The goddess raised her spear.
"Hold that thought!" I quickly tried to come up with a plan. "You haven't seen my best trick yet. I have a weapon guaranteed to win any contest!"
Nike hesitated. "What weapon? What do you mean?"
I looked around and saw Leo's Archimedes sphere sitting on the ground not to far from me. He must've dropped it while running. I quickly grabbed it.
I grimaced remembering this was the one he'd spent a whole thirty seconds modifying before we entered the stadium.
"How many laurel wreaths have you got? Because I'm gonna win them all." I fiddled with dials, hoping I remembered what Leo told me.
"Behold!" I clicked the final dial. The sphere opened. One side elongated into a gun handle. The other side unfolded into a miniature radar dish made of Celestial bronze mirrors.
Nike frowned. "What is that supposed to be?"
"Great question!" I had absolutely no clue. "Obviously it's a death ray!" I was ashamed that that was my only idea. "Now give me all the prizes."
"Those things don't work!" Nike yelled. "They proved it on television! Besides, I'm an immortal goddess. You can't destroy me!"
"Watch closely," I said. "Are you watching?"
Nike could've zapped me into a grease spot or speared me like a cheese wedge, but her curiosity got the best of her. She stared straight into the dish. I had only one good idea. I pretended to click a button but instead I summoned sunlight. I had been practicing lately and had gotten quite good at it.
The blazing beam of light shined in her eyes and left her seeing spots.
"Gah!" The goddess staggered. She dropped her spear and clutched at her eyes. "I'm blind! I'm blind!"
I clicked the button Leo told me to. It collapsed back into a sphere and began to hum. I counted silently to three, then tossed the sphere at the goddess's feet.
FOOM! Metal filaments shot upward, wrapping Nike in a bronze net. She wailed, falling sideways as the net constricted, forcing her two forms – Greek and Roman – into a quivering, out-of-focus whole.
"Trickery!" Her doubled voices buzzed like muffled alarm clocks. "Your death ray did not even kill me!"
"I don't need to kill you," I said. "I vanquished you just fine."
"I will simply change form!" she cried. "I will rip apart your silly net! I will destroy you!"
"Yeah, see, you can't." I hoped I was right. "That's high-quality Celestial bronze netting, and Leo's a son of Hephaestus. He's kind of an expert on catching goddesses in nets."
"No. Nooooo!"
I left her thrashing and cursing, and went to check on my friends. Leo looked all right, just sore and bruised. Jasper had propped Hazel up and was feeding her ambrosia. The cut on her leg had stopped bleeding, though her jeans were pretty much ruined.
"I'm okay," she said. "Just too much magic."
"You were awesome, Levesque." Leo did his best Hazel imitation: "Popcorn! Our fatal weakness!"
She smiled wanly. Together the four of us walked over to Nike, who was still writhing and flapping her wings in the net like a golden chicken.
"What do we do with her?" Jasper asked.
"Take her aboard the Argo II," Leo said. "Chuck her in one of the horse stalls."
Hazel's eyes widened. "You're going to keep the goddess of victory in the stable?"
"Why not? Once we sort things out between Greeks and Romans, the gods should go back to their normal selves. Then we can free her and she can ... you know ... grant us victory."
"Grant you victory?" the goddess cried. "Never! You will suffer for this outrage! Your blood shall be spilled! One of you here – one of you four – is fated to die battling Gaia!"
My intestines tied themselves into a slipknot. "How do you know that?"
"I can foresee victories!" Nike yelled. "You will have no success without death! Release me and fight each other! It is better you die here than face what is to come!"
Hazel stuck the point of her spatha under Nike's chin. "Explain." Her voice was harder than I had ever heard. "Which of us will die? How do we stop it?"
"Ah, child of Pluto! Your magic helped you cheat in this contest, but you cannot cheat destiny. One of you will die. One of you must die!"
"No," Hazel insisted. "There's another way. There is always another path."
"Hecate taught you this?" Nike laughed. "You would hope for the physician's cure, perhaps? But that is impossible. Too much stands in your way: the poison of Pylos, the chained god's heartbeat in Sparta, the curse of Delos! No, you cannot cheat death."
