by Alane Adams
“We have to shake this guy,” I said to Angie.
“How?” she huffed.
“I don’t know. I was thinking a lightning bolt in his forehead.”
“Damian wouldn’t approve.”
We ducked behind some boulders, pressing up against the rock as the giant sniffed the air.
“We need to find the pegasus herd,” I whispered. “I’ll distract him while you go search.”
“And miss out on battling a giant? I think not. Besides, you can’t use your powers, and I have a sword. I’ll be the bait, you go.”
“I can’t—”
“You can. I got this. Go rustle us some winged horsies.” Angie stepped out from behind the rock, drawing her sword. “Hey, cheese-brain, over here.”
Immediately a hundred sets of hands swiped at the trees and brush and rock to reach for her. Angie was swept up in a meaty fist. I hesitated at the edge of the clearing, torn between helping her and finding the herd.
“Get lost, Katzy,” she shouted, raising her sword to jab at the giant’s fist. “I got this.”
The giant roared in pain. I ducked into the trees and ran until the sounds of the giants faded and the world grew quiet. I stopped, resting my hands on my knees to catch my breath.
Guilt pounded on me. I should have stayed and helped my friends. Erinyes or not, I had enough power to defeat a couple of knuckle-headed giants. Not that my friends aren’t capable. The thought calmed me. Angie had probably already defeated the first giant, and Damian was bound to know how to beat his. Plus, he had a miniature sun god to help him.
I looked around, hoping to find a clue. Most of the shrubs were stripped of their greenery. I fingered one branch, studying the bite marks. Following the broken and gnawed branches, I prowled on until I came to an open field. That’s when I lost the ability to breathe. Truly. My lungs stopped working at the sight of a herd of winged horses grazing peacefully and playfully rearing up with each other.
How in Zeus’s name was I supposed to catch one of them, let alone enough for all of us to ride?
A sturdy black pegasus raised its head and gave a whinnying snort. The herd froze and, as one, turned to stare at me. I stood frozen as the black pegasus reared up and began running flat out straight at me.
It stopped and reared up a few feet in front of me, towering over me. Its eyes were sapphire, like the silver horse I’d admired, but its coat was a shiny ebony down to the tips of its feathers.
Its nostrils flared, and it reared up again, flashing its hooves. I held my ground, afraid if I moved it would stomp me to pieces. I winced as the hooves got dangerously close.
A high-pitched whinny pierced the air as another pegasus advanced. I recognized her silver color from the corner of my eye. The black one snorted a warning, baring its teeth, but the silver beauty held her ground, tossing her head and answering with a sharp neigh.
The pegasus from the clearing.
My feet moved me forward even as the black pegasus pawed the ground angrily. The silver one nudged it with her head, chiding it, and the leader finally settled, though it warily watched me. I reached for the silver pegasus and put a hand out to touch her velvety nose. She pushed back against my hand and tossed her head.
“Hey. My name’s Phoebe. I’m kind of the destroyer of Olympus. I could use your help making that not happen. I’m supposed to fight a nasty fire-breathing creature called a chimera. It’s going to be dangerous, I can’t lie, but somehow, I feel like you and I belong together.”
Her sapphire eyes looked intelligently into mine, and I could swear she understood every word. With a soft nod, she stepped closer to me, rubbing her nose along my arm.
“You think you could get a couple of your friends to join?”
She whinnied at the black pegasus. It stomped its hoof, shaking its head.
She whinnied again, and this time three more of the winged beauties stepped forward, joining her to face off against the black leader. One was a golden tan with black trim, the other charcoal gray, and the third, a reddish brown with streaks of yellow in its mane.
The black one neighed angrily, pawing the air, but they didn’t flinch, and it gave in. It chased the rest of the herd away in a roar of thundering hooves, leaving me alone with the four pegasuses.
“What shall I call you?”
She whinnied at me, and the name sounded like a bell in my head. “Argenta. I like it.”
Argenta lowered her head and knelt on one knee. I grabbed a fistful of her mane and levered one leg over, settling on a spot in front of the wings.
