to his ribcage as Nurse Piper changed his bandages.
‘Hold still,’ she said. ‘I know it hurts.’
‘It’s just cold,’ he said.
Leo could hear the pain in his voice. That stupid gladius blade had pierced him all the way through. The entrance wound on his back was an ugly shade of purple and it steamed. Probably not a good sign.
Piper tried to stay positive, but privately she had told Leo how worried she was. Ambrosia, nectar and mortal medicine could only help so much. A deep cut from Celestial bronze or Imperial gold could literally dissolve a demigod’s essence from the inside out. Jason might get better. He claimed he felt better. But Piper wasn’t so sure.
Too bad Jason wasn’t a metal automaton. At least then Leo would have some idea of how to help his best friend. But with humans … Leo felt helpless. They broke way too easily.
He loved his friends. He’d do anything for them. But as he looked at the six of them – three couples, all focused on each other – he thought about the warning from Nemesis, the revenge goddess: You will not find a place among your brethren. You will always be the seventh wheel.
He was starting to think Nemesis was right. Assuming Leo lived long enough, assuming his crazy secret plan worked, his destiny was with somebody else, on an island that no man ever found twice.
But for now the best he could do was to follow his old rule: Keep moving. Don’t get bogged down. Don’t think about the bad stuff. Smile and joke even when you don’t feel like it. Especially when you don’t feel like it.
‘What’s up, guys?’ He strolled into the mess hall. ‘Aw, yes to brownies!’
He grabbed the last one – from a special sea-salt recipe they’d picked up from Aphros the fish centaur at the bottom of the Atlantic.
The intercom crackled. Buford’s Mini-Hedge yelled over the speakers, ‘PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!’
Everyone jumped. Hazel ended up five feet away from Frank. Percy spilled syrup in his orange juice. Jason awkwardly wriggled back into his T-shirt, and Frank turned into a bulldog.
Piper glared at Leo. ‘I thought you were getting rid of that stupid hologram.’
‘Hey, Buford’s just saying good morning. He loves his hologram! Besides, we all miss the coach. And Frank makes a cute bulldog.’
Frank morphed back into a burly, grumpy Chinese Canadian dude. ‘Just sit down, Leo. We’ve got stuff to talk about.’
Leo squeezed in between Jason and Hazel. He figured they were the least likely to smack him if he made bad jokes. He took a bite of his brownie and grabbed a pack of Italian junk food – Fonzies – to round out his balanced breakfast. He’d become kind of addicted to the things since buying some in Bologna. They were cheesy and corny – two of his favourite qualities.
‘So …’ Jason winced as he leaned forward. ‘We’re going to stay airborne and drop anchor as close as we can to Olympia. It’s further inland than I’d like – about five miles – but we don’t have much choice. According to Juno, we have to find the goddess of victory and, um … subdue her.’
Uncomfortable silence around the table.
With the new drapes covering the holographic walls, the mess hall was darker and gloomier than it should’ve been, but that couldn’t be helped. Ever since the Kerkopes dwarf twins had short-circuited the walls, the real-time video feed from Camp Half-Blood often fuzzed out, changing into playback of extreme dwarf close-ups – red whiskers, nostrils and bad dental work. It wasn’t helpful when you were trying to eat or have a serious conversation about the fate of the world.
Percy sipped his syrup-flavoured orange juice. He seemed to find it okay. ‘I’m cool with fighting the occasional goddess, but isn’t Nike one of the good ones? I mean, personally, I like victory. I can’t get enough of it.’
Annabeth drummed her fingers on the table. ‘It does seem strange. I understand why Nike would be in Olympia – home of the Olympics and all that. The contestants sacrificed to her. Greeks and Romans worshipped her there for, like, twelve hundred years, right?’
‘Almost to the end of the Roman Empire,’ Frank agreed. ‘Romans called her Victoria, but same difference. Everybody loved her. Who doesn’t like to win? Not sure why we would have to subdue her.’
Jason frowned. A wisp of steam curled from the wound under his shirt. ‘All I know … the ghoul Antinous said, Victory runs rampant in Olympia. Juno warned us that we could never heal the rift between the Greeks and Romans unless we defeated victory.’
‘How do we defeat victory?’ Piper wondered. ‘Sounds like one of those impossible riddles.’
‘Like making stones fly,’ Leo said, ‘or eating only one Fonzie.’
He popped a handful into his mouth.
Hazel wrinkled her nose. ‘That stuff is going to kill you.’
‘You kidding? So many preservatives in these things, I’ll live forever. But, hey, about this victory goddess being popular and great – Don’t you guys remember what her kids are like at Camp Half-Blood?’
Hazel and Frank had never been to Camp Half-Blood, but the others nodded gravely.
