"Everyone, grab hands!" Nico yelled.
They made a hasty circle. Hazel envisioned the Greek countryside above them. The cavern collapsed, and she felt herself dissolving into shadow.
They appeared on the hillside overlooking the River Acheron. The sun was just rising, making the water glitter and the clouds glow orange. The cool morning air smelled of honeysuckle.
Hazel was holding hands with Frank on her left, Nico on her right. They were all alive and mostly whole. The sunlight in the trees was the most beautiful thing she"d ever seen. She wanted to live in that moment free of monsters and G.o.ds and evil spirits.
Then her friends began to stir.
Nico realized that he was holding Percy"s hand and quickly let go.
Leo staggered backwards. "You know ... I think I"ll sit down."
He collapsed. The others joined him. The Argo II still floated over the river a few hundred yards away. Hazel knew that they should signal Coach Hedge and tell him they were alive. Had they been in the temple all night? Or several nights? But at the moment the group was too tired to do anything except sit and relax and marvel at the fact that they were okay.
They began to exchange stories.
Frank explained what had happened with the ghostly legion and the army of monsters how Nico had used the sceptre of Diocletian and how bravely Jason and Piper had fought.
"Frank is being modest," Jason said. "He controlled the entire legion. You should"ve seen him. Oh, by the way ..." Jason glanced at Percy. "I resigned my office, gave Frank a field promotion to praetor. Unless you want to contest that ruling."
Percy grinned. "No argument here."
"Praetor?" Hazel stared at Frank.
He shrugged uncomfortably. "Well ... yeah. I know it seems weird."
She tried to throw her arms around him, then winced as she remembered her busted ribs. She settled for kissing him. "It seems perfect."
Leo clapped Frank on the shoulder. "Way to go, Zhang. Now you can order Octavian to fall on his sword."
"Tempting," Frank agreed. He turned apprehensively to Percy. "But you guys ... Tartarus has to be the real story. What happened down there? How did you ...?"
Percy laced his fingers through Annabeth"s.
Hazel happened to glance at Nico and saw pain in his eyes. She wasn"t sure, but maybe he was thinking how lucky Percy and Annabeth were to have each other. Nico had gone through Tartarus alone.
"We"ll tell you the story," Percy promised. "But not yet, okay? I"m not ready to remember that place."
"No," Annabeth agreed. "Right now ..." She gazed towards the river and faltered. "Uh, I think our ride is coming."
Hazel turned. The Argo II veered to port, its aerial oars in motion, its sails catching the wind. Festus"s head glinted in the sunlight. Even from a distance, Hazel could hear him creaking and clanking in jubilation.
"That"s my boy!" Leo yelled.
As the ship got closer, Hazel saw Coach Hedge standing at the prow.
"About time!" the coach yelled down. He was doing his best to scowl, but his eyes gleamed as if maybe, just maybe, he was happy to see them. "What took you so long, cupcakes? You kept your visitor waiting!"
"Visitor?" Hazel murmured.
At the rail next to Coach Hedge, a dark-haired girl appeared wearing a purple cloak, her face so covered with soot and b.l.o.o.d.y scratches that Hazel almost didn"t recognize her.
Reyna had arrived.
LXXVII.
PERCY.
PERCY STARED AT THE ATHENA PARTHENOS, waiting for it to strike him down.
Leo"s new mechanical hoist system had lowered the statue onto the hillside with surprising ease. Now the forty-foot-tall G.o.ddess gazed serenely over the River Acheron, her gold dress like molten metal in the sun.
"Incredible," Reyna admitted.
She was still red-eyed from crying. Soon after she"d landed on the Argo II, her pegasus Scipio had collapsed, overwhelmed by poisoned claw marks from a gryphon attack the night before. Reyna had put the horse out of his misery with her golden knife, turning the pegasus into dust that scattered in the sweet-smelling Greek air. Maybe not a bad end for a flying horse, but Reyna had lost a loyal friend. Percy figured that she"d given up too much in her life already.
The praetor circled the Athena Parthenos warily. "It looks newly made."
"Yeah," Leo said. "We brushed off the cobwebs, used a little Windex. It wasn"t hard."
The Argo II hovered just overhead. With Festus keeping watch for threats on the radar, the entire crew had decided to eat lunch on the hillside while they discussed what to do. After the last few weeks, Percy figured they"d earned a good meal together really anything that wasn"t fire water or drakon meat soup.
"Hey, Reyna," Annabeth called. "Have some food. Join us."
The praetor glanced over, her dark eyebrows furrowed, as if join us didn"t quite compute. Percy had never seen Reyna without her armour before. It was...o...b..ard the ship, being repaired by Buford the Wonder Table. She wore a pair of jeans and a purple Camp Jupiter T-shirt and looked almost like a normal teenager except for the knife at her belt and that guarded expression, like she was ready for an attack from any direction.
"All right," she said finally.
They scooted over to make room for her in the circle. She sat cross-legged next to Annabeth, picked up a cheese sandwich and nibbled at the edge.
"So," Reyna said. "Frank Zhang ... praetor."
Frank shifted, wiping crumbs from his chin. "Well, yeah. Field promotion."
"To lead a different legion," Reyna noted. "A legion of ghosts."
Hazel put her arm protectively through Frank"s. After an hour in sick bay, they both looked a lot better, but Percy could tell they weren"t sure what to think about their old boss from Camp Jupiter dropping in for lunch.
"Reyna," Jason said, "you should"ve seen him."
"He was amazing," Piper agreed.
"Frank is a leader," Hazel insisted. "He makes a great praetor."
Reyna"s eyes stayed on Frank, like she was trying to guess his weight. "I believe you," she said. "I approve."
Frank blinked. "You do?"
