The next day, the day before the race, the riders woke to find brightly coloured clouds circling the top of Mount Olympus like crowns. ‘Zeus has put them there,’ announced Bellerophon at breakfast. ‘They mark tomorrow’s course.’
His announcement was followed, much to his annoyance, by a flurry of gods and goddesses coming and going with pearls that needed to be braided into manes, last-minute advice for the race, and a hundred other things besides. There was not a moment for Pippa to tell Sophia and Bas anything about the night before.
Dionysus appeared at lunch, drinking cup after cup of wine; Hephaestus was caught trying to inscribe his name on the lightning bolt statue; and Artemis led a hunt through the training course, which sent Bellerophon into a rage. He banned all gods and goddesses from making further appearances until the next morning, at the start of the race.
But as Pippa and the rest of the riders were leading their horses past the stables to the grazing fields, they saw a terrible sight. Water was streaming from the stalls and down the side of the mountain, carrying hay and buckets and even reins and saddlecloths along with it. The air smelled salty, like the sea.
From one of the stalls, on a wave of water, burst Poseidon. His hair and beard whipped in whirlpools and his eyes stormed. He landed in front of the stables in a frothing pool.
‘Poseidon! How dare you?’ raged Bellerophon, splashing up to him.
‘How dare I? How dare you!’
‘It wasn’t me. It was your brother!’ said Bellerophon.
‘So Zeus sent home my rider? He disqualified my horse from the race? Me, god of the sea, patron of horses! This would never have happened if I was allowed to race my hippocampi!’
Now that Pippa thought about it, Theodoros had been absent since lunch. And his horse, the stallion with the sky-blue wings, was gone too. So he had been disqualified. Zeus must have found out about the seaweed.
‘I warned you!’ Bellerophon shouted back, pounding his cane on the ground. He turned to the riders.
‘Take your horses to graze,’ he yelled. ‘Leave this mess to me.’
‘But Theodoros … ?’ stammered Pippa.
‘He will not be coming back.’
The grass in the pasture looked indigo in the twilight. Even the sun seemed to have been drenched in Poseidon’s rage. All the riders stood quietly, watching their horses graze. Some children whispered that Theodoros hadn’t only been sent home, he had been sent home as a fish. But Bellerophon hadn’t mentioned that, so no one was sure.
‘Imagine, after all that – not racing,’ Sophia said to Bas and Pippa. ‘How ashamed Theodoros’s family will be.’ She shook her head. ‘As much as we have our differences, I would still like to make my father proud. I wish he could see me tomorrow.’
‘And see you lose?’ Khrys taunted, striding over, followed closely by Perikles. ‘No mortals get to watch the races. But the Oracle will learn the results from the gods, and my father will be with her when she does. He’s having a private audience with her all day.’
Sophia rolled her eyes.
‘I thought you said the only reason he’s doing that is so that he’s the first one to know if you embarrassed him,’ said Perikles. ‘Like that time—’
‘Hush!’ said Khrys, his face turning red. ‘I said no such thing. Come on. It’s nearly time for supper.’ He stormed off, with Perikles trailing behind, looking confused.
‘Good riddance,’ muttered Sophia. ‘Even Khrys’s own family doesn’t like him. I’m not surprised.’
Bas remained silent.
Pippa fingered her coin. If her parents could see her now, would they be proud?
It didn’t matter – what mattered was her plan.
Now, with all the gods and goddesses gone, and Khrys too, she could tell it at last to her friends. She gathered them in a quiet spot of the pasture and started with all that had happened the night before.
‘Timon is from the Underworld?!’ Bas’s eyes went wide, and he flicked his gaze to the slight boy, who was standing away from the others, watching Skotos eat.
‘Not so surprising perhaps,’ said Sophia. ‘Neither is the news about Khrys’s cheating. I should have guessed it. I wish I had been there to give him a piece of my mind.’
But both Sophia and Bas were surprised when, in a whisper, Pippa told them her plan. ‘It was the riding outfits that gave me the idea. The masks will hide our faces. Kerauno’s been the sure winner from the start, as long as his rider doesn’t fall off. Don’t you see?’
Bas and Sophia shook their heads.
‘Bas and I can switch horses!’
‘Oh!’ breathed Bas. ‘If I ride Zeph, I’ll lose and get to go home. If you ride Kerauno you’ll win, and then you’ll get to be …’
‘… with Zeph forever,’ said Pippa. ‘Exactly.’ Exactly right and exactly wrong at the same time.
Pippa pushed the feeling aside. If she wanted to stay with Zeph, if she wanted to keep him safe, it was the only way.
Bas’s eyes were bright with hope. ‘It’s perfect! Perfect, Pippa. Ares doesn’t care who’s riding. As long as his horse wins, he’ll be happy. And Aphrodite? She hasn’t even bothered to meet Pippa, so I can’t see her minding either.’
‘Didn’t you hear what happened to Theodoros?’ Sophia cried, a little too loudly.
‘But this is different,’ said Pippa in a rush, wishing for a moment she had only told Bas. ‘We aren’t really cheating. We’re just … switching.’
Sophia shook her head, but said, ‘I suppose. Though I have never heard of such a thing happening in a race.’
‘But that doesn’t mean we can’t,’ said Pippa forcefully. ‘Please, I have to do something.’
Sophia frowned. ‘Riding your best is doing something.’
‘Riding my best won’t help me win,’ said Pippa. ‘The Fates told me so.’
‘You met the Fates?’ Sophia’s eyes widened.
‘By accident,’ said Pippa, and explained her visit, and Atropos’s second appearance. She ended by showing Sophia and Bas the map.
‘No wonder you can fly around the mountain without getting lost,’ said Bas. Then added, ‘I don’t understand it. Why would it be fated that you must lose?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Pippa. ‘We are going to change it.’
After a long pause, Sophia said, ‘While I don’t think you should try to trick the gods and goddesses, you and Bas should do what you must. I am still going to ride my hardest.’
‘Of course,’ said Pippa.
‘But it is a clever plan,’ she added.
Pippa smiled. Coming from Sophia, that was high praise.
Sophia reached for Pippa’s hand. ‘Nikepteros.’
‘Nikepteros,’ Pippa murmured back, giving Sophia’s hand a squeeze. Victory in flight.
Later though, as Pippa got Zeph ready for the next morning, she wondered whether her plan really was so clever. She hated that she was taking advice from Khrys. But it was not the same as hurting a horse, and that made her feel better.
All that mattered was Zeph. ‘When I win, I will stay in these stables and care for you,’ she whispered in the horse’s ear. Yes, Ares would be Zeus for a day … but it was just a day, not forever, and she would make sure Zeph was safe. She reached for his brush. ‘Kerauno can live with Zeus and carry the thunderbolts. You’d rather chase butterflies, wouldn’t you?’ She gave him a playful kiss on the nose, then began to comb his coat, brushing until it shone.
When she was finished, she braided the pearls into his mane one by one. They looked like sunlight glinting off the water. Pippa hugged Zeph tight, knowing it might be the last time she was with him, alone, until after the race.
‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘At least, soon it will be. Trust me.’
Zeph snorted. Was he disagreeing with her? She should have known he wouldn’t like the plan. Horses did not like secrets.