make love, not war

by kneeshee

Drew never wanted to be a hero. That's what got Silena killed and yet-here she was one of the seven of the prophecy. Rue never fit in anywhere. She was stuck between life and death and yet-the seven of prophecy made her belong. Octavian didn't need a family. His first one got killed and yet-that's what the seven of the prophecy became.

12. RUE IV

Rue found out quickly that Iris had stuff Percy's new mansatchel with vitamin-enriched pastries, dried fruit leather, macrobiotic beef jerky, and a few crystals for good luck.

Percy was definitely keeping it.

If Rue wanted any of that crap, Rue would go home to the Underworld and subject asterself to Aunt Ceres' nagging.

No, thanks.

What Rue did grab though was the kelp jerky that had been a surprise addition and quickly understood why Octavian was addicted to the stuff. All Rue need was cheese dip.

Rue tried to forget about the sight enemy army, but if Rue ignored that memory, then the thought of who Percy really was crept into aster's mind. It was like a never-ending circle and Rue had more important things to worry about. It was early in the morning of June 21, now. They had to get to Alaska, find Thanatos, locate the legion's standard, and make it back to Camp Jupiter by the evening of June 24.

Four days. Meanwhile, the enemy had only a few hundred miles to march.

Rue shuddered. New Rome was aster's home and Rue knew it was strong especially with those in the reserves but still... the thought of that attacking them. It was like a few years back when there had been a surprise battle from some kind of labyrinth entrance that was smack dead in the middle of the city. It was the only time Terminus allowed them to break the rules as they forced the army back. The city had nearly been destroyed following it and the death toll was in the hundreds.

(And then they spent the next few months watching Octavian steam roll the senate for more funding to rebuild and how he looked a little haunted every time he came back from meeting with the city officials especially the district councilors. Rue had been worried, but Annia had died during that battle and well, Rue didn't want to accidentally tear the girl's soul away from the Underworld.)

Rue shook aster's head, turning to look at Frank. He explained about the blind seer Phineas in Portland, and how Iris had said that he might be able to tell them where to find Thanatos. Frank wouldn't say how he had managed to kill the basilisks, but Rue got the feeling it had something to do with the broken point of his spear. Whatever had happened, Frank sounded more scared of the spear than the basilisks. And Rue had a feeling that ast knew exactly what it was.

"So, this Iris-message worked?" Frank asked in an obvious deflection.

"I got in touch with Reyna," Rue said, not wanting to touch the fact that Percy couldn't get in contact with Fred. "You're supposed to throw a coin into a rainbow and say this incantation, like O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Except Fleecy kind of changed it. She gave us her—what did she call it—her direct number? So, I had to say, O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show Reyna at Camp Jupiter. I felt kind of stupid, but it worked. Reyna's image appeared in the rainbow, like in a two-way video call. She was in the baths. Scared her out of her mind." It made Rue laugh just thinking about it.

"That I would've paid to see," Frank said. "I mean—her expression. Not, you know, the baths."

Rue cackled, enjoying the way he blushed in mortification. "Anyway, we told Reyna about the army, but like Percy said, she pretty much already knew. It doesn't change anything. She's doing what she can to shore up the defenses. Unless we unleash Death, and get back with the eagle—"

"The camp can't stand against that army," Frank finished. "Not without help."

After that, they sailed in silence.

Percy guided the boat through the strong currents off the northern California coast. The wind was cold, but it felt good even if Rue felt like aster's stomach wanted to swim with the fishes. The hull rattled as the Pax plowed its way north.

Rue jerked harshly, startling both boys.

A chill went down Rue's spine as Rue looked around, breath appearing before them as if Rue was speaking in extreme cold.

Rue was sensing a very concentrated amount of death. Worse than Frank's spear. It was tugging at Rue's psyche.

When Rue looked at the giant forest that they were sailing by, it was like a tether locked and Rue could almost see the soul as it ran away from the Underworld.

"Rue," Frank asked.

"Stop the boat," Rue said before ast could think it through. "Stop the boat. I need to... I have to..."

Percy slowed the boat to a stop in the middle of the ocean which again, was not a good thought for Rue, but aster's attention was mainly on the forest in front of them.

"Rue?"

"There's..." Rue stared at the clump of trees in front of them. "There's a soul there. Two of them? Their cloaked in death."

"They must have escaped from the Underworld," Frank realized. Rue nodded absently. "We have to go there."

"Are you sure," Frank asked.

"Yeah," Rue breathed. "Whoever that is has a curse on them. One that's specifically designed to kill them slowly and torturously. Its spreading from them and into the land."

Percy led the boat towards the woods without another word.

The moment Rue's feet touch the ground aster almost bowled over from it. Even Percy seemed a bit lightheaded. When they looked back at the water, sea creatures began to pop up like fish in a bowl.

"I can see what you mean," he said. "It's seeping into the sea."

"Will the two of you be okay," Frank asked, hoveringly over the both of them.

Percy nodded his head. "It just shocked me. Nothing like how it was with the army. This was like turning on the shower and getting sprayed with cold water."

Rue didn't even seem to hear, walking without restraint right into the woods. It took them awhile to make it through, but the three of them grew angrier as every step closer to the source showed dryads and nymphs lying flat on the ground, the chlorophyll in their veins making them paler than they should be. They stopped frequently to move them out the pathways, lying them against the trees and bushes. The animals struggled to move as the poisonous ghoul seeped life from them.

The closer they moved they could smell the roasting cooked meat. Percy and Frank shivered at Rue's side, no doubt feeling the waft of power in the air. The curse was strong. One that was definitely placed by the hands of a god from the Dii Consentes Major.

Rue's Father was the punisher of broken oaths. He was the god of the most potent curses and the master of the Furiae.

Rue bent to the ground, touching the soil and could feel the curse pulsating. If this was someone Gaia brought back, Rue saw no reason as to why.

"Rue, you dropped this," Percy said as ast stood back to aster's feet.

It was The King of Pentacles. A mature man of considerable earthly power, usually depicted as a diplomatic businessman with a lot of practical wisdom. A man with a taste for sensual delights and earthly gifts. Someone that had social standing and big on trying to show it off and smoozing with the rest of high society. On the downside, he can be a man of phenomenally huge ego. Someone that a person could not even think to cross.

Considering all the people that usually got cursed or on the bad side of the gods in the myths were usually royalty or nobles, that narrowed the list down to absolutely no idea.

The answer came in just a few more steps. It was a man because of course, it was. He was lanky and pale, with a mop of messy brown hair. Rue could count every single one of his ribs. In front of him was an open fire where fish and other animals were roasting while behind him was a bunch of skinned animals and their guts that threw Rue off so bad that ast considered going vegan for just a moment.

(Maybe Rue should visit Aunt Ceres.)

At his side was a mountain lion, that perked up as soon as they came into.

"I told you that they would come, daughter," the man stated, not looking from the way he bit into the fish. Eyes and all. Rue was going to be sick. It didn't even look like he skinned it.

"Who are you," Rue demanded.

"I thought you would be able to guess, daughter of the dead," the man yawned.

Rue already didn't like them to begin with. Now, ast really wanted them gone for the intentional misgendering. Enbyphobic asshole.

"I don't waste time with criminals," Rue sneered. "That curse on you highlights a really big crime."

"I did nothing wrong," the man sniffed, taking a bite out of what was probably a squirrel at one point.

"That curse says otherwise."

"Wait," Percy cut in. "Maybe if you told us who you are, we could agree or not. Otherwise, this would just keep going on over and over again and we're kind of on a schedule."

"Oh, I know all about your schedule," the man said dismissively. "Coming back to life to work for Lady Gaea gave me power over this entire forest and about five acres into the sea over there just keep you here until the 24th."

"What do you mean keep us here," Frank asked in alarm, eyes darting around the trees and the raging fire in front of them.

"Well, this grove belongs to me. A little consolation prize from the last grove that I stepped into."

"Erysichthon," Rue stated.

"You know this guy, Rue?" Percy asked.

"He was king from Thessaly. He tried to cut down a sacred tree to Ceres for his dining hall. She cursed him with insatiable hunger and thirst. Lord Līber also turned on him because what upset Aunt Ceres also upset him. He starved, selling all of his things to buy food and drinks but nothing worked. He even sold his daughter..." Rue's voice trailed off, falling onto mountain lion beside him. "His daughter was a lover of your Dad, Percy. She could shapeshift. Erysichthon used to sell her off for the bridal pay and she'd transform into an animal and go back to her Father just to do it all over again."

"A dutiful daughter she is, my Mēstra," the old king nodded. He reached out to rub a hand across the hand of the mountain lion and stepping in front of her form as she shifted back to a human. Long, curly brown hair fell down to her waist from what Rue could see as she reached a pale hand out to grab some rags to wear. She moved from behind her Father's form, dark eyes regarding them coolly as she stood at his side.

She reminded Rue greatly of Jason. The son of Jove had been personally reared by Lupa and even years later at camp, it was hard for him to shake the effects of her parenting away. He still gave little growls and bared his teeth whenever he got too agitated, be very social and territorial, and definitely had the endurance to go up against an enemy. There was a reason why he only had five consistent training partners. The others tapped out too quick for him to really work up a sweat.

"What are you doing here then," Frank asked. "I mean other than trying to keep us prisoner."

"Why this grove," Rue demanded. "There's no sacred tree here."

"On the contrary, daughter of riches, there is three," the princess murmured, her voice had a rough undertone as if she still wasn't used to speaking with human vocal cords. "The people have that tree over there to be the Hyperion Tree. Tis currently the world's tallest living tree."

"And there are two more," her Father said. "The Helios and Icarus trees. The wood would be enough to rebuild my castle right here on the coast of this park so that I can fish for food and have the best house. I shall open it to visitors to gawk at its extravagance and I will always have money for food. You know how hard it is to get delivery for what you all call pizza without an address?"

"You can't... you can't do that," Frank protested.

Rue scowled. "You just love bothering protected forests."

Erysichthon sneered. "They have the best material."

"That doesn't make it right," Percy stated. "You're killing all the dryads."

"Sacrifices have to be made."

The boys inhaled sharply in anger.

Rue pursed ast lips and stared.

"Rue," Frank asked.

Rue shook aster's head. "Sorry. I was trying to see what use you would have for Gaea and was coming up blank."

Erysichthon scowled. "Revenge. Revenge is all we need. We feed her armies, and we live forever."

Rue gave a sharp laugh. "Live forever? You are not a god. And its gunny that you would think she would allow that!"

"What do you mean," Mēstra asked.

"Gaia is Mother Earth. Humans are born from the bones of Mother. Mortals all come from the bones of Mother and what they once were they shall be again. She doesn't need you to feed her armies especially not at the risk of you eating all of their food."

Erysichthon froze, the stick of meat half-way to his mouth. "And you think there is a better option in the Underworld?"

"You were never thirsty or starved," Rue scowled.

"I was tortured! It wasn't like Tántalos! They placed so close to Elysium where I could smell the libations that those blessed souls had every single hour! I was starving and thirsty even then!"

"Were you," Rue shot back. "Or were you so entitled that you believed that you deserved it? Just like you were so entitled to take an ax to that sacred tree!"

"I was king!"

"You are a desperate man grasping at straws in order to avoid admitting to your own unimportance!" Rue roared, whips soaring through the air and snapping at them. Mēstra caught it in her hand. Rue didn't even try to yank it back. Not yet.

"Rue," Percy asked hesitantly, but Rue knew that they knew this was something they could not speak on. This was about aster's Father's realm. This was about Death moreso than it was about Life.

"You are cursed, Erysichthon," Rue stated plainly, cocking aster's hip and placing a hand behind aster's back. Rue's whip morphed back into its resting form, slipping from the princess' hand. It wrapped around Rue's wrist like a bracelet instead of circling aster's waist. Rue's other arm joined the first. "She has no true need for you, or she would have removed the curse herself."

And just as ast knew it would, the king took offense. "Then I suppose that I shall hand you over to her. It's a much better plan than the sham of a quest that you are going on. She will grant me reprieve from my curse, and I could live as long as I please."

Rue signaled for both boys to attack while Rue fell back. The tarot cards worked once, so hopefully they would again. Rue shuffled through them quickly, searching for the Death card before aster's attention fell upon the Suit of Goblets.

Rue smiled, using the Ten of Cups card while Frank and Percy distracted Erysichthon and Mēstra. Rue was starting to think that there was more to ast's waistbands than what Rue originally thought because there was just enough aconite and some hemlock water dropwort than Rue needed for Rue's plan. Rue mixed in some of the sweetened tea that Pranjal had packed for ast. It was the strong nasty kind that he used to sneak Rue medicine that ast didn't want. Rue reached for the ambrosia in Rue's pack, breaking a small piece off to hide under Rue's tongue.

"Stop," Rue yelled, turning to look at them. Rue ran between each of the groups. "Stop. Everybody stop, dammit!"

The boys flanked Rue immediately while Mēstra landed back in front of her Father who was brandishing a stick like a sword. No wonder Frank looked a bit confused. He didn't even have any real competition aside from Claws over there.

"Fine," Rue spat, glaring at the king. "Fine. Here. This will remove your stupid curse and keep you from going back to the Underworld."

The man smiled greedily, eyeing the cup in Rue's hands.

"Father," Mēstra protested, shifting back into a human. "You cannot trust it."

Rue shrugged. "You don't have to." Tilting aster's head, Rue said, "You can keep just keep starving more and more. Never being satisfied until you ate everything around here up. Even the fish will start to avoid the place after a while, and you'd be back where you started. It's your choice."

Erysichthon grimaced.

"And they don't pay a bride's price like back in the day," Rue commented. "You won't even be able to sell Mēstra away from a few quick bucks."

The princess flinched.

"You drink it first," Erysichthon stated. "Just to make sure it isn't a trick."

"I'm not cursed," Rue replied dryly.

"I will not take it if you do not," he declared. "And you can kill us as much as you would like, but we will simply return and do it all over again. I control this grove and you cannot leave. You will stay here and Mēstra can attack you over and over again, until she finally wears you down and kill you. It's your choice."

Rue narrowed aster's eyes before raising the chalice. Keeping eye contact, Rue took a large sip and made a show swallowing it. Letting the piece of ambrosia melt under aster's tongue, Rue held the chalice out to the King who snatched it from ast greedily.

Rue stepped back until ast was standing side by side with the boys, waist bands slithering around aster's stomach.

"I hope you have a plan," Percy muttered.

"Trust me," Rue smirked.

They all watched as he drank the rest of it.

Every last drop.

He smacked his lips obnoxiously as he finished it, and Rue gave it one... two... three... four... five... bingo.

"So," Rue asked. "Do you still feel cursed?"

He hummed, shifting a bit on his feet as he pressed a hand to his stomach. "I feel... hm. I feel a little nauseous if I'm being honest."

Rue nodded aster's head. "That's the sýra, a fermented milk drink type of thing one of my sisters likes reacting to the ginger which you know helps with nausea. Give it a moment and I bet you feel all kind of powerful. Heck, you'd probably even be strong enough to rip the tree out at its root."

Erysichthon nodded his head in excitement. "Yeah. I think I can feel it now. Hey, what's all in that in case I need it again and can I keep the cup?"

Rue scoffed, "No." Rue was pretty sure that the cup would appear back on the card anyway. "But the ingredients well... a little bit of everything you know, but my favorite ingredients are the aconite and water hemlock."

"Aconite," Mēstra repeated in horror. "Isn't that... isn't that poisonous?"

"You're supposed to be dead," Rue rolled aster's eyes. "Food and herbs from the Underworld are like normal, mortal and you know above surface in the land of the living kumbaya type of food. It's no real difference, but tell me, Erysichthon..."

And here, Rue's voice dropped into something ominous and with it... the anticipation of something lingered in the air.

"Does that water hemlock give you power," Rue snickered. "Does it make you powerful?"

Frank and Percy stiffened beside Rue. One of the things that the First and Fifth Cohort prided themselves on was their use of poisons and taught it to every recruit that they received. It stemmed from the Verus Family - Octavian, Augustus, and Annia - that used to make even the smallest thing poisonous. (Seriously, fresh tap water in Bellona's Boarding School was unsafe until Augustus got an apology in MLA format with 12-point Times New Roman font from the entire graduating class. They had to use bottled water until he read each apology and actually graded them! It was a miracle no one died especially since ambrosia and nectar wasn't working on them. The people couldn't even shower!)

"You think you know power," Rue snarled, gazing at the disgraced king seeing the way he shifted. No doubt the poison was setting in nicely. There's a cold draft from somewhere, from nowhere. "You think that you know death and spirits and rebirth?" Rue's eyes had turned milky white. Ast was Rue, child of Pluto Necrodegmon. Rue was his child of the fertile earth. Child of the god of the most potent curses, those which invoked the fury of the Erinyes. His oracle of the dead that was borne from his essence. "You know nothing. " Asphodel clawed its way deep from within the underworld, drawing forth souls from the Smith River and Prairie Creek. Drowning was a leading cause of death in the park after all. "And you have learned nothing."

Fire as dark as the night and as green as the sea licked emerged from cracks within the ground.

Rue couldn't see it or well, Rue didn't pay attention to the way that Frank shrunk back, hiding behind Percy as his hand clutched at his pocket.

"Incipe, Ditis famulae, propera ardentem vibrare pinum." Erysichthon cried and blubbered backing up against the same tree that he wanted to cut down, pleading for his stupid, miserable life. "O Ditis et Proserpina! O Mercurius inferni et sanctae Arae et divinae Furiae! Da ut Erysichthon, frustulorum mendicus, Triopae filius, fractum hominem inveniatque intra domi tuae dolorem!"

Mēstra took on the form of mountain lion standing protectively in front of her sniveling Father.

"You think you know death," Rue laughed, loud and bitter and mocking... so mocking. The spirits whispered around them, chanting in various of dead languages from around the world. "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose," they said. Rue continued forward as hazy images appeared around them. "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise."

It was cold.

It was freezing.

It should be impossible to feel this way when it was the middle of summer in California, but it was like standing New York Times Square on New Years Day.

The very air was frozen, numbingly cold stillness surrounding them.

It felt like death had come to visit.

Rue bared aster's teeth at the shivering form of the king standing before them. Mēstra lunged and the dead attacked. Tearing into her form, fur and gore and blood went every which of way as they converged on her. Rue didn't seem to notice, continuing on towards Erysichthon, the Death card slipping into aster's hand. The veins in Rue's arms could be seen as Rue stepped closer, voice dropping softer than even a whisper, lips curve sharply like Grandfather's scythe. "I am Death."

