Po’s new dolphins hydroplaned over the waves. Islands went by in a blur. All I could do was hold on tight and try not to throw up.

Plus, Po’s idea of a joke had made me break out in a cold drosis. If Athena caught anyone having a picnic at her new temple, she’d go ballistic. But if she caught Po? There was no telling what she’d do. She and Po had hated each other ever since a certain contest . . . .

Centuries ago, some crafty mortals said they would name their city after the god who gave them the best gift. Both Po and Athena wanted their names on that city. Po banged his trident—his three-pronged spear—on a rock, and water burbled up in a spring. For her gift, Athena planted an olive tree.

Some mortals liked the gift of water and wanted to name their city Poseidonville. Other mortals said the tree was better because it gave many gifts: shade from the sun, olives, olive oil, and firewood. They argued back and forth. Arguing made them thirsty, so they bent down to drink from the spring. Bleccch! The water was salty, like the sea, so the mortals quickly agreed to name their city Athens, after Athena.

Ever since then, Po had tried to get even with Athena every chance he got. Athena called Po a sore loser. She couldn’t stand him, and she was a champion grudge holder. The two were sworn enemies.

At last, Po slowed his dolphins. Athena’s new temple loomed ahead of us, sparkling white in the moonlight. And there was Zeus, standing on the dock. He was pumping a fist in the air. I’d have bet anything that he was chanting, “Party! Party! Party!”

How I wanted to yank my helmet out of my wallet, put it on, and vanish into the salty night air! But if you’ve got brothers—especially younger brothers—then you know sometimes you’ve just got to stick things out, or they’ll call you names like “party pooper” or “sad sack” for the rest of your life. And, since Zeus, Po, and I are immortals, I’d have to listen to their taunting basically forever.

Po saw Zeus and went for a show-off landing. He sped up his dolphins, and we whizzed toward the island. Just as we were about to crash into it, Po let go of the reins. The dolphins made a tight right turn, but the chariot kept going straight, sliding halfway up onto the white sand beach.

“All right!” cried Po, jumping out of the chariot. “Are those dolphins crazy, or what?”

“Go, Po!” said Zeus. “Hades?” he added when he saw me. “Who invited you?”

“Good to see you, too, Zeus,” I muttered, stepping onto dry land at last.

“Where are the minor moon goddesses, Po?” said Zeus. “You said they’d be here.”

Po looked out to sea. “Here they come. Looks like they borrowed their old man’s chariot.”

A sea chariot shaped like a crescent moon was heading our way, drawn by a team of giant sea horses. I knew that chariot. It belonged to Phorcys, a wise old sea god who’d gladly given up his power when Po came along to rule the seas. Now I knew which moon goddesses Po was talking about—Phorcys’s daughters, Eno, Riley, and Medusa. They were goddess friends of Persephone’s and had been guests at our wedding.

The sea horses stopped in the surf. The moon goddesses hopped out of the chariot and began wading to shore. They ruled over the moon’s pull on the ocean tides and weren’t afraid to get their feet wet.

“Hey, moon ladies!” called Po, waving his trident.

“Po?” called Medusa. “Can you give us a ride home later? Dad wants us to send the chariot back.”

“No problemo!” Po replied.

Medusa whistled to the sea horses, and they took off again.

Po elbowed me. “Check out Medusa’s hair, Hades,” he said. “Gorgeous, huh?”

I nodded. All three goddesses had beautiful silky hair. Eno was a blonde and Riley, a redhead. Medusa’s hair was black and so shiny that it reflected the silvery moonlight.

“Hey, Hades!” Medusa called as she reached the shore. Then she stopped suddenly, looking up at Athena’s temple. “I thought you said this was your temple, Po.”

“Right!” said Po. “Yeah, so how do you like my new temple, anyway?”

“Very nice,” said Medusa. “But why is there an owl on the top? Didn’t Athena claim the owl as her mascot?”

“Owl?” said Po. “Oh, you mean that owl. Yeah, well, uh . . .”

“That’s a sea owl,” Zeus lied quickly. “Flies sometimes, swims other times. Amazing creature, really.”

I couldn’t believe my brothers! One was a myth-o-maniac, and the other went along with his lies. They reminded me of our dad, Cronus, a truly slimy Titan. I took after our mother, Rhea.

“So, who’s up for a little high-speed tubing?” called Po.

“We are!” said the goddesses.

