At sixteen, most kids would stress about parallel parking tests, getting a driver's licence and affording a car.
I stressed about controlling a team of fiery horses with wind ropes.
Jason had finally convinced the lord of the South Wind to help us fly the Argo II. He had given us venti to use to fly the ship. The heat produced by these venti could seriously injure or even kill a normal demigod.
But not a demigod who could automatically heal.
So here I was stuck with the task of flying these venti. But I accepted the job nonetheless. I had felt like I had been pretty useless on the quest so far. Everyone else was accomplishing these great things and defeating immortal beings while I was just kinda there. I was hoping this would make up for some of my failure.
After making sure my friends were aboard and safely below deck, I lashed the venti to the prow of the Argo II (which Festus was not happy about), straddled the figurehead and yelled, "Giddyup!"
The venti tore across the waves. They weren't quite as fast as Hazel's horse, Arion, but they had a lot more heat. They kicked up a rooster tail of steam that made it almost impossible for me to see where we were going. The ship shot out of the bay. In no time Africa was a hazy line on the horizon behind me.
Maintaining the ropes took all of my concentration. The horses strained to break free. Only my willpower kept them in check.
Malta, I ordered. Straight to Malta.
By the time land finally appeared in the distance – a hilly island carpeted with low stone buildings –I was soaked in sweat. My arms felt rubbery, like I'd been holding a barbell straight out in front of me.
I hoped we'd reached the right place, because I couldn't keep the horses together any longer. I released the reins. The venti scattered into particles of sand and steam.
Exhausted, I climbed down from the prow. I leaned against Festus's neck. The dragon turned and gave me a chin hug.
"Thanks." I said, out of breath. "Rough day, huh?"
Behind me, the deck boards creaked.
"Eliana?" Jasper called. "Oh, gods, your arms ..."
I hadn't noticed, but my skin was dotted with blisters.
"I'll be fine," I said waving off his concern. Sure enough my skin began to heal slowly. Jasper fed me some ambrosia.
"Thanks, War Boy," I said as I felt my strength return. "How long was I –?"
"About six hours."
No wonder I felt sore and hungry. "The others?"
"All fine. Tired of being cooped up. Should I tell them it's safe to come above deck?"
I licked my dry lips. Despite the ambrosia, I felt shaky. I didn't want to others to see melike this.
"Give me a second," I said. "... catch my breath."
Jasper leaned next to me. He started to stare.
"What?"
"Nothing," He said as he continued to stare.
I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, what is it?
He gave a small smile. "I was just admiring how pretty you look in the sun."
"Yeah, well I'm glistening because of sweat."
"I'm serious." He said standing up straighter, "We're lucky to have you. I'm lucky to have you."
"Yeah you are." I said smirking. "Now, how do we get this ship to the docks?"
Jasper frowned across the water. We were still half a mile from the island. No one had no idea whether they could get the engines working, or the sails ...
Fortunately, Festus had been listening. He faced front and blew a plume of fire. The ship's engine clattered and hummed. It sounded like a massive bike with a busted chain – but we lurched forward.
Slowly, the Argo II headed towards the shore.
"Good dragon." I patted Festus's neck.
The dragon's ruby eyes glinted as if he was pleased with himself.
"He seems different since Piper woke him," Jasper said. "More ... alive."
"The way he should be." I smiled. "I guess once in a while we all need a wake-up call from somebody who loves us."
Jasper gazed down at me. He looked like he was imagining out future together at Camp Half-Blood, once the war was over – assuming we lived, assuming there was still a camp left to return to.
As the island got closer, I saw docks bristling with sails. From the rocky shoreline rosef ortress-like seawalls – fifty or sixty feet tall. Above that sprawled a medieval-looking city of church spires, domes and tightly wedged buildings, all made of the same golden stone. From where I stood, it looked as if the city covered every inch of the island.
I scanned the boats in the harbor. A hundred yards ahead, tied to the end of the longest dock, was a makeshift raft with a simple mast and a square canvas sail. On the back, the rudder was wired to some sort of machine. Even from this distance, I could see the glint of Celestial bronze.
