The Heroes of Olympus, #2
The Son of Neptune
by Rick Riordan
Contents
XIX Hazel
Overview
Hazel is abducted across the fields by karpoi, grain spirits serving Gaea. She escapes onto a summoned schist outcrop and learns Alcyoneus rose in the 1980s, rules across Alaska, and Thanatos’s prison could be anywhere. As the karpoi close in to deliver her to Gaea’s forces, a golden arrow kills their leader.
Summary
Hazel is swept through the fields by living grass, unable to reach her sword as she’s carried rapidly away from Frank and Percy. Realizing she’ll be lost, she focuses on the earth and anchors herself by summoning a mass of greenstone schist, which hurls her upward. She lands, draws her spatha, and climbs the rock as the grass seethes below.
Dozens of karpoi—feral grain spirits—materialize, led by a wheat-bristled chief. They deride the schist and reveal their hatred of cultivation and Ceres, declaring loyalty to Gaea. The karpoi demand Hazel surrender so they can deliver her to Gaea’s nearby army for a slow death and “reward” of grain.
Stalling for information, Hazel coaxes out key details: the karpoi claim they cannot be killed while Death is chained, Gaea wants the “daughter of Pluto who lives again,” and Polybotes waits to march south against the Romans. When Hazel tests them about Alcyoneus’s base, they boast that the island in Resurrection Bay sank long ago and that Alcyoneus, risen in the 1980s, now ranges across all Alaska.
The revelations crush Hazel’s hope of a clear target for freeing Thanatos; Alaska is too vast. Refusing to yield, Hazel declares herself a daughter of Pluto as the karpoi begin climbing the burning-hot schist to seize her. At the last moment, a golden arrow whistles in and pierces the wheat leader, who dissolves into crumbs, halting the assault.
Who Appears
- Hazel LevesqueAbducted by karpoi; summons schist to escape; learns Alcyoneus rules Alaska and Gaea wants her alive.
- Wheat (karpos leader)Grain-spirit chief demanding Hazel’s surrender; reveals key intel; slain by a golden arrow.
- Sorghum (karpos)Boastful grain spirit; nearly divulges Alcyoneus’s location; helps confirm Gaea’s plans.
- Barley (karpos)Grain spirit echoing that Death is chained and Alcyoneus rose in the 1980s.
- Karpoi (grain spirits)Gaea’s minions who abduct Hazel through living fields and attempt to deliver her to the army.