XVII

Piper and Frank search Pylos for deadly poison, fighting off a Laistrygonian ogre, a giant warthog, and Stymphalian birds. Piper wrestles with homesickness stirred by her father’s movie posters and the unspoken dread from Aphrodite’s warning. An Ancient Greek ghost directs them to Nestor’s Cave, where Frank meets shape-shifting descendants of Periclymenus.

Frank’s relatives remain cool toward him, uneasy about his Roman ties and heritage, but they provide a tiny vial of Pylosian mint poison. A shapeshifter elder hands Frank the vial before flying off as a seagull. Piper and Frank hire a fisherman to reach the Argo II discreetly and return to the ship.

On deck, while Percy eyes a red sea serpent stalking the ship, Frank explains that the “chained god” in Sparta is Ares, whose statue the Spartans bound to keep war’s spirit with them. The crew debates how this connects to the physician’s cure and the newly obtained poison. Piper, pressed about her dagger’s visions, describes recurring images of herself and Annabeth in ruins, then in a dark chamber with a bronze warrior statue that bursts into flames when Piper touches it.

Annabeth insists that if the vision shows Piper and Annabeth, they should be the ones to face the statue. The others note Leo’s fire immunity but defer to the vision’s guidance. They store the Pylosian mint for the cure and plan to seek Apollo’s advice on Delos after resolving the chained-god matter. Piper silently recalls Aphrodite’s charge to bridge Greek and Roman divides.

As the sea serpent closes in, Leo lifts the Argo II into the air. The crew sets a course to reach Sparta by morning, with Nike still raging below decks and Leo promising “three-alarm tofu tacos” as they prepare for the next trial.