Chapter 16: #WhyDidThisWork

It was a simple matter to find the airport, and get on. The pilot was compliant, once we had shown him the letter, and took us straight up, into the air. Ella was less compliant than to get on the plane, but I promised her that I would send someone to come find her and get her to Camp to protect her. I was still plenty nervous about flying, but I could tell that Zeus wasn't paying attention to me right now. Though the turbulence did make me nervous.

As we flew (and I internally panicked), I peoplewatched Frank and Hazel's dynamic. They were definitely going to be a couple, if they weren't already. Frank's head was down like he was ashamed to have cried about losing his grandmother, but in his situation I would've easily been right next to him bawling. It didn't make anyone less of a man to shed a few tears about stuff like that. It was only natural. Not to mention having also been attacked by an army of cannibal ogres. That kind of thing was okay to cry about too, though the ogres hadn't done much else than serve as comedic entertainment when they realized they were ineffective to even touch Frank or Hazel.

I also wondered what Frank's family gift was. He refused to explain it, but I couldn't grudge him that.

I felt the need to comfort Frank, sensing his distress both in a magical sort of way and in a common sense sort of way.

"Frank, I'm proud to be related to you," I said, trying to cheer him up.

His ears turned a shockingly bright shade of red as he hung his head further down. "Juno has some sort of plan for us, about the Prophecy of Seven," he said, changing the subject.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I didn't like her as Hera, I don't like her any better as Juno."

Hazel was studying me with her golden eyes carefully, like she was trying to make up her mind about something. She tucked her feet up under her chair as she sat there, staring at me.

I had to admit to myself, at least, that Hazel constantly surprised me by how calm she was. She was the youngest of our group, yet still she was the one comforting and holding us all together. It was an impressive feat.

"You're a son of Poseidon, aren't you?" she asked, though she clearly already knew the answer. "You are a Greek demigod."

I didn't hear any threats from Hera in my head, so I went along with it.

"Yeah," I said. "There's another camp. Camp Half-Blood."

I missed Camp. Not that Camp Jupiter didn't have perks, like a community that consisted of demigods, their children, and even their children's children. I didn't even know that was possible for a demigod until I came to Camp Jupiter. But it still didn't have the right feel. My hearth and home was Camp Half-Blood, but I wouldn't mind visiting Camp Jupiter for a while every now and then.

"Another camp," Hazel repeated, trying the word out in her head. She grinned, snorting a little. "A Greek camp? Oh gods, if Octavian found out—"

"He'd declare war," Frank said, "He's always been sure the Greeks were out there, plotting against us. He thought Percy was a spy."

"That's why Juno sent me," I said, before realizing how that sounded. "Uh, I mean, not to spy. I think it was some sort of exchange. Your friend Jason—I think he was sent to my camp."

'Yes, godling, he is at your camp,' Hera said in my thoughts. 'He is working with a few others, including your Athena girl, to build a warship and bring it to Camp Jupiter to bring together my Prophecy of Seven.'

"Yeah, he's working with some others to bring a warship to Camp Jupiter to help." I said confidently. I wondered how Annabeth was doing, as always. And somewhere over Long Island, I knew she was doing the same.

"Mars said Juno wants to unite the Greeks and Romans to fight Gaea, but jeez—Greeks and Romans have a long history of bad blood."

"That's probably why the gods have kept us apart for so long," Hazel hypothesized. "If a Greek warship appeared in the sky above Camp Jupiter, and Reyna didn't know it was friendly…"

"Yeah," I agreed, "We've got to be careful how we explain this when we get back."

"If we get back," Frank said, somberly.

"When we get back," I said, somewhat firmly. "I'm not losing either of you two on this quest, you can trust me.

There was a moment of silence. I spoke up again.

"I mean, I trust you guys. I hop you trust me. I feel… well, I feel as close to you two as to any of my friends at Camp Half-Blood. But with the other demigods, at both camps—There's going to be a lot of suspicion."

Hazel then did something I wasn't expecting at all. She leaned over and plopped a kiss on my cheek, which promptly began to glow red. There was nothing in the kiss that wasn't only on a sisterly level of affection, but still I couldn't help but hope that Annabeth wasn't watching that right now.

"Of course we trust you," she said. "We're a family now. Aren't we, Frank?"

"Sure," Frank said, "do I get a kiss?"

