Pandora Gets Vain (Pandora (Hardback)) (6 page)

“Ow!” she cried.

“Pain?”

“Yeah . . . my arm.”

“No wonder. You flew about sixty kilometers; water does
not
a soft landing make! Place your arm against my skin, Um-Pandora. Anywhere. Go ahead.”

Pandy laid her arm against the dolphin’s flank. She felt a small pulling sensation—as if her arm were being adhered to his skin—and a warmth moving from her elbow to her wrist. Sigma was silent for a moment. Then he shuddered slightly.

“You’re in luck. It’s just a sprain. Could have been worse!” he said. “I’ll have it healed by the time we get there.”

“There?”

“Later. Now, remember,” said the dolphin, “
big
breath!”

Pandy inhaled as deeply as she could. The air rushing into her deflated lungs felt like she was sucking in nails; but something told her she’d better hold it in.

Sigma dove under the surface and shot forward with such speed that Pandy felt her lips part, the water flowing over her teeth and down her throat. She pressed her mouth closed. She hung her head to the side and flattened her body as best she could against the back of the big, beautiful mammal, surprised by how warm his skin felt against hers.

He didn’t dive deep, only about two meters below the surface. After about ten seconds, he rose again.

“How was that?”

“I’m okay,” Pandy answered. “I’m good . . . I think.”

“Excellent! A little longer underwater this time. We’ll take this slow. Breathe!”

She inhaled once more and he dove under the waves. This time he stayed under for almost twenty seconds.

“How’re we feeling?” he said, resurfacing.

“I’m fine.”

“You most certainly are, Um-Pandora! You’re doing wonderfully well.”

“My name isn’t . . .”

“Now we’ll try for twenty-five seconds,” Sigma went on, “and if that’s comfortable, we’ll use that as a gauge all the way up.”

“Up?”

“Later. Breathe!”

But twenty-five seconds was too much for Pandy’s lungs.

“Ah,” said Sigma. “We’ll scale it back then. Get it? Scale? Fish? Ha! You see, I can say that because some of my best friends are fish!”

Friends!

“My friends!” said Pandy, realizing that she had forgotten about Alcie, Iole, and Homer.

And Dido.

“My dog!” she squealed.

“Nice pitch! You’d do well underwater,” Sigma replied. “Look behind you.”

Pandy twisted around.

In the distance, Homer was just breaking the surface on another dolphin, his hands firmly placed on the dim violet squares. The dolphin appeared to be having a little trouble keeping the huge youth stabilized; it already looked weary.

Before she could wonder why Homer had also been rescued, she caught sight of Iole, farther back, just emerging. Already, she and her dolphin rescuer were getting along famously. Iole’s mighty brain was proving a delightful human exception, and the dolphin was chattering away furiously, lifting Iole in a graceful arc.

“Well, I have some pretty strong thoughts about the Pythagorean theorem myself, and I must disagree with you,” Pandy heard Iole respond before she disappeared back into the sea.

Suddenly, on her other side, Pandy heard a shout. Whipping her head around, she saw Alcie, quite motionless, arguing with her dolphin.

“No . . . I got the hands part . . . with the little square thingies! But what about the feet?
Figs!
Where do I put my second left foot? Huh? This might come as a surprise, but I’ve got two left . . .”

Obviously out of patience, her dolphin snorted, Alcie screeched, and they both disappeared into the sea.

Then, to Pandy’s right, Dido broke the water on the back of a small light gray dolphin. All four paws were planted firmly on four little violet squares. He turned for an instant to look at Pandy and gave two joyous barks before he went back under.

After coming so close to death yet again, Pandy had no idea why she would be smiling. But seeing her friends and her dog safe—ish—comforted her as if she were back at home on her own sleeping cot. She tossed her head back and let out a huge laugh.

“Satisfied?” said Sigma.

“Yes . . . thank you.”

“And so we will be on our way. Breathe!”

Pandy took a deep breath and under they went. Rising and submerging, she grew comfortable enough after some minutes that she began to look around her, both above and below the water.

The group of dolphins was breaking the surface more or less together, although everything was dependent on each rider’s lung capacity: Iole’s small lungs required that she surface more often.

Above the waves, Pandy began to piece together a picture of where they were. If the lighthouse at Alexandria had been off to the west when she had first surfaced on Sigma and they were now swimming east, that meant . . . well . . .

She had no idea what that meant.

She became increasingly frustrated and very sorry that she had never really paid attention in Master Epeus’s class when he was teaching geography; instead she had been staring out at the olive groves and doodling pictures of her heartthrob, Tiresias the Younger.

“Okay,” she mused, “I must really think about it, reason it out . . .”

She remembered something vague about Egypt having a tremendous river flowing through it—the Nile. It branched off into two main tributaries as it neared the ocean (maybe she’d been paying a bit of attention after all). One went east, one went west. If Alexandria, closer to the west arm of the Nile, was behind them, and the sun was also behind them, then they were heading into the eastern arm of the river.

“Wow,” Pandy thought, “I’m thinking like Iole.”

But she had almost no time to be pleased with herself. The group of dolphins was slowing down, spending less and less time underwater with each dive. Finally they all came to a halt, forming a tight ring so everyone, dolphins and humans, could speak together without shouting.

“You guys all right?” asked Pandy quickly.

“I’m okay,” said Iole, shivering slightly.

“Good,” Homer replied.

Dido barked his agreement.

Everyone looked at Alcie.

“Apple skins and lemon rinds,” she said finally, her curls soaked to her face like little snakes.

“Good!” said Pandy, smiling. “That was so completely aweso—”

“You’ll forgive me,” said Sigma, whose voice was now all business, “but we have no time for idle banter. We’ve stopped only to let each of you check to make sure you have everything of importance and then we’re off. The Lord of the Sea said that we must hurry . . .”

