It didn't take long for me to start to sweat.
Arion had plunged into that huge, totally unnatural storm funnel carrying poor, dumb, unsuspecting Hazel on his back. It seemed like as soon as they entered into the body of the storm that the torrential clouds worsened tenfold. After ten minutes my mind was running wild with scenarios, most ending with Hazel dying by lightning strike or giant boulder to the face. Regardless, I was driving myself crazy, and I just couldn't stand around the deck wondering when the daughter of Pluto would return. I had to occupy my mind in some other way.
I turned to Leo who was muttering to himself over the Archimedes sphere. He tended to do that a lot recently. "I'm gonna head to the engine room and see what I can do."
He hummed in response, not even once bothering to look up from his prized basketball. My fists clenched tightly before I slowly relaxed my palms at my sides, and I forced myself not to succumb to the ugly gnawing feelings that never seemed to go away as of late.
"Let me know when Hazel gets back," I called over my shoulder.
When, not if. Positive thinking was the only way I would be able to stay sane throughout this ordeal.
So I descended the stairs as quietly as I could in my black Timberland boots, conscious of my sleeping friends as I slipped into the engine room. The Athena Parthenos was so huge that parts of her pushed into different parts of the lower deck. I had to climb over her outstretched hand that reached into the engine room. It was nice and cool inside, and I sighed in relief. I'd been down here a lot the past few days, mostly because it was one of the few quiet areas on the whole warship. Few demigods ventured to this part of the Argo, but I'd found myself escaping here when my thoughts got too dark and muddy to wade through on my own.
All of my paranoia and anxiety seemed to fade away when I was in the engine room, though. This place was practically the heart of the ship, thrumming with sweet fragrant energy. That first deep breath was always the best, calming my pulse and centering me.
Without the blanket of steam, the engine room was a lot less mysterious and a lot more practical. Yesterday, Leo and I had organized the work tables, and I discovered an entire mini forge area stocked with weapons and all the tools necessary to craft new ones. At the time, I did my best to hide my excitement.
Why would a girl who can summon weapons be enthusiastic about a forge, right?
I picked up a simple Celestial Bronze sword, swinging and passing it around casually between my hands before wielding it fiercely. I focused on honing my power, feeling that familiar tingle, that warmth. Then I focused that glowing golden energy from my fingers and willed it to flow into the sword. To my surprise and delight, I could feel the energy travel from my body and into the blade. As the sword absorbed my power, it grew in size but it never seemed to grow heavier or more difficult for me to wield.
For once in my life, I was utterly speechless. The Celestial Bronze blade was now about ten feet long, and it glowed brightly with energy. I swung it around experimentally, crashing against a shelf and knocking things off of a few work tables with the wide arc the weapon created. I couldn't help but chuckle at the small mess I had made due to the sheer size of this sword.
I closed my eyes and focused this time on sapping the energy from the blade and absorbing it back into my body. After the whole tunnel of funk fiasco, I was more than a little concerned that the magic I had within me was finite. I had to be more conscious about how much energy I was using and recycling that energy as efficiently as possible. Thankfully, reabsorbing the magic from the blade back into my body wasn't much more difficult, and soon the sword was back to its normal size in my hands.
Internally, I cheered happily for the discoveries I made about myself and my abilities. I knew that I'd find another way to use my powers! It felt good to be a menace to Gaea once more.
I sheathed the sword on my right hip and grabbed an Imperial Gold dagger to strap to my left thigh. There was a greatsword made from Celestial Bronze and a warhammer of Imperial Gold hanging majestically on a weapon rack that were calling my name, too. Despite wanting to be armed to the teeth, I thought that the others might question me for being equipped with such heavy weapons. I still wasn't ready to admit that my summoning powers had abandoned me.
I just wanted to be able to protect the others.
In Rome, I had royally failed at that task. Percy and Annabeth... my heart clenched each time I thought of them suffering in Tartarus. If only I had been fast enough.
I slapped my hands to my face, hard enough to make my cheeks sting. No tears, I told myself. There's no time for crying and feeling sorry for myself.
