Heroes of Olympus 3
Rick Riordan
From SuperSummary
1. Annabeth paces nervously along the deck of the Argo II as it flies into Camp Jupiter. On board with her are Leo, Piper, Jason, and satyr chaperone, Coach Gleeson Hedge. Feeling a shiver, Annabeth thinks she hears someone laughing, but no one is there. As the Roman camp comes into view, Annabeth sees evidence of a recent battle against monsters. Armed demigods emerge from the gates. Annabeth hopes to see Percy among them but instead hears an explosion. A statue, Terminus, the god of boundaries who protects New Rome, has appeared on the ship to order them not to bring weapons into the city. Piper tries to charmspeak him, but he is immune. When Annabeth interrupts to mediate, he insists the ship cannot land, since it is a weapon, and weapons cannot go beyond the Pomerian Line. Annabeth spots Percy, “at ease, so happy,” and wearing a praetor’s purple cloak, and orders Leo to stop the ship. She compromises with Terminus to allow the ship to hover above the city with all their weapons on board, and he allows the Greek demigods to disembark. Annabeth again believes she hears laughing.
2. Annabeth admires the city begrudgingly. Unlike Camp Half-Blood, the Roman camp is a piece of a larger city, New Rome. Multigenerational families line the street to see the Greek demigods. Annabeth sees members of Camp Half-Blood’s initial scouting party: Tyson and Mrs. O’Leary, Percy’s hellhound. She spots the leader of the Roman camp, Reyna. The girls size each other up, and Annabeth sees Reyna is a lot like her. When Annabeth sees Percy, they run into each other’s arms and kiss. Annabeth then flips him over, slams him to the ground, and warns him never to leave her again. He says he missed her too. Jason introduces the Greek demigods to Reyna, who calls her centurions, Frank and Hazel, to come forward. Annabeth notices that they seem close to Percy. Hazel seems to be staring in the direction of Piper and Leo, which puzzles Annabeth. Octavian, the camp augur, objects to allowing the Greeks into camp, but Reyna says that the group will eat together in the forum. She instructs Octavian to “burn an offering” of thanks for Jason’s safe return. Annabeth feels a familiar sense of foreboding.
3. The Greek and Roman demigods share a feast. Reyna toasts to friendship, and the campers begin telling their stories. Jason explains the quest he went on with Piper and Leo to rescue Hera/Juno from the giants. Percy shares his adventure to Alaska to retrieve the Golden Eagle Standard. Octavian points out that, with Jason back, the camp now has an extra praetor. Annabeth turns the discussion to the Great Prophecy that concerns seven half-bloods. She notes that it indicates the two camps will have to work together. Percy believes they must travel first to Rome, then Greece. They must close the Doors of Death to stop monsters from returning to the world of the living. Reyna cautions Percy that traveling to the gods’ birthplace and the monsters’ ancestral home will be more dangerous than anything they have encountered. Rome is off limits to demigods, but Leo, Jason, and Annabeth agree that the quest is essential to stop Gaea from waking. Since the prophecy indicates that the seven half-bloods must represent both camps, Annabeth recommends herself, Jason, Piper, and Leo, and Percy volunteers himself, Frank, and Hazel. Tyson approaches with his friend Ella, a harpy with knowledge of prophecies. She recites one that resonates with a command Annabeth received from her mother, to “Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me.” Frank, Hazel, and Percy try to downplay it, making Annabeth realize they are hiding something, but she plays along when Percy shoots her a pleading glance. To mollify Octavian, who continues to be suspicious, Leo offers to give him a tour of the Argo. Annabeth a strange look in Leo’s eyes that disappears as quickly as it appears. Reyna is annoyed when Jason wants to show Piper around and asks to speak alone with Annabeth.
4. Annabeth grudgingly admires New Rome as she and Reyna stroll through the city, Reyna’s gold and silver automaton greyhounds, Aurum and Argentum at her side. Reyna explains that, for the Romans, Minerva is a maiden goddess of crafts, but not a war goddess and not a leader. The idea that she would have children is shocking to Romans. Reyna’s own mother is Bellona, a Roman war goddess who has no Greek equivalent. Rome, Reyna points out, conquered Greece and any other neighbors who were deemed threatening. It is not in Rome’s nature to cooperate. Reyna is concerned that Juno/Hera’s plan may be flawed. Annabeth shares that she does not trust the goddess but believes in her friends and their ability to cooperate with the Roman demigods. Reyna reveals that she knows Ella spoke a prophecy because she has heard part of it before. Annabeth realizes that she and Reyna have met. Reyna is the sister of Hylla, queen of the Amazons, and once served as a handmaiden of Circe. When Reyna was on Circe’s island, a demigod washed up on shore claiming to have been on a quest to find the “Mark of Athena.” She believes it is related to a legend about the source of Greek and Roman conflict that revolves around Athena. An explosion interrupts their conversation. The Argo is attacking Rome. Reyna and Annabeth run toward the chaos. Octavian says that Leo is behind the assault. Annabeth cannot believe it but realizes that she will not be able to figure it out with the enraged Romans. Gathering her friends, she says they must leave. Hazel and Frank agree to join them. Hazel and her magical horse Arion cause a distraction so the others can get to the ship. On board, Annabeth finds Leo “calmly reloading the ballista” and robotically repeating, “Destroy them all”. Percy knocks him out, and Annabeth takes control of the ship, launching it into the sky.
5. Leo cannot remember exactly what happened. He recalls watching himself but not being able to control his actions. He recalls feeling cold. Arion and Hazel are following the ship, and Jason is injured and resting. The ship is damaged, but its mechanized head, Festus, formerly a whole bronze dragon, is functioning. With Festus’s help, Leo assesses what materials he needs for repairs and informs the group that they will find them “at the Great Salt in Utah.” The ship lands on the lake, and Arion lands on the ship. Hazel studies Leo, making him nervous. He shows her around the ship. In addition to eight cabins for the demigods and Coach Hedge, the ship has a mess hall/lounge, stables, a sickbay, storage, and an engine room. Jason and Piper are in the sickbay, and the rest of the demigods are in the dining area. Frank asks about the prophecy Ella uttered from having accessed the Sibylline Books, a collection of prophecies related to the fall of Rome. Conversation turns to fixing the ship. Hazel says they must hurry; the Romans will come after them. Annabeth explains that she too has had the cold feeling, and the group agrees to use a buddy system to work quickly and ensure no one is left alone.
