The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

and hot sauce aside. ‘Well, technically we’ve been in Croatian territory for the past day or so. All that coastline we’ve been sailing past is
it
, but I guess back in the Roman times it was called … what’d you say, Jason? Bodacious?’
    ‘Dalmatia,’ Nico said, making Jason jump.
    Holy Romulus … 
Jason wished he could put a bell around Nico di Angelo’s neck to remind him the guy was there. Nico had this disturbing habit of standing silently in the corner, blending into the shadows.
    He stepped forward, his dark eyes fixed on Jason. Since they’d rescued him from the bronze jar in Rome, Nico had slept very little and eaten even less, as if he were still subsisting on those emergency pomegranate seeds from the Underworld. He reminded Jason a little too much of a flesh-eating ghoul he’d once fought in San Bernardino.
    ‘Croatia used to be Dalmatia,’ Nico said. ‘A major Roman province. You want to visit Diocletian ’s Palace, don’t you?’
    Coach Hedge managed another heroic belch. ‘
Whose
palace? And is Dalmatia where those Dalmatian dogs come from? That
101 Dalmatians
movie – I still have nightmares.’
    Frank scratched his head. ‘Why would you have nightmares about that?’
    Coach Hedge looked like he was about to launch into a major speech about the evils of cartoon Dalmatians, but Jason decided he didn’t want to know.
    ‘Nico is right,’ he said. ‘I need to go to Diocletian’s Palace. It’s where Reyna will go first, because she knows
I
would go there.’
    Piper raised an eyebrow. ‘And why would Reyna think that? Because you’ve always had a mad fascination with Croatian culture?’
    Jason stared at his uneaten sandwich. It was hard to talk about his life before Juno wiped his memory. His years atCamp Jupiter seemed made up, like a movie he’d acted in decades before.
    ‘Reyna and I used to talk about Diocletian,’ he said. ‘We both kind of idolized the guy as a leader. We talked about how we’d like to visit Diocletian’s Palace. Of course we knew that was impossible. No one could travel to the ancient lands. But still we made this pact that if we ever
did
that’s where we’d go.’
    ‘Diocletian …’ Leo considered the name, then shook his head. ‘I got nothing. Why was he so important?’
    Frank looked offended. ‘He was the last great pagan emperor!’
    Leo rolled his eyes. ‘Why am I not surprised you know that, Zhang?’
    ‘Why wouldn’t I? He was the last one who worshipped the Olympian gods, before Constantine came along and adopted Christianity.’
    Hazel nodded. ‘I remember something about that. The nuns at St Agnes taught us that Diocletian was a huge villain, right along with Nero and Caligula.’ She looked askance at Jason. ‘Why would you idolize him?’
    ‘He wasn’t a
total
villain,’ Jason said. ‘Yeah, he persecuted Christians, but otherwise he was a good ruler. He worked his way up from nothing by joining the legion. His parents were former slaves … or at least his
mom
was. Demigods know he was a son of Jupiter – the last demigod to rule Rome. He was also the first emperor ever to retire, like,
peacefully
, and give up his power. He was from Dalmatia, so he moved back there and built a retirement palace. The town of Split grew up around …’
    He faltered when he looked at Leo, who was mimicking taking notes with an air pencil.
    ‘Go on, Professor Grace!’ he said, wide-eyed. ‘I wanna get an A on the test.’
    ‘Shut up, Leo.’
    Piper sipped another spoonful of soup. ‘So why is Diocletian’s Palace so special?’
    Nico leaned over and plucked a grape. Probably that was the guy’s entire diet for the day. ‘It’s said to be haunted by the ghost of Diocletian.’
    ‘Who was a son of Jupiter, like me,’ Jason said. ‘His tomb was destroyed centuries ago, but Reyna and I used to wonder if we could find Diocletian’s ghost and ask where he was buried … well, according to the legends, his sceptre was buried with him.’
    Nico gave him a thin, creepy smile. ‘Ah … 
that
legend.’
    ‘What legend?’ Hazel asked.
    Nico turned to his sister. ‘Supposedly Diocletian’s sceptre could summon the ghosts of the Roman legions, any of them who worshipped the old gods.’
    Leo whistled. ‘Okay,
now
I’m interested. Be nice to have a booty-kicking army of pagan zombies on our side when we enter the House of Hades.’
    ‘Not sure I would’ve put it that way,’ Jason muttered, ‘but yeah.’
    ‘We