***Hi all, here's chapter five. Quick note: Leo's dialogue about Nicopolis is taken directly from the Margarona Royal Hotel website: * .gr/about-area*. Also, I am not Rick Riordan, so none of this belongs to me.***

V. HAZEL

The trip started out well. Preveza was much smaller than Rome or Venice and there weren't nearly as many tourists, which was nice. It was a beautiful, sunny summer day, a great day to walk around a seaside Greek town. Hazel wished Frank could have come with them, but she had fun walking through Preveza with Piper, Jason, and Leo, ducking into shops and checking things off Leo's list of supplies. By lunchtime, they had everything on the list except wood for the masts and Celestial bronze. They decided to stop for a bite to eat and discuss their options.

"Have you gotten any bronze hits on your precious metal radar?" Leo asked as they waited for their food.

Hazel shook her head. "Nothing. There's plenty of gold and silver, some precious stones, all about fifteen feet below street-level, but no Celestial bronze."

Leo whistled. "So if we were on a treasure hunt, you're saying we'd be in good shape?"

"But we're not," Piper pointed out. "We're in Greece, there has to be some Celestial bronze around here somewhere."

Hazel frowned, thinking about it. "You're right, there should be. Everywhere else we've gone in the ancient lands, I've been able to sense some. It's not always a lot, but there's usually a piece of Celestial bronze or a weapon somewhere nearby. But not here. There's nothing."

Jason started to say something, but stopped as the waitress brought their food. He waited until she'd left, then said, "Could someone have taken it? Maybe Gaea moved it all so we wouldn't be able to use it."

"She never has before, though," Hazel said.

"But we've never needed it before," Leo said, "not since we got into the Mediterranean."

They were quiet as they ate their lunch. Hazel was focusing on the layers of earth beneath her. There was something strange about it. "It's like it's supposed to be there," she said slowly.

The others looked at her. "The bronze?" Leo asked.

Hazel nodded. "That's why the ground feels strange here. It's like I can feel the holes where the Celestial bronze is supposed to be. But it's not there. It's like someone—like someone collected it."

"Gaea doesn't want us to repair the ship." Piper put her sandwich down. "She's trying to prevent us from getting to Athens."

"I don't think so," Hazel said. Her certainty was growing the longer she sat there. "If Gaea had moved it because she didn't want us to repair the ship, she would have done it yesterday. But the bronze has been gone longer than that, maybe months. The traces are very faint."

Jason looked impressed. "How can you tell all that?"
Hazel shrugged. "Same way you can control the winds and Leo can pick two thousand year old locks. Just a talent, I guess."

Piper raised her eyebrows at Leo. "You can pick two thousand year old locks?"

Leo grinned and wiggled his fingers. "I've got the magic touch."

Piper rolled her eyes at Hazel, who bit back a smile.

"Who would want all that bronze, though?" Jason asked, still focused on the main problem. He seemed more relaxed, more at ease, since he'd handed the role of praetor over to Frank, but Hazel figured taking the lead had simply become a habit. "What would they do with it?"

"Build something with it," Leo suggested. "Melt it down and make weapons or armor. Put it in a pool and go swimming in it, Scrooge McDuck-style. There's a lot of options, man."

"But I should be able to sense it," Hazel insisted. "Something that big should be obvious."

"Unless—unless it's just too far away," Piper said thoughtfully. She stopped a passing waiter. Giving him a dazzling smile, she asked, "Are there any Greek ruins around Preveza?"

The waiter swallowed. "There's Nicopolis. About eight kilometers north."

"Thank you," Piper said, still smiling sweetly.

"Uh-huh," the waiter said. He turned away and promptly ran into a table. Hazel giggled.

Jason raised his eyebrows. "Should I be jealous?"

"Of what?" Piper asked. Her eyes widened. "Oh gods, did I just use charmspeak on him?"

Leo laughed. "You didn't even realize you were doing it?"

"No," Piper moaned, putting her face in her hands. "I usually know, now, when I'm doing it, but I wasn't paying attention. I got used to using it in all those stores, I didn't even think about it."

"Yeah, I liked that 'Olympian discount,'" Leo said.

"Anyway," Piper said, clearly eager to change the subject, "it sounds like maybe we should check out this Nicopolis. Let's face it, only a mythological something-or-other would collect up all the Celestial bronze in the area. And based on our past experiences, they all seem to like to hang out at sites that had some ancient significance."

"So what's important about this Nicopolis site?" Hazel asked. As she said it, she felt a twinge of worry for her brother, Nico, wherever he was right now.