I took a deep breath, the sweet scent of magical metals flooding my senses with a wave of calm. Then I set to work, adding my Omega-Blood influence into the Argo II in order to make repairs and streamline the warship's efficiency. It seemed like there was always something busted or going haywire these days, but I didn't mind the endless tasks. Without the unbearable heat, it was actually a relaxing job and I was able to work comfortably, allowing the time to slip away.
LEO'S POV
It felt like forever before Hazel returned.
I busied myself with the Archimedes sphere, but in the back of my mind I couldn't stop wondering whether or not the curly haired girl would ever come back. It wouldn't be a surprise to me. I had failed to save Percy and Annabeth, so naturally the rest of us would be doomed too, right?
Part of me was beginning to lose hope in our quest altogether until the thundering of hooves hit the deck.
"What happened?" I asked as Hazel climbed aboard the Argo II.
Hazel's hands still shook terribly from wherever the hell she was. I glanced over the rail and saw the dust of Arion's wake stretching across the hills of Italy. I had hoped her friend would stay, but I couldn't blame him for wanting to get away from this place as fast as possible. The countryside sparkled as the summer sun hit the morning dew. On the hill, the old ruins stood white and silent—no sign of the vicious storm from before.
"Hazel?" Nico asked.
Her knees buckled. Nico and I grabbed her arms and helped her to the steps of the foredeck. She looked embarrassed to be collapsing like some fairy-tale damsel, but her energy was clearly gone. I wondered what she had seen to strike such terror in her eyes.
"I met Hecate," she managed.
As Hazel recalled what had happened, I got the feeling that she wasn't telling us everything. She mostly talked about a secret northern pass through the mountains, and the detour Hecate described that could take us to Epirus.
When she was done, Nico took her hand. His eyes were full of concern. "Hazel, you met Hecate at a crossroads. That's…that's something many demigods don't survive. And the ones who do survive are never the same. Are you sure you're—"
"I'm fine," she insisted.
But I knew she wasn't.
"What if Hecate is tricking us?" I asked skeptically. "This route could be a trap."
Hazel shook her head. "If it was a trap, I think Hecate would've made the northern route sound tempting. Believe me, she didn't."
I pulled a calculator out of my tool belt and punched in some numbers. "That's…something like three hundred miles out of our way to get to Venice. Then we'd have to backtrack down the Adriatic. And you said something about baloney dwarfs?"
"Dwarfs in Bologna," Hazel said. "I guess Bologna is a city. But why we have to find dwarfs there…I have no idea. Some sort of treasure to help us with the quest."
"Huh," I said. "I mean, I'm all about treasure, but—"
"It's our best option." Nico helped Hazel to her feet. "We have to make up for lost time, travel as fast as we can. Percy's and Annabeth's lives might depend on it."
"Fast?" I grinned. "I can do fast."
I hurried to the console and started flipping switches. Before long, the Argo was racing through the sky along Hazel's new course. I just hoped we weren't zooming towards a trap as I'd feared.
"Hazel, you're back!" Peri emerged from belowdecks, and she hugged the daughter of Pluto tightly. "I knew you'd come back, but I was still worried."
I could hear Hazel reassuring the Omega-Blood before retelling her meeting with the goddess of magic. Hearing it a second time, there were definitely holes in her story, meaning she was definitely hiding something. But what?
"Hecate, huh?" Peri breathed. "My gram— I mean... I heard stories about how powerful and cryptic she could be. I'm glad you're safe."
The entire crew got together at dinner and Hazel got everyone up to speed. It was somber as usual after that, and we ate mostly in silence. I picked half heartedly at my paella. It was a dish that usually cheered me up, but today it just wasn't working.
After dinner, it was Frank, Jason, and Piper's turn to steer the ship. Hazel insisted on taking the wheel to guide us through the secret passage the goddess had showed her. I still didn't trust this creepy lady, though.
Despite being up for Zeus knows how long, I decided to try once more to understand the Athena Parthenos. I was supposed to be sleeping, but I just couldn't. I spent hours crawling over the statue, which took up most of the lower deck. Athena's feet stuck into sick bay, so you had to squeeze past her ivory toes if you wanted some Advil. Her body ran the length of the port corridor, her outstretched hand jutting into the engine room, offering the life-sized figure of Nike that stood in her palm, like, Here, have some Victory! Athena's serene face took up most of the aft pegasus stables, which were fortunately unoccupied. If I were a magic horse, I wouldn't have wanted to live in a stall with an oversized goddess of wisdom staring at him.
