by Rick Riordan
From the back of the room, Senator Larry came down the aisle carrying a big equipment bag. I wondered if the legion had bought us a ski vacation at Lake Tahoe. Larry reached the rostrum and set down the duffel. He rummaged out the first gift and handed it to me with a grin. “It’s a new bow!”
Larry had missed his calling as a game-show announcer.
My first thought: Oh, cool. I need a new bow.
Then I looked more carefully at the weapon in my hands, and I squealed in disbelief. “This is mine!”
Meg snorted. “Of course it is. They just gave it to you.”
“No, I mean it’s mine mine! Originally mine, from when I was a god!”
I held up the bow for all to ooh and ahh at: a masterpiece of golden oak, carved with gilded vines that flashed in the light as if on fire. Its taut curve hummed with power. If I remembered correctly, the bowstring was woven from Celestial bronze and threads from the looms of the Fates (which…gosh, where did those come from? I certainly didn’t steal them). The bow weighed almost nothing.
“That has been in the principia treasure room for centuries,” Frank said. “No one can wield it. It’s too heavy to draw. Believe me, I would have if I could have. Since it was originally a gift from you to the legion, it seemed only right we give it back. With your godly strength returning, we figured you could put it to good use.”
I didn’t know what to say. Usually I was against re-gifting, but in this case, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. I couldn’t remember when or why I’d given the legion this bow—for centuries, I’d passed them out like party favors—but I was certainly glad to have it back. I drew the string with no trouble at all. Either my strength was godlier than I realized, or the bow recognized me as its rightful owner. Oh, yes. I could do some damage with this beauty.
“Thank you,” I said.
Frank smiled. “I’m just sorry we didn’t have any replacement combat ukuleles in storage.”
From the bleachers, Lavinia grumbled, “After I went and fixed it for him, too.”
“But,” Hazel said, carefully ignoring her new centurion, “we do have a gift for Meg.”
Larry rummaged through his Santa bag again. He pulled out a black silk pouch about the size of a deck of playing cards. I resisted the urge to shout, HA! My gift is bigger!
Meg peeked in the pouch and gasped. “Seeds!”
That would not have been my reaction, but she seemed genuinely delighted.
Leila, daughter of Ceres, called out from the stands, “Meg, those are very ancient. We all got together, the camp’s gardeners, and collected them for you from our greenhouse storage bins. Honestly, I’m not even sure what they’ll all grow into, but you should have fun finding out! I hope you can use them against the last emperor.”
Meg looked at a loss for words. Her lip quivered. She nodded and blinked her thanks.
“Okay, then!” Frank said. “I know we ate at the funeral, but we need to celebrate Hazel’s and Lavinia’s promotions, wish Reyna the best on her new adventures, and wish Apollo and Meg good-bye. And, of course, we’ve got a belated birthday cake for Lester! Party in the mess hall!”
Our great opening!
Win a free Inferno trip!
And take a cupcake!
I DON’T KNOW WHICH good-bye was hardest.
At first light, Hazel and Frank met us at the coffee shop for one final thank-you. Then they were off to rouse the legion. They intended to get right to work on repairs to the camp to take everyone’s minds off the many losses before shock could set in. Watching them walk away together down the Via Praetoria, I felt a warm certainty that the legion was about to see a new golden age. Like Frank, the Twelfth Legion Fulminata would rise from the ashes, though hopefully wearing more than just their undergarments.
Minutes later, Thalia and Reyna came by with their pack of gray wolves, their metal greyhounds, and their pair of rescue pegasi. Their departure saddened me as much as my sister’s, but I understood their ways, those Hunters. Always on the move.
Reyna gave me one last hug. “I’m looking forward to a long vacation.”
Thalia laughed. “Vacation? RARA, I hate to tell you, but we’ve got hard work ahead! We’ve been tracking the Teumessian Fox across the Midwest for months now, and it hasn’t been going well.”
“Exactly,” Reyna said. “A vacation.” She kissed Meg on the top of her head. “You keep Lester in line, okay? Don’t let him get a big head just because he’s got a nice new bow.”
