Pandora Gets Angry (20 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Did You Really Think
I'd Just Blow Away?”

Pandy fetched Dido from his hiding place in the storage room, then she and Zinebi joined Alcie, Iole, and Mahfouza in the large salon. The rest of the family was scavenging in the garden, trying desperately to find something, anything, to eat. No one wanted to leave the property; they were all overcome with a desire to be close to one another, but the trees were bare and any vegetable, root, or herb they found was blackened, shriveled, or rotting. Finally, Kerim caught a rabbit and, dispatching the creature quickly and painlessly, brought it into the food-preparation room. Pandy lit a fire in the grate (to the amazement of no one—not after what they'd seen and experienced) and a short time later, the entire group was sitting around several tables in the large salon, picking at tidbits of the little roast and marveling at Pandy, Alcie, Iole, and Homer's adventures.

“I will go to the marketplace tomorrow for supplies,” Mahfouza said. “I simply am too tired to do it now.”

“Will you stay, Pandora?” asked Fair Persian. “The house is in shambles, but we can make you comfortable. You must rest a little while.”

“So sorry,” Iole answered, just as Pandy opened her mouth to speak. “Tempest fugit, you know. Oh, you must forgive me. That's Latin. Just a little something I picked up. It means ‘time flies.' We really should be off now. Tight schedule.”

“Yup,” said Alcie, her mouth full of rabbit as she looked from Fair Persian to Douban.

Pandy stared at Iole as if she'd just grown another head.

“I think we can at least stay one night,” she said, looking back to Mahfouza's family. “Thank you. Although, Hermes' helmet, I don't even remember how many days we have left.”

“And we don't know where we're going,” said Homer.

“Probably far away,” Iole said softly, tossing a bone onto a platter. “Need to be ambulating.”

“Well,” Pandy said, removing the blue bowl from her pouch, which was slowly regaining its suppleness. “Let's find out.”

The bowl had several dark blue veins now running through the colored marble—an effect of Rage, Pandy mused. But other than that, it looked fine.

“Uh-oh,” she said, holding up the vial of her tears. “It's empty.”

“Do they have to be your tears, Pandora?” asked Fair Persian. “I have become an expert at crying when needed.”

“Sheesh,” mumbled Alcie.

“I, too, can cry at will,” said Zinebi. “It always got me everything I wanted.”

“What did we talk about?” said Pandy, looking at the young girl.

“Oh. Right. No more of that kind of thing,” agreed Zinebi.

“Thank you, everyone,” Pandy said. “But they have to be mine. I just don't know if I can think of anything right now that will make me—”

Out of nowhere, Alcie slugged Pandy on her wounded arm—not enough to knock it out of place again, but enough that Pandy doubled over. When she raised her head to look at Alcie, there were fresh tears spilling out of both eyes.

“Alcie!” yelled Douban.

“Gimme the vial,” Alcie commanded.

Quickly Iole grabbed and handed it to Alcie, who drew it upward over Pandy's face, catching many big, wet drops.

“Sorry,” Alcie said. “We could have told sad stories and blah, blah, blah. This was quicker.”

“Right now, I love you and I hate you. Equally,” Pandy said, through gritted teeth, as Douban checked her arm.

“I'll live,” Alcie said, catching one of Pandy's tears on her forefinger. “Iole, a little water if you please.”

Iole emptied her water skin of its last few drops into the map, barely enough to cover the bottom of the bowl, as Alcie shook the tear off her finger. The concentric rings of the bowl began to spin, slowly at first, as if they had been rusted or fused by Rage. Then they spun faster and faster until at last three symbols lined up with the familiar illuminating light.

“Fifty-four days left, including today,” Pandy said. “We're looking for Greed and we're going to Rome.”

“I LOVE ROME!” shouted a voice, suddenly piercing the quiet of the salon.

Everyone turned to see Hera hovering above the tiles, close to the blown-out wall.

“The weather is perfect this time of year, lots of feasting going on and on and on, and when in Rome, as the saying goes! And of course, we have family there … Neptune, Mercury, Venus, and my personal favorite, Juno. They say she looks a lot like me, although those who actually know say I'm much prettier. Oh, won't we all have such fun! Well, when I say all of us, I don't really mean you, Pandora, or your filthy, bratty little friends, because I am going to kill you all today—this minute—if it is the last thing I do!”

