by Rick Riordan
Percy, Annabeth thought, scanning the forum desperately. Where are you?
Two Romans tried to grab her. She ducked past them, plunging into the crowd. As if the angry Romans, burning couches and exploding buildings weren’t confusing enough, hundreds of purple ghosts drifted through the forum, passing straight through the demigods’ bodies and wailing incoherently. The fauns had also taken advantage of the chaos. They swarmed the dining tables, grabbing food, plates and cups. One trotted by Annabeth with his arms full of tacos and an entire pineapple between his teeth.
A statue of Terminus exploded into being, right in front of Annabeth. He yelled at her in Latin, no doubt calling her a liar and a rule breaker, but she pushed the statue over and kept running.
Finally she spotted Percy. He and his friends, Hazel and Frank, were standing in the middle of a fountain as Percy repelled the angry Romans with blasts of water. Percy’s toga was in tatters, but he looked unhurt.
Annabeth called to him as another explosion rocked the forum. This time the flash of light was directly overhead. One of the Roman catapults had fired, and the Argo II groaned and tilted sideways, flames bubbling over its bronze-plated hull.
Annabeth noticed a figure clinging desperately to the rope ladder, trying to climb down. It was Octavian, his robes steaming and his face black with soot.
Over by the fountain, Percy blasted the Roman mob with more water. Annabeth ran towards him, ducking a Roman fist and a flying plate of sandwiches.
‘Annabeth!’ Percy called. ‘What –?’
‘I don’t know!’ she yelled.
‘I’ll tell you what!’ cried a voice from above. Octavian had reached the bottom of the ladder. ‘The Greeks have fired on us! Your boy Leo has trained his weapons on Rome!’
Annabeth’s chest filled with liquid hydrogen. She felt like she might shatter into a million frozen pieces.
‘You’re lying,’ she said. ‘Leo would never –’
‘I was just there!’ Octavian shrieked. ‘I saw it with my own eyes!’
The Argo II returned fire. Legionnaires in the field scattered as one of their catapults was blasted to splinters.
‘You see?’ Octavian screamed. ‘Romans, kill the invaders!’
Annabeth growled in frustration. There was no time for anyone to figure out the truth. The crew from Camp Half-Blood was outnumbered a hundred to one, and even if Octavian had managed to stage some sort of trick (which she thought likely) they’d never be able to convince the Romans before they were overrun and killed.
‘We have to leave,’ she told Percy. ‘Now.’
He nodded grimly. ‘Hazel, Frank, you’ve got to make a choice. Are you coming?’
Hazel looked terrified, but she donned her cavalry helmet. ‘Of course we are. But you’ll never make it to the ship unless we buy you some time.’
‘How?’ Annabeth asked.
Hazel whistled. Instantly a blur of beige shot across the forum. A majestic horse materialized next to the fountain. He reared, whinnying and scattering the mob. Hazel climbed on his back like she’d been born to ride. Strapped to the horse’s saddle was a Roman cavalry sword.
Hazel unsheathed her golden blade. ‘Send me an Iris-message when you’re safely away, and we’ll rendezvous,’ she said. ‘Arion, ride!’
The horse zipped through the crowd with incredible speed, pushing back Romans and causing mass panic.
Annabeth felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe they could make it out of here alive. Then, from halfway across the forum, she heard Jason shouting.
‘Romans!’ he cried. ‘Please!’
He and Piper were being pelted with plates and stones. Jason tried to shield Piper, but a brick caught him above the eye. He crumpled, and the crowd surged forward.
‘Get back!’ Piper screamed. Her charmspeak rolled over the mob, making them hesitate, but Annabeth knew the effect wouldn’t last. Percy and she couldn’t possibly reach them in time to help.
‘Frank,’ Percy said, ‘it’s up to you. Can you help them?’
Annabeth didn’t understand how Frank could do that all by himself, but he swallowed nervously.
‘Oh, gods,’ he murmured. ‘Okay, sure. Just get up the ropes. Now.’
Percy and Annabeth lunged for the ladder. Octavian was still clinging to the bottom, but Percy yanked him off and threw him into the mob.
They began to climb as armed legionnaires flooded into the forum. Arrows whistled past Annabeth’s head. An explosion almost knocked her off the ladder. Halfway up, she heard a roar below and glanced down.
