The Mark of Athena

Page 11

“That way.” Echo pointed toward the far shore of the island.
“You want to show us something?” Hazel asked. She climbed down the boulder, and Leo followed.
Even up close, Echo was hard to see. In fact, she seemed to get more invisible the longer he looked at her.
“You sure you’re real?” he asked. “I mean…flesh and blood?”
“Flesh and blood.” She touched Leo’s face and made him flinch. Her fingers were warm.
“So…you have to repeat everything?” he asked.
“Everything.”
Leo couldn’t help smiling. “That could be fun.”
“Fun,” she said unhappily.
“Blue elephants.”
“Blue elephants.”
“Kiss me, you fool.”
“You fool.”
“Hey!”
“Hey!”
“Leo,” Hazel pleaded, “don’t tease her.”
“Don’t tease her,” Echo agreed.
“Okay, okay,” Leo said, though he had to resist the urge. It wasn’t every day he met somebody with a built-in talkback feature. “So what were you pointing at? Do you need our help?”
“Help,” Echo agreed emphatically. She gestured for them to follow and sprinted down the slope. Leo could only follow her progress by the movement of the grass and the shimmer of her dress as it changed to match the rocks.
“We’d better hurry,” Hazel said. “Or we’ll lose her.”
They found the problem—if you can call a mob of good-looking girls a problem. Echo led them down into a grassy meadow shaped like a blast crater, with a small pond in the middle. Gathered at the water’s edge were several dozen nymphs. At least, Leo guessed they were nymphs. Like the ones at Camp Half-Blood, these wore gossamer dresses. Their feet were bare. They had elfish features, and their skin had a slightly greenish tinge.
Leo didn’t understand what they were doing, but they were all crowded together in one spot, facing the pond and jostling for a better view. Several held up phone cameras, trying to get a shot over the heads of the others. Leo had never seen nymphs with phones. He wondered if they were looking at a dead body. If so, why were they bouncing up and down and giggling so excitedly?
“What are they looking at?” Leo wondered.
“Looking at,” Echo sighed.
“One way to find out.” Hazel marched forward and began nudging her way through the crowd. “Excuse us. Pardon me.”
“Hey!” one nymph complained. “We were here first!”
“Yeah,” another sniffed. “He won’t be interested in you.”
The second nymph had large red hearts painted on her cheeks. Over her dress, she wore a T-shirt that read: OMG, I <3 N!!!!
“Uh, demigod business,” Leo said, trying to sound official. “Make room. Thanks.”
The nymphs grumbled, but they parted to reveal a young man kneeling at the edge of the pond, gazing intently at the water.
Leo usually didn’t pay much attention to how other guys looked. He supposed that came from hanging around Jason—tall, blond, rugged, and basically everything Leo could never be. Leo was used to not being noticed by girls. At least, he knew he’d never get a girl by his looks. He hoped his personality and sense of humor would do that someday, though it definitely hadn’t worked yet.
At any rate, Leo couldn’t miss the fact that the guy at the pond was one super good-looking dude. He had a chiseled face with lips and eyes that were somewhere between feminine beautiful and masculine handsome. Dark hair swept over his brow. He might’ve been seventeen or twenty, it was hard to say, but he was built like a dancer—with long graceful arms and muscular legs, perfect posture and an air of regal calm. He wore a simple white T-shirt and jeans, with a bow and quiver strapped to his back. The weapons obviously hadn’t been used in a while. The arrows were covered in dust. A spider had woven a web in the top of the bow.
As Leo edged closer, he realized the guy’s face was unusually golden. In the sunset, the light was bouncing off a large flat sheet of Celestial bronze that lay at the bottom of the pond, washing Mr. Handsome’s features in a warm glow.
The guy seemed fascinated with his reflection in the metal.
Hazel inhaled sharply. “He’s gorgeous.”
Around her, the nymphs squealed and clapped in agreement.
“I am,” the young man murmured dreamily, his gaze still fixed on the water. “I am so gorgeous.”
One of the nymphs showed her iPhone screen. “His latest YouTube video got a million hits in like, an hour. I think I was half of those!”
The other nymphs giggled.
“YouTube video?” Leo asked. “What does he do in the video, sing?”
“No, silly!” the nymph chided. “He used to be a prince, and a wonderful hunter and stuff. But that doesn’t matter. Now he just…well, look!” She showed Leo the video. It was exactly what they were seeing in real life—the guy staring at himself in the pond.
“He is sooooo hot!” said another girl. Her T-shirt read: MRS. NARCISSUS.
“Narcissus?” Leo asked.
“Narcissus,” Echo agreed sadly.
Leo had forgotten Echo was there. Apparently none of the nymphs had noticed her either.
“Oh, not you again!” Mrs. Narcissus tried to push Echo away, but she misjudged where the camouflaged girl was and ended up shoving several other nymphs.
