I 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 canals, 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, bumping into mortals and sniffing the ground.
One seemed to find something it liked at the edge of a canal. 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," I said. "That's good news."
Jasper slipped his hand into mine. "Unless they supplement their diet with demigods. Let's hope not."
I pleased to be holding his hand, the crowds and the heat and the monsters suddenly didn't seem so bad.
Nico stopped. "There."
We turned onto a smaller street, leaving the canal behind. Ahead of us was a small plaza lined with five-story 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 shaggy cow creatures were sniffing around the mossy base of an old stone well.
"A lot of cows in one place," Jasper said.
"Yeah, but look," Nico said. "Past that archway."
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 I'd seen so far in Venice.
"La Casa Nera," Jasper guessed.
My grip tightened on his fingers. "I don't like that plaza. It feels ... cold."
Something I was able to do as the daughter of the sun god was sense things like that. That place felt like the opposite of sunlight.
Nico nodded. He studied the town-house windows, most of which were covered with wooden shutters.
"You're right, Eliana. This neighborhood is filled with lemures."
"Lemurs?" Jasper 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."
"Your mom was Italian, right? Wasn't she from Venice?" I asked.
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."
"Must've been hard on your mom," Jasper said. "I guess we'll do anything for someone we love."
Nico stared at the cobblestones. "Yeah," he said bitterly. 'I guess we will."
I wasn't sure what Nico was thinking. I had a hard time imagining Nico di Angelo acting out of love for anybody, except maybe Hazel, or maybe someone very special.
I decided I'd gone as far as I dared with the personal questions.
"So, the lemures ..." I 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."
"Let's get going," I suggested.
Halfway across the piazza, everything went wrong, but it had nothing to do with ghosts.
We were skirting around the well in the middle of the square, trying to give the cow monsters some distance, when I stumbled on a loose piece of cobblestone. Jasper caught me. Six or seven of the big grey beasts turned to look at them.
I glimpsed a glowing green eye under one's mane, and instantly I was hit with a wave of nausea, the way you felt when you ate to much ice cream.
The creatures made deep throbbing sounds in their throats like angry foghorns.
"Nice cows," Jasper murmured. He put himself between me and the monsters. "I'm thinking we should back out of here slowly."
"Sorry," I whispered. "I'm such a klutz."
"It's not your fault," Nico said. "Look at your feet."
I glanced down and caught my breath.
Under our 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 vapor that smelled of boiled cabbage.
"These roots seem to like demigods," Jasper noted.
My hand drifted to my bracelet. "And the cow creatures like the roots."
The entire herd was now looking in our direction, making foghorn growls and stamping their hooves.
I understood animal behavior well enough to get the message: You are standing on our food.That makes you enemies.
I tried to think. There were too many monsters to fight. Something about their eyes hidden under those shaggy manes ... I had got sick from the barest glimpse.
I had a bad feeling that if those monsters made direct eye contact, I might get a lot worse than nauseous.
"Don't meet their eyes," Jasper warned, thinking the same thing as me. "I'll distract them. You two back up slowly towards that black house."
The creatures tensed, ready to attack.
"Never mind," Jasper said. "Run!"
Nico and I for the side street. Jasper stepped in front of the monsters, hoping to keep their attention. He yelled at the top of his lungs, to try and distract them.
Two of the cow monsters peeled off from the herd to chase Nico and me. Which was just lovely.
"No!" Jasper yelled after them.
The rest of the herd surrounded Jasper. They growled, emerald-green gas billowing from their nostrils. Jasper stepped back to avoid the stuff, and summoned his spear.
The monsters growled in reply. Three of them sprang at once, but Jasper was ready. His reflexes were built for speed in combat.He slashed the first two monsters into dust with his spear, then sank his spear into the third one's throat and tossed it aside.
There were seven left, plus the two chasing us. Not great odds, but Jasper had to keep the bulk of herd focused on him. He shouted at the monsters, and they edged away.
Unfortunately I had become too distracted by Jasper's cow slaying. One of the cows chasing Nico and me. It blasted me in the face with green gas.
I shot the monster to dust with my bow, but the damage was already done. I tried to force myself not to breathe, but I already had.
I could feel my throat burning. My eyes stung. I staggered back, half-blind and dizzy, dimly aware of Nico screaming my name.