‘He’s got a point,’ Percy said. ‘Those kids in Cabin Seventeen – they’re super-competitive. When it comes to capture the flag, they’re almost worse than the Ares kids. Uh, no offence, Frank.’
Frank shrugged. ‘You’re saying Nike has a dark side?’
‘Her kids sure do,’ Annabeth said. ‘They never turn down a challenge. They have to be number one at everything. If their mom is that intense …’
‘Whoa.’ Piper put her hands on the table like the ship was rocking. ‘Guys, all the gods are split between their Greek and Roman aspects, right? If Nike’s that way and she’s the goddess of victory –’
‘She’d be really conflicted,’ Annabeth said. ‘She’d want one side or the other to win so she could declare a victor. She’d literally be fighting with herself.’
Hazel nudged her cereal bowl across the map of Greece. ‘But we don’t want one side or the other to win. We’ve got to get the Greeks and Romans on the same team.’
‘Maybe that’s the problem,’ Jason said. ‘If the goddess of victory is running rampant, torn between Greek and Roman, she might make it impossible to bring the two camps together.’
‘How?’ Leo asked. ‘Start a flame war on Twitter?’
Percy stabbed at his pancakes. ‘Maybe she’s like Ares. That guy can spark a fight just by walking into a crowded room. If Nike radiates competitive vibes or something, she could aggravate the whole Greek–Roman rivalry big-time.’
Frank pointed at Percy. ‘You remember that old sea god in Atlanta – Phorcys? He said that Gaia’s plans always have lots of layers. This could be part of the giants’ strategy – keep the two camps divided; keep the gods divided. If that’s the case, we can’t let Nike play us against each other. We should send a landing party of four – two Greeks, two Romans. The balance might help keep her balanced.’
Listening to Zhang, Leo had one of those double-take moments. He couldn’t believe how much the guy had changed in the last few weeks.
Frank wasn’t just taller and buffer. He was more confident now, more willing to take charge. Maybe that was because his magic firewood lifeline was safely stashed away in a flameproof pouch, or maybe it was because he’d commanded a zombie legion and been promoted to praetor. Whatever the case, Leo had trouble seeing him as the same klutzy dude who’d once iguanaed his way out of Chinese handcuffs.
‘I think Frank is right,’ Annabeth said. ‘A party of four. We’ll have to be careful who goes. We don’t want to do anything that might make the goddess, um, more unstable.’
‘I’ll go,’ Piper said. ‘I can try charmspeaking.’
Worry lines deepened around Annabeth’s eyes. ‘Not this time, Piper. Nike is all about competition. Aphrodite … well, she is too, in her own way. I think Nike might see you as a threat.’
Once, Leo might have made a joke about that. Piper a threat? The girl was like a sister to him, but, if he needed help beating up a gang of thugs or subduing a victory goddess, Piper was not the first person he’d turn to.
Recently, though … well, Piper may not have changed as obviously as Frank, but she had changed. She had stabbed Khione the snow goddess in the chest. She had defeated the Boreads. She’d slashed up a flock of wild harpies singlehandedly. As for her charmspeak, she’d become so powerful it made Leo nervous. If she told him to eat his vegetables, he might actually do it.
Annabeth’s words didn’t seem to upset her. Piper just nodded and scanned the group. ‘Who should go, then?’
‘Jason and Percy shouldn’t go together,’ Annabeth said. ‘Jupiter and Poseidon – bad combination. Nike could start you two fighting easily.’
Percy gave her a sideways smile. ‘Yeah, we can’t have another incident like in Kansas. I might kill my bro Jason.’
‘Or I might kill my bro Percy,’ Jason said amiably.
‘Which proves my point,’ Annabeth said. ‘We also shouldn’t send Frank and me together. Mars and Athena – that would be just as bad.’
‘Okay,’ Leo broke in. ‘So Percy and me for the Greeks. Frank and Hazel for the Romans. Is that the ultimate non-competitive dream team or what?’
Annabeth and Frank exchanged war-godly looks.
‘It could work,’ Frank decided. ‘I mean, no combination is going to be perfect, but Poseidon, Hephaestus, Pluto, Mars … I don’t see any huge antagonism there.’
Hazel traced her finger along the map of Greece. ‘I still wish we could’ve gone through the Gulf of Corinth. I was hoping we could visit Delphi, maybe get some advice. Plus it’s such a long way around the Peloponnese.’
‘Yeah.’ Leo’s heart sank when he looked at how much coastline they still had to navigate. ‘It’s July twenty-second already. Counting today, only ten days until –’
‘I know,’ Jason said. ‘But Juno was clear. The shorter way would have been suicide.’
‘And as for Delphi …’ Piper leaned towards the map. The blue harpy feather in her hair swung like a pendulum. ‘What’s going on there? If Apollo doesn’t have his Oracle any more …’
Percy grunted. ‘Probably something to do with that creep Octavian. Maybe he was so bad at telling the future that he broke Apollo’s powers.’
