Haunted || Leo Valdez

91 - We Discuss How to Express Mail the Big Golden Statue to Camp

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 demigod 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.

Rebecca laughed with the others, and though Percy tried to keep his "grumpy seal" face on, she knew he didn't really mind.

Leo pulled a tiny screwdriver from his tool belt. He stabbed a chocolate-covered strawberry and passed it to Rebecca, who accepted it with a smile. 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."

"It makes sense," Nico said. "The statue is a powerful symbol. A Roman returning it to the Greeks... that could heal the historic rift, maybe even heal the gods of their split personalities."

Coach Hedge frowned. "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 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 Gaea 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 Rebecca knew Piper had seen some pretty terrible things in there.

"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 HalfBlood. 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," Rebecca 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 demigods lying dead. And Gaea..." Her voice failed her.