Jasper knelt. He gathered up the net under Nike's chin and raised her face to his. "What are you talking about? How do we find this cure?"
"I will not help you,' Nike growled. "I will curse you with my power, net or no!"
She began to mutter in Ancient Greek
Jasper looked up, scowling. "Can she really cast magic through this net?"
"Heck if I know," Leo said. Jasper let go of the goddess.
Leo took off one of his shoes, peeled off his sock and stuffed it in the goddess's mouth.
"Dude," I said, "that is disgusting."
"Mpppphhh!" Nike complained. "Mppppphhh!"
"Leo," Jasper said grimly, "you got duct tape?"
"Never leave home without it." He fished a roll from his tool belt, and in no time Jasper had wrapped it around Nike's head, securing the gag in her mouth.
"Well, it's not a laurel wreath," Jasper said, "but it's a new kind of victory circle: the gag of duct tape."
"Herman," Leo said, "you got style."
Nike thrashed and grunted until I nudged her with my show. "Hey, shut up. You behave or we'll get Arion back here and let him nibble your wings. He loves gold."
Nike shrieked once, then became still and quiet.
"So ..." Hazel sounded a little nervous. "We have one tied-up goddess. Now what?"
Jasper folded his arms. "We go looking for this physician's cure ... whatever that is. Because,personally, I like cheating death."
Leo grinned. "Poison in Pylos? A chained god's heartbeat in Sparta? A curse in Delos? Oh, yeah. This is gonna be fun!"
***
I couldn't believe how hard it was to find deadly poison. All morning Jasper and I had scoured the port of Pylos. Jasper had thought my knowledge of medicines and poisons would help find the stupid thing but my bow was more in demand.
So far, we'd slain a Laistrygonian ogre in the bakery, battled a giant warthog in the public square and defeated a flock of Stymphalian birds with my arrows.
I was glad for the work. It kept me from dwelling on the absence of my dreams. I actually missed my visions. I never thought I would say that but I missed seeing the future. Especially now that everyone knew that someone would die.
Jasper had asked me already if it would be Jason but I was unsure. The future could change but death cannot. Only the time could. The death I saw for him could've changed, he could die later or early. I just knew he would.
Around one in the afternoon, I finally got some information. I spoke with an Ancient Greek ghost in a Laundromat (on a one-to-ten scale for weird conversations, definitely an eleven) and got directions to an ancient stronghold where the shape-shifting descendants of Periclymenus supposedly hung out.
After trudging across the island in the afternoon heat, we found the cave perched halfway up a beach side cliff. Jasper insisted that I wait for him at the bottom while he checked it out.
I wasn't happy about that, but I stood obediently on the beach, squinting up at the cave entrance and hoping I hadn't guided Jasper into a death trap.
Behind me, a stretch of white sand hugged the foot of the hills. Sunbathers sprawled on blankets. Little kids splashed in the waves. The blue sea glittered invitingly.
I'd always loved going to the beach as a kid. I even promised Jasper that I'd teach him to surf after the quest (seriously how could a guy from Cali not know how to surf?).
I glanced up at the cliff's summit. The ruins of an old castle clung to the ridge. I wasn't sure if that was part of the shape-changers' hideout or not. Nothing moved on the parapets. The entrance of the cave sat about seventy feet down the cliff face – a circle of black in the chalky yellow rock like the hole of a giant pencil sharpener.
Nestor's Cave, the Laundromat ghost had called it. Supposedly the ancient king of Pylos had stashed his treasure there in times of crisis. The ghost also claimed that Hermes had once hidden the stolen cattle of Apollo in that cave.
Cows.
I shuddered. My experiences with Hera the cow queen, the katoblepones of Venice and the pictures of creepy death cows in the House of Hades had really made me dislike cows.
I was just starting to think, Jasper's been gone too long – when he appeared at the cave entrance. Next to him stood a tall grey-haired man in a white linen suit and a pale yellow tie. The older man pressed a small shiny object – like a stone or a piece of glass – into Jasper's hands. He and Jasper exchanged a few words. Jasper nodded gravely. Then the man turned into a seagull and flew away.Jasper picked his way down the trail until he reached me.
