Chapter 1: Stranger! Demon secretly breathed out a sigh of relief as he waved farewell to his teacher. The centaur headed off down the steep slope of Mount Pelion. Chiron carried a large bundle in his arms that was cooing and gurgling. Baby Hygeia was all cured now, so he was taking her home to her parents at last. Demon could finally get on with a full day of quiet studying. Babysitting, he decided, was a very tiring job. He much preferred looking after his beasts. However, Chiron liked him to write up his notes on each case.
First of all, Demon put on his pink-tinted opticles and got out the beautiful red-and-gold leather journal that the goddess Athena had given him for saving the phoenix. He sucked on the end of his quill for a moment and then began to form careful letters on the page as the pink light of dawn lit up the cave. Babies: How to Look After Them , he wrote. But before he could get down another word, there was a whooshing sound outside the cave. A wisp of multicolored light snaked in and tapped him on the shoulder. "That faun Bion is in trouble again," said Iris, goddess of the rainbow. "Hop in. You''re needed back at the Stables.
" This time, Demon''s sigh was loud and impatient. It was taking much longer than he''d expected to teach his brand-new assistant all the stuff he needed to know about the Stables of the Gods. With Demon needing to explain everything about a hundred times, it was all taking twice as long as it should have. "What''s he gone and done now?" he asked rather wearily as he climbed aboard. He wasn''t sure he was cut out for being a teacher. "I believe the griffin mentioned something about a bull fight and a pen on fire." Demon closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. This was the third incident in as many days.
The two brass bulls were becoming a pain in his neck. "You''d better hurry, Iris," he said. "Hold on to your hair, then," said the rainbow goddess as she whisked him up and away to Olympus. *** Demon pulled a neatly folded packet out of one of the rather messy drawers in the hospital shed and pointed to it with a stern finger. "This," he said, waving it under the faun''s nose, "is the Patent Pyro-Protection Suit. Remember? The one you have to put on to keep yourself safe when the fiery beasts get going. How many times have I told you that?" Bion hung his head. Half the curly hair on his head was singed and smoking slightly, and one arm was red and burnt-looking.
"Sorry, Demon," he mumbled. "I forgot. Khalko and Kafto started fighting again, and then they got out and set the sun hay on fire, and I just panicked a bit. Some of it''s all burnt and wet now. Doris was rather enthusiastic with the water buckets." "Right," Demon said. "I''m fed up with those two bully boys. If they won''t stop fighting and flaming, we''ll have to separate them.
Come on, you can help." He looked at Bion. "But first we''d better put some soothing ointment on those burns. I think I''ve got some left from when I treated the big winged horse." Just as they were persuading a reluctant Khalko to enter his new fireproof pen, there was an unusual uproar outside. "Hey, Pan''s scrawny kid," said a familiar voice. "Come quick--something''s happening!" It was the griffin--and its orange eyes were blazing with excitement. Demon latched the pen firmly, and then ran out with Bion.
Something was indeed happening. A chattering commotion came from a group of nymphs and cherubs hovering around a stranger who was clad in a long cloak of white furs and carrying a golden horn that twisted around his whole body like a giant snake. His hair was also white, and his white beard was plaited into three jutting forks. As Demon came closer, he saw that the man''s eyes were the pale white-blue of an early winter sky. "Who in the world is that?" he whispered to the griffin. "Dunno," it said. "Never seen him before." The stranger put the horn to his lips and blew.
It made a sound like no other Demon had ever heard, and suddenly his skin prickled as if he''d been dipped in deep black water on the coldest-ever winter day. Then the stranger began to shout, and his voice filled the whole of Olympus. "Hear me, hear me, O mighty Zeus. I am Heimdall, herald of Asgard, and I am sent to bring you news from the North." As he spoke, there was a crash of thunder, and Zeus appeared, with Hera beside him. As lightning flashed around them, and the sky darkened, the nymphs and cherubs all scattered, and Demon shrank back behind a nearby olive tree. The griffin and Bion skulked in behind him. "And what news is that, O herald of Asgard?" Zeus said, his voice booming just as loudly.
