Pegasus and the Origins of Olympus (11 page)

‘Germs?’ the reporter said. ‘I do not understand.’

Stella quickly translated and the reporter’s eyes lingered on Joel for several heartbeats. Finally he smiled again. ‘OK, OK, see you later.’

‘Yes, OK, fine,’ Emily agreed, nodding and still grinning. ‘See you later. Have a good night.’

They watched the reporter heading back to the group.

Stella looked back at Emily and Joel’s tunics. ‘If you are going to spend any time in Greece, you must change your clothes. We do not dress like that any more.’

‘We’re only going to be here a short time,’ Emily said. ‘As soon as we destroy that rock we’ll go.’

Stella directed them towards her parents’ car. ‘I do not have the keys and there is no one to drive it.’

‘I can drive,’ Joel said.

‘And I can open it,’ offered Emily. At the driver’s side, she placed her hand on the lock. She concentrated and thought ‘Open’. Moments later, they heard a click and the door opened.

‘That’s a neat trick,’ Joel said as he lifted Stella out of her wheelchair and helped her in to the front passenger seat. ‘I just hope it works to get the engine going.’

They stored Stella’s wheelchair in the back and Emily used her powers to start the car engine. Joel put the car in gear and drove out of the parking area, past all the reporters’ cars and out on to the main road.

The journey started in silence, only broken when Stella gave Joel directions. ‘What happened to you?’ Joel finally asked her. ‘Were you always paralyzed?’

Stella shook her head. ‘No, it was an accident when I was eight. I went on a dig with my parents to Delphi. I wandered off and fell down into a pit. I landed on a rock and broke my back. I’ve been paralyzed ever since.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Joel said.

Stella shrugged. ‘I am used to it now. But because of the accident, my parents won’t let me do anything or go anywhere without them. They do not think I can take care of myself. I did not want to come on this dig, but they would not let me stay home alone.’

‘At least you’ve got parents,’ Joel said softly. ‘Mine died in a car accident. If it weren’t for Emily and the Olympians, I’m sure I would have ended up in prison.’

Emily sat in the back, listening to Joel and Stella. She pulled out Pegasus’s feather and spun it in her fingers. ‘Hold on, Pegs,’ she whispered softly. ‘Just hold on.’

‘Are you talking to that feather?’ Stella asked.

Emily nodded and gazed lovingly at it. ‘It belongs to Pegasus. He is very sick.’

‘Pegasus?’ Stella said. ‘The flying horse?’

‘He’s not a horse,’ Emily barked. ‘He’s Pegasus!’

‘Sorry!’ Stella said quickly. ‘I do not wish to make you angry.’

Emily sighed heavily. ‘No, I’m sorry I yelled. I’m just frightened. Before the gold box was opened, Pegasus and I would fly everywhere together. Now, because of it, he’s very ill. A lot of Olympians have died and the few survivors are dying.’

‘How can this be?’ Stella asked. ‘I still do not understand. The gods are immortal. How can a simple rock be so dangerous?’

‘It’s not a simple rock,’ Joel answered as he drove the car along the empty rural Greek roads. ‘It was a weapon created by the Titans.’

‘The Titans!’ Stella repeated. ‘They are real too?’

‘They were,’ Emily said. ‘Jupiter defeated them. But right before he did, the Titans created a weapon that could destroy the Olympians. Luckily, Jupiter and his brothers got to it first and sealed it in the gold box. It has remained undisturbed all this time.’

‘Until we found it,’ Stella mused. ‘What happens after you destroy it?’

‘We don’t know,’ Joel answered. ‘The survivors are old and sick. I hope by destroying it, we will reverse the damage. If not, then even if we do destroy it, we may be too late to save them.’

Joel had said the words that Emily had been dreading. She’d thought the same thing herself time and time again. Could the damage be reversed? And if it could, what would happen to the survivors?

It was approaching midnight when they reached central Athens. Like any big city, there were a lot of cars on the main roads, but not on the inner, smaller routes.

‘This place is crazy,’ Joel complained as he manoeuvered the car through the quiet streets. ‘I thought driving in New York was bad, but Athens is impossible! How can anyone get a car down these narrow streets?’

‘My father does not have a problem,’ Stella said.

‘Your father must be crazy,’ Joel muttered.

As Stella directed them to the Acropolis Museum, Joel turned down a particularly narrow road; he miscalculated the width and smashed into a parked car.

‘My father’s car!’ Stella cried.

