"Well, if you could get us there, too," Jason amended, "that would be great. "
Mellie clapped her hands in excitement. "Oh, he could do that! He often sends helpful winds—"
"Mellie, quiet!" Aeolus snapped. "I have half a mind to fire you for letting these people in under false pretenses. "
Her face paled. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. "
"It wasn't her fault," Jason said. "But about that help …"
Aelous tilted his head as if thinking. Then I realized the wind lord was listening to voices in his earpiece.
"Well … Zeus approves," Aeolus muttered. "He says … he says it would be better if you could avoid saving her until after the weekend, because he has a big party planned—Ow! That's Aphrodite yelling at him, reminding him that the solstice starts at dawn. She says I should help you. And Hephaestus… yes. Hmm. Oooh, Apollo says...ah. Very rare those three agree on anything. Hold on …"
Jason smiled at us. Finally, we were having some good luck. Our godly parents were standing up for us.
Back toward the entrance, I heard a loud belch. Coach Hedge waddled in from the lobby, grass all over his face. Mellie saw him coming across the makeshift floor and caught her breath. "Who is that?"
I stifled a cough. "That? That's just Coach Hedge. Uh, Gleeson Hedge. He's our …" I wasn't sure what to call him: teacher, friend, problem?
"Our guide. "
"He's so goatly," Mellie murmured.
Behind her, Piper poofed out her cheeks, pretending to vomit.
"What's up, guys?" Hedge trotted over. "Wow, nice place. Oh! Sod squares. "
"Coach, you just ate," Jason said. "And we're using the sod as a floor. This is, ah, Mellie—"
"An aura. " Hedge smiled winningly. "Beautiful as a summer breeze. "
Mellie blushed.
"And Aeolus here was just about to help us," Jason said.
"Yes," the wind lord muttered. "It seems so. You'll find Enceladus on Mount Diablo. "
"Devil Mountain?" Leo asked. "That doesn't sound good. "
"I remember that place!" Piper said. "I went there once with my dad. It's just east of San Francisco Bay. "
"The Bay Area again?" The coach shook his head. "Not good. Not good at all. "
"Now …" Aeolus began to smile. "As to getting you there—"
Suddenly his face went slack. He bent over and tapped his earpiece as if it were malfunctioning. When he straightened again, his eyes were wild. Despite the makeup, he looked like an old man—an old, very frightened man. "She hasn't spoke to me for centuries. I can't—yes, yes I understand. "
He swallowed, regarding Jason as if he had suddenly turned into a giant cockroach. "I'm sorry, son of Jupiter. New orders. You all have to die. "
Mellie squeaked. "But—but, sir! Zeus said to help them. Aphrodite, Hephaestus—"
"Mellie!" Aeolus snapped. "Your job is already on the line. Besides, there are some orders that transcend even the wishes of the gods, especially when it comes to the forces of nature. "
"Whose orders?" Jason said. "Zeus will fire you if you don't help us!"
"I doubt it. " Aeolus flicked his wrist, and far below them, a cell door opened in the pit. I could hear storm spirits screaming out of it, spiraling up toward them, howling for blood.
"Even Zeus understands the order of things," Aeolus said. "And if she is waking—by all the gods—she cannot be denied. Good-bye, heroes. I'm terribly sorry, but I'll have to make this quick. I'm back on the air in four minutes. "
Jason summoned his sword. I pulled out my quiver. Coach Hedge pulled out his club. Mellie the aura yelled, "No!"
She dived at our feet just as the storm spirits hit with hurricane force, blasting the floor to pieces, shredding the carpet samples and marble and linoleum into what should've been lethal projectiles, had Mellie's robes not spread out like a shield and absorbed the brunt of the impact. The six of us fell into the pit, and Aeolus screamed above them, "Mellie, you are so fired!"
"Quick," Mellie yelled. "Son of Zeus, do you have any power over the air?"
"A little!"
"Then help me, or you're all dead!" Mellie grabbed Jason's hand, and mine with her other. An electric charge went through my arm. I understood what she needed. We had to control their fall and head for one of the open tunnels. The storm spirits were following us down, closing rapidly, bringing with them a cloud of deadly shrapnel.
Jason grabbed Piper's hand, and I grabbed Leo's. "Group hug!"
Hedge, Leo, and Piper tried to huddle together, hanging on to Jason, me and Mellie as they fell.
"This is NOT GOOD!" Leo yelled.
"Bring it on, gas bags!" Hedge yelled up at the storm spirits. "I'll pulverize you!"
"He's magnificent," Mellie sighed.
"Concentrate?" Jason prompted.
"Right!" she said.
Jason channeled the wind so our fall became more of a tumble into the nearest open chute. Still, we slammed into the tunnel at painful speed and went rolling over each other down a steep vent that was not designed for people. There was no way we could stop.
Mellie's robes billowed around her. All of us clung to her desperately, and we began to slow down, but the storm spirits were screaming into the tunnel behind us.
"Can't—hold—long," Mellie warned. "Stay together! When the winds hit—"
"You're doing great, Mellie," Hedge said. "My own mama was an aura, you know. She couldn't have done better herself. "
"Iris-message me?" Mellie pleaded.
