The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5)(25)

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.

To their left, the Olympic valley shimmered in the afternoon heat. To their right, the visitors’ lot was crammed with tour buses. Good thing the Argo II was moored a hundred feet in the air, because they never would’ve found parking.

Leo skipped a stone across the river. He wished Hazel and Frank would get back. He felt awkward hanging out with Percy.

For one thing, he wasn’t sure what kind of small talk to make with a guy who’d recently come back from Tartarus. Catch that last episode of Doctor Who? Oh, right. You were trudging through the Pit of Eternal Damnation!

Percy had been intimidating enough before – summoning hurricanes, duelling pirates, killing giants in the Colosseum …

Now … well, after what happened in Tartarus, it seemed like Percy had graduated to a totally different level of butt-kickery.

Leo had trouble even thinking of him as part of the same camp. The two of them had never been at Camp Half-Blood at the same time. Percy’s leather necklace had four beads for four completed summers. Leo’s leather necklace had exactly none.

The only thing they had in common was Calypso, and every time Leo thought about that he wanted to punch Percy in the face.

Leo kept thinking he should bring it up, just to clear the air, but the timing never seemed right. And, as the days went by, the subject got harder and harder to broach.

‘What?’ Percy asked.

Leo stirred. ‘What, what?’

‘You were staring at me, like, angry.’

‘Was I?’ Leo tried to muster a joke, or at least a smile, but he couldn’t. ‘Um, sorry.’

Percy gazed at the river. ‘I suppose we need to talk.’ He opened his hand and the stone Leo had skipped flew out of the stream, right into Percy’s palm.

Oh, Leo thought, we’re showing off now?

He considered shooting a column of fire at the nearest tour bus and blowing up the gas tank, but he decided that might be a tad dramatic. ‘Maybe we should talk. But not –’

‘Guys!’ Frank stood at the far end of the parking lot, waving at them to come over. Next to him, Hazel sat astride her horse Arion, who had appeared unannounced as soon as they’d landed.

Saved by the Zhang, Leo thought.

He and Percy jogged over to meet their friends.

‘This place is huge,’ Frank reported. ‘The ruins stretch from the river to the base of that mountain over there, about half a kilometre.’

‘How far is that in regular measurements?’ Percy asked.

Frank rolled his eyes. ‘That is a regular measurement in Canada and the rest of the world. Only you Americans –’

‘About five or six football fields,’ Hazel interceded, feeding Arion a big chunk of gold.

Percy spread his hands. ‘That’s all you needed to say.’

‘Anyway,’ Frank continued, ‘from overhead, I didn’t see anything suspicious.’

‘Neither did I,’ Hazel said. ‘Arion took me on a complete loop around the perimeter. A lot of tourists, but no crazy goddess.’

The big stallion nickered and tossed his head, his neck muscles rippling under his butterscotch coat.