Zeus turned towards her. Around Jason, the air molecules stopped humming. His skull felt like it had just come out of the microwave.
‘That is correct,’ Zeus said. ‘The blood of Olympus was spilled. She is fully conscious.’
‘Oh, come on!’ Percy complained. ‘I get a little nosebleed and I wake up the entire earth? That’s not fair!’
Athena shouldered her aegis. ‘Complaining of unfairness is like assigning blame, Percy Jackson. It does no one any good.’ She gave Jason an approving glance. ‘Now you must move quickly. Gaia rises to destroy your camp.’
Poseidon leaned on his trident. ‘For once, Athena is right.’
‘For once?’ Athena protested.
‘Why would Gaia be back at camp?’ Leo asked. ‘Percy’s nosebleed was here.’
‘Dude,’ Percy said, ‘first off, you heard Athena – don’t blame my nose. Second, Gaia’s the earth. She can pop up anywhere she wants. Besides, she told us she was going to do this. She said the first thing on her to-do list was destroying our camp. Question is: how do we stop her?’
Frank looked at Zeus. ‘Um, sir, Your Majesty, can’t you gods just pop over there with us? You’ve got the chariots and the magic powers and whatnot.’
‘Yes!’ Hazel said. ‘We defeated the giants together in two seconds. Let’s all go –’
‘No,’ Zeus said flatly.
‘No?’ Jason asked. ‘But, Father –’
Zeus’s eyes sparked with power, and Jason realized he’d pushed his dad as far as he could for today … and maybe for the next few centuries.
‘That’s the problem with prophecies,’ Zeus growled. ‘When Apollo allowed the Prophecy of Seven to be spoken, and when Hera took it upon herself to interpret the words, the Fates wove the future in such a way that it had only so many possible outcomes, so many solutions. You seven, the demigods, are destined to defeat Gaia. We, the gods, cannot.’
‘I don’t get it,’ Piper said. ‘What’s the point of being gods if you have to rely on puny mortals to do your bidding?’
All the gods exchanged dark looks. Aphrodite, however, laughed gently and kissed her daughter. ‘My dear Piper, don’t you think we’ve been asking ourselves that question for thousands of years? But it is what binds us together, keeps us eternal. We need you mortals as much as you need us. Annoying as that may be, it’s the truth.’
Frank shuffled uncomfortably, like he missed being an elephant. ‘So how can we possibly get to Camp Half-Blood in time to save it? It took us months to reach Greece.’
‘The winds,’ Jason said. ‘Father, can’t you unleash the winds to send our ship back?’
Zeus glowered. ‘I could slap you back to Long Island.’
‘Um, was that a joke, or a threat, or –’
‘No,’ Zeus said, ‘I mean it quite literally. I could slap your ship back to Camp Half-Blood, but the force involved …’
Over by the ruined giant throne, the grungy god in the mechanic’s uniform shook his head. ‘My boy Leo built a good ship, but it won’t sustain that kind of stress. It would break apart as soon as it arrived, maybe sooner.’
Leo straightened his tool belt. ‘The Argo II can make it. It only has to stay in one piece long enough to get us back home. Once there, we can abandon ship.’
‘Dangerous,’ warned Hephaestus. ‘Perhaps fatal.’
The goddess Nike twirled a laurel wreath on her finger. ‘Victory is always dangerous. And it often requires sacrifice. Leo Valdez and I have discussed this.’ She stared pointedly at Leo.
Jason didn’t like that at all. He remembered Asclepius’s grim expression when the doctor had examined Leo. Oh, my. Oh, I see … Jason knew what they had to do to defeat Gaia. He knew the risks. But he wanted to take those risks himself, not put them on Leo.
Piper will have the physician’s cure, he told himself. She’ll keep us both covered.
‘Leo,’ Annabeth said, ‘what is Nike talking about?’
Leo waved off the question. ‘The usual. Victory. Sacrifice. Blah, blah, blah. Doesn’t matter. We can do this, guys. We have to do this.’
A feeling of dread settled over Jason. Zeus was correct about one thing: the worst was yet to come.
When the choice comes, Notus the South Wind had told him, storm or fire, do not despair.
Jason made the choice. ‘Leo’s right. All aboard for one last trip.’
LI
Jason
SO MUCH FOR A TENDER FAREWELL.
The last Jason saw of his dad, Zeus was a hundred feet tall, holding the Argo II by its prow. He boomed, ‘HOLD ON!’