“Are you ready?”
My pegasus took off in a dead run, almost tossing me off her back. With a mighty spring of her legs, Argenta lifted up to the sky, making me dizzy as she veered left to circle over the treetops. Her wings moved up and down smoothly, carrying me easily. The other three followed behind. Across the valley, I could make out the top of one lumbering giant.
I leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “See that nasty giant over there? That’s where my friends are.”
She lowered her head, beating her wings faster. Tears streamed from my eyes as the wind blew my hair back. I wanted to shout for joy, but I settled for a fist pump.
Now to get my friends out of the clutches of those giants.
First up was Damian and Macario. I could tell it was them by the tiny blasts of sunshine. The giant, I think it was Agor, kept swatting at his russet hair with dozens of hands to put out the flames from the burst of sunbeams. Damian kept biting its thumbs. The giant would drop him from one hand only to snatch him up with another.
My pegasus circled over a field half cleared of rocks. The piles of small boulders gave me an idea how to rescue my friends without using my powers.
I urged Argenta down, whispering in her ear. The pegasus curled her front legs around a large rock, pressing it to her underside before launching into the air with it. The others quickly followed suit. We flew in a circle around the giant. The small red one attacked first. It swooped in, avoiding the swatting hands, and dropped the boulder on Agor’s head. The boulder bounced off his forehead, leaving a dent.
Agor roared in anger, snatching at the red pegasus. “Get back here, pretty one!”
The gray one was next, flying in from behind to drop the boulder just above the giant’s ear. Agor bellowed in pain, spinning around to try and snatch her. Damian and Macario were clutched in two of his fists. The golden pegasus flew past next, flinging its boulder at the giant’s nose. It smashed in, spraying blood.
“Owie!”
The giant’s hands went to his nose, and he forgot about the boys, dropping them. They flailed in the air, but the pegasuses were there to catch them.
My turn.
Argenta’s wings flapped strongly as we circled around.
Agor tilted his head back, eyes gleaming with hurt and anger. “Give me back my pretties.”
“Now,” I yelled, urging Argenta closer. She arrowed down between a wall of hands the giant smashed together, and she released the boulder, dropping it right between Agor’s eyes. The giant blinked once, twice, then tilted backward, landing with a crash.
The boys had no time to admire their rides; Angie was hollering for help.
We winged over the treetops, heading for the sound of Angie’s shouts. They were coming from a small cave. Boza’s hands were too large to reach inside, but he was tearing the hillside apart, digging out giant clods of dirt and tossing them over his head like a steam shovel.
“Phoebe, back there was a patch of ivy,” Damian shouted. “Maybe we can use it to trip the giant.”
I wheeled Argenta around, guiding her down and motioning what I wanted. The pegasuses ripped up mouthfuls of ivy, tearing out long lengths of it. Argenta held one end in her teeth while the gray pegasus took another; the other two did the same. The giant was so busy going after Angie he didn’t see us. We flew in circles, going in opposite directions, winding the thick ivy loosely around its ankles. I jumped off Argenta, tumbling in
the dirt, and rolled to my feet.
“Hey, you big ape, come and get me.”
The giant stopped digging and took a step toward me, reaching out to grab me. I danced out of reach, forcing Boza to lunge for me. The ivy tangled around his ankles. He got two steps before he lost his balance and tripped, falling forward to hit the ground with a resounding thud.
I wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way, and a pudgy hand pancaked down on me, smothering me underneath. I pushed up on it, kicking and grunting, but it was too heavy. I couldn’t breathe. Panic made it impossible to think.
And then hands wrapped around my ankles and yanked me to freedom.
Damian stood over me, grinning. “Being the bait’s not so easy, is it?”
He stuck his hand out and pulled me up. We trotted back to our pegasuses, where Angie and Macario waited. The giant was groaning, trying to untangle his legs.
We took off as Boza gave chase, snatching at us with a flurry of grabs. He ran as fast as his legs could go, but not fast enough to catch up. Panting and out of breath, he shook all one hundred fists at us as we left him behind.
