"So if we—I mean you—find the statue...what would we do with it? Could we even move it?"

"I'm not sure," Annabeth admitted. "But if we could save it somehow, it could unite the two camps. It could heal my mother of this hatred she's got, tearing her two aspects apart. And maybe...maybe the statue has some sort of power that could help us against the giants."

I stared in awe at Annabeth. She had just taken on a huge responsibility alone. 

"This could change everything," Piper said. "It could end thousands of years of hostility. It might be the key to defeating Gaea. But if we can't help you..."

She didn't finish, but the question seemed to hang in the air: Was saving the statue even possible?

Annabeth squared her shoulders. I knew she must be terrified inside, but she did a good job hiding it.

"I have to succeed," Annabeth said simply. "The risk is worth it."

Hazel twirled her hair pensively. "I don't like the idea of you risking your life alone, but you're right. We saw what recovering the golden eagle standard did for the Roman legion. If this statue is the most powerful symbol of Athena ever created—"

"It could kick some serious booty," Leo offered.

Hazel frowned. "That wasn't the way I'd put it, but yes."

"Except..." Percy took Annabeth's hand again. "No child of Athena has ever found it. Annabeth, what's down there? What's guarding it? If it's got to do with spiders—?"

"Won through pain from a woven jail," Frank recalled. "Woven, like webs?"

Annabeth's face turned as white as printer paper. I suspected that Annabeth knew what awaited her...or at least that she had a very good idea. She was trying to hold down a wave of panic and terror.

"We'll deal with that when we get to Rome," Piper suggested, putting a little charmspeak in her voice to soothe ournerves. "It's going to work out. Annabeth is going to kick some serious booty, too. You'll see."

"Yeah," Percy said. "I learned a long time ago: Never bet against Annabeth."

Annabeth looked at them both gratefully.

Judging from their half-eaten breakfasts, the others still felt uneasy; but Leo managed to shake them out of it. He pushed a button, and a loud blast of steam exploded from Festus's mouth, making everyone jump.

"Well!" he said. "Good pep rally, but there's still a ton of things to fix on this ship before we get to the Mediterranean. Please report to Supreme Commander Leo for your superfun list of chores!"

Jasper and I took charge of cleaning the lower deck, which had been thrown into chaos during the monster attack.

Reorganizing sickbay and battening down the storage area took them most of the day, but I didn't mind. For one thing, I got to spend time with Jasper. Which meant I had endless time for making fun of the boy and trying to figure out his little crush. For another, last night's explosions had given me a healthy respect for Greek fire. I didn't want any loose vials of that stuff rolling through the corridors in the middle of the night. 

As we were fixing up the stables, I thought about the night Annabeth and Percy had spent down here accidentally. I felt a pang of jealousy because I didn't have anyone to spend time with down here like they did. Aphrodite made sure to point that out. 

I swept the hay into piles. Jasper fixed a broken door on one of the stables. The glass floor hatch glowed from the ocean below—a green expanse of light and shadow that seemed to go down forever. As I watched Jasper work, I admired how easily he did each task, whether it was fixing a door or oiling saddles. It wasn't just his strong arms and his skillful hands, though I liked those just fine, but the way he acted so upbeat and confident. 

He did what needed to be done without complaint. He always kept his calm during stressful situations and he never spoke out..well unless I provoked him. Actually he made good company. He was introverted so he normally stayed quiet unless I started a conversation up but I liked it that way. 

I thought back to Charleston and Aphrodite's tea party. She had taken a liking to Jasper (which I wasn't too thrilled about) and she had said he had a crush on someone. I wondered who it was. I suddenly felt the same feeling I had felt moments before thinking about Percy and Annabeth's relationship. 

Jealousy? No, not possible, I told myself in disbelief. There was no way I like Jasper. I shook my head, there was no way. 

"What are you thinking?" Jasper asked.

I realized I'd been making a sour face. In the reflection of the glass bay doors, I looked like she'd swallowed a teaspoon of salt.

"Nothing," I said. "I mean...a lot of things. Kind of all at once."

Jasper laughed. His pearly white teeth showed as he smiled. I stood there and stared at him wondering how he could have such a perfect smile and pretty face and not be related to Aphrodite. 