"Eliana!" I tried to focus. My face felt like it was peeling off. I stumbled back against the wall and fell down propped against the wall.
JASPER
"She got a blast of green gas right in the face," Nico said miserably. "I – I wasn't fast enough."
Jasper couldn't tell if she was breathing. Rage and despair battled inside him. He'd always been a little wary of Nico. Now he wanted to drop-kick the son of Hades into the nearest canal. Maybe that wasn't fair, but Jasper didn't care.
Jasper knelt down and touched her pale face. "She should be healing..why isn't she healing?"
"We need to get her back to the ship and too the healer." Nico said.
"She is the healer." Jasper said trying not to let the panic in him overcome him.
The cow monster herd prowled cautiously just beyond the archway. They bellowed their foghorn cries. From nearby streets, more monsters answered. Reinforcements would soon have the demigods surrounded."Maybe some ambrosia will fix her." Nico offered.
"We'll never make it on foot," Jasper said.
"Don't worry about me. Get her back to the Argo II! I'll distract those monsters." Nico said. Jasper leaned down and gently picked Eliana up. He stared at the pale face of the girl he loved.
"Your friends can't help you. They don't know the cure."
Jasper spun round.
Standing on the threshold of the Black House was a young man in jeans and a denim shirt. He had curly black hair and a friendly smile, though Jasper doubted he was friendly. Probably he wasn't even human.
At the moment, Jasper didn't care.
"Can you cure her?" he asked."Of course," the man said. "But you'd better hurry inside. I think you've angered every katobleps in Venice."
They barely made it inside.
As soon as their host threw the bolts, the cow monsters bellowed and slammed into the door,making it shudder on its hinges.
"Oh, they can't get in," the man in denim promised. "You're safe now!"
"Safe?" Jasper demanded. "Eliana is dying!"
Their host frowned as if he didn't appreciate Jasper ruining his good mood. "Yes, yes. Bring her this way."
Jasper carried Eliana as they followed the man further into the building. Nico offered to help, but Jasper didn't need it. Eliana weighed nothing, and Jasper's body hummed with adrenalin. He could feel Eliana shivering, so at least he knew she was alive, but her skin was cold. Her lips had taken on a greenish tinge – or was that just Jasper's blurry vision?
He had gotten hit with some of the green gas while he was fighting those cow monsters. His eyes still burned from the monster's breath. His lungs felt like he'd inhaled a flaming cabbage. He didn't know why the gas had affected him less than it had Hazel. Maybe she'd got more of it in her lungs. He would have given anything to change places if it meant saving her.
The house's front room was some sort of greenhouse. The walls were lined with tables of plant trays under fluorescent lights. The air smelled of fertilizer solution. Maybe Venetians did their gardening inside, since they were surrounded by water instead of soil? Jasper wasn't sure, but he didn't spend much time worrying about it.
The back room looked like a combination garage, college dorm and computer lab. Against the left wall glowed a bank of servers and laptops, their screen savers flashing pictures of ploughed fields and tractors. Against the right wall was a single bed, a messy desk and an open wardrobe filled with extra denim clothes and a stack of farm implements, like pitchforks and rakes.
The back wall was a huge garage door. Parked next to it was a red-and-gold chariot with an open carriage and a single axle, like the chariots Jasper had raced at Camp Jupiter. Sprouting from the sides of the driver's box were giant feathery wings. Wrapped around the rim of the left wheel, a spotted python snored loudly.
Jasper hadn't known that pythons could snore. But he was glad Eliana wasn't awake to see it.
"Set your friend here," said the man in denim.Jasper placed Eliana gently on the bed. He removed her bow and tried to make her comfortable, but she was as limp as a scarecrow. Her complexion definitely had a greenish tint.
"What were those cow things?"Jasper demanded. "What did they do to her?"
"Katoblepones," said their host. "Singular: katobleps. In English, it means down-looker. Called that because –"
"They're always looking down." Nico smacked his forehead. "Right. I remember reading about them."
Jasper glared at him. "Now you remember?"
Nico hung his head almost as low as a katobleps. "I, uh ... used to play this stupid card game when I was younger. Mythomagic. The katobleps was one of the monster cards."
Jasper blinked. "I used to have a friend who played that. I've never seen that card."
"It was in the Africanus Extreme expansion deck."
"Oh."
Their host cleared his throat. "Are you two done, ah, geeking out, as they say?"
