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pinched a small amount of the silver fabric and instinctively braced themselves for a whirlwind journey back through time. Alcie and Iole hunched over as if preparing to face a horrible hurricane. Pandy clutched her pouch to her chest and planted her feet firmly on the ground. Homer grabbed his cloak with his free hand and closed his eyes, head down.
    “Alcie, Iole . . . what are you doing?” Hermes asked.
    “We’re hanging on. Won’t there be wind . . . or something?” Alcie yelled.
    Pandy, looking at her toes, saw a small shift, a subtle repositioning of the stones on the ground around her feet. She noticed that the birds that had been singing were silenced, and a small white boulder had materialized on a patch of grass off to her left . . . and then nothing.
    “You four are crazy!” Hermes laughed. “You look like you’re about to be attacked! It’s done. We’re there.”
    “That’s it?” Pandy asked, looking around.
    “That’s it,” Hermes said.
    “I just thought there would be . . . wind,” Alcie said, standing up straight.
    “You’re . . . ,” Pandy began.
    “I’m what? Fabulous?” Hermes asked.
    “No. I mean, yes! But you’re helping .” Pandy’s voice dropped to a whisper on the last word.
    “I did, and I might again,” Hermes said. “Now don’t blow it by asking a lot of questions.”
    The forest surrounding them was essentially the same. Some trees were taller, some were smaller, and some were new. There was a different cloud formation in the sky, but there was no other marked visible difference.
    “I’m off,” Hermes said, then pointed east. “Your way lies down that road. Remember, change nothing.”
    He stepped back and Pandy thought he was about to disappear when he stopped and turned to Iole.
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    Iole’s mouth fell open and then she looked down at the ground.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “At a time like this, that’s what you’re thinking about?” Hermes asked. I would have expected that of Alcie, not you.”
    “Huh?” Alcie said.
    “I’m sorry,” Iole said again.
    “A deal is a deal, Iole. It doesn’t matter that I probably can’t use it. So, no, you can’t have the bracelet back.”
    Iole nodded.
    Hermes shook his head and disappeared in a bright white flash.
    “Nice going, Miss I-Can-Give-Away-My-Presents,” Alcie said after a pause. “Now he hates us!”
    “No he doesn’t, Alcie. Quit it,” Pandy said. “Iole, what in Zeus’s name is going on? What do you know?”
    “Did either of you ever pay attention when Master Epeus was teaching ancient Greek history? Ever? Thirteen hundred years ago, Zeus was in love with the goddess Thetis. Hera found out about it and got so angry that not only did she force Zeus to stop seeing Thetis, she made Zeus give Thetis to a mortal man as his wife.”
    “Oh, yeah! I was awake for this,” Pandy cried. “King Peleus! Whose palace is . . . was . . . is on Mount Pelion!”
    “Correct!” Iole continued. “It was a huge celebration to which all the gods and goddesses were invited.”
    “Except one,” Pandy said.
    “Correct again. And if my guess is right, today is the big—”
    “Do you think you have been hired to simply stand around!”
    A shrill voice, like the sound of a horn, high and off-key, pierced the quiet of the forest. Pandy, Alcie, Iole, and Homer whipped their heads around.
    Then their jaws dropped.

CHAPTER FIVE
On Staff
    “As if I don’t have enough to worry about!”
    The shortest, roundest woman Pandy had ever seen was ambling toward them. Pandy assumed she was moving by herself, although she couldn’t see the woman’s feet. Her girth was easily that of a large chariot, and the top of her head, Pandy calculated, came only to the top of Pandy’s shoulder. Her silvery hair, however— swept up, fastened and held in place with myriad combs and pins—towered easily another meter above that. Her lips and eyelids were painted a pale green, and she was wearing a long