HORIZON ⸺ jason grace

ix. the nicest darn sewer on this side of the styx

THE DRAGON HAD been flying for about a half-hour when Jason's eyes snapped open.

"Cyclops!"

"Whoa, sleepyhead." Violet sat behind him on the bronze dragon, holding his waist to keep him balanced. Piper sat in front of him, and then Leo, who was driving. They flew peacefully through the winter sky as if nothing had happened.

"D-Detroit," Jason stammered. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought—"

"It's okay," Leo said. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"

Jason held his head. "How did you—the Cyclops—"

"Leo ripped them apart," Piper said. "He was amazing. He can summon fire—"

"It was nothing," Leo said quickly.

Violet laughed. "Shut up, Valdez. We're going to tell him. Get over it."

And so they did, recounting Ma Gasket and her hot sauce cravings, and how Leo had defeated them all on his own. Hesitantly, Violet told Jason about the other kid the Cyclopes claimed to have eaten, the one in the purple shirt who spoke
Latin, and was a son of Mercury.

"I'm not alone, then," he said. "There are others like me."

"Jason," Piper chided, sounding like a mother, "you were never alone. You've got us."

"I know ... but something Hera said. I was having a dream..." He told them what he'd seen, and what the goddess had said inside her cage.

"An exchange?" Violet asked. "What does that mean?"

Jason shook his head. "But Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way—"

"Or save us," Piper said hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy—that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

Violet hoped that Piper's unfounded optimism was correct; apparently, this whole Greek and Roman exchange program (that Percy was probably at the other end of) was somehow her responsibility, too.

Curse Hera.

Leo cleared his throat. "About that ... she kind of
appeared to me back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."

"Did you say ... Porta-Potty?"

Leo told them about the big face in the factory yard. "I don't know if she's completely unkillable," he said, "but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that. She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, l'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"

"Did you actually say that?" Violet wondered. "Just out of curiosity."

"She's trying to divide us." Piper said.

"What's wrong?" Violet asked, sensing her discomfort.

"I just ... Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"

"Enceladus?" Violet didn't think he'd heard that name before.

"I mean..." Piper's voice quavered. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."

Violet got the feeling there was a lot more bothering her, but she decided he not to press her. After all, the brown-haired girl had done her the same courtesy.

Leo scratched his head. "Well, I dunno about
Enchiladas—"

"Enceladus," Piper corrected.

"Whatever. But Old Potty Face mentioned another name. Porpoise Fear, or something?"