Hazel and the rest of his friends weren"t paying attention to any of that, though. They had gathered at the starboard rail to stare at the dozens of weird s.h.a.ggy monsters milling through the crowds.
Each monster was about the size of a cow, with a bowed back like a broken-down horse, matted grey fur, skinny legs and black cloven hooves. The creatures" heads seemed much too heavy for their necks. Their long anteater-like snouts drooped to the ground. Their overgrown grey manes completely covered their eyes.
Frank watched as one of the creatures lumbered across the promenade, snuffling and licking the pavement with its long tongue. The tourists parted around it, unconcerned. A few even petted it. Frank wondered how the mortals could be so calm. Then the monster"s appearance flickered. For a moment it turned into an old, fat beagle.
Jason grunted. "The mortals think they"re stray dogs."
"Or pets roaming around," Piper said. "My dad shot a film in Venice once. I remember him telling me there were dogs everywhere. Venetians love dogs."
Frank frowned. He kept forgetting that Piper"s dad was Tristan McLean, A-list movie star. She didn"t talk about him much. She seemed pretty down-to-earth for a kid raised in Hollywood. That was fine with Frank. The last thing they needed on this quest was paparazzi taking pictures of all Frank"s epic fails.
"But what are they?" he asked, repeating Hazel"s question. "They look like ... starving, s.h.a.ggy cows with sheepdog hair."
He waited for someone to enlighten him. n.o.body volunteered any information.
"Maybe they"re harmless," Leo suggested. "They"re ignoring the mortals."
"Harmless!" Gleeson Hedge laughed. The satyr wore his usual gym shorts, sports shirt and coach"s whistle. His expression was as gruff as ever, but he still had one pink rubber band stuck in his hair from the prankster dwarfs in Bologna. Frank was kind of scared to mention it to him. "Valdez, how many harmless monsters have we met? We should just aim the ballistae and see what happens!"
"Uh, no," Leo said.
For once, Frank agreed with Leo. There were too many monsters. It would be impossible to target one without causing collateral damage to the crowds of tourists. Besides, if those creatures panicked and stampeded ...
"We"ll have to walk through them and hope they"re peaceful," Frank said, hating the idea already. "It"s the only way we"re going to track down the owner of that book."
Leo pulled the leather-bound manual from underneath his arm. He"d slapped a sticky note on the cover with the address the dwarfs in Bologna had given him.
"La Casa Nera," he read. "Calle Frezzeria."
"The Black House," Nico di Angelo translated. "Calle Frezzeria is the street."
Frank tried not to flinch when he realized Nico was at his shoulder. The guy was so quiet and brooding he almost seemed to dematerialize when he wasn"t speaking. Hazel might have been the one who came back from the dead, but Nico was way more ghost-like.
"You speak Italian?" Frank asked.
Nico shot him a warning look, like: Watch the questions. He spoke calmly, though. "Frank is right. We have to find that address. The only way to do it is to walk the city. Venice is a maze. We"ll have to risk the crowds and those ... whatever they are."
Thunder rumbled in the clear summer sky. They"d pa.s.sed through some storms the night before. Frank had thought they were over, but now he wasn"t sure. The air felt as thick and warm as sauna steam.
Jason frowned at the horizon. "Maybe I should stay on board. Lots of venti in that storm last night. If they decide to attack the ship again ..."
He didn"t need to finish. They"d all had experiences with angry wind spirits. Jason was the only one who had much luck fighting them.
Coach Hedge grunted. "Well, I"m out, too. If you softhearted cupcakes are going to stroll through Venice without even whacking those furry animals on the head, forget it. I don"t like boring expeditions."
"It"s okay, Coach." Leo grinned. "We still have to repair the foremast. Then I need your help in the engine room. I"ve got an idea for a new installation."
Frank didn"t like the gleam in Leo"s eye. Since Leo had found that Archimedes sphere, he"d been trying out a lot of "new installations". Usually, they exploded or sent smoke billowing upstairs into Frank"s cabin.
"Well ..." Piper shifted her feet. "Whoever goes should be good with animals. I, uh ... I"ll admit I"m not great with cows."