“You had your chance, Echo!” said the nymph with the iPhone. “He dumped you four thousand years ago! You are so not good enough for him.”
“For him,” Echo said bitterly.
“Wait.” Hazel clearly had trouble tearing her eyes away from the handsome guy, but she managed it. “What’s going on here? Why did Echo bring us here?”
One nymph rolled her eyes. She was holding an autograph pen and a crumpled poster of Narcissus. “Echo was a nymph like us, a long time ago, but she was a total chatterbox! Gossiping, blah, blah, blah, all the time.”
“I know!” another nymph shrieked. “Like, who could stand that? Just the other day, I told Cleopeia—you know she lives in the boulder next to me?—I said: Stop gossiping or you’ll end up like Echo. Cleopeia is such a big mouth! Did you hear what she said about that cloud nymph and the satyr?”
“Totally!” said the nymph with the poster. “So anyway, as punishment for blabbing, Hera cursed Echo so she could only repeat things, which was fine with us. But then Echo fell in love with our gorgeous guy, Narcissus—as if he would ever notice her.”
“As if!” said half a dozen others.
“Now she’s got some weird idea he needs saving,” said Mrs. Narcissus. “She should just go away.”
“Go away,” Echo growled back.
“I’m so glad Narcissus is alive again,” said another nymph in a gray dress. She had the words NARCISSUS + LAIEA written up and down her arms in black marker. “He’s like the best! And he’s in my territory.”
“Oh, stop it, Laiea,” her friend said. “I’m the pond nymph. You’re just the rock nymph.”
“Well, I’m the grass nymph,” another protested.
“No, he obviously came here because he likes the wildflowers!” another said. “Those are mine!”
The whole mob began arguing while Narcissus stared at the lake, ignoring them.
“Hold it!” Leo yelled. “Ladies, hold it! I need to ask Narcissus something.”
Slowly the nymphs settled down and went back to taking pictures.
Leo knelt next to the handsome dude. “So, Narcissus. What’s up?”
“Could you move?” Narcissus asked distractedly. “You’re ruining the view.”
Leo looked in the water. His own reflection rippled next to Narcissus’s on the surface of the submerged bronze. Leo didn’t have any desire to stare at himself. Compared to Narcissus, he looked like an undergrown troll. But there was no doubt the metal was a sheet of hammered Celestial bronze, roughly circular, about five feet in diameter.
What it was doing in this pond, Leo wasn’t sure. Celestial bronze fell to earth in odd places. He’d heard that most pieces were cast off from his dad’s various workshops. Hephaestus would lose his temper when projects didn’t work out, and he’d toss his scraps into the mortal world. This piece looked like it might have been meant as a shield for a god, but it hadn’t turned out properly. If Leo could get it back to the ship, it would be just enough bronze for his repairs.
“Right, great view,” Leo said. “Happy to move, but if you’re not using it, could I just take that sheet of bronze?”
“No,” Narcissus said. “I love him. He’s so gorgeous.”
Leo looked around to see if the nymphs were laughing. This had to be a huge joke. But they were swooning and nodding in agreement. Only Hazel seemed appalled. She wrinkled her nose as if she’d come to the conclusion that Narcissus smelled worse than he looked.
“Man,” Leo said to Narcissus. “You do realize that you’re looking at yourself in the water, right?”
“I am so great,” Narcissus sighed. He stretched out a hand longingly to touch the water, but held back. “No, I can’t make ripples. That ruins the image. Wow…I am so great.”
“Yeah,” Leo muttered. “But if I took the bronze, you could still see yourself in the water. Or here…” He reached in his tool belt and pulled out a simple mirror the size of a monocle. “I’ll trade you.”
Narcissus took the mirror, reluctantly, and admired himself. “Even you carry a picture of me? I don’t blame you. I am gorgeous. Thank you.” He set the mirror down and returned his attention to the pond. “But I already have a much better image. The color flatters me, don’t you think?”
“Oh, gods, yes!” a nymph screamed. “Marry me, Narcissus!”
“No, me!” another cried. “Would you sign my poster?”
“No, sign my shirt!”
“No, sign my forehead!”
“No, sign my—”
“Stop it!” Hazel snapped.
“Stop it,” Echo agreed.
Leo had lost sight of Echo again, but now he realized she was kneeling on the other side of Narcissus, waving her hand in front of his face as if trying to break his concentration. Narcissus didn’t even blink.
The nymph fan club tried to shove Hazel out of the way, but she drew her cavalry sword and forced them back. “Snap out of it!” she yelled.
“He won’t sign your sword,” the poster nymph complained.
“He won’t marry you,” said the iPhone girl. “And you can’t take his bronze mirror! That’s what keeps him here!”
“You’re all ridiculous,” Hazel said. “He’s so full of himself! How can you possibly like him?”
“Like him,” Echo sighed, still waving her hand in front of his face.
The others sighed along with her.
“I am so hot,” Narcissus said sympathetically.