Brody's eyes lit up. "There's a victory tour after the Games?" he said. "Cool!"
But Julia was horrified by the news. "What do you mean?" she asked Artemis.
The goddess shrugged. "Just what I said. The Olympic champion always travels with his sponsor afterward."
"The tour gets mortals quite excited," Hermes added with a grin.
He looked at Brody. "You'll enjoy seeing more of the world, won't you, boy?"
"Sure!" Brody said. "It sounds like the parade after the Super Bowl!"
Julia was staring at Hermes in alarm.
"But you said we could go home right after the Games."
"Of course you can," Hermes told Julia soothingly. "Don't worry so much, mortal girl."
Julia glanced away, trying to calm down.
What if Hermes had been lying about letting them go home? What if they got stuck here forever?
"This could be bad!" she whispered to Brody in a panic.
"What are you talking about?" Brody asked.
Julia kept her voice low. "What if Hermes is planning to keep us here?
He and Caerus made it sound like the passage will eventually close. We could be stuck here forever!"
"Whoa!" Brody said.
For a second Julia thought she'd finally made him realize how serious this situation was.
Then she saw that he was staring across the agora.
"Who's that?" he blurted out. Another goddess was approaching them.
She was blond and gorgeous, with big blue eyes.
"Greetings, Aphrodite," Hermes called. "Come and meet my champion!"
Aphrodite held out one pale, slim hand. "Hello, champion. It's a pleasure."
"Uh, guh . . . ," Brody said. "I mean, me too. I mean, hi! I'm Brody."
"Brody," Aphrodite said with a musical laugh. "What a charming name."
Julia moaned to herself. She could tell that Brody was already in love.
Why were boys so easily distracted by a pretty face?
"Have any of you seen Zeus' champion yet?" Aphrodite asked the other gods.
"I hear he's very handsome. And strong."
"Nobody has seen him," Artemis replied. "Zeus is hiding him in the hills."
"That reminds me." Hermes grabbed Brody by the shoulder. "It's time for training. Let's go."
"Are you sure we can't stay?" Brody was still staring at Aphrodite.
Hermes pulled Brody away so fast that Julia and Markos had to run to keep up.
Once again the gymnasium was filled with athletes. Hermes ordered Brody to start stretching.
Brody dropped to the ground and touched his toes.
"What are we working on today, Coach?" he asked.
"We need to build your endurance for the dolichos and the hoplite," Hermes replied.
"They are the longer and more difficult races, and I wasn't impressed with how quickly you became tired yesterday."
"Quickly?" Brody sounded wounded. "You made me run for two hours straight!"
"We should get out of the way," Markos said to Julia.
"It's strange enough to have a girl here.
We don't want anyone to think you're trying to compete or something."
He laughed as if that was the funniest thing he'd ever imagined.
Julia was getting tired of all the comments about girls.
"It's not as if I'm the only girl here," she said, pointing.
Markos shook his head. "That's not a girl—it's a goddess," he said. "It's Demeter training her champion."
"Whatever." Julia followed Markos to some benches. They sat and watched Brody's workout.
After a while Caerus arrived and waved to Hermes.
"Take a quick rest, boy," Hermes told Brody. "I'll be back soon."
He hurried off to talk to Caerus. Brody collapsed on the bench beside Julia, huffing and puffing.
As soon as Markos hurried off to get Brody some water, Julia turned to Brody.
"Listen, we need to talk," she said quickly.
"If Hermes isn't going to let us go after the Games, there's no reason to stick around.
We should try to escape as soon as possible."
Brody didn't respond. He was peering toward the entrance.
"Do you think Aphrodite has a champion?" he asked.
"Maybe she'll bring him here to train. Do you think she will?"
Just then Markos returned with the water. He saw Brody staring at Aphrodite.
"Forget her," he warned Brody. "She's beautiful. But she's a goddess."
Brody looked disappointed. "So I guess goddesses never, like, date mortals, huh?"
Markos blinked. "Of course they do. But it never turns out very well for the mortal."
He glanced around and lowered his voice.
"According to the latest local gossip, Hera is very eager to see Zeus' new hero humiliated at the Games.
Alcides is rumored to be Zeus' child born of a mortal woman.
And we all know how jealous and vengeful Hera can be."
"We do?" Brody looked confused. "Okay, whatever. Back to Aphrodite, I—"
At that moment Hermes rushed over, looking excited.
"Apollo just arrived with his champion," he said.
"He's challenged us to a javelin contest. Come—it'll be good training."
"Javelin? I've never done that before." Brody shrugged.
"But it's just throwing a stick, right? How hard can it be?"
He followed Hermes.
Julia watched them go. "I can't believe Brody's being so stupid about all this!" she complained to Markos.
Markos gave her an uneasy glance. "Perhaps we should watch the contest in silence."
Halfway across the gymnasium, Brody and Hermes met up with Apollo and a tall teenager with broad shoulders and dark hair.
The two boys picked up javelins. Apollo's champion handled his confidently.
Brody fumbled with his javelin at first, but within moments he looked almost as comfortable as the other boy.
Julia couldn't help being impressed. Brody really was a good athlete.
"Too bad he doesn't have much brainpower to go with his athletic abilities," she thought.
"Go!" Hermes called.
Both athletes tossed their javelins. Julia blinked as the javelins flew through the air. Something about them looked strange…
She gasped as both javelins transformed into enormous hissing snakes.
They spun around in midair and flew straight back toward the boys!