The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4)(2)

Ugh, why did her life have to be so complicated?

“Another way,” Leo muttered. “Do you see one?”

On his monitor glowed a map of Italy. The Apennine Mountains ran down the middle of the boot-shaped country. A green dot for the Argo II blinked on the western side of the range, a few hundred miles north of Rome. Their path should have been simple. They needed to get to a place called Epirus in Greece and find an old temple called the House of Hades (or Pluto, as the Romans called him; or as Hazel liked to think of him: the World’s Worst Absent Father).

To reach Epirus, all they had to do was go straight east—over the Apennines and across the Adriatic Sea. But it hadn’t worked out that way. Each time they tried to cross the spine of Italy, the mountain gods attacked.

For the past two days they’d skirted north, hoping to find a safe pass, with no luck. The numina montanum were sons of Gaea, Hazel’s least favorite goddess. That made them very determined enemies. The Argo II couldn’t fly high enough to avoid their attacks; and even with all its defenses, the ship couldn’t make it across the range without being smashed to pieces.

“It’s our fault,” Hazel said. “Nico’s and mine. The numina can sense us.”

She glanced at her half brother. Since they’d rescued him from the giants, he’d started to regain his strength, but he was still painfully thin. His black shirt and jeans hung off his skeletal frame. Long dark hair framed his sunken eyes. His olive complexion had turned a sickly greenish white, like the color of tree sap.

In human years, he was barely fourteen, just a year older than Hazel, but that didn’t tell the whole story. Like Hazel, Nico di Angelo was a demigod from another era. He radiated a kind of old energy—a melancholy that came from knowing he didn’t belong in the modern world.

Hazel hadn’t known him very long, but she understood, even shared, his sadness. The children of Hades (Pluto—whichever) rarely had happy lives. And judging from what Nico had told her the night before, their biggest challenge was yet to come when they reached the House of Hades—a challenge he’d implored her to keep secret from the others.

Nico gripped the hilt of his Stygian iron sword. “Earth spirits don’t like children of the Underworld. That’s true. We get under their skin—literally. But I think the numina could sense this ship anyway. We’re carrying the Athena Parthenos. That thing is like a magical beacon.”

Hazel shivered, thinking of the massive statue that took up most of the hold. They’d sacrificed so much saving it from the cavern under Rome; but they had no idea what to do with it. So far the only thing it seemed to be good for was alerting more monsters to their presence.

Leo traced his finger down the map of Italy. “So crossing the mountains is out. Thing is, they go a long way in either direction.”

“We could go by sea,” Hazel suggested. “Sail around the southern tip of Italy.”

“That’s a long way,” Nico said. “Plus, we don’t have…” His voice cracked. “You know…our sea expert, Percy.”

The name hung in the air like an impending storm.

Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon…probably the demigod Hazel admired most. He’d saved her life so many times on their quest to Alaska; but when he had needed Hazel’s help in Rome, she’d failed him. She’d watched, powerless, as he and Annabeth had plunged into that pit.

Hazel took a deep breath. Percy and Annabeth were still alive. She knew that in her heart. She could still help them if she could get to the House of Hades, if she could survive the challenge Nico had warned her about.…

“What about continuing north?” she asked. “There has to be a break in the mountains, or something.”

Leo fiddled with the bronze Archimedes sphere that he’d installed on the console—his newest and most dangerous toy. Every time Hazel looked at the thing, her mouth went dry. She worried that Leo would turn the wrong combination on the sphere and accidentally eject them all from the deck, or blow up the ship, or turn the Argo II into a giant toaster.

Fortunately, they got lucky. The sphere grew a camera lens and projected a 3-D image of the Apennine Mountains above the console.

“I dunno.” Leo examined the hologram. “I don’t see any good passes to the north. But I like that idea better than backtracking south. I’m done with Rome.”

No one argued with that. Rome had not been a good experience.

“Whatever we do,” Nico said, “we have to hurry. Every day that Annabeth and Percy are in Tartarus…”

He didn’t need to finish. They had to hope Percy and Annabeth could survive long enough to find the Tartarus side of the Doors of Death. Then, assuming the Argo II could reach the House of Hades, they might be able to open the Doors on the mortal side, save their friends, and seal the entrance, stopping Gaea’s forces from being reincarnated in the mortal world over and over.

Yes…nothing could go wrong with that plan.

Nico scowled at the Italian countryside below them. “Maybe we should wake the others. This decision affects us all.”

“No,” Hazel said. “We can find a solution.”

She wasn’t sure why she felt so strongly about it, but since leaving Rome, the crew had started to lose its cohesion. They’d been learning to work as a team. Then bam…their two most important members fell into Tartarus. Percy had been their backbone. He’d given them confidence as they sailed across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. As for Annabeth—she’d been the de facto leader of the quest. She’d recovered the Athena Parthenos single-handedly. She was the smartest of the seven, the one with the answers.