'So Reyna takes the statue,' Percy said. 'And we continue on to Athens.'

Leo shrugged. 'Cool with me. But, uh, a few pesky logistical problems. We got what two weeks until that Roman feast day when Gaia is supposed to rise?'

'The Feast of Spes,' Jason said. 'That's on the first of August. Today is '

'July eighteenth,' Frank offered. 'So, yeah, from tomorrow, exactly fourteen days.'

Hazel winced. 'It took us eighteen days to get from Rome to here a trip that should've only taken two or three days, max.'

'So, given our usual luck,' Leo said, 'maybe we have enough time to get the Argo II to Athens, find the giants and stop them from waking Gaia. Maybe. But how is Reyna supposed to get this ma.s.sive statue back to Camp Half-Blood before the Greeks and Romans put each other through the blender? She doesn't even have her pegasus any more. Uh, sorry '

'Fine,' Reyna snapped. She might be treating them like allies rather than enemies, but Percy could tell Reyna still had a not-so-soft spot for Leo, probably because he'd blown up half the Forum in New Rome.

She took a deep breath. 'Unfortunately, Leo is correct. I don't see how I can transport something so large. I was a.s.suming well, I was hoping you all would have an answer.'

'The Labyrinth,' Hazel said. 'I I mean, if Pasiphae really has reopened it, and I think she has ...' She looked at Percy apprehensively. 'Well, you said the Labyrinth could take you anywhere. So maybe '

'No.' Percy and Annabeth spoke in unison.

'Not to shoot you down, Hazel,' Percy said. 'It's just ...'

He struggled to find the right words. How could he describe the Labyrinth to someone who'd never explored it? Daedalus had created it to be a living, growing maze. Over the centuries it had spread like the roots of a tree under the entire surface of the world. Sure, it could take you anywhere. Distance inside was meaningless. You could enter the maze in New York, walk ten feet and exit the maze in Los Angeles but only if you found a reliable way to navigate. Otherwise the Labyrinth would trick you and try to kill you at every turn. When the tunnel network had collapsed after Daedalus died, Percy had been relieved. The idea that the maze was regenerating itself, honeycombing its way under the earth again and providing a s.p.a.cious new home for monsters ... that didn't make him happy. He had enough problems already.

'For one thing,' he said, 'the pa.s.sages in the Labyrinth are way too small for the Athena Parthenos. There's no chance you could take it down there '

'And even if the maze is reopening,' Annabeth continued, 'we don't know what it might be like now. It was dangerous enough before, under Daedalus's control, and he wasn't evil. If Pasiphae has remade the Labyrinth the way she wanted ...' She shook her head. 'Hazel, maybe your underground senses could guide Reyna through, but no one else would stand a chance. And we need you here. Besides, if you got lost down there '

'You're right,' Hazel said glumly. 'Never mind.'

Reyna cast her eyes around the group. 'Other ideas?'

'I could go,' Frank offered, not sounding very happy about it. 'If I'm a praetor, I should go. Maybe we could rig some sort of sled, or '

'No, Frank Zhang.' Reyna gave him a weary smile. 'I hope we will work side by side in the future, but for now your place is with the crew of this ship. You are one of the seven of the prophecy.'

'I'm not,' Nico said.

Everybody stopped eating. Percy stared across the circle at Nico, trying to decide if he was joking.

Hazel set down her fork. 'Nico '

'I'll go with Reyna,' he said. 'I can transport the statue with shadow-travel.'

'Uh ...' Percy raised his hand. 'I mean, I know you just got all eight of us to the surface, and that was awesome. But a year ago you said transporting just yourself was dangerous and unpredictable. A couple of times you ended up in China. Transporting a forty-foot statue and two people halfway across the world '

'I've changed since I came back from Tartarus.' Nico's eyes glittered with anger more intensely than Percy understood. He wondered if he'd done something to offend the guy.

'Nico,' Jason intervened, 'we're not questioning your power. We just want to make sure you don't kill yourself trying.'

