Back to Work

Julia was so terrified she could hardly breathe. Still, she didn’t hesitate. “ Stop! ” she cried, leaping away from the time passage. “ It’s not Markos’ fault. We’ll stay. ” She glanced at Brody, but he appeared to be frozen in place. Julia couldn’t believe it. Was he thinking about stepping through the passage despite Hermes’ threats against Markos and his family? A second later she let out a sigh of relief as Brody stepped away from the passage too. “ It’s cool, ” he said. “ I didn’t really want to go anyway. I was totally looking forward to being in the Olympics. ”

“ You have a funny way of showing it, boy, ” Hermes snarled, though he sounded slightly less angry already. “ Come. We need to have a talk about loyalty. ” As Hermes dragged Brody out of the room, Julia glanced at Markos. He’d taken a few steps forward and was staring through the passage. Julia glanced through at her own world just in time to see a car drive by. “ Oh! ” Markos exclaimed, pointing at it. “ What was that?” “ It’s a car, ” Julia said. “ It’s like a wagon, except you don’t need a horse or ox to pull it. ”

Markos looked impressed. “ Never mind. Let’s step away from the time passage, shall we?” Caerus herded Markos and Julia into the outer room of the temple. The guard, now awake, was waiting there. “ I’m so sorry, master, ” he said, cowering in front of Caerus. “ I swear upon my life, I’ve never fallen asleep on the job before. It must have been some trick. Perhaps the mortals enlisted the aid of Hypnos or—” “ Silence! ” Caerus ordered, sounding annoyed.

“ I might forgive your incompetence just this once, mortal fool. But if you value your family and your sanity, you’ll guard this chamber with your life from now on. ” “ Of course. Thank you, Caerus! ” The guard said quickly, bowing. “ No mortal will get past me again! ” As he turned away, he glared at the kids. Julia’s heart sank. It was obvious that nobody was going to be able to sneak into the temple again before the Games. Besides, Hermes was aware of their plans now. If she and Brody escaped, Markos and his family would certainly suffer.

“ I guess we’re stuck, ” she thought with a shiver. “ We’ll just have to hope that Hermes will keep his word and let us go after the Games. ” The next day Julia sat on the bench beside Markos. They were watching Brody’s training session. He had already spent a couple of hours running and tossing the javelin. Now he was about to start practicing the long jump required for the pentathlon. That was a competition in which athletes competed in five different events.

“ Hermes is working Brody harder than ever today, ” Julia observed. “ Does that mean he’s still mad at us for trying to escape?” Markos looked thoughtful. “ I doubt it, ” he said. “ I mean, of course he was angry at the time. You’re lucky he didn’t turn us all into frogs or something. ” He shuddered. “ However, I’m sure he’s mostly forgotten about it by now. ” “ Really?” Julia winced as Brody made his first attempt at the long jump and landed with a splat. “ But Hermes kept saying how Brody betrayed him. ” “ Yes, ” Markos said. “ But remember, the gods view us as mortals view dogs. Would you really bother to hold a grudge against a dog?”