Hazel laughed nervously, and I could detect the barest hint of a deep blush, only just barely being restrained by Hazel as she sat down in her seat again. "Anyway, what do we do now?"

"I've got to contact a friend, to keep my promise to Ella," I said.

"How?" Frank asked. "One of those Iris-messages?"

"No, still not working," I said. "I'm hoping I can do it in my dreams."

Dreams-Schmeams, I knew how I was going to contact Tyson. But I felt like Hera would've been screeching in my ear if I had told them that I was going to communicate telepathically.

So I laid back, and closed my eyes. I sent out my senses as far as they could go. I was surprised at first at the lack of… connection that I felt to the outside world. Juno was right, this was a land beyond the gods. We were definitely in Alaska by now.

I materialized before Tyson, invisible to all. I was somewhat surprised to see that he was in front of the Zhang mansion. It looked terribly empty, filled with that indiscernible but all-too-obvious characteristic of houses that you could tell when not a soul lived in them anymore.

"Close!" I heard Tyson say, as he knelt next to a crater. His one brown eye was reddish from tears. "So close, but gone!"

Aaaaaaaaaaagh, I wasn't sure I could hold out much longer against this kind of stuff, Hera. I swallowed the lump in my throat. Tyson could only hear my voice as I spoke.

"Tyson," I said, calmly.

Tyson's head whipped around. "Percy? Brother?"

The lump was stubbornly back, and again I swallowed it. "Tyson, I'm okay. I'm here—well, not really."

"Can't see you! Where is my brother?" Tyson said, swatting at the air like he was trying to catch an invisible butterfly.

"Tyson, I'm flying to Alaska. I'm okay," I said, holding myself back from appearing to him. That might be too hard to pull back again. I was so close to being done with this stupid quest, I could taste it. Just hold out a little bit longer. "I'll be back," I promised. "Just find Ella. She's a harpy with red feathers. She's hiding in the woods around the house."

I gave him instructions on how to find Ella, and where to take her. Tyson seemed happy that I was finally talking, after so many months of radio-silence (Thank you ever so much, Hera).

I opened my eyes after giving Tyson his instructions and saying goodbye for the time being. I felt a stray tear glisten down my face, but I brushed it away quickly.

"Sleep okay?" Hazel asked.

"How long was I out?" I asked, looking out the window of the plane. We were in a descent.

"A few hours," Frank says, preparing to disembark. "We're almost there."

I could see that. There was a glittering array of ice and sea, mountains looming in the background, heavily coated with snow and frozen rivers, and in the distance a city was carved out of the wilderness.

"Welcome to Alaska," Hazel said, giving me a glance out of the corner of her eye as if making sure I didn't disappear when the words were spoken. "We're beyond the help of the gods."

She gave me an almost imperceptible smile, and I didn't have to peek inside her head to hear the sarcasm at the end of her sentence.

We disembarked the plane, which was prompt to leave again. I couldn't blame him, he would probably have a heck of a time trying to explain why he gave an unscheduled lift to three grungy-looking kids without being paid at all.

Well, to keep on with the ruse of being under a slowly healing amnesia, I figured it was about time to give Frank and Hazel some more details about my life. Hera didn't immediately explode, so either she was busy and not listening or she was fine with it. Either way, now was my opportunity.

Frank was shocked when I told him about Tyson.

"You have a half-brother who's a Cyclops?" he said, looking terrified. From what I had seen, the only experiences the Romans had had with Cyclops were not good ones. That was a shame. It was a very wrong sensation to see the evil side of Cyclops and Centaurs to me, though it was natural to them.

"Sure," I said, shrugging. I smiled mischievously. "Which makes him your great-great—"

"Enough, please," Frank said, covering his ears as he tried to sort out this information in his skull. It kind of showed a little more of that panda inside of him.

We hailed a taxi, and began the drive to downtown Anchorage. Hazel was staring out the window with wonder.

"I can't believe how much this place has grown," she breathed.

"Been a long time since you last visited, miss?" the taxi-driver said.

"About seventy years," Hazel said, absentmindedly.

I subtly flicked my fingers, changing the words that the driver registered.

"That's nice," he said, shrugging as if he came out of a dream.

Hazel seemed to realize what she had said and turned to me, a quick glance of thanks for her slip.