"It's going to work out," he promised. "Piper said so."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Except she was just saying that to make Annabeth feel better. And she was using her charmspeak to ease everyone's anxiety."

Jasper shrugged. "Still, it's true. We're almost to the ancient lands. We've left the Romans behind."

"And now they're on their way to Camp Half-Blood to attack my friends."

Jasper hesitated, as if it was hard for him to put a positive spin on that. "I'm sure they will find a way to stall them. The Romans might take weeks to actually find the camp and plan their attack. Besides, Reyna will do what she can to slow things down. She's still on our side. I know she is."

"You trust her?" 

Jasper nodded. "I trust her more than I trust Octavian. She's a good person and I know she'll make the right decision." 

I started to wonder if Reyna was who he liked. She's beautiful. She's powerful. She's so...Roman. But she wasn't blonde.

Above them, the ship's bell rang for dinner.Jasper smirked. "We'd better get up there. We don't want Coach Hedge tying bells around our necks."I shuddered. Coach Hedge had threatened to do that after the Percy/Annabeth scandal, so he'd know if anyone sneaked out at night.

"Yeah," I said regretfully, looking at the glass doors below their feet. "I guess we need dinner...and a good night's sleep."

***

The next morning I woke to a different ship's horn—a blast so loud it literally shook me out of bed.I wondered if Leo was pulling another joke. Then the horn boomed again. It sounded like it was coming from several hundred yards away—from another vessel.I rushed to get dressed. By the time I got up on deck, the others had already gathered—all hastily dressed except for Coach Hedge, who had pulled the night watch.

Frank's Vancouver Winter Olympics shirt was inside out. Percy wore pajama pants and a bronze breastplate, which was an interesting fashion statement. Hazel's hair was all blown to one side, as though she'd walked through a cyclone; and Leo had accidentally set himself on fire. His T-shirt was in charred tatters. His arms were smoking. Jasper was only wearing shoes and pants, and a chain necklace. I found it odd her had time to put a necklace on but not a shirt. 

Not that I minded. He had a nice figure. Toned abs and back muscles...Which obvoiusly meant nothing to me because he was just an annoyance and I definitely didn't find him attractive or likable.

About a hundred yards to port, a massive cruise ship glided past. Tourists waved at them from fifteen or sixteen rows of balconies. Some smiled and took pictures. None of them looked surprised to see an Ancient Greek trireme.

Maybe the Mist made it look like a fishing boat, or perhaps the cruisers thought the Argo II was a tourist attraction. The cruise ship blew its horn again, and the Argo II had a shaking fit.

Coach Hedge plugged his ears. "Do they have to be so loud?"

"They're just saying hi," Frank speculated.

"WHAT?" Hedge yelled back.

The ship edged past them, heading out to sea. The tourists kept waving. If they found it strange that the Argo II was populated by half-asleep kids in armor and pajamas and a man with goat legs, they didn't let on.

"Bye!" Leo called, raising his smoking hand.

"Can I man the ballistae?" Hedge asked.

"No," Leo said through a forced smile.

Hazel rubbed her eyes and looked across the glittering green water. "Where are—oh...Wow."

I followed her gaze and gasped. Without the cruise ship blocking their view, I saw a mountain jutting from the sea less than half a mile to the north.

On one side, the limestone cliffs were almost completely sheer, dropping into the sea over a thousand feet below, as near as I could figure. On the other side, the mountain sloped in tiers, covered in green forest, so that the whole thing reminded Piper of a colossal sphinx, worn down over the millennia, with a massive white head and chest, and a green cloak over its back.

"The Rock of Gibraltar," Annabeth said in awe. "At the tip of Spain. And over there—" She pointed south, to a more distant stretch of red and ochre hills. "That must be Africa. We're at the mouth of the Mediterranean."

The morning was warm, but I shivered. Despite the wide stretch of sea in front of them, I felt like I was standing at an impassable barrier. Once in the Mediterranean—the Mare Nostrum—they would be in the ancient lands.

If the legends were true, their quest would become ten times more dangerous.

"What now?" she asked. "Do we just sail in?"

"Why not?" Leo said. "It's a big shipping channel. Boats go in and out all the time."

Not triremes full of demigods, I thought.