"I found them," he said.
"I noticed. You okay?"
He stared at the seagull as it flew towards the horizon.
His gaze even more intense. His Roman badges – mural crown, centurion, praetor – glittered on his shirt collar. On his forearm, the SPQR tattoo with the crossed spears of Mars stood out darkly in the full sunlight.
He looked good in his new outfit. The giant warthog had slimed his old clothes pretty badly, so I had taken him for some emergency shopping in Pylos. Now he wore new black jeans, soft leather boots and a dark red Henley shirt that fitted him snugly.
"Jasper?" I prompted gently.
"Yeah, sorry." He focused on her. "I found it."
He opened his hand. In his palm gleamed a metallic vial no bigger than an eyedropper.
I resisted the urge to step away. "Is that the poison?"
Jasper nodded. "They call it Pylosian mint. Apparently the plant sprang from the blood of a nymph who died on a mountain near here, back in ancient times. I didn't ask for details."
The vial was so tiny ... I worried there wouldn't be enough. Normally I didn't wish for more deadly poison. Nor was I sure how it would help us make the so-called physician's cure that Nike had mentioned. But, if the cure could really cheat death...
Jasper rolled the vial around in his palm. "I wish Vitellius Reticulus were here."
I wasn't sure I'd heard him right. "Ridiculous who?"
A smile flickered across his mouth. "Gaius Vitellius Reticulus, although we did call him Ridiculous sometimes. He was one of the Lares of the Fifth Cohort. Kind of a goofball, but he was the son of Aesculapius, the healing god. If anybody knew about this physician's cure ... he might."
"A healing god would be nice," I mused. "Better than having a screaming, tied-up victory goddess on board."
"Hey, you're lucky. My cabin is closest to the stables. I can hear her yelling all night: FIRST PLACE OR DEATH! AN A-MINUS IS A FAILING GRADE! Leo really needs to design a gag that's better than his old sock."
I shuddered. She still didn't understand why it had been a good idea to take the goddess captive. The sooner they got rid of Nike, the better.
"Almost wish my dad was here. He would know what it is." I sighed. Apollo's knowledge of medicine didn't include this physician's cure. It was apparently secret knowledge for him to know only.
Jasper wrapped a comforting arm around me.
"Hey, we'll figure out what's going on with him and don't beat yourself up about this physician's cure. You know practically every other cure in the world but that one." I gave him a half smile.
"Yeah, I guess so.." I decided to change the subject. "Did you get any advice about what comes next? This chained god we're supposed to find in Sparta?"
Jasper's expression darkened. "Yeah. I'm afraid they had some thoughts on that. Let's get back to the ship and I'll tell you about it."
We headed back to the Argo II. The crew gathered for a hurried meeting on the foredeck – mostly because Percy was keeping an eye on a giant red sea serpent swimming off the port side.
"That thing is really red," Percy muttered. "I wonder if it's cherry-flavored."
"Why don't you swim over and find out?" Annabeth asked.
"How about no."
"Anyway," Jasper said, "according to my Pylos cousins, the chained god we're looking for in Sparta is my dad ... uh, I mean Ares, not Mars. Apparently the Spartans kept a statue of him chained up in their city so the spirit of war would never leave them."
"Oo-kay," Leo said. "The Spartans were freaks. Of course, we've got Victory tied up downstairs,so I guess we can't talk."
Jason leaned against the forward ballista. "On to Sparta, then. But how does a chained god's heartbeat help us find a cure for dying?"
From the tightness in his face, I could tell he was still in pain.
"What about your visions Piper?" Hazel asked. "You told me you'd seen some stuff in your dagger blade?"
"Uh ... right." Piper reluctantly unsheathed Katoptris. I felt a pang of jealousy. Ever since my visions stopped Piper's dagger had been going crazy. Visions were my thing and I felt like an important part of me had just been given away because my dad was messed up.