“Poseidon?” said Pandy. “That’s the second time you mentioned him. Did he send you?”

Black eyes flashed as the dolphins looked at one another.

“Of course,” said another dolphin. “The Sea-God controls everything under the waves. Nothing is done without his knowledge.”

“Then he’s helping!” Pandy said excitedly. “You see, guys, we’re getting help when we’re not even asking.”

“He revealed little to us of you specifically, Um-Pandora, or why you are so special to him,” said Sigma. “Only that you all were tagged for retrieval and delivery.”

“Excuse me,” Homer said, looking at the dolphins and the girls, “but, like, why am I here? Not that . . . y’know . . . I’m not, like, grateful.”

“Prudent question,” Iole said looking at Pandy. “I was just
cogitating
the same thing.”

“Maybe it’s because he overheard us talking and the gods don’t want anyone going around blabbing and frightening everyone about how the world’s in such big trouble,” Pandy replied.

“I wouldn’t blab—”

“This is our quest, Homer. You don’t have to come with us if you . . . ,” Pandy began.

“He has to be here,” said Alcie.

“He does?”

“I do?”

“The gods don’t do anything without a reason, right?” Alcie went on. “Homer knows things we don’t. He can do things we can’t. He’s been to gladiator school. He’s bigger, stronger, and handso—bigger than us. We need him—or at least, we probably will—and the gods know that! So he stays.”

Everyone stared at Alcie.

“I’m just saying,” she said.

Homer thought only a moment: working in his father’s import/export business or saving the world.

“I’m in.”

“Look,” said Pandy, turning to Sigma, “I mean . . . please, can’t you tell us anything? At least tell us where we’re going? You can do that, right?”

“I can tell you this much, Um-Pandora,” said Sigma, who was clearly in charge. “We’re members of DIASOZO. That means—”

“Rescue,” said Iole.

“Right,” said Sigma. “We’re Poseidon’s safety net for humans. We save those the great Water-God wishes. I’m Sigma. This is Delta, Iota, Omega One, and Zeta.”

Each of the dolphins flipped their heads in turn.

“Alpha is scouting ahead and Omega Two has the rear . . . just to make sure we’re not being followed.”

“Who would want to follow us?” asked Homer.

“Hey! The first letters of each of your names spell out—,” Alcie suddenly realized.

“Who would want to blow you out of the water? That’s a better question,” said Omega One, ignoring Alcie as he bobbed gently in the water with Iole on his back.

Pandy, Alcie, and Iole looked at each other silently; they each knew the answer.

“At any rate, all we know is that this is a diversion tactic. Other dolphins are rescuing the members of the crew so as not to give the appearance of favoritism, and they’re whipping the water to create confusion. But we are the elite corps and, therefore, assigned to you,” continued Sigma. “Our mission is to get you all up river and in country as soon as possible.”

“You mean,” Pandy said with a start, “we’re going up . . . the Nile?”

“That’s right,” said Iota, wincing under Dido’s sharp nails. “If I can handle the pain.”

“You can handle it, soldier,” said Sigma.

“Cool,” said Homer. “How far?”

“That’s on a need-to-know basis, human,” said Zeta, who, with Homer on top, was almost completely submerged, but he gurgled his words as best he could.

“So,” said Sigma. “All set?”

Pandy, Alcie, Iole, and Homer each checked their pouches. Suddenly Iole yelped.

“My father’s sword! It’s gone!”

“Do you need it?” asked Delta.

“I do,” she said defiantly.

“Delta, contact Omega Two and tell him to search the sea floor for a human weapon of destruction. He’ll know it when he sees it,” said Sigma.

“Right,” said Delta, as Alcie squirmed uncomfortably on his back.

“Let’s go,” Sigma called. The dolphins turned toward a vast expanse of water flanked in the distance by outcroppings of land on either side. Pandy could make out lush greenery; somehow they all had been carried closer to the shore than she’d thought.

“Group formation!” ordered Sigma, then each dolphin raised his head as they prepared to dive and said in unison . . .

“Breathe!”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Meanwhile . . .

1:05 p.m.

Prometheus stood very still on the stairwell. The only other people in the house—Sabina, the house slave, and Prometheus’s young son, Xander—were napping in Xander’s room.

So who was humming by the food cupboards?

He descended the stairs slowly. Being a Titan, he wasn’t really afraid of anything it might be: a lost animal, a hungry wood nymph, a mischievous satyr. He was more curious than cautious.

Peering around the curve of the stairwell, he first saw a flash of silver toga. Then a jar of olives flew across the room as a huge forearm inadvertently swung out in the wrong direction.

“Oops.”

Landing on the bottom stair, Prometheus watched the huge form dancing around the drainage counter, emptying something from a goatskin into two wooden bowls. He recognized the figure at once.

“So . . . I’ll just pick up the olives, then, okay?” said Prometheus, wryly.

“Hey, pal!” Hermes whirled on his well-muscled leg. “Time for a snack.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Yeah, yeah . . . worry, worry. Okay, here’s the deal. Zeus has me delivering a message to a small temple in Athens and I asked if I could just, you know, check on you. Since I was gonna be down here anyway, right? He gives me the standard glare, but finally says yes. So on my way down I snuck by the food halls and snatched a little bit of Olympus for the two of us. Here.”

Hermes, his winged helmet bumping against the ceiling, crossed the room with the bowls in his hand.

“Wow! Is this . . . ?” Prometheus asked, peering at the strange, shimmering concoction, inhaling the delicious aroma.

“You’ve been on earth so long you forgot already? That’s ambrosia, pal! You eat. I’m gonna talk.” Hermes was silent for a moment. He picked up a morsel of ambrosia and popped it into his mouth. “Your daughter? She’s on the back of a dolphin.”