PERI'S POV

Coach Hedge took the helm, and we demigods gathered below for dinner. It was the first time all eight of us had sat down together since being on the Argo II.

It made everything seem more. . . real. I mean, this was my first quest as a demigod. And unless I succeed - along with seven other teenage strangers - the entire world would be destroyed.

Fantastic.

The others must've felt it too. The tension in the mess hall was like an electrical storm brewing, which was totally possible, considering Percy's and Jason's powers.

In an awkward moment when we all went to sit down, the two boys tried to sit in the same chair at the head of the table. Sparks literally flew from Jason's hands. After a brief silent standoff, like they were both thinking, Seriously, dude?, they ceded the chair to Bonnabelle and sat at opposite sides of the the table.

I slid in between Hazel and Leo. I realized that I tended to sit between them. Not that I meant to, it just happened that way. Then I realized. Hazel sat next to Frank who sat next to Jason who sat next to Piper. On the other side, Bonnabelle sat at the head near Percy who sat next to Leo who sat next to me.

I was on the middle line, dividing us between Greeks and Romans.

I was neither.

Or both. . .?

I shook the confusing thought from my mind.

Laid out on the table in front of us were magical golden cups and plates. Leo told me they were from Camp Half-blood, and whatever food and drink you wanted magically appeared on them.

I stared at the round golden surface.

Hmmm. . . How about. . . somen and gyoza?

Right when the thought passed through my mind, the golden plate filled with noodles and steaming dumplings. The scent of green tea filled the air, and I peered into my cup to find the sweet liquid inside.

I beamed. "Cool!"

Leo leaned over, his mouth full of pizza. He swallowed and pointed at my plate curiously. "What's that?"

I pointed at the cold noodles. "This is somen," My finger floated over the veggie-filled dumplings. "And this is gyoza."

I couldn't resist tempting the curiosity in his eyes. "Wanna try some?"

"Sure!"

I took my chopsticks and carefully placed a small dumpling onto his plate. He popped it into his mouth, and I giggled at the satisfied look on his face.

"Mmmm!" He beamed. "This is awesome!"

I opened my mouth to respond, but Bonnabelle cleared her throat loudly, signaling me into silence.

"So, guys," She said, "Where to now?"

"I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake," Leo said, "but there's still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic."

Percy was eating a piece of pie, which for some reason was completely blue - filling, crust, even the whipped cream. "We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter." he said. "Frank spotted some eagles over the Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind us."

Eagles? What a stupid mascot. I'd pick lions or dragons or something badass like that. Not some damn eagles. Lame.

At Percy's words, gloom fell upon the table. I picked at my birthday cake halfheartedly.

"I don't suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans?" Piper attempted. "Maybe - maybe I didn't try hard enough with the charmspeak."

Jason took her hand. "It wasn't your fault, Pipes. Or Leo's or Peri's." He added quickly. "Whatever happened, it was Gaea's doing, to drive the two camps apart."

I nodded gratefully.

Piper still seemed uneasy. "Maybe if we could explain that, though-"

"With no proof?" Annabeth asked. "And no idea what really happened? I appreciate what you're saying, Piper. I don't want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea's up to, going back is suicide."

"She's right," Hazel said. She was looking a little queasy, but she was trying to eat a few saltine crackers. The rim of her plate was embedded with rubies, and I'm pretty sure they weren't there at the start of the meal. "Reyna might listen, but Octavian won't. The Romans have honor to think about. They've been attacked. They'll shoot first and ask questions posthac.

I nodded to myself. That made sense. If someone disrespected my honor, I'd probably chase them down with an army, too.

That's probably the Roman in me. . .

"You're right," Piper said finally. "We have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry."

Hazel nodded her head furiously. "Nemesis said we have only six days until Nico dies and Rome is destroyed. Six. We have to save him!"

Jason frowned. "As in Rome Rome, not New Rome?"

"The real Rome." I said.

Everyone turned to look at me, and I realized that was the first time tonight I'd addressed the whole group. I guess. . . I guess I just felt like it wasn't my place to comment. I mean. . . I'm new here. Everyone already has a buddy. . . and then there's me.

"Why six days?" Percy wondered, taking the attention off of me and back to the real issues.

"Yeah, six is a stupid number." Leo said, taking a swig of Coke. "Like, dude, pick either 5 or 10. Not in between."

No one answered.

"Um, there's more." Piper said reluctantly. "I've been seeing some things in my knife."

Frank froze with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to his mouth. "Things such as. . . ?"

"They don't really make sense," Piper said, "just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins."

"Twins. . ." I repeated. "Like in Ella's prophecy."

Bonnabelle nodded like she was thinking the same thing. "If we could figure out those lines, it might help."

"Wisdom's daughter walks alone," Percy quoted. "The Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Annabeth that's got to mean you. Juno told me. . . well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it."

He smiled at her. "But I know she's wrong."

Bonnabelle took a long breath. "Reyna was about to tell me something right before the ship fired on us. She said there was an old legend among the Roman praetors - something that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along."

Leo, Hazel, and I exchanged looks.

"Nemesis mentioned something like that," I began, "She talked about an old score that had to be settled-"

"The one thing that might bring the gods' two natures into harmony," Hazel continued.

"Yeah. 'An old wrong finally avenged.'" Leo finished.

Percy drew a frowny face in his blue whipped cream. "I was only praetor for, like, two hours. Jason, you ever heard a legend like that?"

"I. . . uh, I'm not sure." he said nervously. "I'll give it some thought."

Percy narrowed his eyes. "You're not sure?"

Jason didn't respond.

I frowned. Why did Percy have to put everyone in the hot seat? First Leo, now Jason. Shoot, let him try and fire me up like that, and we'll have a problem.

Hazel broke the silence. "What about the other lines?" She turned her ruby encrusted plate thoughtfully. "Twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death."

"Giants' bane stands gold and pale," Frank added. "Won through pain from a woven jail."

"Giants' bane," Leo repeated. "Anything that's a giants' bane is good for us, right?"

"Yeah, that's probably what we need to find then," I chimed in. "If it can help the gods get their schizophrenic acts together, then I'm all for it."

Percy nodded. "We can't kill the giants without the gods' help."

Jason turned to Frank and Hazel. "I thought you guys killed that one giant in Alaska without a god's help, just the two of you."

"Alcyoneus was a special case," Frank explained. "He was only immortal in the territory he was reborn in - Alaska. But not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging them across the border from Alaska into Canada, but. . ." He shrugged. "Percy's right, we'll need the gods."

Leo sucked his teeth. "The gods suck."

I looked up at him. "Do they really?"

He nodded grimly before changing pace.

"So. . ." Leo pushed his chair away from the table. "First things first, I guess. We'll have to put down in the morning for repairs."

"Someplace close to a city," I suggested, "in case we need supplies."

"But somewhere out of the way," Bonnabelle guided, "so that the Romans will have trouble finding us. Any ideas?"

No one spoke.

I looked around the table, and my eyes fell upon Piper. She was holding Jason's hand, but she had this look on her face like she was thinking about a lot of things at once. But then again, we all were.

"Well," she ventured shakily. "How do you guys feel about Kansas?"