I grinned. Only one demigod would make a boat like that, and he'd moored it as far out in the harbor as possible, where the Argo II couldn't fail to spot it.
"Get the others," I told Jasper. "Leo is here."
We found Leo at the top of the city fortifications. He was sitting at an open-air café, overlooking the sea, drinking a cup of coffee and dressed in ... wow. Time warp. Leo's outfit was identical to the one he'd worn the day they first arrived at Camp Half-Blood – jeans, a white shirt and an old army jacket. Except that jacket had burned up months ago.
Piper nearly knocked him out of his chair with a hug. "Leo! Gods, where have you been?"
"Valdez!" Coach Hedge grinned. Then he seemed to remember he had a reputation to protect and he forced a scowl. "You ever disappear like that again, you little punk, I'll knock you into next month!"
Frank patted Leo on the back so hard it made him wince. Even Nico shook his hand.
Hazel kissed Leo on the cheek. "We thought you were dead!"
Leo mustered a faint smile. "Hey, guys. Nah, nah, I'm good."
I could tell he wasn't good. Leo wouldn't meet our eyes. His hands were perfectly still on the table. Leo's hands were never still. All the nervous energy had drained right out of him, replaced by a kind of wistful sadness.
I wondered why his expression seemed familiar. Then he realized Nico di Angelo had looked the same way after facing Cupid in the ruins of Salona.
Leo was heartsick.
As the others grabbed chairs from the nearby tables, I placed a hand on Leo's shoulder
"Hey," I whispered softly. "What happened?"
Leo's eyes swept around the group. The message was clear: Not here. Not in front of everyone.
"I got marooned," Leo said. "Long story. How about you guys? What happened with Khione?"
Coach Hedge snorted. "What happened? Piper happened! I'm telling you, this girl has skills!"
"Coach ..." Piper protested.
Hedge began retelling the story, but in his version Piper was a kung fu assassin and there were a lot more Boreads.
As the coach talked, I studied Leo with concern. This café had a perfect view of the harbor.
Leo must have seen the Argo II sail in. Yet he'd sat here drinking coffee – which he didn't even like – waiting for us to find him. That wasn't like Leo at all. The ship was the most important thing in his life. When he saw it coming to rescue him, Leo should have run down to the docks, whooping at the top of his lungs.
Coach Hedge was just describing how Piper had defeated Khione with a roundhouse kick when Piper interrupted.
"Coach!" she said. "It didn't happen like that at all. I couldn't have done anything without Festus."
Leo raised his eyebrows. "But Festus was deactivated."
"Um, about that," Piper said. "I sort of woke him up."
Piper explained her version of events – how she'd rebooted the metal dragon with charmspeak.
Leo tapped his fingers on the table, like some of his old energy was coming back.
"Shouldn't be possible," he murmured. "Unless the upgrades let him respond to voice commands. But if he's permanently activated, that means the navigation system and the crystal ..."
"Crystal?"Jason asked.
Leo flinched. "Um, nothing. Anyway, what happened after the wind bomb went off?"
Hazel took up the story. A waitress came over and offered them menus. In no time we were chowing down on sandwiches and sodas, enjoying the sunny day almost like a group of regular teenagers.
Frank grabbed a tourist brochure stuck under the napkin dispenser. He began to read it. Piper patted Leo's arm, like she couldn't believe he was really here. Nico stood at the edge of the group, eyeing the passing pedestrians as if they might be enemies. Coach Hedge munched on the salt and pepper shakers. Jasper somehow made drinking soda look cool.
Despite the happy reunion, everybody seemed more subdued than usual – like they were picking up on Leo's mood. I had never really considered how important Leo's sense of humor was to the group. Even when things were super serious, we could always depend on Leo to lighten things up.
Now, it felt like the whole team had dropped anchor.
"So then Eliana steered the venti,' Hazel finished. "And here we are."
Leo whistled. "Hot-air horses? Dang, Eliana. So, basically, you held a bunch of gas together all the way to Malta and then you let it loose."
I frowned. "It doesn't sound cool when you put it that way."
"Yeah, well. I'm an expert on hot air. I'm still wondering, why Malta? I just kind of ended up hereon the raft, but was that a random thing, or –"
"Maybe because of this." Frank tapped his brochure. "Says here Malta was where Calypso lived."
