Clotho the Fate by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

Author:Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2019-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

8 Tricked!

SUDDENLY THE MUSICAL NOTES OF a lute sounded in the arena. The king had said that the sound of a lute would signal: Game over!

“Yay, Team Meleager! We have the most players left on our team. We won!” yelled Plexippus and Toxeus. They bumped fists and held the trophy high in triumph. Their joy was short-lived, however.

They and everyone else were astonished to see Meleager suddenly grab the trophy and go down on bended knee before Atalanta. He held it out to her. “As a token of my esteem, I award this trophy to you,” he told her.

A hush fell over the arena, bleachers, and balcony. Atalanta hesitated for a moment, but then she accepted the trophy. “Uh, thanks.”

“Wait! Our team won. Why should she get the prize?” protested Plexippus.

“Yeah! No fair,” complained Toxeus.

Meleager huffed. “I’m the team captain, so we play by my rules. What I say goes!”

Huh? Clotho could guess how Meleager’s cousins must feel. Too often she’d been bossed around in the name of rules she’d had no part in making. By her sisters. And Zeus, too! Maybe finally disobeying his no-hanging-with-mortals rule today had made her rebellious. Because she was starting to think that everyone should get to have input on rules that affected them––in most cases, anyway.

Before she could suggest that Meleager talk things over with his cousins and listen to their objections, the prince turned his bow and arrow on the two boys. Zing! Zing! He splatted them both!

They had been tagged twice already, so when a third red X appeared on Toxeus’s elbow and a third one on Plexippus’s chest, they were done for. Whoosh! They were whisked away through trap doors.

The crowd on the balcony responded to Meleager’s betrayal of his own team members with stunned silence. As if to make clear that the game was now officially over, however, the arena’s metal exit gate clanked and swung itself open.

Quickly Clotho, Atalanta, and Meleager took off their battle gear and put their sandals back on. Clotho slung the straps of her travel bag over her shoulder as all three hurried back up the ramp. While making their way to the balcony, they could hear the murmurs of astonishment begin to rise from the onlookers there.

“Can you believe it?” Clotho heard Apollo say.

“No! I mean, he shot his own team members out of the game!” Poseidon exclaimed.

“Yeah! And he gave their trophy to the competition!” Ares said, sounding disgusted as well as bewildered.

Up on the balcony again at last, Clotho was just in time to hear Artemis say, “Atalanta deserved it. I mean, she got in the most shots at the boar. Two to Meleager’s one.”

“Yeah, I think it’s sweet that he wanted her to have the trophy,” said Aphrodite.

Athena leaned over to Artemis. “Hey! Speaking of that boar, I just now got what you meant when you warned us that this game would be a little boring. You meant BOAR-ing!”

Artemis grinned. “Hephaestus made that replica of the Calydonian boar for me out of some magical metal in his blacksmith shop back at Mount Olympus Academy.

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