“You can count on me,” Meg said.
Sadly, I had no reason to doubt her.
When Meg and I left the café for the last time, Bombilo actually cried. Behind his gruff exterior, the two-headed barista turned out to be a real sentimentalist. He gave us a dozen scones, a bag of coffee beans, and told us to get out of his sight before he started bawling again. I took charge of the scones. Meg, gods help me, took the coffee.
At the gates of camp, Lavinia waited, chewing her bubble gum while she polished her new centurion badge. “This is the earliest I’ve been up in years,” she complained. “I’m going to hate being an officer.”
The sparkle in her eyes told a different story.
“You’ll do great,” Meg said.
As Lavinia bent to hug her, I noticed a stippled rash running down Ms. Asimov’s left cheek and neck, unsuccessfully covered by some foundation.
I cleared my throat. “Did you perhaps sneak out last night to see Poison Oak?”
Lavinia blushed adorably. “Well? I’m told that my centurionship makes me very attractive.”
Meg looked concerned. “You’re going to have to invest in some calamine lotion if you keep seeing her.”
“Hey, no relationship is perfect,” Lavinia said. “At least with her, I know the problems right up front! We’ll figure it out.”
I had no doubt she would. She hugged me and ruffled my hair. “You’d better come back and see me. And don’t die. I will kick your butt with my new dancing shoes if you die.”
“Understood,” I said.
She did one last soft-shoe routine, gestured to us like, Over to you, then raced off to muster the Fifth Cohort for a long day of tap-dancing.
Watching her go, I marveled at how much had happened to all of us since Lavinia Asimov first escorted us into camp, just a few days before. We had defeated two emperors and a king, which would have been a strong hand in even the most cutthroat poker game. We had put to rest the souls of a god and a Sibyl. We had saved a camp, a city, and a lovely pair of shoes. Most of all, I had seen my sister, and she had restored me to good health—or what passed for good health for Lester Papadopoulos. As Reyna might say, we had added quite a bit to our “good things” column. Now Meg and I were embarking on what might be our last quest with good expectations and hopeful spirits…or at least a good night’s sleep and a dozen scones.
We took one final trip into New Rome, where Tyson and Ella were expecting us. Over the entrance of the bookstore, a newly painted sign proclaimed CYCLOPS BOOKS.
“Yay!” Tyson cried as we came through the doorway. “Come in! We are having our great opening today!”
“Grand opening,” Ella corrected, fussing over a platter of cupcakes and a bunch of balloons at the information desk. “Welcome to Cyclops Books and Prophecies and Also an Orange Cat.”
“That wouldn’t all fit on the sign,” Tyson confided.
“It should have fit on the sign,” Ella said. “We need a bigger sign.”
On top of the old-fashioned cash register, Aristophanes yawned as if it was all the same to him. He was wearing a tiny party hat and an expression that said, I am only wearing this because demigods don’t have phone cameras or Instagram.
“Customers can get prophecies for their quests!” Tyson explained, pointing at his chest, which was covered even more densely with Sibylline verse. “They can pick up the latest books, too!”
“I recommend the 1924 Farmer’s Almanac,” Ella told us. “Would you like a copy?”
“
Ah…maybe next time,” I said. “We were told you had a prophecy for us?”
“Yep, yep.” Ella ran her finger down Tyson’s ribs, scanning for the correct lines.
The Cyclops squirmed and giggled.
“Here,” Ella said. “Over his spleen.”
Wonderful, I thought. The Prophecy of Tyson’s Spleen.
Ella read aloud:
“O son of Zeus the final challenge face
The tow’r of Nero two alone ascend
Dislodge the beast that hast usurped thy place.”
I waited.
Ella nodded. “Yep, yep, yep. That’s it.” She went back to her cupcakes and balloons.
“That can’t be it,” I complained. “That makes no poetic sense. It’s not a haiku. It’s not a sonnet. It’s not…Oh.”
Meg squinted at me. “Oh, what?”
“Oh, as in Oh, no.” I remembered a dour young man I’d met in medieval Florence. It had been a long time ago, but I never forgot someone who invented a new type of poetry. “It’s terza rima.”
