The Blood of Olympus(28)

Listening to Zhang, Leo had one of those double-take moments. He couldn’t believe how much the guy had changed in the last few weeks.

Frank wasn’t just taller and buffer. He was more confident now, more willing to take charge. Maybe that was because his magic firewood lifeline was safely stashed away in a flameproof pouch, or maybe it was because he’d commanded a zombie legion and been promoted to praetor. Whatever the case, Leo had trouble seeing him as the same klutzy dude who’d once iguanaed his way out of Chinese handcuffs.

‘I think Frank is right,’ Annabeth said. ‘A party of four. We’ll have to be careful who goes. We don’t want to do anything that might make the goddess, um, more unstable.’

‘I’ll go,’ Piper said. ‘I can try charmspeaking.’

Worry lines deepened around Annabeth’s eyes. ‘Not this time, Piper. Nike is all about competition. Aphrodite … well, she is too, in her own way. I think Nike might see you as a threat.’

Once, Leo might have made a joke about that. Piper a threat? The girl was like a sister to him, but, if he needed help beating up a gang of thugs or subduing a victory goddess, Piper was not the first person he’d turn to.

Recently, though … well, Piper may not have changed as obviously as Frank, but she had changed. She had stabbed Khione the snow goddess in the chest. She had defeated the Boreads. She’d slashed up a flock of wild harpies singlehandedly. As for her charmspeak, she’d become so powerful it made Leo nervous. If she told him to eat his vegetables, he might actually do it.

Annabeth’s words didn’t seem to upset her. Piper just nodded and scanned the group. ‘Who should go, then?’

‘Jason and Percy shouldn’t go together,’ Annabeth said. ‘Jupiter and Poseidon – bad combination. Nike could start you two fighting easily.’

Percy gave her a sideways smile. ‘Yeah, we can’t have another incident like in Kansas. I might kill my bro Jason.’

‘Or I might kill my bro Percy,’ Jason said amiably.

‘Which proves my point,’ Annabeth said. ‘We also shouldn’t send Frank and me together. Mars and Athena – that would be just as bad.’

‘Okay,’ Leo broke in. ‘So Percy and me for the Greeks. Frank and Hazel for the Romans. Is that the ultimate non-competitive dream team or what?’

Annabeth and Frank exchanged war-godly looks.

‘It could work,’ Frank decided. ‘I mean, no combination is going to be perfect, but Poseidon, Hephaestus, Pluto, Mars … I don’t see any huge antagonism there.’

Hazel traced her finger along the map of Greece. ‘I still wish we could’ve gone through the Gulf of Corinth. I was hoping we could visit Delphi, maybe get some advice. Plus it’s such a long way around the Peloponnese.’

‘Yeah.’ Leo’s heart sank when he looked at how much coastline they still had to navigate. ‘It’s July twenty-second already. Counting today, only ten days until –’

‘I know,’ Jason said. ‘But Juno was clear. The shorter way would have been suicide.’

‘And as for Delphi …’ Piper leaned towards the map. The blue harpy feather in her hair swung like a pendulum. ‘What’s going on there? If Apollo doesn’t have his Oracle any more …’

Percy grunted. ‘Probably something to do with that creep Octavian. Maybe he was so bad at telling the future that he broke Apollo’s powers.’

Jason managed a smile, though his eyes were cloudy from pain. ‘Hopefully we can find Apollo and Artemis. Then you can ask him yourself. Juno said the twins might be willing to help us.’

‘A lot of unanswered questions,’ Frank muttered. ‘A lot of miles to cover before we get to Athens.’

‘First things first,’ Annabeth said. ‘You guys have to find Nike and figure out how to subdue her … whatever Juno meant by that. I still don’t understand how you defeat a goddess who controls victory. Seems impossible.’

Leo started to grin. He couldn’t help it. Sure, they only had ten days to stop the giants from waking Gaia. Sure, he could die before dinnertime. But he loved being told that something was impossible. It was like someone handing him a lemon meringue pie and telling him not to throw it. He just couldn’t resist the challenge.

‘We’ll see about that.’ He rose to his feet. ‘Let me get my collection of grenades and I’ll meet you guys on deck!’





X


Leo


‘SMART CALL BACK THERE,’ Percy said, ‘choosing the air-conditioning.’

He and Leo had just searched the museum. Now they were sitting on a bridge that spanned the Kladeos River, their feet dangling over the water as they waited for Frank and Hazel to finish scouting the ruins.