“We can’t fly you anywhere, Hades,” said Tisi.

“You’re too . . . uh, too, uh . . .” Meg sputtered.

“Too heavy!” said Alec.

“You’ll just have to flap extra hard,” I insisted. “Driving up to earth will take too long. I have to get to Mount Atlas on the double. Medusa’s life is at stake! And, come to think of it, so is Perseus’s.”

The Furies hurried into their wing of the palace. When they reappeared, they had their overnight bags, stylish little black leather backpacks that fit snugly between their wings.

“Going like that, Hades?” asked Tisi.

Only then did I realize I still had on my jammies, red flannel with an orange flame pattern. I ran into my bedroom, put on a proper godly robe, and stuffed everything the Naiads hadn’t stolen into my pockets. Then I tossed some ambrosia-cheese crackers into a bag. I told Cerbie goodbye, and we all raced out of Villa Pluto.

Meg and Alec bent their knees and gripped each other’s forearms to make a seat for me the way they’d once done for Persephone. I sat down.

“Uuuugh!” said Meg.

“You weigh a dekaton!” said Alec.

I put my arms around their shoulders. And then—Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!—the Furies opened their great black wings and rose off the ground. Well, Tisi rose. Meg and Alec flapped like crazy, but they didn’t gain much altitude.

“I’m not sure we can carry you, Hades,” Meg gasped.

“You need to lose weight now!” said Alec.

Just when it looked as if we were going to run smack into the asphodel hedge, the wind gusted, filling their mighty wings with air. Soon we were soaring through the sky.

“Eagle ahead!” I warned the Furies. “Veer to the right. But don’t go through those clouds. We don’t want to lose sight of Tisi.”

Finally Alec said, “Relax, Hades! Now!”

And that put an end to my backseat flying.

It wasn’t long before Mount Atlas appeared ahead of us. The Furies circled it until Tisi saw the Gray Sisters’ cottage. It sat in the middle of a meadow encircled by craggy rocks.

“Hold on, Hades,” said Meg.

“Coming in for a landing,” said Alec. “Now!”

I closed my eyes and—THUMP! We hit the ground. I ran a few steps and came to a stop. The Furies folded their wings. Keeping low, we made our way toward the circle of rocks. If Perseus was already there, we didn’t want him to see us.

Slowly we raised our heads and peered over the rocks. I’d expected the Gray Sisters to look something like Eno, Riley, and Medusa before they’d been gorgonized.

Wrong!

The Gray Sisters were three strange birds. Swans, actually. They were perched on the backs of garden chairs, around a small table, having tea. Under their swan’s wings, they had slender gray arms and hands, which they used to pass around the teapot. On top of their long swan’s necks they had small women’s heads. Their long gray hair hid their faces from view.

“Who’s who?” I whispered to Tisi.

“Pemphredo has the eye now,” Tisi whispered back.

“The eye?” I said.

Tisi nodded. “There’s just one eyeball, so the three sisters have to share it.”

Now I understood what Medusa meant when she said they had some unfortunate physical characteristics!

“Enyo is next to her.” Tisi went on. “And the one with the tooth is Deino.”

“Just one tooth, too, eh?” I asked.

Tisi nodded.

Suddenly there was a loud crash.

Pemphredo put down her bread. “What was that?” she exclaimed, scanning the garden with a big blue eye.

“What do you see, Phreddy?” cried Enyo. “What? What?”

“Nothing yet,” said Pemphredo, still looking around.

“Give me the eye!” said Deino. “Let me look!”

“Wait your turn,” said Pemphredo firmly. “I just put it in.”

The Gray Sisters were quiet, listening. We held still, too. I heard the sound of footsteps. Suddenly, Perseus appeared. His sandal wings flapped like crazy as he fought to stay aloft. The Gorgon Scaler swung back and forth from his girdle. And on his head, my Helmet of Darkness was shorting out and firing off sparks.

I smiled.

Perseus clicked his ankles together. The sandal wings stopped flapping, and he crashed to the ground. He managed to hang onto Athena’s big shield with one hand. With the other hand, he yanked the helmet from his head. “Drat this thing!” he muttered as he struggled to his feet.

“Who are you, mortal?” demanded Pemhredo.

“I am Perseus!” my god-son declared.

“Is he handsome?” said Enyo. “Let me see!”

“It’s my turn next!” said Deino. “Phreddy, give me the eye!”

“Oh, all right,” said Pemphredo. She gently squeezed her eye socket, and the eyeball popped out. She caught it expertly and held it out in her hand. Deino fumbled for it and at last made contact. She plucked up the eyeball and quickly pressed it into her own socket. She blinked a few times, rolled the eye, and then directed her gaze toward Perseus.