The driver drove on in silence, and I joined Hazel staring out the window. I was surprised by the sheer amount of Hyperboreans lazing about. They were everywhere. Frank pointed out of one window at one.

"Um…" he said, sounding worried.

"Hyperboreans," I said, "Northern giants. I fought some when Kronos invaded Manhattan."

Frank forgot all about the giants. He looked at me like he had seen a ghost. "When who did what?"

"Long story," I said. "These guys look much more… peaceful."

"They usually are," Hazel agreed. "I remember them. They're everywhere in Alaska, like bears."

"Bears?" Frank said nervously. Wow, he was really tense, wasn't he?

We drove along for a little longer until we came near a seashore. Hazel asked the driver to let us out, and we dutifully paid him. Heavenly smells wafted into my nostrils, and I realized that all I had eaten was the small breakfast at the Zhang mansion, and the small cube of ambrosia. I knew it wouldn't really fill me, but old habits die hard.

"Food," I said, like this was the only explanation needed. "Come on."

As soon as Frank saw the menus, he whooped excitedly. "Twenty-four-hour breakfast!"

"Dude, it's like dinnertime," I said.

"I love breakfast," Frank said. "I'd eat breakfast, breakfast, and breakfast if I could. Though, um, I'm sure the food here isn't as good as Hazel's."

Hazel threw her elbow into his chest, but her smile was playful and abashed.

I smiled involuntarily. Those two reminded me so much of Annabeth and my relationship, it was hard to see them as anything but a couple.

"You know, breakfast sounds great."

So we all ordered large trays of eggs and sausage and pancakes and all sorts of breakfasty things to eat.

Hazel debriefed us over a hand-drawn map and where we needed to go to get to Hubbard Glacier. As a demigod, I knew that this would be the last stop on our quest, but as a god I also knew that this would not be the last stop of our lives. Oh no, we were going to live much longer than this day, if I had any say in the matter.

Of course, I knew I couldn't get cocky. We were about to face a giant, and from what Hera had told me it was going to be a tougher fight than most others. This would not be like the Laistrygonians, where we just watched them kill themselves.

It was decided that we would take the train to somewhere closer to Hubbard Glacier, and then by boat the rest of the way. We were about to board the plane when a horrible thought finally occurred to me. I was going to be in so much trouble.

I ran to the nearest payphone and punched in my mom's number. Oh gods, I had left for six months without telling her. Pleasepleasepleaseplease…

I got voicemail. Guess it could've been worse. I could've been getting bawled out by my mom right now when we had to leave. For now, she'd have to settle with a voicemail, and I'd call her back when I could.

"Mom," I began. "Hey, I'm alive. Hera put me to sleep for a while, and… Anyway, I'm okay. I'm so sorry for not calling sooner. I'm on a quest—I'll make it home. I promise. Love you."

I wanted so badly to hear her voice after six months, but no luck. It was midnight right now in Manhattan, so I doubted they'd be up, or even recognize this number. Besides that, the train was just about to pull out, so I had to leave. I got on as fast as I could, and plopped down in my seat.

Frank and Hazel looked pretty understanding when I told them I had made a call. The train moved on from the station, and soon we were chugging heartily along. There was a lot of cool stuff outside the window, but I was preoccupied with thoughts of Annabeth, Tyson, and my mom. I hoped they were all okay. A lot could happen during six months.

I only began to snap out of it again when the mortals on the train began murmuring steadily louder. Snippets caught my ears.

"Eagle!"

"Big Eagle!"

"That's no eagle," Frank said, staring out the window of his seat.

I checked out my window. A huge shape, with eagle wings and head, was soaring overhead, but the body of the creature was like a huge Labrador. My mind immediately came up with a name.

"Gryphons," I said, and Hazel nodded in agreement.

"The Amazons had one in a cage—" she began, but suddenly the train became weightless as everything tipped off the tracks. Glass shattered, and there were loud screams as the Gryphons ripped off the roofs.

One of the monsters grabbed me by the arms and lifted me into the air. It was fast, and its grip on me was like steel bands. I couldn't move or reach my sword, so I did the next best thing I could think of.

'Careful, godling,' Hera said. 'It would look awfully strange if—'

'I don't really care at this point, your highness,' I thought back. 'My friends and those mortals are in trouble below, so it's not like I have a lot of options.'

