Page 91 of The Court of the Dead
This was met with awkward silence from the gallery. Apparently, Pirithous chose to take this as a gesture of respect.
“Yes, I know!” he continued. “I was overshadowed by my friend Theseus. Not his fault, of course, but I was always the greater man with the greater ambitions! My reward?” He turned his Fake Hades mask toward Nico. “Well…I’m sure your father has told you the story.”
“Sorry,” Nico said. “He never mentioned you.”
It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to say. Pirithous waved his gavel at Nico’s face. “This is the problem.Exactly.The Olympian gods have forgotten themselves! They need to be reminded of the proper order of things! And the only way to do that is to show them, to make it painfully obvious, just howwrongthings have become.”
Will frowned at the tribunal. “And you’re the ones to do that? If you’re following the natural order, shouldn’t you all be in the Underworld…you know, dead?”
Pirithous snickered. “Why don’tyouanswer that, Hazel Levesque? Because you should be dead, and yet here you are, alive and well.”
She gaped at him. “I— That isn’t fair.”
“I agree!” He threw his hands in the air. “Itisn’tfair. Why were you allowed to leave the Underworld? What about all the other souls in the Fields of Asphodel who would want a second chance? What makesyouso special? Just the fact that you’re a daughter of Pluto, saved by a son of Hades, so the rules don’t apply to you, younecro-babies?”
“Shutup!” Nico yelled. He inadvertently raised a few more skeletons from the cracks in the floor.
The god Mors snapped his fingers and the undead disintegrated. “You need to control your temper, young man.”
“I saved her because she’s my sister,” Nico growled. “But also because I knew she didn’t belong there. The fact that she still had memories of her life was evidence enough!”
“Oh, I see,” Pirithous replied. “We judges all have memories of our past lives—searing, painful memories of the ways we were denied our proper due. By your logic, that makes us worthy of saving, does it not?”
Hazel gasped. “I remember you now. You were the man stuck in that boulder in the Fields of Asphodel. I used to drift past you all the time! You never stopped whining.”
Nico frowned.The man stuck in a boulder?That rang no bells for him, but Pirithous laughed with delight.
“Finally!” he cried. “Finally she remembers! But I can assure you, Hazel Levesque, I have stopped whining. I have started toact. Queen Mary, if you would, please read from the defendant’s official record.”
The queen unfurled the scroll dramatically across the desk. “We note that the accused did many heroic things in the war against Gaea. She rose to a place of honor in the Twelfth Legion. She has acted as a true hero on occasions too numerous to mention. Unfortunately, all this was doneafterher illegal return from the Underworld, and so her deeds must be struck from the record.”
Hazel choked. “Are you serious?”
“Prior to her death,” Mary Tudor went on, “the defendant was weak and easily manipulated—by her own mother, and by Gaea. At the time of Hazel Levesque’s death, she could not rightly be considered a hero.”
“That simply isn’t true!” said Will, his face red with anger. “I know her story! Hazel has always been—”
“Mind your tongue, Will Solace,” Pirithous snapped, “or you will lose it.” He glanced over at Mary Tudor. “Please continue.”
The queen cleared her throat. “As I said, since her illegal return, Hazel Levesque has behaved mostly in a heroic manner…until recently, when she aided and abetted other fugitives from the Underworld, namely the Minotaur and his followers, in trying to escape their gods-given purpose. She has set a dangerous example, suggesting that monsters and demigods can live in harmony!”
A surge of catcalls and boos rose from the crowd.
Pirithous banged his gavel. “Well, I have heard enough. Hazel Levesque, do you have any defense to offer?”
“Yes,” she said. “This whole trial is a joke.”
“AND YOU SHOULDN’T BE ALIVE!” Pirithous bellowed. His voice echoed so loudly that all the gossiping and murmuring in the courtroom stopped.
Pirithous took a deep breath. He conferred briefly with his fellow judges and then faced Hazel once more.
“The court has made its decision,” he said. “Hazel Levesque, it is our judgment that you shall be executed in such a way that your soul shall never return to the world of living. But do not despair. Your punishment shall help our cause in ways that should be a great comfort to you!”
The red-robed guard circled in front of Hazel, readying his spear.
“No!” Will shouted. His body flared like a supernova, filling the cave with blinding light. Nico squeezed his eyes shut, but the afterimage of Will’s shape still burned there in the darkness. Spectators screamed. The judges banged their gavels furiously.
Nico knew this was his chance. He blinked rapidly, desperate to clear his vision, and called out, “Cocoa Puffs, to me!”