When they inspected the damage, they saw that the entire side was caved in.

‘What am I going to tell him?’ Stella groaned.

‘Nothing,’ Joel said. ‘He’ll think the car was stolen. We’ll use another car to get you back to the temple.’ He looked around the area. ‘But it’s too dangerous to leave it here in the street.’

‘I’ve got it,’ Emily said. She stretched her right arm in front of her towards the damaged car – it lifted off the road, over the top of the parked cars and then it was lowered on its side to the narrow pavement. ‘Let the police try to figure out how it got there.’

‘I am in such trouble,’ Stella sighed.

‘Not as much as the Olympians,’ Emily said. ‘Take us to the museum.’

Joel once again took the position behind Stella’s wheelchair as they made their way through the deserted streets of Athens.

Apartment buildings, shops and boutique hotels lined the way. It almost reminded Emily of New York. But the comparison ended when she became aware of graffiti on all the buildings and closed shutters of the shops. It seemed there wasn’t a single doorway or wall that had escaped the street artists’ spray paint.

Another difference was the calm feeling of the place. Despite it being the middle of the night, the few people they passed on the street gave them friendly greetings and smiles instead of the suspicion that was built into all New Yorkers. Of course, Emily reasoned, it could be their Olympian dress that caused all the smiles.

Somewhere along the way, Emily became aware of a large chocolate-brown dog following them. When they stopped, the dog came straight up to Emily, wagging its tail and wanting to be petted.

Emily knelt down and stroked the dog’s pretty face. ‘You look just like my mum’s dog, Mike. Go home now, I’m sure your family is missing you.’

‘He has no home,’ Stella said. ‘That red tag on his collar means he is a street dog. He has been abandoned. The government has veterinarians who treat them. But it is the public who feed them.’

Emily looked at the red tag. It had a date and serial number on it. ‘Who would do that? He’s so sweet.’

‘Look around you, there are lots of abandoned dogs in Athens. Sometimes pets grow too large and people release them to the streets. Just leave him and he will go away.’

Emily became aware of the other dogs sleeping in doorways or wandering the streets. ‘Are they all homeless?’

Stella nodded. ‘It is normal. There are dogs everywhere. Cats too.’

‘Normal?’ Joel said. ‘It’s not normal to abandon pets on the street. That’s awful.’

‘We have always done it,’ Stella said.

‘That doesn’t make it right,’ Emily said. She gave the dog a final pat. ‘I’m so sorry, I wish we could take you with us,’ she said to the dog. ‘But you can’t come where we’re going. Stay here.’

But the dog refused to leave and continued to follow them.

‘Just ignore him,’ Stella said. ‘He will leave eventually.’ She made Joel stop pushing her chair and pointed up. ‘There is the Acropolis.’

Emily and Joel gazed up to the top of a tall hill rising out of the ordinary city streets and graffiti-covered buildings. They drew in their breath at the amazing sight.

The Acropolis was actually a series of several ancient temples built closely together at the top of one of the highest points in Athens. Spotlights shone brightly on the white marble, showing off the large monument.

‘How many buildings are up there?’ Joel asked softly.

‘A lot,’ Stella said. ‘The largest is the Parthenon – the temple to Athena. Behind it is the temple of Poseidon, and at the very front, you can see the temple of Athena Nike. It’s really tiring to climb up all the stairs to get there, but worth it. Even with all the scaffolding.’

‘My mom always dreamed of seeing the Acropolis,’ Emily said. ‘She used to show me pictures of it from books she collected. It’s so beautiful.’

‘But it really looks out of place here in the city,’ Joel said. ‘Down below, this could be New York. But the moment you look up and see it, you know you’re in Greece.’

Emily frowned. ‘Joel, doesn’t the Parthenon remind you a bit of Jupiter’s palace with all those pillars?’

Joel nodded. ‘Only Jupiter’s is much, much bigger. And it doesn’t have all that construction scaffolding around it …’ his voice tapered off and he looked away.

Emily dropped her head and felt a pain tearing through her. ‘I still can’t believe he’s gone.’

‘Who?’ Stella asked.

‘Jupiter,’ Emily said sadly. ‘I told you, he died a couple of days ago. So did his brothers, his wife, and my teacher, Vesta.’

‘So Zeus is truly dead?’

‘His name was Jupiter!’ Joel shouted angrily.