6. Hazel and Leo ride Arion to secure supplies. Before they left, Percy shared Hazel’s story: A daughter of Pluto, she had died in the 1940s and only recently returned to life. Arion drops Leo and Hazel at the beach, where Leo gathers salt that contains the lime he needs. He hears a message from Gaea telling him to “Walk away” but ignores it. Hazel tells Leo he reminds her of someone she knew in New Orleans, Sammy, but Leo cannot be him or have known him since Hazel knew Sammy in her previous life. Hazel, with her Pluto-inspired knowledge of precious metals, leads the way to the lake where they will find the celestial bronze Leo needs. They encounter a woman dressed in leather and surrounded by fortune cookies. She is Nemesis, the goddess of revenge. To Leo, she looks exactly like his Aunt Rosa from Houston, who abandoned him after his mother died. To Hazel, she looks like her cruel third-grade teacher. Her form is the same in Greek and Roman, since “revenge is universal.” She reveals that civil war between the Greeks and Romans is brewing, causing the Olympians to feel trapped between their two forms and incapacitated. The gods blame Juno/Hera, who has fled Olympus. The demigods can no longer expect her help. Leo feels ambivalent since the goddess has groomed him from childhood for his role. Nemesis offers her help, since she enjoys humbling “the proud and powerful,” which in this case is Gaea, and warns Leo and Hazel that success requires sacrifice. Hazel and Leo resent hearing this since both have lost loved ones. Nemesis directs them to where they can find the celestial bronze, warning Hazel that she only has six days to save her brother, Nico, before Rome is destroyed. Nemesis tells Leo that his hardest times are ahead of him. Hi is an outsider among his friends and will face a problem he can’t solve. She gives him a fortune cookie that will solve his problems, but opening the cookie will require him to make a sacrifice. He puts it into his tool belt. Nemesis’s parting words are that “an old wrong avenged” might bring unity to Olympus, if the demigods accept her help.
7. Hazel admits that Nico found her in the Underworld and brought her to Camp Jupiter. Though she has no insight into Nemesis’s warning, if Nico needs her help, she cannot refuse him. Leo privately doubts Nemesis would help anyone without an ulterior motive. He ponders Nemesis’s warning about always being the outsider among his friends, a feeling he has struggled with already, being the one demigod on the quest without a partner and having stoked war with the Romans by firing on their city. Hazel reminds him that Nemesis’s purpose is to “stir up resentment.” Hazel and Leo encounter Echo, who leads them to a pond surrounded by nymphs photographing a handsome young man, Narcissus, staring at his reflection. The nymphs remind Echo that she lost her chance with him, since he “dumped [her] four thousand years ago,” and Hera had cursed Echo for talking too much. Leo pushes through the crowd of gossiping nymphs. Looking into the pond, he sees a submerged sheet of Celestial bronze. Narcissus will not allow him to take it because it is reflecting his image, which he is in love with. Leo offers him a mirror to trade, but Narcissus prefers the bronze. Hazel understands that Echo brought them to the pond to save Narcissus from himself. Nemesis had cursed him to fall in love with his own image because he “broke so many hearts.” Hazel, Leo, and Echo retreat to decide what to do. Hazel believes that Narcissus cannot change his nature and will again stare at himself until he dies, but Leo reminds her that they need the bronze. If they take it away, Narcissus might have the motivation “to snap out of it.” Leo asks Hazel to summon the bronze while he and Echo create a distraction.
8. Leo creates a diversion by strolling among the crowd of nymphs and crowing that he is cool, and Narcissus is a loser; Echo repeats everything he says. His act works, drawing the nymphs’ attention and irritating Narcissus so that he turns his attention away from the bronze. By the time he turns back, Hazel has removed it. He threatens to leave, alarming the nymphs, unless they can get the bronze sheet back. He readies his bow and orders the nymphs to “kill those demigods.” Narcissus and the nymphs chase Hazel and Leo, while Echo tries to run interference. Hazel calls on Arion, who arrives just in time. Leo doesn’t want to leave Echo behind, but she wants to stay and save Narcissus.
9. Sitting with a still unconscious Jason, Piper reluctantly draws her bronze dagger, Katoptris (meaning “looking glass”), which once belonged to Helen of Troy and shows prophetic images. It shows her Octavian is addressing the Roman demigods in the forum at Camp Jupiter, urging them to war. Piper feels guilty for not having wanted to befriend the Romans because she was scared she would lose Jason to them. The blade shows a series of other images whose meaning Piper does not understand, including one of herself, Jason, and Percy standing in what resembles a well, up to their waists in black water. Jason and Percy both get pulled under. Piper asks the blade to show her something helpful. She sees a man on the side of an empty highway in Kansas, offering her a silver goblet containing some sort of cure. At that moment, Jason wakes up. Hazel and Leo arrive, holding a bronze sheet. Leo rushes to the engine room to get to work. Annabeth, Percy, and Frank arrive. When the ship begins listing, Hazel notes that the lake’s nymphs may be angry at them. Percy heads out to “hold off the water spirits” and sends Frank and Annabeth to help Leo. Seasick Hazel grabs her stomach and goes to lie down. Piper and Jason remain in his cabin listening to the commotion above. Eventually, all grows quiet. Leo returns to say they are on their way. The seven demigods convene to review their options. Piper worries that she did not put enough effort into her charmspeak, but Jason reminds her that Gaea’s goal was to cause conflict. Hazel relays Nemesis’s claim that, in six days, Nico will die, and Rome will be destroyed. Piper shares the images she saw in her blade, including two giant twins. Annabeth connects the image to Ella’s prophecy and the old legend Reyna mentioned. Jason seems to know something but silently indicates to Piper that they should discuss it in private. Recalling the lines of the prophecy, Frank and Percy agree that they will need the gods’ help to kill giants. They need to find somewhere safe to set down so Leo can finish his repairs. Piper suggests Kansas.
10. The following morning, they arrive in Kansas. When Piper again describes the vision in her blade, Jason says it sounds like Bacchus, which causes anxiety in Percy, since Bacchus's Greek form is Camp Half-Blood’s annoying counselor, Mr. D (for Dionysus). Annabeth, Leo, and Frank stay behind to work on and protect the ship. Jason and Percy will join Piper to scout the highway and find Bacchus/Mr. D. Since they are still some distance away from the highway, Jason and Percy competitively summon rides. Jason calls Tempest, a storm spirit who arrives in a horse’s form, while Percy calls Blackjack, his black pegasus. The group heads off, arriving at the spot on the highway from Piper’s vision. Bacchus emerges from a wheat field, asking if they have seen Ceres (Demeter in Greek myth). The goddess of agriculture, Ceres had asked Bacchus to join forces against Gaea, whose plan was wreaking havoc with the crops. When Percy and Bacchus butt heads, Piper intervenes, charming Bacchus. She tells him about the Katoptris vision, but he claims to have nothing to offer her. As he reminisces about killing giant twins Ephialtes and Otis, Piper realizes that Bacchus is part of their quest. He declines to help them but advises them to seek out Phorcys, Gaea’s son who hates his mother, in Atlanta. Worried that Ceres’s absence indicates a trap, Bacchus vanishes. Piper gets a cold feeling and realizes they too must leave, but a sleepy voice hum says it is too late. It is Gaea, who now informs her that she needs the blood of one female and one male demigod and demands Piper choose which demigod will die with her.
11. Jason and Percy attack each other. Both demigods are possessed by eidolons, spirits from the Underworld who Gaea has promised will be able to live again in the bodies they possess. Piper then realizes eidolons were controlling Leo when he fired on Camp Jupiter. Percy knocks out Jason and is about to kill him, but Piper’s charmspeak causes him to pause long enough for Blackjack to knock him out. Piper secures the unconscious demigods onto Blackjack’s back, and the group returns to the ship. After some treatment in the sickbay, Jason and Percy wake up with hazy memories of what happened. They argue over who could have killed whom until Annabeth orders them to rest, but Percy wants to share what Bacchus told them. Leo is relieved to learn it was the eidolons who caused him to fire on Rome. Jason wants Piper to use her charmspeak to explain to the Romans what happened, but she does not believe it will work on Octavian. Frank and Hazel agree. Octavian wants power and will see this as his opportunity. Jason concedes that they should keep moving. Once the group crosses into Europe, the Romans will stop following them, assuming they will die in the Mediterranean. Percy turns the conversation to the twin giants. Piper cannot shake the feeling that Bacchus was “meant to help them,” though Percy does not believe he will. Piper shares that Gaea wants the blood of one male and one female demigod, and Percy recalls how Polybotes wanted to take him prisoner to kill at the proper moment. Unsure how all the pieces fit together, the group sets their course for Atlanta to find the old sea god Phorcys, as Bacchus suggested. Piper mentions that the eidolons are still present in the room.