The man's eyes roll back into his head, his body convulses under Rue's touch. An unnatural, glassy blue crawls over Erysichthon's eyes, and his mouth locks into unheard scream, unyielding, stiff like rigor mortis. Skeleton hands crawled from within the card, pulling at the body and the spirits around them, feasting out it like the deathly sin of Gluttony.

Never let it be said that Rue didn't enjoy a bit of irony.

The man before Rue curled painfully, his joints locked into an unnatural position. He breathes. He will never do anything else again.

The hands slithered back into the card with an awful slurping sound.

Rue blinked, taking in the carnage in front of ast, turning on aster's feet slowly until ast came face to face with Percy and Frank.

"Oh," Rue breathed, and then aster's knees slammed into the ground with sharp crack as ast fell to the demos oneiron, where the tribe of Oneiroi attended to Rue.

---

Rue awakened with a sharp inhale.

Though, Rue thought ast was still asleep when ast noticed a killer whale wearing a makeshift rope harness.

Percy was asleep and Frank... Frank was looking at Rue with an expression ast had never seen before. When he noticed that Rue was looking at him, he hurriedly turned away.

Rue almost wanted to ask what was wrong, but Rue also felt like Vulcan had took ax-hammer to aster's head like he did Jove. The memories trickled back slowly, but Rue also didn't have the patience to sort through them.

The Pax floated on an iron-black river through the middle of a city. Heavy clouds hung low overhead. The cold rain was so light, it seemed suspended in the air. On Rue's left were industrial warehouses and railroad tracks. To aster's right was a small downtown area—an almost cozy-looking cluster of towers between the banks of the river and a line of misty forested hills.

"Where are we," Rue asked.

"Portland," Frank mumbled.

Beside Rue, Percy lurched awake in cold gray daylight, rain falling on his face.

"Welcome to Portland," Rue stated dryly.

Percy sat up and blinked before rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "How did we get here?"

Frank gave him a look like, You won't believe this. "The killer whale took us as far as the Columbia River. Then he passed the harness to a couple of twelve-foot sturgeons."

"What," Rue said.

"Anyway," Frank continued, "the sturgeons pulled us for a long time. I kept watch over the two of you. Then we hit this river. After that, the boat kind of took over and navigated us here all by itself. Sleep okay?"

As the Pax glided south, Percy told them about his dreams. He tried to focus on the positive: a warship might be on the way to help Camp Jupiter. A friendly Cyclops and a giant dog were looking for him.

When Percy described the Roman fort on the ice, Rue felt a bit sick. Rue was a bit desensitize to death, but it was still unnerving to remember that aster's sister gave her life to stop that giant. And that roman camp... was it a taunt about that doomed expedition? A taunt about the army going after Camp Jupiter. What was it?

"So Alcyoneus is on a glacier," ast said. "That doesn't narrow it down much. Alaska has hundreds of those."

Percy nodded. "Maybe this seer dude Phineas can tell us which one."

The boat docked itself at a wharf. The three demigods stared up at the buildings of drizzly downtown Portland.

Frank wiped the rain off his flat-top hair.

"So now we find a blind man in the rain," Frank said.

"Yay."

Funnily enough, it wasn't as hard as they thought. The moment Rue touched Portland's soil... the feeling of a cursed soul rang out and well, the screaming and the weed whacker helped.

They'd brought lightweight Polartec jackets with their supplies, so they bundled up against the cold rain and walked for a few blocks through the mostly deserted streets. Rue thought ast would feel weird with aster's waist beads covered by the material, but it was actually kind of nice. A bit like wearing the compression shirts that were sold in New Rome. This time Percy was smart and brought most of his supplies from the boat. He even stuffed the macrobiotic jerky in his coat pocket, but Rue snatched away the kelp jerky. Rue was going to hoard that for asterself, thank you very much.

They saw some bicycle traffic and a few homeless guy shuddled in doorways, but the majority of Portlanders seemed to be staying indoors.

As they made their way down Glisan Street, Rue heard a voice down the street yelling: "HA! TAKE THAT, STUPID CHICKENS!" followed by the revving of a small engine and a lot of squawking. The curse was also so strong and funky that it burned Rue's nose and brought tears to aster's eyes until Rue was only seeing blurry images.

"You think—?" Percy started.

"Probably," Frank agreed.

They ran toward the sounds.

The next block over, they found a big open parking lot with tree-lined sidewalks and rows of food trucks facing the streets on all four sides.

Rue gagged, wiping at aster's eyes.

There was a bunch of food trucks around. Some were simple white metal boxes on wheels, with awnings and serving counters. Others were painted blue or purple or polka-dotted, with big banners out front and colorful menu boards and tables like do-it-yourself sidewalk cafés. One advertised Korean/Brazilian fusion tacos, which sounded like some kind of top-secret radioactive cuisine. Another offered sushi on a stick. A third was selling deep-fried ice cream sandwiches.

The smell was amazing—dozens of different kitchens cooking at once, and yet, Rue could still not get that stinky scent out of Rue's nose.

Unfortunately, there was more happening than just cooking. In the center of the lot, behind all the food trucks, an old man in a bathrobe was running around with a weed whacker, screaming at a flock of bird-ladies who were trying to steal food off a picnic table.

"Harpies," said Rue, pinching aster's nose. "Which means—"

"That's Phineas," Frank guessed.

They ran across the street and squeezed between the Korean/Brazilian truck and a Chinese egg roll burrito vendor.

The backs of the food trucks weren't nearly as appetizing as the fronts.

They were cluttered with stacks of plastic buckets, overflowing garbage cans, and makeshift clotheslines hung with wet aprons and towels. The parking lot itself was nothing but a square of cracked asphalt, marbled with weeds. In the middle was a picnic table piled high with food from all the different trucks.

And it still smelled better than that cursed man!

That bald-head skally-wag in a disgusting ketchup splattered bathrobe and fuzzy pink bunny slippers that looked like it belonged more in the trash than the trash did. Old and wrinkly and fat as if he should be on Jenny Craig infomercial. He was swinging his gas-powered weed whacker at the half-dozen harpies who were hovering over his picnic table.

He was clearly blind. His eyes were milky white, and usually he missed the harpies by a lot, but he was still doing a pretty good job fending them off.

"Back, dirty chickens!" he bellowed.

That fucker, Rue snarled. He was starving them!

Rue hated when people took their misery out on other people especially if it was misery brought on by their own actions. If he didn't want the Harpies bothering him, then he should have never revealed the future to mankind, nor should he have had his sons killed by their stepmother, and he sure as hell shouldn't have offended Sol!

As they dived for the food, they seemed more desperate than angry. Rue could feel the curse lingering on them also. Both sides were miserable. Well, no more of that. WHIRRRR! The old man swung his weed whacker. Rue's whip sailed through the air, yanking it out of his hand. It grazed one of the harpies' wings. The harpy yelped in pain and fluttered off, dropping yellow feathers as she flew.

Another harpy circled higher than the rest. She looked younger and smaller than the others, with bright-red feathers.

She watched carefully for an opening, and when Phineas turned in the direction that his weed whacker was snatched away, she made a wild dive for the table. She grabbed a burrito in her clawed feet, but before she could escape, the blind man pulled a knife from inside his bathrobe and sliced her in the back. The harpy yelped, dropped the burrito, and flew off.

"Hey, stop it!" Percy yelled.

Rue gave an answering growl, dropping the weed whacker and smacking at Phineas' face.

The harpies took Percy's words the wrong way though. They glanced over at the three demigods and immediately fled. Most of them fluttered away and perched in the trees around the square, staring dejectedly at the picnic table. The red-feathered one with the hurt back flew unsteadily down Glisan Street and out of sight.

"Ha!" The blind man yelled in triumph. He grinned vacantly in their direction. "Thank you, strangers! Your help is most appreciated."

"I'd rather die than help you," Rue snarled.

"Rue, chill," Percy stated, but aster could hear the anger in his voice.

Right. They needed information from him.

"Uh, whatever." Rue sniffed and followed behind Percy as he approached the old guy. Rue planted a foot on the weed whacker when ast came up beside it.

"I'm Percy Jackson. This is—"

"Demigods!" the old man said. "I can always smell demigods."

"Surprise you can smell on your own stench," Rue grumbled.

Frank frowned. "Do we smell that bad?"

The old man laughed. "Of course not. But you'd be surprised how sharp my other senses became once I was blinded. I'm Phineas. And you—wait, don't tell me—" He reached for Percy's face and poked him in the eyes.

"Ow!" Percy complained. Rue grimaced. Ast hoped he wouldn't need a tetanus shot.

"Son of Neptune!" Phineas exclaimed. "I thought I smelled the ocean on you, Percy Jackson. I'm also a son of Neptune, you know."

"Hey...yeah. Okay." Percy rubbed his eyes.

Phineas turned to Rue. "And here...Oh my, the smell of gold and deep earth. Rue Harald, child of Pluto. And next to you—the son of Mars. But there's more to your story, Frank Zhang—"

"Ancient blood," Frank muttered. "Prince of Pylos. Blah, blah, blah."

"Periclymenus, exactly! Oh, he was a nice fellow. I loved the Argonauts!"

Frank's mouth fell open. "W-wait. Perrywho?"

Phineas grinned. "Don't worry. I know about your family. That story about your great-grandfather? He didn't really destroy the camp. Now, what an interesting group. Are you hungry?"

Rue jerked, turning to look at Frank. He was related to someone that rumored to have destroyed the camp. How the hell did he get allowed in?

Frank looked like he'd been run over by a truck, but Phineas had already moved on to other matters. He waved his hand at the picnic table.

In the nearby trees, the harpies shrieked miserably.

Rue narrowed aster's eyes, moving forward to pick at the food on the table, watching the hunting knife that stupid blind dude held in his hands. Ast was going to go bird feeding. Regular birds didn't like coming around Rue unless it was a screech owl or any other "omen of death" so Rue would take want ast could get.

"Look, I'm confused," Percy said. "We need some information. We were told—"

"—that the harpies were keeping my food away from me," Phineas finished, "and if you helped me, I'd help you."

"Something like that," Percy admitted.

Phineas laughed. "That's old news. Do I look like I'm missing any meals?" He patted his belly, which was the size of an overinflated basketball. Rue sniffed. He needed to miss a few and Rue hated him even more for making ast feel fatphobic, but for him, ast would say ever mean thing in the world.

"Um ... no," Percy said.

Phineas waved his weed whacker in an expansive gesture. All three of them ducked.

"Things have changed, my friends!" he said, waving his hunting knife in an elaborate gesture. Rue jerked back and bit back a curse after he nearly whacked off one of aster's puff balls. "When I first got the gift of prophecy, eons ago, it's true Jupiter cursed me. He sent the harpies to steal my food. You see, I had a bit of a big mouth. I gave away too many secrets that the gods wanted kept." He turned to Rue. "For instance, your dead sister was the one to actually be on this quest. And you—" He turned to Frank. "Your life depends on a burned stick."

Percy frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Rue blinked. Hazel was dead.

Frank looked like the truck had backed up and run over him again.

"And you," Phineas turned to Percy, "well now, you don't even know who you are! I could tell you, of course, but...ha! What fun would that be? And Brigid O'Shaughnessy shot Miles Archer in The Maltese Falcon. And Darth Vader is actually Luke's father. And the winner of the next Super Bowl will be—"

"Got it," Frank muttered. Frank gripped his spear like he was ready to slide it in-between the old man's ribs.

Well, maybe Rue was projecting a bit.

"So you talked too much, and the gods cursed you. Why did they stop?" Percy asked.

"Oh, they didn't!" The old man arched his bushy eyebrows like, Can you believe it? "I had to make a deal with the Argonauts. They wanted information too, you see. I told them to kill the harpies, and I'd cooperate. Well, they drove those nasty creatures away, but Iris wouldn't let them kill the harpies. An outrage! So this time, when my patron brought me back to life—"

"Your patron?" Frank asked.

It made sense, Rue thought. For someone who had his sons killed for a bit of sloppy toppy doesn't see what's wrong with keeping your family from being killed.

Phineas gave him a wicked grin. "Why, Gaea, of course. Who do you think opened the Doors of Death? Your girlfriend here understands. Isn't Gaea your patron, too?"

"I will pluck your eyeballs out and wear them as rings," Rue promised, whip changing into a spear.

Phineas looked amused. If he had heard the spear being drawn, he didn't seem concerned. "Fine, if you want to be noble and stick with the losing side, that's your business. But Gaea is waking. She's already rewritten the rules of life and death! I'm alive again, and in exchange for my help—a prophecy here, a prophecy there—I get my fondest wish. The tables have been turned, so to speak. Now I can eat all I want, all day long, and the harpies have to watch and starve."

"They're cursed!" the old man said as the harpies wailed in the trees. "They can eat only food from my table, and they can't leave Portland. Since the Doors of Death are open, they can't even die. It's beautiful!"

"Beautiful?" Frank protested. "They're living creatures. Why are you so mean to them?"

"They're monsters!" Phineas said. "And mean? Those feather-brained demons tormented me for years!"

"But it was their duty," Percy said, trying to control himself. "Jupiter ordered them to."

"Oh, I'm mad at Jupiter, too," Phineas agreed. "In time, Gaea will see that the gods are properly punished. Horrible job they've done, ruling the world. But for now, I'm enjoying Portland. The mortals take no notice of me. They think I'm just a crazy old man shooing away pigeons!"

Rue pressed aster's staff deeper into his throat. "You're horrible," ast growled. "I'll be sure to put in a word with Father to have you placed in the Fields of Punishment!"

Phineas sneered. "I wouldn't be talking. Your sister started this whole thing! If it weren't for her, Alcyoneus wouldn't be alive!"

Rue stumbled back before rage overtook aster's expression. Percy yanked ast away before Rue bitch slapped him, information needed or not.

"Rue?" Frank's eyes got as wide as quarters. "What's he talking about?"

"Ha!" Phineas said. "You'll find out soon enough, Frank Zhang. Then we'll see if you're still sweet on your girlfriend. But that's not what you're here about, is it? You want to find Thanatos. He's being kept at Alcyoneus's lair. I can tell you where that is. Of course, I can. But you'll have to do me a favor."

"Forget it," Rue snapped. "You're working for the enemy. I'll give you a one-way ticket back to the Underworld myself and I swear you'll never leave again."

"You could try." Phineas smiled. "But I doubt I'd stay dead very long. You see, Gaea has shown me the easy way back. And with Thanatos in chains, there's no one to keep me down! Besides, if you kill me, you won't get my secrets."

Percy gritted his teeth. "What's the favor?"

Phineas licked his lips greedily. "There's one harpy who's quicker than the rest."

"The red one," Percy guessed.

"I'm blind! I don't know colors!" the old man groused. "At any rate, she's the only one I have trouble with. She's wily, that one. Always does her own thing, never roosts with the others. She gave me these." He pointed at the scars on his forehead.

"Good for her," Rue sneered. "She just missed your vocal cords."

"Capture that harpy," he said. "Bring her to me. I want her tied up where I can keep an eye on her...ah, so to speak. Harpies hate being tied. It causes them extreme pain. Yes, I'll enjoy that. Maybe I'll even feed her so that she lasts longer."

Rue's arms were being held in a painful grip by Frank. If ast wasn't so pissed, Rue could break out of it a bit easily; might have to sacrifice an arm or two, but ast would be able to get out. Rue would be damned to the pit before ast help this old bastard! Sure, they needed the information he had but Rue would feel better if they stuck a sword through his throat.

(Rue was regretting the fact that Jason was missing, Octavian wasn't chosen for the quest, and that Pranjal wouldn't have come either way. The Legion had never seen better information gatherers and one of the prisoners still twitched till this day after Jason was through with her.)

"Oh, go talk among yourselves," Phineas said breezily. "I don't care. Just remember that without my help, your quest will fail. And everyone you love in the world will die. Now, off with you! Bring me a harpy!"

"We'll need some of your food." Percy shouldered his way around the old man and snatched stuff off the picnic table—a covered bowl of Thai noodles in mac-and-cheese sauce, and a tubular pastry that looked like a combination burrito and cinnamon roll. "Come on, guys." He led them out of the parking lot.

"That man..." Rue growled, punching a dent into the side of a bus-stop bench. "He needs to die. Again." Ast shook the pain out of aster's hands.

"We'll get him," Percy promised. "He's nothing like your sister. I don't care what he says."

Rue pursed aster's lips and nodded. "Hazel was victim of circumstances, but she died a hero. Something he would know nothing about."

"I could intimidate that old man," Frank offered. He slung his spear off his back and gripped it uneasily. "maybe scare him—"

"Frank, it's okay," Percy said. "Let's keep that as a backup plan, but I don't think Phineas can be scared into cooperating. Besides, you've only got two more uses out of the spear, right?"

Frank scowled at the dragon's-tooth point, which had grown back completely overnight. "Yeah. I guess..."

Rue wasn't sure what the old seer had meant about Frank's family history—his great-grandfather destroying camp, his Argonaut ancestor, and the bit about a burned stick controlling Frank's life. But it had clearly shaken Frank up. Well, at least, Rue understood what made him so unnerving if he had a greek background.

"I've got an idea." Percy pointed up the street. "The red-feathered harpy went that way. Let's see if we can get her to talk to us."

Rue looked at the food in his hands. "You're going to use that as bait?"

"More like a peace offering," Percy said. "Come on. Just try to keep the other harpies from stealing this stuff, okay?"

Percy uncovered the Thai noodles and unwrapped the cinnamon burrito. Fragrant steam wafted into the air. They walked down the street. Rue let asters whip twirl about aster's arms and Frank held his bow in a tight grip. The harpies fluttered after them, perching on trees, mailboxes, and flagpoles, following the smell of food.

Percy was keeping a tight grip on the food. A good thing really with how quickly the harpies could snatch things. It was better to not lose his peace offering before they found the red-feathered harpy.

Finally they spotted her, circling above a stretch of parkland that ran for several blocks between rows of old stone buildings. Paths stretched through the park under huge maple and elm trees, past sculptures and playgrounds and shady benches. They crossed the street and found a bench to sit on, next to a big bronze sculpture of an elephant.

"Looks like Hannibal," Rue said.

