The Heroes of Olympus, #5
The Blood of Olympus
by Rick Riordan
Contents
VIII
Overview
In Pompeii, Gaea animates ash-spirits to seize the Athena Parthenos, speaking through Coach Hedge to urge Reyna to yield. Reyna has Nico summon Roman dead, but Diocletian’s scepter explodes and the zombies begin to vanish.
Outnumbered and injured, Reyna buys time as Nico initiates a desperate shadow-jump, escaping at the last second.
Summary
Encircled in Pompeii, Reyna faces over twenty earthen ghosts as Coach Hedge, possessed by Gaea, urges her to surrender the Athena Parthenos. Nico struggles to ready a shadow-jump, warning he needs time and cannot control the ash-armored spirits.
Reyna orders Nico to use Diocletian’s scepter. After knocking Hedge unconscious to silence Gaea, she calls undead legionnaires to form ranks around the statue. The greyhounds charge; Aurum decapitates a spirit, while Argentum is badly damaged. Reyna fights with gladius and knife, pushing her will into the zombies as they hold a defensive ring.
The scepter resists Nico and explodes, limiting their undead reinforcements to minutes. Reyna rallies the fading legion—forming a circle and engaging at close quarters—but more ash-spirits rise and crush the zombies. The Athena Parthenos looms impassive, radiating hostility, while Reyna rejects the ghosts’ whispers that Rome is dead.
As the undead collapse and the spirits close in, Nico straps to the statue and gathers the unconscious Hedge. Reyna is struck, ribs blazing with pain, and her metallic hounds disappear from the fight. With the ghosts about to overwhelm her, Nico opens the shadows; Reyna refuses to give up and leaps for Nico’s outstretched hand as the group vanishes.
Who Appears
- ReynaPraetor defending the Athena Parthenos; commands undead legionnaires, fights ash-spirits, is injured, and leaps into Nico’s shadow-jump.
- Nico di AngeloPrepares shadow-travel; summons Roman dead with Diocletian’s scepter before it explodes; escapes with statue and Hedge.
- Coach Gleeson HedgeSatyr possessed by Gaea’s voice; is knocked out and carried during the escape.
- AurumMetallic greyhound; bites off a spirit’s head and guards before vanishing from the fight.
- ArgentumMetallic greyhound; is smashed and badly damaged while protecting the group.
- Earthen ghosts of PompeiiAsh-animated spirits attacking to destroy the Athena Parthenos under Gaea’s influence.
- Athena ParthenosMassive statue being transported; radiates hostility and remains inert during the battle.