"Why, the best of news," said Heimdall, baring his golden teeth in a grin like a shark Demon had once seen down in Poseidon''s realm. "The gods of the North are coming to visit you. It''s party time! See ya later, Thunder Maker!" And then he disappeared in a blast of icy white light, leaving behind a large scroll fluttering through the air, and a huge pile of what looked like man-size stone jars. "Well," said Hera, snatching the scroll and peering at it before thrusting it at Zeus. "I call that very rude. Inviting themselves to stay like that. Who do these Northern gods think they are?" She swept off, back to her palace, muttering, and Demon shrank even farther behind the tree, hoping she wouldn''t see him. The queen of the gods wasn''t exactly known for her sunny temper, and he didn''t fancy being frazzled to a frizzle before he''d even seen what these new gods looked like.
Zeus frowned as he read the scroll, and as he stalked forward to examine the stone jars, a low mutter of thunder growled overhead. Picking one up as if it were a feather, he wrenched off the top with a pop and then looked inside, sniffing deeply as a cloud of foam spilled over the rim. Then he swung the jar up to his mouth and took a cautious swig of whatever was inside. All at once, a change came over his face. He took a great gulp, then another, and another. "Ahhh," he sighed, wiping foam off his beard and setting down the empty jar and picking up another. "Mead! Delicious. Almost better than Dionysus''s grape brew.
" Straightening up to his full height, his eyes swept around Olympus, finally settling on Demon, who automatically began to quake with fear. But whatever Zeus had drunk seemed to have put him in a good mood. "Ah, Pandemonius," he said. "I want every last inhabitant of Olympus outside my palace before Helios and his chariot have reached the midpoint of the sky. Run around and tell them all, would you?" "Y-yes, Your Mighty Thunderousness," Demon said, dropping to his knees. Then a thought hit him. "Er, do you mean I''m to tell the other gods and goddesses, too?" he asked cautiously. Zeus laughed.
"Hera will have let most of them know already, but you''d better pop up to Hephaestus''s forge. He never hears anything if he''s banging about with those great hammers of his. Hurry up now, young Stable Master. There''s no time to lose." With that he picked up yet another of the enormous stone jars and set off after Hera, humming a tune that sounded like stars grinding against each other. Demon looked up at the sky. Helios''s chariot didn''t have much farther to go before the sun would be right overhead. Panic was starting to sink in when the griffin poked him in the back with its sharp beak.
"I''ll let the nymphs and dryads know, Pan''s scrawny kid," it said. "And they''ll tell the cherubs." "And I''ll tell the fauns from the kitchen," said Bion rather squeakily. An encounter with Zeus tended to make almost anyone a bit squeaky, Demon had found. Thanking them over his shoulder, Demon ran as fast as he could up the mountain to find his old friend the blacksmith god, Hephaestus. Taking a quick look to make sure the dragon-mode danger sign wasn''t anywhere in sight, he leaped over the Colchian Dragon''s purple tail and ran into the dark, sooty cave. He followed the ringing sound of hammer on anvil to its source. Hephaestus had a grimy rag wrapped around his sweaty forehead, and he was battering away at a long sword that glowed cherry red from the heat of the fire.
Demon jumped up and down to get the smith god''s attention, and after one last mighty blow, Hephaestus plunged the sword into a nearby water trough, causing an explosion of hissing and steam. "What?" he said, scowling. "I''m busy. Ares needs this sword by tonight. He''s got another wretched war to fight." "Never mind that," said Demon, panting and wheezing. "Zeus wants everyone outside the palace right now. He sent me to fetch you.
" Muttering, the smith god put down his hammer. "Don''t eat all the charcoal while I''m gone," he said to the dragon. But it took no notice, snoring quietly in the corner on a pile of golden armlets. "Now, what''s going on, young Pandemonius?" he asked. "And since when have you been my father''s messenger?" Panting even harder and running to keep up with the god''s long strides, Demon explained. And as they got nearer to Zeus and Hera''s palace, the sound of a great crowd rose to greet them. "Scoot over, Pan''s scrawny kid," said the griffin, joining them as Demon and Hephaestus squeezed past a chattering gaggle of fauns, Bion among them. "I''m not missing this.
" And then, with a golden flash, Zeus was on the balcony above them with Hera and all the other gods and goddesses crowded in behind him. He held up a hand, and immediately there was silence.