Hephaestus
“Where is the forge of Hephaestus?” asked Mateo.
“He has a kind of workshop on Olympus itself,” said Hermes, “but he does much of his work under Mount Etna. The ancient Greeks assumed that was why Etna was a volcano, though some stories also attribute the eruptions to the idea that the monster Typhoeus, whom Zeus defeated, was buried under it.”
“Is it far from here?” asked Fatima.
“Not for me,” said Hermes. His smile and the Olympian background blurred away, and in what seemed like just a few seconds, they stood in a much darker, hotter place. Flickering torches provided the only light. In the distance, they could hear the echoes of what sounded like hammers striking metal.
“Wait here,” said Hermes. “I thought it best not to bring you into Hephaestus’s workspace—too many ha
