat. “I think I know,” I said, feeling very certain for once. “Harper Ann mentioned the New York Public Library. My gut tells me that’s it—that’s where the last piece is.”

  The grown-up muses examined the section of tapestry. “What do you want to do with it once you have all four pieces?” Elnaz asked. She touched the tapestry with the tip of a finger, then snatched her hand back. “And why is it wet?”

  “You may want to wash that hand,” Thalia said.

  “What I will do is challenge Athena again. She was wrong. Her tapestry wasn’t the best. Mine was. She had no right,” Ari said, and as she spoke, her chin lifted, and she stood a bit straighter.

  “Athena had every right!” Clio said. “She is the Dread Goddess.”

  “Dreadful goddess, more like,” Thalia muttered nearby.

  Ari’s cheeks were blazing now. “She lied to save face. And she ruined my life.” Ari’s voice broke a bit, and her eyes were shining. But she didn’t cry.

  I took a deep breath. “We helped her, Clio. Because Ari is right. What Athena did was unfair.”

  “Do you realize the danger you are in?” Paola said softly.

  I looked at the others, the Muse Squad, my sisters in this adventure. Any one of them could have been cyclops food, squashed by a giant, or turned into wax by Medusa. Not to mention whatever it was that Athena could do to them. Suddenly, I felt incredibly foolish.

  “But Aphrodite is on our side!” Nia said. “That has to count for something.”

  Clio nodded. “It does. It means the Olympians are torn on the issue of Athena’s contest with Arachne.” Looking thoughtful, she walked off a way into the shadows.

  “Are we in trouble?” Thalia asked the others.

  “Of course you are!” Etoro called from the street level. “You had a mission, did you not?”

  “We had to make a choice,” I said. “The Gray Sisters would only answer one question. Between asking about the tenth muse or Ari’s tapestry, we went with the tapestry locations.” I wanted to tell them what Aphrodite had revealed to me—that Athena’s quest and the mystery of the tenth muse were linked somehow. That if we solved one, we would solve the other. But Aphrodite said that this was a secret I had to keep.

  Elnaz groaned. “We thought you’d found the tenth muse. We were so excited.” She sounded so bummed out that my heart gave a little lurch for her.

  I glanced at my watch. It was four thirty. I looked around for a second, taking in the part of Brooklyn we were in. There wasn’t enough time to get home before my
five o’clock curfew. My phone! I yanked it out of my pocket. I had ten unread messages from Papi and Laura, which I didn’t feel brave enough to open.

  “Can we keep arguing on the way back to Queens? My dad is going to ground me until I am old enough to vote,” I said.

  Clio laid a hand on my shoulder. “Callie, if I’d known, I could have held time back for you a little while.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. I’d been so afraid of Clio’s disapproval that I didn’t stop to think if she’d actually help us.

  “I was afraid of what Athena would do to you if you and the others knew, Clio.”

  “Ay,” Paola said, shaking her head sadly.

  “There are nine of us for a reason,” Clio said.

  Nine. But soon there would be ten, and one of us would have to go. Or worse, be made to go, probably during a dangerous mission. I shivered all over.

  We made our way to the ladder, climbing up in silence, and joining Etoro there in the middle of the street. Cars honked and cabbies yelled at us as we scrambled onto the sidewalk. Clio made sure to slip the manhole cover back, and it slotted into place with a clang.

  “How did you know where we were?” Nia asked.

  “Clio has her ways,” Tomiko said.

  “I should have been watching you all this time, frankly,” Clio said. “But I trusted that you were sticking to the mission.”

  Clio had trusted us. And we’d let her down. I suddenly wished Harper Ann’s momma would come snatch me. I’d gladly go to a party for giants if it meant I didn’t have to face my guilt.

  Clio hailed a pair of cabs for us. The older muses piled into one, while Clio rode in the other with us, squeezed tight into the back seat, all the way back to Queens.

  Clio convinced the cabbie to let her sit up front, and he asked where we were going. I watched Clio tug on her earring. Without another word, he fiddled with the radio until he was listening to a station that broadcast the news. She had used her kódikas, and the cabdriver was now completely focused on the radio, ignoring us altogether.

  Clio turned in her seat to face us. There was a plexiglass plate with a small opening separating us from her, but we could hear her all right. “Listen, all of you. Leave the rest of your . . . quest . . . to me. Things can be achieved via diplomacy that—”

  “You mean you can get Athena to admit that she was wrong?” Ari asked. She had folded the tapestry and it sat on her lap. I could see vibrant colors, and silver thread twining its way through the fabric. After so many years, it was still delicate and beautiful.

  Clio shook her head. “I doubt that. But the Dread Goddess might be convinced to let you keep your human form, especially now that her sister, Aphrodite, is involved. The two of them have always bickered, but they love each other in the end.”

  “No deal,” Ari said. “She needs to take back what she said about me and my weaving.”

  Clio pursed her lips. “Be reasonable, child.”

  “I may be a kid, but I’m older than you,” Ari said, crossing her arms and staring out the window. “I don’t need your help anyway.”

  “Except you do,” Mela said softly. “The quest has gotten harder, not easier.”

  “We’ve almost died like three times,” Thalia said.

  Nia shifted in her seat. “I’m not afraid,” she said, sitting taller. It was too bad her parents could never know she was a muse. My guess was they’d be so proud.

  Clio turned up the volume on the radio. When she turned toward us again, she looked sad, like she wasn’t happy about what she was about to say.

  “I have to forbid the participation of the junior muses in your quest for now, Arachne. It’s not safe,” Clio said.

  “They don’t get a say in this?” Ari asked.

  “No,” Clio said.