Jason managed a smile, though his eyes were cloudy from pain. ‘Hopefully we can find Apollo and Artemis. Then you can ask him yourself. Juno said the twins might be willing to help us.’
‘A lot of unanswered questions,’ Frank muttered. ‘A lot of miles to cover before we get to Athens.’
‘First things first,’ Annabeth said. ‘You guys have to find Nike and figure out how to subdue her … whatever Juno meant by that. I still don’t understand how you defeat a goddess who controls victory. Seems impossible.’
Leo started to grin. He couldn’t help it. Sure, they only had ten days to stop the giants from waking Gaia. Sure, he could die before dinnertime. But he loved being told that something was impossible. It was like someone handing him a lemon meringue pie and telling him not to throw it. He just couldn’t resist the challenge.
‘We’ll see about that.’ He rose to his feet. ‘Let me get my collection of grenades and I’ll meet you guys on deck!’
X
Leo
‘SMART CALL BACK THERE,’ Percy said, ‘choosing the air-conditioning.’
He and Leo had just searched the museum. Now they were sitting on a bridge that spanned the Kladeos River, their feet dangling over the water as they waited for Frank and Hazel to finish scouting the ruins.
To their left, the Olympic valley shimmered in the afternoon heat. To their right, the visitors’ lot was crammed with tour buses. Good thing the Argo II was moored a hundred feet in the air, because they never would’ve found parking.
Leo skipped a stone across the river. He wished Hazel and Frank would get back. He felt awkward hanging out with Percy.
For one thing, he wasn’t sure what kind of small talk to make with a guy who’d recently come back from Tartarus. Catch that last episode of Doctor Who? Oh, right. You were trudging through the Pit of Eternal Damnation!
Percy had been intimidating enough before – summoning hurricanes, duelling pirates, killing giants in the Colosseum …
Now … well, after what happened in Tartarus, it seemed like Percy had graduated to a totally different level of butt-kickery.
Leo had trouble even thinking of him as part of the same camp. The two of them had never been at Camp Half-Blood at the same time. Percy’s leather necklace had four beads for four completed summers. Leo’s leather necklace had exactly none.
The only thing they had in common was Calypso, and every time Leo thought about that he wanted to punch Percy in the face.
Leo kept thinking he should bring it up, just to clear the air, but the timing never seemed right. And, as the days went by, the subject got harder and harder to broach.
‘What?’ Percy asked.
Leo stirred. ‘What, what?’
‘You were staring at me, like, angry.’
‘Was I?’ Leo tried to muster a joke, or at least a smile, but he couldn’t. ‘Um, sorry.’
Percy gazed at the river. ‘I suppose we need to talk.’ He opened his hand and the stone Leo had skipped flew out of the stream, right into Percy’s palm.
Oh, Leo thought, we’re showing off now?
He considered shooting a column of fire at the nearest tour bus and blowing up the gas tank, but he decided that might be a tad dramatic. ‘Maybe we should talk. But not –’
‘Guys!’ Frank stood at the far end of the parking lot, waving at them to come over. Next to him, Hazel sat astride her horse Arion, who had appeared unannounced as soon as they’d landed.
Saved by the Zhang, Leo thought.
He and Percy jogged over to meet their friends.
‘This place is huge,’ Frank reported. ‘The ruins stretch from the river to the base of that mountain over there, about half a kilometre.’
‘How far is that in regular measurements?’ Percy asked.
Frank rolled his eyes. ‘That is a regular measurement in Canada and the rest of the world. Only you Americans –’
‘About five or six football fields,’ Hazel interceded, feeding Arion a big chunk of gold.
Percy spread his hands. ‘That’s all you needed to say.’
‘Anyway,’ Frank continued, ‘from overhead, I didn’t see anything suspicious.’
‘Neither did I,’ Hazel said. ‘Arion took me on a complete loop around the perimeter. A lot of tourists, but no crazy goddess.’
The big stallion nickered and tossed his head, his neck muscles rippling under his butterscotch coat.
‘Man, your horse can cuss.’ Percy shook his head. ‘He doesn’t think much of Olympia.’
For once, Leo agreed with the horse. He didn’t like the idea of tromping through fields full of ruins under a blazing sun, shoving his way through hordes of sweaty tourists while searching for a split-personality victory goddess. Besides, Frank had already flown over the whole valley as an eagle. If his sharp eyes hadn’t seen anything, maybe there was nothing to see.
On the other hand, Leo’s tool-belt pockets were full of dangerous toys. He would hate to go home without blowing anything up.
‘So we blunder around together,’ he said, ‘and let trouble find us. It’s always worked before.’
