Shimmer

Ghoul Party

NATURALLY,situation was worse than they expected.

It wouldn’t have been any fun otherwise.

Peering through the olive bushes at the top of the rise, they saw what looked like an out-of-control zombie frat party.

The ruins themselves weren’t that impressive: a few stone walls, a weed-choked central courtyard, a dead-end stairwell chiselled into the rock. Some plywood sheets covered a pit and a metal scaffold supported a cracked archway.

But superimposed over the ruins was another layer of reality - a spectral mirage of the palace as it must have appeared in its heyday. Whitewashed stucco walls lined with balconies rose three storeys high. Columned porticoes faced the central atrium, which had a huge fountain and bronze braziers. At a dozen banquet tables, ghouls laughed and ate and pushed one another around.

Brielle had expected about a hundred spirits, but twice that many were milling about, chasing spectral serving girls, smashing plates and cups, and basically making a nuisance of themselves.

In the centre of the atrium, a grey- skinned ghoul in a tattered Greek tunic paraded through the crowd, holding a marble bust over his head like a sports trophy. The other ghosts cheered and slapped him on the back. As the ghoul got closer, they noticed that he had an arrow in his throat, the feathered shaft sprouting from his Adam’s apple. Even more disturbing: the bust he was holding . . . was that Zeus ?

It was hard to be sure. Most Greek god statues looked similar. But the bearded, glowering face reminded Jason very much of the giant Hippie Zeus in Cabin One at Camp Half-Blood.

‘Our next offering!’ the ghoul shouted, his voice buzzing from the arrow in his throat. ‘Let us feed the Earth Mother!’

The partiers yelled and pounded their cups. The ghoul made his way to the central fountain. The crowd parted, and Jason realized the fountain wasn’t filled with water. From the three- foot- tall pedestal, a geyser of sand spewed upward, arcing into an umbrella- shaped curtain of white particles before spilling into the circular basin.

The ghoul heaved the marble bust into the fountain. As soon as Zeus’s head passed through the shower of sand, the marble disintegrated like it was going through a wood chipper. The sand glittered gold,the colour of ichor - godly blood. Then the entire mountain rumbled with a muffled BOOM, as if belching after a meal.

The dead partygoers roared with approval.

‘Anymore statues?’ the ghoul shouted to the crowd. ‘No? Then I guess we’ll have to wait for some real gods to sacrifice!’

His comrades laughed and applauded as the ghoul plopped himself down at the nearest feast table.

Jason clenched his walking stick. ‘That guy just disintegrated my dad. Who does he think he is?

‘I’m guessing that’s Antinous,’ said Brielle said, ‘one of the suitors’ leaders. If I remember right about what what James told me," her voice turned a little rigid as she said his name ,"it was Odysseus who shot him through the neck with that arrow.’

Piper winced. ‘You’d think that would keep a guy down. What about all the others? Why are there so many?’

‘I don’t know, I guess Annabeth being here in place of me would've been more helpful to you guys’ Brielle said. ‘Newer recruits for Gaia, I guess. Some must’ve come back to life before we closed the Doors of Death. Some are just spirits.’

‘Some are ghouls,’ Jason said. ‘The ones with the gaping wounds and the grey skin, like Antinous ... I’ve fought their kind before.’

Piper tugged at her blue harpy feather. ‘Can they be killed?’

Jason remembered a quest he’d taken for Camp Jupiter years ago in San Bernardino. ‘Not easily. They’re strong and fast and intelligent. Also, they eat human flesh.’

‘Fantastic,’ Brielle muttered. ‘I don’t see any option except to stick to the plan. Split up, infiltrate, find out why they’re here. If things go bad -’

‘We use the backup plan,’ Piper said.

Jason hated the backup plan.

Before they left the ship, Leo had given each of them an emergency flare the size of a birthday candle. Supposedly, if they tossed one in the air, it would shoot upward in a streak of white phosphorus, alerting the Argo II that the team was in trouble. At that point, Jason and the girls would have a few seconds to take cover before the ship’s catapults fired on their position, engulfing the palace in Greek fire and bursts of Celestial bronze shrapnel.

Not the safest plan, but at least Jason had the satisfaction of knowing that he could call an air strike on this noisy mob of dead guys if the situation got dicey. Of course, that was assuming he and his friends could get away. And assuming Leo’s doomsday candles didn’t go off by accident - Leo’s inventions sometimes did that - in which case the weather would get much hotter, with a ninety percent chance of fiery apocalypse.

‘Be careful down there,’ he told Piper and Brielle.

Piper crept around the left side of the ridge. Brielle went right. Jason pulled himself up with his walking stick and hobbled towards the ruins.

He flashed back to the last time he’d plunged into a mob of evil spirits, in the House of Hades. If it hadn’t been for Frank Zhang and Nico di Angelo . . .

Gods ...Nico.

Over the past few days, every time Jason sacrificed a portion of a meal to Jupiter, he prayed to his dad to help Nico. That kid had gone through so much, and yet he had volunteered for the most difficult job: transporting the Athena Parthenos statue to Camp Half-Blood. If he didn’t succeed, the Roman and Greek demigods would slaughter each other. Then, no matter what happened in Greece, the Argo II would have no home to return to.

Jason passed through the palace’s ghostly gateway. He realized just in time that a section of mosaic floor in front of him was an illusion covering a ten- foot-deep excavation pit. He sidestepped it and continued into the courtyard.

The two levels of reality reminded him of the Titan stronghold on Mount Othrys - a disorienting maze of black marble walls that randomly melted into shadow and solidified again. At least during that fight Jason had had a hundred legionnaires at his side. Now all he had was an old man’s body, a stick and two friends in slinky dresses.

Forty feet ahead of him. Piper moved through the crowd, smiling and filling wineglasses for the ghostly revellers. If she was afraid, she didn’t show it. So far the ghosts weren’t paying her any special attention. Hazel’s magic must have been working.

Over on the right, Brielle collected empty plates and goblets. She wasn’t smiling.

Jason remembered the talk he’d had with James before leaving the ship.

James had stayed aboard because he knew that Brielle wouldn't go if he did too.

He’d pulled Jason aside. ‘Hey, man . . . Brielle would kill me if I suggested she needed anybody to protect her.’

But look out for her, okay?’

Jason squeezed his friend’s shoulder. ‘I’ll make sure she gets back to you safely.’

Now Jason wondered if he could keep that promise.