WORTH | jason grace¹

8

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8. Happy The Dragon

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"Shut up, me," Leo said.

"What?" Piper asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool."

"Yo, if you're hallucinating I'm getting off right now." Lorna said.

"Just joking." Leo said. "So what's the plan, bro? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?"

As they flew over New England, Jason laid out the game plan: First, find some guy named Boreas and grill him for information—

"His name is Boreas?" Leo had to ask. "What is he, the God of Boring?"

Second, Jason continued, they had to find those venti that had attacked them at the Grand Canyon—

"Can we just call them storm spirits?" Leo asked. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."

And third, Jason finished, they had to find out who the storm spirits worked for, so they could find Hera and free her.

"So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose," Leo said. "The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."

"That's about it," Jason said. "Well ... there may be a wolf involved, too. But I think she's friendly. She probably won't eat us, unless we show weakness."

Jason told them about his dream—the big nasty mother wolf and a burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.

"Uh-huh," Leo said. "But you don't know where this place is."

"Nope," Jason admitted.

"There's also giants," Piper added. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."

"Hold on," Leo said. "Giants—like more than one? Why can't it be just one giant who wants revenge?"

"I don't think so," Lorna said. "I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants."

"Great," Leo muttered. "Of course, with our luck, it's an army. So you know anything else about these giants? Didn't you do a bunch of myth research for that movie with your dad?"

"Your dad's an actor?" Jason asked Piper.

Leo laughed. "I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. That's funny. But yeah, her dad's Tristan McLean."

"I thought he was a chero—"

"It doesn't matter," Piper said quickly.

Lorna could tell Piper didn't want to talk about it so she backed off.

"The giants—well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology." Lorna explained. "But if I'm thinking of the right ones, they were bad news. Huge, almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains and stuff. I think they were related to the Titans. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the war—I mean the first Titan war, thousands of years ago—and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we're talking about the same giants—"

"Chiron said it was happening again," Jason remembered. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want us to know all the details."

Leo whistled. "So ... giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter."

"Is that another joke?" Lorna asked.

Leo told them about Tía Callida, who was really Hera, and how she'd appeared to him at camp.

"That's ... disturbing," Piper said.

"'Bout sums it up," Leo agreed. "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy said we'd cause death if we unleash her rage. So I'm wondering ... why are we doing this?"

"It's true." Lorna said. "You shouldn't trust Hera. Once you get on her bad side, she's vicious."

"She chose us," Jason said. "All four of us. We're the first of the eight who have to gather for the Great Prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger."

That didn't make Lorna feel any better, but she couldn't argue with Jason's point. It did feel like this was the start of something huge. She just wished that if there were four more demigods destined to help them, they'd show up quick. She also wished this wouldn't be a repeat of what happened the last time.

"Besides," Jason continued, "helping Hera is the only way I can get back my memory. And that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera's energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera—"

"Not a good trade-off," Piper agreed. "At least Hera is on our side—mostly. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos. She's the main one who keeps peace in the family. And a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War."

Jason nodded. "Chiron also talked about worse forces stirring on the solstice, with it being a good time for dark magic, and all—something that could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all the demigods—"

"Might be that weird sleeping lady," Leo finished. "Dirt Woman fully awake? Not something I want to see."

"But who is she?" Jason asked. "And what does she have to do with giants?"

Good questions, but none of them had answers. They flew in silence.

Lorna thought about how unlucky she was. She cursed herself under her breath.

"You okay?" Jason asked.

"No. I keep getting involved in these prophecies. Did my mom drink some unlucky potion when she had me? And where the heck is Percy? I just want to punch something. Or someone."

"Okay, I think I want to switch seats with Leo."

Lorna laughed. She didn't think Jason would have much of a humour.

Festus kept flying. The wind got colder, and below them snowy forests seemed to go on forever.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Jason said in her ear. It made a shock go up her spine. "You look pretty pale."

"You won't let me fall off? Or let your dad blast me from the sky?"

"Trust me."

"Right," Lorna muttered. Her head flopped as she leaned forward and closed her eyes.