They poked about for a while, avoiding tour groups and ducking from one patch of shade to the next. Not for the first time, Leo was struck by how similar Greece was to his home state of Texas – the low hills, the scrubby trees, the drone of cicadas and the oppressive summer heat. Switch out the ancient columns and ruined temples for cows and barbed wire, and Leo would’ve felt right at home.
Frank found a tourist pamphlet (seriously, that dude would read the ingredients on a soup can) and gave them a running commentary on what was what.
‘This is the Propylon.’ He waved towards a stone path lined with crumbling columns. ‘One of the main gates into the Olympic valley.’
‘Rubble!’ said Leo.
‘And over there –’ Frank pointed to a square foundation that looked like the patio for a Mexican restaurant – ‘is the Temple of Hera, one of the oldest structures here.’
‘More rubble!’ Leo said.
‘And that round bandstand-looking thing – that’s the Philipeon, dedicated to Philip of Macedonia.’
‘Even more rubble! First-rate rubble!’
Hazel, who was still riding Arion, kicked Leo in the arm. ‘Doesn’t anything impress you?’
Leo glanced up. Her curly gold-brown hair and golden eyes matched her helmet and sword so well she might’ve been engineered from Imperial gold. Leo doubted Hazel would consider that a compliment, but, as far as humans went, Hazel was first-rate craftsmanship.
Leo remembered their trip together through the House of Hades. Hazel had led him through that creepy maze of illusions. She’d made the sorceress Pasiphaë disappear through an imaginary hole in the floor. She’d battled the giant Clytius while Leo choked in the giant’s cloud of darkness. She’d cut the chains binding the Doors of Death. Meanwhile Leo had done … well, pretty much nothing.
He wasn’t infatuated with Hazel any more. His heart was far away on the island of Ogygia. Still, Hazel Levesque impressed him – even when she wasn’t sitting atop a scary immortal supersonic horse who cussed like a sailor.
He didn’t say any of this, but Hazel must have picked up on his thoughts. She looked away, flustered.
Happily oblivious, Frank continued his guided tour. ‘And over there … oh.’ He glanced at Percy. ‘Uh, that semicircular depression in the hill, with the niches … that’s a nymphaeum, built in Roman times.’
Percy’s face turned the colour of limeade. ‘Here’s an idea: let’s not go there.’
Leo had heard all about his near-death experience in the nymphaeum in Rome with Jason and Piper. ‘I love that idea.’
They kept walking.
Once in a while, Leo’s hands drifted to his tool belt. Ever since the Kerkopes had stolen it in Bologna, he was scared he might get belt-jacked again, though he doubted any monster was as good at thievery as those dwarfs. He wondered how the little crud monkeys were doing in New York. He hoped they were still having fun harassing Romans, stealing lots of shiny zippers and causing legionnaires’ trousers to fall down.
‘This is the Pelopion,’ Frank said, pointing to another fascinating pile of stones.
‘Come on, Zhang,’ Leo said. ‘Pelopion isn’t even a word. What was it – a sacred spot for plopping?’
Frank looked offended. ‘It’s the burial site of Pelops. This whole part of Greece, the Peloponnese, was named after him.’
Leo resisted the urge to throw a grenade in Frank’s face. ‘I suppose I should know who Pelops was?’
‘He was a prince, won his wife in a chariot race. Supposedly he started the Olympic games in honour of that.’
Hazel sniffed. ‘How romantic. “Nice wife you have, Prince Pelops.” “Thanks. I won her in a chariot race.” ’
Leo didn’t see how any of this was helping them find the victory goddess. At the moment, the only victory he wanted was to vanquish an ice-cold drink and maybe some nachos.
Still … the further they got into the ruins, the more uneasy he felt. He flashed back to one of his earliest memories – his babysitter Tía Callida, a.k.a. Hera, encouraging him to prod a poisonous snake with a stick when he was four years old. The psycho goddess told him it was good training for being a hero, and maybe she’d been right. These days Leo spent most of his time poking around until he found trouble.
He scanned the crowds of tourists, wondering if they were regular mortals or monsters in disguise, like those eidolons who’d chased them in Rome. Every so often he thought he saw a familiar face – his bully cousin, Raphael; his mean third-grade teacher, Mr Borquin; his abusive foster mom, Teresa – all kinds of people who had treated Leo like dirt.
Probably he just imagined their faces, but it made him edgy. He remembered how the goddess Nemesis had appeared as his Aunt Rosa, the person Leo most resented and wanted revenge on. He wondered if Nemesis was around here somewhere, watching to see what Leo would do. He still wasn’t sure he’d paid his debt to that goddess. He suspected she wanted more suffering from him. Maybe today was the day.
They stopped at some wide steps leading to another ruined building – the Temple of Zeus, according to Frank.
‘Used to be a huge gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus inside,’ Zhang said. ‘One of