‘In Greece, we call him Zeus, not Jupiter,’ Stella challenged. ‘You are here now, so you must also call him Zeus.’

‘It doesn’t matter what we call him, he’s dead!’ Joel shouted. ‘They’re all dead! And unless we destroy that weapon, the survivors will die too. C’mon, let’s go!’

They travelled the rest of the way in silence with the dog trailing behind. Before long, they came upon the museum. The building was large and strangely shaped, made of glass, steel and concrete.

‘They designed the museum to look like a modern version of the Parthenon,’ Stella explained.

‘That’s supposed to look like the Parthenon?’ Emily said. ‘It doesn’t look anything like it!’

‘Some say it does,’ Stella defended.

Emily’s heart pounded harder, knowing that the rock that was killing all the Olympians was locked deep inside that building. ‘How do we get in?’

Stella led them around the building. ‘In the daytime when the museum is open, visitors go in through those front doors,’ she said, pointing at the high glass front of the building. Tall pillars ran the length of the building and the ground leading up to the entrance was covered in thick glass panels. Emily peered down through one of the panels and saw a lighted archaeological dig running deeper under the building. At any other time she might have been interested. But now, all she cared about was getting in and out as quickly as possible.

‘Visitors can walk on the glass,’ Stella explained. ‘They can follow what the archaeologists are doing and finding.’ She moved towards the side of the building. ‘When the museum is closed, we go in through the side, here.’

They followed the building around. Up ahead was a set of heavily secured doors. Stella held up her hand. ‘This is the way into the research area. My parents enter from here.’ She indicated a security box with a number pad and swipe terminal. ‘But you need a special code, pass-card and keys. I don’t have those.’

‘We don’t need them,’ Joel said. ‘Em, can you open the doors or shall I force them?’

‘It might have alarms – I’ll do it.’

Emily approached the doors and released the Flame from her hands, directing it into a laser-like beam to burn a large round hole in the centre of the solid security doors.

Stella stared in complete shock. ‘How do you do that?’

‘I don’t have time to explain,’ Emily said. She passed through the hole and used her powers to lift Stella’s wheelchair.

The dog followed them into the building. ‘He should not be in here,’ Stella said. ‘The rules say no animals allowed.’

‘We’ve just broken in – it’s not the time to start caring about rules,’ Emily said. ‘Just take us to where they would keep the rock.’

Stella glared at the dog, but led the group through the maze at the rear of the Acropolis museum. ‘My mother’s office is on the lower level. There is a lift on the other side of the building. We go this way. I want to show you something.’

They entered the general public area of the main level of the closed museum. The primary lights were off, but each display cabinet was lit to show the contents. They walked past some of the museum’s older exhibits.

‘Here.’ Stella stopped her wheelchair before one of the lighted cabinets. ‘I told you I had seen your picture before.’

Emily and Joel peered at the terracotta amphora with the ancient black, cream and orange artwork. Despite the cracks and seams from where breaks had been mended, there was no mistaking the image on the front. It was the profile of a girl in an Olympian tunic. She was holding up her hands and shooting flames at tentacled monsters. Standing directly behind her were two men. One was a tall, muscular young man holding a spear. Emily’s eyes landed on his right arm. It was torn open, the mechanical insides on display.

‘Joel, look!’ Emily said. ‘That really does look like your arm.’

‘It can’t be!’ Joel said. ‘But look at the fire from the girl’s hands. That really could be you. How is this possible?’

‘I don’t know.’ A chill ran through Emily as she studied the ancient pot. Then her eyes landed on something else and her breathing stopped completely. Beside the girl figure on the pot was a large dog. It was snarling and baring its teeth at one of the monsters. The dog was chocolate-brown, apart from its right front leg, which was white.

‘Joel, look.’ Emily pointed from the pot down to the dog. ‘Look at his front leg. You don’t think …’

‘No, it’s impossible. There’s got to be some mistake.’

‘There is no mistake. It is you,’ Stella insisted. ‘I knew it the moment I saw you. I can take you to the other amphora to show you with Zeus and Poseidon.’

Emily shook her head. ‘No, I don’t want to see any more. I just want to destroy that rock and go home.’

Stella led them through the darkened museum. From the main public area, they entered a freight elevator.

Stella pushed the bottom button. ‘This is where they store some of the pieces that will go on display later. My mother’s office is at the end. Beside that is the workroom where she dates and restores pottery. Her assistant, Stavros, came back here a week ago with the golden box and the rock. They should be in there.’