A pint of blood drained from Leo's face. "W-what, now?"
Frank shrugged. "According to this, her original home was an island called Gozo just north of here. Calypso's a Greek myth thingie, right?"
"Ah, a Greek myth thingie!" Coach Hedge rubbed his hands together. "Maybe we get to fight her!Do we get to fight her? 'Cause I'm ready."
"No," Leo murmured. "No, we don't have to fight her, Coach."
Piper frowned. "Leo, what's wrong? You look –"
"Nothing's wrong!" Leo shot to his feet. "Hey, we should get going. We've got work to do!"
"But ... where did you go?" Hazel asked. "Where did you get those clothes? How –"
"Jeez, ladies!" Leo said. "I appreciate the concern, but I don't need two extra moms!"
Piper smiled uncertainly. "Okay, but –"
"Ships to fix!" Leo said. "Festus to check! Earth goddesses to punch in the face! What are we waiting for? Leo's back!"
He spread his arms and grinned.
He was making a brave attempt, but I could see the sadness lingering in his eyes. Something had happened to him ... something to do with Calypso.
I tried to remember her legend. She the daughter of the Titan Atlas and I thought I remembered her being a sorceress of some sort... But, if Leo had escaped from an evil sorceress's lair, why did he seem so sad? I would have to talk to him later, make sure my friend was okay. For now Leo clearly didn't want to be interrogated.
Jason got up and clapped him on the shoulder. "Leo's right. We should get going."
Everybody took the cue. They started wrapping up their food and finishing their drinks.
Suddenly, Hazel gasped. "Guys ..."
She pointed to the northeast horizon. At first, I saw nothing but the sea. Then a streak of darkness shot into the air like black lightning – as if pure night had torn through the daytime.
"I don't see anything," Coach Hedge grumbled.
"Me neither," Piper said.
I scanned my friends' faces. Most of them just looked confused. Nico was the only other one who seemed to have noticed the black lightning.
"That can't be ..." Nico muttered. "Greece is still hundreds of miles away."
The darkness flashed again, momentarily leaching the color from the horizon.
"You think it's Epirus?" My whole body shivered.
Nico nodded. "The House of Hades is open for business."
A few seconds later, a rumbling sound washed over them like distant artillery.
"It's begun," Hazel said.
"What has?" Jasper asked.
When the next flash happened, Hazel's gold eyes darkened like foil in fire.
"Gaia's final push," she said. "The Doors of Death are working overtime. Her forces are entering the mortal world en masse."
"We'll never make it," Nico said. "By the time we arrive, there'll be too many monsters to fight."
Jason set his jaw. "We'll defeat them. And we'll make it there fast. We've got Leo back. He'll give us the speed we need."
He turned to his friend. "Or is that just hot air?"
Leo managed a crooked grin. His eyes seemed to say: Thanks.
"Time to fly, boys and girls," he said. "Uncle Leo's still got a few tricks up his sleeves!"
***
The only welcoming committee into Greece was a flock of wild, hungry harpies who attacked the ship. I felt kind of bad as I shot them down with my bow. I kept thinking of Ella, Frank and Hazel's freakishly smart harpy friend from Portland. But these harpies weren't Ella. They gladly would have chewed my face off. So I blasted them into clouds of dust and feathers.
The Greek landscape below was just as inhospitable. The hills were strewn with boulders and stunted cedars, all shimmering in the hazy air. The sun beat down as if trying to hammer the countryside into a Celestial bronze shield.
Sweat trickled down my neck. After getting frozen I thought I would never feel warmth again, and then after riding the venti I thought I would never feel any hotter. I was wrong. I couldn't imagine how hot the others were. As a child of Apollo I had some immunity to sun rays but they didn't.
"Hot and steamy!" Leo grinned at the helm. "Makes me homesick for Houston! What do you say,Hazel? All we need now are some giant mosquitoes, and it'll feel just like the Gulf Coast!"
"Thanks a lot, Leo," Hazel grumbled. "We'll probably get attacked by Ancient Greek mosquito monsters now."
