NICO WANTED TO YELL: Time out! Hold it! Freeze!
But he knew it wouldn’t do any good. After weeks of waiting, agonizing and steaming, the Greeks and Romans wanted blood. Trying to stop the battle now would be like trying to push back a flood after the dam broke.
Will Solace saved the day.
He put his fingers in his mouth and did a taxicab whistle even more horrible than the last. Several Greeks dropped their swords. A ripple went through the Roman line like the entire First Cohort was shuddering.
‘DON’T BE STUPID!’ Will yelled. ‘LOOK!’
He pointed to the north, and Nico grinned from ear to ear. He decided there was something more beautiful than an off-course projectile: the Athena Parthenos gleaming in the sunrise, flying in from the coast, suspended from the tethers of six winged horses. Roman eagles circled but did not attack. A few of them even swooped in, grabbed the cables and helped carry the statue.
Nico didn’t see Blackjack, which worried him, but Reyna Ramírez-Arellano rode on Guido’s back. Her sword was held high. Her purple cloak glittered strangely, catching the sunlight.
Both armies stared, dumbfounded, as the forty-foot-tall gold and ivory statue came in for a landing.
‘GREEK DEMIGODS!’ Reyna’s voice boomed as if projected from the statue itself, like the Athena Parthenos had become a stack of concert speakers. ‘Behold your most sacred statue, the Athena Parthenos, wrongly taken by the Romans. I return it to you now as a gesture of peace!’
The statue settled on the crest of the hill, about twenty feet away from Thalia’s pine tree. Instantly gold light rippled across the ground, into the valley of Camp Half-Blood and down the opposite side through the Roman ranks. Warmth seeped into Nico’s bones – a comforting, peaceful sensation he hadn’t had since … he couldn’t even remember. A voice inside him seemed to whisper: You are not alone. You are part of the Olympian family. The gods have not abandoned you.
‘Romans!’ Reyna yelled. ‘I do this for the good of the legion, for the good of Rome. We must stand together with our Greek brethren!’
‘Listen to her!’ Nico marched forward.
He wasn’t even sure why he did it. Why would either side listen to him? He was the worst speaker, the worst ambassador ever.
Yet he strode between the battle lines, his black sword in his hand. ‘Reyna risked her life for all of you! We brought this statue halfway across the world, Roman and Greek working together, because we must join forces. Gaia is rising. If we don’t work together –’
YOU WILL DIE.
The voice shook the earth. Nico’s feeling of peace and safety instantly vanished. Wind swept across the hillside. The ground itself became fluid and sticky, the grass pulling at Nico’s boots.
A FUTILE GESTURE.
Nico felt as if he was standing on the goddess’s throat – as if the entire length of Long Island resonated with her vocal cords.
BUT, IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY, YOU MAY DIE TOGETHER.
‘No …’ Octavian scrambled backwards. ‘No, no …’ He broke and ran, pushing through his own troops.
‘CLOSE RANKS!’ Reyna yelled.
The Greeks and Romans moved together, standing shoulder to shoulder as all around them the earth shook.
Octavian’s auxilia troops surged forward, surrounding the demigods. Both camps put together were a minuscule dot in a sea of enemies. They would make their final stand on Half-Blood Hill, with the Athena Parthenos as their rallying point.
But even here they stood on enemy ground. Because Gaia was the earth, and the earth was awake.
