THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

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I'd never seen my father look so unhappy before. Normally he was smiley and optimistic but this...was definitely not him. 

"You know they can't, brother," Artemis chided. "They require our help with their quest, even if the odds are hopeless."

"You two are full of good cheer," Leo said. "Why are you hiding out here anyway? Shouldn't you be ... I dunno, fighting giants or something?"

"Delos is our birthplace," said the goddess. "Here, we are unaffected by the Greek–Roman schism. Believe me, Leo Valdez, if I could, I would be with my Hunters, facing our old enemy Orion. Unfortunately, if I stepped off this island, I would become incapacitated with pain. All I can do is watch helplessly while Orion slaughters my followers. Many gave their lives to protect your friends and that accursed Athena statue."

I made a strangled sound. "You mean Nico? Is he all right?"

"All right?" Apollo sobbed over his ukulele. "None of us are all right! Gaia is rising!"

Artemis glared at Apollo. "Nico is still alive. He is a brave fighter. I wish I could say the same for my brother."

"I've been wronged!" Apollo wailed. "I was misled by Gaia and that horrible Roman child!"

I looked at my father. "You mean Octavian?"

"Do not speak his name!" Apollo strummed a minor chord. "How I wish Frank Zhang were my child. I heard all his prayers for me to claim him but alas Mars gets all the good children. I get ... that creature as my descendant." His eyes flickered to mine. "Of course I love having you as my child, Eliana. You're one of my favorites!" 

"Uh...thanks.."

Apollo frowned again. "Octavian tricked me! He filled my head with compliments. He told me of the great temples he would build in my honor."

Artemis snorted. "You are easily flattered, brother."

"Because I have so many amazing qualities to praise! Octavian said he wanted to make the Romans strong again. I said fine! I gave him my blessing."

"As I recall," said Artemis, "he also promised to make you the most important god of the legion,above even Zeus."

"Well, who was I to argue with an offer like that? Does Zeus have a perfect tan? Can he play the ukulele? I think not! But I never thought Octavian would start a war! Gaia must have been clouding my thoughts, whispering in my ear."

"So fix it," Leo said. "Tell Octavian to stand down. Or, you know, shoot him with one of your arrows. That would be fine, too."

"I cannot!" Apollo wailed. "Look!"

His ukulele turned into a bow. He aimed at the sky and shot. The golden arrow sailed about two hundred feet, then disintegrated into smoke.

"To shoot my bow, I would have to step off Delos," Apollo cried. "Then I would be incapacitated, or Zeus would strike me down. Father never liked me. He hasn't trusted me for millennia!"

"Well," Artemis said, "to be fair, there was that time you conspired with Hera to overthrow him."

"That was a misunderstanding!"

"And you killed some of Zeus's Cyclopes."

"I had a good reason for that! At any rate, now Zeus blames me for everything – Octavian's schemes, the fall of Delphi –"

"Wait." Jasper made a time-out sign. "The fall of Delphi?"

Apollo's bow turned back into a ukulele. He plucked a dramatic chord. "When the schism began between Greek and Roman, while I struggled with confusion, Gaia took advantage! She raised my old enemy Python, the great serpent, to repossess the Delphic Oracle. That horrible creature is now coiled in the ancient caverns, blocking the magic of prophecy. I am stuck here, so I can't even fight him."