'I can do it,' he insisted. 'I'll make short jumps a few hundred miles each time. It's true, after each jump I won't be in any shape to fend off monsters. I'll need Reyna to defend me and the statue.'

Reyna had an excellent poker face. She studied the group, scanning their faces, but betraying none of her own thoughts. 'Any objections?'

No one spoke.

'Very well,' she said, with the finality of a judge. If she'd had a gavel, Percy suspected she would have banged it. 'I see no better option. But there will be many monster attacks. I would feel better taking a third person. That's the optimal number for a quest.'

'Coach Hedge,' Frank blurted.

Percy stared at him, not sure he'd heard correctly. 'Uh, what, Frank?'

'The coach is the best choice,' Frank said. 'The only choice. He's a good fighter. He's a certified protector. He'll get the job done.'

'A faun,' Reyna said.

'Satyr!' barked the coach. 'And, yeah, I'll go. Besides, when you get to Camp Half-Blood, you'll need somebody with connections and diplomatic skills to keep the Greeks from attacking you. Just let me go make a call er, I mean, get my baseball bat.'

He got up and shot Frank an unspoken message that Percy couldn't quite read. Despite the fact that he'd just been volunteered for a likely suicide mission, the coach looked grateful. He jogged off towards the ship's ladder, tapping his hooves together like an excited kid.

Nico rose. 'I should go, too, and rest before the first pa.s.sage. We'll meet at the statue at sunset.'

Once he was gone, Hazel frowned. 'He's acting strangely. I'm not sure he's thinking this through.'

'He'll be okay,' Jason said.

'I hope you're right.' She pa.s.sed her hand over the ground. Diamonds broke the surface a glittering milky way of stones. 'We're at another crossroads. The Athena Parthenos goes west. The Argo II goes east. I hope we chose correctly.'

Percy wished he could say something encouraging, but he felt unsettled. Despite all they'd been through and all the battles they'd won, they still seemed no closer to defeating Gaia. Sure, they'd released Thanatos. They'd closed the Doors of Death. At least now they could kill monsters and make them stay in Tartarus for a while. But the giants were back all the giants.

'One thing bothers me,' he said. 'If the Feast of Spes is in two weeks, and Gaia needs the blood of two demiG.o.ds to wake what did Clytius call it? The blood of Olympus? then aren't we doing exactly what Gaia wants, heading to Athens? If we don't go, and she can't sacrifice any of us, doesn't that mean she can't wake up fully?'

Annabeth took his hand. He drank in the sight of her now that they were back in the mortal world, without the Death Mist, her blonde hair catching the sunlight even if she was still thin and wan, like him, and her grey eyes were stormy with thought.

'Percy, prophecies cut both ways,' she said. 'If we don't go, we may lose our best and only chance to stop her. Athens is where our battle lies. We can't avoid it. Besides, trying to thwart prophecies never works. Gaia could capture us somewhere else or spill the blood of some other demiG.o.ds.'

'Yeah, you're right,' Percy said. 'I don't like it, but you're right.'

The mood of the group became as gloomy as Tartarus air, until Piper broke the tension.

'Well!' She sheathed her blade and patted her cornucopia. 'Good picnic. Who wants dessert?'

LXXVIII.

PERCY.

AT SUNSET, PERCY FOUND NICO tying ropes around the pedestal of the Athena Parthenos.

'Thank you,' Percy said.

Nico frowned. 'What for?'

'You promised to lead the others to the House of Hades,' Percy said. 'You did it.'

Nico tied the ends of the ropes together, making a halter. 'You got me out of that bronze jar in Rome. Saved my life yet again. It was the least I could do.'

His voice was steely, guarded. Percy wished he could figure out what made this guy tick, but he'd never been able to. Nico was no longer the geeky kid from Westover Hall with the Mythomagic cards. Nor was he the angry loner who'd followed the ghost of Minos through the Labyrinth. But who was he?

'Also,' Percy said, 'you visited Bob ...'

He told Nico about their trip through Tartarus. He figured if anyone could understand, Nico could. 'You convinced Bob that I could be trusted, even though I never visited him. I never gave him a second thought. You probably saved our lives by being nice to him.'