I began to let energy flow in my arms, and I knew that the Gryphon was hot and bothered as its morsel it had picked up suddenly became too hot to handle. Steam and smoke rose from the spot where it held me, and I could feel its grip automatically loosen in pain. It had not expected this.

Before I could go on, an arrow flew up, striking the Gryphon in the neck. It dissolved, and I was suddenly free-falling. I braced for impact as I landed through a large pine-tree, splintering wood on my way down. I crashed to the not-so-soft ground below.

"Ow." I said to nobody in particular, as I stood up again. I checked myself, finding barely a single scratch on myself. The others would get suspicious, so I made my body looked bruised and battered by the fall using some godly magic.

I looked up and saw the Gryphons trying to attack the tourists, or anything that moved. The only thing keeping them at bay was a grey warrior, Frank's spartus.

"Used your last charge?" I asked, noticing Frank's spear was now gone from his pack as he ran up to me, Hazel close behind him.

"Yeah," Frank said, "I had to help the mortals. The spear just dissolved."

Well, we didn't have an all-powerful spartus to use anymore to fight, but I couldn't blame Frank. I nodded.

"Let's move the fight away from the tracks!" I said, choosing a direction away from the derailed train and running. The Gryphons quickly noticed our small party of three branching away from the main herd of mortals, and quickly changed direction, coursing after us. It was hard work to subtly blast the Gryphons away without Hazel or Frank noticing too much, but I managed to keep at it. This wouldn't be a great solution though…

What saved us was most unexpected; one of the blue giants. A little quick thinking, and an unpleasant hiding place, and BAM! Fresh frozen Gryphon-sicles.

We walked for quite a ways after that. I could tell by the near-silent groans coming from Frank and Hazel that they were really beginning to get tired. I tried to mimic their movements, since I wasn't feeling very tired at all. Just mildly run-down.

We all crashed on the first place we found that we could sit down. Frank was out first, and Hazel was struggling to keep herself awake as she turned to me.

"Will you—?" she asked, waving around as she began to lose the battle. I straightened, not feeling fatigued almost at all.

"Of course," I said.

I watched over them the whole night long, making sure that all the monsters who had an idea to come over and taste us demigods had another thing coming.

In the morning, we woke, and were treated to a breakfast by a sympathetic mortal who had found us on the picnic table in front of his gas station. This was our last little jump until what awaited us at the top of Hubbard Glacier. Today was the day our quest was drawn to a close, and I was ready.

We started off walking again, but I knew we would need something to get there faster at some point of the day. I was wondering if Arion might be in the vicinity of Canada that he might be able to hear us. But I wasn't exactly watching where I was stepping.

I only realized I had taken a faulty step when Hazel shouted my name.

"Percy, no!" she said, as I dropped like a rock through soil that had looked completely solid moments ago.

I was suffocated by the yielding soil, and for a moment my heart leapt in my throat as I realized that this could very well be Gaea's doing. I hadn't watched where I was stepping.

I felt another mass of some sort in my vicinity. Hazel's thoughts rang in my head.

'Not now! Ella said I was done with blackouts!'

I knew that Hazel was now in much more trouble than I was. I grabbed her hand and pulled myself up, using her somewhat like a rope (sorry Hazel). I drew myself up until I had a grip on the bow she was holding. I grabbed Hazel firmly with the other hand, and signaled to Frank to pull us up by tugging on the bow a bit.

It somewhat surprised me when we immediately shot up through the powdery soil, rocketing out of the quicksand-like ground. Frank was strong.

He hovered over me, but mostly he fussed over Hazel as she laid on the ground, unconscious.

"Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods…" he said, not looking like he quite knew what to do with his hands.

"Here Frank, take this, clean her off a bit," I said, handing him a spare tshirt. He began toweling her off as I wiped the soil from my own face. "Be mindful about her nose, so it doesn't get blocked up."

"She's not dead, right?" Frank fussed, reaching down and gently putting his fingers aside of her neck. He visibly relaxed for a moment. "No, she's not dead."

Hazel's expression scrunched like she was having a bad dream. I knelt next to her, and reached into her head. At first, I was disgruntled to feel a barrier, keeping me out of her thoughts. This was the first time I had felt something block my powers so absolutely. She must be having some sort of vision with some other god or primordial then? I wasn't going to take no for an answer. I pushed harder, and broke through the wall.

