The Mark Of Athena

Leo finds himself standing in the courtyard of Hazel’s old school. He and Hazel have both turned to mist, but the world around them is solid and real. They are in Hazel’s memory. A bell rings, and children pour into the courtyard, including a slightly younger version of Hazel, gripping her lunch bag nervously. A boy, Rufus, calls her “Witch girl,” crushes her lunch, and demands a diamond (195). She tells him to go away. Another boy, Sammy, a mirror of Leo, enters the scene.

As Rufus looms over Hazel, a diamond appears at her feet. She begs Rufus not to take it. Sammy creates a humorous diversion by pretending to be a movie director giving Hazel and Rufus instructions, the same strategy Leo used on bullies. Sammy scoops up the diamond. Before Rufus can react, the bell rings. The children return to the building, but Sammy and Hazel stay behind. She worries that he should not have touched the “dangerous” diamond, but he promises not to sell it (199). Leo can see the deep affection between Sammy and Hazel.

The scene shifts to another vision. Leo recognizes that they are in his mother’s Houston neighborhood. An old man says Hazel’s name to himself. He looks familiar, though Leo has never seen him before. A woman comes out holding a baby. It is his mother, and the baby is Leo. Sammy was Leo’s great-grandfather. Hazel’s vision found the connection between her and Leo. Sammy tells baby Leo that he sold the cursed diamond and asks him to watch out for Hazel. The scene fades, and they are back on the Argo. They feel the ship lurch to the side. The monsters have found them.

A monster the length of the ship surfaces from the deep. As the demigods grapple with the monster, Frank falls overboard. The monster wraps Leo and Hazel, who are each holding a vial of Greek fire, in its tentacles. Instructing Hazel to throw her vial as far from the ship as possible when the monster drops her, Leo summons fire into his hand to burn the monster. It opens its mouth to scream in pain, and Leo drops the vial down its throat just as it releases its hold on the demigods. Leo falls into the water and blacks out.

He wakes up floating in an underwater cave with Frank, who does not know what happened to the others. He, Leo, and Hazel have been captured by “fish-horse guys” (208). Sensing Frank’s anger over Hazel and Leo’s connection, Leo explains the vision she showed him and assures Frank he is not “moving in on your girl” (210). The tension resolved, Leo asks if Frank can transform and break them out, but his shapeshifting is not working. Leo’s fire summoning is still functional, but he notices that Frank is terrified of his fire. Frank starts to tell Leo his secret, but the door opens. Bythos and Aphros, two ichthyocentaurs (fish centaurs) enter the cave to take the demigods for questioning.

Aphros leads Leo to an underwater Greek-style city that is a training camp for mer-heroes. Aphros asks for Leo’s story, and he tells him everything. Affirming that Leo’s story matches Hazel’s, Aphros declares that he believes Leo but had to confirm that he and his friends were not a threat since they arrived in a warship with Keto’s sea monsters on their tail. Two mermaids escort Hazel in, and Aphros leaves to check on Frank.

Leo notes to Hazel that they never got to talk about Sammy. She worries how to explain it all to Frank. When Leo reveals that he has already done so, he cannot tell if Hazel is relieved or disappointed. He brings up Frank’s nervousness around fire, and she begins patting the denim jacket she always wears. Leo recalls the myth of Meleager, whose life was tied to a stick of wood, and makes the connection, though Hazel reveals nothing. Leo considers the situation from Frank’s perspective: Having given his lifeline to Hazel, it is no wonder he does not like seeing her cozying up to a demigod who can summon fire. He thinks of a line from the Prophecy of Seven: “To storm or fire the world must fall” (220, italics in original). Fire must refer to Leo himself. One mistake, and he could “accidentally send Frank Zhang up in flames” (220).

Bythos comes in with Frank and tells them that they are free to go. He also sends a message to Percy that “a quest of mer-heroes” will move against Keto to free her captives (220). Though they will do what they can to help the demigods cross the Atlantic, Bythos warns that they will face more dangers in the Mare Nostrum. Aphros and Bythos warn Hazel that Nico is essential to her journey and must be saved and tell Leo to stay by Hazel and Frank’s sides in Rome. Before sending them back to the surface, Aphros gifts Leo a picnic basket of brownies and a letter of introduction for Annabeth to Tiberinus, the Tiber River god.