"Except it's Chinese," Frank said. "My grandmother has one of those." He flinched. "I mean, hers isn't twelve feet tall. But she imports stuff...from China. We're Chinese." He looked at Rue and Percy, who were trying hard not to laugh. "Could I just die from embarrassment now?" he asked.

"Don't worry about it, man," Percy said. "Let's see if we can make friends with the harpy." He raised the Thai noodles and fanned the smell upward—spicy peppers and cheesy goodness. The red harpy circled lower.

"We won't hurt you," Percy called up in a normal voice. "We just want to talk. Thai noodles for a chance to talk, okay?"

The harpy streaked down in a flash of red and landed on the elephant statue.

She was painfully thin. Her feathery legs were like sticks. Her face would have been pretty except for her sunken cheeks. She moved in jerky birdlike twitches, her coffee-brown eyes darting restlessly, her fingers clawing at her plumage, her earlobes, her shaggy red hair.

"Cheese," she muttered, looking sideways. "Ella doesn't like cheese."

Rue stared. The thing was starving and probably hasn't eaten anything since they were locked down to Phineas and still had the audacity to be picky? If she was allergic, that would be fine and understandable, but picky?

Though it did offer Rue the choice to back to that table and steal more food from that asshole.

Percy hesitated. "Your name is Ella?"

"Ella. Aella. 'Harpy.' In English. In Latin. Ella doesn't like cheese." She said all that without taking a breath or making eye contact. Her hands snatched at her hair, her burlap dress, the raindrops, whatever moved. Quicker than any of them could blink, she lunged, snatched the cinnamon burrito, and appeared atop the elephant again.

"Gods, she's fast!" Rue said.

"And heavily caffeinated," Frank guessed.

Ella sniffed the burrito. She nibbled at the edge and shuddered from head to foot, cawing like she was dying. "Cinnamon is good," she pronounced. "Good for harpies. Yum."

She started to eat, but the bigger harpies swooped down. Before any of them could react, they began pummeling Ella with their wings, snatching at the burrito.

"Nnnnnnooo." Ella tried to hide under her wings as her sisters ganged up on her, scratching with their claws. "N-no," she stuttered. Rue's whips went soaring through the air. "N-n-no!"

"Stop it!" Percy yelled. It was too late. A big yellow harpy grabbed the burrito and the whole flock scattered, leaving Ella cowering and shivering on top of the elephant.

Frank touched the harpy's foot. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

Ella poked her head out of her wings. She was still trembling. With her shoulders hunched, they could see the bleeding gash on her back where Phineas had hit her with the knife. She picked at her feathers, pulling out tufts of plumage. "S-small Ella," she stuttered angrily. "W-weak Ella. No cinnamon for Ella. Only cheese."

Frank glared across the street, where the other harpies were sitting in a maple tree, tearing the burrito to shreds. "We'll get you something else," he promised.

"Ella," he said as he set down the Thai noodles, "we want to be your friends. We can get you more food, but—"

"Friends," Ella said. "'Ten seasons. 1994 to 2004.'" She glanced sideways at Percy, then looked in the air and started reciting to the clouds. "'A half-blood of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against all odds.' Sixteen. You're sixteen. Page sixteen, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. 'Ingredients: Bacon, Butter.'"

"Ella...what was that you said?"

"'Bacon.'" She caught a raindrop out of the air. "'Butter.'"

"No, before that. Those lines...I know those lines."

Next to him, Rue hummed. "It does sound familiar, like...I don't know, like a prophecy. Maybe it's something she heard Phineas say?" She was sure that she had seen it once on the walls of her Father's palace.

At the name Phineas, Ella squawked in terror and flew away.

"Wait!" Rue called. "I didn't mean—Oh, gods, I'm stupid."

"It's all right." Frank pointed. "Look."

Ella wasn't moving as quickly now. She flapped her way to the top of a three-story red brick building and scuttled out of sight over the roof. A single red feather fluttered down to the street.

"You think that's her nest?" Frank squinted at the sign on the building. "Multnomah County Library?"

Percy nodded. "Let's see if it's open."

They ran across the street and into the lobby.

Rue didn't necessarily like libraries. Dyslexia was very much a bitch, but Rue did have one foster family that were sweet and read books to Rue all the time and one was an inspiring author that promise to write a book about Rue one day.

Percy froze in his tracks.

"Percy?" Frank asked. "What's wrong?"

Percy slammed his fist into the side of a bookshelf.

"Percy?" Rue asked gently.

"I'm—I'm all right," he lied and clearly not good enough. "Just got dizzy for a sec. Let's find a way to the roof."

It took them a while, but they finally found a stairwell with roof access.

At the top was a door with a handle alarm, but someone had propped it open with a copy of War and Peace.

Outside, Ella the harpy huddled in a nest of books under a makeshift cardboard shelter.

They advanced slowly, trying not to scare her. Ella didn't pay them any attention. She picked at her feathers and muttered under her breath, like she was practicing lines for a play.

Percy got within five feet and knelt down. "Hi. Sorry we scared you. Look, I don't have much food, but..."

He took some of the macrobiotic jerky out of his pocket. Ella lunged and snatched it immediately. She huddled back in her nest, sniffing the jerky, but sighed and tossed it away. "N-not from his table. Ella cannot eat. Sad. Jerky would be good for harpies."

"Not from...Oh, right," Percy said. "That's part of the curse. You can only eat his food."

"There has to be a way," Rue said. "We can kill him, and you can dive bomb the rest of the food trucks."

"'Photosynthesis,'" Ella muttered. "'Noun. Biology. The synthesis of complex organic materials.' 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness... '"

"What is she saying?" Frank whispered.

"She's quoting books," Percy guessed, staring at the mound of books around her. They all looked old and mildewed. Some had prices written in marker on the covers, like the library had gotten rid of them in a clearance sale.

"Farmer's Almanac 1965," Ella said. "'Start breeding animals, January twenty-sixth.'"

"Ella," he said, "have you read all of these?"

She blinked. "More. More downstairs. Words. Words calm Ella down. Words, words, words."

Percy picked up a book at random—a tattered copy of A History of Horseracing. "Ella, do you remember the, um, third paragraph on page sixty-two—"

"'Secretariat,'" Ella said instantly, "'favored three to two-in the 1973 Kentucky Derby, finished at standing track record of one fifty-nine and two fifths.'"

Percy closed the book. His hands were shaking. "Word for word."

"That's amazing," Rue said, but ast fellt a bit uneasy also. Rue glanced at Percy and knew he was coming to the same conclusion. There was a reason why Phineas wanted to capture Ella, and it wasn't because she'd scratched him.

"She's a genius chicken," Frank agreed.

"Ella," Percy said, "we're going to find a way to break the curse. Would you like that?"

"'It's Impossible,'" she said. "'Recorded in English by Perry Como, 1970.'"

"Nothing's impossible," Percy said. "Now, look, I'm going to say his name. You don't have to run away. We're going to save you from the curse. We just need to figure out a way to beat ... Phineas."

He waited for her to bolt, but she just shook her head vigorously. "N-n-no! No Phineas. Ella is quick. Too quick for him. B-but he wants to ch-chain Ella. He hurts Ella." She tried to reach the gash on her back.

"Frank," Percy said, "you have first-aid supplies?"

"On it." Frank brought out a thermos full of nectar and explained its healing properties to Ella. When he scooted closer, she recoiled and started to shriek. Then Rue tried, and Ella let ast pour some nectar on her back. The wound began to close.

Rue smiled. "See? That's better."

"Phineas is bad," Ella insisted. "And weed whackers. And cheese."

"Absolutely," Percy agreed. "We won't let him hurt you again. We need to figure out how to trick him, though. You harpies must know him better than anybody. Is there any way we can trick him?"

"N-no," Ella said. "Tricks are for kids. 50 Tricks to Teach Your Dog, by Sophie Collins, call number six-three-six—"

"Okay, Ella." Rue soothed. It was the same voice aster used against the animals that didn't like the sense of the death that surrounded Rue. "But does Phineas have any weaknesses?"

"Blind. He's blind."

Frank rolled his eyes, but Rue continued patiently, "Right. Besides that?"

"Chance," she said. "Games of chance. Two to one. Bad odds. Call or fold."

Percy's spirits rose. "You mean he's a gambler?"

"Phineas s-sees big things. Prophecies. Fates. God stuff. Not small stuff. Random. Exciting. And he is blind."

Frank rubbed his chin. "Any idea what she means?"

"I think I get it," Percy said. "Phineas sees the future. He knows tons of important events. But he can't see small things—like random occurrences, spontaneous games of chance. That makes gambling exciting for him. If we can tempt him into making a bet..."

Rue nodded slowly. Octavian had that same problem two years ago until he got over it. It was something that a lot of seers fell victim to. Thankfully, Rue hadn't... at least not yet. "You mean if he loses, he has to tell us where Thanatos is. But what do we have to wager? What kind of game do we play?"

"Something simple, with high stakes," Percy said. "Like two choices. One you live, one you die. And the prize has to be something Phineas wants...I mean, besides Ella. That's off the table."

"Sight," Ella muttered. "Sight is good for blind men. Healing...nope, nope. Gaea won't do that for Phineas. Gaea keeps Phineas b-blind, dependent on Gaea. Yep."

Frank and Percy exchanged a meaningful look. "Gorgon's blood," they said simultaneously.

"What?" Rue asked.

Frank brought out the two ceramic vials he'd retrieved from the Little Tiber. "Ella's a genius," he said. "Unless we die."

"Don't worry about that," Percy said. "I've got a plan."

They quickly made their way back to where they left the king. The old man was right where they'd left him, in the middle of the food truck parking lot. He sat on his picnic bench with his bunny slippers propped up, eating a plate of greasy shish kebab. His weed whacker was at his side.

Rue should've took it with them.

His bathrobe was smeared with barbecue sauce.

"Welcome back!" he called cheerfully. "I hear the flutter of nervous little wings. You've brought me my harpy?"

"She's here," Percy said. "But she's not yours."

Phineas sucked the grease off his fingers. His milky eyes seemed fixed on a point just above Percy's head. "I see...Well, actually, I'm blind, so I don't see. Have you come to kill me, then? If so, good luck completing your quest."

"I've come to gamble."

The old man's mouth twitched. He put down his shishkebab and leaned toward Percy. "A gamble...how interesting. Information in exchange for the harpy? Winner take all?"

"No," Percy said. "The harpy isn't part of the deal."

Phineas laughed. "Really? Perhaps you don't understand her value."

"She's a person," Percy said. "She isn't for sale."

"Oh, please! You're from the Roman camp, aren't you? Rome was built on slavery. Don't get all high and mighty with me. Besides, she isn't even human. She's a monster. A wind spirit. A minion of Jupiter."

Ella squawked. Just getting her into the parking lot had been a major challenge, but now she started backing away, muttering, "'Jupiter. Hydrogen and helium. Sixty-three satellites.' No minions. Nope."

Rue put an arm around Ella's wings. Rue seemed to be the only one who could touch the harpy without causing lots of screaming and twitching. That was something that was going to needed to be fixed. No one had ever accused Rue of being comforting.

Frank stayed at Percy's side. He held his spear ready, as if the old man might charge them.

Percy brought out the ceramic vials. "I have a different wager. We've got two flasks of gorgon's blood. One kills. One heals. They look exactly the same. Even we don't know which is which. If you choose the right one, it could cure your blindness."

Phineas held out his hands eagerly. "Let me feel them. Let me smell them."

"Not so fast," Percy said. "First you agree to the terms."

"Terms..." Phineas was breathing shallowly. Percy could tell he was hungry to take the offer. "Prophecy and sight ... I'd be unstoppable. I could own this city. I'd build my palace here, surrounded by food trucks. I could capture that harpy myself!"

"N-noo," Ella said nervously. "Nope, nope, nope."

A villainous laugh is hard to pull off when you're wearing pink bunny slippers, but Phineas gave it his best shot. "Very well, demigod. What are your terms?"

"You get to choose a vial," Percy said. "No uncorking, no sniffing before you decide."

"That's not fair! I'm blind."

"And I don't have your sense of smell," Percy countered. "You can hold the vials. And I'll swear on the River Styx that they look identical. They're exactly what I told you: gorgon's blood, one vial from the left side of the monster, one from the right. And I swear that none of us knows which is which."

Percy looked back at Rue. "Uh, you're our Underworld expert. With all this weird stuff going on with Death, is an oath on the River Styx still binding?"

"Yes," ast said, without hesitation. "To break such a vow...Well, just don't do it. There are worse things than death." After all, to break an oath on the Styx, for a mortal would be continuous torture over and over again even after the Styx faded them into nothingness. There would always be something there that kept them alive and aware, constantly stitching itself back together only to be pulled apart all over again. Even the consequences for a god to break an oath was frightening.

Phineas stroked his beard. "So, I choose which vial to drink. You have to drink the other one. We swear to drink at the same time."

"Right," Percy said.

"The loser dies, obviously," Phineas said. "That kind of poison would probably keep even me from coming back to life...for a long time, at least. My essence would be scattered and degraded. So, I'm risking quite a lot."

"But if you win, you get everything," Percy said. "If I die, my friends will swear to leave you in peace and not take revenge. You'd have your sight back, which even Gaea won't give you."

The old man's expression soured. Percy struck a nerve. Phineas wanted to see. As much as Gaea had given him, he resented being kept in the dark.

"If I lose," the old man said, "I'll be dead, unable to give you information. How does that help you?"

"You write down the location of Alcyoneus's lair ahead of time," Percy said like Frank had suggested on the wall back. "Keep it to yourself, but swear on the River Styx it's specific and accurate. You also have to swear that if you lose and die, the harpies will be released from their curse."

"Those are high stakes," Phineas grumbled. "You face death, Percy Jackson. Wouldn't it be simpler just to hand over the harpy?"

"Not an option."

Phineas smiled slowly. "So you are starting to understand her worth. Once I have my sight, I'll capture her myself, you know. Whoever controls that harpy...well, I was a king once. This gamble could make me a king again."

"You're getting ahead of yourself," Percy said. "Do we have a deal?"

Phineas tapped his nose thoughtfully. "I can't foresee the outcome. Annoying how that works. A completely unexpected gamble...it makes the future cloudy. But I can tell you this, Percy Jackson—a bit of free advice. If you survive today, you're not going to like your future. A big sacrifice is coming, and you won't have the courage to make it. That will cost you dearly. It will cost the world dearly. It might be easier if you just choose the poison."

In the trees around the parking lot, the harpies gathered to watch as if they sensed what was at stake. Frank and Rue studied Percy's face with concern. He'd assured them the odds weren't as bad as fifty-fifty. He did have a plan.

But Rue could sense his life string in a way that Rue hadn't before.

(And Rue swore once this was over, ast was going to the Underworld and demanding that aster's Father taught ast how to control these powers. Such inconveniences if they ddin't even want to work correctly.)

"Do we have a deal?" he asked again.

Phineas grinned. "I swear on the River Styx to abide by the terms, just as you have described them. Frank Zhang, you're the descendant of an Argonaut. I trust your word. If I win, do you and your friend Rue swear to leave me in peace, and not seek revenge?"

Frank's hands were clenched so tight Rue thought he might break his gold spear, but he managed to grumble, "I swear it on the River Styx."

"I also swear," Rue said. The oath was to not seek revenge and leave in peace in regard to Percy, but Rue was the child of the Pluto Necrodegmon and Rue had a duty to the realm.

"Swear," Ella muttered. "'Swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon.'"

Phineas laughed. "In that case, find me something to write with. Let's get started."

Frank borrowed a napkin and a pen from a food truck vendor. Phineas scribbled something on the napkin and put it in his bathrobe pocket. "I swear this is the location of Alcyoneus's lair. Not that you'll live long enough to read it."

Percy drew his sword and swept all the food off the picnic table.

Phineas sat on one side. Percy sat on the other.

Phineas held out his hands. "Let me feel the vials."

Percy gazed at the hills in the distance. Rue wondered what he was thinking.

Phineas curled his fingers in a grasping motion. "Losing your nerve, Percy Jackson? Let me have them."

Percy passed him the vials.

The old man compared their weight. He ran his fingers along the ceramic surfaces. Then he set them both on the table and rested one hand lightly on each. A tremor passed through the ground—a mild earthquake, just strong enough to make Rue's teeth chatter. Ella cawed nervously.

The vial on the left seemed to shake slightly more than the one on the right.

Phineas grinned wickedly. He closed his fingers around the left-hand vial. "You were a fool, Percy Jackson. I choose this one. Now we drink."

Percy took the vial on the right. His teeth were chattering.

The old man raised his vial. "A toast to the sons of Neptune."

They both uncorked their vials and drank.

Immediately, Percy doubled over, his throat burning. His mouth tasted like gasoline.

"Oh, gods," Rue said behind him.

"Nope!" Ella said. "Nope, nope, nope."

His life string burned. He could see Phineas grinning in triumph, sitting up straighter, blinking his eyes in anticipation.

"Yes!" he cried. "Any moment now, my sight will return!"

"Percy!" Frank gripped his shoulders. "Percy, you can't die!"

He gasped for breath...and suddenly his life string blazed with life. And oh, it was... it was like looking into a supernova.

At the same moment, Phineas hunched over like he'd been punched.

"You—you can't!" the old man wailed. "Gaea, you—you—" He staggered to his feet and stumbled away from the table, clutching his stomach. "I'm too valuable!"

Steam came out of his mouth. A sickly yellow vapor rose from his ears, his beard, his blind eyes.

"Unfair!" he screamed. "You tricked me!"

He tried to claw the piece of paper out of his robe pocket, but his hands crumbled, his fingers turning to sand.

Percy rose unsteadily.

"No one tricked you," Percy said. "You made your choice freely, and I hold you to your oath." The blind king wailed in agony. Rue stepped forward, The Hierophant card already in hand. Phineas turned in a circle, steaming and slowly disintegrating until there was nothing left but an old, stained bathrobe and a pair of bunny slippers.

The card shimmered until The High Priest showed a new image, sitting on the card with its eyes scratched out.

"Those," Frank said, "are the most disgusting spoils of war ever."

Rue prodded the robe with aster's staff. There was nothing underneath —no sign that Phineas was trying to re-form. Rue gazed at the card and at Percy in awe. "That was either the bravest thing I've ever seen, or the stupidest."

Frank shook his head in disbelief. "Percy, how did you know? You were so confident he'd choose the poison."