Inside her head, I saw the vision she was under. It was almost peaceful, a sunny backdrop over a glistening New Orleans. Hazel was standing next to me, and a woman I hadn't seen before was lounging on a sun-chair. Based purely on how the woman looked, I would give a guess that she was related to Hazel in some way. Mother maybe?

But I sensed that this wasn't Hazel's mother, not in the least. I felt an ancient, raw, grainy sort of presence where the woman lounged. I growled. I had a guess who was talking to Hazel now.

"Gaea, get out of her head," I said. Gaea laughed, which just made me even more angry.

"Well, feisty one aren't we, Perseus Jackson?" Gaea said sleepily. "You're still an important piece for later, don't you worry."

"I wouldn't bet on it. Hazel?" I said, turning to Hazel's sleepy expression. "Hazel, wake up. Snap out of it."

"Don't listen to him, dear. After all, he only asked you to risk your life, your second chance at life, just to delay my son from coming back home to me," Gaea purred.

I could feel Hazel making an effort, trying to break out of this sleepy spell she was under. I placed my hands on her shoulders. I felt my energy flow into her, empowering her decision.

"Hazel," I said, staring deeply into her eyes. "Wake up."

Hazel blinked, and her golden eyes told me she was back in charge again. She scowled deeply at Gaea.

"I'll never cooperate with you. Now GET OUT OF MY HEAD."

I felt the reality of the vision around us beginning to crumble, and Gaea gave me one last look of annoyance before disappearing. I got out of Hazel's head, back into my own body. Frank was fussing so heavily over Hazel, he hadn't even noticed.

Hazel gasped and opened her eyes, looking around her.

We all just sat for a moment after the experience. I realized that in all likelihood we were going to be facing against an enemy much older and more experienced than I was, even with my new powers. I would need to prepare myself for anything, including attacks like the ones Ares had hit me with. He had held back from actually killing me, and forcing me to wait years, maybe even centuries, to return. This giant would not. He would kill me the first opportunity he got.

Hazel led us to an abandoned building, and I was surprised when she told us it was her old home, from her previous life. Pictures littered the walls, and I recognized Hazel's mother figure that Gaea had imitated. Another picture of someone who looked familiar caught my eye, someone Hazel called Sammy. I couldn't place where I felt like he was familiar.

I spent the time in the apartment to thank Hazel for her bravery in the muskeg to save me, though I most likely would not have actually died. I also prepared as much energy as I could spare for the fight ahead of us.

Still, I couldn't help but feel jittery at the thought of facing off against a foe I knew basically nothing about. I wished Annabeth were here, to make a list of weaknesses and just be generally amazing in everything. Time flitted by me as I thought over all these things and more. Frank returned, only to lead us all back out of the apartment again under the excuse of finding food.

Food would help. Well, it wouldn't hurt anyway. I wanted something with meat in it. And cheese.

'Cheeeeeesseeeebbbuuurrrggeeerrrrrssss…' my mind demanded.

And so that's what I ordered. Extra fries, ketchup… this cheeseburger was awesome. Just the right amount of grease, even. Or maybe that was just my hungry mind imagining it better. Or maybe I accidentally made it perfect with my powers. I didn't know, and I didn't really care.

While Frank and I ordered, Hazel went down to the docks nearby to ask some questions about getting a boat to take us to the glacier. When she came back, though, she obviously had not found what she was hoping to hear.

"We're in trouble," she said. "I tried to get a boat, but… I miscalculated."

"No boats?" Frank asked.

"Oh, I can get a boat," Hazel said with a troubled expression. "But the glacier is farther than I thought. Even at top speed, we couldn't get there until tomorrow morning."

"Could I make the boat go faster?" I asked, throwing ideas out there.

"Even if you could, from what the captain's told me, it's treacherous—icebergs, mazes of channels to navigate. You'd have to know where you were going."

"A plane?" Frank suggested, and I paled a little. Despite Zeus maybe or maybe not being incapacitated, I didn't want to risk getting blown out of the skies. Or just flying in general.

Thankfully, Hazel shook her head. "I asked the boat captains about that. They said we could try, but it's a tiny airfield. You have to charter a plane two, three weeks in advance."

So it appeared we didn't have many options left anyways. By foot would take obviously too long, even the boat wouldn't work in time. We had to finish this by today.

I felt a foreboding presence approach, and it took me a moment to pinpoint the location of this prescence; a nearby raven. I felt an aura of shadows and death surround the black bird before me, a presence I knew well. Hades.