The statue was wedged tight in the corridor, so I had to climb over the top and wriggle under her limbs, searching for levers and buttons.
As usual, I found nothing.
I'd done some research on the statue. I knew it was made from a hollow wooden frame covered in ivory and gold, which explained why it was so light. It was in pretty good shape, considering it was more than two thousand years old, had been pillaged from Athens, toted to Rome, and secretly stored in a spider's cavern for most of the past two millennia. Magic must've kept it intact, I figured, combined with really good craftsmanship.
Annabeth had said…well, I tried not to think about Annabeth. I still felt guilty about her and Percy falling into Tartarus. I knew it was my fault. I should have gotten everyone safely on board the Argo II before I started securing the statue. I should have realized the cavern floor was unstable.
Still, moping around wasn't going to get Percy and Annabeth back. I had to concentrate on fixing the problems I could fix.
Anyway, Annabeth had said the statue was the key to defeating Gaea. It could heal the rift between Greek and Roman demigods. I figured there had to be more to it than just symbolism. Maybe Athena's eyes shot lasers, or the snake behind her shield could spit poison. Or maybe the smaller figure of Nike came to life and busted out some ninja moves.
I could think of all kinds of fun things the statue might do if I had designed it, but the more I examined it, the more frustrated I got. The Athena Parthenos radiated magic. Even I could feel that. But it didn't seem to do anything except look impressive. I wanted it to make sense like a machine.
Finally I got too exhausted to think straight. I curled up with a blanket in the engine room and listened to the soothing hum of the generators. Buford the mechanical table sat in the corner on sleep mode, making little steamy snores: Shhh, pfft, shh, pfft.
I liked my quarters okay, but there I'd probably run into Peri. I just couldn't bear to look into her eyes without feeling like someone was taking a hammer to my chest. The sadness in her chocolate orbs only intensified the guilt that racked my brain. I'd told her that I could fix this, but I wasn't sure if that was true anymore. It all seemed so hopeless.
With a heavy sigh, I closed my eyes and slept. Unfortunately, that meant dreams.
I was running for my life through my mother's old workshop, where she'd died in a fire when I was eight.
I wasn't sure what was chasing me, but I sensed it closing fast—something large and dark and full of hate.
I stumbled into workbenches, knocked over toolboxes, and tripped on electrical cords. I spotted the exit and sprinted toward it, but a figure loomed in front of me—a woman in robes of dry swirling earth, her face covered in a veil of dust.
Where are you going, little hero? Gaea asked. Stay, and meet my favorite son.
I darted to the left, but the Earth Goddess's laughter followed me.
The night your mother died, I warned you. I said the Fates would not allow me to kill you then. But now you have chosen your path. Your death is near, Leo Valdez.
I ran into a drafting table—my mother's old workstation. The wall behind it was decorated with my crayon drawings. I sobbed in desperation and turned, but the thing pursuing me now stood in my path—a colossal being wrapped in shadows, its shape vaguely humanoid, its head almost scraping the ceiling twenty feet above.
My hands burst into flame. I blasted the giant, but the darkness consumed my fire. I reached for my tool belt. The pockets were sewn shut. I tried to speak—to say anything that would save my life—but I couldn't make a sound, as if the air had been stolen from my lungs.
My son will not allow any fires tonight, Gaea said from the depths of the warehouse. He is the void that consumes all magic, the cold that consumes all fire, the silence that consumes all speech.
I wanted to shout: And I'm the dude that's all out of here!
My voice didn't work, so I used my feet. I dashed to the right, ducking under the shadowy giant's grasping hands, and burst through the nearest doorway.
Suddenly, I found myself at Camp Half-Blood, except the camp was in ruins. The cabins were charred husks. Burned fields smoldered in the moonlight. The dining pavilion had collapsed into a pile of white rubble, and the Big House was on fire, its windows glowing like demon eyes.