Po whistled for his dolphins, and they came leaping through the surf almost to the shore. Po pushed his sea chariot into the shallow water and hitched up his team again.

“I can only take three at a time,” said Po. “Who wants to go?”

“Me!” said Zeus.

“Go on,” Medusa called to her sisters. “I’ll go next round.”

Eno, Riley, and Zeus waded out to the chariot, jumped in, and they sped off.

“What a nice surprise to see you, Hades,” Medusa said, sitting down on the dock. “Is Persephone around?”

I shook my head. “She has to work. You know, it’s spring, and she’s the goddess of it. I’ll go see her on weekends. What’s happening with you?”

“Well, I just got back from visiting my three older sisters,” Medusa said.

“I didn’t know you had any other sisters,” I said.

“I didn’t either,” said Medusa. “But the other night, Mom happened to mention something about the Gray Sisters, and I got her to tell me all about them. Turns out they have some, um . . . unfortunate physical characteristics.”

“Oddballs, huh?” I said.

“Very odd.” Medusa nodded. “Mom said it gave her the willies to look at them, so she sent them off to live on a mountaintop.”

“My grandpa, Sky Daddy, did the same thing with some of his kids.” I shook my head. “Three of his sons had one big eye in the middle of their foreheads. And three others had fifty heads and one hundred arms apiece. Sky Daddy couldn’t believe his children were such misfits, so he hurled them down to Tartarus, the fiery pit in what’s now my kingdom, and had them locked up in jail.”

“That stinks,” said Medusa. “It’s so unfair to judge gods or goddesses—or even mortals—by the way they look. Mom feels bad about what she did. She agreed to let me tell everyone in the family about the Gray Sisters. Now they’ll have plenty of visitors on their mountaintop. And maybe someday they’ll come out of hiding.”

“That’d be great,” I said. “Po, Zeus, and I rescued our uncles. They live down in the Underworld now. I see them all the time and don’t even notice their looks.”

“Every family has its share of strange ducks, I guess,” said Medusa. “I tried to talk Eno and Riley into visiting the Gray Sisters, but all they ever want to do is stay around here and go to Po’s parties.”

“Weren’t you the one dancing all night with Po at our wedding reception?” I said.

Medusa smiled. “Po’s persistent, I’ll say that for him. And I love to dance.”

While I talked to Medusa, I kept an eye out for Athena. She wasn’t like the rest of us gods. She wasn’t even born in the usual way, but sprang, fully-grown, from Zeus’s head, wearing a helmet and armor and waving a spear. She came ready-made to be the goddess of war. And what a temper! The least little thing set her off. And she absolutely forbid any fooling around near her temples.

Once some naiads, little water nymphs, were in a river beside one of her temples, swimming and frolicking. Athena was so furious that she blasted them with a dog-head spell. Instantly, those nymphs grew muzzles, wet black noses, and long floppy ears. And, since Athena had tricked the muse Calliope into teaching her to deliver her curses in verse, which made them incredibly powerful, the poor naiads still have dog heads to this day. I didn’t even want to imagine what sort of curse Athena might utter if she found Medusa and me yakking in her sacred spot.

At last we heard dolphins screeching, and Po landed his chariot. He hoisted the cooler out of the backseat. “We’re hungry!” he said. “Who’s ready for some eats?”

“Me!” cried Zeus.

Riley ran off down the beach. The rest of us sat down around a cloth Po had spread out on the sand. I handed out Necta-Colas while Po passed around a big platter of sushios, a little delicacy he had invented made of raw bits of fish wrapped in seaweed. Medusa and Eno helped themselves to several pieces each.

But Zeus growled. “What’s this stuff? Looks like bait.”

For once, I agreed with Zeus.

“It’s sushios,” said Po. “The deluxe platter! Tuna-ambrosia rolls. The works!”

“Is this all you brought?” asked Zeus.

It was. Zeus and I had to content ourselves with our Necta-Colas.

“Tah-dah!” Riley called from down the beach. We all turned and saw that she’d sculpted a dolphin out of the sparkling white sand.

“Wow,” said Po. “That’s life-size!”

“Anybody can make a fish,” scoffed Zeus. “Now make something for the king of the gods!”

“Easy!” Riley said and proved it by quickly sculpting a giant T-bolt. Then she came over and finished off the sushios.

“So, Po,” I said, jumping to my feet. “Ready to call it a night?”

“Sit down, you dolt,” said Zeus.

“Don’t go, Hades,” said Eno. She held up a small kamara (old Greek speak for “camera”). “I want to take a group shot with the temple in the background.”

