"Nosoi?" Percy went into a practiced fighting stance. "You know, I keep thinking,I have now killed every single thing in Greek mythology.But the list never seems to end."
"You haven't killed me yet," Apollo muttered, I heard the slight tremor in his voice. He wasterrified.
"Don't tempt me," Percy responded. Rude.
I took a small step back. Apollo was trembling. I could practically feel how scared he is. But he took a deep breath, steeling himself. "These creatures are not myths," He said. Yes, brother. The monsters in front of us aren't myths. How surprising. "Of course, most things in those old myths are not myths." Yes. Do go on. That isn't obvious at all. "Except for that story about how I flayed the satyr Marsyas alive. That was a total lie."
I blinked. Did mortals actually think that was true? Ares started that rumor thousands of years ago. Hermes spread it. Did they actuallybelieveit? "That is a lie," I agreed.
Percy glanced at him, he couldn't hide the angry edge in his eyes. "You did what?" Did he NOT just hear what I said?
"Guys." Meg picked up a dead tree branch. "Could we talk about that later?"
"Yes. Discussing that later seems like a wonderful idea." I agreed.
The middle plague spirit spoke. "Apollooooo…" Its voice sounded like Hephaestus when he was sickandangry. "We have coooome to—"
Great, they came for a reason. Were they hired by this boss too? Before I could ask Apollo spoke.
"Let me stop you right there." He crossed his arms, stepped away from me and pretended to be indifferent. Key word. Pretended. I could see right through his act. His hands fidgeted with his pockets and the hem of his shirt, his eyes darted between the spirits then over to me then back to the spirits. He was doing that thing with his mouth where he's making that not-smile that looks convincing, but Iknowits fake because I've seen him break into tears while making that same fake expression. He only ever does when he's bluffing. But then again… Iamhis twin, and I have been observing his mannerisms for milenia.. Maybe he looked convincing to a more untrained eye. "You've come to take your revenge on me, eh?" He glanced between us. In that mere millisecond he met my eyes I could see the raw fear lingering in them. "You see, nosoi are the spirits of disease. Once I was born, spreading illnesses became part of my job. I use plague arrows to strike down naughty populations with smallpox, athlete's foot, that sort of thing." His voice somehow remained level, but then again, he had four thousand six hundred and twelve years to learn how to keep his voice steady when addressing father when he's angry. Stumbling over words with an angry Zeus isnota good experience. His hand twitches towards the lightning bolts and his voice just getsthat muchlouder and it makes him justthat muchmore terrifying. Then if you stutter again he does that thing where herests his hand on the boltand youknowif you mess up again he's going to bepissedand he becomes more dangerous so you force yourself to talk smoothly and you somehow get it over with without angering him... I may have gone off on a tangent there, sorry. But Apollo's voice control was remarkable nonetheless.
Back to the story.
"Gross," Meg said.
"Somebody's got to do it!" He said, voice still remarkably steady.. "Better a god, regulated by the Council of Olympus and with the proper health permits, than a horde of uncontrolled spirits like these." I mean.. I guess. Yeah. he's right. But I never really trusted him with plague duties. The spirit on the left gurgled. "We're trying to have a moooment here. Stop interrupting! We wish to be free, uncontroooolled—"
"Yes, I know. You'll destroy me. Then you'll spread every known malady across the world. You've been wanting to do that ever since Pandora let you out of that jar. But you can't. I will strike you down!" I abruptly realized his plan. We were supposed to be planning. Oh.
"What will you strike us down with? Where is your booow?" One of the spirits rasped.
"It appears to be missing," Apollo agreed. "But is it really? What if it's cleverly hidden under this Led Zeppelin T-shirt, and I am about to whip it out and shoot you all?"
The nosoi shuffled nervously.
"Yooou lie," said the one in the middle.
Percy cleared his throat. "Um, hey, Apollo…"
Did he have a plan? Oh please let him have a plan.
"I know what you're going to say," He told him. "You and Meg have come up with a clever plan to hold off these spirits while we run away to camp. I hate to see you sacrifice yourselves, but—" Do youreallythink that's a good idea bother? We already have father angry. And if Poseidon's only son dieshewill be angry. And what gave you the idea we were leaving them? I thought miserably.
"That's not what I was going to say," Percy said, speaking only a moment before I planned to talk. He raised his blade. "I was going to ask what happens if I just slice and dice these mouth-breathers with Celestial bronze."
The middle spirit chortled, his yellow eyes gleaming.
"Bad things happen." I murmured quietly.
"A sword is such a small weapon. It does not have the pooooetry of a good epidemic."
No. Poetry ismybrother'sthing and I will not allow a stupid spirit to take that from him. He may beterribleas haikus, but they make him happy and he deserves to be happy dammit.
"Stop!" I growled, cutting Apollo off. "You can't claim his poetry!"
Apollo muttered something under his breath in ancient Greek. I only caught a few words.Don't, Attentionand my name,Artemis.
"You are right," said the spirit, turning to us. "Enough wooooords."