"Right, sorry," Nico muttered. "Anyway, katoblepones have poison breath and a poison gaze. I thought they only lived in Africa."
The man in denim shrugged. "That's their native land. They were accidentally imported to Venice hundreds of years ago. You've heard of Saint Mark?"
Jasper wanted to scream with frustration. He didn't see how any of this was relevant, but, if their host could heal Eliana, Jasper decided maybe it would be best not to make him angry.
"Saints? They're not part of Greek mythology."
The man in denim chuckled. "No, but Saint Mark is the patron saint of this city. He died in Egypt, oh, a long time ago. When the Venetians became powerful ... well, the relics of saints were a big tourist attraction back in the Middle Ages. The Venetians decided to steal Saint Mark's remains and bring them to their big church of San Marco. They smuggled out his body in a barrel of pickled pig parts."
"That's ... disgusting," Jasper said.
"Yes," the man agreed with a smile. "The point is you can't do something like that and not have consequences. The Venetians unintentionally smuggled something else out of Egypt – the katoblepones. They came here aboard that ship and have been breeding like rats ever since. They love the magical poison roots that grow here – swampy, foul-smelling plants that creep up from the canals. It makes their breath even more poisonous! Usually the monsters ignore mortals, but demigods ... especially demigods who get in their way –"
"Got it," Jasper snapped. "Can you cure her?"
The man shrugged. "Possibly."
"Possibly?" Jasper had to use all his willpower not to throttle the guy.
He put his hand under Eliana's nose. He couldn't feel her breath. "Nico, please tell me your Hades radar thing says she's still alive."
Nico grimaced.
"Hades!" cried their host. He backed away, staring at Nico with distaste. "So that's what I smell. A child of the Underworld? If I'd known that, I would never have let you in!"
Jasper rose. "You promised you would help her!"
"I did not promise."
Nico drew his sword. "She's my friend," he growled. "I don't know who you are, but if you can cure her you have to, or so help me by the River Styx –"
"Oh, blah, blah, blah!" The man waved his hand. Suddenly where Nico di Angelo had been standing was a potted plant about five feet tall, with drooping green leaves, tufts of silk and half a dozen ripe yellow ears of corn.
"There," the man huffed, wagging his finger at the corn plant. "Children of Hades can't order me around! You should talk less and listen more. Now at least you have ears."
Jasper stumbled against the bed. "What did you – why –?"
The man raised an eyebrow. Jasper had been so focused on Eliana, he'd forgotten what Leo had told them about the guy they were looking for.
"You're a god," he remembered.
"Triptolemus." The man bowed. "My friends call me Trip, so don't call me that. And if you're another child of Hades –"
"Mars!" Jasper said quickly. "Child of Mars!"
Triptolemus sniffed. "Well ... not much better. But perhaps you deserve to be something better than a corn plant. Sorghum? Sorghum is very nice."
"Wait!" Jasper pleaded. "We're here on a friendly mission. We brought a gift." Very slowly, he reached into Eliana's backpack and brought out the leather-bound book. "This belongs to you?"
"My almanac!" Triptolemus grinned and seized the book. He thumbed through the pages and started bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Oh, this is fabulous! Where did you find it?"
"Um, Bologna. There were these –" Jasper remembered that he wasn't supposed to mention the dwarfs – "terrible monsters. We risked our lives, but we knew this was important to you. So could you maybe, you know, turn Nico back to normal and heal Eliana?"
"Hmm?" Trip looked up from his book. He'd been happily reciting lines to himself – something about turnip-planting schedules.
"Uh, Demeter?" he said. He racked his brain trying to remember her Roman form. "Oh, Ceres, the plant goddess. She – she didn't like Hades because ..."
Suddenly he recalled an old story he'd heard at Camp Jupiter. "Her daughter, Proserpine –"
"Persephone," Trip corrected. "I prefer the Greek, if you don't mind."
Jasper's eye twitched. His mind was screaming him to tear this guy to shreds, but he decided not to take offence. He didn't want to get turned into a sorghum plant.
"Okay. Hades kidnapped Persephone."
"Exactly!" Trip said.
"So ... Persephone was a friend of yours?"
