If they did get out of here, Hazel was going to fashion Asterion some diamond knitting needles. She’d make sure Quinoa got the best kindergarten kinder-garden in Roman history. And she’d appoint Arielle the legion’s official ambassador to somewhere…. Tartarus? Camp Half-Blood? Indiana? She realized maybe the lack of oxygen was affecting her brain.
At the west end of the park, Asterion gently set Hazel down at the edge of the fountain. There were only a few inches of water left at the bottom, and it didn’t look very clean, but Hazel was surprised there was any left at all. The reason for that was probably the enormous fire-breathing bronze bull standing guard.
“This is Maxwell,” Asterion told her. “He has been helping me by making sure the remainder of the water is rationed appropriately. Maxwell, this is Hazel. She would like a drink, please.”
The Colchis bull lowered his horns in acknowledgment. His ruby eyes were so large Hazel doubted even her powers could have summoned them from the earth.
She didn’t love the idea of drinking bottom-of-the-fountain water, but she decided it was better than no water at all. Besides, she understood that Asterion and Maxwell were doing her a favor.
In the end, it sort of tasted like one of those weird smoothies all the yoga people got in Berkeley. She’d shared one once with Frank when they were out on a date, and neither of them had quite understood what the hype was about. The memory brought sadness with it. When she turned to look back at Asterion, his image was blurred by her tears.
She missed Frank. And Nico. And Will.
She missed herhome.
Asterion read her expression. “Please do not lose hope, my friend,” he said. “We will get out of here soon.”
“Have the diggers found a way out yet?”
He didn’t answer, which was all the answer she needed.
Her shadow-travel powers didn’t work in this terrible cage. She could summon things from the earth, but that was of limited use. She had never felt so stuck in her life.
Hazel swayed in place, her heart beating rapidly in her ears. She didn’t even realize Arielle and Quinoa had joined them until Quinoa fluttered up and looked her in the face.
“I said, are you okay, Hazel?” he asked. “You look sick.”
“Manners, please,” said Arielle. “You can’t just tell people they look sick.”
“It’s okay,” Hazel said. “Ifeelsick. I’m glad you guys are sturdier than me.”
The karpos cracked his tiny knuckles. “I could take on PirithousandMary Tudor at once. And probably, like, twenty more people, if I’m being honest.”
“I feel souseless,” Hazel said. “Like I’m just waiting around to be rescued.”
“Useless?” Arielle scoffed. “Without you, we’d have no weapons or tools. And without that, do you know how quickly this place would have devolved into chaos?”
“You gave ushope, Hazel,” added Quinoa.
Hazel’s instinct was to dismiss that idea. Her friends were just trying to cheer her up. Then Asterion put his hand on her shoulder.
“There has been much talk among the mythics,” he said. “You know how suspicious the others were of you.”
“I don’t blame them,” Hazel said.
“But attitudes are changing,” Asterion continued. “We have told them how you welcomed us into Camp Jupiter, how you fought for us. The others here…they may not say anything to your face, but they have come to respect you, Hazel. They have never seen someone like you work so hard to help them. They are not going to forget that.”
Hazel shook her head. “But I didn’t do anything. I failed.”
“No.” Arielle knelt beside her. “Listen to me, Hazel. Asterion told me that you struggle with whether you are a good person or not, but you have such a pure, loving soul. You care so much about the world around you, and that israre. It shouldn’t be, but it is. You are one of a kind, Hazel Levesque.”
“What she said,” added Quinoa. “Only, you know, I probably would’ve said it better.”
Arielle gently swatted the karpos’s wing. “The only problem you should worry about, Praetor, is that when we get out of here, you might have a few hundred more mythics asking for sanctuary.”
Hazel suddenly felt even dizzier. “A few…hundred?”
Asterion chuckled. “You should rest, Hazel. You will burn less oxygen that way, and we need to preserve your energy for whatever comes next.”