12. Drawing on her knowledge of Cherokee spirits learned from her grandfather, Piper surmises that the eidolons are still present because no one has told them to leave. Hazel agrees, based on what she learned about them during her time in the Underworld. Using charmspeak, Piper addresses the eidolons, and they reply, from the bodies of Leo, Jason, and Percy. She orders them to leave the boys, but they refuse. Hazel tells them to obey Piper, then silently urges her to try again. Using her most forceful voice, Piper repeats her order, compelling them to promise on the river Styx that they will never possess anyone in the crew and leave. They obey. As the ship travels east, Piper and Jason walk along the deck. Jason thanks Piper for saving him. She worries that Percy will never trust her again, but Jason reminds her that she saved them both. Piper asks Jason about the Mark of Athena, but he knows only that, after they conquered the Greeks in ancient times, the Romans supposedly stole something from them and hid it in Rome. Athena’s children have hated them ever since, and each generation, Athena selects a few demigods to search for it. Jason wants to help Annabeth find it, if she is one of those chosen, but worries about the consequences, given Nemesis’s warning about Rome’s impending destruction. Piper worries about the last lines of the Prophecy of Seven—“An oath to keep with a final breath”—and prays that Jason will not die.
13. Percy has a nightmare of choking in mud then being in an underground parking garage where he overhears the giant twins Ephialtes and Otis planning the death of the demigods and the destruction of Rome. They mention a bronze jar and a “talented friend” who is protecting a statue. In the bronze jar, Nico is trapped. He appears to be meditating and has pomegranate seeds lying at his feet. Percy wakes up to find Annabeth standing over him in the middle of the night. They go for a walk around the ship, stopping at the stables. Percy tells her about the opportunities in New Rome, how demigods can live normal lives, go to college, marry, and raise families. Annabeth worries that the Roman and Greek demigods will never be able to reconcile. Percy shares his dream with her, and she recalls Nemesis’s five-day deadline, the Kalends of July. Annabeth admits that the last time she saw her mother, Athena accused her of failing her. They fall asleep in each other’s arms.
14. When Percy wakes up, Frank is standing over him and Annabeth. Everyone feared they had been kidnapped. Back at the Mess Hall, Coach is furious. Percy turns everyone’s attention to the need to strategize, asking Hazel about Nico and his pomegranate seeds. She explains they are “last-resort food” that can keep children of Hades safe. One seed can keep him alive per day, assuming he can put himself in a “death trance” that can prevent him from using all his air. His situation explains one line of the prophecy: “Twins snuff out the angel’s breath, who holds the key to endless death.” Nico’s last name is di Angelo. Piper realizes that he must have found the Doors of Death. Leo and Jason point out that Nico’s intentions and loyalties have not always been clear, angering Hazel, who storms out, which upsets Frank. They arrive in Atlanta. Wanting to get Frank off the ship to cool off, Percy suggests a scouting mission with Coach Hedge.
15. They arrive on a hill overlooking Atlanta where General Sherman, a child of Ares, watched Atlanta burn. Percy wonders if this is a bad omen since conflict between Greek and Roman demigods has stoked civil wars. In search of saltwater and Phorcys, the trio heads to the aquarium. A woman called Kate ushers them in, calling them “VIP visitors”. Coach notes that she is not human. She leads them into a secret exhibit of mythical creatures, including dangerous monsters, claiming that she is bringing them to her brother, Phorcys. The creatures are sedated and dazed. Percy pities them. Phorcys appears with a headset, training the creatures for performance in “Phorcys’s Follies,” whose main event is giant, demigod-eating squid. Phorcys complains that he has been exiled to Atlanta for supporting the Titans in their war against the Olympians. Kate reveals herself to be Keto, goddess of sea monsters. Keto leads Coach away, promising to show him a diagram of monster hunting habits. Percy tells a surprised Phorcys that Bacchus sent them to him, then flatters him and gets him talking about the giants and their plans to entrap and kill demigods and destroy Rome. Phorcys reveals that Gaea has put a bounty on a group of demigods, with an order to spare one male and one female. She has captured one demigod to lure the others to Rome, possibly also in search of the Mark of Athena. Phorcys lets slip that a map in Charleston provides the route to Rome, then leads them through a tunnel to another exhibit.
16. Percy realizes they are under a fifty-thousand-gallon tank but comforts himself that water is his “home court”. Phorcys reveals that he knows who they are because Gaea provided him with a description for the bounty. They are “VIPs—Very Important Prisoners”. He plans to make Percy and Frank part of his exhibit. He traps Percy and Frank in a tank. As a son of Poseidon, Percy can breathe underwater, but Frank transforms into a giant koi to survive. On the other side of the glass, the boys see Keto leading Coach through the amphitheater. Percy stealthily gets his attention, and Coach knocks out Keto. Together, they break the tank and run. Percy promises to return to save the drugged sea creatures. Phorcys sets off the alarms, causing panic among the aquarium visitors. Percy, Frank, and Coach escape by blending in with the crowd rushing the exits.
17. Annabeth is trying to cheer up Hazel when Frank rushes in, anxious to leave because the Romans are following them. Leo gets the ship up and, following Percy’s order, sets their course for Charleston, to find a map leading to the Mark of Athena or something “that might heal the rift between the Romans and Greeks”. Annabeth begins to put the pieces together but says they need to find the map to know more. They consider potential Charleston landmarks: the museum where the C.S.S. Hunley is kept and the Battery, a park near the harbor, apparently haunted by a Civil War-era southern belle who only talks to women. Back in her room, Annabeth studies Parthenon models stashed on her laptop, inherited from legendary inventor Daedalus, and recalls her last meeting with her mother when they ran into each other at Grand Central Station. Athena did not recognize Annabeth and seemed lost and confused, lamenting the sack of her patron city, theft of her identity, and removal from her “beloved homeland”. When Annabeth identified herself as Athena’s daughter, the goddess pressed a coin into her hand and demanded that she avenge her mother against the Romans, who have disgraced her. Otherwise, Athena says, Annabeth is no child of hers. Annabeth had tried to throw the coin away, but it kept reappearing in her pocket. Now, she replays phrases she has heard, afraid that she knows what they mean and praying to be wrong. Frank stops by, asking Annabeth to show him the trick behind the Chinese handcuffs he picked up at the aquarium gift shop. She explains their counterintuitive mechanism: Pushing outward tightens the woven mechanism. To escape the trap, it is necessary to push inward, which loosens it. Frank asks Annabeth to help him with his “Achilles’ heel” at some point but does not elaborate.