"I don't see anything right now. But one vision kept popping up. Annabeth and I are exploring some ruins –"
"Ruins!" Leo rubbed his hands. "Now we're talking. How many ruins can there be in Greece?"
"Quiet, Leo," Annabeth scolded. "Piper, do you think it was Sparta?"
"Maybe," Piper said. "Anyway ... suddenly we're in this dark place like a cave. We're staring at this bronze warrior statue. In the vision I touch the statue's face and flames start swirling around us. That's all I saw."
"Flames." Frank scowled. "I don't like that vision."
"Me neither." Percy kept one eye on the red sea serpent, which was still slithering through the waves about a hundred yards to port. "If the statue engulfs people in fire, we should send Leo or Eliana."
"I love you too, man."
"You know what I mean. You're both immune. Or, heck, give me some of those nice water grenades and I'll go. Ares and I have tangled before."
Annabeth stared at the coastline of Pylos, now retreating in the distance. "If Piper saw the two of us going after the statue, then that's who should go. We'll be all right. There's always a way to survive."
"Not always," Hazel warned.
Since she was the only one in the group who had actually died and come back to life, her observation sort of killed the mood.
Jasper held out the vial of Pylosian mint. "What about this stuff? After the House of Hades, I kind of hoped we were done drinking poison."
"Store it securely in the hold," Annabeth said. "For now, that's all we can do. Once we figure out this chained god situation, we'll head to the island of Delos."
"The curse of Delos," Hazel remembered. "That sounds fun."
"Hopefully Apollo will be there," Annabeth said. "Delos was his home island. He's the god of medicine. He should be able to advise us." She looked at me. "Do you think he'll listen to you?"
"I don't know." I said unsure. "I've talked to him less than twenty minutes in my entire life. And he looked pretty torn between his Roman and Greek parts when he spoke to me."
Off the port bow, the cherry-flavored sea serpent spewed steam.
"Yeah, it's definitely checking us out," Percy decided. "Maybe we should take to the air for a while."
"Airborne it is!" Leo said. "Festus, do the honors!"
The bronze dragon figurehead creaked and clacked. The ship's engine hummed. The oars lifted, expanding into aerial blades with a sound like ninety umbrellas opening at once, and the Argo II rose into the sky.
"We should reach Sparta by morning," Leo announced. "And remember to come by the mess hall tonight, folks, 'cause Chef Leo is making his famous three-alarm tofu tacos!"
***
Ever since Annabeth and Piper had gotten back from Sparta, Jason had collapsed. He hadn't been out of bed in a day and a half.
Somehow he made it above deck.
But I wished he'd stayed down below.
A wave the size of a skyscraper crashed over the forward deck, washing the front crossbows and half the port railing out to sea. The sails were ripped to shreds. Lightning flashed all around, hitting the sea like spotlights. Horizontal rain blasted my face. The clouds were so dark he honestly couldn't tell if it was day or night.
The crew was doing what we could ... which wasn't much.
Leo had lashed himself to the console with a bungee cord harness. That might have seemed like a good idea when he rigged it up, but every time a wave hit he was washed away, then smacked back into his control board like a human paddleball.
Piper and Annabeth were trying to save the rigging. Since Sparta they'd become quite a team – able to work together without even talking, which was just as well, since they couldn't have heard each other over the storm.
Frank – at least I assumed it was Frank – had turned into a gorilla. He was swinging upside down off the starboard rail, using his massive strength and his flexible feet to hang on while he untangled some broken oars. Hazel had been too sea sick to even make it above deck.
Jasper and I were running around trying to keep the ship from falling apart.
Only Percy was having any luck. He stood by the center mast, his hands extended like he was on a tightrope. Every time the ship tilted, he pushed in the opposite direction and the hull stabilized. He summoned giant fists of water from the ocean to slam into the larger waves before they could reach the deck, so it looked like the ocean was hitting itself repeatedly in the face.With the storm as bad as it was, the ship would've already capsized or been smashed to bits if Percy wasn't on the job.
Jason staggered towards the mast. Leo yelled something – probably Go downstairs! – but Jason only waved back. He made it to Percy's side and grabbed his shoulder.
