The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

much as the next satyr –’
    ‘You
hate
peace,’ Leo said.
    ‘The point is, Valdez, we’re only – what, a few days from Athens? We’ve got an army of giants waiting for us there. We went to all the trouble of saving this statue –’
    ‘
I
went to most of the trouble,’ Annabeth reminded him.
    ‘– because that prophecy called it the
giants’ bane
,’ thecoach continued. ‘So why aren’t we taking it to Athens with us? It’s obviously our secret weapon.’ He eyed the Athena Parthenos. ‘It looks like a ballistic missile to me. Maybe if Valdez strapped some engines to it –’
    Piper cleared her throat. ‘Uh, great idea, Coach, but a lot of us have had dreams and visions of Gaia rising at Camp Half-Blood …’
    She unsheathed her dagger Katoptris and set it on her plate. At the moment, the blade showed nothing except sky, but looking at it still made Percy uncomfortable.
    ‘Since we got back to the ship,’ Piper said, ‘I’ve been seeing some bad stuff in the knife. The Roman legion is almost within striking distance of Camp Half-Blood. They’re gathering reinforcements: spirits, eagles, wolves.’
    ‘Octavian,’ Reyna growled. ‘I
told
him to wait.’
    ‘When we take over command,’ Frank suggested, ‘our first order of business should be to load Octavian into the nearest catapult and fire him as far away as possible.’
    ‘Agreed,’ Reyna said. ‘But for now –’
    ‘He’s intent on war,’ Annabeth put in. ‘He’ll have it, unless we stop him.’
    Piper turned the blade of her knife. ‘Unfortunately, that’s not the worst of it. I saw images of a possible future – the camp in flames, Roman and Greek demigods lying dead. And Gaia …’ Her voice failed her.
    Percy remembered the god Tartarus in physical form, looming over him. He’d never felt such helplessness and terror. He still burned with shame, remembering how his sword had slipped out of his hand.
    You might as well try to kill the earth
,
Tartarus had said.
    If Gaia was that powerful, and she had an army of giants at her side, Percy didn’t see how seven demigods could stop her, especially when most of the gods were incapacitated. They had to stop the giants
before
Gaia woke, or it was game over.
    If the Athena Parthenos was a secret weapon, taking it to Athens was pretty tempting. Heck, Percy kind of liked the coach’s idea of using it as a missile and sending Gaia up in a godly nuclear mushroom cloud.
    Unfortunately, his gut told him that Annabeth was right. The statue belonged back on Long Island, where it might be able to stop the war between the two camps.
    ‘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 massive 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 assuming – well, I was hoping you all would have an answer.’
    ‘The Labyrinth,’ Hazel said. ‘I – I mean, if Pasiphaë 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