THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

IX

I didn't know much about the Mediterranean, but I was pretty sure it wasn't supposed tofreeze in July.

Two days out to sea from Split, grey clouds swallowed the sky. The waves turned choppy. Cold drizzle sprayed across the deck, forming ice on the rails and the ropes.

"It's the scepter," Nico murmured, hefting the ancient staff. "It has to be."

We hadn't told anyone what really happened in Diocletian's Palace. 

It made sense that the scepter might have caused this weather change. The black orb on top seemed to leach the color right out of the air. The golden eagles at its base glinted coldly. The scepter could supposedly control the dead, and it definitely gave off bad vibes. Coach Hedge had taken one look at the thing, turned pale and announced that he was going to his room to console himself with Chuck Norris videos. (Although I suspected that he was actually making Iris-messages back home to his girlfriend Mellie; the coach had been acting very agitated about her lately, though he wouldn't tell anyone what was going on.)

So, yes ... maybe the scepter could cause a freak ice storm. But I didn't think that was it. I feared something else was happening – something even worse.

"We can't talk up here," Jason decided. "Let's postpone the meeting."We'd all gathered on the quarterdeck to discuss strategy as we got closer to Epirus. Now it wasclearly not a good place to hang out. Wind swept frost across the deck. The sea churned beneath them. I could tell Hazel wasn't doing well. The poor girl got seasick even in calm waters. She looked like she was trying to swallow a billiard ball.

"Need to –" Hazel gagged and pointed below.

"Yeah, go." Nico kissed her cheek, which I found surprising. He hardly ever made gestures of affection, even to his sister. He seemed to hate physical contact. Kissing Hazel ... it was almost like he was saying goodbye.

"I'll walk you down." Frank put his arm around Hazel's waist and helped her to the stairs.

Nico brushed some ice from his hair. He frowned at the scepter of Diocletian. "I should put this thing away. If it's really causing the weather, maybe taking it below deck will help ..."

"Sure,"Jason said.

Nico glanced at Piper and Leo, as if worried what they might say when he was gone. I felt his defenses going up, like he was curling into a psychological ball, the way he'd gone into a death trance in that bronze jar.

Jason and I gave him a worried glance. 

Leo pulled a screwdriver from his belt. "So much for the big team meeting."

So much had changed in seven months ... I wondered how the gods could stand being alive for thousands of years. How much change had they seen? Maybe it wasn't surprising that the Olympians seemed a little crazy. If I had lived through three millennia, I would have gone loopy.

I gazed into the cold rain. I would have given anything to be back at Camp Half-Blood, where the weather was controlled even in the winter. Back in cabin 7, singing those stupid campfire songs and fighting with cabin 5. 

The visions I had recently hadn't given me much to look forward to. 

Jasper squeezed my shoulder. "Hey, it'll be fine. We're close to Epirus now. Another day or so, if Nico's directions are right."

"Yep." Leo tinkered with his sphere, tapping and nudging one of the jewels on its surface. "By tomorrow morning, we'll reach the western coast of Greece. Then another hour inland, and bang – House of Hades! I'ma get me the T-shirt!"

"Yay," I muttered.

I wasn't anxious to plunge into the darkness again. I still had nightmares about the nymphaeum and the hypogeum under Rome. In my visions, I'd seen weird images – a pale sorceress in a gold dress, her hands weaving golden light in the air like silk on a loom; a giant wrapped in shadows, marching down a long corridor lined with torches. As he passed each one, the flames died. I saw a huge cavern filled with monsters – Cyclopes, Earthborn and stranger things – surrounding me and my friends, hopelessly outnumbering us.