THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

IV

JASPER

Jasper stumbled out of the Black House. The door shut behind him, and he collapsed against the wall, overcome with guilt. Fortunately the katoblepones had cleared off, or he might have just sat there and let them trample him. He deserved nothing better. He'd left Eliana inside, dying and defenseless, at the mercy of a crazy farmer god. He glanced down at her golden bow in his hands.

He'd never forgive himself if she died because of his incompetence. 

A couple of old ladies with shopping bags shuffled past. They gave Jasper a strange look, muttered something in Italian and kept going.

The chariot wasn't exactly broken. There was no mechanical problem. It was missing a serpent.

Serpents, Jasper thought. Apollo and Eliana aren't good with serpents... but he thought he remembered something about Mars and serpents...

Did his father have some connection to snakes? Mars's sacred animal was the wild boar, not the serpent. Still, Jasper was sure he'd heard something once ...

Something about Spadmus...no Cadmus. Jasper sent a quick prayer to his father for help.

"Cadmus," Jasper muttered. "Cadmus ..."

The story came back to him. The demigod Cadmus had slain a dragon that happened to be a child of Ares. How Ares had ended up with a dragon for a son, Jasper didn't want to know, but as punishment for the dragon's death Ares turned Cadmus into a snake.

Just then a boar walked down the street. People stared at it oddly. A wild board in Venice wasn't normal. But Jasper felt relieved, maybe his father was looking out for him.

"So you can turn your enemies into snakes," Jasper said. "That's what I need. I need to find an enemy. Then I need you to turn him into a snake."

The board gave him a look that said: You think I would do that for you?  You have not proven your worth!

Jasper groaned. He knew how it worked with his father. Only the greatest hero could ask such things. "What hero do I need to prove myself like..." Jasper thought. 

"Romulus?" He suggested. The boar made a sour face that said: Too Roman!

"Diomedes?" The boar didn't have to tell him no. Diomedes had fallen to Heracles, Mars would see him as a coward.

"Horatius," Jasper decided. The board dipped its head in agreement. "Fine. If that's what it takes, I'll prove I'm as good as Horatius. Uh ... what did he do again?"

Images flooded into Jasper's mind. He saw a lone warrior standing on a stone bridge, facing an entire army massed on the far side of the Tiber River.Jasper remembered the legend. Horatius, the Roman general, had single-handedly held off a horde of invaders, sacrificing himself on that bridge to keep the barbarians from crossing the Tiber. By giving his fellow Romans time to finish their defenses, he'd saved the Republic.

Venice is overrun, Mars screamed in his mind, as Rome was about to be. Cleanse it!

Destroy them all! Ares said. Put them to the sword! 

Great, his father was being torn apart by his Greek and Roman parts. 

Jasper suspected it was worse than most because Ares was arrogant and only cared about killing while Mars was the second most respected god in the Roman empire and was much more militarily focused.  

He knew exactly what he needed to do. He didn't know how he would pull it off. The odds of dying were excellent, but he had to try. Eliana's life depended on him. He strapped her bow on his back and raced towards the piazza where he'd fought the cow monsters.