“Who?” Meg asked.
“It’s a style Dante invented. In The Inferno. Three lines. The first and the third line rhyme. The middle line rhymes with first line of the next stanza.”
“I don’t get it,” Meg said.
“I want a cupcake,” Tyson announced.
“Face and place rhyme,” I told Meg. “The middle line ends with ascend. That tells us that when we find the next stanza, we’ll know it’s correct if the first line and third lines rhyme with ascend. Terza rima is like an endless paper chain of stanzas, all linked together.”
Meg frowned. “But there isn’t a next stanza.”
“Not here,” I agreed. “Which means it must be somewhere out there….” I waved vaguely to the east. “We’re on a scavenger hunt for more stanzas. This is just the starting point.”
“Hmph.”
As always, Meg had summarized our predicament perfectly. It was very much hmph. I also did not like the fact that our new prophecy’s rhyme scheme had been invented to describe a descent into hell.
“‘The tower of Nero,’” Ella said, repositioning her balloon display. “New York, I bet. Yep.”
I suppressed a whimper.
The harpy was right. We would need to return to where my problems began—Manhattan, where the gleaming Triumvirate headquarters rose from downtown. After that, I would have to face the beast who had usurped my place. I suspected that line didn’t mean Nero’s alter ego, the Beast, but the actual beast Python, my ancient enemy. How I could reach him in his lair at Delphi, much less defeat him, I had no idea.
“New York.” Meg clenched her jaw.
I knew this would be the worst of homecomings for her, back to her stepfather’s house of horrors, where she’d been emotionally abused for years. I wished I could spare her the pain, but I suspected she’d always known this day would come, and like most of the pain she had gone through, there was no choice but to…well, go through it.
“Okay,” she said, her voice resolute. “How do we get there?”
“Oh! Oh!” Tyson raised his hand. His mouth was coated in cupcake frosting. “I would take a rocket ship!”
I stared at him. “Do you have a rocket ship?”
His expression deflated. “No.”
I looked out the bookstore’s picture windows. In the distance, the sun rose over Mount Diablo. Our journey of thousands of miles could not begin with a rocket ship, so we’d have to find another way. Horses? Eagles? A self-driving car that was programmed not to fly off highway overpasses? We’d have to trust in the gods for some good luck. (Insert HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA here.) And maybe, if we were very fortunate, we could at least call on our old friends at Camp Half-Blood once we returned to New York. That thought gave me courage.
“Come on, Meg,” I said. “We’ve got a lot of miles to cover. We need to find a new ride.”
ab urbe condita Latin for from the founding of the city. For a time, Romans used the acronym AUC to mark the years since the founding of Rome.
Achilles a Greek hero of the Trojan War; a nearly invulnerable warrior who slayed the Trojan hero Hector outside the walls of Troy and then dragged his corpse behind his chariot
Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Roman form: Venus
Ares the Greek god of war; the son of Zeus and Hera, and half brother to Athena. Roman form: Mars
Argentum Latin for silver; the name of one of Reyna’s two automaton greyhounds that can detect lying
Argo II a flying trireme built by the Hephaestus cabin at Camp Half-Blood to take the demigods of the Prophecy of Seven to Greece
Artemis the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon; the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Apollo. Roman form: Diana
Asclepius the god of medicine; son of Apollo; his temple was the healing center of ancient Greece
Athena the Greek goddess of wisdom. Roman form: Minerva
aura (aurae, pl.) wind spirit
Aurum Latin for gold; the name of one of Reyna’s two automaton greyhounds that can detect lying
ave Latin for hail, a Roman greeting
Bacchus the Roman god of wine and revelry; son of Jupiter. Greek form: Dionysus
ballista (ballistae, pl.) a Roman missile siege weapon that launches a large projectile at a distant target
Bellona a Roman goddess of war; daughter of Jupiter and Juno
Benito Mussolini an Italian politician who became the leader of the National Fascist Party, a paramilitary organization. He ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, first as a prime minister and then as a dictator.
blemmyae a tribe of headless people with faces in their chests
Britomartis the Greek goddess of hunting and fishing nets; her sacred animal is the griffin
Burning Maze a magical, puzzle-filled underground labyrinth in Southern California controlled by the Roman emperor Caligula and Medea, a Greek sorceress
cacaseca dried poop
Caldecott Tunnel a four-lane highway that cuts through the Berkeley Hills and connects Oakland and Orinda, California. It contains a secret middle tunnel, guarded by Roman soldiers, that leads to Camp Jupiter.