“No!” I cried. The last thing we needed was absolute proof that we’d been picnicking at Athena’s temple.

But Eno popped up and scurried off toward the water. Then she turned and pointed her kamara at us. “Smile, Po!” she said. “Smile, Riley! Look at the birdie, Zeus! Lighten up, Hades!”

I made a feeble attempt.

“Say cheese, Medusa!”

Click!

“Got it!” said Eno. “If it’s any good, I’ll send you gods copies.”

“No copies!” I yelled. Everyone looked at me as if I were some sort of nutcase. “I mean, why go to the trouble, Eno? Okay, it’s late. Time to go home.”

“Hades, stop fussing!” Zeus growled. “We just got here. Why, the moon goddesses haven’t even had a tour of Poseidon’s new temple yet.” He gave me a wicked wink and sprang to his feet. “Riley! Come! Let me show you the temple. It’s magnificent!”

“Wait!” I cried. I had to keep my brothers out of Athena’s temple. “Why don’t we go visit one of the other islands around here.” I pointed. “Look! That one over there. It’s deserted. We could be the first gods to ever foot on it.”

“Big whoopee,” said Zeus. “Come on, ladies! Po’s temple awaits.”

My mind flashed back to the time our mom, Rhea, had taken me, her firstborn, aside. She’d asked me to keep an eye on my siblings, to make sure they stayed out of trouble. Had she known at the time how impossibly hard this would be? I had five brothers and sisters. Hestia behaved herself. But the other four were magnets for trouble.

Eno grabbed her kamara. “Let’s go!” she cried.

“Coming, Medusa?” said Zeus.

“No thanks,” said Medusa. “I’m enjoying sitting here talking to your brother.”

“Hades?” Zeus looked confused. “You like talking to him?”

Medusa laughed. “Of course,” she said, and it warmed my heart to hear it.

Zeus shrugged. “All right. Last one up to the temple is a rotin oion (old Greek slang for ‘rotten egg’)!”

Zeus, Eno, and Riley raced up the temple steps.

“You were just waiting for me to show you my temple, right, Medusa?” said Po.

“Not really, Po,” she said. “If you’ve seen one temple, you’ve seen them all.”

“Not this temple,” said Po. “It’s incredible. Sculpture all over the walls. I promise, you’ve never seen anything like it. Let me give you a little tour.”

Medusa rolled her eyes. “Okay, Po,” she said, standing up. She looked back over her shoulder at me. “Come on, Hades.”

I shook my head. I figured I’d stay put and keep an eye out for Athena. If she showed up, maybe I could keep her busy on the beach until everybody had a chance to get out of the temple.

Po and Medusa started up the stairs. I started pacing. A temple tour would take five minutes, tops. After all, the inside of a temple is a simple affair. There’s one altar where mortals put room-temperature offerings, such as an ear of corn, a sheaf of wheat, or a nice cheese ball. A second altar holds the offerings to be set on fire—smoked turkey, lamb burgers, toasted cheese sandwiches—and has a chimney over it for channeling the sweet-smelling smoke up to Mount Olympus.

But time dragged on. What, I wondered, could Po be showing Medusa that was taking so long? I counted to fifty, then ran up the temple stairs.

I stepped through the arched doorway and into Athena’s temple. The walls were all covered in carvings of olive trees, a little reminder of Athena’s victory over Po. On the ceiling, various immortals brandished spears, axes, swords, and other weapons of war. Athena had clearly spent a bundle on the décor.

Zeus, Eno, and Riley stood at the far end of the room by the burnt-offering table. Zeus was bragging, and the goddesses were giggling. Po and Medusa were sitting on the other offering table, looking up at the ceiling sculptures. Right next to Po was some scrumptious-looking sliced salami that a mortal had left for Athena. I thought about taking some—that Necta-Cola hadn’t exactly filled me up—but I quickly thought better of it. If Athena ever found out, I’d be toast!

“You’ll be able to see it better if you lean a little closer,” Po was saying.

“Give it up, Po.” Medusa laughed.

“All right, time to go!” I called. “We gotta get out of here.”

Medusa turned and saw me. She opened her mouth as if she were about to say, “Hey, Hades! Am I ever glad to see you!” Something like that. But she never got the chance.

A sudden flash lit the room. The clang of metal hitting marble made my ichor (old Greek speak for “god blood”) run cold. I turned, and there in the doorway stood Athena.