The Blood of Olympus

Jason admits to Piper that he thought about giving up back on Ithaca. She shares a story with him that her Cherokee father told her about the importance of following one’s instincts. She reminds him that he’s a good person, with good instincts, who always tries to make the right choices. Jason feels comforted. Leo calls him to guard duty, and Piper takes a nap.

She has a nightmare in which she sees a vision at the Parthenon: at least 20 giants and hordes of other monsters assembled around a makeshift throne. The giant Hippolytus reveals that the demigods destroyed Ithaca’s ghosts and captured Nike. King Porphyrion is neither surprised nor concerned, since their brother, Mimas, is waiting for the demigods in Sparta. He reiterates that the demigods “cannot change their fate” (146). When the giantess Periboia questions why Gaea must be awake at the Acropolis, Porphyrion insists that the Parthenon “holds [the gods’] memory best” (147) and that waking Gaea there will bring them the most glory. Periboia argues that it’s unwise to choose a place where the demigods also have allies. Another giant, Enceladus, explains that they’ve driven Apollo out of Olympus, leaving the gods without knowledge of the future. The giant Thoon will kill the Three Fates, leaving the giants to make their own destiny. As the crowd cheers, Piper wakes up. Annabeth tells her that they’ve arrived in Sparta.

Piper recalls her dream to Percy and Annabeth before the girls head down to Sparta. As they wander through the city’s ruins, Annabeth confesses her fears, and Piper comforts her. Privately, Piper’s own fears over her mother’s warning worry her. Suddenly, a geyser of flames spews out of a stone-lined pit and then extinguishes. The process repeats from two other pits. Annabeth can find no pattern and determines that it must be an emotional reaction. Ignoring Annabeth’s objection, Piper jumps into one of the pits, quickly unsheathing her sword as she lands, and decapitates a bronze dragon at the bottom and two others as well. The stone cavern is lined with Greek inscriptions. On a dais, a bronze warrior statue wrapped in chains is flanked by two doorways, each topped with the carving of a stone face, reminding Piper of her brothers, the attendants of Ares, Fear and Panic.

Piper calls Annabeth to come down using a rope. They hear a heartbeat from within the Ares statue. The shrine—“a temple of Fear” (155)—is amplifying their fears. The giant Mimas appears.

Mimas swings a sledgehammer at Piper, and she ducks, taking Annabeth down with her. Annabeth is paralyzed by fear, which the shrine is designed to cause, and is unable to function. Piper slashes Mimas’s knee, ducking into the nearest tunnel with Annabeth and leading them forward, where the fear feels most acute, explaining that they can’t reason away their emotions. Mimas unwittingly confirms Piper’s belief when he boasts that he was born to kill Hephaestus and is “the breaker of plans,” around whom “[n]othing goes right” (158).

Piper repeats her refrain that they must accept, adapt, and ride their emotions. Like love, fear and hate can’t be reasoned with, which is why Ares and Aphrodite are drawn to each other and why their sons are Fear and Panic: They “were spawned by both war and love” (160). Together, Annabeth and Piper run back into the shrine room and slash at Mimas’s legs. While Annabeth stabs at him, Piper makes a sacrifice—her cornucopia—to the bronze warrior, which contains the spirits of war. Slashing off its head, she releases the spirits, who promise to answer her call and “complete her cure” (161, italics in original), just once when she most needs them. With the spirits’ help, the girls slay Mimas. Piper thanks her brothers and asks for their help to escape the crumbling cavern as the girls plunge through the second doorway.