Romans screamed and scattered as a full-sized dragon charged through the forum – a beast even scarier than the bronze dragon figurehead on the Argo II. It had rough grey skin like a Komodo lizard’s and leathery bat wings. Arrows and rocks bounced harmlessly off its hide as it lumbered towards Piper and Jason, grabbed them with its front claws and vaulted into the air.
‘Is that …?’ Annabeth couldn’t even put the thought into words.
‘Frank,’ Percy confirmed, a few feet above her. ‘He has a few special talents.’
‘Understatement,’ Annabeth muttered. ‘Keep climbing!’
Without the dragon and Hazel’s horse to distract the archers, they never would have made it up the ladder, but finally they climbed past a row of broken aerial oars and onto the deck. The rigging was on fire. The foresail was ripped down the middle, and the ship listed badly to starboard.
There was no sign of Coach Hedge, but Leo stood amidships, calmly reloading the ballistae. Annabeth’s gut twisted with horror.
‘Leo!’ she screamed. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Destroy them …’ He faced Annabeth. His eyes were glazed. His movements were like a robot’s. ‘Destroy them all.’
He turned back to the ballistae, but Percy tackled him. Leo’s head hit the deck hard, and his eyes rolled up so that only the whites showed.
The grey dragon soared into view. It circled the ship once and landed at the bow, depositing Jason and Piper, who both collapsed.
‘Go!’ Percy yelled. ‘Get us out of here!’
With a shock, Annabeth realized he was talking to her.
She ran for the helm. She made the mistake of glancing over the rail and saw armed legionnaires closing ranks in the forum, preparing flaming arrows. Hazel spurred Arion, and they raced out of the city with a mob chasing after them. More catapults were being wheeled into range. All along the Pomerian Line, the statues of Terminus were glowing purple, as if building up energy for some kind of attack.
Annabeth looked over the controls. She cursed Leo for making them so complicated. No time for fancy manoeuvres, but she did know one basic command: Up.
She grabbed the aviation throttle and yanked it straight back. The ship groaned. The bow tilted up at a horrifying angle. The mooring lines snapped, and the Argo II shot into the clouds.
V
Leo
Leo wished he could invent a time machine. He’d go back two hours and undo what had happened. Either that or he could invent a Slap-Leo-in-the-Face machine to punish himself, though he doubted it would hurt as badly as the look Annabeth was giving him.
‘One more time,’ she said. ‘Exactly what happened?’
Leo slumped against the mast. His head still throbbed from hitting the deck. All around him, his beautiful new ship was in shambles. The aft crossbows were piles of kindling. The foresail was tattered. The satellite array that powered the onboard Internet and TV was blown to bits, which had really made Coach Hedge mad. Their bronze dragon figurehead, Festus, was coughing up smoke like he had a hairball, and Leo could tell from the groaning sounds on the port side that some of the aerial oars had been knocked out of alignment or broken off completely, which explained why the ship was listing and shuddering as it flew, the engine wheezing like an asthmatic steam train.
He choked back a sob. ‘I don’t know. It’s fuzzy.’
Too many people were looking at him: Annabeth (Leo hated to make her angry; that girl scared him
), Coach Hedge with his furry goat legs, his orange polo shirt and his baseball bat (did he have to carry that everywhere?) and the newcomer, Frank.
Leo wasn’t sure what to make of Frank. He looked like a baby sumo wrestler, though Leo wasn’t stupid enough to say that aloud. Leo’s memory was hazy, but while he’d been half conscious, he was pretty sure he’d seen a dragon land on the ship – a dragon that had turned into Frank.
Annabeth crossed her arms. ‘You mean you don’t remember?’
‘I …’ Leo felt as if he was trying to swallow a marble. ‘I remember, but it’s like I was watching myself do things. I couldn’t control it.’
Coach Hedge tapped his bat against the deck. In his gym clothes, with his cap pulled over his horns, he looked just like he used to at the Wilderness School, where he’d spent a year undercover as Jason, Piper and Leo’s PE teacher. The way the old satyr was glowering, Leo almost wondered if the coach was going to order him to do push-ups.
‘Look, kid,’ Hedge said, ‘you blew up some stuff. You attacked some Romans. Awesome! Excellent! But did you have to knock out the satellite channels? I was right in the middle of watching a cage match.’
