Caliginosity [ Leo Valdez ]

Aeolus, TVs, Mayhem, OW!

Jason had found his sister and lost her in less than an hour. As they climbed the cliffs of the floating island, he kept looking back, but Thalia was gone.

Livana felt horrible for him. She could only imagine what it'd be like to get her father back just to lose him again.

The golden backpack of winds was strapped over her shoulders. The closer they got to Aeolus' palace, the heavier the bag got. The winds struggled, rumbling and bumping around. The only one who seemed in a good mood was Coach Hedge. He kept bounding up the slippery staircase and trotting back down. "Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!"

As they climbed, the three left Jason in his silence. They could all sense his bad mood. Piper kept glancing back, worried, as if he were the one who'd almost died of hypothermia rather than she.

Leo kept swatting his own legs, checking for signs that his pants were on fire. He wasn't steaming anymore, but the incident on the ice bridge had really freaked the group out. Leo hadn't seemed to realize he had smoke coming out his ears and flames dancing through his hair. If Leo started spontaneously combusting every time he got excited, they were going to have a tough time taking him anywhere.

Livana knew the others would think of him much differently now. They'd start treating him like a danger, which angered Livana. She didn't understand why Leo always was made the weird one. The whole group was weird, for gods' sakes! No demigod was normal, whether they caught on fire or talked to animals. Livana made it her goal to always treat Leo like anyone else.

Finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, though Livana couldn't imagine who would possibly attack this place. Twenty-foot-high gates opened for them, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel- a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, like one of the monuments in Washington D.C.- except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

"That's bizarre," Piper said.

"Guess you can't get cable on a floating island," Leo said. "Dang, check this guy's front yard."

The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were amazing in a scary way. They were divided into four sections like big pizza slices, each one representing a season.

The section on their right was an icy waste, with bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so Livana wasn't sure if they were decorations or alive.

To their left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns- gods, people, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into leaves.

In the distance, Livana could see two more areas behind the rotunda. One looked like a green pasture with sheep made out of clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and a huge advertisement that read: WATCH AEOLUS NIGHTLY!

"One section for each of the four wind gods," Jason guessed. "Four cardinal directions."

"I'm loving that pasture," Coach Hedge licked his lips. "You guys mind-"

"Go ahead," Jason said. Livana was actually relieved to send the satyr off. It would be hard enough getting on Aeolus' good side without Coach Hedge waving his club and screaming, "Die!"

While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, Jason, Leo, Livana, and Piper walked down the road to the steps of the palace. They passed through the front doors into a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read OLYMPIAN WEATHER CHANNEL, and some that just read ow!