Caligula the nickname of the third of Rome’s emperors, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, infamous for his cruelty and carnage during the four years he ruled, from 37 to 41 CE; he was assassinated by his own guard
Camp Half-Blood the training ground for Greek demigods, located in Long Island, New York
Camp Jupiter the training ground for Roman demigods, located in California, between the Oakland Hills and the Berkeley Hills
Celestial bronze a powerful magical metal used to create weapons wielded by Greek gods and their demigod children
centurion an officer in the Roman army
charmspeak a rare type of hypnotism power that chosen children of Aphrodite possess
Cicero a Roman statesman who was renowned for his public speeches
Circus Maximus a stadium designed for horse and chariot racing
cloaca maxima Latin for greatest sewer
clunis Latin for buttocks
cohort groups of legionnaires
Colosseum an elliptical amphitheater built for gladiator fights, monster simulations, and mock naval battles
Commodus Lucius Aurelius Commodus was the son of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius; he became co-emperor when he was sixteen and emperor at eighteen, when his father died; he ruled from 177 to 192 CE and was megalomaniacal and corrupt; he considered himself the New Hercules and enjoyed killing animals and fighting gladiators at the Colosseum
Cumaean Sibyl an Oracle of Apollo from Cumae who collected her prophetic instructions for averting disaster in nine volumes but destroyed six of them when trying to sell them to Tarquinius Superbus of Rome
Cyclops (Cyclopes, pl.) a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his or her forehead
cynocephalus (cynocephali, pl.) a being with a human body and a dog’s head
Dante an Italian poet of the late Middle Ages who invented terza rima; author of The Divine Comedy, among other works
Daphne a beautiful naiad who attracted Apollo’s attention; she transformed into a laurel tree in order to escape him
decimation the ancient Roman punishment for bad legions in which every tenth soldier was killed whether they were guilty or innocent
Delos a Greek island in the Aegean Sea near Mykonos; birthplace of Apollo
Demeter the Greek goddess of agriculture; a daughter of the Titans Rhea and Kronos. Roman form: Ceres
denarius (denarii, pl.) a unit of Roman currency
Diana the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon; the daughter of Jupiter and Leto, and the twin of Apollo. Greek form: Artemis
Dionysus Greek god of wine and revelry; the son of Zeus. Roman form: Bacchus
dryad a spirit (usually female) associated with a certain tree
Eagle of the Twelfth the standard of Camp Jupiter, a gold icon of an eagle on top of a pole, symbolizing the god Jupiter
Earthborn a race of six-armed giants, also called Gegenes
Elysium the paradise to which Greek heroes are sent when the gods grant them immortality
Erythraean Sibyl a prophetess who presided over Apollo’s Oracle at Erythrae in Ionia
eurynomos (eurynomoi, pl.) a corpse-eating ghoul that lives in the Underworld and is controlled by Hades; the slightest cut from their claws causes a wasting disease in mortals, and when their victims die, they rise again as vrykolakai, or zombies. If a eurynomos manages to devour the flesh of a corpse down to the bones, the skeleton will become a fierce undead warrior, many of whom serve as Hades’s elite palace guards.
Euterpe the Greek goddess of lyric poetry; one of the Nine Muses; daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne
fasces a ceremonial ax wrapped in a bundle of thick wooden rods with its crescent-shaped blade projecting outward; the ultimate symbol of authority in ancient Rome; origin of the word fascism
Fates three female personifications of destiny. They control the thread of life for every living thing from birth to death.
faun a Roman forest god, part goat and part man
Faunus the Roman god of the Wild. Greek form: Pan