‘Coach,’ Annabeth said, ‘why don’t you make sure all the fires are out?’
‘But I already did that.’
‘Do it again.’
The satyr trudged off, muttering under his breath. Even Hedge wasn’t crazy enough to defy Annabeth.
She knelt next to Leo. Her grey eyes were as steely as ball bearings. Her blonde hair fell loose around her shoulders, but Leo didn’t find that attractive. He had no idea where the stereotype of dumb giggly blondes came from. Ever since he’d met Annabeth at the Grand Canyon last winter, when she’d marched towards him with that Give me Percy Jackson or I’ll kill you expression, Leo thought of blondes as much too smart and much too dangerous.
‘Leo,’ she said calmly, ‘did Octavian trick you somehow? Did he frame you, or –’
‘No.’ Leo could have lied and blamed that stupid Roman, but he didn’t want to make a bad situation worse. ‘The guy was a jerk, but he didn’t fire on the camp. I did.’
The new kid, Frank, scowled. ‘On purpose?’
‘No!’ Leo squeezed his eyes shut. ‘Well, yes … I mean, I didn’t want to. But at the same time I felt like I wanted to. Something was making me do it. There was this cold feeling inside me –’
‘A cold feeling.’ Annabeth’s tone changed. She sounded almost … scared.
‘Yeah,’ Leo said. ‘Why?’
From belowdecks, Percy called up, ‘Annabeth, we need you.’
Oh, gods, Leo thought. Please let Jason be okay.
As soon as they were on board, Piper had taken Jason below. The cut on his head had looked pretty bad. Leo had known Jason longer than anyone at Camp Half-Blood. They were best friends. If Jason didn’t make it …
‘He’ll be fine.’ Annabeth’s expression softened. ‘Frank, I’ll be back. Just … watch Leo. Please.’
Frank nodded.
If it was possible for Leo to feel worse, he did. Annabeth now trusted a Roman demigod she’d known for, like, three seconds, more than she trusted Leo.
Once she was gone, Leo and Frank stared at each other. The big dude looked pretty odd in his bedsheet toga, with his grey pullover hoodie and jeans, and a bow and quiver from the ship’s armoury slung over his shoulder. Leo remembered the time he had met the Hunters of Artemis – a bunch of cute lithe girls in silvery clothes, all armed with bows. He imagined Frank frolicking along with them. The idea was so ridiculous it almost made him feel better.
‘So,’ Frank said. ‘Your name isn’t Sammy?’
Leo scowled. ‘What kind of question is that?’
‘Nothing,’ Frank said quickly. ‘I just – Nothing. About the firing on the camp … Octavian could be behind it, like magically or something. He didn’t want the Romans getting along with you guys.’
Leo wanted to believe that. He was grateful to this kid for not hating him. But he knew it hadn’t been Octavian. Leo had walked to a ballista and started firing. Part of him had known it was wrong. He’d asked himself: What the heck am I doing? But he’d done it anyway.
Maybe he was going crazy. The stress of all those months working on the Argo II might’ve finally made him crack.
But he couldn’t think about that. He needed to do something productive. His hands needed to be busy.
‘Look,’ he said, ‘I should talk to Festus and get a damage report. You mind …?’
Frank helped him up. ‘Who is Festus?’
‘My friend,’ Leo said. ‘His name isn’t Sammy either, in case you’re wondering. Come on. I’ll introduce you.’
Fortunately the bronze dragon wasn’t damaged. Well, aside from the fact that last winter he’d lost everything except his head – but Leo didn’t count that.
When they reached the bow of the ship, the figurehead turned a hundred and eighty degrees to look at them. Frank yelped and backed away.
‘It’s alive!’ he said.
Leo would have laughed if he hadn’t felt so bad. ‘Yeah. Frank, this is Festus. He used to be a full bronze dragon, but we had an accident.’
‘You have a lot of accidents,’ Frank noted.
‘Well, some of us can’t turn into dragons, so we have to build our own.’ Leo arched his eyebrows at Frank. ‘Anyway, I revived him as a figurehead. He’s kind of the ship’s main interface now. How are things looking, Festus?’
Festus snorted smoke and made a series of squeaking, whirring sounds. Over the last few months, Leo had learned to interpret this machine language. Other demigods could understand Latin and Greek. Leo could speak Creak and Squeak.
