Chapter 8

The sky lit up in a blaze of eye-seering radiance. Philipp felt the ram rear up beneath him as a wave of heat washed over them. Shielding his eyes, Philipp threw his arms before his face.

“Oh boy,” said Hermes—sounding very far away.

Thundering words crashed out of nothingness, vibrating the bones in Philipp’s chest. “Hermes! You villain!” He heard a pitiful meep of pain. “How dare you come to these parts again! I warned you!”

“Helios, my friend.” Hermes’ voice wavered on the verge of panic. “We are awfully close to your route, aren’t we? My, my. A complete miscalculation on my part, I assure you. I totally forgot about the summer solstice. I can’t ever remember—perhaps you can help me. Is it spring back, fall forward—or—“

The voice roared, and forgetting his eyes, Philipp grabbed the ram for support. To his astonishment, Colchi’s wool felt almost hot to the touch.

“Colchi, are you all right?” he whispered.

“No, of course not,” the ram hissed through gritted teeth. “I’m highly flammable! I’m not going to last five minutes here five feet from the sun!”

“The sun?”

In that instant the blinding blaze lifted, and Philipp suddenly wished that it hadn’t. If the image of Hermes had impressed him, it did not hold a candle to the fiery god that now was before him.

Dwarfing his golden chariot with his massive frame, Helios stood fixed—his flaming beard blazing—holding the struggling Hermes out at arm’s length. The furious sun steeds tethered to his car pawed the air anxiously as their master continued to berate his captive. “Who are these miserable creatures with you? Planning to ruin their lives as well?”

“Well, not exactly—“

“You took my son away from me! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t take life away from you?” the sun god spat.

The words of the young god began to fall over themselves. “No, no…I like life very much—a shame to lose it—after all—you know…“ A sudden frown furrowed its way across his face. “Now, hold on just a minute, sirrah!” He put his own puny hands to the monstrous grip about his neck. “This has gone too far! Kindly unhand me.”

Helios—somewhat surprised—released his sunburnt fingers from the messenger god’s throat. Hermes hovered backward and furiously smoothed his cloak. “I am an Olympian, sir. You do not threaten me with death. We are both immortals, and we must settle our differences civilly. If we do not, then we are no better than men.”

“Very well. Now that I have released you,” Helios began again gruffly, “tell me what you intend to do about my son.”

Hermes sniffed indignantly. “I have given this careful consideration, my heliocentric friend. Phaethon was a lovely boy. We all thought so. There never one better. As for what I should do in acceptance of my part in the events that led to his demise, I have come to the conclusion that the best recourse would be to—“

The young god’s eyes grew wide. “RUN!”

It would have made more sense to say, “Fly”. But Philipp and the ram took the hint. Hermes shot off in a silvery streak of fluttering sandals with his two startled companions close behind.

Helios roared, solar rage blasting forth from his mighty form, as he took after them.

“Faster, you fools!” Hermes yelled at the top of his lungs. “He’ll kill us all!”
Sweat began to pour from Philipp’s face—the furiously driving wind whipped it from his face. He dared not look behind. He could feel the hot breath of the charging horses growing closer on his neck.

Before him, the boy saw Hermes jerk upward and double-back toward them. He swooped—catching Philipp and the ram in his grasp—and pulling them downward. The gnashing teeth and striking hooves of the sun steeds struck where they had been only seconds before.

Philipp saw fear on the god’s face inches from his own. “Can’t go up,” he said breathlessly. “Then we’ll go down.”

Breaking forth quickly from disappating clouds, the ground was rushing up at them at a rapid rate. Sucking the breath from their lungs a comet of flame roared past them.

Philipp smelled something burning. “I’ll get you for this!” cried Colchi.

Trees were below now—leaves rushing up to greet them. With one last desperate burst of speed, they tumbled through them—branches lashing at their faces trying to keep them skyward. And then there was blue—the cool blue of a pool—and everything became extremely wet.