you made a mistake, you will indeed marry Apollo. Then at the grand engagement partyyou become frighteningly sick with—with—with Scyllia disease! Oh, oh, oh, your head will sprout serpents and you’ll sprout extra limbs and you will be covered in the smelliest of sea scum and Apollo simply will not want you then.”
“Polly, there is no known cure for Scyllia—even Daddy cannot cure it.”
“Exactly!”
“I’m still not following you.”
“Me neither,” said Era.
“The other day the Furies came to visit Hera. I overheard them talking and, well, Hera was out to punish Pegasus because he has repeatedly gotten into mischief at your orders instead of obeying hers. The Furies had brought Hera this book—it was a book of Hades’s secret spells, and they were showing her how she could freeze Pegasus’s wings without any of us knowing how or why it happened. I was shocked, and I just hid out of sight, listening in. They became distracted moments later when Hera had to show off her latest jewels Daddy got her, and, well, I—I sort of stole the spell book. I know it’s notright, and I was so sick with myself that I didn’t tell anyone. But you see, I’ve been reading it, I couldn’t help myself, and you know, it’s actually extraordinarily fascinating.”
“You shouldn’t feel bad—you saved dear Pegasus from frozen wings!” I cried.
“But stealing is not right. I still can’t believe I did it. Anyway, I do recall a spell contained in the pages of the book. I believe it went something like this—if three of us put our powers into Hera’s charmeuse bag with a snip of the hair of a young goat boy, we three could give you a proxy of the disease that will last but twenty-four hours.”
“My smartest little white witch of a sister, you are a savior! It’s brilliant!” I declared.
“Wait a second—I dunno. We could get in a heap of trouble for this,” said Era fearfully. “Maybe you can just leave me out?”
“But we need you, Era,” I all but screamed. “The two of us alone cannot do it—we need a third, plus you are the only one of us who can get close enough to a goat boy to snatch a lock of hair.”
“True, true. The goat boys do love me. But I just don’t know. If Father finds out, he will be so very angry.”
“Please, Era, even Polly’s willing, and you know how straight and narrow she is. I mean, she’s like our most uptight sister and…”
“Hey! Be nice. I came up with this ‘brilliant’ plan, remember?”
“Right, sorry. So Era, please? For me? I cannot marry, I just cannot.”
“Well,” Era said, breaking into a proud grin, “I really don’t see what the big deal is, but since you seem so adamant and, well, because I love you so very much and, well, since Polly is going along with it and, well, you do need me, don’t you?”
“Thank you! You’re saving my life, really, Era, you are. Both of you are. You are saving my life.”
A sense of relief flooded over me. Maybe there was a way out of this after all. But a nagging question stood out in the back of my mind. Didn’t Hera or the Furies notice that their spell book had gone missing? And if so, what were they doing about it?
For some reason, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the thought. It made me wish I knew what the Furies were doing right at that very moment, just so I could make sure that, whatever it was, it had nothing to do with me or my sisters….
We choose to pick on the Muses of nine,
Not for their behavior, nor their bustlines,
But because of their annoyingly sweet little actions
And their loathsome and trite self-satisfactions.
It goes but against our Furies credo:
Be dark and mysterious complete with bad mojo!
Are these three so foolish that they forgot to check
Who was listening in on their devious dreck?
Apollo was to be Tizzie’s love of her life,
But now he wants Thalia to be his lil’ wife?
Well, horrors on her and demons on him,
We’ll turn their plan
“Polly, there is no known cure for Scyllia—even Daddy cannot cure it.”
“Exactly!”
“I’m still not following you.”
“Me neither,” said Era.
“The other day the Furies came to visit Hera. I overheard them talking and, well, Hera was out to punish Pegasus because he has repeatedly gotten into mischief at your orders instead of obeying hers. The Furies had brought Hera this book—it was a book of Hades’s secret spells, and they were showing her how she could freeze Pegasus’s wings without any of us knowing how or why it happened. I was shocked, and I just hid out of sight, listening in. They became distracted moments later when Hera had to show off her latest jewels Daddy got her, and, well, I—I sort of stole the spell book. I know it’s notright, and I was so sick with myself that I didn’t tell anyone. But you see, I’ve been reading it, I couldn’t help myself, and you know, it’s actually extraordinarily fascinating.”
“You shouldn’t feel bad—you saved dear Pegasus from frozen wings!” I cried.
“But stealing is not right. I still can’t believe I did it. Anyway, I do recall a spell contained in the pages of the book. I believe it went something like this—if three of us put our powers into Hera’s charmeuse bag with a snip of the hair of a young goat boy, we three could give you a proxy of the disease that will last but twenty-four hours.”
“My smartest little white witch of a sister, you are a savior! It’s brilliant!” I declared.
“Wait a second—I dunno. We could get in a heap of trouble for this,” said Era fearfully. “Maybe you can just leave me out?”
“But we need you, Era,” I all but screamed. “The two of us alone cannot do it—we need a third, plus you are the only one of us who can get close enough to a goat boy to snatch a lock of hair.”
“True, true. The goat boys do love me. But I just don’t know. If Father finds out, he will be so very angry.”
“Please, Era, even Polly’s willing, and you know how straight and narrow she is. I mean, she’s like our most uptight sister and…”
“Hey! Be nice. I came up with this ‘brilliant’ plan, remember?”
“Right, sorry. So Era, please? For me? I cannot marry, I just cannot.”
“Well,” Era said, breaking into a proud grin, “I really don’t see what the big deal is, but since you seem so adamant and, well, because I love you so very much and, well, since Polly is going along with it and, well, you do need me, don’t you?”
“Thank you! You’re saving my life, really, Era, you are. Both of you are. You are saving my life.”
A sense of relief flooded over me. Maybe there was a way out of this after all. But a nagging question stood out in the back of my mind. Didn’t Hera or the Furies notice that their spell book had gone missing? And if so, what were they doing about it?
For some reason, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the thought. It made me wish I knew what the Furies were doing right at that very moment, just so I could make sure that, whatever it was, it had nothing to do with me or my sisters….
We choose to pick on the Muses of nine,
Not for their behavior, nor their bustlines,
But because of their annoyingly sweet little actions
And their loathsome and trite self-satisfactions.
It goes but against our Furies credo:
Be dark and mysterious complete with bad mojo!
Are these three so foolish that they forgot to check
Who was listening in on their devious dreck?
Apollo was to be Tizzie’s love of her life,
But now he wants Thalia to be his lil’ wife?
Well, horrors on her and demons on him,
We’ll turn their plan
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