18. While Annabeth and the other demigods split up to go on their separate missions, Percy stays behind, planning to jump into the harbor to get advice from the local Nereids about how to free Keto’s captive sea creatures. Annabeth, Piper, and Hazel head for the Battery. As the girls stroll, Annabeth contrasts the beauty of the surroundings and the sinister history of slavery that is bound up in it. She worries about the deadline to save Nico, about whom she has “mixed feelings.” Piper catches sight of the ghost, but Hazel claims that she glows too brightly to be a ghost. As the apparition approaches, Annabeth realizes that it is Aphrodite/Venus, who is filling Annabeth with feelings of inadequacy. Piper is not happy to see her mother, who brings the girls to a pavilion for tea. Annabeth asks if she is Aphrodite or Venus, and she replies that she is both, claiming, “Love is love,” hence the civil war will not affect her as much as some of the other gods. Annabeth notes that the only gods who seem able to help them heading into the war represent love, revenge, and wine. Aphrodite reminisces about a party the Confederates threw the night the Civil War began in the same area they now sit enjoying tea. Horrified, Annabeth reminds her that it was “the bloodiest war in U.S. history”. Aphrodite continues unabashed. Claiming to want to help the girls, she notes that the Romans “sidelined” Athena, “the most Greek of all goddesses”. Neither the Greeks nor Athena ever forgave the Romans. Annabeth realizes the Mark of Athena leads to “the statue.” Aphrodite replies that Athena’s children have been looking for it for centuries, in the meantime largely being responsible for every civil war. Reminding Annabeth that none of Athena’s children have managed to find the statue, Aphrodite tells them that the map they need is located nearby in Fort Sumpter. Two large eagles suddenly appear. The Romans have found them.
19. The girls run for the ship, but three eagles drop Octavian and two other Roman commandos in their path. Octavian demands they throw down their weapons and surrender. With the other scouting group still out, and Percy in the harbor, Annabeth thinks of a distress signal: She tosses her dagger into the water. The harbor explodes “like a Las Vegas fountain putting on a show.” Emerging from the water, Percy hands Annabeth her dagger. They rush back to the ship and send messages to the others to return quickly. Annabeth and Percy get the ship moving. Festus blows fire to keep the eagles away. Frank, Leo, and Jason struggle to make it back to the ship, finally disappearing behind the fort’s ramparts. Eagles carrying Roman demigods rush the ship. Annabeth orders Percy to guard the ship so she can go into the fort and recover their friends and the map.
20. The Mist obscures the fighting between the Roman demigods and Jason, Leo, Frank, and Annabeth, but the morals are panicked, providing cover for Annabeth to move deeper into the fort while the others head back to the ship. As Annabeth tries to imagine where the map could be hidden, spiders cover the walls and surround her. She recalls a memory from her childhood of spiders surrounding her at night as she slept. Later, she learned that all Athena’s children fear spiders, a consequence of Athena’s curse of Arachne. Now, Annabeth hears Gaea tell her that she will soon meet “the weaver.” Athena’s owl blazes red along the wall, burning up the spiders. Annabeth hears her mother command her to “Avenge me. Follow the Mark.” The garrison door blasts open. Explosions rock the fort. The Argo is under attack, but a storm is holding the Romans back. The Mark of Athena glows along a cannon, in which Annabeth recovers a hidden disk that contains the map. As she turns to leave, Reyna appears with her dogs. She wants Annabeth to surrender and accept a show trial and execution to prevent further violence. If Annabeth chooses not to, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood and destroy it. Annabeth tells Reyna the quest must go on and asks her to delay the Romans for as long as possible. On the Argo’s deck, Annabeth sees Jason and Percy working together, commanding the sea and sky to slow the Roman attack. Reyna warns her that the next time they meet, they will be on opposite enemy lines, then retreats. Annabeth rushes back to the ship, and they race across the ocean.
21. While Jason and Percy fend off the Romans, Leo guides the ship. Annabeth shares that a Nereid told Percy to seek help from Chiron’s brothers, the Party Ponies, and provides the coordinates for Leo to plot. When they are finally out of immediate danger, Coach takes over the controls so Leo can rest. Leo notices Frank and Hazel arguing, but they stop when the group reconvenes. The ship is on the open sea but, due to damage sustained in Charleston, is unable to fly. Percy reveals that the Nereids told him to expect an attack by Keto’s children, sea monsters. Jason and Percy are both exhausted from their efforts during the battle. Frank helps Piper and Annabeth bring them to their cabins, leaving Hazel and Leo alone with Coach. Hazel tells Leo that he reminds her of Sammy, someone she knew from her previous life, and offers to show him a memory that she experiences as a flashback, hoping this will help them figure out how they are connected. Leo takes her hand, “and the world dissolve[s]”
22. Leo finds himself standing in the courtyard of Hazel’s old school. He and Hazel have both turned to mist, but the world around them is solid and real. They are in Hazel’s memory. A bell rings, and children pour into the courtyard, including a slightly younger version of Hazel, gripping her lunch bag nervously. A boy, Rufus, calls her “Witch girl,” crushes her lunch, and demands a diamond. She tells him to go away. Another boy, Sammy, a mirror of Leo, enters the scene. As Rufus looms over Hazel, a diamond appears at her feet. She begs Rufus not to take it. Sammy creates a humorous diversion by pretending to be a movie director giving Hazel and Rufus instructions, the same strategy Leo used on bullies. Sammy scoops up the diamond. Before Rufus can react, the bell rings. The children return to the building, but Sammy and Hazel stay behind. She worries that he should not have touched the “dangerous” diamond, but he promises not to sell it. Leo can see the deep affection between Sammy and Hazel. The scene shifts to another vision. Leo recognizes that they are in his mother’s Houston neighborhood. An old man says Hazel’s name to himself. He looks familiar, though Leo has never seen him before. A woman comes out holding a baby. It is his mother, and the baby is Leo. Sammy was Leo’s great-grandfather. Hazel’s vision found the connection between her and Leo. Sammy tells baby Leo that he sold the cursed diamond and asks him to watch out for Hazel. The scene fades, and they are back on the Argo. They feel the ship lurch to the side. The monsters have found them.
23. A monster the length of the ship surfaces from the deep. As the demigods grapple with the monster, Frank falls overboard. The monster wraps Leo and Hazel, who are each holding a vial of Greek fire, in its tentacles. Instructing Hazel to throw her vial as far from the ship as possible when the monster drops her, Leo summons fire into his hand to burn the monster. It opens its mouth to scream in pain, and Leo drops the vial down its throat just as it releases its hold on the demigods. Leo falls into the water and blacks out. He wakes up floating in an underwater cave with Frank, who does not know what happened to the others. He, Leo, and Hazel have been captured by “fish-horse guys.” Sensing Frank’s anger over Hazel and Leo’s connection, Leo explains the vision she showed him and assures Frank he is not “moving in on your girl.” The tension resolved, Leo asks if Frank can transform and break them out, but his shapeshifting is not working. Leo’s fire summoning is still functional, but he notices that Frank is terrified of his fire. Frank starts to tell Leo his secret, but the door opens. Bythos and Aphros, two ichthyocentaurs (fish centaurs) enter the cave to take the demigods for questioning.