The next few moments happened so fast and blended so seamlessly that, afterward, Pandy would never be able to fully recount the exact order of events. As Hera was talking about how much fun it had been to finally explode the head of Douban's father (“I'm sure some pieces flew all the way back to Greece!”), Pandy suddenly felt something snake into the palm of her hand. She looked down as Hera was gesturing wildly and saw the magic rope, frayed to points on either end, bumpy in the middle where it had woven its two lengths together, and slightly reddish—like a little worm. The rope had come to her unbidden—but it had obviously been affected by Rage. And now it was … waiting. Pandy knew that giving the rope an order could mean an opposite action, so she directed only one thought into her hand.

“Do whatever you want, friend.”

The next instant, the rope flew out of her palm and, in midair, enlarged itself to the thickness of a horse rein. It wrapped itself around Hera as she was rearing back to let fly some horrible torture on all of the stunned faces staring back at her. The rope started at her broad shoulders and worked its way down her body, binding her arms to her sides and her legs together. Then, seemingly endless in length, the rope doubled on itself and wound its way back up her body, binding Hera to just below her chin. Her screams nearly brought down the rest of the roof.

“What do we do!” yelled Pandy, knowing that the rope wouldn't hold the goddess forever.

“Her ears!” shouted Douban. “Get the eggs!”

As Pandy rushed forward, Hera rose into the air. Homer sprang up from the table and grabbed Hera's foot just as it was almost out of reach. She was unable even to kick at him as Homer pulled Hera back down until Pandy could reach out and snatch the eggs off of her ears. Hera tried to bite Pandy's hands whenever they got close, until Alcie raced in and grabbed the back of Hera's head by her still-short red hair, jerking her into submission.

Pandy swiftly loosed the roc eggs from Hera's earlobes. Instantly, Hera lost her ability to stay airborne and crashed to the ground.

“Zinebi?” Pandy said. “Please hold on to these until we figure out what to do with them.”

She turned to give the roc eggs to the little girl and found instead two baby birds fluttering about in her grasp. The tiny chicks, still wet and slimy, flew up to Pandy's shoulders, one on each side, and clucked for all to hear.

“A thousand blessings upon you,” said one, staring at Hera rolling about on the floor like a boar stuck in mud. “I could not have tolerated that creature one instant more.”

“The most foul mind of an immortal I have ever encountered. That includes the genie I was punishing. And that's saying something, I tell you.”

“I shall never recover from being so close to that brain. So base, so petty,” said the first.

“And yet so little goes on in there,” said the second roc. “She doesn't like you at all, mortal maiden. So naturally, that puts you in very good standing with us. Before we go to join our fellow hatchlings, what may we do for you?”

“I know!” said the first. “Let's restore the enchantments on all her personal items!”

“Brilliant … and done! And done for her companions as well,” answered the second roc. “But we can do more. Speak up, maiden. What would you like?”

While Pandy was taking all of this in and trying, at the same time, to think of something she needed above everything else she needed, Homer stepped forward.

“She needs new sandals.”

“Tasty!” agreed Alcie.

“Oh, Gods,” Iole said, with a fleeting look of apprehension.

Pandy would have never thought of such an idea by herself; in fact even now she hesitated. They were far from Mount Olympus and Zeus might not even know or care about his wife's current situation. But anything that Pandy did to the Queen of Heaven, if not officially sanctioned by Zeus himself, could have serious consequences. But if she let Hera go …

Iole, somehow, read her thoughts.

“I can't think of any other idea, Pandy. And you know we can't release her.”

Pandy glanced sideways at the tiny chicks.

“We all could use new sandals,” she said. “Would you please transform the goddess into some appropriate walking gear?”

“Thick soles,” said Alcie.

“Good arch support,” Iole put in.

“Speed,” Homer finished.

“With all of those things. We would like sandals that will help us leave Persia in … two days,” Pandy said.

“Three!” Iole interjected. “Let's not kill ourselves.”