I kept running, sure the shadow giant was still behind me.
I wove around the fallen bodies of Greek and Roman demigods. I wanted to check if they were alive. I wanted to help them. But somehow I knew I was running out of time.
I jogged toward the only living people I saw—a group of Romans standing at the volleyball pit. Two centurions leaned casually on their javelins, chatting with a tall skinny blond guy in a purple toga. I stumbled. It was that freak Octavian, the augur from Camp Jupiter, who was always screaming for war.
Octavian turned to face me, but he seemed to be in a trance. His features were slack, his eyes closed. When he spoke, it was in Gaea's voice: This cannot be prevented. The Romans move east from New York. They advance on your camp, and nothing can slow them down.
I was tempted to punch Octavian in the face. Instead I kept running.
I climbed Half-Blood Hill. At the summit, lightning had splintered the giant pine tree.
I faltered to a stop. The back of the hill was shorn away. Beyond it, the entire world was gone. I saw nothing but clouds far below—a rolling silver carpet under the dark sky.
A sharp voice said, "Well?"
I flinched.
At the shattered pine tree, a woman knelt at a cave entrance that had cracked open between the tree's roots.
The woman wasn't Gaea. She looked more like a living Athena Parthenos, with the same golden robes and bare ivory arms. When she rose, I almost stumbled off the edge of the world.
Her face was regally beautiful, with high cheekbones, large dark eyes, and braided licorice-colored hair piled in a fancy Greek hairdo, set with a spiral of emeralds and diamonds so that it reminded me of a Christmas tree. Her expression radiated pure hatred. Her lip curled. Her nose wrinkled.
"The tinkerer god's child," she sneered. "You are no threat, but I suppose my vengeance must start somewhere. Make your choice."
I tried to speak, but I was about to crawl out of my skin with panic. Between this hate queen and the giant chasing me, I had no idea what to do.
"He'll be here soon," the woman warned. "My dark friend will not give you the luxury of a choice. It's the cliff or the cave, boy!"
Suddenly I understood what she meant. I was cornered. I could jump off the cliff, but that was suicide. Even if there was land under those clouds, I would die in the fall, or maybe I would just keep falling forever.
But the cave… I stared at the dark opening between the tree roots. It smelled of rot and death. I heard bodies shuffling inside, voices whispering in the shadows.
The cave was the home of the dead. If I went down there, I would never come back.
"Yes," the woman said. Around her neck hung a strange bronze-and-emerald pendant, like a circular labyrinth. Her eyes were so angry, I finally understood why mad was a word for crazy. This lady had been driven nuts by hatred. "The House of Hades awaits. You will be the first puny rodent to die in my maze. You have only one chance to escape, Leo Valdez. Take it."
She gestured toward the cliff.
"You're bonkers," I managed.
That was the wrong thing to say. She seized my wrist. "Perhaps I should kill you now, before my dark friend arrives?"
Steps shook the hillside. The giant was coming, wrapped in shadows, huge and heavy and bent on murder.
"Have you heard of dying in a dream, boy?" the woman asked. "It is possible, at the hands of a sorceress!"
My arm started to smoke. The woman's touch was acid. I tried to free myself, but her grip was like steel.
I opened my mouth to scream. The massive shape of the giant loomed over him, obscured by layers of black smoke.
The giant raised his fist, and a voice cut through the dream.
"Leo!" Jason was shaking my shoulder. "Hey, man, why are you hugging Nike?"
My eyes fluttered open. My arms were wrapped around the human-sized statue in Athena's hand. I must have been thrashing in my sleep. I clung to the victory goddess like I used to cling to my pillow when I had nightmares as a kid. (Man, that had been so embarrassing in the foster homes.)
I disentangled myself and sat up, rubbing my face.
"Nothing," I muttered. "We were just cuddling. Um, what's going on?"
Jason didn't tease me. That's one thing I appreciated about my friend. Jason's ice-blue eyes were level and serious. The little scar on his mouth twitched like it always did when he had bad news to share.
"We made it through the mountains," he said. "We're almost to Bologna. You should join us in the mess hall. Nico has new information."