"Gaea," Percy said. "She wants me to make it to Alaska. She thinks...I'm not sure. She thinks she can use me as part of her plan. She influenced Phineas to choose the wrong vial."

Frank stared in horror at the remains of the old man. "Gaea would kill her own servant rather than you? That's what you were betting on?"

"Plans," Ella muttered. "Plans and plots. The lady in the ground. Big plans for Percy. Macrobiotic jerky for Ella."

Percy handed her the whole bag of jerky and she squeaked with joy.

"Nope, nope, nope," she muttered, half-singing. "Phineas, nope. Food and words for Ella, yep."

Percy crouched over the bathrobe and pulled the old man's note out of the pocket.

He handed the note to Rue. It read: HUBBARD GLACIER. All that risk for two words.

"I know where that is," Rue said. "It's pretty famous. But we've got a long, long way to go."

In the trees around the parking lot, the other harpies finally overcame their shock. They squawked with excitement and flew at the nearest food trucks, diving through the service windows and raiding the kitchens. Cooks shouted in many languages. Trucks shook back and forth. Feathers and food boxes flew everywhere.

"We'd better get back to the boat," Percy said. "We're running out of time."

---

The boat sped down the Columbia River, and Rue tried to ignore the queasiness that ast felt. In ast hand, Rue fiddled with the Hierophant card, tracing aster's fingers over the scratched-out eyes.

Rue could still see Phineas with steam coming out of his eyes, his hands crumbling to dust.

Your sister started this whole thing! Phineas had said. If it weren't for her, Alcyoneus wouldn't be alive!

Yeah, but if it weren't for her, Rue wouldn't be either.

But he also said that Hazel was supposed to be alive. She was supposed to be on this quest. And yet... here Rue was.

Rue didn't know what to make of that so ast tried to forget. Rue helped Ella make a nest out of old books and magazines they'd liberated from the library's recycling bin.

They hadn't really planned on taking the harpy with them, but Ella acted like the matter was decided.

"Friends," she muttered. "'Ten seasons. 1994 to 2004.' Friends melt Phineas and give Ella jerky. Ella will go with her friends."

Now she was roosting comfortably in the stern, nibbling bits of Rue's kelp jerky and reciting random lines from Charles Dickens and 50 Tricks to Teach Your Dog.

Percy knelt in the bow, steering them toward the ocean with his freaky mind-over-water powers. Rue sat next to Frank on the center bench.

Rue thought about the differences in the later as Rue sat beside him. Rue remembered the way he had looked on the hillside in Mendocino, alone in a clearing of poisoned grass with his spear in hand, fires burning all around him and the ashes of three basilisks at his feet.

A week ago, if someone had suggested that Frank was a child of Mars, Rue would have laughed. Frank was much too sweet and gentle for that. He didn't have the heart like his siblings or even Reyna, his only paternal cousin at the camp.

But since they'd left camp, ast saw him differently. He had more courage than ast'd realized. If he kept this up, Rue could see him becoming a lieutenant. His mother was a soldier wasn't she?

The river widened into the ocean. The Pax turned north. As they sailed, Frank kept their spirits up by telling silly jokes—Why did the Minotaur cross the road? How many fauns does it take to change a lightbulb? He pointed out buildings along the coastline that reminded him of places in Vancouver.

The sky started to darken, the sea turning the same rusty color as Ella's wings. June 21 was almost over. The Feast of Fortuna would happen in the evening, exactly seventy-two hours from now.

Finally Frank brought out some food from his pack—sodas and muffins he'd scavenged from Phineas's table. He passed them around.

"It's okay, Rue," he said quietly. "My mom used to say you shouldn't try to carry a problem alone. But if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay."

Rue took a shaky breath and then ast turned to Percy. "I already explained this to Frank, but I should tell you too. I told you about the blackouts and when I go through them, I... I'm reliving a past life, just not mine. My sister. Hazel, she was the one that stopped Alcyoneus. Hazel Levesque. She body snatches me from time to time."

And before Rue knew it, it felt like a dam had broken. The story flooded out. Rue explained how Hazel's mother had summoned Pluto and fallen in love with the god. Marie's mother's wish for all the riches in the earth, and how that had turned into Hazel's curse. She described her life in New Orleans—everything including her boyfriend Sammy.

Rue's described the Voice, and how Gaea had slowly taken over her mother's mind. Ast explained how they had moved to Alaska, how Hazel had helped to raise the giant Alcyoneus, and how she had died, sinking the island into Resurrection Bay.

And then Rue kept going to ast's own birth. Rue was born from death, pulled from the ruins of Mother's womb. Rue had been born dead and aster's Father saved Rue and aster's Mother life only for Misty Harald to die an hour later at the hands of Proserpina at the same time Rue's heart started to beat. How the ghosts chased Rue throughout ast's life and giving Rue a more apathetic view on death and resurrection. Rue was a beacon. Like a moth to a flame and Rue could never fit in because of it. Rue never fit in anywhere. Ast was stuck between life and death and people died around ast unless they were weird like Rue.

(Like Octavian with his own suicidal tendencies or Pranjal that had the ability to heal himself from literally anything. Rue watched him chug a bottle of rat poison once and not even flinch.)

Rue told them how ast didn't know what it meant that Rue was on the quest when Phineas had said that it was supposed to be Hazel. Rue didn't even know why that hurt aster's feelings a bit or why ast was jealous of someone that had been dead for half a century. And how Rue didn't think ast was anything like Hazel.

When ast had finished, Rue didn't look at any of them. Rue waited for Frank to move away from ast, waited for them to say ast was a freak of nature. Maybe even tell Rue that ast was a monster after all.

Instead, Frank took aster's hand. "Your sister sacrificed herself to stop the giant from waking and now you're going up against the same giant that killed her. I could never be that brave."

Rue felt ast pulse throbbing in ast neck. "This isn't bravery. This is revenge. Hazel let her mother die. She cooperated with Gaea too long. She almost let her win. I'm going to finish what she started so that she can stop mugging my body."

"Rue," said Percy. "Regardless of the intentions, you're doing the right thing just like Hazel did. She stood up to a goddess all by herself. And you're planning to do the same, aren't you? Or something similar..." His voice trailed off, as if he'd had an unpleasant thought. "What happened in the Underworld...I mean, after she died? Did she go to Elysium. But if she was suppose to come back—"

"I didn't go to Elysium." Rue's mouth felt dry as sand. "Please don't ask..." But it was too late. Rue remembered Hazel's descent into the darkness, her arrival on the banks of the River Styx, and Rue's consciousness began to slip.

"Rue?" Frank asked.

"'Slip Sliding Away,'" Ella muttered. "Number five U.S. single. Paul Simon. Go with her. Simon says, go with her."

Rue had no idea what Ella was talking about, but ast's vision darkened as Rue clung to Frank's hand and Percy was shoved on top of them.

---

Rue found asterself back in the Underworld, and this time Frank and Percy was at aster's side.

They stood in Charu's boat, crossing the Styx. Debris swirled in the dark waters—a deflated birthday balloon, a child's pacifier, a little plastic bride and groom from the top of a cake—all the remnants of human lives cut short.

"Wh-where are we?" Frank stood at aster's side, shimmering with a ghostly purple light as if he'd become a Lar.

"It's Hazel's past." Rue felt strangely calm. "It's just an echo. Don't worry."

The boatman turned and grinned. One moment he was a handsome African man in an expensive silk suit. The next moment he was a skeleton in a dark robe. "'Course you shouldn't worry," he said with a British accent. He addressed Rue, as if he couldn't see the others at all. "Told you I'd take you across, didn't I? 'Sall right you don't have a coin. Wouldn't be proper, leaving Pluto's daughter on the wrong side of the river."

The boat slid onto a dark beach. Rue led the boys to the black gates of Erebos. The spirits parted for them, sensing Rue was a child of Pluto. The giant three-headed dog Cerberus growled in the gloom, but he let them pass. Inside the gates, they walked into a large pavilion and stood before the judges' bench.

Three black-robed figures in golden masks stared down at Hazel, Rue's technical older sister with her shoulder-length curly cinnamon brown hair and gold eyes. Even in the shades of the Underworld, she seemed to glow as if the sun wanted to hold her in its embrace and continue to press kisses on her dark-skin.

"Is that Hazel," Percy asked. Rue nodded. "She's pretty."

Frank whimpered. "Who—?"

"Those are the judges. They'll decide her fate," Rue said. "Watch."

Just as before, the judges asked no questions. They simply looked into her mind, pulling thoughts from her head and examining them like a collection of old photos.

"Thwarted Gaea," the first judge said. "Prevented Alcyoneus from waking."

"But she raised the giant in the first place," the second judge argued. "Guilty of cowardice, weakness."

"She is young," said the third judge. "Her mother's life hung in the balance."

"My mother." Hazel said, voice trembling just a bit. "Where is she? What is her fate?"

The judges regarded her, their golden masks frozen in creepy smiles.

"Your mother..." The image of Marie Levesque shimmered above the judges. She was frozen in time, hugging Hazel as the cave collapsed, her eyes shut tight.

"An interesting question," the second judge said. "The division of fault."

"Yes," said the first judge. "The child died for a noble cause. She prevented many deaths by delaying the giant's rise. She had courage to stand against the might of Gaea."

"But she acted too late," the third judge said sadly. "She is guilty of aiding and abetting an enemy of the gods."

"The mother influenced her," said the first judge. "The child can have Elysium. Eternal Punishment for Marie Levesque."

"No!" Hazel shouted. "No, please! That's not fair."

The judges tilted their heads in unison.

"Beware, Hazel Levesque," the first judge warned. "Would you take full responsibility? You could lay this guilt on your mother's soul. That would be reasonable. You were destined for great things. Your mother diverted your path. See what you might have been..."

Another image appeared above the judges. They saw Hazel as a little girl, grinning, with her hands covered in finger paint. The image aged. They saw her growing up—her hair became longer, her eyes sadder. Her thirteenth birthday, riding across the fields on her borrowed horse. Sammy laughed as he raced after her: What are you running from? I'm not that ugly, am I? Hazel in Alaska, trudging down Third Street in the snow and darkness on her way home from school.

Then the image aged even more. Hazel at twenty. She looked so much like her mother, her hair gathered back in braids, her golden eyes flashing with amusement. She wore a white dress—a wedding dress? She was smiling so warmly, Rue's breath caught in aster's throat. She must be looking at someone special—someone she loved.

"You lost this life," the first judge said simply. "Special circumstances. Elysium for you. Punishment for your mother."

"No," Hazel said. "No, it wasn't all her fault. She was misled. She loved me. At the end, she tried to protect me."

"Hazel," Frank whispered as if the girl could hear him. "What are you doing?"

Finally the second judge sighed. "No resolution. Not enough good. Not enough evil."

"The blame must be divided," the first judge agreed. "Both souls will be consigned to the Fields of Asphodel. I'm sorry, Hazel Levesque. You could have been a hero."

They passed through the pavilion, into yellow fields that went on forever. They followed Hazel as she moved through a crowd of spirits to a grove of black poplar trees.

"She gave up Elysium," Percy said in amazement, "so her mother wouldn't suffer?"

"She didn't deserve Punishment," Rue said, not that Rue agreed but that's how Hazel felt.

"But...what happens now?"

"Nothing," Percy said. "Nothing...for all eternity."

They drifted aimlessly. Spirits around them chattered like bats—lost and confused, not remembering their past or even their names.

"Do you think she remembered?" Frank asked.

"Yeah," Percy said. Rue turned to look at him with a raised brow. "You have another sister. Nico's sister, I think?"

"You knew Bianca?"

"I think so. I'm remembering some things, but I know she died and that she remembered her life. She helped me a little from beyond the grave."

Rue huffed, a little amused. "And you what? Think that's what Hazel's doing? Body-jacking me to help me?"

"Maybe." Percy shrugged. "I don't know her well enough to assume."

Rue pursed aster's lips. "Well, I don't know either. These spirits...it's like an eternal dream for them, an endless trance. I wouldn't even know how death would be a for a child of the Underworld."

Time was meaningless, but after an eternity, they sat together under a black poplar tree, listening to the screams from the Fields of Punishment. In the distance, under the artificial sunlight of Elysium, the Isles of the Blest glittered like emeralds in a sparkling blue lake. White sails cut across water and the souls of great heroes basked on the beaches in perpetual bliss.

"She didn't deserve Asphodel," Rue said after awhile. "She should be with the heroes Her life was taken from her. She was going to grow up to be a beautiful woman." Rue thought back to that spark in Hazel's eyes. "She was going to marry someone and have had a good life. She lost all that."

Rue sighed. "I'm sorry, Frank," ast said. "I think your mother was wrong. Sometimes sharing a problem doesn't make it easier to carry."

"But it does." Frank slipped his hand into his coat pocket. "In fact...since we've got eternity to talk, there's something I want to tell you."

He brought out an object wrapped in cloth, about the same size as a pair of glasses. When he unfolded it, they saw a half-burned piece of driftwood, glowing with purple light.

Rue frowned. "What is..." Then the truth hit them, as cold and harsh as a blast of winter wind.

"Phineas said your life depends on a burned stick—" Percy started.

"It's true," Frank said. "This is my lifeline, literally."

He told them how the goddess Juno had appeared when he was a baby, how his grandmother had snatched the piece of wood from the fireplace. "Grandmother said I had gifts—some talent we got from our ancestor, the Argonaut. That, and my dad's being Mars..." He shrugged. "I'm supposed to be too powerful or something. That's why my life can burn up so easily. Iris said I would die holding this, watching it burn."

Frank turned the piece of tinder in his fingers.

"Frank, how can you carry it around with you?" Percy asked. "Aren't you terrified something will happen to it?"

"That's why I'm telling you two." He held out the firewood to Rue. "I know it's a lot to ask, but would you keep it for me?"

"Frank," Rue said a bit of fear in aster's voice, "you know who I am. I'm Pluto's daughter. Everything I touch goes wrong. My powers are out of control. I could kill that piece of wood. Kill you. Why would you trust me?"

"You're my best friend." He placed the firewood in ast hands. "I trust you... trust you both more than anybody."

Rue wanted to tell him he was making a mistake. Rue wanted to give it back. But before ast could say anything, a shadow fell over them.

"Our ride is here," Frank guessed.

Rue's lips twitched.

Coming down the pathway was Rue, hair dangling around aster's head in two strand twists. Rue was dressed in all white because of a challenge from Dodie that aster couldn't fight without getting a speck of dirt on aster.

"That's you," Percy murmured.

Rue nodded. "This was a little after February 13th, Parentalia–one of the days of the dead in Ancient Rome. Hazel started body jumping me. I was coming to look for her to make her stop."

"That's Nico," Frank noted, watching as Rue's brother appeared on the pathway in his black overcoat, his Stygian iron sword at his side. The moment that they noticed each other, Rue's whip was already in the air, and he was raising his sword to block the strike. Before the two could really tear into each other, a fearsome being clothed in black with serpent-entwined hair and arms shot down between them.

Frank yelped and jumped back, "What is that?" while Percy muttered something about demon grandmothers and math teachers.

"That's Megaera, one of the Furiae." And technically, Rue's babysitter. The three of them watched as she escorted them back towards the palace and Rue knew that they would eventually be thrown back to the surface world not too far away from Camp.

Something compelled Rue to turn around and when she did...

She could see the way Hazel stared after the two as if... as if she wanted to come alongside them.

The three of them awaken with groans.

Rue sat up groggily, squinting in the morning sunlight. "Guys?"

Frank groaned, rubbing his eyes. "Did we just...was I just—?"

"Sharing," Ella said. She crouched in the stern, preening her wing feathers with her teeth, which didn't look like a very effective form of personal hygiene. She spit out some red fluff. "Sharing is good. No more blackouts. Biggest American blackout, August 14, 2003. Rue shared. No more blackouts."

Rue pressed aster's hand against ast coat pocket. Ast could feel the piece of firewood, wrapped in cloth.

Rue looked at Frank and then at Percy. "You were there."

They nodded. Frank didn't say anything, but his expression was clear: He'd meant what he said. He wanted Rue to keep the piece of tinder safe. Rue wasn't sure whether ast felt honored or scared.

"Wait," Percy said, looking at Ella. "We shared a blackout? Are we all going to pass out from now on?"

"Nope," Ella said. "Nope, nope, nope. No more blackouts. More books for Ella. Books in Seattle."

Rue gazed over the water. They were sailing through a large bay, making their way toward a cluster of downtown buildings. Neighborhoods rolled across a series of hills. From the tallest one rose an odd white tower with a saucer on the top, like a spaceship or like the NASA symbol.

No more blackouts, Rue thought. Ast swallowed thickly. It was like ast was getting aster's life back under control. Every muscle in aster's body began to relax.

And Rue made the promise to visit Hazel. She had her life cut so short. She deserved to experience life. Rue and Nico should both go get her since they probably would have dragged her upwards anyway. Yeah, they were going to kick this giant's ass and some how beat the planet? and then show the world off to their sister.

(Rue pursed aster's lips. Rue swore that the apocalypse was scheduled for 2012? They were a bit too early.)

Percy steered the boat toward the downtown docks. As they got closer, Ella scratched nervously at her nest of books.

Rue started to feel edgy, too. Not that Rue understood why, but aster's beads slithered around aster's waist.

It was a bright, sunny day, and Seattle looked like a beautiful place, with inlets and bridges, wooded islands dotting the bay, and snowcapped mountains rising in the distance. Still, Rue felt like aster was being watched.

"Um...why are we stopping here?" Rue asked.

Percy showed them the silver ring on his necklace. "Reyna has a sister here. She asked me to find her and show her this."

"Reyna has a sister?" Frank asked, like the idea terrified him.

Percy nodded. "Apparently Reyna thinks her sister could send help for the camp."

"Amazons," Ella muttered. "Amazon country. Hmm. Ella will find libraries instead. Doesn't like Amazons. Fierce. Shields. Swords. Pointy. Ouch."

Frank reached for his spear. "Amazons? Like...female warriors?"

"That would make sense," Rue said. "If Reyna's sister is also a daughter of Bellona, I can see why she'd join the Amazons. But...is it safe for us to be here?"

"Nope, nope, nope," Ella said. "Get books instead. No Amazons."

"We have to try," Percy said. "I promised Reyna. Besides, the Pax isn't doing too great. I've been pushing it pretty hard."

They looked down at their feet. Water was leaking between the floorboards. "Oh."

