The Tower of Nero

Python’s words kept slithering around in my brain: You never look at the whole board.

The evil reptile was playing a game inside a game. No great surprise that he would be using the Triumvirate for his own purposes, but Python seemed to relish the idea that I might kill his last ally, Nero. And after that? A few hours, at most. That is all it will take once the last pawn falls.

I had no idea what that meant. Python was right that I couldn’t see the whole board. I didn’t understand the rules. I just wanted to sweep the pieces away and shout, I’m going home!

“Whatever.” Meg poured more syrup onto her plate in an effort to create Lake Pancake. “Point is—that other line says our lives depend on Nero’s own. That means we can trust Lu. We’ll surrender before the deadline, like she told us.”

Nico tilted his head. “Even if you do surrender, what makes you think Nero will honor his word? If he’s gone to all the trouble to rig enough Greek fire to burn down New York, why wouldn’t he just do it anyway?”

“He would,” I said. “Most definitely.”

Dionysus seemed to ponder this. “But these fires wouldn’t extend as far as, say, Camp Half-Blood.”

“Dude,” Will said.

“What?” the god asked. “I am only in charge of the safety of this camp.”

“Lu has a plan,” Meg insisted. “Once we’re captured, Nero will relax his guard. Lu will free us. We’ll destroy…” She hesitated. “We’ll destroy his fasces. Then he’ll be weak. We can beat him before he burns the city.”

I wondered if anyone else had caught her change of direction—the way she’d felt too uncomfortable to say We’ll destroy Nero.

At the other tables, campers continued eating breakfast, jostling each other good-naturedly, chatting about the day’s scheduled activities.

None of them paid much attention to our conversation. No one was glancing nervously at me and asking their cabinmates if I was really the god Apollo.

Why would they? This was a new generation of demigods, just starting their first summer at camp. For all they knew, I was a normal fixture of the landscape like Mr. D, the satyrs, and ritual yogurt-burnings. Mr. A? Oh, yeah. He used to be a god or something. Just ignore him.

Many times over the centuries, I had felt out-of-date and forgotten. Never more so than at that moment.

“If Lu is telling the truth,” Will was saying, “and if Nero still trusts her—”

“And if she can break you out,” Nico added, “and if you can destroy the fasces before Nero burns down the city…That’s a lot of ifs. I don’t like scenarios with more than one if.”

“Like I might take you out for pizza this weekend,” Will offered, “if you’re not too annoying.”

“Exactly.” Nico’s smile was a bit of winter sun breaking between snow flurries. “So assuming you guys go through with this crazy plan, what are we supposed to do?”

Meg belched. “It’s right there in the prophecy. The son-of-Hades thing.”

Nico’s face clouded over. “What son-of-Hades thing?”

Will developed a sudden interest in his bran muffin’s wrapper. Nico seemed to realize, at the same time I did, that Will hadn’t shared all the lines of the prophecy with him.

“William Andrew Solace,” Nico said, “do you have something to confess?”

“I was going to mention it.” Will looked at me pleadingly, as if he couldn’t make himself say the lines.

“The son of Hades, cavern-runners’ friend,” I recited. “Must show the secret way unto the throne.”

Nico scowled with such intensity I feared he might make Will wither like the apple. “You think that might have been good to mention sooner?”

“Hold on,” I said, partly to spare Will from Nico’s wrath, and partly because I had been racking my brain, trying to think who these “cavern-runners” might be, and I still had no clue. “Nico, do you know what those lines mean?”

Nico nodded. “The cavern-runners are…new friends of mine.”

“They’re hardly friends,” Will muttered.

“They’re experts on subterranean geography,” Nico said. “I’ve been talking to them about…other business.”

“Which is not good for your mental health,” Dionysus added in a singsong voice.

Nico gave him a death-to-apples look. “If there is a secret way into Nero’s tower, they might know it.”

Will shook his head. “Every time you visit them…” He let his statement die, but the concern in his voice was as jagged as broken glass.

“Then come with me this time,” Nico said. “Help me.”

Will’s expression was miserable. I could tell he desperately wanted to protect Nico, to help him any way he could. He also desperately did not want to visit these cavern-runners.

“Who are they?” Meg said, between bites of pancake. “Are they horrible?”

“Yes,” Will said.

“No,” Nico said.

“Well, that’s settled, then,” Dionysus said. “Since Mr. di Angelo seems intent on ignoring my mental-health advice and going on this quest—”

“That’s not fair,” Nico protested. “You heard the prophecy. I have to.”

“The whole concept of ‘have to’ is strange to me,” Dionysus said, “but if your mind is made up, you’d best get going, eh? Apollo only has until tomorrow night to surrender, or fake-surrender, or whatever you wish to call it.”

“Anxious to get rid of us?” Meg asked.

Dionysus laughed. “And people say there are no stupid questions. But if you trust your friend Lululemon—”

“Luguselwa,” Meg growled.

“Whatever. Shouldn’t you hurry back to her?”

Nico folded his arms. “I’ll need some time before we leave. If I want to ask my new friends a favor, I can’t show up empty-handed.”

“Oh, ick,” Will said. “You’re not going to…”

Nico raised an eyebrow at him, like, Really, boyfriend? You’re already in the doghouse.

Will sighed. “Fine. I’ll go with you to…gather supplies.”

Nico nodded. “That’ll take us most of the day. Apollo, Meg, how about you stay at camp and rest up for now? The four of us can leave for the city first thing tomorrow morning. That should still give us enough time.”

“But…” My voice faltered.

I wanted to protest, but I wasn’t sure on what grounds. Only a day at Camp Half-Blood before our final push toward destruction and death? That wasn’t nearly enough time to procrastinate! “I, uh…I thought a quest had to be formally authorized.”

“I formally authorize it,” Dionysus said.

“But it can only be three people!” I said.

Dionysus looked at Will, Nico, and me. “I’m only counting three.”

“Hey!” Meg said. “I’m coming, too!”

Dionysus pointedly ignored her.

“We don’t even have a plan!” I said. “Once we find this secret path, what do we do with it? Where do we start?”