Trip snorted. "I was just a mortal prince back then. Persephone wouldn't have noticed me. But when her mother, Demeter, went searching for her, scouring the whole earth, not many people would help her. Hecate lit her way at night with her torches. And I ... well, when Demeter came to my part of Greece, I gave her a place to stay. I comforted her, gave her a meal, and offered my assistance. I didn't know she was a goddess at the time, but my good deed paid off. Later, Demeter rewarded me by making me a god of farming!'
"Wow," Jasper said. "Farming. Congratulations."
"I know! Pretty awesome, right? Anyway, Demeter never got along with Hades. So naturally, you know, I have to side with my patron goddess. Children of Hades – forget it! In fact, one of them – this Scythian king named Lynkos? When I tried to teach his countrymen about farming, he killed my right python!"
"Your ... right python?"
Trip marched over to his winged chariot and hopped in. He pulled a lever, and the wings began to flap. The spotted python on the left wheel opened his eyes. He started to writhe, coiling around the axle like a spring. The chariot whirred into motion, but the right wheel stayed in place, so Triptolemus spun in circles, the chariot beating its wings and bouncing up and down like a defective merry-go- round.
"You see?" he said as he spun. "No good! Ever since I lost my right python, I haven't been able to spread the word about farming – at least not in person. Now I have to resort to giving online courses."
"What?" As soon as he said it, Jasper was sorry he'd asked.
Trip hopped off the chariot while it was still spinning. The python slowed to a stop and went back to snoring. Trip jogged over to the line of computers. He tapped the keyboards and the screens woke up, displaying a website in maroon and gold, with a picture of a happy farmer in a toga and a farmer's hat, standing with his bronze scythe in a field of wheat.
"Triptolemus Farming University!" he announced proudly. "In just six weeks, you can get your bachelor's degree in the exciting and vibrant career of the future – farming!"
Jasper felt a bead of sweat trickle down his cheek. He didn't care about this crazy god or his snake-powered chariot or his online degree program. But Eliana was turning greener by the moment. Nico was a corn plant. And he was alone.
"Look," he said. "We did bring you the almanac. And Nico is really nice. He's not like those other children of Hades you've met. Plus Eliana isn't a child of Hades she's the daughter of Apollo. So if there's any way –"
Trip snarled his nose at the word Apollo. I guess he didn't like that he had a snake hater in his home.
"I see where you're going!" Trip snapped his fingers. "Uh ... you do?"
"Absolutely! If I cure your friend Eliana and return the other one, Nicholas –"
"Nico."
"– if I return him to normal ..."
Jasper hesitated. "Yes?"
"Then, in exchange, you stay with me and take up farming! A child of Mars as my apprentice? It's perfect! What a spokesman you'll be. We can beat swords into plough shares and have so much fun!"
"Actually ..." Jasper tried frantically to come up with a plan.
If he declined Trip's offer, Jasper figured he would offend the guy and end up as sorghum or wheat or some other cash crop.
If it was the only way to save Eliana, then, sure, he could agree to Trip's demands and become a farmer. But that couldn't be the only way. Jasper refused to believe he'd been chosen by the Fates to go on this quest just so he could take online courses in turnip cultivation.
Jasper's eyes wandered to the broken chariot. "I have a better offer," he blurted out. "I can fix that."
Trip's smile melted. "Fix ... my chariot?"
Jasper wanted to kick himself. What was he thinking? He wasn't Leo. He couldn't fix a magical chariot!
But something told him it was his only chance. That chariot was the one thing Triptolemus might really want.
"I'll go find a way to fix the chariot," he said. "In return, you fix Nico and Eliana. Let us go in peace. And – and give us whatever aid you can to defeat Gaia's forces."
Triptolemus laughed. "What makes you think I can aid you with that?"
"Hecate told us so," Jasper said. "She sent us here."
The color drained from Trip's face. "Hecate?"
Triptolemus and Hecate were both friends of Demeter, maybe that would convince Trip to help.
"The goddess guided us to your almanac in Bologna," Jasper said. "She wanted us to return it to you, because ... well, she must've known you had some knowledge that would help us get through the House of Hades in Epirus."
Trip nodded slowly. "Yes. I see. I know why Hecate sent you to me. Very well, son of Mars. Go find a way to fix my chariot. If you succeed, I will do all you ask. If not –"
"I know," Jasper grumbled. "My friends die."
"Yes," Trip said cheerfully. "And you'll make a lovely patch of sorghum!"