Daughter of Wine

Callida

"Hurry." Hera insists.

"I know!" Leo snaps. "These tendrils, they're not responding to the saw. Piper is slowing the earth down, but..."

"Go to sleep cage." Piper insists. "Nice, sleepy cage. Yes, I'm talking to a bunch of earthen tendrils. This isn't weird at all."

Porphyrion rakes his spear across the top of the ruins, destroying a chimney and spraying wood and stone across the courtyard. "So, child of Zeus! The child of Dionysus and I have finished our boasting. Now it's your turn. What were you saying about destroying me?"

"I'm the son of Jupiter!" he shouts, and just for effect, he summons the winds, rising a few feet off the ground. "I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion." I don't know what he's saying, but he rattles off the words like he's said them many times before. He holds out his arms, showing the tattoo of the eagle and SPQR, and to my surprise the giant seemed to recognize it.

For a moment, Porphyrion actually looks uneasy.

"I slew the Trojan sea monster," Jason continues. "I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves."

Jason launches himself at the giant and I do the same, determined to tear him apart.

The idea of fighting a forty-foot giant is so crazy, even the giant seems surprised that we're trying. Jason half flies, half leaps, onto the giant's knee, climbing up the giant's arm. I levitate myself off the ground, using the melting snow to shoot water up the giant's nose, disorienting and destabilizing him. I lock eyes with his ugly face and send maniacal thoughts into his mind. He grimaces and falls down to his knees, just as Enceladus did. Jason scales the giant's chest and rips a sword from his hair.

"For Rome!" He yells, and drives the sword into the nearest convenient target. The giant's massive ear.

"Calli!" Leo yells, causing me to break eye contact with the giant. "I need your help!"

I look between Leo and the giant, who is now partially on fire and staggering. The sword has splintered his ear. Golden ichor runs down his jaw.

Jason gives me a nod, so I run to Leo. I look him deep in the eye. "What do you need?"

Leo gulps. "You're good with plants, right?"

I nod.

"I need you to loosen these tendrils for me."

I place my hand on one of the tendrils and concentrate. Leo seems to be able to cut through it faster. Piper is still convincing the cage to go back to sleep, which means Hera is sinking even slower.

I'm vaguely aware of Jason fighting the giant, but I'm so concentrated on the cage. The tendrils are plant matter, yes, but they are also stone and dirt. It takes a tremendous amount of my energy to loosen them. I use the plant matter I can feel and push away the stone and dirt. The dust particles rain down as I focus.

Leo and I work one tendril at a time, the saw cutting easily through every tendril I touch.

"You want to play with lightning, boy?" I hear Porphyrion ask. "You forget, I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy your father, which means I know exactly what will kill you."

"Got it!" Leo yells.

"Sleep!" Piper says so forcefully that the nearest wolves fall to the ground sleeping.

The stone and wood cage crumbles. Leo had sawed through the base of the thickest tendril and apparently cut off the cage's connection to Gaea. The tendrils turn completely to dust. The mud around Hera disintegrates. The goddess grows in size, glowing with power.

"Yes!" Hera exclaims. She throws off her black robes to reveal a white gown, her arms bedecked with golden jewelry. Her face is both terrible and beautiful, and a golden crown glows in her long black hair, just like Callie's golden vines glow around her own hair. "Now I shall have my revenge!"

The giant backs away. He says nothing, but he gives Jason one last look of hatred. His message is clear: Another time. Then he slams his spear against the earth, and he disappears into the ground like he's dropped down another chute.

Around the courtyard, monsters begin to panic and retreat, but there is no escape for them.

Hera glows brighter. "Cover your eyes, my heroes!"

I do as I'm told, and feel a bright, burning light.