¹On This Spring Day, percy jackson & the olympians

018.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter eighteen

━━━━━ THEY CIRCLED OVER midtown Manhattan, making one complete orbit around Mount Olympus. Violet had visited before, during the two winters she was a year-round camper, but no matter the other times she had been there, Olympus never failed to amaze her.

In the early-morning darkness, torches and fires made the mountainside palaces glow twenty different colors, from blood red to indigo. Apparently, no one ever slept on Olympus. The twisting streets were full of demigods and nature spirits and minor godlings bustling about, riding chariots or sedan chairs carried by Cyclopes. Winter didn't seem to exist here. Violet caught the scent of the gardens in full bloom, jasmine and roses and even honeysuckle. Music drifted up from many windows, the soft sounds of lyres and reed pipes.

Towering at the peak of the mountain was the greatest palace of all, the glowing white hall of the gods.

The pegasi set them down in the outer courtyard, in front of huge silver gates. Before anyone could even think to knock, the gates opened by themselves.

The pegasi flew away quickly, leaving Violet, Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia alone. For a minute they stood there regarding the palace. Violet hadn't noticed it then, too amazed by the sight of Olympus, but a sense of dread was building in her stomach. But she didn't know for what. Before she could act on the growing dread, she walked inside with her friends.

🌷

Twelve enormous thrones made a U around a central hearth, just like the placement of the cabins at Camp. The ceiling above glittered with constellations—even the newest one, Zoë the Huntress, making her way across the heavens with her bow drawn.

All of the seats were occupied. Each god and goddess was about fifteen feet tall, their eyes boring into the demigods. Violet's dread turned to nausea, and she wanted to bolt from the throne room. To make matters worse, she saw no sign of her father—Eros—but not that she expected to and not that she and her father were close by any means. But still, a daughter of Eros had completed a quest and they couldn't even let him sit among the Olympians.

"Welcome, heroes," Artemis said.

And then there was a sudden moo. That's when Violet noticed Bessie and Grover.

A sphere of water was hovering in the center of the room, next to the hearth fire. Bessie was swimming happily around, swishing his serpent tail and poking his head out of the sides and the bottom of the sphere. He seemed to be enjoying the novelty of swimming in a magic bubble.

Grover was kneeling at Zeus's throne, as if he'd just been giving a report, but, when he saw his friends, he cried, "You made it!"

He started to run towards them, then remembered he was turning his back on Zeus, and looked for permission.

"Go on," Zeus said. But he wasn't really paying attention to Grover. The Lord of the Sky was staring intently at Thalia.

Grover trotted over. None of the gods spoke. Every clop of Grover's hooves echoed on the marble floor. Bessie splashed in his bubble of water. The hearth fire crackled.

Under the scrutinizing eyes of the Olympians, Violet wasn't sure where to look. Some strange part of her wished her father was up there, just so she would have someone to look to.