Hedge winked.
"Could you guys plan your date later?" I screamed. "Look!"
Behind us, the tunnel was turning dark. I could feel his ears pop as the pressure built.
"Can't hold them," Mellie warned. "But I'll try to shield you, do you one more favor. "
"Thanks, Mellie," Jason said. "I hope you get a new job. "
She smiled, and then dissolved, wrapping us in a warm gentle breeze. Then the real winds hit, shooting us into the sky so fast, I blacked out.
Riding Arion, Hazel felt powerful, unstoppable, absolutely in control — a perfect combination of horse and human. She wondered if this was what it was like to be a centaur. The boat captains in Seward had warned her it was three hundred nautical miles to the Hubbard Glacier, a hard, dangerous journey, but Arion had no trouble. He raced over the water at the speed of sound, heating the air around them so that Hazel didn't even feel the cold. On foot, she never would have felt so brave. On horseback, she couldn't wait to charge into battle. Frank and Percy didn't look so happy. When Hazel glanced back, their teeth were clenched and their eyeballs were bouncing around in their heads. Frank's cheeks jiggled from the g-force. Percy sat in back, hanging on tight, desperately trying not to slip off the horse's rear. Hazel hoped that didn't happen. The way Arion was moving, she might not notice he was gone for fifty or sixty miles. They raced through icy straits, past blue fjords and cliffs with waterfalls spilling into the sea. Arion jumped over a breaching humpback whale and kept galloping, startling a pack of seals off an iceberg. It seemed like only minutes before they zipped into a narrow bay. The water turned the consistency of shaved ice in blue sticky syrup. Arion came to a halt on a frozen turquoise slab. A half a mile away stood Hubbard Glacier. Even Hazel, who'd seen glaciers before, couldn't quite process what she was looking at. Purple snowcapped mountains marched off in either direction, with clouds floating around their middles like fluffy belts. In a massive valley between two of the largest peaks, a ragged wall of ice rose out of the sea, filling the entire gorge. The glacier was blue and white with streaks of black, so that it looked like a hedge of dirty snow left behind on a sidewalk after a snowplow had gone by, only four million times as large. As soon as Arion stopped, Hazel felt the temperature drop. All that ice was sending off waves of cold, turning the bay into the world's largest refrigerator. The eeriest thing was a sound like thunder that rolled across the water. "What is that?" Frank gazed at the clouds above the glacier. "A storm?" "No," Hazel said. "Ice cracking and shifting. Millions of tons of ice." "You mean that thing is breaking up?" Frank asked. As if on cue, a sheet of ice silently calved off the side of the glacier and crashed into the sea, spraying water and frozen shrapnel several stories high. A millisecond later the sound hit them — a BOOM almost as jarring as Arion hitting the sound barrier. "We can't get close to that thing!" Frank said. "We have to," Percy said. "The giant is at the top." Arion nickered. "Jeez, Hazel," Percy said, "tell your horse to watch his language." Hazel tried not to laugh. "What did he say?" "With the cussing removed? He said he can get us to the top." Frank looked incredulous. "I thought the horse couldn't fly!" This time Arion whinnied so angrily, even Hazel could guess he was cursing. "Dude," Percy told the horse, "I've gotten suspended for saying less than that. Hazel, he promises you'll see what he can do as soon as you give the word." "Urn, hold on, then, you guys," Hazel said nervously. "Arion, giddyup!" Arion shot toward the glacier like a runaway rocket, barreling straight across the slush like he wanted to play chicken with the mountain of ice. The air grew colder. The crackling of the ice grew louder. As Arion closed the distance, the glacier loomed so large, Hazel got vertigo just trying to take it all in. The side was riddled with crevices and caves, spiked with jagged ridges like ax blades. Pieces were constantly crumbling off — some no larger than snowballs, some the size of houses. When they were about fifty yards from the base, a thunderclap rattled Hazel's bones, and a curtain of ice that would have covered Camp Jupiter calved away and fell toward them. "Look out!" Frank shouted, which seemed a little unnecessary to Hazel. Arion was way ahead of him. In a burst of speed, he zigzagged through the debris, leaping over chunks of ice and clambering up the face of the glacier. Percy and Frank both cussed like horses and held on desperately while Hazel wrapped her arms around Arion's neck. Somehow, they managed not to fall off as Arion scaled the cliffs, jumping from foothold to foothold with impossible speed and agility. It was like falling down a mountain in reverse. Then it was over. Arion stood proudly at the top of a ridge of ice that loomed over the void. The sea was now three hundred feet below them. Arion whinnied a challenge that echoed off the mountains. Percy didn't translate, but Hazel was pretty sure Arion was calling out to any other horses that might be in the bay: Beat that , ya punks! Then he turned and ran inland across the top of the glacier, leaping a chasm fifty feet across. "There!" Percy pointed. The horse stopped. Ahead of them stood a frozen Roman camp like a giant-sized ghastly replica of Camp Jupiter. The trenches bristled with ice spikes. The snow-brick ramparts glared blinding white. Hanging from the guard towers, banners of frozen blue cloth shimmered in the arctic sun. There was no sign of life.