I studied the two of them, quietly marveling at how the tension between them had disappeared.Whatever had happened to Leo during his five days of exile, it had changed him. He still joked around, but I sensed something different about him – like a ship with a new keel. Maybe you couldn't see the keel, but you could tell it was there by the way the ship cut through the waves.
Leo didn't seem so intent on teasing Frank. He chatted more easily with Hazel – not stealing those wistful, mooning glances that had always had made Frank uncomfortable.
"What's up with those two?" Jasper asked me quietly, eyeing them as well.
"He met someone." I said.
Jasper was incredulous. "How? Where? How could you possibly know?"
I shrugged. "I just know."
"There!" Nico's said. As usual, di Angelo was perched atop the foremast. He pointed towards a glittering green river snaking through the hills a kilometer away. "Maneuver us that way. We're close to the temple. Very close."
As if to prove his point, black lightning ripped through the sky, leaving dark spots before my eyes and making the hairs on my arms stand up.
Jason strapped on his sword belt. "Everyone, arm yourself. Leo, get us close, but don't land – no more contact with the ground than necessary. Piper, Hazel, get the mooring ropes."
"On it!" Piper said.
"Frank," Jason called, 'get below and find Coach Hedge.'
"Yep!"
"Eliana, Jasper, get ready for any attacks."
The ship headed forward and we found the source of the dark lightning.
The Argo II hovered directly over the river. A few hundred meters away at the top of the nearest hill stood a cluster of ruins. They didn't look like much – just some crumbling walls encircling the limestone shells of a few buildings – but, from somewhere within the ruins, tendrils of black ether curled into the sky, like a smoky squid peeking from its cave. As I watched, a bolt of dark energy ripped through the air, rocking the ship and sending a cold shock wave across the landscape.
"The Necromanteion," Nico said. "The House of Hades."
I steadied myself at the rail. I supposed it was too late to suggest turning back. I was starting to feel nostalgic about the monsters we'd fought in on the way. Heck, getting chased by poison cows through Venice had been more appealing than this place.
Piper hugged her arms. "I feel vulnerable floating up here like this. Couldn't we set down in the river?"
"I wouldn't," Hazel said. "That's the River Acheron."
Jason squinted in the sunlight. "I thought the Acheron was in the Underworld."
"It is," Hazel said. "But its headwaters are in the mortal world. That river below us? Eventually it flows underground, straight into the realm of Pluto – er, Hades. Landing a demigod ship on those waters –"
"Yeah, let's stay up here," Leo decided. "I don't want any zombie water on my hull."
Half a kilometer downstream, some fishing boats were puttering along. I guess they didn't know or care about the history of this river. Must be nice, being a regular mortal.
Next to me, Nico di Angelo raised the scepter of Diocletian. Its orb glowed with purple light, as if in sympathy with the dark storm. Roman relic or not, the scepter troubled me. If it really had the power to summon a legion of the dead ... well, I wasn't sure that was such a great idea.
Jasper had once told me that the children of Mars had a similar ability. Supposedly, he could call on ghostly soldiers from the losing side of any war to serve him. He said he's never had to do it before so he wasn't even sure if he could do it.
"So, uh, Nico ..." I gestured at the scepter. "Have you learned to use that thing?"
"We'll find out." Nico stared at the tendrils of darkness undulating from the ruins. "I don't intend to try until I have to. The Doors of Death are already working overtime bringing in Gaia's monsters. Any more activity raising the dead and the Doors might shatter permanently, leaving a rip in the mortal world that can't be closed."
Coach Hedge grunted. "I hate rips in the world. Let's go bust some monster heads."
"Coach, you should stay on board, cover us with the ballistae." Frank suggested.
Hedge frowned. "Stay behind? Me? I'm your best soldier!"
"We might need air support," Frank said. "Like we did in Rome. You saved our braccae."
It looked as if they were having a secret conversation. His scowl relaxed. Relief showed in his eyes.
"Well ..." he grumbled, "I suppose somebody's got to save your braccae."
Jason clapped the coach on the shoulder. Then he gave Frank an appreciative nod. "So that's settled. Everybody else – let's get to the ruins. Time to crash Gaia's party."