Percy nodded like 'sup. He didn't look shocked, or demand that Jason go back to sickbay, which Jason seemed to appreciate.
I was too busy clinging to the railing so I wouldn't be thrown over board to tell him he was in no shape to be up here.
Jason staggered to the railing and looked up at the storm. Winds raged. Clouds churned. He raised his arm and summoned a lasso of wind. He lashed out with his wind rope, searching for strongest, most ornery ventus in the storm.
He lassoed a nasty patch of storm cloud and pulled it in. "You're serving me today." Howling in protest, the ventus encircled him.
Jason levitated off the deck, encased in his own miniature tornado. Spinning like a corkscrew, he plunged into the water.
Percy dived after him.
Which left us defenseless. More waves crashed into the ship than before. It was a wonder how it hadn't fallen apart yet.
Whatever Jason and Percy were fighting down there was not making it easy to get to Delos.
Once Jason and Percy returned to the ship they had explained how they had met the goddess of violent sea storms and defeated a giant.
The Argo II then limped through the Aegean, too damaged to fly, too slow to outrun monsters. We fought hungry sea serpents about every hour. We attracted schools of curious fish. At one point they got stuck on a rock, and Percy and Jason had to get out and push.
The wheezing sound of the engine nearly made Leo cry. Over the course of three long days, he finally got the ship more or less back to working order just as we made port at the island of Mykonos, which probably meant it was time for us to get bashed to pieces again.
After Percy and Annabeth scouted. The whole crew sat on deck, without a storm or a monster attack to worry about for the first time in days, and ate ice cream. Well, except for Frank, who was lactose intolerant. He got an apple.
The day was hot and windy. The sea glittered with chop, but Leo had fixed the stabilizers well enough that Hazel didn't look too seasick.
Curving off to our starboard side was the town of Mykonos – a collection of white stucco buildings with blue roofs, blue windows and blue doors.
"We saw these pelicans walking around town," Percy reported. "Like, just going through the shops, stopping at the bars."
Hazel frowned. "Monsters in disguise?"
"No," Annabeth said, laughing, "just regular old pelicans. They're the town mascots or something. And there's a "Little Italy" section of town. That's why the gelato is so good."
"Europe is messed up." Leo shook his head. "First we go to Rome for Spanish steps. Then we go to Greece for Italian ice cream."
I couldn't argue with the gelato. I ate my double vanilla and pretended we were on vacation. Which made me wish the war was over and everybody was alive ... which made me sad. It was 30 July. Less than forty-eight hours until G-Day, when Gaia, would awaken in all her dirt-faced glory.
The strange thing was, the closer they got to 1 August, the more upbeat my friends acted. Or maybe upbeat wasn't the right word. They seemed to be pulling together for the final lap – aware that the next two days would make or break us. There was no point moping around when you faced imminent death. The end of the world made gelato taste a lot better.
Piper set down her ice-cream cup. "So, the island of Delos is right across the harbor. Artemis and Apollo's home turf. Who's going?"
"Me," Leo said immediately.
Everybody stared at him.
"What?" Leo demanded. "I'm diplomatic and stuff. Jasper and Eliana volunteered to back me up."
"We did?" I said. "I mean ... sure we did."
Hazel's gold eyes flashed in the sunlight. "Leo, did you have a dream about this or something?"
"Yes," Leo blurted. "Well ... no. Not exactly. But ... you got to trust me on this, guys. I need to talk to Apollo and Artemis. I've got an idea I need to bounce off them."
Annabeth frowned. She looked like she might object, but Jason spoke up.
"If Leo has an idea," he said, "we need to trust him."
"Thanks, man."
"Besides if anything goes wrong Eliana will be there. I'm sure they'll listen to her." Jason continued.
Percy shrugged. "Okay. But a word of advice: when you see Apollo, don't mention haiku."
Hazel knitted her eyebrows. "Why not? Isn't he the god of poetry?"
"Just trust me."
"Got it." Leo rose to his feet. "And, guys, if they have a souvenir shop on Delos, I'm totally bringing you back some Apollo and Artemis bobbleheads!"