"Well, it was 'built in the 1st century by the Roman Emperor Octavian August after his triumph at the Aktion naval battle against Marc Antony and Cleopatra'," Leo said.

Hazel, Jason, and Piper stared at him. Then, Hazel remembered the Pantheon, in Rome. "Is there a Spanish tour guide around?" she asked.

Leo grinned. "You caught me. It's on the placemats."

"Okay, well, I say we check out this Nicopolis," Piper said. "We don't have a better lead, and we need the bronze, right?"

Leo nodded. "Right. But, um, eight kilometers is about five miles. I don't know about you all, but a hike in ninety degree weather isn't my first idea of fun."

"I could fly out there," Jason offererd, "but I can't take all three of you at once."

"There's another option," Hazel said. "But first, maybe we should get somewhere more open."

Fifteen minutes later, they were speeding to Nicopolis. Hazel and Leo were riding on Arion, while Jason and Piper were next to them on Jason's storm spirit horse, Tempest. Hazel wished Nicopolis was a hundred miles away; when she was riding, she felt powerful, fearless, unstoppable. But with Arion's speed, five miles flew by like nothing. Within minutes, they had arrived at the ruins.

"Whoa." A wave of dizziness hit Hazel and she would have fallen off Arion if Leo hadn't caught her. "There's Celestial bronze here, alright. Tons of it. Literally."

Leo frowned at the stone ruins of the massive amphitheater in front of them. "Underground?"

"No," Hazel slid off Arion. He nuzzled her cheek and whickered nervously. "It's above ground." She felt suddenly cold as a memory of the sorceress Pasiphae in the House of Hades came back to her. "But there's some serious Mist cover-up going on here."

Hazel examined the ruins in front of them as Leo slid down from Arion and Jason and Piper jumped off of Tempest. A giant stone amphitheater was set into the hillside, its crumbling tiers of seats ringing a performance space. Hazel imagined coming here in ancient times, to watch a play or take in a political debate. She figured whoever was on that stage must have had to work hard to compete with the view behind them. From the amphitheater, the countryside stretched out in rolling green hills and farmland, until it ended in the blue of the bay near Preveza. Hazel wished she could just relax and enjoy the view, but her skin was tingling from the amount of Celestial bronze and magic in the air.

"Hazel says there's a ton of Celestial bronze around here," Leo told Jason and Piper.

"Tons," Hazel corrected. "About four and half tons, just on the other side of the hill. But we need to be careful. There's some seriously strong Mist here."

Piper shivered. "Do you feel that? The temperature's about twenty degrees colder than it was a minute ago."

Hazel felt it. She knew it was probably an illusion, but the air was growing steadily colder, causing goosebumps to rise on her arms.

"Is it Khione?" Leo asked. "'Cause I swear, if she tries to blast me into the sky again—."

"It's the Mist," Hazel said, trying to keep her voice calm, even as her heart was starting to race. "The cold is just an illusion."

"A really good illusion," Jason muttered. He put an arm around Piper, to keep her warm, and Hazel felt a pang, wishing Frank was here.

Leo's hand ignited into flames. The warmth washed over Hazel, chasing away the numbing cold. "Pays to have the fire guy around," he said. "So, the bronze is on the other side of the hill?"

Hazel nodded. She looked around for Arion, to tell him they'd be back soon, but the horse was already grazing two fields away. Tempest had disappeared. Hazel turned back to face the ruins. "Let's go."

It didn't take them long to climb the stone tiers to the top of the amphitheater, sticking close to Leo and his still-burning hand.

"Wow," Jason said, when they reached the top.

"Double wow," Leo said. He let the flames on his hand die.

Hazel had to agree, the view from up here was even better. She could see the countryside rolling away from them for miles in every direction, varying shades of green and brown, occasionally spotted with houses and farm equipment. But her focus, at the moment, was on the bronze door that had just appeared in front of them. Hazel was certain it hadn't been there when they'd climbed up. The door itself didn't bother her. The dozen Cyclopes with twelve-foot long spears guarding the door, however, bothered her a lot. Especially when they lowered their spears and pointed them directly at Hazel and her friends.

Piper held up her hands, clearly trying for the smile she had given the waiter. "Put down your weapons. We just want to talk."

One of the Cyclopes grunted. "The boss man will want to talk with you, too."

Quicker than Hazel would have believed possible, four Cyclopes darted forward. Hazel never even had a chance to draw her spatha. The last thing she remembered was the crack as the butt of a spear hit her head, then everything went black.

***Uh-oh, that's not good! Don't worry, Chapter Six, featuring Jason's POV and what happens next, will be up by Friday, March 28.***