Reyna smiled dryly. "A son of Mars, the hero who helped to bring back the eagle of the legion ... I can work with a demiG.o.d like that. I"m just wondering how to convince the Twelfth Fulminata."
Frank scowled. "Yeah. I"ve been wondering the same thing."
Percy still couldn"t get over how much Frank had changed. A "growth spurt" was putting it mildly. He was at least three inches taller, less pudgy and more bulky, like a linebacker. His face looked st.u.r.dier, his jawline more rugged. It was as if Frank had turned into a bull and then back to human, but he"d kept some of the bullishness.
"The legion will listen to you, Reyna," Frank said. "You made it here alone, across the ancient lands."
Reyna chewed her sandwich as if it were cardboard. "In doing so, I broke the laws of the legion."
"Caesar broke the law when he crossed the Rubicon," Frank said. "Great leaders have to think outside the box sometimes."
She shook her head. "I"m not Caesar. After finding Jason"s note in Diocletian"s Palace, tracking you down was easy. I only did what I thought was necessary."
Percy couldn"t help smiling. "Reyna, you"re too modest. Flying halfway across the world by yourself to answer Annabeth"s plea, because you knew it was our best chance for peace? That"s pretty freaking heroic."
Reyna shrugged. "Says the demiG.o.d who fell into Tartarus and found his way back."
"He had help," Annabeth said.
"Oh, obviously," Reyna said. "Without you, I doubt Percy could find his way out of a paper bag."
"True," Annabeth agreed.
"Hey!" Percy complained.
The others started laughing, but Percy didn"t mind. It felt good to see them smile. Heck, just being in the mortal world felt good, breathing un-poisonous air, enjoying actual sunshine on his back.
Suddenly he thought of Bob. Tell the sun and stars h.e.l.lo for me.
Percy"s smile melted. Bob and Damasen had sacrificed their lives so that Percy and Annabeth could sit here now, enjoying the sunlight and laughing with their friends.
It wasn"t fair.
Leo pulled a tiny screwdriver from his tool belt. He stabbed a chocolate-covered strawberry and pa.s.sed it to Coach Hedge. Then he pulled out another screwdriver and speared a second strawberry for himself.
"So, the twenty-million-peso question," Leo said. "We got this slightly used forty-foot-tall statue of Athena. What do we do with it?"
Reyna squinted at the Athena Parthenos. "As fine as it looks on this hill, I didn"t come all this way to admire it. According to Annabeth, it must be returned to Camp Half-Blood by a Roman leader. Do I understand correctly?"
Annabeth nodded. "I had a dream down in ... you know, Tartarus. I was on Half-Blood Hill, and Athena"s voice said, I must stand here. The Roman must bring me."
Percy studied the statue uneasily. He"d never had the best relationship with Annabeth"s mom. He kept expecting Big Mama Statue to come alive and chew him out for getting her daughter into so much trouble or maybe just step on him without a word.
"It makes sense," Nico said.
Percy flinched. It almost sounded like Nico had read his mind and was agreeing that Athena should step on him.
The son of Hades sat at the other end of the circle, eating nothing but half a pomegranate, the fruit of the Underworld. Percy wondered if that was Nico"s idea of a joke.
"The statue is a powerful symbol," Nico said. "A Roman returning it to the Greeks ... that could heal the historic rift, maybe even heal the G.o.ds of their split personalities."
Coach Hedge swallowed his strawberry along with half the screwdriver. "Now, hold on. I like peace as much as the next satyr "
"You hate peace," Leo said.
"The point is, Valdez, we"re only what, a few days from Athens? We"ve got an army of giants waiting for us there. We went to all the trouble of saving this statue "
"I went to most of the trouble," Annabeth reminded him.
" because that prophecy called it the giants" bane," the coach continued. "So why aren"t we taking it to Athens with us? It"s obviously our secret weapon." He eyed the Athena Parthenos. "It looks like a ballistic missile to me. Maybe if Valdez strapped some engines to it "
Piper cleared her throat. "Uh, great idea, Coach, but a lot of us have had dreams and visions of Gaia rising at Camp Half-Blood ..."
She unsheathed her dagger Katoptris and set it on her plate. At the moment, the blade showed nothing except sky, but looking at it still made Percy uncomfortable.
"Since we got back to the ship," Piper said, "I"ve been seeing some bad stuff in the knife. The Roman legion is almost within striking distance of Camp Half-Blood. They"re gathering reinforcements: spirits, eagles, wolves."
"Octavian," Reyna growled. "I told him to wait."
"When we take over command," Frank suggested, "our first order of business should be to load Octavian into the nearest catapult and fire him as far away as possible."
"Agreed," Reyna said. "But for now "
"He"s intent on war," Annabeth put in. "He"ll have it, unless we stop him."
Piper turned the blade of her knife. "Unfortunately, that"s not the worst of it. I saw images of a possible future the camp in flames, Roman and Greek demiG.o.ds lying dead. And Gaia ..." Her voice failed her.
Percy remembered the G.o.d Tartarus in physical form, looming over him. He"d never felt such helplessness and terror. He still burned with shame, remembering how his sword had slipped out of his hand.
You might as well try to kill the earth, Tartarus had said.
If Gaia was that powerful, and she had an army of giants at her side, Percy didn"t see how seven demiG.o.ds could stop her, especially when most of the G.o.ds were incapacitated. They had to stop the giants before Gaia woke, or it was game over.
If the Athena Parthenos was a secret weapon, taking it to Athens was pretty tempting. Heck, Percy kind of liked the coach"s idea of using it as a missile and sending Gaia up in a G.o.dly nuclear mushroom cloud.
Unfortunately, his gut told him that Annabeth was right. The statue belonged back on Long Island, where it might be able to stop the war between the two camps.