CHAPTER 32
We landed our pegasuses in a clearing of tall grass. Angie whooped, jumping off her charcoal-gray pegasus. “Thanks for the ride.” She rubbed its nose. “I feel like it wants me to name it.”
“Yeah, I had the same feeling. Meet Argenta.” I patted the neck of my ride.
Angie stepped back, studying the creature. “Hmm, I think I’ll call you Nero.” The pegasus whinnied and tossed his head in approval. “Hah, he likes it. Nero it is.”
We looked at Damian. His golden pegasus had wings of black feathers and a black mane. “Hey,” he said, gingerly patting its head as if he wasn’t sure if it was going to bite or not. “I need a good name for something as fine and noble as you. How about Albert after my grandfather? I think he would have liked you.”
The pegasus lowered its head and pawed at the ground, nodding his head up and down.
“Albert it is.” Damian grinned at me. “Are they really ours?”
“I don’t think we can take them home like souvenirs, but for now, yeah.”
We turned to Macario, who stood staring at his russet pegasus. She was smaller than the others, and her wings were tipped in the same yellow that streaked her mane, like flames. It was the perfect fit for a son of Apollo.
“Stop staring and give her a name already,” I said. “We still have a lion-goat to find.”
“I’m thinking. Names are important. They have to mean something.”
“Like Macario means sun-brain?” Angie teased.
He tossed her a glare, then snapped his fingers. “I have it. Zesto. It means fire.”
“Zesto sounds like a pizza sauce,” Angie said. But the name stuck.
“So where’s this beastie?” I was suddenly eager to get on with it.
Angie was staring upward. “Remember what Karisto said?”
“Yeah, he said to look for the vultures.”
“Look.” She pointed at the sky.
A pair of ungainly birds made a lazy circle over a stand of trees.
Fear tightened my gut. “Let’s see if the traitor was telling the truth.”
I climbed onto Argenta’s back.
“How are we going to kill it?” Damian asked. “We don’t have a bow and arrow.”
I shrugged. “We’ll think of something. We always do.”
Argenta took off first, and the other winged horses followed. We headed straight for the circling buzzards, chasing them off with a display of flared wings that had them squawking in annoyance before they hightailed it away.
Below, in a stand of brush, the chimera was finishing off its latest meal, a poor deer by the looks of it. The misshapen beast raised its head to study us.
I had to hold back a laugh. Sure, it had a fearsome lion’s head, complete with a short mane and tawny eyes. But with a goat head sticking out of its back, it looked ridiculous, especially with those tiny billy-goat horns. Add to that the green snake wavering in the air in place of a tail.
Pretty silly.
“I thought this thing was supposed to be scary,” I said, hovering overhead.
The goat bleated and the lion snarled at it. The snakehead tail snapped at a passing mouse that it just missed.
“This is like something from a freak show,” Angie said.
“Damian, what say you?” I asked.
Sitting on the back of Albert, he looked uncertain. “I told you, Bellerophon shot it in the throat with a lead arrow, and the flames melted the lead and killed it.”
“I don’t want to kill the poor thing,” I said. “I want to get that goat horn from it. I’m going to land and try to talk to it. You guys stay back.”
“Are you crazy?” Damian cried, but I had already guided Argenta down to the clearing.
“Phoebe, how do you expect to get the horn off?” Angie asked, circling overhead on Nero.
“I’ll use a small lightning bolt, guaranteed not to call the Erinyes.” I wriggled my fingers, using just the tiniest power to call a thin sliver of lightning.
I approached the creature slowly, talking softly as I walked. “Hey there. You remind me of a movie I saw. It was called Frankenstein. The main character was made up of all these different parts like you. Maybe I’ll call you Frankie? We can be friends.”
The lion head lifted from the animal carcass. Blood smeared its jaws. It must have decided I wasn’t worth eating, because it went back to its meal.
“So, Frankie, I just need a little piece of that horn,” I said, taking another step. I plucked a handful of grass and held it out to the goat. “Here, don’t you want some yummy grass?”