‘Ugh,’ Leo said. ‘Could be worse, but the hull is compromised in several places. The port aerial oars have to be fixed before we can go full speed again. We’ll need some repair materials: Celestial bronze, tar, lime –’
‘What do you need limes for?’
‘Dude, lime. Calcium carbonate, used in cement and a bunch of other – Ah, never mind. The point is this ship isn’t going far unless we can fix it.’
Festus made another click-creak noise that Leo didn’t recognize. It sounded like AY-zuhl.
‘Oh … Hazel,’ he deciphered. ‘That’s the girl with the curly hair, right?’
Frank gulped. ‘Is she okay?’
‘Yeah, she’s fine,’ Leo said. ‘According to Festus, her horse is racing along below. She’s following us.’
‘We’ve got to land, then,’ Frank said.
Leo studied him. ‘She’s your girlfriend?’
Frank chewed his lip. ‘Yes.’
‘You don’t sound sure.’
‘Yes. Yes, definitely. I’m sure.’
Leo raised his hands. ‘Okay, fine. The problem is we can only manage one landing. The way the hull and the oars are, we won’t be able to lift off again until we repair, so we’ll have to make sure we land somewhere with all the right supplies.’
Frank scratched his head. ‘Where do you get Celestial bronze? You can’t just stock up at Home Depot.’
‘Festus, do a scan.’
‘He can scan for magic bronze?’ Frank marvelled. ‘Is there anything he can’t do?’
Leo thought: You should’ve seen him when he had a body. But he didn’t say that. It was too painful, remembering the way Festus used to be.
Leo peered over the ship’s bow. The Central California valley was passing below. Leo didn’t hold out much hope that they could find what they needed all in one place, but they had to try. Leo also wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and New Rome. The Argo II could cover vast distances pretty quickly, thanks to its magical engine, but Leo figured the Romans had magic travel methods of their own.
Behind him, the stairs creaked. Percy and Annabeth climbed up, their faces grim.
Leo’s heart stumbled. ‘Is Jason –?’
‘He’s resting,’ Annabeth said. ‘Piper’s keeping an eye on him, but he should b
e fine.’
Percy gave him a hard look. ‘Annabeth says you did fire that ballista?’
‘Man, I – I don’t understand how it happened. I’m so sorry –’
‘Sorry?’ Percy growled.
Annabeth put a hand on her boyfriend’s chest. ‘We’ll figure it out later. Right now, we have to regroup and make a plan. What’s the situation with the ship?’
Leo’s legs trembled. The way Percy had looked at him made him feel the same as when Jason summoned lightning. Leo’s skin tingled, and every instinct in his body screamed, Duck!
He told Annabeth about the damage and the supplies they needed. At least he felt better talking about something fixable.
He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.
‘Perfect.’ Leo sighed with relief.
‘What’s perfect?’ Annabeth said. ‘I could use some perfect about now.’
Leo managed a smile. ‘Everything we need in one place. Frank, why don’t you turn into a bird or something? Fly down and tell your girlfriend to meet us at the Great Salt Lake in Utah.’
Once they got there, it wasn’t a pretty landing. With the oars damaged and the foresail torn, Leo could barely manage a controlled descent. The others strapped themselves in below – except for Coach Hedge, who insisted on clinging to the forward rail, yelling, ‘YEAH! Bring it on, lake!’ Leo stood astern, alone at the helm, and aimed as best he could.
Festus creaked and whirred warning signals, which were relayed through the intercom to the quarterdeck.
‘I know, I know,’ Leo said, gritting his teeth.
He didn’t have much time to take in the scenery. To the southeast, a city was nestled in the foothills of a mountain range, blue and purple in the afternoon shadows. A flat desert landscape spread to the south. Directly beneath them the Great Salt Lake glittered like aluminum foil, the shoreline etched with white salt marshes that reminded Leo of aerial photos of Mars.
‘Hang on, Coach!’ he shouted. ‘This is going to hurt.’
‘I was born for hurt!’
WHOOM! A swell of salt water washed over the bow, dousing Coach Hedge. The Argo II listed dangerously to starboard, then righted itself and rocked on the surface of the lake. Machinery hummed as the aerial blades that were still working changed to nautical form.