Fleeced by Julia Wills

statue.
    “Well, all right,” he said finally. “But what about these two?”
    Rose felt the boy’s gaze. “I certainly don’t think we should involve the police,” she said. “The publicity would reflect badly on security.”
    “Quite,” said Eric, looking down at his shoes.
    “Anyway, Mum could sort them out, too, phone the right people, make sure the insurance was sorted without any fuss.”
    “Well…” said Ron.
    “
Really
quickly,” added Rose. She took a step towards the door marked PRIVATE at the back of the room. “Shall I take them to her now?”
    “What do you think, Eric?”
    Unsurprisingly Eric didn’t take any persuading. “Get the kettle on!”
    A few moments later when the guards had left, locking the doors behind them and pausing to take one last glance through the glass before heading to their staffroom, Rose tightened her grip on the rope and looked at the boy.
    “Right!” she said, sounding much braver than she felt. “My name’s Rose. Who on earth are you?”
    14 . Some of you might be surprised to find the route back to Earth so grim. This was because Hades, king of the Underworld, had always loved a bit of drama. Before he married Persephone, the whole Underworld was filled with shadowy grey light and bare trees that dripped water down the back of people’s necks, but when she arrived, his new queen insisted on a makeover that cheered everything up. Now, only the old pathway, unused for several years, remained the stuff of spook and gloom.

VIII
R OSE TO THE R ESCUE
    More like
where
on Earth?
thought Alex.
    He scanned the room, searching for a window to look through, desperate for a reassuring glimpse of the clustered terracotta rooftops of Athens. But there were no windows, just four blank walls hung with stone friezes of horsemen, friezes he’d now realised he’d last seen fixed beneath the roof of Athena’s temple.
    His mind tumbled with questions: Why had the caryatid been indoors when she should have been out on the Acropolis? Where was the rest of the temple? The sunshine? He took a deep breath that was filled with the cloying smell of wax polish instead of the scent of cypress trees and stared down at the caryatid’s face. Seeing the stark sugar-white break in her neck against those familiar carved ringlets, he felt his stomach knot tighter than a Greek fisherman’s net. How would they ever return home?
    “Well?” said Rose, her arms folded, waiting for an answer.
    Alex turned and looked at Rose properly for the first time. Of course, it was no surprise that she was unlike any girl he’d seen before, but her appearance was still a shock. Whilst his sisters wore their hair glossed and coiled, pinned into intricate styles with pearl pins, hers was wild and loose and tangled over her shoulders. Unlike the women of old Greece, always so elegantly draped in dresses, Rose’s clothes were baggy and casual. But it was the way she looked at him, her eyes bright with impatience, demanding an answer, which was the most surprising thing of all.
    “I’m Alex,” he said at last. He laid a hand on Aries’ head. “And this is Aries.” Aries harrumphed pointedly. “Aries Khryos Khrysamallos,” added Alex, glaring down at the ram.
    “That’s some name,” said Rose.
    “It’s Greek,” explained Alex.
    “Of course.” Rose rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “And I suppose he’s a Greek sheep?”
    Aries stamped his hoof furiously.
    “Ram,” corrected Alex.
    Aries clopped forwards and snuffled against the cheek of the broken caryatid. Kneeling down, Alex put his arm around the ram’s neck and looked at thestatue’s face, remembering the countless times he’d walked past her when she’d gleamed in the Greek sunshine.
    “Can your mother really fix this?” he asked.
    Rose nodded. “Of course she can. Believe me, she loves anything old and made of stone.”
    Alex looked across the room at the three statues of reclining goddesses and frowned, recognising