The goat sniffed the air as the lion end kept eating. I kept an eye on the snake head, but it was busy searching for mice in the grass. I got close enough to smell rotting meat. I could feel the warmth of the beast like a radiator. I held out the grass, and the goat gently nibbled on it.
“Nice billy goat,” I whispered.
I raised my other hand, bringing the lightning bolt up toward one of its nubby horns. The goat spied the lightning and alarm entered its eyes. It bleated a warning like a fire bell. I stumbled back, tripping over my feet, and fell on my rear end.
And that’s when Frankie began to morph. By morph, I mean the goat head sunk into the body, bulging out the sides as it moved forward. The lion’s head stretched wider as the goat head pushed upward, merging their features. A pair of thick pointed horns as long as my arm pushed their way out. The lion’s face thinned, and its fangs grew even larger. The eyes narrowed into almond-shaped slits.
The snake sank back into the hindquarters like a cord retracting. The beast’s rear legs thickened, turning scaly and green with wicked claws at each toe. A lizard-like tail extended with a barbed tip to thump the ground.
This was not some freak show reject.
This was a monster.
It clawed at the ground, dropping its head to show us its wicked horns. The hind legs coiled as it crouched down. A forked tongue flickered out of its mouth. It drew in a deep breath and bellowed out a rolling ball of fire at me.
I was too shocked to move, still piecing together how Frankie had changed from silly to terrifying, so I would have been incinerated if Argenta hadn’t swooped down to pluck me up in her teeth and toss me like a sack of potatoes onto her back.
The chimera howled in rage, belching another fireball upward.
Argenta nimbly dodged it, circling out of range to join the other pegasuses hovering overhead.
“Damian, ideas?” I asked desperately.
“We don’t have a lead-tipped arrow,” he said, bobbing on Albert’s back.
“Right, so what’s the next best thing?”
“Next best thing.” His eyes flickered as his brain went to work. “We have to get something metal into its mouth that will melt in extreme heat. What do we have?”
Macario and I shouted it at the same time. “Angie’s shield!”
“Not my shield!” Angie’s face fell as her hand went to the strap at her chest.
“Toss it to me,” I said.
She hesitated, then unstrapped it and flung it over to me. “I really liked that shield.”
“I’ll get you another one,” I promised, gripping it tight. “We need it to open its mouth. I could use a volunteer.” I didn’t look at Damian. I couldn’t ask him. But he volunteered.
“I’ll do it, just don’t let him fry me.” He looked determined as he landed Albert in the clearing and stepped in front of his pegasus to face the chimera.
I circled over his head. “As soon as it opens its mouth, I’ll throw the shield.”
“You’re only going to get one shot,” Angie called out. “Don’t miss or Damian’s burned toast.”
Great. No pressure.
Damian waggled his hands at the chimera. “Come and get me, fur-face. You’re nothing but a goat with a bad temper!”
The chimera hunkered down, inhaling and exhaling, stoking the fire in its chest. It tossed its head up, letting out a roar.
I swooped down, cocking my arm back with the shield held in my hand like a frisbee. As the beast opened its mouth, I flicked my arm forward. The metal disc spun through the air, headed in a perfect line for that open maw, but at the last second, the chimera whipped its tail around, batting the shield away.
Fire-sucking balls of tar!
“Phoebe! Help!”
The chimera had Damian pinned. He stood in front of Albert, arms spread, as if he could stop the flames from consuming them both.
I landed Argenta and leaped from her back as the chimera drew in its breath, gathering itself to send another fiery blast. My hand twitched, ready to call up a lightning bolt, but someone knocked me to the side. Karisto moved past me on furred legs. He scooped up the shield in one hand and flipped it into the chimera’s open mouth with a deft move.
The beast choked, trying to spit it out, but Karisto wrapped his arms around its snout, holding it closed. The chimera threw its head side to side, but the satyr held tight. Its body shimmied and shook as its internal furnace overheated. The barbed tail whipped around and jabbed at Karisto, but still he didn’t let go. Smoke streamed from its nostrils, and a high-pitched whistling sound grew louder.
