Percy Jackson's Greek Gods (Percy Jackson and the Olympians companion #5.5) - Rick Riordan Page 0,65

scary. The gods backed away from the bed.

At last Poseidon mustered his courage. “Zeus, you’re a bad leader. We want you to abdicate, so we can all rule the cosmos as a council of equals.”

“What?!” Zeus shouted. “NEVER!”

Hera sighed in exasperation. “Fine! We don’t need you! We’ll convene the council ourselves and leave you here to rot.”

“You traitorous little—”

“Let’s go,” Hera told the others. “We’ll check on him in a few days and see if he’s come to his senses.”

Poseidon wasn’t sure it was a good idea leaving Zeus unguarded, but he also didn’t want to stay in the room with a screaming lightning god.

The gods adjourned to the throne room and held their very first (and very last) meeting of the People’s Republic of Olympus.

They quickly found that voting on everything was messy. It took a long time. Just deciding on a design for the new Olympian flag took hours!

Meanwhile, a Nereid named Thetis was strolling down the hall near Zeus’s bedroom. What was a sea nymph doing on Olympus? Maybe she was just spending the night, or visiting friends.

She had no idea what was going on with the rebellion, but when she heard Zeus yelling for help, she burst into his bedroom, saw him tied up, and said, “Uh…is this a bad time?”

“Thetis, thank the Fates!” Zeus cried. “Get me out of here!”

He quickly told her what the other gods had done. “Please,” he pleaded. “You’re a sensible sea nymph. Let me out, and I’ll really owe you one.”

Thetis gulped. If Poseidon was part of the rebellion…well, he was the lord of the sea, and thus her boss. But Zeus was lord of everything. No matter what she did, she was going to make a powerful enemy.

“If I let you out,” Thetis said, “promise me you’ll be merciful to the other gods.”

“MERCIFUL?”

“Just don’t throw them into Tartarus, or chop them into tiny pieces, okay?”

Zeus fumed, but he reluctantly promised to be merciful.

Thetis grabbed some scissors from the dresser and tried to cut the ropes, but she had no luck. The magical bonds were too strong.

“Blast them with my lightning!” Zeus said. “Wait…I’m in the ropes. On second thought, don’t blast them.”

“Hang on,” Thetis said. “I know somebody who might be able to help.”

She turned into a cloud of salty water vapor and sped to the sea, where she found Briares the Hundred-Handed One. Briares owed Zeus for letting him out of Tartarus, so he was happy to help. Somehow, Thetis managed to smuggle the big dude into Olympus without the gods noticing, and with his hundred dexterous hands, Briares quickly untied the magical ropes.

Zeus sprang out of bed, grabbed his lightning bolts, and marched into the throne room, where the other gods were still trying to design their new flag.

BOOM!

Zeus floored further discussion, along with all the other gods.

When he was done blowing things up and using the Olympians for target practice, he punished the rebels for their treason.

He kept his promise to Thetis. He didn’t chop the gods into tiny pieces or throw them into Tartarus. But he tied Hera up and suspended her on a rope over the abyss of Chaos, so she could contemplate what it would be like to drop into nothingness and be dissolved. Every day, Zeus would visit her with his lightning bolt in hand and say, “Yep, today might be a good day to blast that rope and watch you fall!”

That’s the sort of loving relationship they had.

Hera eventually got free, but we’ll get to that story later.

As for Athena, she got off with no punishment. Totally unfair, right? But Athena was a quick talker. She probably convinced Zeus that she’d had nothing to do with the plot, and she was just biding her time before she could set Zeus free. Like an idiot, Zeus believed her.

Apollo and Poseidon got the worst punishments. They were temporarily stripped of their immortal powers.

I didn’t even know Zeus could do stuff like that, but apparently he could. To teach the two former gods a lesson, Zeus made them work as laborers for the king of Troy, a dude named Laomedon. Apollo became his shepherd and watched the royal flocks. Poseidon had to single-handedly build new walls around the city.

“Are you kidding me?” Poseidon protested. “That’ll take years!”

King Laomedon smiled. “Yes, well…I promise to reward you for your hard work, but you’d better get started!”

Actually, Laomedon had no intention of paying Poseidon. He didn’t like the sea god. He just wanted to get as much