“Why are you breathing hard, Homie?” she asked, her eyes closed, but a smile on her lips. “I mean, it’s not like you were in a fight or anything.”

  “Scared,” Homer said.

  Suddenly, everyone heard a thud against the far wall as Lucius Valerius slid down onto the floor. His body was completely limp and droplets of Greed-sweat began beading up and pouring off his skin.

  “That’s gonna be some headache,” said Alcie.

  “May I be the first to say, Homer,” said Iole, her breath coming a little more evenly. “Painstakingly perfect throw of the net.”

  “You know it,” Pandy agreed. “Nice going, everyone. Alcie, you were fantastic!”

  “Yep,” Alcie said, opening her eyes. “Well, it was easy. I was confident, y’know? Now that I know you trust me more than—”

  “Iole!” Pandy cut in, glaring at Alcie who just grinned. “How did you find us?”

  “There are three entryways into that room,” Iole said, pointing toward the great hall. “One was sealed. Two originate from this locale. We knew we had to start here.”

  “We were by the stairs when we saw the flash and then the doors closed,” said Homer. “We saw water seeping from the room. We heard screaming. What happened in there?”

  “We’ll fill you in on all the gory details later,” Alcie said.

  “How did you know to get all our stuff?” asked Pandy, seeing her and Alcie’s pouches slung around Homer’s neck.

  “We were on our way out of town,” Homer answered. “I made Iole come with me, and Crispus promised to get you two.”

  “Crispus!” Iole said, looking around. “Is he all right?”

  “He was a while ago,” Alcie said. “He floated in here with me. We’ll find him. Go on, Homie.”

  “Anyway,” Homer began.

  “Anyway,” Iole interrupted, “we were halfway along the eastern road out of the city when we both stopped at exactly the same moment, looked at each other, then raced back here.”

  “I was crazy to think I could just go and calmly wait outside the city for everyone to, like, show up,” Homer said.

  “We didn’t know what was going on,” Iole said. “But we knew we’d probably need to make a speedy departure. So I grabbed all our stuff and we came here.”

  “Good thing,” Pandy said. “Okay, Homie, help me up please?”

  “Hey!” squealed Alcie.

  “I’m sorry,” said Pandy. “Hom-er, will you help me up?”

  “So,” Alcie said, getting to her feet. “What now?”

  “Now, we get out of this rat trap,” Pandy said, motioning for Homer to drape her pouch across her good shoulder. “Would someone hand me the net and the box please?”

  “Allow me to put these inside for you, Pandy,” said Alcie. “Trusted friends should be able to do—ow!”

  “Thank you very much,” Pandy said, retracting her foot from having kicked Alcie in the shins. “And because I trust the two of you so much—as in equally—Iole, would you open my pouch and get out the map while Alcie puts the other stuff in and keeps quiet?”

  “Certainly,” Iole said, retrieving the blue bowl. “Alcie, did you concuss yourself? A possible head trauma? Because you’re behaving even more oddly than normal.”

  “Just get Pandy’s vial of tears, brainiac,” said Alcie, rubbing her shins.

  As Alcie held the glass bowl level and Homer poured in a little water, Iole uncorked the vial and added a single teardrop. As the concentric rings began to spin, Pandy looked at everyone. The rush of emotion caught her completely off guard.

  “Guys? Do you realize,” she said, as tears welled up in her eyes, “that this is the last time we’ll ever have to do this?”

  “Then I don’t need to catch any more of those,” said Iole, holding the vial at her side, watching a rivulet streak down Pandy’s face.

  “Nope,” Pandy said. “No more.”

  “Six down,” Alcie said, getting a little misty herself. “One to go.”

  At that instant, the spinning rings aligned and the familiar light illuminated three symbols; words, once again, in Greek.

  “Fear,” Alcie sighed. “The big one. Well, we knew it was coming.”

  “What does that say?” Iole asked. “The ring that tells us where we’re going? Hold it steady, Alce, I can’t read what …”

  “‘Nine,’ what?” said Alcie.

  “‘Nine Days Down,’” Pandy replied, her voice catching slightly.

  “Huh?” said Homer.

  “Oh, no,” said Iole.

  “Oh, yes,” retorted Pandy.

  “What?” cried Alcie.

  “Alcie, when I went up to Olympus it took nine days to get there, remember?”