'Yeah, well,' Nico said, 'not giving people a second thought ... that can be dangerous.'

'Dude, I'm trying to say thank you.'

Nico laughed without humour. 'I'm trying to say you don't need to. Now I need to finish this, if you could give me some s.p.a.ce?'

'Yeah. Yeah, okay.' Percy stepped back while Nico took up the slack on his ropes. He slipped them over his shoulders as if the Athena Parthenos were a giant backpack.

Percy couldn't help feeling a little hurt, being told to take a hike. Then again, Nico had been through a lot. The guy had survived in Tartarus on his own. Percy understood firsthand just how much strength that must have taken.

Annabeth walked up the hill to join them. She took Percy's hand, which made him feel better.

'Good luck,' she told Nico.

'Yeah.' He didn't meet her eyes. 'You, too.'

A minute later, Reyna and Coach Hedge arrived in full armour with packs over their shoulders. Reyna looked grim and ready for combat. Coach Hedge grinned like he was expecting a surprise party.

Reyna gave Annabeth a hug. 'We will succeed,' she promised.

'I know you will,' Annabeth said.

Coach Hedge shouldered his baseball bat. 'Yeah, don't worry. I'm going to get to camp and see my baby! Uh, I mean I'm going to get this baby to camp!' He patted the leg of the Athena Parthenos.

'All right,' said Nico. 'Grab the ropes, please. Here we go.'

Reyna and Hedge took hold. The air darkened. The Athena Parthenos collapsed into its own shadow and disappeared, along with its three escorts.

The Argo II sailed after nightfall.

They veered southwest until they reached the coast, then splashed down in the Ionian Sea. Percy was relieved to feel the waves beneath him again.

It would have been a shorter trip to Athens over land, but after the crew's experience with mountain spirits in Italy, they'd decided not to fly over Gaia's territory any more than they had to. They would sail around the Greek mainland, following the routes that Greek heroes had taken in the ancient times.

That was fine with Percy. He loved being back in his father's element with the fresh sea air in his lungs and the salty spray on his arms. He stood at the starboard rail and closed his eyes, sensing the currents beneath them. But images of Tartarus kept burning in his mind the River Phlegethon, the blistered ground where monsters regenerated, the dark forest where arai circled overhead in the blood-mist clouds. Most of all, he thought about a hut in the swamp with a warm fire and racks of drying herbs and drakon jerky. He wondered if that hut was empty now.

Annabeth pressed next to him at the rail, her warmth rea.s.suring.

'I know,' she murmured, reading his expression. 'I can't get that place out of my head, either.'

'Damasen,' Percy said. 'And Bob ...'

'I know.' Her voice was fragile. 'We have to make their sacrifice worth it. We have to beat Gaia.'

Percy stared into the night sky. He wished they were looking at it from the beach on Long Island rather than from halfway around the world, sailing towards almost certain death.

He wondered where Nico, Reyna and Hedge were now, and how long it would take them to make it back a.s.suming they survived. He imagined the Romans drawing up battle lines right now, encircling Camp Half-Blood.

Fourteen days to reach Athens. Then one way or another, the war would be decided.

Over in the bow, Leo whistled happily as he tinkered with Festus's mechanical brain, muttering something about a crystal and an astrolabe. Amidships, Piper and Hazel practised their swordplay, gold and bronze blades ringing in the night. Jason and Frank stood at the helm, talking in low tones maybe telling stories of the legion or sharing thoughts on being praetor.

'We've got a good crew,' Percy said. 'If I have to sail to my death '

'You're not dying on me, Seaweed Brain,' Annabeth said. 'Remember? Never separated again. And after we get home ...'

'What?' Percy asked.

She kissed him. 'Ask me again, once we defeat Gaia.'

He smiled, happy to have something to look forward to. 'Whatever you say.'

As they sailed further from the coast, the sky darkened and more stars came out.

Percy studied the constellations the ones Annabeth had taught him so many years ago.

'Bob says h.e.l.lo,' he told the stars.

The Argo II sailed into the night.

Books by Rick Riordan.