Annabeth gazed at the Rock of Gibraltar. I recognized that brooding expression on my friend's face. It almost always meant that she anticipated trouble.

"In the old days," Annabeth said, "they called this area the pillars of Hercules. The Rock was supposed to be one pillar. The other was one of the African mountains. Nobody is sure which one."

"Hercules, huh?" Percy frowned. "That guy was like the Starbucks of Ancient Greece. Everywhere you turn—there he is."

A thunderous boom shook the Argo II, though I wasn't sure where it came from this time. I didn't see any other ships, and the skies were clear.

My mouth suddenly felt dry. "So...these Pillars of Hercules. Are they dangerous?"

Annabeth stayed focused on the white cliffs, as if waiting for the Mark of Athena to blaze to life. "For Greeks, the pillars marked the end of the known world. The Romans said the pillars were inscribed with a Latin warning—"

"Non plus ultra," Percy said.

Annabeth looked stunned. "Yeah. Nothing Further Beyond. How did you know?"

Percy pointed. "Because I'm looking at it."

Directly ahead of them, in the middle of the straits, an island had shimmered into existence. I was positive no island had been there before. It was a small hilly mass of land, covered in forests and ringed with white beaches. Not very impressive compared to Gibraltar, but in front of the island, jutting from waves about a hundred yards offshore, were two white Grecian columns as tall as the Argo's masts. Between the columns, huge silver words glittered underwater—maybe an illusion, or maybe inlaid in the sand: NON PLUS ULTRA.

"Guys, do I turn around?" Leo asked nervously. "Or..."

No one answered—maybe because, like me, they had noticed the figure standing on the beach. As the ship approached the columns, I saw a dark-haired man in purple robes, his arms crossed, staring intently at their ship as if he were expecting them. I couldn't tell much else about him from this distance, but judging from his posture, he wasn't happy.

Jasper inhaled sharply. "Could that be—?"

"Hercules," Jason said. "The most powerful demigod of all time."

The Argo II was only a few hundred yards from the columns now.

"Need an answer," Leo said urgently. "I can turn, or we can take off. The stabilizers are working again. But I need to know quick—"

"We have to keep going," Annabeth said. "I think he's guarding these straits. If that's really Hercules, sailing or flying away wouldn't do any good. He'll want to talk to us."

"Won't Hercules be on our side?" I asked hopefully. "I mean...he's one of us, right?"

Jason grunted. "He was a son of Zeus, but when he died, he became a god. You can never be sure with gods."I remembered their meeting with Bacchus in Kansas—another god who used to be a demigod. He hadn't been exactly helpful.

"Great," Percy said. "Seven of us against Hercules."

"And a satyr!" Hedge added. "We can take him."

"I've got a better idea," Annabeth said. "We send ambassadors ashore. A small group—one or two at most. Try to talk with him."

"I'll go," Jason said. "He's a son of Zeus. I'm the son of Jupiter. Maybe he'll be friendly to me."

"Or maybe he'll hate you," Percy suggested. "Half brothers don't always get along."

Jason scowled. "Thank you, Mr. Optimism."

"It's worth a shot," Annabeth said. "At least Jason and Hercules have something in common. And we need our best diplomat. Somebody who's good with words."

All eyes turned to Piper.

"Fine," she said not looking fine with it at all. "Just let me change my clothes."

***

Let's just say it was chaotic. Jason and Piper went on a small quest for Hercules and fought a river god..it was a mess. But the important thing was that we had gained passage to the Mediterranean. 

After leaving the Pillars of Hercules—unscathed except for a few coconuts lodged in the hull's bronze plating—the ship traveled by air for a few hundred miles.I hoped the ancient lands wouldn't be as bad as we'd heard. But it was almost like a commercial: 

You'll notice the difference immediately!

Several times an hour, something attacked the ship. A flock of flesh-eating Stymphalian birds swooped out of the night sky, and Festus torched them. Storm spirits swirled around the mast, and Jason blasted them with lightning.While Coach Hedge was having dinner on the foredeck, a wild pegasus appeared from nowhere, stampeded over the coach's enchiladas, and flew off again, leaving cheesy hoof prints all across the deck.

"What was that for?" the coach demanded.

I helped with the aerial attacks as much as I could. I shot down some wind spirits while Jason electrocuted the other ones. 