  “Well, I didn’t exactly go with you, but yes I do recall.”

  “What’s nine days in the opposite direction?” Pandy asked.

  Alcie’s eyes narrowed as she thought, then she gasped before throwing her head back with a laugh.

  “We don’t even know how to get there,” Homer whispered.

  “But,” said Alcie. “But this is fantastic!”

  “Her mind is officially gone,” said Iole.

  “Don’t you get it?” Alcie said, picking Iole up and whirling her around. “They love me down there. I know people who know people! Persephone is, like, my immortal best friend. And I know my way around. I can give you a whole tour. We’ll start with the food-preparation rooms. Snail custard! Wahooooooooooo!”

  “But we don’t know how to get there without, y’know, dying,” Homer said.

  “Of course we do,” said Iole. “The same way Orpheus did. He lived in Thrace. We’ll go to Thrace.”

  “We’ll follow the path he followed when he tried to bring his wife, Eurydice, back from the dead,” Pandy agreed.

  “It’s a cave somewhere on the side of a mountain, or so I’ve read,” Iole said.

  “Underworld, here we come!” said Alcie.

  “Weeks away, no matter how we go,” Pandy said. “And how much time do we have left?”

  “We have twenty-nine days,” said Homer.

  “And we know we’re gonna be minus nine to begin with. That’s already nine days less …”

  “Less than …,” Alcie began.

  “… one full moon. Essentially, we’ll have twenty days,” Iole finished.

  Pandy took the bowl out of Alcie’s hands and tossed the contents. Wincing slightly, she stowed the map back in her pouch and strode toward the door to the garden.

  “Then I guess we’d better get moving,” she said, pausing only to gaze down at Caesar, who had tried to remain calm and observing during the events in the food-preparation room. “This man,” she said, pointing to Valerius, “was under an enchantment when he tried to kill you. He has been under that enchantment and not … uh … Iole?”

  “I’m going with blameworthy.”

  “Thank you, blameworthy for his behavior for the last few weeks. You will not punish him in any way or allow anyone else to punish him or anyone else in his household—except maybe his daughter. Is that clear?”

  Caesar looked at Pandy evenly.

  “Clear,” he said sincerely. “You have my word.”

  “Groovy,” said Pandy. “We’re off.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Gone

  With Dido at their side, Pandy, Alcie, Iole, and Homer walked quickly along the eastern road. At one point, they passed an insula and heard screams of pain coming from a room high above, piercing the morning quiet. Then the sounds of several slaps of a hand on what had to be bare skin.

  “I am not getting any enjoyment from this, my little fish fillet,” came Zeus’s unmistakable voice.

  Slap.

  Scream.

  “Now you know this is strictly for your own good,” Jupiter’s voice carried onto the road below.

  Slap.

  Scream.

  All of a sudden, Hera and Juno’s brilliant red behinds, complete with handprints, flashed in the window as they both tried to escape their joint monumental spanking.

  “Oooooooh,” said Pandy, with a laugh.

  “Thank you, I won’t be eating for days!” Alcie cried.

  “Immortal posteriors,” said Iole thoughtfully. “I don’t know many humans who can say they’ve seen those.”

  “And lived,” agreed Homer.

  “Hera’s just going to add it to the list,” Pandy said, exiting the city proper and heading out onto the open road. “ ‘You saw my butt, now I really have to kill you!’”

  “You saw her butt?” came a voice from under a nearby tree.

  Everyone halted.

  “Sounds like something that might be interesting. But upon further reflection …”

  “Crispus!” Iole cried, flinging herself into his arms.

  “Leaving without me?” he said, hugging her tightly.

  “Our little girl is growing up,” Alcie whispered to Pandy.

  “Flying the nest,” Pandy said, with a grin.

  “I didn’t know where you were to say good-bye,” Iole said.

  “Why good-bye?” Crispus said. “Why can’t I come with you?”

  Iole looked at Pandy, Alcie, and Homer. No one said a word; Crispus had proved himself beyond useful and very trustworthy.

  “I have gold,” Crispus said, producing a bag full of the aureus. “Okay, yes, I stole this if you want to get technical about it, but I can pay my way.”

  “You can pay for all of us,” said Homer.

  “I say yes,” Pandy said.

  “Works for me,” Alcie agreed, nodding.

