Love or Fate by Clea Hantman Read Free Book Online Page A

Tartarus for the rest of eternity. There were tiny littledevils, the size of large mice, running every which way underfoot. Angry gnomes stomped around, pushing each other. An ugly and disturbed baby dragon came barreling down the hall and just missed Apollo by a mere foot. A dust storm kicked up, and particles clung to Apollo’s goopy yet invisible frame. Three insanely tall, thin men, pale as the brightest clouds, walked toward him, grimaces on their faces. But they apparently didn’t see him. Nor did they see the shapely dust cloud he had become. No one did. They just brushed on by.
    There were doors, maybe hundreds of doors, lining this hallway. Apollo didn’t know where to go next. He lifted his nose and expanded his nostrils, but there were far too many things, too many smells. Even the Furies’ atrociously stinky breath was masked by the various scents emanating from all these different creatures.
    Should he keep walking down this endless hallway? Try this door or that one? He looked around for clues but found nothing.
    Then he heard a loud, clear whistle. It was coming from a small haystack piled in front of one of the doors. He walked over, knelt in front of it, and listened again. And again, there was the whistle. This time the noise attracted Apollo’s attention to a thin, shiny needle gleaming among the strands of hay. He shoved his hand in and pulled it out.
    “Hello!” said the needle in a very high voice.
    “You can see me?” asked Apollo. He wasn’t amazed that the needle could see. Or whistle. Apollo had seen a lot of strange things in his time. But then he remembered, gatekeepers could see all.
    “You betcha,” the needle replied. “Now, if you can answer this question, you can go through this door. And yes, it’s the door that you’ve been looking for.”
    “Argh! More rhyming! Are you a Fury? Oh, this is so confusing!”
    “A Fury? Nonsense. It’s often boring down here in Tartarus, especially when you have to spend all your time in a bale of hay. We rhyme to pass the time. Besides, the Blessed Ones copied me—I rhymed first. I rhymed all the time till they started imitating me and then, well, now I just do it occasionally for fun.”
    “I see.” Apollo looked around impatiently. He didn’t know how much time the Muses had left—there was no way to tell time in a place like this. But he knew every second was valuable. “So you have a riddle for me? Thalia’s favorite food used to be blackberry and elderberry jam on toast. But since she moved to earth, it’s probably nacho-flavored corn chips. Her lucky number is nine; her favorite hobbies are star hopping and skateboarding. Are any of these the answers you’re looking for?”
    “I do indeed have a question for you, but no, ithas nothing to do with anything like that. No, no. Your question is this: What pair runs over fields and woods all day, sits by your bed at night, and has two long tongues that simply hang out and about?”
    “I don’t see what this has to do with finding Thalia!” said Apollo, just a bit bothered. This needle was wasting valuable time.
    “I’ll ask you again. What pair runs over fields and woods all day, sits by your bed at night, and has two long tongues that simply hang out and about?”
    Apollo thought about it. “A pair of dogs is too easy,” he muttered to himself.
    He thought about the Muses and their pet, Pegasus. Pegasus ran over fields all day, but there was only one of him. No, that wasn’t it.
    The needle rocked back and forth expectantly. “I’m thinking,” said Apollo.
    He looked around, up and down. And then he spotted it. Yes, this pair did run all over fields. It did sit by his bed at night. It indeed did have two long tongues that hung about!
    “My shoes!” Apollo exclaimed. “My shoes, my shoes, my shoes, my shoes, my shoes…”
    Apollo stood up to his full height, filled with pride. And hope. “Now if you will, please let me through!”
    And the door opened, just like