They were making good time, but Robin wished there was some way of knowing exactly where they were on the strange, modern map Chiron had given them. This wasn't how he remembered the maps of America that were drawn when he first entered the green wood. It was more detailed, with different names. The areas marked at Florida and Mexico were significantly smaller and there were no longer "Parts as yet unknown" - blank sections in the northwest.
His hand had started to throb and he'd carefully followed the directions in the medical kit which told him to take two tablets of something called "Advil."
Robin had seen Odysseus and his men several times throughout the day. They were most visible in the shadowed below decks and as the light failed, they grew more and more distinct on deck. Andy and Nasim definitely were not able to see or hear them, but the ghosts were good at stepping aside and avoiding contact with them. Considering what Odysseus had said earlier, Robin wasn't so sure that the ghost crew's efforts were entirely necessary.
It seemed that Odysseus had decided to shadow Robin, but the others wandered about tightening and loosening ropes and making sure that the ship continued to sail quickly and in a straight path. Nasim and Andy did not seem to notice their silent, invisible labors.
As the sun set, the king of Ithaca's features became more defined. He was in his upper thirties or lower forties: Odysseus in the prime of his life. His hair was reddish and curly, his eyes sharp. The armor he wore had seen use and plenty of it, making Robin think that he was seeing the man from this side of the Trojan War. A sword hung at his side, its pommel occasionally giving a dull glimmer. The magnificent mantle that hung over his shoulders gradually began to darken with the shadows, during scarlet. Odysseus always had a sort of contained smile on his face, giving the impression that he was constantly plotting and his plans were pleasing him. When he turned that clever smile on Robin, the boy felt a chill run up his back and his hand throbbed worse than ever.
And yet, there was something inherently wrong about Odysseus. Ghosts were supposed to be larger than life and bear the wounds of their deaths upon them. Odysseus looked as though Robin had really and truly plucked him out of the Odyssey when the man was sailing from Calypso's island.
"Robin, it's time for dinner!" Andy called. He was standing at the railing on the stern, his face turned towards the wind which was still faithfully coming from the north. One of the ghostly men was loyally tending the tiller.
"Don't fall asleep," Robin told him. "Learn from Palinurus." The ghost's head, well-defined in the darkening sky, turned to look at Robin but said nothing. Robin supposed that the helmsman wasn't really worried about falling asleep and falling off the ship to his death, since he was already dead.
"They can hear you, but not speak," Odysseus told Robin, appearing from the shadows. "They are not as real as me."
"Why not?" Robin asked, continuing past Odysseus towards the hatch to the galley.
"Because you read me out," Odysseus said. "You called my name and I heard you in the Underworld."
Robin looked back at him and shook his head before retreating down the hatch to the galley.
"Look!" Andy said as he climbed down. "There's ketchup so you can have blood when your dinosaurs kill each other!"
Robin grinned at her and seated himself across from Nasim.
"I have no idea what any of that meant," he said honestly.
"They're dino nuggets," Andy explained with a roll of her eyes. "And you can make them fight! Watch this - "
She demonstrated, making a lot of growling sounds and snapping her teeth together as she bit little bits off of the two competing pieces of chicken. Apparently it was a gruesome battle because she took the ketchup and enthusiastically squirted it over the "injuries".
"I see," Robin said, a smile tugging at the corner of his lip. "Now, what exactly is a dinosaur?"
Nasim and Andy stared at him, open-mouthed.
"Um, big lizards - " Nasim started.
"REALLY big lizards," Andy corrected him.
"That lived a REALLY long time ago," Nasim finished.
"You mean drakons, dragons, hydras, sea monsters and the like," Robin said, trying to understand.
"No. Well, maybe that's how the Greeks saw them," Nasim said.
"And since you learned you were a half-blood, how often have things the 'Greeks saw' been wrong, or imaginary?" Robin asked, cocking his head to the side. Nasim and Andy looked at each other, and then shrugged.
"Did you know," Robin asked, carefully picking up a 'dino nugget' and nibbling its head off like he'd seen Andy do. "That neither the Greeks nor the Romans believed that monsters were real?" He picked up the red bottle and daubed a little ketchup on the severed neck.
"They believed that the true evil in this world is man," Robin explained, positioning another dinosaur so that it looked like it was eating the first. "Monsters were merely man's worst traits personified. It was men who were the monsters, and the task of heroes was to make the world a better place by eliminating those faults so that men could live freely and peacefully."