I suddenly realized what he said.Don't draw their attention Artemis.
The three corpses shambled forward. I waved my arm in a violent dismissal gesture, hoping to blast them to plague dust. Nothing happened. Did I ever mention just how infuriatingly useless you mortals are?
Meg speared the nearest spirit with her stick, the branch stuck hard. Smoke started swirling down the wood.
"Let go!" Apollo warned. "Don't let the nosoi touch you!" His steady voice was gone, he sounded absolutely terrified. Like I'm going to puke terrified. I took a step closer to Apollo as Meg let go of the branch and hurried away.
As this went down, Perseus ran into battle. He moved through the attacks like water- Pun not intended. Sadly, whenever his sword made contact, the spirits dissolved into mist— not the good kind- and resolidified when the danger had passed.
A spirit lunged at him, its fatal grasp almost closing in on him, thankfully Meg scooped up a frozen peach and threw it with the force of one ofthose peoplein a gym class who throw the dodgeball so hard it leaves bruises. But what she threw wasn't, in fact, a dodgeball. which means it leaves more than bruises. The peach embedded in its forehead, knocking him down before he landed on Percy.
I breathed a sigh of relief, Apollo made a sound like a strangled cat. I spared a glance in his direction. His face was pale, and he watched the spirits every move. Even from here I could see his eye twitching. That only ever happened when he was really freaking out. I tried to even out my breathing. I didn't know how to get us all out of this alive.
"We gotta run," Meg decided.
"Yeah." Percy backtracked toward us. "I like that idea."
Apollo shook his head, I knew exactly what he was thinking. You can't run from disease if you could Medieval Europeans would have just gotten up and run from the black death. (Not my brother's fault. Just going to say that again. We took a century-long vacation with Mom to a beach in Cabo, and when we come back a third of the continent was dead.)
He opened his mouth to respond but Meg and Percy had already run off, I grabbed his arm and pulled him along. We bolted after them, my hand never leaving his wrist.
Percy pointed to a row of hills around a mile ahead. Both me and Apollo knew we would never make it. "That's the western border of camp. If we can just get there…"
We sprinted past an irrigation tank on a tractor-trailer. With a flick of his hand, Percy made the side of the tank to rupture, sending a wall of water into the three nosoi behind us.
"That was good." Meg grinned, the joyful expression out of place with the current scenario. She skipping along in her new green dress. How could she be happy right now? "We're going to make it!"
No, we're not. I thought. Apollo was slowing down, but I wasn't about to let him stop. Stopping meant death. I could hear each breath he took, each one a wheezing sound that he really shouldn't need to make.
His ribs.I realized abruptly. Mine ached, but I could only imagine the pain he was in. His ribs were so much worse than mine, he should be resting. He shouldn't need to run from his life from the living embodiment of sickness. But we couldn't slow down. His breathing only grew worse as we ran, and the pain in my chest only grew as I ran.
"We can't—" He wheezed. "They'll just—"
"Save your breath!" I practically yelled. "You—"
Before I could finish, glittering pillars of smoke rose from the ground directly in front of us. I banked sideways, pulling Apollo with me, Meg did the same. Those two spirits solidified. One had a third eye peach, the other a branch sticking from his chest. But the third? Percy didn't see it and ran directly into the smoke.
"Don't breathe!" Apollo wheezed. Which was funny because he could hardly breathe himself. That wasn't funny. Gods he needed rest.
The son of Poseidon's eyes widened and he fell to his knees, hands clawing at his throat. Surely he could breathe underwater, but that meant nothing when he wasn't taking inanyoxygen.
Meg grabbed another peach, but I doubted it would do much against the nosoi.
Apollo looked pale, I tried to think of a way to save Perseus, but the Branch Nosoi changed at us, I jumped out of its path, dragging Apollo with me. I went to bolt but stumbled over a tree root. My stagger caused Apollo to fall. He found himself flat on his back.
"ARTEMIS. GET BACK" He yelled, desperation in his voice. I jumped back, hoping the Nosoi would follow me, it didn't, all it did was loom over my brother.
"Which fatal illness shall I use to kill the great Apolloooo?" the spirit gurgled. "Anthrax? Perhaps eboooola…"
No. Please no. I can't let it hurt him I won't let it hurt him. I went to tackle the spirit, anything would be worth saving him. Even my own life.
"Hangnails," He suggested, but his voice was little for than a pained whimper. He tried desperately to back away from the nosoi. "I live in fear of hangnails."
I took a step forward, he glared at me but I wasn't letting him stop me.
Before I could act, the spirit struck.
"I have the answer!" the spirit cried. "Let's try this!"
He dissolved into smoke and settled over him like a glittering blanket of death.
I screamed.
I fell to my knees and pressed my hands to my mouth.
I can't say it was even a dignified scream. It was shrill and high pitched and I sounded like The One Who Dies First in a horror movie, but I couldn't hold it in.
No no no no no no no no this couldn't be happening I cant watch him die I can't.