Finally around midnight, after the ninth or tenth aerial attack, Jason turned to me. "How about you get some sleep? I'll keep blasting stuff out of the sky as long as I can. Then we can go by sea for a while, and Percy can take point."

I agreed and headed down to my cabin. 

But of course that night I had a vision. 

I dreamed I was in a dark cavern. I could only see a few feet in front of him, but the space must have been vast. Water dripped from somewhere nearby, and the sound echoed off distant walls. The way the air moved made me suspect the cave's ceiling was far, far above.I heard heavy footsteps, and the twin giants Ephialtes and Otis shuffled out of the gloom. I coulddistinguish them only by their hair—Ephialtes had the green locks braided with silver and gold coins; Otis had the purple ponytail braided with...were those firecrackers? 

Otherwise they were dressed identically, and their outfits definitely belonged in a nightmare. They wore matching white slacks and gold buccaneer shirts with V-necks that showed way too much chest hair. A dozen sheathed daggers lined their rhinestone belts. Their shoes were open-toed sandals, proving that—yes, indeed—they had snakes for feet.

I hated snakes.

The straps wrapped around the serpents' necks. Their heads curled up where the toes should be. The snakes flicked their tongues excitedly and turned their gold eyes in every direction, like dogs looking out the window of a car. Maybe it had been a long time since they'd had shoes with a view.

The giants stood in front of me, but they paid me no attention. Instead, they gazed up into the darkness.

"We're here," Ephialtes announced. Despite his booming voice, his words dissipated in the cavern, echoing until they sounded small and insignificant.

Far above, something answered, "Yes. I can see that. Those outfits are hard to miss."

The voice made my stomach drop about six inches. It sounded vaguely female, but not at all human. Each word was a garbled hiss in multiple tones, as if a swarm of African killer bees had learned to speak English in unison.It wasn't Gaea. I was sure of that. But whatever it was, the twin giants became nervous. They shifted on their snakes and bobbed their heads respectfully.

"Of course, Your Ladyship," Ephialtes said. "We bring news of—"

"Why are you dressed like that?" asked the thing in the dark. She didn't seem to be coming any closer, which was fine with me.

Ephialtes shot his brother an irritated look. "My brother was supposed to wear something different. Unfortunately—"

"You said I was the knife thrower today," Otis protested.

"I said I was the knife thrower! You were supposed to be the magician! Ah, forgive me, Your Ladyship. You don't want to hear us arguing. We came as you requested, to bring you news. The ship is approaching."

Her Ladyship, whatever she was, made a series of violent hisses like a tire being slashed repeatedly. With a shudder, I realized she was laughing.

"How long?" she asked.

"They should land in Rome shortly after daybreak, I think," Ephialtes said. "Of course, they'll have to get past the golden boy."

He sneered, as if the golden boy was not his favorite person.

"I hope they arrive safely," Her Ladyship said. "It would spoil our fun to have them captured too soon. Are your preparations made?"

"Yes, Your Ladyship." Otis stepped forward, and the cavern trembled. A crack appeared under Otis's left snake.

"Careful, you dolt!" Her Ladyship snarled. "Do you want to return to Tartarus the hard way?"Otis scrambled back, his face slack with terror. I realized that the floor, which looked like solid stone, was more like the glacier he'd walked on in Alaska—in some places solid, in other places...not so much. He was glad he weighed nothing in his dreams.

"There is little left holding this place together," Her Ladyship cautioned. "Except, of course, my own skill. Centuries of Athena's rage can only be contained so well, and the great Earth Mother churns below us in her sleep. Between those two forces, well...my nest has quite eroded. We must hope this child of Athena proves to be a worthy victim. She may be my last plaything."

Ephialtes gulped. He kept his eyes on the crack in the floor. "Soon it will not matter, Your Ladyship. Gaea will rise, and we all will be rewarded. You will no longer have to guard this place, or keep your works hidden."

"Perhaps," said the voice in the dark. "But I will miss the sweetness of my revenge. We have worked well together over the centuries, have we not?"

The twins bowed. The coins glittered in Ephialtes's hair, and I realized with nauseating certainty that some of them were silver drachma, exactly like the one Annabeth had gotten from her mom.Annabeth had told us that in each generation, a few children