“Of course not,” Pandy replied. “Let's save that for Zeus when he finds out what we've done. Three days of walking. Please.”

“Four pairs of Goddess Go-Swiftly with comfort cushioning coming up,” said one chick.

“Five, please,” said Iole. “Douban is coming, too!”

Pandy turned to Douban.

“I must return to my family soon, but it would be my pleasure to accompany you at least as far as the Syrian border,” he said.

“Darn tootin',” Iole whispered as Alcie grinned.

“As you wish,” said the other chick.

The rocs let up a cacophony of calls, screeches, and whistles, and Hera, much to her surprise, began to dissolve into a mist before everyone's eyes.

“Pandora! How DARE you! I command you to stop this at once!” Hera wailed.

“Or what?” Pandy asked, never imagining she could have been so bold with anyone, let alone the Queen of Heaven. Hera's eyes narrowed into tiny slits as she tilted her now-transparent head to stare down at Pandy.

“My husband will never forgive you for this.”

“Probably not, Hera,” Pandy retorted, speaking to the wife of Zeus as if she were a common criminal. “Then again, he just might.”

Within moments, Hera was gone completely and the magic rope fell loosely to the floor, where, not waiting to be called, it shrunk itself and slithered back into Pandy's leather pouch. Alcie, Iole, Homer, and Douban found themselves wearing supremely comfortable sandals made of beautiful peacock blue leather. Pandy looked down at her own feet and saw that the leather of her new sandals was bright copper in color.

“Gods!” she said, looking up at everyone. “That's the color of her hair; I'm standing on her head!”

Without warning, Alcie and Iole began to laugh.

“We'd better enjoy this while we can,” Pandy said, giggling. “I have a feeling this is gonna land us in some serious trouble.”

“Not until you reach the border,” said one chick. “She will remain a nonthreatening, powerless foot protector until then. And now we shall join our fellow hatchlings far away. Be well, Pandora!”

The chicks flew off so fast, no one really saw them go. All anyone saw was a flicker of two silhouettes against the sun.

The rest of the day and into the evening, Pandy rested as Alcie and the others helped Mahfouza's family put things in order about the house. Homer helped the brothers re-set window frames, right overturned statues, and clear away debris as Douban checked out the entire family to see if there were any ill effects from Giondar's punishments. Mahfouza didn't wait until the following day to venture to the marketplace; late in the afternoon, she, Zoe, and Fair Persian returned with vegetables, a little meat, sweets, juices, and a fresh supply of water. And not a single piece of fruit.

Pandy was lying on a couch in a room on the upper floor, going over her mother's cloak and silver girdle centimeter by centimeter, checking for any damage done by the effect of Rage. The girdle was, miraculously, fine and the cloak had only lost a bit of embroidery, nothing more. Pandy lay back and closed her eyes, trying to sleep amidst a few tattered but cozy pillows, but she found it difficult with the aromas of cooking food wafting up to the second floor. Suddenly, she felt another presence in the room.

“Hi,” said Alcie, sitting down beside her.

“Hi.”

“This is from Zoe,” Alcie said, holding a bowl full of a yellowy paste.

“Looks gross,” Pandy said, scooping a bit out with two fingers. “But I'm starved.”

“Not for eating, plebe-o,” Alcie said. “It's for your fried hair. It's fat and olive oil. She said to put it on your head and your skin. She wants you to moisturize.”

“Thank Apollo,” Pandy said, smoothing the paste on her hair. “I might have gagged.”

“Okay,” Alcie said. “Iole and I were talking and we are both, like, very confused. The pouches and the rope and the bust of Athena didn't work here. They were glitchy. And even Hera had to get a couple of birds to be able to use some of her powers, right?”

“Right.”

“Then how were you able to use your power over fire? And why did the map work?”

Pandy sighed and shook her head.

“Believe me, I have been sitting here trying to figure that out. And the truth is, Alce, I have absolutely no idea. At the moment I used them, I didn't think about how my powers might be wonky, I just went ahead. But I have no idea how they worked—or the map. I mean, none of us even considered that it might not work, right? I just … don't know.”

Alcie looked at the floor for a long moment.