But as fast as I recognized it, the bird yelped and disappeared in a shimmer. Perched in its place suddenly appeared a Gryphon, like the ones from earlier. Guess they thawed.

"We should get going," I said. Frank and Hazel nodded, and as one we ran for the docks, though we had no clear plan.

The Gryphons swooped down at us, and I slashed at it with Riptide. It had learned its lesson though, and swerved to avoid the deadly blade. I didn't dare to blast it to ash with my godly powers yet, since Hera would eat me alive.

The Gryphon seemed to decide I was too strong for it to attack without backup. It eyed Frank but immediately dismissed the notion. But Hazel… Hazel was the smallest, youngest of us three. Easily taken. It dove for her.

I did the first thing that came naturally. I called on the ocean, and it responded. An icy wall of water slammed into the Gryphon, knocking it into the bay. I churned the water to try to keep it from returning to the surface, but no dice. It flapped and clawed its way out of the water, slowly clambering onto the dock dripping wet.

"Nice one, Percy," Frank said appreciatively.

"Yeah, I wasn't sure I would still be able to do that in Alaska. But bad news—look over there."

A small black cloud, dozens of Gryphons, were flying up and heading straight for us. I wouldn't be able to fight that many using just my standard demigod powers, I would most likely have to use godly powers to stop the Gryphons from tearing my friends to shreds. That left one option then.

"Not going down without a fight," Frank said, raising his bow and choosing a target in his mind. I saw Hazel, clearly her mind was racing with possibilities.

"I'm with you," I said. "But I may have a better idea."

'Arion, we need your help,' I called out, not sure how far I could communicate with our wild stallion friend.

In response, I heard a distant whinny. Hazel evidently heard it as well, because she turned to the sound.

"Arion, over here!"

And suddenly he was right there, behind the Gryphon. The poor Gryphon didn't even get the chance to find out what was behind him before Arion smashed his hooves into the Gryphon's back, instantly crumbling it to monster dust.

'Don't you even think about hurting my human, you silly feather-face!' Arion snorted. He looked up and pranced over to Hazel.

"Good horse!" Hazel said, rushing up and stroking Arion's muzzle. "REALLY good horse!"

"How—?" Frank said, looking like he'd much rather fight the cloud of Gryphons than interact with this horse again.

"He followed me!" Hazel said, beaming widely, "Because he's the best—horse—EVER! Now get on!"

"Can you handle that?" I asked. "All three of us?"

'Please, I could carry at least seven more of you without breaking a sweat, silly little Sea-Son,' Arion huffed.

"All right, no need to be rude. Let's go," I said, climbing on.

Frank climbed on behind Hazel and wrapped his arms around her, and I saw her subtly blush with some thought I wouldn't read.

"Run Arion! To Hubbard Glacier!" she said, pointing to the icy cliffs in the distance.

'Thought you'd never ask,' Arion knickered, before slamming his hooves down and really digging in. He shot over the surface of the water even faster than before.

The trip that should've taken at least a full night of traveling took minutes at most. Arion didn't even stop at the base of the glacier, running straight up the wall like Spiderman or something. Only at the very top did he finally halt, whinnying triumphantly.

Frank and I slid off Arion's back, though Hazel stayed on the sleek stallion's back like a cavalry soldier.

Before us was an icy replica of what looked like Camp Jupiter. Roman architecture, to be sure. It was also much smaller than the actual size of Camp Jupiter.

In the middle of it all was our prize, Death himself. Even his aura was strong enough that I could feel a chill in the air aside from the actual temperature, and I could see a line connecting him straight to Hazel. I saw the tug that he had on her soul. Her escaped soul was technically in his job description to take back to the Underworld.

Something I picked up on, simply from several years of experience as a demigod. "No defenders? No giant? This has got to be a trap."

"Obviously," Frank said, pulling back his bow further as Hazel steadied herself on Arion's back. "But I don't think we have much of a choice."

Hazel called out. "Hello? Mr. Death?"

He glanced up at her, and the defenders I was waiting for showed up instantly. Legions of black shades surrounded us; ghostly remains of what I assumed was once the Fifth Cohort of Camp Jupiter.

I saw the standard-bearer, holding the eagle listlessly like he was half-asleep.

"Yep, here's the trap," Frank said, scowling.