"Yeah," Percy agreed. "We'll either need to fix it or find a new boat. I'm pretty much holding it together with my willpower at this point. Ella, do you have any idea where we can find the Amazons?"

"And, um," Frank said nervously, "they don't, like, kill men on sight, do they?"

Ella glanced at the downtown docks, only a few hundred yards away.

"Ella will find friends later. Ella will fly away now."

And she did.

"Well..." Frank picked a single red feather out of the air. "That's encouraging."

They docked at the wharf. They barely had time to unload their supplies before the Pax shuddered and broke into pieces. Most of it sank, leaving only a board with a painted eye and another with the letter P bobbing in the waves.

"Guess we're not fixing it," Rue said. "What now?"

Percy stared at the steep hills of downtown Seattle. "We hope the Amazons will help."

They explored for hours. They found some great salty caramel chocolate at a candy store. They bought some some very strong coffee that reminded Rue of Pranjal's death coffee. They stopped at a sidewalk café and had some excellent grilled salmon sandwiches.

Once they saw Ella zooming between high-rise towers, a large book clutched in each foot. But they found no Amazons. All the while, Rue was aware of the time ticking by. June 22 now, and Alaska was still a long way away.

Finally they wandered south of downtown, into a plaza surrounded by smaller glass and brick buildings. Rue's nerves started tingling. They were being watched. Casting a glance around once more, Rue deadpanned to realize just what was going on.

"There," Rue said, pulling out a dagger from aster's knapsack.

The office building on their left had a single word etched on the glass doors: AMAZON.

"Oh," Frank said. "Uh, no, Rue. They're a company, right? They sell stuff on the Internet. They're not actually Amazons."

"Unless..." Percy walked through the doors. Rue and Frank followed.

The lobby was like an empty fish tank—glass walls, a glossy black floor, a few token plants, and pretty much nothing else. Against the back wall, a black stone staircase led up and down. In the middle of the room stood a young woman in a black pantsuit, with long auburn hair and a security guard's earpiece. Her name tag said Kinzie. Her smile was friendly enough, but her eyes reminded Rue of the social worker that aster had before being brought to camp.

Kinzie nodded at Rue, ignoring the boys. "May I help you?"

"Um...I hope so," Rue said. "We're looking for Amazons."

Kinzie glanced at Rue's dagger, then Frank's spear, though neither should have been visible through the Mist.

"This is the main campus for Amazon," she said cautiously. "Did you have an appointment with someone, or—"

"Hylla," Percy interrupted. "We're looking for a girl named—"

Kinzie moved so fast, Rue's eyes almost couldn't follow. Almost. Kinzie kicked Frank in the chest and sent him flying backward across the lobby. She pulled a sword out of thin air, swept Percy off his feet with the flat of the blade, and pressed the point under his chin.

Rue spun on her feet, blocking a strike at the back of aster's neck and jumping back to dodge a sword swipe. Rue held aster's own, but it was too many. A dozen more girls in black had flooded up the staircase, swords in hand, and surrounded Rue.

Kinzie glared down at Percy. "First rule: Males don't speak without permission. Second rule, trespassing on our territory is punishable by death. You'll meet Queen Hylla, all right. She'll be the one deciding your fate."

The Amazons confiscated the trio's weapons and marched them down so many flights of stairs, Rue lost count. Not that Rue cared. Rue still had aster's waistbeads and just needed to come up with a plan to make sure that all three escaped.

Finally they emerged in a cavern so big it could have accommodated ten high schools, sports fields and all. Stark fluorescent lights glowed along the rock ceiling. Conveyor belts wound through the room like water slides, carrying boxes in every direction. Aisles of metal shelves stretched out forever, stacked high with crates of merchandise. Cranes hummed and robotic arms whirred, folding cardboard boxes, packing shipments, and taking things on and off the belts. Some of the shelves were so tall they were only accessible by ladders and catwalks, which ran across the ceiling like theaters scaffolding.

There were some black-suited security women patrolling the catwalks, and some men in orange jumpsuits, like prison uniforms, driving forklifts through the aisles, delivering more pallets of boxes. The men wore iron collars around their necks.

"You keep slaves?" Rue snarled.

"The men?" Kinzie snorted. "They're not slaves. They just know their place. Now, move."

They walked so far, Rue's feet began to hurt. Eventually, Kinzie opened a large set of double doors and led them into another cavern, just as big as the first.

"The Underworld isn't this big," Rue complained, which wasn't true, but it felt that way.

Kinzie smiled smugly. "You admire our base of operations? Yes, our distribution system is worldwide. It took many years and most of our fortune to build. Now, finally, we're turning a profit. The mortals don't realize they are funding the Amazon kingdom. Soon, we'll be richer than any mortal nation. Then—when the weak mortals depend on us for everything—the revolution will begin!"

"What are you going to do?" Frank grumbled. "Cancel free shipping?"

A guard slammed the hilt of her sword into his gut. Percy tried to help him, but two more guards pushed him back at sword point.

"You'll learn respect," Kinzie said. "It's males like you who have ruined the mortal world. The only harmonious society is one run by women. We are stronger, wiser—"

"More humble," Percy said. The guards tried to hit him, but Percy ducked.

"Stop it!" Rue said. Rue was all for equality of the sexes, but sheesh, abuse on the other sex would get them nowhere. Surprisingly, the guards listened.

"Hylla is going to judge us, right?" Rue asked. "So take us to her. We're wasting time."

Kinzie nodded. "Perhaps you're right. We have more important problems. And time...time is definitely an issue."

"What do you mean?" Rue asked.

A guard grunted. "We could take them straight to Otrera. Might win her favor that way."

"No!" Kinzie snarled. "I'd sooner wear an iron collar and drive a forklift. Hylla is queen."

"Until tonight," another guard muttered. Kinzie gripped her sword.

Rue paused. "Otrera? As in the Amazon Queen Otrera?"

"I... yes?"

Rue's lips curled into a snarl. "As in died over a thousand years ago Otrera and if she's here with you all, then that means she has escaped from the Underworld and as the daughter of Pluto Polydegmon, then it's my sworn duty to send all escapees back to where they belong. Oh yes, do take me to her."

There was an uneasiness that moved through the Amazons at Rue's words. Everybody was quiet now, huh.

"Enough," Kinzie said. "Let's go." They crossed a lane of forklift traffic, navigated a maze of conveyor belts, and ducked under a row of robotic arms that were packing up boxes.

Most of the merchandise looked pretty ordinary: books, electronics, baby diapers. But against one wall sat a war chariot with a big bar code on the side. Hanging from the yoke was a sign that read: ONLY ONE LEFT IN ! (MOREONTHE WAY)

Finally they entered a smaller cavern that looked like a combination loading zone and throne room. The walls were lined with metal shelves six stories high, decorated with war banners, painted shields, and the stuffed heads of dragons, hydras, giant lions, and wild boars. Standing guard along either side were dozens of forklifts modified for war. An iron-collared male drove each machine, but an Amazon warrior stood on a platform in back, manning a giant mounted crossbow. The prongs of each forklift had been sharpened into oversized sword blades.

The shelves in this room were stacked with cages containing live animals. Hazel couldn't believe what she was seeing—black mastiffs, giant eagles, a lion-eagle hybrid that must've been a gryphon, and a red ant the size of a compact car.

They watched in horror as a forklift zipped into the room, picked up a cage with a beautiful white pegasus, and sped away while the horse whinnied in protest.

"What are you doing to that poor animal?" Rue demanded.

Kinzie frowned. "The pegasus? It'll be fine. Someone must've ordered him. The shipping and handling charges are steep, but—"

"You can buy a pegasus online?" Percy asked and there was a hint of something in his eyes. Ahhh that was right. Neptune was the Father of Horses and Pegasi.

Kinzie glared at him. "Obviously you can't, male. But Amazons can. We have followers all over the world. They need supplies. This way."

At the end of the warehouse was a dais constructed from pallets of books: stacks of vampire novels, walls of James Patterson thrillers, and a throne made from about a thousand copies of something called The Five Habits of Highly Aggressive Women.

At the base of the steps, several Amazons in camouflage were having a heated argument while a young woman—Queen Hylla, Rue assumed—watched and listened from her throne.

Hylla was in her twenties, lithe and lean as a tiger. She wore a black leather jumpsuit and black boots. She had no crown, but around her waist was a strange belt made of interlocking gold links, like the pattern of a labyrinth. Rue couldn't believe how much she looked like Reyna—a little older, perhaps, but with the same long black hair, the same dark eyes, and the same hard expression, like she was trying to decide which of the Amazons before her most deserved death.

Kinzie took one look at the argument and grunted with distaste.

"Otrera's agents, spreading their lies."

"What?" Frank asked.

Then Rue stopped so abruptly, the guards behind ast stumbled. A few feet from the queen's throne, two Amazons guarded a cage. Inside was a beautiful horse—not the winged kind, but a majestic and powerful stallion with a honey-colored coat and a black mane. His fierce brown eyes regarded Rue, and she could swear he looked impatient, as if thinking: About time you got here.

"It's him," Rue murmured.

"Him, who?" Percy asked.

Kinzie scowled in annoyance, but when she saw where Rue was looking, her expression softened. "Ah, yes. Beautiful, isn't he?"

Rue blinked to make sure ast wasn't hallucinating. That damn demon with legs from Hazel's memories...but that was impossible. No horse could live that long.

"Is he..." Rue could hardly control aster's voice. He'd be a good gift for when they brought Hazel up from the Underworld. "Is he for sale?"

The guards all laughed.

"That's Arion," Kinzie said patiently, as if she understood Rue's fascination. "He's a royal treasure of the Amazons—to be claimed only by our most courageous warrior, if you believe the prophecy."

"Prophecy?" Rue asked.

Kinzie's expression became pained, almost embarrassed. "Never mind. But no, he's not for sale."

"Then why is he in a cage?"

Kinzie grimaced. "Because...he is difficult."

Right on cue, the horse slammed his head against the cage door. The metal bars shuddered, and the guards retreated nervously.

I swear to Father, Rue thought. If I have to join the Amazons to get Hazel's demon horse, I will scream!

Percy, Frank, and a dozen Amazon guards were staring at ast, so Rue mask aster's emotions. "Just asking," Rue said. "Let's see the queen."

The argument at the front of the room grew louder. Finally the queen noticed Rue's group approaching, and she snapped, "Enough!"

The arguing Amazons shut up immediately. The queen waved them aside and beckoned Kinzie forward.

Kinzie shoved Rue and the boys toward the throne. "My queen, these demigods—"

The queen shot to her feet. "You!" She glared at Percy Jackson with murderous rage.

Percy muttered something in Ancient Greek that Rue was pretty sure would have the nuns skipping soap and going straight for bleach.

"Clipboard," he said. "Spa. Pirates."

This made no sense to Rue, but the queen nodded. She stepped down from her dais of best sellers and drew a dagger from her belt.

"You were incredibly foolish to come here," she said. "You destroyed my home. You made my sister and me exiles and prisoners."

"Percy," Frank said uneasily. "What's the scary woman with the dagger talking about?"

"Circe's Island," Percy said. "I just remembered. The gorgon's blood—maybe it's starting to heal my mind. The Sea of Monsters. Hylla...she welcomed us at the docks, took us to see her boss. Hylla worked for the sorceress."

Hylla bared her perfect white teeth. "Are you telling me you've had amnesia? You know, I might actually believe you. Why else would you be stupid enough to come here?"

"We've come in peace," Rue insisted. "But uh...What did Percy do?"

"Peace?" The queen raised her eyebrows at Rue. "What did he do? This male destroyed Circe's school of magic!"

"Circe turned me into a guinea pig!" Percy protested.

"No excuses!" Hylla said. "Circe was a wise and generous employer. I had room and board, a good health plan, dental, pet leopards, free potions —everything! And this demigod with his friend, the blonde—"

"Annabeth." Percy tapped his forehead like he wanted the memories to come back faster. "That's right. I was there with Annabeth."

"You released our captives—Blackbeard and his pirates." She turned to Rue. "Have you ever been kidnapped by pirates? It isn't fun. They burned our spa to the ground. My sister and I were their prisoners for months. Fortunately we were daughters of Bellona. We learned to fight quickly. If we hadn't..." She shuddered. "Well, the pirates learned to respect us. Eventually we made our way to California where we—" She hesitated as if the memory was painful. "Where my sister and I parted ways."

She stepped toward Percy until they were nose-to-nose. She ran her dagger under his chin. "Of course, I survived and prospered. I have risen to be queen of the Amazons. So perhaps I should thank you."

"You're welcome," Percy said.

The queen dug her knife in a little deeper. "Never mind. I think I'll kill you."

"Wait!" Rue yelped. "Reyna sent us! Your sister! Look at the ring on his necklace."

Hylla frowned. She lowered her knife to Percy's necklace until the point rested on the silver ring. The color drained from her face.

"Explain this." She glared at Rue. "Quickly."

"Your sister followed your footsteps. She's the praetor at Camp Jupiter which is where all the children of the gods live. Pretty awesome actually. I think we order from you all for the war games. Anyway, we have an army of monsters that's currently marching south. We're missing our heavy hitter and your sister is facing political pressure on all ends. She told us to stop by here on our quest to free Thanatos in Alaska for help. Which reminds me—"

Because as Rue was talking, another group of Amazons entered the room. One was taller and older than the rest, with plaited silver hair and fine silk robes like a Roman matron.

"Queen Otrera, long time no see," Rue mused. The woman paled just a bit. Rue gave a small laugh turning back to Hylla. "Reyna needs your help."

Hylla gripped Percy's leather cord and yanked it off his neck—beads, ring, probatio tablet and all. "Reyna...that foolish girl—"

"Well!" the older woman interrupted. "Romans need our help?" She laughed a bit uneasily as she looked at Rue, and the Amazons around her joined in.

"How many times did we battle the Romans in my day?" the woman asked. "How many times have they killed our sisters in battle? When I was queen—"

"Otrera," Hylla interrupted, "you are here as a guest. You are not queen anymore."

The older woman spread her hands and made a mocking bow. "As you say—at least, until tonight. But I speak the truth, Queen Hylla." She said the word like a taunt. "I've been brought back by the Earth Mother herself! I bring tidings of a new war. Why should Amazons follow Jupiter, that foolish king of Olympus, when we can follow a queen?"

"You speak treason," Rue cut in. Rue shook off the guards around ast. "And not even just treason against the gods. You're nothing but a recruit to the Amazons at the moment and not even a useful one. Gaia's using you for what I don't know, but you can tell it to Father personally."

The woman glared, making no move to get closer to Rue and the others. " When I take command—"

"If you take command," Hylla said. "But for now, I am queen. My word is law."

"I see." Otrera looked at the assembled Amazons, who were standing very still, as if they'd found themselves in a pit with two wild tigers. "Have we become so weak that we listen to male demigods? Will you spare the life of this son of Neptune, even though he once destroyed your home? Perhaps you'll let him destroy your new home, too!"

Rue held her breath. The Amazons looked back and forth between Hylla and Otrera, watching for any sign of weakness.

"I will pass judgment," Hylla said in an icy tone, "once I have all the facts. That is how I rule—by reason, not fear. First, I will talk with this one."

She jabbed a finger toward Rue. "It is my duty to hear out a female warrior before I sentence her or her allies to death. That is the Amazon way. Or have your years in the Underworld muddled your memory, Otrera?" Rue grimaced inwardly a bit.

The older woman sneered, but she didn't try to argue. Rue gave a small laugh. Though really, Rue didn't understand what the point was arguing about. Otrera was going to die and she was going back to the Underworld regardless of what any of them thought.

Hylla turned to Kinzie. "Take these males to the holding cells. The rest of you, leave us."

Otrera raised her hand to the crowd. "As our queen commands. But any of you who would like to hear more about Gaea, and our glorious future with her, come with me!"

About half the Amazons followed her out of the room. Kinzie snorted with disgust, then she and her guards hauled Percy and Frank away.

Soon Hylla and Rue were alone except for the queen's personal guards. At Hylla's signal, even they moved out of earshot.

The queen turned toward Rue. Her anger dissolved, and Hazel saw desperation in her eyes. The queen looked like one of her caged animals being whisked off on a conveyor belt.

"We must talk," Hylla said. "We don't have much time. By midnight, I will most likely be dead."

Of fucking course she was.

Rue could make a run for it. Only three guards were left in the room. All of them kept their distance.

Hylla was armed with just a dagger. This deep underground, Rue might be able to cause an earthquake in the throne room, or summon a big pile of schist or gold. Maybe even be able to finally shadow travel who knows. It was like playing popcorn chicken when it came to Rue's powers now.

Unfortunately, Rue'd seen the Amazons fight. Even though the queen had only a dagger, Rue suspected she could use it pretty well. And Rue was unarmed somewhat. Rue had always been a weapon before needing weapon, but they still hadn't searched ast, which meant thankfully they hadn't taken Frank's firewood from her coat pocket, and aster's waist beads were still wrapped around Rue's waist. It was also stupid of them to leave aster's tarot cards though, but Rue would take what ast could get. Rue wouldn't have suspected them to have that kind of firepower if Octavian had never said anything.

Plus, Otrera had helped train Rue growing up.

That bitch.

The queen seemed to be reading aster's thoughts. "Forget about escape. Of course, we'd respect you for trying. But we'd have to kill you."

"Thanks for the warning."

Hylla shrugged. "The least I can do. I believe you come in peace. I believe Reyna sent you."

"But you won't help?"

The queen studied the necklace she'd taken from Percy. "It's complicated," she said. "Amazons have always had a rocky relationship with other demigods—especially male demigods. We fought for King Priam in the Trojan War, but Achilles killed our queen, Penthesilea. Years before that, Hercules stole Queen Hippolyta's belt—this belt I'm wearing. It took us centuries to recover it. Long before that, at the very beginning of the Amazon nation, a hero named Bellerophon killed our first queen, Otrera."

"You mean the lady—"

"—who just left, yes. Otrera, our first queen, lover of Ares."

"Mars?"

Hylla made a sour face. "No, definitely Ares. Otrera lived long before Rome, in a time when all demigods were Greek. Unfortunately, some of our warriors still prefer the old ways. Children of Ares...they are always the worst."

"The old ways..." Octavian had always believed Greek demigods existed and were secretly plotting against Rome. And there was those... Rue remembered the wraiths that attacked aster as a child. And there was Percy also, but he just didn't strike Rue as an evil, scheming Greek. "You mean the Amazons are a mix...Greek and Roman?"