  “Then it’s settled,” Crispus said, moving to relieve Iole of the burden of her pouch.

  “And I say no,” Iole said.

  Crispus’s face nearly fell onto the road, but before he had another chance to protest, Iole held her finger to his lips.

  “Crispus, you should know that I simply adore you, and I don’t care who hears it,” she said, glancing at Alcie. “But …”

  “But what?” he said.

  “You’re six.”

  And the horrible truth registered on everyone’s face.

  “At some point, either very soon or when we get to Greece,” Iole went on, “Hermes will shift us once again into our correct time, and I’ll stay the same, but you’ll be six years old. As much as I want this to work, it never would.”

  Crispus said nothing for a long time, he only fought to keep his chin and his upper lip steady.

  “You’re not a Vestal anymore, right?” he asked finally, looking off into the distance.

  “Correct.”

  “Then, when I am sixteen,” he said, his voice low and steady, “you won’t mind if I sail to Athens and seek you out, will you?”

  “I’ll be twenty-three, you do understand that?” Iole said, smiling.

  “Understand it?” Crispus said, a grin breaking out. “I won’t mind if you won’t.”

  “Then I’ll be waiting,” said Iole, and everyone knew she’d be as good as her word. “Would you like the gold back?”

  “No,” Crispus said. “Keep it. Use it. Except, save a single coin for me when I see you.”

  “Thank you. I will.”

  Waving to Crispus until they crested a ridge and he disappeared from view, the four friends walked east for a bit, then changed direction and headed west when Iole casually mentioned that the Tyrrhenian Sea was a comparatively short walking distance away from Rome. A ship would be easy to find and, with any luck, Hera’s bruised bottom would keep her preoccupied with exacting revenge upon her husband long enough not to bother with them as they sailed homeward, for the final time, to Greece.

  GLOSSARY

  Names, pronunciations, and further descriptions of gods, Demigods, other integral immortals, places, objects, terms, and fictional personages appearing within these pages. Definitions derived from three primary sources: Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes; Webster’s Online Dictionary, which derives many of its definitions from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (further sources are also indicated on this Web site); and the author’s own brain.

  entourage (ahn-TOOR-ahge): a group following or attending to some person (important or otherwise).

  Iugula (eew-GEW-la): a Latin term meaning “kill him!”

  Kraken (CRACK-en): a sea monster. Sometimes it resembles an island, sometimes an octopus. It is most commonly found in Scandinavian lore.

  pollicem premere (POHL-issum PREE-murh): a Latin term translating to “to press the thumbs,” which meant to spare a life.

  proscription (pro-SKRIP-shun): the act of dooming to death or exile; a decree that prohibits or condemns something or someone.

  taper (TAY-purr): a candle.

  tempus fugit (TEM-puss FEW-jit): a Latin term meaning “time flees.” In modern usage, this is more commonly translated as “time flies.”

  una malorum semper (OOOH-nah mal-OR-umm SEM-per): Latin for “one of the worst evils EVER.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to Scott Hennesy, Stephanie Erb, Melanie Mohr, Sydney Cahill, and Caroline Abbey. As always, special thanks and love to Sara Schedeen.

  Mythic Misadventures By Carolyn Hennesy

  Pandora Gets Jealous

  Pandora Gets Vain

  Pandora Gets Lazy

  Pandora Gets Heart

  Pandora Gets Angry

  Pandora Gets Greedy

  Copyright © 2012 by Carolyn Hennesy

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

  in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

  recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

  without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This electronic edition published in 2012

  First published in the United States of America in June 2012

  by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers

  www.bloomsburykids.com

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to

  Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Hennesy, Carolyn.

  Pandora gets greedy / by Carolyn Hennesy. —1st U.S. ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Pandy, Alcie, Iole, and Homer travel to Rome to search for another

  deadly evil—greed—and encounter Julius Caesar, and the Roman gods.

  1. Pandora (Greek mythology)—Juvenile fiction. [1. Pandora (Greek mythology)—Fiction. 2. Mythology, Greek—Fiction. 3. Gods, Greek—Fiction. 4. Goddesses, Greek—Fiction. 5. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.H3917Paf 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2011049758

  ISBN 978 1 5999 0826 7 (e-book)

 

 

  Carolyn Hennesy, Pandora Gets Greedy

 

 

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