𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 [Jason Grace]

18

𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom. Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies. Drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts— Lares— in togas and legionnaire armor. Around the edges of the feast fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with Mrs. O'Leary, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

The whole scene was so familiar yet so completely alien that it gave Jason vertigo.

Reyna and a few of her officers (including Octavian, freshly back from burning a teddy bear for the gods and the guy with heterochromia, Dante) sat with their crew. Percy joined them with his two new friends, Frank and Hazel.

Reyna called a toast to friendship.

After introductions all around, the Romans and Annabeth's crew began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he'd gone on a quest with Piper and Leo to rescue the goddess Hera (or Juno, take your pick) from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.

"Impossible!" Octavian broke in. "That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there—"

"They would've destroyed her," Piper said. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish."

Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Jason really loved Piper's charmspeak.

"So," Jason continued, "that's how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands—Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by... what did he call it? Pulling up their roots."

Percy nodded thoughtfully. "Gaea's been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face."

Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name— Annabeth.

That sounded scarily similar to Jason's own experience. But he didn't share that part with everyone. Partly because Dante was glaring at him and partly because there was some clear animosity between them. Percy told them how he'd traveled to Alaska with Frank and Hazel—how they'd defeated the giant Alcyoneus, freed the death god Thanatos, and returned with the lost golden eagle standard of the Roman camp to repel an attack by the giants' army.

When Percy had finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. "No wonder they made you praetor."

Octavian snorted. "Which means we now have three praetors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!"

"On the bright side," Percy said, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up."

Octavian turned as purple as a Roman T-shirt. Jason gave Percy a fist bump.

Even Reyna managed a smile, though her eyes were stormy.

"We'll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later," she said. "Right now we have more serious issues to deal with."

"I'll step aside for Jason," Percy said easily. "It's no biggie."

"No biggie?" Octavian choked. "The praetorship of Rome is no biggie?"