Hylla continued to examine the necklace—the clay beads, the probatio tablet. She slipped Reyna's silver ring off the cord and put it on her own finger. "I suppose they don't teach you about that at Camp Jupiter. The gods have many aspects. Mars, Ares. Pluto, Hades. Being immortal, they tend to accumulate personalities. They are Greek, Roman, American—a combination of all the cultures they've influenced over the eons. Do you understand?"

Okay, so maybe Rue wanted to join the Amazons now.

The queen spread her hands. "We all have some immortal blood, but many of my warriors are descended from demigods. Some have been Amazons for countless generations. Others are children of minor gods. Kinzie, the one who brought you here, is the daughter of a nymph. Ah— here she is now."

The girl with the auburn hair approached the queen and bowed.

"The prisoners are safely locked away," Kinzie reported. "But..."

"Yes?" the queen asked.

Kinzie swallowed like she had a bad taste in her mouth. "Otrera made sure her followers are guarding the cells. I'm sorry, my queen."

Hylla pursed her lips. "No matter. Stay with us, Kinzie. We were just talking about our, ah, situation."

"Otrera," Rue guessed. "Gaea brought her back from the dead to throw you Amazons into civil war."

The queen exhaled. "If that was her plan, it is working. Otrera is a legend among our people. She plans to take back the throne and lead us to war against the Romans. Many of my sisters will follow her."

"Not all," Kinzie grumbled.

"She can try," Rue shrugged. "I see her soul. The day ends with her dead. Gaea is probably only keeping her alive long enough to keep you from helping Reyna." Rue turned to gaze out into the room. "My sister... she was supposed to be on this quest. She died in nineteen forty-two and she was suppose to come back and I guess to stop Gaea but here I am. I have to finish what she started and I have to ruin Gaea's second chance so Hazel can one."

"Her second chance..." Hylla gazed at the rows of battle forklifts, now empty. "I know about second chances. That boy, Percy Jackson—he destroyed my old life. You wouldn't have recognized me back then. I wore dresses and makeup. I was a glorified secretary, an accursed Barbie doll."

Kinzie made a three-fingered claw over her heart, like the voodoo gestures Hazel's mom once used for warding off the Evil Eye.

"Circe's island was a safe place for Reyna and me," the queen continued. "We were daughters of the war goddess, Bellona. I wanted to protect Reyna from all that violence. Then Percy Jackson unleashed the pirates. They kidnapped us, and Reyna and I learned to be tough. We found out that we were good with weapons. The past four years, I've wanted to kill Percy Jackson for what he made us endure."

"But Reyna became the praetor of Camp Jupiter," Rue said. "You became the queen of the Amazons. This was your destiny."

Hylla fingered the necklace in her hand. "I may not be queen for much longer."

"You will prevail!" Kinzie insisted.

"As the Fates decree," Hylla said without enthusiasm.

"You see, Rue, Otrera has challenged me to a duel. Every Amazon has that right. Tonight at midnight, we'll battle for the throne."

"But...you're good, right?" Rue asked.

Hylla managed a dry smile. "Good, yes, but Otrera is the founder of the Amazons."

"She has a Weakness in the right ankle that she always accounts for. You can hardly even know its there unless you look for it. She also has weakened ribs on the left side from when Bellerophon dropped the boulders on her."

"How do you know this," Kinzie asked.

Rue smiled ruefully. "You're not the only one to be granted tutelage under legendary people. Father had a lot of dead heroes oversee my training. Otrera was my main teachers and she had been granted many gifts and a lot of presitge by my Father for her help. For her to betray us—well, Father is not a forgiving man."

"I hope you're right, Rue. You see, it's a battle to the death..."

She waited for that to sink in.

"Even if you kill her," Rue said, "she'll just come back. As long as Thanatos is chained, she won't stay dead."

"Exactly," Hylla said. "Otrera has already told us that she can't die. So even if I manage to defeat her tonight, she'll simply return and challenge me again tomorrow. There is no law against challenging the queen multiple times. She can insist on fighting me every night, until she finally wears me down. I can't win."

Rue gazed at the throne. Ast imagined Otrera sitting there with her fine robes and her silver hair, ordering her warriors to attack Rome. She imagined the voice of Gaea filling this cavern.

"There has to be a way," Rue said. "Don't Amazons have...special powers or something?"

"No more than other demigods," Hylla said. "We can die, just like any mortal. There is a group of archers who follow the goddess Artemis. They are often mistaken for Amazons, but the Hunters forsake the company of men in exchange for almost endless life. We Amazons—we would prefer to live life to the fullest. We love, we fight, we die."

"I thought you hated men."

Hylla and Kinzie both laughed.

"Hate men?" said the queen. "No, no, we like men. We just like to show them who's in charge. But that's beside the point. If I could, I would rally our troops and ride to my sister's aid. Unfortunately, my power is tenuous. When I am killed in combat—and it's only a matter of time—Otrera will be queen. She will march to Camp Jupiter with our forces, but she will not go to help my sister. She'll go to join the giant's army."

"We've got to stop her," Rue said. "My friends and I killed Phineas, one of Gaea's other servants in Portland. Maybe we can help!"

The queen shook her head. "You can't interfere. As queen, I must fight my own battles. Besides, your friends are imprisoned. If I let them go, I'll look weak. Either I execute you three as trespassers, or Otrera will do so when she becomes queen."

"Maybe not, but I suppose I can offer a gift," Rue smirked, reaching into aster's pocket for the Verus Family's tarot cards. "From one warrior to another?"

The Death card seemed to glow ominously in aster's hand.

In the corner cage, the stallion Arion whinnied angrily. He reared and slammed his hooves against the bars.

"The horse seems to feel your amusement," the queen said. "Interesting. He's immortal, you know—the son of Neptune and Ceres."

Rue blinked. "Two gods had a horse for a kid?"

"Long story."

"Oh."

"He's the fastest horse in the world," Hylla said. "Pegasus is more famous, with his wings, but Arion runs like the wind over land and sea. No creature is faster. It took us years to capture him—one of our greatest prizes. But it did us no good. The horse will not allow anyone to ride him. I think he hates Amazons. And he is expensive to keep. He will eat anything, but he prefers gold."

The back of Rue's neck tingled. "He eats gold?"

Rue remembered the horse following Hazel in Alaska so many years ago. They had both thought he was eating nuggets of gold that appeared in her footsteps. Rue pulled up aster's shirt even as the stone cracked. One of Rue's waistbeads had changed into pure gold even down the stygian iron that they had originally been crafted from while a chunk of gold ore the size of a plum was pushed out of the earth. Rue bent down to grab it before standing and examining aster's prizes.

Hylla and Kinzie stared at Rue.

"How did you...?" The queen gasped, taking the card in her hand absently. "Rue, be careful!"

Rue approached the stallion's cage. Ast put aster's hand between the bars, and Arion gingerly ate the chunk of gold from ast palm.

"Unbelievable," Kinzie said. "The last girl who tried that—"

"Now has a metal arm," the queen finished. She studied Rue with new interest, as if deciding whether or not to say more. "Rue...we spent years hunting for this horse. It was foretold that the most courageous female warrior would someday master Arion and ride him to victory, ushering in a new era of prosperity for the Amazons. Yet no Amazon can touch him, much less control him. Even Otrera tried and failed. Two others died attempting to ride him."

Rue hummed passing him what had once been the waistbead filled with precious metals. He nuzzled Rue's arm, murmuring contentedly, as if asking, More gold? Yum.

"I would feed you more, Arion." Rue glanced pointedly at the queen. "But I think I'm scheduled for an execution."

Queen Hylla looked from Rue to the horse and back again. "Unbelievable."

"The prophecy," Kinzie said. "Is it possible...?"

Rue could almost see the gears turning inside the queen's head, formulating a plan. "You have courage, Rue Harald. And it seems Arion has chosen you. Kinzie?"

"Yes, my queen?"

"You said Otrera's followers are guarding the cells?"

Kinzie nodded. "I should have foreseen that. I'm sorry—"

"No, it's fine." The queen's eyes gleamed—the way Hannibal the elephant's did whenever he was unleashed to destroy a fortress. "It would be embarrassing for Otrera if her followers failed in their duties—if, for instance, they were overcome by an outsider and a prison break occurred."

Kinzie began to smile. "Yes, my queen. Most embarrassing."

"Of course," Hylla continued, "none of my guards would know a thing about this. Kinzie would not spread the word to allow an escape."

"Certainly not," Kinzie agreed.

"And we couldn't help you." The queen raised her eyebrows at Rue. "But if you somehow overpowered the guards and freed your friends...if, for instance, you took one of the guards' Amazon cards—"

"With one-click purchasing enabled," Kinzie said, "which will open the jail cells with one click."

"If—gods forbid!—something like that were to happen," the queen continued, "you would find your friends' weapons and supplies in the guard station next to the cells. And who knows? If you made your way back to this throne room while I was off preparing for my duel...well, as I mentioned, Arion is a very fast horse. It would be a shame if he were stolen and used for an escape."

Rue smiled a bit darkly. "Of course, my queen." All three of their eyes sparkled in amusement. "There are many kinds of fighting. And I am quite resourceful."

" And if the prophecy is correct, you will help the Amazon nation achieve prosperity. If you succeed on your quest to free Thanatos, for instance—"

"—then Otrera wouldn't come back if she were killed," Rue said. "You'd only have to defeat her...um, every night until we succeed unless you just so happen to have a card grants death for eight minutes. Once it deactivates, it's out of commission for another eight. They need time to replenish which happens faster under direct sunlight, but the quicker you use it say back-to-back then the worse the drawbacks."

The queen nodded grimly. "It seems we both have impossible tasks ahead of us."

"But you're trusting me," said Rue. "And I trust you. You will win, as many times as it takes."

Hylla held out Percy's necklace and poured it into Rue's hands.

"I hope you're right," the queen said. "But the sooner you succeed the better, yes?"

Rue slipped the necklace into aster's pocket and shook the queen's hand, wondering if it was possible to make a friend so fast—especially one who was about to send Rue to jail. (Better than Octavian. The Lawyers on the legion's retainer were just about sick of him.)

"This conversation never happened," Hylla told Kinzie. "Take our prisoner to the cells and hand her over to Otrera's guards. And, Kinzie, be sure you leave before anything unfortunate happens. I don't want my loyal followers held accountable for a prison break." The queen smiled mischievously, and for the first time, Rue felt jealous of Reyna. Rue wished that aster had a sister like this. And if Rue survived, hopefully, ast could have one with Hazel.

"Good-bye, Rue Harald," the queen said. "If we both die tonight... well, I'm glad I met you."

Kinzie led ast up three different ladders to a metal catwalk, then tied Rue's hands loosely behind aster's back and pushed ast along past crates of jewelry. Because for some reason, the amazon jail was at the top of a storage aisle, sixty feet in the air.

A hundred feet ahead of Rue, under the harsh glow of fluorescent lights, a row of chain-link cages hung suspended from cables. Percy and Frank were in two of the cages, talking to each other in hushed tones. Next to them on the catwalk, three bored-looking Amazon guards leaned against their spears and gazed at the iPads in their hands like they were reading.

"Get moving, girl," Kinzie ordered, loud enough for the guards to hear. She prodded Rue in the back with her sword. Rue walked as slowly as aster could.

Rue needed a plan. Ast was down one whip, but managed to summon some metal. Maybe Rue could redo that? Ast had been thinking about Hazel so maybe that's why it worked so well? But Rue's main power had been over the domain of dead and looking around, Rue was could almost see the vengeful spirits that lingered on the amazons. But Rue didn't want to mess up and hurt Hylla's warriors.

Kinzie had made sure ast could break aster's bonds easily, and she had to act before they put her in a cage.

They passed a pallet of crates marked 24-CARAT BLUE TOPAZ RINGS, then another labeled SILVER FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS. An electronic display next to the friendship bracelets read: People who bought this item also bought GARDEN GNOME SOLAR PATIO LIGHT and FLAMING SPEAR OF DEATH. Buy all three and save 12%!

And... oh.

If you use the Strength card, then a lion appears, and you get almost godly strength for eight minutes.

Okay, that checks out. Rue can probably improvise the rest.

Silver. Topaz. She sent out her senses, searching for precious metals, and Rue's brain almost exploded from the feedback. If this was what Hazel had to deal with, Rue was starting to feel a bit sorry for her.

Rue was standing next to a six-story-tall mountain of jewelry. But in front of ast, from here to the guards, was nothing but prison cages.

"What is it?" Kinzie hissed. "Keep moving! They'll get suspicious."

"Make them come here," Rue muttered over aster's shoulder.

"Why—"

"Please."

The guards frowned in their direction.

"What are you staring at?" Kinzie yelled at them. "Here's the third prisoner. Come get her."

The nearest guard set down her reading tablet. "Why can't you walk another thirty paces, Kinzie?"

"Um, because—"

"Ooof!" Rue fell to aster's knees and thought of about the stench that was following Otrera. "I'm feeling nauseous! Can't...walk. Amazons ... too ... scary."

"There you go," Kinzie told the guards. "Now, are you going to come take the prisoner, or should I tell Queen Hylla you're not doing your duty?"

The nearest guard rolled her eyes and trudged over. Rue had hoped the other two guards would come too, but ast'd have to worry about that later.

Rue was flexible like that.

The first guard grabbed Rue's arm. "Fine. I'll take custody of the prisoner. But if I were you, Kinzie, I wouldn't worry about Hylla. She won't be queen much longer."

"We'll see, Doris." Kinzie turned to leave. Rue waited until her steps receded down the catwalk.

The guard Doris pulled on Rue's arm. "Well? Come on."

Rue concentrated on the wall of jewelry next to ast: forty large boxes of silver bracelets. "Not...feeling so good."

"You are not throwing up on me," Doris growled. She tried to yank Rue to ast feet, but Rue went limp, like a kid throwing a fit in a store.

Next to them , the boxes began to tremble.

"Lulu!" Doris yelled to one of her comrades. "Help me with this lame little girl."

Lame? Rue growled inwardly.

The second guard jogged over. Rue decided this was as good as it was going to get. Before they could haul ast to aster's feet, Rue yelled, "Ooooh!" and flattened herself against the catwalk, seemingly not noticing the blood dripping from aster's nose.

Doris started to say, "Oh, give me a—"

The entire pallet of jewelry exploded with a sound like a thousand slot machines hitting the jackpot. A tidal wave of silver friendship bracelets poured across the catwalk, washing Doris and Lulu right over the railing.

They would've fallen to their deaths, but Rue wasn't that mean. Rue summoned a few hundred bracelets, which leaped at the guards and lashed around their ankles, leaving them hanging upside down from the bottom of the catwalk, screaming like lame little girls.

Rue turned toward the third guard, breaking through the bonds. Rue raised aster's shirt to show the way aster's waistbeads changed into a very deadly spear.

"Would like to die from here orrrr..." Rue advanced slowly. "Would like me for me to come over there, eh?"

The guard turned and ran. Rue sniffed, snapping aster's fingers. The guard dropped dead.

Rue shouted over the side to Doris and Lulu. "Amazon cards! Pass them up, unless you want me to undo those friendship bracelets and let you drop!"

Four and a half seconds later, Rue had two Amazon cards. Rue raced over to the cages and swiped a card. The doors popped open.

Frank stared at her in astonishment. "Rue, that was...amazing."

Percy nodded. "I will never wear jewelry again."

"Except this." Rue tossed him his necklace. "Your weapons and supplies are at the end of the catwalk. We should hurry. Pretty soon—"

Alarms began wailing throughout the cavern.

"Well shit," Rue said, "that'll happen. Let's go!"

The first part of the escape was easy. They retrieved their things with no problem, then started climbing down the ladder. Every time Amazons swarmed beneath them, demanding their surrender, Rue made a crate of jewelry explode, burying their enemies in a Niagara Falls of gold and silver. A few times Rue showed immense control over summoning asphodel to claw its way deep from within the underworld to wrap around the amazons blooming as tall as skyscrapers. Rue's eyes had turned milky white as they flew down the stairs. When they got to the bottom of the ladder, they found a scene that looked like Mardi Gras Armageddon—Amazons trapped up to their necks in bead necklaces, several more upside down in a mountain of amethyst earrings, and a battle forklift buried in silver charm bracelets.

"You, Rue Harald," Frank said, "are entirely freaking incredible."

Rue knew that.

They stumbled across one Amazon who must've been loyal to Hylla.

As soon as she saw the escapees, she turned away like they were invisible.

Percy started to ask, "What the—"

"Some of them want us to escape," Rue said. "I'll explain later."

The second Amazon they met wasn't so friendly. She was dressed in full armor, blocking the throne-room entrance. She spun her spear with lightning speed, but this time Percy was ready. He drew Riptide and stepped into battle. As the Amazon jabbed at him, he sidestepped, cut her spear shaft in half, and slammed the hilt of his sword against her helmet.

The guard crumpled.

"Mars Almighty," Frank said. "How did you—that wasn't any Roman technique!"

Percy grinned. "The graecus has some moves, my friend. After you."

They ran into the throne room. As promised, Hylla and her guards had cleared out. Rue dashed over to Arion's cage and swiped an Amazon card across the lock. Instantly the stallion burst forth, rearing in triumph.

Percy and Frank stumbled backward.

"Um...is that thing tame?" Frank said.

The horse whinnied angrily.

"I don't think so," Percy guessed. "He just said, 'I will trample you to death, silly Chinese Canadian baby man.'"

"You speak horse?" Rue asked.

"'Baby man'?" Frank spluttered.

"Speaking to horses is a Poseidon thing," Percy said. "Uh, I mean a Neptune thing."

"Then you and Arion should get along fine," Rue said, an amused smile appearing on aster's face. "He's a son of Neptune too."

Percy turned pale. "Excuse me?"

If they hadn't been in such a bad situation, Percy's expression might have made Rue laugh. "The point is, he's fast. He can get us out of here."

Frank did not look thrilled. "Three of us can't fit on one horse, can we? We'll fall off, or slow him down, or—"

Arion whinnied again.

"Ouch," Percy said. "Frank, the horse says you're a—you know, actually, I'm not going to translate that. Anyway, he says there's a chariot in the warehouse, and he's willing to pull it."