"That is why two of the most famous epics surviving from Greece and Rome do not speak of monsters, but of wars," Robin explained. "Because the struggle for peace is the greatest struggle of all." As he spoke, he worked quickly and soon the carnage of a dinosaur battle to the death was strewn across his plate. He surveyed the wreck and noticed that Andy and Nasim were doing likewise, with slightly horrified faces.
"The poets made your world," Robin said. "They gave you these dragons and dinosaurs you fight. The real evil in this world is contained in the darkest, most secret depths of our souls."
He picked up a nugget and looked past it at the transfixed faces of his companions. "And by 'our', I refer to simply to humanity. You know that, right?" He popped the nugget in his mouth and chewed.
"Andy, these are really quite delicious," he decided. "Thank you for making them."
"I really wish that I hadn't," Andy said, looking slightly sick.
"Yeah, can we finish eating before we say anything else?" Nasim asked.
"I've upset you, I'm sorry," Robin said. He caught a flash of red in the corner. Odysseus had been listening. Good.
"Naw, it's okay," Andy said. "It's just that nowadays we don't usually talk about the faults of humanity around the dinner table. Faults of Republicans and Canadians are still open to discussion, though."
Robin did not understand, and so finished his meal in silence. Odysseus watched him in equal silence, hopefully pondering over Robin's words. But knowing something about the nature of the King of Ithaca, Robin knew that that hope might be too much to hope for.
Later that night, when Robin was settling into his bunk and Nasim was in the bathroom, Robin opened his eyes and saw Odysseus sitting in the corner, brooding.
"It's not true, you know," the ghost said as soon as Robin's eyes opened. "The poets didn't make up monsters."
"How would you know?" Robin asked. "You came out of a book."
"I am Odysseus, King of Ithaca, hero of the Trojan War," the ghost said, straightening up, his eyes blazing. "I won the armor of Achilles, I found my way in and out of the enemy city, I conceived the idea of the Trojan horse. I lived and died. You of all people, son of Calliope, should know that the poems are true."
"You are Odysseus," Robin retorted quietly, sitting up. "Absent king of an island of goatherds, mortal among demigods. Trickster, deceiver, and murderer. You were detected by a mere woman in the enemy city. Your life and death are a legend. And you showed mercy when others showed simple lust."
Odysseus's head, which had begun to hang in hot shame, rose again and met Robin's eye.
"Others forgot," Robin said softly. "Your action toward Astyanax eclipsed the kindness you showed that same day. You offered to take poor, elderly, feeble Hecuba, queen of Troy, into your home. The other, 'greater' men, demigods, chose younger, prettier woman. But you loved Penelope, your wife, and so you did not take a concubine but showed compassion to an old woman who had no more sons that would care for her."
"And you never wanted war," Robin continued. "You used every wile, every trick to stop them from making you go to fight. You only yielded when the life of your son was at stake. There was a darkness in you, Odysseus. But your light was never eclipsed by its shadow."
Odysseus just looked at him. Robin's hand hurt, so he glared at the ghost and turned over. He drifted off to sleep just as Nasim got back.
Odysseus watch the steady rise and fall of Robin's chest. The other half-blood, the son of the Witch, was trying to be quiet as he got ready for bed.
"What would you know about darkness, son of Calliope?" Odysseus asked, shaking his head. "There's none in you."
A/N: Footnotes:
Ghosts: In the Greek and Roman tradition, you were able to tell a ghost from a live person because ghosts were larger than life and looked exactly the same as they had when they died (that is, if they were warriors they bore the fatal wounds upon their bodies).
Palinurus: the helmsman of Aeneas, whom Somnus struck down with sleep so that he would fall into the ocean and Aeneas's boat would wander off course.
Odysseus's life: Odysseus was indeed the son of a mortal woman and a mortal father, while most of his compatriots were demigods. He came up with the idea of the Trojan horse. During the war, after the death of Achilles, the dead hero's armor was given to the winner of a wrestling match. Later on, Odysseus snuck into the city to find out where they kept a sacred, protective statue. Helen spotted him and helped him by giving the Greek directions to the temple where it was kept. Meanwhile, Odysseus's son and wife were struggling to keep other men from taking over Odysseus's island home. After the war, Odysseus took pity on the widowed queen of Troy, Hecuba, and offered to take her into his home.