Page 35 of The Chalice of the Gods

She seemed genuinely pleased to see me as she ushered me inside and waved me toward a new blue plastic chair. I wondered if she had a stack of them in the closet so she could grab a new one every time she flushed somebody through the floor.

She smiled at me over her jar of Jolly Ranchers. Her eyes floated behind her bottle-glass spectacles. Her scalloped hair glistened like she’d just had it permed with jellyfish goo. “So! How is everything going?”

“I got my first quest,” I said. “For Ganymede.”

She squealed. “That’s wonderful! What exactly is involved?”

I gave her the details, but her gaze was so distracting I mostly kept my eyes on the purple painting of Sicky Frog. It stared at me miserably with its thermometer in its mouth and didn’t judge.

I was working my way up to asking Eudora a favor—the location of the River Elisson—when she stopped me. “Just a moment. Hebe was involved. And now Iris. Did you apply for dual credit?”

“I— What?”

“Oh, dear. If multiple gods are involved, you could have applied for dual credit. Hebe and Iris might have written you recommendation letters as well.”

“You mean... I could’ve gotten all three rec letters from this one quest?”

Eudora nudged her Jolly Rancher jar so it made a protective barrier between us. “Well, yes, but—”

“How about I apply for the dual-credit thingy now? I could go back to Hebe....” I mentally slapped myself. “Okay, maybe not Hebe, but I could go back to Iris—”

“Ah, but you have to apply for the dual credit in advance. I’m afraid it’s too late.”

I glared at Sicky Frog. I felt like punching it in the face, but since it was painted on a brick wall, I figured that might hurt me more than it did the frog.

“Can’t we make an exception?” I asked. “I mean, I did the work. I’mdoingthe work.”

“Um...” Eudora rummaged through her brochures and pulled out the one for New Rome University. “No... you see? Right here. It says dual credit cannot be applied for after the fact.”

“Is that a general rule? I thought I was the only one who had to do these rec letters.”

“You are. See?”

She handed me the brochure. At the bottom of a tiny paragraph about dual credit (which I’m pretty sure hadn’t been there before), an asterisk led me to an even tinier disclaimer that readThis applies to Percy Jackson.

“Okay, that’s messed up. I didn’t know!”

Eudora sighed. “Well, at least it sounds as if the quest is going well. What’s next?”

Next, I thought,is punching your frog in the face.

But I didn’t say that. I forced myself to exhale. “Next,” I said, “I need some guidance.”

“Oh!” Eudora sat forward excitedly. “That’s what I do!”

I told her about Iris’s staff, which was presently taking up space in my bedroom closet. “I’m supposed to clean it, so I need to find the River Elisson.”

Eudora didn’t stop smiling. (I wasn’t sure she was physically capable of that.) But her lips stretched into a grimace as if somebody were tugging her shell-do. “The Elisson. Ah.” She shuffled her brochures and shoved them back in her drawer. “Snakes bathe there, you know.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Monsters of all kinds. Not recommended.”

“Except I don’t have a choice. I need that letter of recommendation. Like you told me.”

She winced, probably caught between her job description and her personal feelings. “Yes, but... Elisson is touchy. He doesn’t like people taking advantage of his clean waters.”

“He?You mean the god of the river?”

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