24. Aphros leads Leo to an underwater Greek-style city that is a training camp for mer-heroes. Aphros asks for Leo’s story, and he tells him everything. Affirming that Leo’s story matches Hazel’s, Aphros declares that he believes Leo but had to confirm that he and his friends were not a threat since they arrived in a warship with Keto’s sea monsters on their tail. Two mermaids escort Hazel in, and Aphros leaves to check on Frank. Leo notes to Hazel that they never got to talk about Sammy. She worries how to explain it all to Frank. When Leo reveals that he has already done so, he cannot tell if Hazel is relieved or disappointed. He brings up Frank’s nervousness around fire, and she begins patting the denim jacket she always wears. Leo recalls the myth of Meleager, whose life was tied to a stick of wood, and makes the connection, though Hazel reveals nothing. Leo considers the situation from Frank’s perspective: Having given his lifeline to Hazel, it is no wonder he does not like seeing her cozying up to a demigod who can summon fire. He thinks of a line from the Prophecy of Seven: “To storm or fire the world must fall.” Fire must refer to Leo himself. One mistake, and he could “accidentally send Frank Zhang up in flames.” Bythos comes in with Frank and tells them that they are free to go. He also sends a message to Percy that “a quest of mer-heroes” will move against Keto to free her captives. Though they will do what they can to help the demigods cross the Atlantic, Bythos warns that they will face more dangers in the Mare Nostrum. Aphros and Bythos warn Hazel that Nico is essential to her journey and must be saved and tell Leo to stay by Hazel and Frank’s sides in Rome. Before sending them back to the surface, Aphros gifts Leo a picnic basket of brownies and a letter of introduction for Annabeth to Tiberinus, the Tiber River god.
25. When her three friends disappeared, Piper felt useless. She stared at her knife, Katoptris, hoping for a useful vision, but all she saw was demigods driving towards Camp Half-Blood. She and Annabeth sent a dream vision to warn Chiron. When Frank, Hazel, and Leo finally appear, Leo tells the group they will arrive in the Mediterranean the next morning. Piper feels a sense of foreboding. Annabeth removes the disk from her bag, but it is blank. It only reveals the map when she is alone, just as the Mark of Athena only reveals itself to her. She admits that she will have to embark on her mission alone once they are in Rome. Jason shares what he knows about the statue. 40 feet tall, it once graced the Parthenon and may have been stolen by the Romans when they conquered the city to break the Athenians’ spirit. If she can find it, Annabeth says, it may help heal the rift. Piper notes the spirit of teamwork that Annabeth and Jason share and feels hopeful that Annabeth finding the statue could end Greek-Roman hostilities and help defeat Gaea, but she worries that Annabeth must work alone. Frank recites a line from the prophecy—“Won through pain from a woven jail”—and wonders what it means, but Piper defers the question for when they get to Rome\. Later, as Piper and Jason clean the lower deck, she reflects on her conversation with her mother in Charleston, the resentment she felt that her mother seemed more interested in her friends’ troubled love lives than Piper’s with Jason. She admires Jason’s discipline and leadership but does not always know how to interpret him. She wonders about how her Greek and his Roman qualities will coexist.
26. The next morning, the demigods are woken by a massive cruise ship’s horn. They see the Rock of Gibraltar, the area known in antiquity as “the pillars of Hercules”: the Rock on one side, the African mountains on the other. They are about to enter the Mediterranean. An island shimmers into existence; Hercules, guarding the straits, watches them from the shoreline. They will have to meet him to pass into the Mediterranean. The demigods decide to send Jason and Piper. Initially, their meeting is friendly. He is obliged to set them a quest but assures them it will be simple, until they reveal Hera’s role in their journey. Cooling towards them, he tells them that if they wish to pass, they will have to go the river on the other side of the hills, where the aged river god Achelous lives, “break off his other horn,” and bring it to Hercules. If they retrieve it before sundown, they can pass. If not, Achelous will kill them, and Hercules will smash their ship and kill their friends.
27. Piper and Jason head off to find Achelous, who had once fought Hercules for the hand of Deianeira. During the battle, Hercules broke off one of his horns, which became the first cornucopia. As they get to the river, Piper’s thoughts drift. She wants to drink the water, soak her feet, and float on the surface with Jason. She realizes the river is creating these feelings, effectively charmspeaking her. It is obviously having the same effect on Jason. She yells at the river to stop, and Achelous appears. He introduces himself as “the spirit of the mightiest river in Greece,” who now lives opposite his enemy, Hercules. Their enmity arose over a woman, Deianeira, who Achelous claims was promised to him. Hercules wanted her for himself and demanded they fight for her hand, which he won. Eventually, she became jealous of Hercules’s many affairs and believed a centaur called Nessus who claimed his blood was a love potion. Instead, it poisoned and killed Hercules, after which Deianeira killed herself. “Beware the sons of Zeus,” Achelous tells Piper, lamenting Deianeira’s sad end. Hercules had broken Achelous’s horn during their first battle and wants to have the second one, Achelous believes, to humiliate him. Piper and Jason both feel sorry for him but must secure the horn to save their friends. Achelous understands but mournfully shares that he must stop them. The river covers Piper in a wall of water.
28. Piper surfaces trapped in a whirlpool with Jason. Achelous apologizes, but he cannot allow Hercules to have his other horn. The river pulls Jason under. Piper begs him to release Jason and promises they will not allow Hercules to get the horn. Achelous believes she is offering herself as a compensatory bride and pulls her out of the whirlpool. She puts him in a chokehold, pressing her dagger to his chin, and commands him to release Jason. The water expels him. Piper slashes off Achelous’s horn, promising that she, not Hercules, will get it. Jason unleashes a lightning bolt, and the two escape. Jason comforts a remorseful Piper, who is determined to keep the horn from Hercules. She sets her plan before returning to him. Seeing the horn, Hercules agrees to let them go but becomes angry when Piper refuses to hand it over. She points the horn at him, fills her mind with positive thoughts, and unleashes a blast of food “as powerful as Achelous’ river.” Jason grabs her and rides a gust of wind to bring them back to the ship. Leo has set it to flight mode so Percy can send a giant wave to knock down Hercules. The ship heads into the skies over the Mediterranean.
29. Annabeth’s singular focus on the Mark of Athena contributes Percy’s feelings of alienation and uselessness. Making matters worse, since they entered the Mare Nostrum, the Argo has been under constant attack by a variety of mythical monsters. Percy has a nightmare in which Ephialtes and Otis report to a mystery woman that “they” are approaching. She hopes the latest of Athena’s children will prove “a worthy victim.” Percy notices that the coins glistening in Ephialtes’s hair match Annabeth’s coin from her mother; they are trophies. Ephialtes reminds the mystery woman that Gaea wants Annabeth and Percy alive so that their blood can be spilled “on the ancient stones.” As Percy wakes from his dream, Jason tells him the ship has dropped into the water. It is Percy’s turn to keep watch. Back on deck, he reveals his dream to Annabeth. She tells him not to tell the others, since it will make them worry, and she must go on her mission alone. Percy is angry and does not know how he will be able to let her go, but he understands the importance of her quest. Staring out at sea, he feels its ancient power and significance and realizes that the monsters know the demigods have returned. Suddenly, Percy realizes they must stop, and a trireme, an ancient Greek war ship, emerges out of the fog and rams the Argo. Warriors, part dolphin and part human, swarm their ship and surround them. Their leader, a golden warrior, introduces himself as Chrysaor, “a fellow son of Poseidon,” who wants everything Percy has.
