THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

XII

JASPER

Jasper felt as if a door had opened somewhere in the House of Hades, letting in a blast of fresh air that swept through the tunnels. The arrow in his arm suddenly didn't matter. His thoughts cleared. His eyesight sharpened. The voices of Mars and Ares spoke in his mind, strong and unified: Break them!

Jasper hardly recognized his own voice when he yelled: "Legion, agmen formate!"

Instantly, every dead legionnaire in the cavern drew his sword and raised his shield. They scrambled towards Jasper's position, pushing and hacking monsters out of their way until they stood shoulder to shoulder with the comrades, arranging themselves in a square formation. Stones, javelins and fire rained down, but now Jasper had a disciplined defensive line sheltering them behind a wall of bronze and leather.

"Archers!" Jasper yelled. "Eiaculare flammas!"

He didn't hold out much hope the command would work. The zombies' bows couldn't be in good shape. But, to his surprise, several dozen ghostly skirmishers nocked arrows in unison. Their arrowheads caught fire spontaneously and a flaming wave of death arced over the legion's line, straight into the enemy. Cyclopes fell. Centaurs stumbled. A telkhine shrieked and ran in circles with a burning arrow impaled in his forehead.

Jasper heard a laugh behind him. He glanced back and couldn't believe what he saw. Nico di Angelo was actually smiling.

"That's more like it," Nico said. "Let's turn this tide!"

"Cuneum formate!" Jasper yelled. "Advance with pila!"

The zombie line thickened in the center, forming a wedge designed to break through the enemy host. They lowered their spears in a bristling row and pushed forward.

Earthborn wailed and threw boulders. Cyclopes smashed their fists and clubs against the locked shields, but the zombie legionnaires were no longer paper targets. They had inhuman strength, hardly wavering under the fiercest attacks. Soon the floor was covered with monster dust. The line of javelins chewed through the enemy like a set of giant teeth, felling ogres and snake women and hellhounds. Jasper's archers shot gryphons out of the air and caused chaos in the main body of the monster army across the chasm.

Jasper's forces began to take control of their side of the cavern. One of the stone bridges collapsed, but more monsters kept pouring over the other one. Jasper would have to stop that.

"Jason," he called, "can you fly a few legionnaires across the pit? The enemy's left flank is weak –see? Take it!"

Jason smiled. "With pleasure."

Three dead Romans rose into the air and flew across the chasm. Then three more joined them. Finally Jason flew himself across and his squad began cutting through some very surprised-looking telkhines, spreading fear through the enemy's ranks.

"Nico," Jasper said, "keep trying to raise the dead. We need more numbers."

"On it.'"Nico lifted the scepter of Diocletian, which glowed even darker purple. More ghostly Romans seeped from the walls to join the fight.

Across the chasm, empousai shouted commands in a language Jasper didn't know, but the gist was obvious. They were trying to shore up their allies and keep them charging across the bridge.

"Piper!" Jasper yelled. "Counter those empousai! We need some chaos."

"Thought you'd never ask." She started catcalling at the female demons: "Your makeup is smeared! Your friend called you ugly! That one is making a face behind your back!" Soon the vampire ladies were too busy fighting one another to shout any commands.