"There!" someone yelled from the back of the throne room. A dozen Amazons charged in, followed by males in orange jumpsuits. When they saw Arion, they backed up quickly and headed for the battle forklifts.

Rue vaulted onto Arion's back just like Hazel used to do. Rue grinned down at aster's boys. "I remember seeing that chariot. Follow me, guys!"

Rue galloped into the larger cavern and scattered a crowd of males.

Percy knocked out an Amazon. Frank swept two more off their feet with his spear. Rue could feel Arion straining to run. He wanted to go full speed, but he needed more room. They had to make it outside.

Rue bowled into a patrol of Amazons, who scattered in terror at the sight of the horse. Rue let the spear shift back into a whip and now ast could understand why Hazel like these animals.

No Amazon dared challenge Rue. Percy and Frank ran after them. Finally they reached the chariot. Arion stopped by the yoke, and Percy set to work with the reins and harness.

"You've done this before?" Frank asked.

Percy didn't need to answer. His hands flew. In no time the chariot was ready. He jumped aboard and yelled, "Frank, come on! Hazel, go!"

A battle cry went up behind them. A full army of Amazons stormed into the warehouse. Otrera herself stood astride a battle forklift, her silver hair flowing as she swung her mounted crossbow toward the chariot. "Stop them!" she yelled.

"Otrera, mother of Hippolyta and Penthesilea and the founding mother of the Amazon nation! I, Rue Harald, child of Dīs Pater hereby sentence you to eternal damnation! May the gods forsake you and all honor that once held dear be revoke!

Rue spurred Arion as Otrera stumbled back as the curse hit. They raced across the cavern, weaving around pallets and forklifts. An arrow whizzed past Rue's head. Something exploded behind Rue, but ast didn't look back.

"The stairs!" Frank yelled. "No way this horse can pull a chariot up that many flights of—OH MYGODS!"

Thankfully the stairs were wide enough for the chariot, because Arion didn't even slow down. He shot up the steps with the chariot rattling and groaning. Rue glanced back a few times to make sure Frank and Percy hadn't fallen off. Their knuckles were white on the sides of the chariot, their teeth chattering like windup Halloween skulls.

Finally they reached the lobby. Arion crashed through the main doors into the plaza and scattered a bunch of guys in business suits.

Rue felt the tension in Arion's rib cage. The fresh air was making him crazy to run, but Rue pulled back on his reins.

"Ella!" Rue shouted at the sky. "Where are you? We have to leave!"

For a horrible second, Rue was afraid the harpy might be too far away to hear. Rue might be lost, or captured by the Amazons.

Behind them a battle forklift clattered up the stairs and roared through the lobby, a mob of Amazons behind it.

"Surrender!" Otrera screamed.

The forklift raised its razor-sharp tines. Rue waved aster's hand. Branches of asphodel began to shoot up through the concrete.

"Ella!" Rue cried desperately.

In a flash of red feathers, Ella landed in the chariot. "Ella is here. Amazons are pointy. Go now."

"Hold on!" Rue warned. Ast leaned forward and said, "Arion, run!"

The world seemed to elongate. Sunlight bent around them. Arion shot away from the Amazons and sped through downtown Seattle. Rue glanced back and saw a line of smoking pavement where Arion's hooves had touched the ground. He thundered toward the docks, leaping over cars, barreling through intersections.

Rue screamed at the top of aster's lungs. Oh gods, Rue remembered why ast didn't like this damn animal.

Arion reached the water and leaped straight off the docks.

Rue's ears popped. She heard a roar that she later realized was a sonic boom, and Arion tore over Puget Sound, seawater turning to steam in his wake as the skyline of Seattle receded behind them.

Rue was relieved when the wheels finally fell off. The horse seemed to bend time and space as he ran, blurring the landscape.

Arion sped north across Puget Sound, zooming past islands and fishing boats and very surprised pods of whales. The horse rocketed onto dry land. He followed Highway 99 north, running so fast, the cars seemed to be standing still.

Finally, just as they were getting into Vancouver, the chariot wheels began to smoke.

"Rue!" Frank yelled. "We're breaking up!"

Rue pulled the reins. The horse didn't seem happy about it, but he slowed to subsonic as they zipped through the city streets. They crossed the Ironworkers bridge into North Vancouver, and the chariot started to rattle dangerously. At last Arion stopped at the top of a wooded hill. He snorted with satisfaction, as if to say, That's how we run, fools. The smoking chariot collapsed, spilling Percy, Frank, and Ella onto the wet, mossy ground.

Frank stumbled to his feet. Percy groaned and started unhitching Arion from the ruined chariot.

Ella fluttered around in dizzy circles, bonking into the trees and muttering, "Tree. Tree. Tree."

Rue cleared aster's throat and tried to remember how to walk. And okay, admittedly, "It was fun," Rue stated, casting a glance to the horse once ast slid off his back.

"Yeah." Frank swallowed back his nausea. "So much fun."

Arion whinnied.

"He says he needs to eat," Percy translated. "No wonder. He probably burned about six million calories."

Rue studied the ground at aster's feet and frowned. "I'm not sensing any gold around here...Don't worry, Arion. I'll find you some. In the meantime, why don't you go graze? We'll meet you—"

The horse zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake.

Rue knit ast eyebrows. "Do you think he'll come back?" He had to for Hazel's sake.

"I don't know," Percy said. "He seems kind of...spirited."

Rue and Percy started salvaging supplies from the chariot wreckage. There had been a few boxes of random Amazon merchandise in the front, and Ella shrieked with delight when she found a shipment of books. She snatched up a copy of The Birds of North America, fluttered to the nearest branch, and began scratching through the pages so fast, Rue wasn't sure if she was reading or shredding.

Frank leaned against a tree before he straightened and looked around, trying to get his bearings.

To the south, across Vancouver Harbor, the downtown skyline gleamed red in the sunset. To the north, the hills and rain forests of Lynn Canyon Park snaked between the subdivisions of North Vancouver until they gave way to the wilderness.

"I'm practically home," he said. "My grandmother's house is right over there."

Rue squinted. "How far?"

"Just over the river and through the woods."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? To Grandmother's house we go?" Rue fought off a smirk. The Big Bad Wolves they were.

Frank cleared his throat. "Yeah, anyway."

Rue clasped aster's hands in prayer. "Frank, please tell me she'll let us spend the night. I know we're on a deadline, but we've got to rest, right? And Arion saved us some time. Maybe we could get an actual cooked meal?" Rue never realized how much ast longed for a nice good homecooked meal.

"And a hot shower?" Percy pleaded. "And a bed with, like, sheets and a pillow?"

"It's worth a try," Frank decided. "To Grandmother's house we go."

They almost walked into an camp of orgres if Rue and Percy didn't stop Frank. They alongside Ella crouched down behind a fallen log and peered into the clearing.

"Bad," Ella murmured. "This is bad for harpies."

It was fully dark now. Around a blazing campfire sat half a dozen shaggy-haired humanoids. Standing up, they probably would've been eight feet tall—tiny compared to the giant Polybotes or even the Cyclopes they'd seen in California, but that didn't make them any less scary. They wore only knee-length surfer shorts. Their skin was sunstroke red—covered with tattoos of dragons, hearts, and bikini-clad women. Hanging from a spit over the fire was a skinned animal, maybe a boar, and the ogres were tearing off chunks of meat with their clawlike fingernails, laughing and talking as they ate, baring pointy teeth. Next to the ogres sat several mesh bags filled with bronze spheres like cannonballs. The spheres must have been hot, because they steamed in the cool evening air.

Two hundred yards beyond the clearing, the lights of what must be the Zhang mansion glowed through the trees. Rue looked left and right. There were more campfires in either direction, as if the ogres had surrounded the property.

"What are these guys?" Frank whispered.

"Canadians," Percy said.

Frank leaned away from him. "Excuse me?" Rue stifled a laugh.

"Uh, no offense," Percy said. "That's what my friend Annabeth called them when I fought them before. She said they live in the north, in Canada."

"Yeah, well," Frank grumbled, "we're in Canada. I'm Canadian. But I've never seen those things before."

"I mean if you're only just now learning that you're a demigod," Rue started. "The mist was probably at work keeping them away. And they probably didn't venture this close." They were had to be pinging on Amazon territory.

Ella plucked a feather from her wings and turned it in her fingers.

"Laistrygonians," she said. "Cannibals. Northern giants. Sasquatch legend. Yep, yep. They're not birds. Not birds of North America."

"That's what they're called," Percy agreed. "Laistry—uh, whatever Ella said."

Frank scowled at the dudes in the clearing. "They could be mistaken for Bigfoot. Maybe that's where the legend came from. Ella, you're pretty smart."

"Ella is smart," she agreed. She shyly offered Frank her feather.

Rue was looking at Percy. "Your memory is coming back? You've mentioned a couple of things now. Do you remember how you beat these guys?" These were more so Jason's monsters who gained a real hatred of lightning.

"Sort of," Percy said. "It's still fuzzy. I think I had help. We killed them with Celestial bronze, but that was before ... you know."

"Before Death got kidnapped," Rue said. "So now, they might not die at all."

Percy nodded. "Those bronze cannonballs...those are bad news. I think we used some of them against the giants. They catch fire and blow up."

Rue's hand went to aster's coat pocket.

"If we cause any explosions," Frank said, "the ogres at the other camps will come running. I think they've surrounded the house, which means there could be fifty or sixty of these guys in the woods."

"So it's a trap." Rue looked at Frank with concern. "What about your grandmother? We've got to help her."

"We need a distraction," he decided. "If we can draw this group into the woods, we might sneak through without alerting the others."

"I wish Arion was here," Rue said, and that was a sentence ast had never thought ast would say. "I could get the ogres to chase me."

Frank slipped his spear off his back. "I've got another idea."

"Frank, you can't charge out there!" Rue said. Did ast just attract self-sacrificing idiots? Rue swore Octavian, Jason, and Lilith had pulled that same stunt before. "That's suicide!"

"I'm not charging," Frank said. "I've got a friend. Just...nobody scream, okay?" He jabbed the spear into the ground, and the point broke off.

"Oops," Ella said. "No spear point. Nope, nope."

The ground trembled. A skeletal hand broke the surface. Percy fumbled for his sword, and Rue blinked. Ella disappeared and rematerialized at the top of the nearest tree.

"It's okay," Frank promised. "He's under control!"

The skeleton... the spartoi crawled out of the ground. He was dressed in camouflage and combat boots, translucent gray flesh covering his bones like glowing Jell-O. He turned his ghostly eyes toward Frank, waiting for orders.

"Frank, that's a spartus," Percy said. "A skeleton warrior. They're evil. They're killers. They're—"

"I know," Frank said bitterly. "But it's a gift from Mars. Right now that's all I've got. Okay, Gray. Your orders: attack that group of ogres. Lead them off to the west, causing a diversion so we can—"

"No, they aren't," Rue interrupted, frowning at Percy. "Maybe that's how they were used against you, but the Spartoi were believed to be the ancestors of the five oldest families at Thebes."

Unfortunately, Gray lost interest after the word "ogres." Maybe he only understood simple sentences. He charged toward the ogres' campfire.

"Wait!" Frank said, but it was too late. Gray pulled two of his own ribs from his shirt and ran around the fire, stabbing the ogres in the back with such blinding speed they didn't even have time to yell. Six extremely surprised-looking Laistrygonians fell sideways like a circle of dominoes and crumbled into dust.

Gray stomped around, kicking their ashes apart as they tried to re-form. When he seemed satisfied that they weren't coming back, Gray stood at attention, saluted smartly in Frank's direction, and sank into the forest floor.

Percy stared at Frank. "How—"

"No Laistrygonians." Ella fluttered down and landed next to them. "Six minus six is zero. Spears are good for subtraction. Yep."

Rue smirked, turning to look at Frank. A pet spartoi. That was so cool. Father didn't let Rue have one, but Rue wasn't going to stop begging.

"Let's go," Frank said. "My grandmother might be in trouble."

A loose ring of campfires glowed in the woods, completely surrounding the property, but the house itself seemed untouched. So, they were able to stop at the front porch thanks to Gray.

Frank checked the stone elephant statue in the corner. There was a spare key tucked under its foot, but he hesitated at the door.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked.

"Frank?" Rue asked.

"Ella is nervous," the harpy muttered from her perch on the railing. "The elephant—the elephant is looking at Ella."

"It'll be fine." Frank's hand was shaking so badly he could barely fit the key in the lock. "Just stay together."

Inside, the house smelled closed-up and musty. They examined the living room, the dining room, the kitchen. Dirty dishes were stacked in the sink. In the parlor, Buddha statues and Taoist immortals grinned at them like psycho clowns. Rue remembered Iris, the rainbow goddess, who'd been dabbling in Buddhism and Taoism. Rue figured one visit to this creepy old house would cure her of that, but ast had the sense to not say that aloud. The large porcelain vases were strung with cobwebs.

The fireplace was dark and cold.

Rue place a protective hand over aster's chest and Percy stepped in front of ast just a bit as if they were able to keep the piece of firewood from jumping into the hearth. "Is that—"

"Yeah," Frank said. "That's it. Come on. Let's check upstairs."

The steps creaked under their feet. And they came to a stop at what was clearly Frank's old room. Rue felt a bit of jealous looking at his spelling bee awards from school. Dyslexia aside, at least... at least he was able to have somewhat of a normal upbringing. And there were pictures of a woman that couldn't be anyone else but his mother. Photos of his mom—in a flak jacket and helmet, sitting on a Humvee in Kandahar Province; in a soccer coach uniform; in her military dress uniform, her hands on Frank's shoulders.

A dark and ugly part of Rue wanted to scream and tear it all apart.

Rue never knew Misty Harald.

Rue never got this level of love.

Would Rue have gotten it if Misty Harald had lived?

"Your mother?" Percy asked gently. "She's beautiful."

Frank didn't answer, so they turned to check the other bedrooms. The middle two were empty. A dim light flickered under the last door—Grandmother's room, Rue assumed.

The only Grandmother Rue currently had (alongside Jason and Nico and Percy) was Gaea and she was out to kill them.

(Rue wondered if ast would ever meet ast Grandmother Ops.)

Frank knocked quietly. No one answered. He pushed open her door. His grandmother lay in bed, looking gaunt and frail, her white hair spread around her face like a basilisk's crown. A single candle burned on the nightstand.

Rue bit aster's lip.

"Mars," Frank said. Rue and Percy turned to look at him.

"Frank?" Rue whispered. "What do mean, Mars? Is your grandmother ... is she okay?" Well, intellectually, Rue could sense her fading away and only holding on through spite and stubbornness.

Frank glanced at them. "You don't see him?"

"See who?" Percy gripped his sword. "Mars? Where?"

Frank clenched his fists. "Guys, it's...it's nothing. Listen, why don't you take the middle bedrooms?"

"Roof," Ella said. "Roofs are good for harpies."

"Sure," Frank said in a daze. "There's probably food in the kitchen. Would you give me a few minutes alone with my grandmother? I think she —" His voice broke. Rue winced.

Percy laid a hand on his arm. "Of course, Frank. Come on, Ella, Rue."

They retreated back down the hall and Rue settled in to one of the middle bedrooms. Closer to Grandmother Zhang than to Frank. Rue could hear Percy moving around in the next room. It took ast on a few moments to realize that Rue was in the closest thing to a shrine. This was Frank's mother old room.

There was a difference of course. Rue had witness a Qingming festival once, so Rue knew this was nothing like how it was celebrated, but Rue... Rue did feel like ast had stepped into a tomb. Maybe it was because ast could see that nothing had been touched since the last time the woman herself had been in there.

Rue pursed aster's lips, sitting cross legged on the floor. Rue pulled out the supplies that they still had. Rue did a quick rations check, cleaned aster's weapons and checked on stability some of them, before pulling out the tarot cards. The ones from Octavian laid instantly before Rue and ast really wanted to figure out just how they worked even if Rue did feel like ast need a duel disk like in Yu-Gi-Oh! And as much as Rue was starting to like them, Rue felt better and more whole with aster's own.

Shuffling them quickly, Rue poured intent into them. Honestly, Rue didn't really know what ast was looking for. Maybe a more generalized reading than anything especially since the cards needed to charge in moonlight soon.

The first card that Rue pulled was the Moon upright.

Ast stared.

It usually meant that the person whom the reading was for was allowing their imagination and emotions to control their life. It was a warning in a sense like a crawfish rising from the sea. They had to trust their intuition and push forward and break free from what bound them which in Rue's case may have been linked to ast's fears and self-deception and underlying anxiety.

Was... was Rue the real for the blockage to ast powers? Was ast the reason for being so out of whack because Rue was allowing aster's emotions and insecurities to control ast's life? Did this have something to do with realizing this quest was supposed to be for Hazel?

Rue placed the card to the side and shuffled again. Maybe Rue was doing the reading wrong with the sense of death clouding aster's senses.

The next card Rue pulled was a reversed Hierophant tarot card which reminded Rue way too much of Phineas in the Verus Family deck.

Rue stared down at the card.

It technically meant that Rue no longer needed the approval of external sources and that Rue was ast own teacher. It meant it was time to trust Rue's inner strength and see things from a different perspective. Now what was this about?

But...

When Rue thought about it... ast grabbed the Moon Card and placed it beside the reversed Hierophant. Together, the two cards symbolizes a psychological breakthrough and analysis. Rue would be getting deeper understanding of aster's inner self and old emotions. This newly gained wisdom will help Rue to solve an ongoing issue.

Definitely about Rue's powers then.

There was a knock on the door and Percy poked his head in to let Rue know that the shower was free.

Nodding ast head, Rue pulled out some clothing and aster's nightcare products. It was technically wash day and Rue wasn't around any hair salon that would be willing to tangle with aster's hair.

(Lilith and Terrel always made sure Rue's hair ate down even if they barely liked Rue as a person.)

Rue spent the next two hours in the shower, carefully detangling aster's hair, deep conditioning and shampooing, and making sure to get all the dirt and seawater out of it. There was a lot of muttered curses by Rue because ast did not miss this. It was why Rue had been so happy to find someone that had been able to deal with aster's hair type.

(Rue did not care what anyone thought. Dealing with natural hair was an exercise all in itself, but as ast watched the shrinkage and the bounce of the curl... well, it was worth it.)

Once Rue was out of the shower and did aster's nightly routine alongside slathering asterself in cocoa butter, Rue sat in front of the mirror and began to put aster's hair in two-strand twist and then placing those in bantu knots.