30. Chrysaor’s warriors ransack the ship, carrying boxes of supplies up from the hold. Annabeth reminds Percy that they killed Chrysaor’s mother, Medusa, who Athena turned into a monster. Angry that “the legend-tellers” have ignored him, Chrysaor has become a pirate, to “inspire terror” and “rule the seas.” His warriors bring up the rest of the Argo’s crew, bound and gagged. Only Frank is missing. Chrysaor reveals that Circe is going to buy the girls, and he will bring Annabeth and Percy to Gaea. Percy draws his sword and briefly fights Chrysaor, but Chrysaor wins easily, declaring that Percy and Annabeth will now be chained for transport.
31. Percy realizes that the part dolphin warriors are men that the god Dionysus had turned into dolphins millennia ago, when they had attempted to kidnap him. Seeing Frank hiding behind a ballista, Percy wonders if their captain, Dionysus, will allow them to take the demigods. At the mention of his name, the warriors grow anxious. Chrysaor warns them that it is a trick, but Percy reaches into an ice chest and pulls out a Diet Coke, Dionysus’s “chosen beverage.” He urges the warriors to save themselves, pointing out that Frank is transforming into a dolphin. The warriors panic and throw themselves overboard. Annabeth releases the bound demigods and Coach. Frank turns into a bear and throws Chrysaor overboard. Percy sends a prayer to Dionysus as he offers the pirate’s treasure and ship, filled with Diet Coke, to the god as a tribute. The demigods decide to take the trireme to the skies. Jason takes over guard duty so Percy can rest, but he spends his time worrying that he will not be able to save his friends, especially Annabeth. Sleep brings nightmares filled with Gaea’s threats and visions of Camp Half-Blood destroyed. He wakes up to Jason telling him they have arrived in Rome. Percy surveys the city as Leo sets the ship down in a park. Jason points out landmarks. Hazel reminds them that they must find Nico before sundown. Annabeth wants to begin her solo mission, but Percy insists on accompanying her to the Tiber River. Frank, Hazel, and Leo head out to find Nico’s location. Piper and Jason stay behind to watch the ship.
32. Percy and Annabeth are aware of being watched by unfriendly forces while walking through Rome. They make it to the Tiber and have lunch by the river. Percy worries about leaving Annabeth alone, and she tells him to trust her. A Vespa weaves through the cafe, stopping in front of Annabeth and Percy. A couple steps off, dressed in vintage clothes. They resemble Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn but introduce themselves as Tiberinus, the Tiber river god, and Rhea, mother of Romulus and Remus. Annabeth hands Tiberinus her letter of introduction and map. Pronouncing her documents in order, he tells her they should be on their way. Percy wants to go with her, but Rhea tells him he must return to the ship, gather his friends, and save Nico. Annabeth must walk alone. Annabeth kisses Percy then gets on the scooter. He watches as she rides away.
33. During their ride, Tiberinus and Rhea point out landmarks and how they have changed. They arrive at a marble building, and Tiberinus explains that Annabeth must descend underground to “[f]ind the altar of the foreign god.” When Annabeth asks if any of her siblings have found the Mark, Tiberinus admits that none have. Rhea notes Annabeth’s bravery, which may indicate greater strength. Rhea and Tiberinus depart, and Annabeth descends. Thinking back on the adventures of her childhood, she hopes she has not been led into a trap and steels herself to move forward. The Mark burns in the middle of the door she pushes through. She finds herself in a basement filled with storage crates. In a corner, she notices an opening that drops into a cavern where she sees the Mark burning, and ponders how to descend safely, with intelligence her only “special power.” Using items she finds in the crates, she creates a rope ladder and climbs down to the cavern.
34. She lands in a shallow canal and worries briefly that it could be part of Daedalus’s labyrinth. She ties a piece of string to her rope ladder to stay connected to it and follows the burning Mark as it appears. Dropping into a lower chamber, she finds herself in an altar room whose walls are painted with banquet scenes. As she moves toward the altar, she steps through a rib cage. Empty moments before, the floor is now covered with bones. Old weapons, scraps of clothing—and bones, the remains of demigods who came before Annabeth—line the distance to the altar. Two voices whisper disapprovingly about female heroes, the hole she had come through disappears, and her string is cut, trapping Annabeth in the chamber. Twelve Roman ghosts appear. Across the room, another, older-looking ghost, the “pater” standing by the altar, explains that Annabeth has entered the cavern of Mithras and cannot be permitted to live after seeing their sacred mysteries. She announces herself as a child of Athena in search of the Mark, and the ghosts confer in Latin. They tell her to prepare to die. Surveying the room, she reads the images and, to stall for time, convinces the ghosts that she is “the big mother,” but the pater understands why she is there. He reveals that “the weaver” has paid them to kill any of Athena’s children who attempt to pass through their shrine. Noticing wall cracks and the fragility of the room’s infrastructure, Annabeth tells the pater that she can destroy the chamber with one strike of her dagger and does so. As the room collapses, she falls into darkness.
35. Annabeth falls into a cavern, breaking her ankle. Surveying the territory and detecting no immediate dangers, she eats some ambrosia stashed in her backpack and retrieves her dagger. After rinsing her scrapes, she fashions a makeshift splint using objects she finds in the cavern, then fashions a crutch from a piece of a broken railing. The Mark appears over an open doorway, and Annabeth follows it into the corridor beyond.
36. She finds herself in a tunnel. From inside the walls, she can hear what sounds like “a million tiny voices” whispering. As she moves forward, they seem to be coming closer, and cobwebs filling the tunnel become thicker. She arrives at a doorway to a larger chamber. Tapestry remnants hand on the walls. Across the room, the Mark of Athena burns over a door, but a fifty-foot chasm lies between Annabeth and the door. Annabeth feels alone and afraid but determined. Spiders swarm toward her through the corridor, but using the matches in her backpack, she lights a torch and throws it into the corridor, incinerating the spiders. Annabeth sees a loom and uses the string in her backpack to begin weaving a net she uses to cross to the door on the opposite side, then burns the net and beams to slow the next wave of spiders, but they do not follow. She wonders if she has passed a test. She continues down the next corridor into a large cavern coated in spiderwebs, its walls covered in stunningly life-like tapestries. In front of a shrine stands a forty-foot statue of Athena, the Athena Parthenos. Annabeth notices the floor is covered with cracks large enough to swallow her foot. Arachne appears, thrilled that the death of Annabeth, Athena’s most talented child, will cause her mother pain. Annabeth announces her intention to remove the statue. Arachne laughs as she prepares to feast on her.
37. Leo, Frank, and Hazel explore Rome. Hazel eventually leads them to the Pantheon. Hazel senses a tunnel that will lead them to Nico. Leo scans the interior, considering its infrastructure and where a secret passage could be located and determines it is near a shrine. He locates Roman numerals etched into the base of a Roman column and uses them to unlock a narrow secret passage under the building. Hazel determines nothing alive is underground and goes down first to assess the situation. While she is gone, Frank and Leo discuss Frank’s vulnerability to fire. Leo assures Frank that he would never do anything to hurt him, and the boys note that both lost their mothers to fire. Leo ponders how he might handle Frank’s problem. Three middle-aged American tourists lingering in the vicinity glare at Leo and begin moving toward them. The men are possessed by eidolons who want to kill Leo. He jumps into the underground passage with Frank, who has transformed into a snake to fit.