Frank figured there was a story behind that comment, but he decided not to ask.
"I"ll go," he said.
He wasn"t sure why he volunteered maybe because he was anxious to be useful for a change. Or maybe he didn"t want anyone beating him to the punch. Animals? Frank can turn into animals! Send him!
Leo patted him on shoulder and handed him the leather-bound book. "Awesome. If you pa.s.s a hardware store, could you get me some two-by-fours and a gallon of tar?"
"Leo," Hazel chided, "it"s not a shopping trip."
"I"ll go with Frank," Nico offered.
Frank"s eye started twitching. The war G.o.ds" voices rose to a crescendo in his head: Kill him! Graecus sc.u.m!
No! I love Graecus sc.u.m!
"Uh ... you"re good with animals?" he asked.
Nico smiled without humour. "Actually, most animals hate me. They can sense death. But there"s something about this city ..." His expression turned grim. "Lots of death. Restless spirits. If I go, I may be able to keep them at bay. Besides, as you noticed, I speak Italian."
Leo scratched his head. "Lots of death, huh? Personally, I"m trying to avoid lots of death, but you guys have fun!"
Frank wasn"t sure what scared him more: s.h.a.ggy-cow monsters, hordes of restless ghosts or going somewhere alone with Nico di Angelo.
"I"ll go, too." Hazel slipped her arm through Frank"s. "Three is the best number for a demiG.o.d quest, right?"
Frank tried not to look too relieved. He didn"t want to offend Nico. But he glanced at Hazel and told her with his eyes: Thank you thank you thank you.
Nico stared at the ca.n.a.ls, as if wondering what new and interesting forms of evil spirits might be lurking there. "All right, then. Let"s go find the owner of that book."
XVIII.
FRANK.
FRANK MIGHT HAVE LIKED VENICE if it hadn"t been summertime and tourist season, and if the city wasn"t overrun with large hairy creatures. Between the rows of old houses and the ca.n.a.ls, the stone pavements were already too narrow for the crowds jostling one another and stopping to take pictures. The monsters made things worse. They shuffled around with their heads down, b.u.mping into mortals and sniffing the ground.
One seemed to find something it liked at the edge of a ca.n.a.l. It nibbled and licked at a crack between the stones until it dislodged some sort of greenish root. The monster sucked it up happily and shambled along.
"Well, they"re plant-eaters," Frank said. "That"s good news."
Hazel slipped her hand into his. "Unless they supplement their diet with demiG.o.ds. Let"s hope not."
Frank was so pleased to be holding her hand that the crowds and the heat and the monsters suddenly didn"t seem so bad. He felt needed useful.
Not that Hazel required his protection. Anybody who"d seen her charging on Arion with her sword drawn would know she could take care of herself. Still, Frank liked being next to her, imagining he was her bodyguard. If any of these monsters tried to hurt her, Frank would gladly turn into a rhinoceros and push them into the ca.n.a.l.
Could he do a rhino? Frank had never tried that before.
Nico stopped. "There."
They"d turned onto a smaller street, leaving the ca.n.a.l behind. Ahead of them was a small plaza lined with five-storey buildings. The area was strangely deserted as if the mortals could sense it wasn"t safe. In the middle of the cobblestone courtyard, a dozen s.h.a.ggy cow creatures were sniffing around the mossy base of an old stone well.
"A lot of cows in one place," Frank said.
"Yeah, but look," Nico said. "Past that archway."
Nico"s eyes must"ve been better than his. Frank squinted. At the far end of the plaza, a stone archway carved with lions led into a narrow street. Just past the arch, one of the town houses was painted black the only black building Frank had seen so far in Venice.
"La Casa Nera," he guessed.
Hazel"s grip tightened on his fingers. "I don"t like that plaza. It feels ... cold."
Frank wasn"t sure what she meant. He was still sweating like crazy.
But Nico nodded. He studied the town-house windows, most of which were covered with wooden shutters. "You"re right, Hazel. This neighbourhood is filled with lemures."
"Lemurs?" Frank asked nervously. "I"m guessing you don"t mean the furry little guys from Madagascar?"