“Oh, he is handsome!” said Deino, opening the eye wide. Now, it was a brown eye. “Why have you come all this way to visit us, handsome Perseus?”

“So that you can tell me where the Gorgons live!” said Perseus.

“Why?” asked Deino. “What do you want with our little sisters?”

“I, uh . . . I want to tell them about the big prize they’ve won,” said Perseus.

“Myth-o-maniac!” I muttered between gritted teeth. “I’m going to put a stop to this!”

Tisi put a hand on my shoulder. “Wait, Hades,” she whispered. “I’ll bet Hermes and Athena are lurking around here to see how their little hero is doing.”

I nodded. “No doubt.”

“If you jump in now,” Tisi went on, “you’ll just get into a big fight with them, and we’ll never find out where Medusa lives. Let’s wait and hear what the Gray Sisters have to say.”

“You’re right,” I said, squatting back down and peering between the rocks. “But wait until I get my hands on that little liar!”

“The prize is a great big cheese maker,” Perseus was saying.

“Oh, Medusa loves cheese,” said Pemphredo. “How did our sisters win this prize?”

“They—um—they entered a contest,” said Perseus. “They had to write, in five hundred words or less, who in the whole universe they would most like to have lunch with.”

How easily the lies rolled off his tongue!

“Can we enter the contest?” asked Pemphredo. “I know who I’d have lunch with—Argus! He has a hundred eyes. I’d try to talk him into giving me one.”

“I want one, too!” said Deino.

“I haven’t seen Perseus yet,” Enyo whined. “Give me the eye, Deino.”

“Fine,” said Deino. She took a last look at my god-son. Then she squeezed her socket, popped out the eye, and extended her hand to Enyo. But as Enyo groped for her sister’s hand, Perseus quickly lunged forward and seized the eyeball.

“Enyo,” said Deino. “You don’t have to grab!”

“I didn’t!” said Enyo. “Where’s the eye?”

“You know you took it,” said Deino. “Very rudely, I might add.”

“I didn’t take it,” said Enyo. “Phreddy? Did you take it?”

“Not me,” said Pemphredo.

“I took it,” Perseus declared. “I have your eyeball, and—yuck! Is it ever slimy!”

“Our eyeball!” wailed Enyo. “Our only eyeball! Give it back!”

“Okay,” agreed Perseus. “As soon as you tell me where to find the Gorgons!”

“This is blackmail!” said Deino.

“Call it what you will,” said Perseus. “No address, no eyeball.”

“There never was any contest or any cheese maker, was there?” said Pemphredo.

“I was trying to make it easy for you,” said Perseus. “But you forced me to play hardball. Hard eyeball.” Perseus chuckled at his own bad joke.

The three Gray Sisters leaned forward over the table, whispering.

I shook my head. “I should have stopped him when I had the chance.”

“Who knew Perseus was this cheesy?” said Tisi. “But maybe we can learn something yet.”

“You’d better tell me the truth,” said Perseus. He dropped the eyeball into the Helmet of Darkness and wiped his fingers on his robe. “If you don’t,” he continued, “I’ll come back here and play a little game of Stomp on the Eyeball!”

“No!” cried Enyo. “We’ll tell you the truth!”

“No we won’t,” said Pemphredo. “We can’t rat out our sisters!”

“We don’t have much choice, Phreddy,” said Deino. She raised her head from the huddle. “The Gorgons live in the Land of the Hyperborians,” she said. “Now give us back our eye.”

Perseus plucked the eyeball out of the helmet and tossed it in their direction. “Catch!”

“Where is it?” said Deino. “Did you catch it, Phreddy?”

“Not me,” said Pemphredo. “Enyo?”

“I don’t have it,” said Enyo.

Perseus put on the Helmet of Darkness, but it began sparking again, and he didn’t vanish. He was just banging his ankles together to activate his sandal wings when two flashes of light shimmered before him, revealing Athena and Hermes.

“Good work, Perseus!” said Athena. “Now let’s go get Medusa.”

“Who’s there?” called Pemphredo. “Identify yourself.”

“Be careful!” called Deino. “Watch where you step!”

The Olympians ignored the Gray Sisters.

“I don’t want you there,” Perseus told the gods. “I can do it myself.” He turned to face the north. “Here I come, Medusa!” he cried. The helmet suddenly kicked into gear, and Perseus disappeared.

“What a foolish mortal,” groaned Athena.

“Oh, let him have a whack at her,” said Hermes. “If he fails, we can always step in.”

“All right,” agreed Athena. “But if Perseus doesn’t behead Medusa, I’ll definitely give her a big fat tail.”

That said, they, too, vanished.

“Come on, Hades!” said Tisi. “We have to hurry!”

“We have to beat Perseus to the Land of the Hyperborians!” said Meg.

“We have to fly now!” said Alec.