XX

Frank exits La Casa Nera wracked with guilt for leaving Hazel with Triptolemus. Seeking a solution, he consults the warring voices of Ares and Mars and recalls Cadmus’s punishment. Determined to earn a boon, he resolves to match Horatius’s legendary stand by cleansing Venice of katoblepones to obtain a serpent for Triptolemus’s chariot.

Frank gathers poisonous roots as bait and provokes every katobleps in the city into chasing him. Shape-shifting through lion, dolphin, and eagle, he corrals the herd to a wide wooden bridge and makes his stand. In a red-tinged frenzy, he slaughters the monsters by the hundreds, his transformations flowing seamlessly as he survives their gas and gaze, glowing with a rosy aura.

With one katobleps left, Frank calls on Mars for a snake; his strike transforms the beast into a Burmese python. Mars appears, praises Frank’s courage as a Horatius-like defense, briefly uniting his Greek and Roman aspects before collapsing in agony and warning Frank of a greater test at Epirus. Frank departs immediately with the python.

Back at the house, Frank demands healing. The python pairs with the chariot’s other serpent and powers it, proving its worth. When Triptolemus balks, Frank physically intimidates him into swearing on the Styx to heal Hazel and Nico. Trip cures Hazel with an herbal pellet and restores Nico from corn, while Frank’s noticeable growth spurt reveals a blessing from Mars.

Pressed for guidance, Trip explains that at Epirus they will be offered a chalice of deadly poison they must drink to access the lower levels; the key to survival is eating his special barley cakes first to absorb the worst of the toxin. Trip then departs joyously in his revitalized chariot. Hazel and Nico absorb Frank’s revelation that he killed all katoblepones in the city, recognizing the cost of his transformation as they prepare to move on.