38. The passage closes behind them, cutting Leo and Frank off from their pursuers. Finding themselves in a sloping tunnel, they march forward until they run into Hazel, who is pondering how to unlock a door. Leo investigates and notices Greek letters on the sphere mechanism. Using the first five digits of pi, he unlocks the sphere, and the door swings open to a workshop filled with worktables and ancient tools. Two manikins in Roman armor flank the door. Sensing the work of Archimedes, “the most famous son of Hephaestus who ever lived” and a hero to Leo’s Camp Half-Blood cabinmates, Leo believes they must be in the remains of his workshop, brought to Rome after Archimedes was killed during the Romans’ sack of his city. Leo praises the skill and complexity of Archimedes, prompting Hazel and Frank to defend Roman architectural prowess. Leo finds Archimedes’s lost book On Building Spheres which he believes contains secrets that could save Camp Half-Blood and defeat Gaea. Just then, the machines come to life, possessed by the eidolons. They knock out Hazel and Frank and tell Leo that he will not leave alive.
39. Leo is terrified until one of the eidolons introduces himself as the one who possessed Leo. His fear gives way to anger. Looking around for a solution, he launches himself into a loft and seals himself inside. A disassembled sphere of Archimedes sits on a table, and Leo senses that he can use it to save himself and his friends, but he cannot figure out its code. The eidolons threaten to kill Leo’s friends. With time running out, Leo remembers Nemesis’s fortune cookie and retrieves it from his tool belt. He asks the fortune cookie for the sphere’s secret code and breaks it open.
40. The code Leo needs is on a strip of paper in the cookie. Activating the sphere, Leo accesses the central control system and uses it to attack the machines the eidolons are possessing. He destroys the machines by overloading them, trapping the eidolons in their wiring in and frying them. Hazel and Frank regain consciousness, and the group realizes they have stumbled into a trap. Gaea’s voice addresses the three demigods through a bronze mirror. They have been separated from their friends and are trapped in the earth, where Gaea is strongest. She shows them scenes of their friends facing death; Annabeth is alone with Arachne, and Piper, Jason, and Percy are on a spiral staircase. Gaea informs Frank and Hazel that her minions will bring them to her to die, their blood a sacrifice, but first, she will show them her friends as they die. Leo thrusts his burning hand into the mirror, melting it and silencing Gaea’s voice, then he shares a plan with Hazel and Frank.
41. Jason and Piper have a picnic in a nearby park. Piper’s cornucopia provides their meal, including a birthday cake and candles. Jason admits it is his sixteenth birthday (the first of July, Hera’s sacred day, which the Romans would find auspicious). Jason admits to feeling like a failure and being disappointed in Hercules. Without Piper, Jason says, he would not have been able to stand up to the hero. Percy comes running toward them. He has a bad feeling about Annabeth, and with time running out for Nico, Leo, Frank, and Hazel have still not returned. Percy suggests that Piper use Katoptris to find a clue to Nico’s location. She sees a vision of the Romans preparing their invasion of Camp Half-Blood. The next vision is of the Forum and the circular room from her nightmare, then one of Nico, who is now out of pomegranate seeds. Percy says they cannot wait for Hazel, Frank, and Leo to return. Whatever is waiting for them, they must face it to save Nico. Leaving Coach behind, the three demigods head to the forum.
42. Piper, Jason, and Percy quickly find the circular stairwell they are looking for, and Piper reveals that Katoptris showed the three of them drowning in a cylindrical room. Puzzled, Percy reminds her that he cannot drown and offers to investigate first. When he returns, he assures Jason and Piper that the room is holding no water but also has no exits. The three descend together. When he steps into the middle of the room, green and blue lights appear on the walls, accompanied by the sound of a fountain and the smell of the ocean. Jason notes that the room is a nymphaeum, “a shrine to the nymphs.” The room feels “hostile,” not what Piper associates with the flirty, gossipy nymphs at Camp Half-Blood. Jason shares that that ancient Romans had them outside their villas to ensure fresh water, and demigods would invite nymphs to live in their nymphaeum, for good luck. Percy reminds him that this would bind the nymph to the water source. Piper wonders what would happen to nymphs bound to an underground nymphaeum. The sound of water transforms to hissing, the lights turn purple and lime, and “nine desiccated zombie nymphs” appear to answer her question: They would suffer and wait for revenge. The nine nymphs reveal that they were present at the birth of Zeus and promised honors back “in the old country, in Greece.” A son of Jupiter invited them a new home in Rome, but when the city fell, the nymphs’ master did not release them. They have been trapped for centuries without water, and now their minds are warped with hatred. Piper and Percy offer to help them, but they reveal they are working for the giant twins who promised that if the nymphs deal with the demigods, they will be freed from their suffering. The chamber begins filling with “sickly dark water, like oil”
43. As black water pours into the chamber, Piper recalls Achelous reminding her of a Cherokee flood story that her father used to tell her. In the story, a family’s dog gives them the key to surviving a flood: build a raft and sacrifice the dog. When the father grabs him to throw into the water, he is revealed to be a skeleton. The family survives the flood. Piper wonders why Achelous reminded her of the story, feeling that she is already dead.
44. The room fills quickly, and the demigods cannot find a way out. Percy dives underground to try to locate a drain and barely makes it back to the surface. Poisoned by the nymphs’ malice, the water is abnormal; Percy cannot breathe in it. The nymphs are draining the demigods’ power. As the water reaches their chins, Piper remembers the skeleton dog’s sacrifice and how her cornucopia works. Her plan is to channel Jason and Percy’s power through the cornucopia to flood the chamber with clean, fresh water. She urges them to work together, offering their power as a gift to the nymphs. Clean water blasts out of the cornucopia, quickly filling the room to the ceiling. Just before the demigods go under, Piper tells Jason she loves him. Just as Piper wonders if the room will crack, the water begins draining. Piper breaks the surface and pulls up Percy and Jason, saving them. The nine nymphs are now young and beautiful. Eight vanish, leaving one behind, who explains that the demigods have released the nymphs, who will now go in search of new homes. Both the stairs and a sewer pipe appear; the demigods can choose to return to the surface or descend further to find the giants.
45. Percy leads Piper and Jason deeper underground. They arrive in a large room filled with machines powered by hellhounds running on hamster-style wheels. From the twenty-foot ceilings, live animals are suspended in cages. Weapons and armor travel along conveyor belts. In his bronze jar, Nico is curled up, sleeping or dead. The demigods are in a hypogeum, the room under a coliseum that holds “set pieces and machinery used to create special effects.” Ephialtes and Otis emerge, and Ephialtes explains that they have planned “the greatest spectacle Rome has ever seen—and the last!” To stall for time, Percy gets Ephialtes talking and learns that Annabeth is on the brink of death, and Hazel, Frank, and Leo are trapped. The giants plan to use Percy, Piper, and Jason for their show. Their destruction of Rome will take one month, until Gaea awakes on August first, “the best date to destroy all humanity.” Ephialtes shares the horrors he has planned, unmoved by Percy’s suggestions and Piper’s charmspeak. The three demigods decide to charge the giants.