"Angry ghosts," Nico said. "Lemures go back to Roman times. They hang around a lot of Italian cities, but I"ve never felt so many in one place. My mom told me ..." He hesitated. "She used to tell me stories about the ghosts of Venice."
Again Frank wondered about Nico"s past, but he was afraid to ask. He caught Hazel"s eye.
Go ahead, she seemed to be saying. Nico needs practice talking to people.
The sounds of a.s.sault rifles and atom bombs got louder in Frank"s head. Mars and Ares were trying to outsing each other with "Dixie" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". Frank did his best to push that aside.
"Nico, your mom was Italian?" he guessed. "She was from Venice?"
Nico nodded reluctantly. "She met Hades here, back in the 1930s. As World War Two got closer, she fled to the U.S. with my sister and me. I mean ... Bianca, my other sister. I don"t remember much about Italy, but I can still speak the language."
Frank tried to think of a response. Oh, that"s nice didn"t seem to cut it.
He was hanging out with not one but two demiG.o.ds who"d been pulled out of time. They were both, technically, about seventy years older than he was.
"Must"ve been hard on your mom," Frank said. "I guess we"ll do anything for someone we love."
Hazel squeezed his hand appreciatively. Nico stared at the cobblestones. "Yeah," he said bitterly. "I guess we will."
Frank wasn"t sure what Nico was thinking. He had a hard time imagining Nico di Angelo acting out of love for anybody, except maybe Hazel. But Frank decided he"d gone as far as he dared with the personal questions.
"So, the lemures ..." He swallowed. "How do we avoid them?"
"I"m already on it," Nico said. "I"m sending out the message that they should stay away and ignore us. Hopefully that"s enough. Otherwise ... things could get messy."
Hazel pursed her lips. "Let"s get going," she suggested.
Halfway across the piazza, everything went wrong, but it had nothing to do with ghosts.
They were skirting the well in the middle of the square, trying to give the cow monsters some distance, when Hazel stumbled on a loose piece of cobblestone. Frank caught her. Six or seven of the big grey beasts turned to look at them. Frank glimpsed a glowing green eye under one"s mane, and instantly he was. .h.i.t with a wave of nausea, the way he felt when he ate too much cheese or ice cream.
The creatures made deep throbbing sounds in their throats like angry foghorns.
"Nice cows," Frank murmured. He put himself between his friends and the monsters. "Guys, I"m thinking we should back out of here slowly."
"I"m such a klutz," Hazel whispered. "Sorry."
"It"s not your fault," Nico said. "Look at your feet."
Frank glanced down and caught his breath.
Under their shoes, the paving stones were moving spiky plant tendrils were pushing up from the cracks.
Nico stepped back. The roots snaked out in his direction, trying to follow. The tendrils got thicker, exuding a steamy green vapour that smelled of boiled cabbage.
"These roots seem to like demiG.o.ds," Frank noted.
Hazel"s hand drifted to her sword hilt. "And the cow creatures like the roots."
The entire herd was now looking their direction, making foghorn growls and stamping their hooves. Frank understood animal behaviour well enough to get the message: You are standing on our food. That makes you enemies.
Frank tried to think. There were too many monsters to fight. Something about their eyes hidden under those s.h.a.ggy manes ... Frank had got sick from the barest glimpse. He had a bad feeling that if those monsters made direct eye contact, he might get a lot worse than nauseous.
"Don"t meet their eyes," Frank warned. "I"ll distract them. You two back up slowly towards that black house."
The creatures tensed, ready to attack.
"Never mind," Frank said. "Run!"
As it turned out, Frank could not turn into a rhino, and he lost valuable time trying.
Nico and Hazel bolted for the side street. Frank stepped in front of the monsters, hoping to keep their attention. He yelled at the top of his lungs, imagining himself as a fearsome rhinoceros, but with Ares and Mars screaming in his head he couldn"t concentrate. He remained regular-old Frank.
Two of the cow monsters peeled off from the herd to chase Nico and Hazel.
"No!" Frank yelled after them. "Me! I"m the rhino!"