Underworlds #1: The Battle Begins by Tony Abbott

asked.
    “Excuse me?” said Dana.
    “I reckon you’ll be back,” said Charon.
    I knew he was right. We would be back.
    As we made our way through the scorched rocks, I couldn’t stop thinking about what we’d seen from the top of the tower. The Underworlds. Could we possibly come through on this bargain? Could we capture some angry, one-eyed giants? Could we find a way to … survive?
    Finally, we found the entrance to the boiler room. A minute later, we were in the school basement, and the boiler room door was just a door.
    Looking down the hallways, it seemed like forever since we’d been there. It must have felt even longer for Dana. I helped her up the stairs and through the halls to the front of the school. Breathless and afraid, we walked out under the dusky sky.
    I paused. “Dana? Can you tell us what it was like?”
    She shut her eyes, then opened them. “Dark. Hopeless. Sad. It’s what we saw from the tower. Some places are hot, some freezing. Deserts. Snowstorms. All the different Underworlds. Monsters are gathering everywhere. Norse, Egyptian, Greek. All of them. And Loki’s behind it.”
    I looked into her eyes. “But why you? Why did he take you?”
    “Something I know?” she said. “Something I saw? My parents suspected that Loki wasn’t just a myth. That he was … active. I heard them talking. They went to Iceland to find out more. Maybe Loki thinks I know something, too.”
    “Maybe you do,” said Sydney simply.
    Dana gazed into the pinewoods behind school. “I should leave here. Hide. Find my parents and leave you all out of this.”
    My heart pounded inside my chest like a drum in a heavy metal band. I took Dana’s arm. “No,” I said. “We’re already in it. And we’ll do what we need to do to keep you here.”
    Lightning flashed suddenly over the school, and the first cold raindrops fell. Sydney checked her cell. It was dinnertime.
    “First thing in the morning, we find out where the Cyclopes are playing house,” said Jon. “Then we boot them back below.”
    I only hoped it would be as simple as that.
    But when I breathed in long and slow to calm myself, I smelled smoke.
    The battle was beginning. It was dark. It was dangerous. It was deadly.
    And we were right in the middle of it.

A MAP OF THE UNDERWORLDS

GLOSSARY
    Argus (Greek Mythology): a beast with 100 eyes
     
    Cerberus (Greek Mythology): a three-headed dog; prevents the dead from leaving the Underworld
    Charon (Greek Mythology): a ferryman who leads the souls of the dead across the river Styx to the Underworld
    Cyclopes (Greek Mythology): one-eyed giants
    Fenrir (Norse Mythology): a giant, fire-breathing red wolf
    Hades (Greek Mythology): the ruler of the Underworld
    Jason (Greek Mythology): a human hero of many adventures

    ARGUS

    CERBERUS

    FENRIR
    Loki (Norse Mythology): a trickster god
    Lyre of Orpheus Lyre of Orpheus (Greek mythology): a stringed instrument that charms people, animals, and objects into doing things for Orpheus
    Myrmidons (Greek Mythology): skilled warriors
    Odin (Norse Mythology): the chief Norse god
    Orpheus (Greek Mythology): a musician who had traveled to the Underworld to bring his wife back from the dead—but didn’t succeed
    River Styx River Styx (Greek Mythology): a river that divides the land of the living from the land of the dead
    Valkyries (Norse Mythology): women who work for Odin; choose who lives and dies in battle

    LYRE OF ORPHEUS

    MYRMIDON

    VALKYRIE

 
    THE ADVENTURE IS JUST BEGINNING!

    F IND OUT WHAT O WEN , J ON , S YDNEY, AND D ANA ARE UP AGAINST NEXT ….

 
    M Y NAME IS O WEN B ROWN, AND MY FOREHEAD FEELS like it’s an anvil that someone keeps pounding with a red-hot hammer.
    Also my teeth hurt, my eyes sting, and my fingers ache.
    But ever since my friends and I rescued Dana Runson from the Greek Underworld three days ago, pain has been the new normal —
    “Owen, move it!”
    I glanced across the wet school parking lot. Dana was racing toward me. Jon Doyle and