Placing a silk bonnet over aster's head, Rue was sleep in no time.

And it was like no time had passed at all when Rue awakened, yawning quietly. Like that one scene in Clueless, Rue and Percy stood in the bathroom side by side brushing their teeth without all the sexual tension.

"My clothes are finishing washing," he said. "I'll go find Frank something to wear."

Rue nodded. "I'll do breakfast then." One could not be in the Third Cohort under the eyes of Pranjal and not know how to make a nutritional meal because he was not treating diabetes and high blood pressure for people that did not take care of themselves.

(But OH! was it a different story for those that had it in their family medical history. His bedside manner was something straight out of a movie!)

Dressed in jeans, a cream-colored jacket, and a white shirt that, Rue made aster's way down to the kitchen. Rue decided to go for a simple meal of bacon and eggs. Rue pursed ast lips, turning to look around the kitchen. Frank's grandmother's life force was fading just a bit more.

Rue could be nice and fix a bit of comfort food.

Rue blinked looking out the window.

"Percy," Rue called urgently.

The son of Neptune came out of what Rue assumed to be the laundry room, looking curious. Rue pointed towards the windows.

The ogres have surrounded the house.

"Crap."

That summed it up pretty well.

---

At the edge of the lawn, the Laistrygonians were stacking bronze cannonballs. Their skin gleamed red. Their shaggy hair, tattoos, and claws didn't look any prettier in the morning light.

Some carried clubs or spears. A few confused ogres carried surfboards, like they'd shown up at the wrong party. All of them were in a festive mood—giving each other high fives, tying plastic bibs around their necks, breaking out the knives and forks. One ogre had fired up a portable barbecue and was dancing in an apron that said KISS THE COOK.

The attic was full of weapons. Frank's family had collected enough ancient armaments to supply an army. Shields, spears, and quivers of arrows hung along one wall—almost as many as in the Camp Jupiter armory. At the back window, a scorpion crossbow was mounted and loaded, ready for action. At the front window stood something that looked like a machine gun with a cluster of barrels.

Octavian and the children of Mars, Vulcan, Mercury, Apollo and their legacies would have a field day in there.

The house shook from another explosion.

Down in the yard, the ogres were milling around, shoving each other, occasionally yelling at the house, and throwing bronze cannonballs that exploded in midair.

Rue really wanted to go back inside the attic and let off all the potato guns.

The ladder to the roof was pulled down. Rue glanced over at it before turning back to the orges and sticking ast's middle finger up at it.

"Morning," Percy said grimly. "Beautiful day, huh?" He wore the same clothes as the day before—jeans, his purple T-shirt, and Polartec jacket—but they'd obviously been freshly washed. He held his sword in one hand and a garden hose in the other. Why there was a garden hose on the roof, Rue wasn't sure, but every time the giants sent up a cannonball, Percy summoned a high-powered blast of water and detonated the sphere in midair.

Rue twirled ast's staff, glancing over at Frank when he didn't reply to Percy. He was smiling. They were being attacked by cannibals and he was smiling.

"Are you okay?" Rue asked. "Why are you smiling?"

"Oh, uh, nothing," he managed. "Thanks for breakfast. And the clothes. And...not hating me."

Rue looked baffled. "Why would I hate you?"

Frank's face burned. "It's just...last night," he stammered. "When I summoned the skeleton. I thought...I thought that you thought...Iwas repulsive ... or something."

Rue raised a brow. "If anything, I was jealous. Father never let me have a spartus and yet there you were commanding it, so confident and everything—like, Oh, by the way, guys, I have this all-powerful spartus we can use. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't repulsed, Frank. I was impressed."

"You were...impressed ... by me?"

Percy laughed. "Dude, it was pretty amazing."

"Honest?" Frank asked.

"Honest," Rue promised, gesturing towards the army of ogres, who were getting increasingly bold, shuffling closer and closer to the house. "But right now, we have other problems to worry about. Okay?"

Percy readied the garden hose. "I've got one more trick up my sleeve. Your lawn has a sprinkler system. I can blow it up and cause some confusion down there, but that'll destroy your water pressure. No pressure, no hose, and those cannonballs are going to plow right into the house."

"Guys, I've got an escape plan." Frank said, explaining to them about a plane waiting at the airfield, and his grandmother's note for the pilot. "He's a legion veteran. He'll help us."

"But Arion's not back," Rue said. Hazel had to have that horse.

"And what about your grandmother?" Percy said. Rue bit aster's tongue. "We can't just leave her."

Frank choked back a sob. "Maybe—maybe Arion will find us. As for my grandmother...she was pretty clear. She said she'd be okay."

"There's another problem," Percy said. "I'm not good with air travel. It's dangerous for a son of Neptune."

"You'll have to risk it...and so will I," Frank said. "By the way, we're related."

Percy almost stumbled off the roof. "What?"

Frank gave them the five-second version: "Periclymenus. Ancestor on my mom's side. Argonaut. Grandson of Poseidon."

Rue's mouth fell open. "You're a—a descendant of Neptune? Frank, that's—" Oh. Ohhhh.

A descendant of Neptune will wash away your curse and give you peace.

So, this really was Hazel's quest.

Hmp. Talk about youngest child syndrome (or would it be older since Rue was technically older than the number of years that Hazel had lived?)

"Crazy? Yeah. And there's this ability my family has, supposedly. But I don't know how to use it. If I can't figure it out—"

Another massive cheer went up from the Laistrygonians. They were staring up at Frank, pointing and waving and laughing. They had spotted their breakfast.

"Zhang!" they yelled. "Zhang!"

Rue stepped closer to him. "They keep doing that. Why are they yelling your name?"

"Never mind," Frank said. "Listen, we've got to protect Ella, take her with us."

"Of course," Rue said. "The poor thing needs our help."

"No," Frank said. "I mean yes, but it's not just that. She recited a prophecy downstairs. I think...I think it was about this quest." Rue could tell he didn't want to tell Percy the bad news, about a son of Neptune drowning, but he repeated the lines.

Percy's jaw tightened. "I don't know how a son of Neptune can drown. I can breathe underwater. But the crown of the legion—"

"That's got to be the eagle," Rue said.

Percy nodded. "And Ella recited something like this once before, in Portland—a line from the old Great Prophecy."

"The what?" Frank asked.

"Tell you later." Percy turned his garden hose and shot another cannonball out of the sky.

It exploded in an orange fireball. The ogres clapped with appreciation and yelled, "Pretty! Pretty!"

"The thing is," Frank said, "Ella remembers everything she reads. She said something about the page being burned, like she'd read a damaged text of prophecies."

Rue's eyes widened as ast stumbled back. "Burned books of prophecy? You don't think—but that's impossible!"

"The books Octavian wanted, back at camp?" Percy guessed.

Rue whistled under ast breath. "The lost Sibylline books that outlined the entire destiny of Rome. If Ella actually read a copy somehow, and memorized it—"

"Then she's the most valuable harpy in the world," Frank said. "No wonder Phineas wanted to capture her."

"Frank Zhang!" an ogre shouted from below. He was bigger than the rest, wearing a lion's cape like a Roman standard bearer and a plastic bib with a lobster on it. "Come down, son of Mars! We've been waiting for you. Come, be our honored guest!"

Percy gripped Frank's arm. "Why do I get the feeling that 'honored guest' means the same thing as 'dinner'?"

He looked at Percy. "Can you drive?"

"Sure. Why?"

"Grandmother's car is in the garage. It's an old Cadillac. The thing is like a tank. If you can get it started—"

"We'll still have to break through a line of ogres," Rue said.

"The sprinkler system," Percy said. "Use it as a distraction?"

"Exactly," Frank said. "I'll buy you as much time as I can. Get Ella, and get in the car. I'll try to meet you in the garage, but don't wait for me."

Percy frowned. "Frank—"

"Give us your answer, Frank Zhang!" the ogre yelled up. "Come down, and we will spare the others—your friends, your poor old granny. We only want you!"

"They're lying," Percy muttered.

"Yeah, I got that," Frank agreed. "Go!"

They ran for the ladder.

"Hey, down there! Who's hungry?" Rue heard him yell from the roof.

The ogres cheered.

"Ella, let's go," Rue yelled, holding a hand out for the harpy as they rushed down to the garage. Rue paused, gazing back at the rooms and wishing Rue had enough time to lay a blessing over Frank's grandmother for easy passage into the Underworld.

Rue could hear some exploding from the outside as Percy slid into the driver seat. A lot of exploding actually. The whole house began to groan.

"Shit, Percy, look." Rue said, watching as smoke began to come through the hall way door.

They shared looks, both moving to get out of the car when Frank burst into the garage. The Cadillac's headlights were on. The engine was running and the garage door was opening.

"Get in!" Percy yelled.

Frank dove in the back next to Ella, her head tucked under her wings, muttering, "Yikes. Yikes. Yikes."

Percy gunned the engine. They shot out of the garage before it was fully open, leaving a Cadillac-shaped hole of splintered wood. The ogres ran to intercept, but Percy shouted at the top of his lungs, and the irrigation system exploded. A hundred geysers shot into the air along with clods of dirt, pieces of pipe, and very heavy sprinkler heads.

The Cadillac was going about forty when they hit the first ogre, who disintegrated on impact. By the time the other monsters overcame their confusion, the Cadillac was half a mile down the road. Flaming cannonballs burst behind them.

They drove through the woods and headed north.

"About three miles!" Frank said. "You can't miss it!"

Behind them, more explosions ripped through the forest. Smoke boiled into the sky.

"How fast can Laistrygonians run?" Rue asked.

"Let's not find out," Percy said.

The gates of the airfield appeared before them—only a few hundred yards away. A private jet idled on the runway. Its stairs were down.

The Cadillac hit a pothole and went airborne. Rue screeched. When the wheels touched the ground, Percy floored the brakes, and they swerved to a stop just inside the gates.

Frank climbed out and drew his bow. "Get to the plane! They're coming!"

The Laistrygonians were closing in with alarming speed. The first line of ogres burst out of the woods and barreled toward the airfield—five hundred yards away, four hundred yards...Rue yanked aster's hand to the sky. Branches of asphodel and poppy and bones of skeletons climbed from the earth and charged forward.

Percy and Rue managed to get Ella out of the Cadillac, but as soon as the harpy saw the airplane, she began to shriek.

"N-n-no!" she yelped. "Fly with wings! N-n-no airplanes."

"It's okay," Rue promised. "We'll protect you!"

Ella made a horrible, painful wail like she was being burned.

Percy held up his hands in exasperation. "What do we do? We can't force her."

"No," Frank agreed. The ogres were three hundred yards out while some were being swung around like a yo-yo.

"She's too valuable to leave behind," Rue said. Then ast winced at aster's own words. "Gods, I'm sorry, Ella. I sound as bad as Phineas. You're a living thing, not a treasure."

"No planes. N-n-no planes." Ella was hyperventilating.

The ogres were almost in throwing distance.

Percy's eyes lit up. "I've got an idea. Ella, can you hide in the woods? Will you be safe from the ogres?"

"Hide," she agreed. "Safe. Hiding is good for harpies. Ella is quick. And small. And fast."

"Okay," Percy said. "Just stay around this area. I can send a friend to meet you and take you to Camp Jupiter."

Frank unslung his bow and nocked an arrow. "A friend?"

Percy waved his hand in a tell you later gesture. "Ella, would you like that? Would you like my friend to take you to Camp Jupiter and show you our home?"

"Camp," Ella muttered. Then in Latin: "'Wisdom's daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome.'"

"Uh, right," Percy said. "That sounds important, but we can talk about that later. You'll be safe at camp. All the books and food you want."

"No planes," she insisted.

"No planes," Percy agreed.

"Ella will hide now." Just like that, she was gone—a red streak disappearing into the woods.

"I'll miss her," Rue said sadly.

"We'll see her again," Percy promised, but he frowned uneasily, as if he were really troubled by that last bit of prophecy—the thing about Athena.

An explosion sent the airfield's gate spinning into the air.

Frank tossed his grandmother's letter to Percy. "Show that to the pilot! Show him your letter from Reyna too! We've got to take off now."

Percy nodded. He and Rue ran for the plane. Percy shoved the letter into the pilot's face who went cross-eyed trying to read it. Rue and Percy climbed up the stairs before the pilot yelped and overtook them. Rue glanced back to see that Frank had taken cover cover behind the Cadillac and started firing at the ogres. Ropes lashed out like squid tentacles, and the entire front row of ogres plowed face first into the dirt.

The plane's engines rev.

He shot three more arrows as fast as he could, blasting enormous craters in the ogres' ranks. The survivors were only a hundred yards away, and some of the brighter ones stumbled to a stop, realizing that they were now within hurling range.

"Frank!" Rue shrieked as some of the orges realized that they were within hurling range. Rue raised ast hands to the sky. The land had been burial grounds for humans long before the british, french, and spanish travelled the lands. Dozens of indigenous skeletons crawled to the sky. Rue felt a bit bad for destroying their resting place, but Rue also didn't want to join them. "Come on!"

A fiery cannonball hurtled toward Frank in a slow arc. Rue knew instantly it was going to hit the plane. Frank knocked an arrow and let it fly. It intercepted the cannonball midair, detonating a massive fireball. Another two cannonballs sailed toward him. Frank ran. One of them hit the Cadillac. Frank dove into the plane just as the stairs started to rise.

The pilot understood the situation just fine. There was no safety announcement, no pre-flight drink, and no waiting for clearance. He pushed the throttle, and the plane shot down the runway. Another blast ripped through the runway behind them, but then they were in the air.

Rue looked down and saw the airstrip riddled with craters like a piece of burning Swiss cheese. Swaths of Lynn Canyon Park were on fire.

A few miles to the south, a swirling pyre of flames and black smoke was all that remained of the Zhang family mansion.

So much for Frank being impressive. He'd failed to save his grandmother. He'd failed to use his powers. He hadn't even saved their harpy friend. When Vancouver disappeared in the clouds below, Rue turned away, feeling aster's stomach recoil. Rue was not suppose to be in the air! Beside ast, Percy closed his eyes and began muttering to himself.

And ahead of them, Frank buried his head in his hands and started to cry.

The plane banked to the left.

Over the intercom, the pilot's voice said, "Senatus Populusque Romanus, my friends. Welcome aboard. Next stop: Anchorage, Alaska."

---

Word Count: 27158

Words to Know:

1) Pluto Necrodegmon - Pluto, Receiver of the Dead

2) Pluto Polydegmon - Pluto, "the one who receives many"

Things to Know:

1) Hemlock water dropwort is poisonous. The entire plant is poisonous. The tubers, stems, and leaves contain oenanthotoxin, a highly unsaturated higher alcohol, which is known to be poisonous and a powerful convulsant. Swallowing even small amounts of root may cause death. Rue has somewhat of an immunity to it due to being a child of the Underworld, but Rue can still die from it. Signs of poisoning include nausea, dizziness, vomiting, blood in the urine, confusion, turning blue, convulsions, and unconsciousness. Rue didn't give him enough chance for it to be seen, but yeah. That's what Rue poisoned him with.

2) If a god breaks their oath on the Styx, they will go into a coma for a year. They are unable to eat ambrosia or nectar. Then after the year is over, they wake from their coma and then spend the next nine years cut off from the gods... all of them. Underworld included. They can't participate in any kinds of festivals or counsels. Nothing for nine entire years. They live and age as mortals do. But then in the tenth year, they will be able to mingle with the gods.

3) The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, on the other hand, reported that Phineus was the son of Phoenix and Cassiopeia. According to Apollonius of Rhodes, he was a son of Agenor, but the Bibliotheca says that other authors named his father as Poseidón (who is the father of Agenor). Me, personally. When it comes to Greek mythology, I go with Hesiod then Homer and then every other greek author comes afterwards when it comes to drama. (I do NOT use ROMAN POETS for GREEK MYTHS unless I want drama.)

---

Transations (Latin, from Google Translate):

1) Incipe, Ditis famulae, propera ardentem vibrare pinum. - Begin, handmaids of Dis, make haste to brandish the burning pine.

2) O Ditis et Proserpina! O Mercurius inferni et sanctae Arae et divinae Furiae! Da ut Erysichthon, frustulorum mendicus, Triopae filius, fractum hominem inveniatque intra domi tuae dolorem! - O House of Dis and Prosperina! O Mercurius of the Netherworld and holy Arae and divine Furiae! Grant that Erysichthon, beggar of scraps, Triopas's son a broken man and let him find a world of pain within in your home! (Dis is the actual Roman name for Pluto.)

Roman Gods Named:

1) Charu - Kharôn

---

Comments from the Author:

1) Rue does not like Frank like that. Ast has absolutely no romantic feelings for him, so things that Hazel did for him, Rue won't.

2) I really wanted to make Rue similar to Klaus from TUA, but it wouldn't work out for this verse so I think I might do that for a different character later on. Maybe.

3) I find it kind of funny how Percy wasn't really impressed by rich people in TLT and then Rick just kept surrounding him with people from middle class or higher. Piper, Thalia, and Jason's mortal parents were celebrities even if Jason didn't know his Mother and she flopped and Tristan was disgraced. The Zhang Family had a maid and his grandmother was regularly importing authentics for her collection. Annabeth's family has the Chase Mansion.

4) I really hate the prejudice against kids of Árēs and Mārs. And defending them alongside children of Aphrodítē and Venus is a full-time job for me.

5) One of my favorite things to note is about the Big Three Weapons. Poseidón has the Trident. A three-pronged spear. Háidēs is typically portrayed holding a bident. A two-pronged spear. Ζεύς has the lightning bolt. A single main point or prong spear.

5A) If you think about it in terms of their worship, Ζεύς has always been regarded as the King in classical antiquity. But there is also indication in Hesiod's Works and Days, line 465–469: that makes reference to Háidēs' as an agricultural god alongside being a god of the Underworld. That's two spheres of control right there. And then we come to Poseidón who is obviously the god of the sea, BUT in Mycenean Greek, Poseidón was worshipped as the chief deity. And during the Bronze Age, the horse was related with the liquid element, and with the underworld. Poseidón appears as a horse, which is the river spirit of the underworld. Thus, connecting him to all three realms like the point of his trident. I like to think that these little details are indicators to the indigenous population when the Greeks traveled to their land, but alas, I wasn't born then, and this could all be wrong. So, I will continue to respect the history as we know it now.