46. The giants vanish and reappear in different spots around the room, triggering traps for the demigods. Standing guard over an unconscious Nico, Piper fends off leopards by launching food at them from the cornucopia. Jason battles Otis, sword to spear. Percy ends up fighting a hydra. Having fought one before, Percy knows that slicing its heads off is useless; two grow back for each one sliced off. Instead, he looks for potential fire sources and finds them among an explosions-display the giants have planned to blow up Rome. The explosives begin to bring down animal cages and chunks of ceiling. The demigods manage to destroy the giants, but as soon as they disintegrate, the giants begin to reform. Ephialtes complains that the demigods have “ruined the spectacle” but reminds them that, without a god, they cannot kill the giants, and the giants can kill them. Jason and Percy defiantly reply that they will not give up and will cut the giants to pieces, even without a god. At that moment, Bacchus descends on a platform saying he would “hate to think I made a special trip for nothing”
47. The two leopards nuzzle Bacchus, who scolds Ephialtes for using them for his spectacle. He proclaims Ephialtes’s props and effects “[t]acky, cheap, and boring,” infuriating the giant. Jason asks if they are going to kill the giants together, and Bacchus says the demigods must prove themselves “worthy of [his] help.” If they impress him, he will join them for the “grand finale.” He sets the gears in motion, and they find themselves in the Colosseum, filled with spectators and with Bacchus seated in the emperor’s box. Jason, Percy, and the giants are in the arena together. “Entertain me, heroes of Olympus,” Bacchus tells them, opening a Diet Coke can, which sets the crowd cheering
48. Percy is furious that Bacchus has turned the fight into a game, but he has no choice. Ephialtes and Otis attack as the crowd jeers and shouts. Percy realizes that he and Jason need to work together. They vaporize Otis, trapping his essence in a whirlpool that prevents him from reforming, then parry Ephialtes. Just as the giant gets the upper hand, the Argo appears over the stadium. Percy rudely asks Bacchus if that was “entertaining enough for you,” and Bacchus appears beside him in the arena. He lifts his thyrsus, and the crowd jeers, making the thumbs down gesture. He smacks what is left of Otis with his thyrsus, and the giant disintegrates. Bacchus repeats the gesture with Ephialtes, and the crowd cheers. He gives the demigods permission to continue their journey, telling the puzzled group that “the parking lot behind the Emmanuel Building is the “[b]est place to break through.” Coach, Hazel, Frank, and Leo join them and explain how they escaped, but they still need to rescue Annabeth. Back at the Argo, they set their course for the Emmanuel Building. Nico, conscious but weak, explains that Hades had led him to Camp Jupiter, instructing him to keep its existence secret. Nico now believes his father wanted him to understand the quest’s importance and search for the Doors of Death. He learned they have two exits, one in Tartarus, “the maximum-security prison of Hades,” and the other at Epirus in Greece. Gaea’s forces guard the latter. The doors must be sealed on both sides, but Nico says no demigods could survive Tartarus. They arrive at the Emmanuel Building.
49. Knowing that “trickery and brains” are her only hope against Arachne, Annabeth thinks of the weaver’s fatal flaw, pride, and gets her talking about her tapestries. Annabeth mentions that she is redesigning Mount Olympus and says the tapestries belong on display there, where the gods can admire them. Arachne complains that Athena destroyed her best work since they “depicted the gods in rather unflattering ways.” Annabeth notes that the gods would enjoy tapestries that depict their divine antagonists in an unflattering light, goading Arachne with promises of revenge on Athena even sweeter than killing her favorite child. Annabeth would be her agent and see Arachne’s tapestries adorning the gods’ palaces. If she dies, and Gaea destroys the gods, however, they will never realize that Arachne was the better weaver. When Annabeth shifts her weight, another crack opens in the floor. Arachne warns her about the fragility of the room, eaten away by the hatred boiling in Tartarus beneath them. Only Arachne’s webbing keeps the room together. Consumed with a desire to have her work displayed on Olympus, Arachne refuses to kill Annabeth, who says Arachne will have to create an audition piece, an abstract structure. She shows Arachne the design for an enormous version of Chinese handcuffs, but Arachne will have to use the webbing that currently wraps the Athena Parthenos. She gets to work immediately.
50. While Arachne works, Annabeth can feel the ambrosia slowly healing her ankle. Power radiates off the Athena Parthenos as Arachne slowly unravels it to reuse the thread. Each time the statue shifts, more cracks open across the floor. Annabeth silently begs the statue and her mother to help her. Admiring Arachne’s work, Annabeth experiences doubt about her mother and the fairness of Arachne’s punishment. Arachne completes the trap, and Annabeth crawls through to inspect it and announces that it has a flaw. Arachne refuses to believe it. Annabeth instructs her to see for herself, convincing her that it is small enough to fix and elevate her to goddess status. When Arachne crawls into the trap, she gets stuck. Arachne demands to be released but then admits that she would have killed Annabeth either way. Annabeth’s fear, anger, and resentment drive her to goad Arachne. She tells Arachne that she has done Athena a great service by keeping her statue safe all these centuries. Now the statue, not Arachne’s tapestries, will be prominently displayed on Olympus, bringing peace and unity between the Greeks and Romans. Arachne screams and flails, determined to bring the cavern down and calling on the spiders to help. As they swarm Annabeth, she understands that “her best efforts had not been enough” and silently apologizes to Percy. A flash of light blasts apart the room’s ceiling.
51. The Argo hovers over the gaping ceiling. The statue remains undamaged, protected by its power that radiates like a forcefield. Annabeth avoids being hit, but Arachne disappears through the floor in her trap. Percy calls to Annabeth, and they embrace. Annabeth tells her friends they must bring the statue to Greece; its power will help the demigods in their fight against Gaea. Hazel quotes the lines of the prophecy: “The giants’ bane stands gold and pale, […] Won with pain from a woven jail.” Leo plans how to lift the statue into the Argo. Percy catches Annabeth up about the Doors of Death needing to be closed on both sides. Feeling a blast of cold air from the chasm below them, Percy guides Annabeth away from the ledge. The room groans, and the statue leans to the side, its foundation crumbling. Frank quickly flies Leo up to the ship, and he uses grappling lines to secure the statue. Jason rides Piper up to the ship on the wind. Hazel urges the others to rush for the ladder. Nico just makes it when Annabeth suddenly stumbles. She is tangled in the spider’s silk threads, and she is being pulled into Tartarus. Percy’s grip is the only thing keeping her from falling in, and she urges him to let go. He refuses. Just before they go over the edge together into Tartarus, he tells Nico to meet them on the Greek side. Locking eyes with Annabeth, he tells her they are staying together. She recalls the lines of the prophecy: “A one-way trip. A very hard fall.” Holding hands, they fall.
52. Dazed Leo is overwhelmed with grief, convinced that opening the fortune cookie to save Hazel and Frank meant the loss Percy and Annabeth. Hazel reminds him that Gaea, not Leo, is to blame. Nico is sure that Percy and Annabeth are still alive, and if anyone can survive Tartarus, it is the two of them. Hazel agrees. The group is determined: They will go to Greece, find the House of Hades, and secure the Doors of Death. Leo personally intends to “make Gaea sorry she had ever messed with Leo Valdez.”