  We were quiet again as the cab rolled through the city. Ari had crossed her arms and rested her head on her lap, the tapestry underneath her. I stared at the back of Clio’s head, her white hair in a tight, smooth bun.

  She could forbid us if she wanted to, but I had other orders.

  The final section of the tapestry was at the New York Public Library. I could feel it in my bones. But just because I knew where the tapestry was didn’t mean it would be easy to retrieve. The other tasks had taken all of us to get through, so we needed to stick together.

  Maybe Clio was right. Maybe diplomacy was the answer.

  “Here we are,” Clio said, stopping at the end of my block. I glanced at my watch. It was a quarter after five. “Good luck, Callie.”

  I waved goodbye to the Muse Squad and to Ari and made my way up the street. I spotted him three houses down. Papi. He was standing on the lawn, with my suitcase beside him.

  “Papi, I—” I started to say.

  “If you don’t want to be here, then you can go back home to Miami for the rest of the summer. I won’t keep you against your will,” he said.

  “It’s not that!” I said.

  “Then explain.”

  “I can’t,” I cried.

  Papi’s eyes stared into mine. How could I make sure he knew that I wasn’t breaking rules to get away from him? That I wanted to be in New York this summer with him, and Laura, and Rafaelito?

  “I’m sorry, Papi,” I said, and wrapped my arms around his waist.

  But Papi peeled my arms off him. “Sometimes, kiddo, sorry doesn’t cut it. You have a choice to make.”

  Then he left me there, standing in the yard, with my suitcase. I lifted it. He’d packed it all up for me.

  Somehow, I had to make things right. With Papi. With Ari. With Clio.

  With everyone.

  Chapter 27

  Tia Annie’s Secret

  “Papi, just listen,” I said, hauling my suitcase back up the stairs to the apartment.

  “No more talking. Not unless you plan on telling me the truth about where you’ve been going after camp and where you went this afternoon,” Papi said.

  He pushed open the door to our apartment. Laura was sitting on the sofa, bouncing Rafaelito in her arms.

  “Oh, Callie,” she said when our eyes met. Papi sat beside her. They both looked at me, waiting.

  I could just go home, I guess. But where would that leave Papi and me? Would he even want me to come to New York again? And how would I be able to help Ari from Miami? I had to be honest with Papi. At least, as honest as I could be.

  “I’ve been helping Ari, like I said.”

  Papi’s face was frozen while I spoke, and I couldn’t seem to look at him straight on.

  “And it really is for the Student Showcase. But the materials she needed are sort of all over the city.”

  Papi’s eyebrows lifted.

  “Like Little Italy. Brooklyn. Um, Greenwich Village.” I named the places where we’d gotten pieces of the tapestry really quickly. I left out Jefferson County on purpose, since that was miles away.

  Papi got to his feet, flustered, then sat down again. “You’ve been everywhere,” he said.

  “I know. I’m sorry. But I knew you wouldn’t let me go on my own, and so—”

  “Because the city isn’t safe!”

  “Other kids ride the subway alone, Papi! I’ve seen them!” And it was true. All over New York, kids got themselves to school on their own. It wasn’t like Miami, where you never saw a Cuban kid my age alone on the sidewalk without a grown-up.

  “You aren’t other kids. You are my daughter. And this is my house, and these are my rules,” Papi said. “Okay?”

  I didn’t answer right away. Was it okay? It really wasn’t, actually. The fourth piece of the tapestry was out there. Clio said we couldn’t retrieve it.

  What choice did I have?

  “Okay, Papi.”

  Papi patted the seat beside him and I sat. He hugged me, but I didn’t hug him back. I was mad at him, and at myself. Everything was terrible.

  “I was just trying to help a friend,” I whispered, and I could feel the tears forming in my eyes and my throat squeezing. “I p
romise.”

  “Loyalty is a good quality. But family is family.”

  Rafaelito squealed then, and Laura passed him over to Papi, who started bouncing the baby until he settled down.

  “Can I stay here? In New York for the rest of the summer?”

  Papi made a face. “Of course you can. I was just making a point. But I want you to think about how you’re going to make this up to the family. I ground you, you leave anyway. I take your phone, it doesn’t matter.” He was working himself up again, I could tell.

  Papi, be calm, I thought without meaning to, and I watched his shoulders relax, watched him take a deep breath. I did it again. Papi, please trust me.

  “I’ll make it up to you and Laura,” I said.

  “Okay,” Papi said quietly.

  “I guess I’ll go unpack then?”

  Papi scratched his chin. “I didn’t pack your things,” he said. “It’s just books in there. No shortage of books in this house. Laura won’t stop buying them, and we are running out of bookshelves.”

  Laura rolled her eyes. “And you should start reading them more often. It will do you good,” she said. Papi shrugged. She was right. Papi only ever read the newspaper.

  “Packing my suitcase full of books is pretty dramatic,” I agreed, glad in my heart that he hadn’t actually packed my suitcase, but still sad about the trick he’d pulled. Mami would have never done something like that. It wasn’t easy having parents who were so different. It was confusing. I didn’t doubt that they both loved me, but I couldn’t help but think that I was two people now. Miami-Callie and New York–Callie, which was hard to keep straight.

  I went to my room in the gloomiest mood. Unless Clio’s “diplomacy skills” worked, Ari would have to forfeit the contest with Athena and be turned back into a spider forever. Plus, the Muse Squad had completely bailed on their mission to find the tenth muse. Who knew if the older muses would ever give us a chance like that again after we’d let them down so badly?

  Then there was the problem of my magic. Ari had called it scary, and I had to agree. Last year, Ms. Rinse, my old science teacher, turned out to be a Lost Muse. She’d gotten power-hungry and had tried to steal all the magic in the world for herself. When we fought, she’d asked me what I would do with that kind of power.