“What’s this?” He wagged it at the dwarfs, who were still teary-eyed from the smoke.
“Nothing!” Akmon said. “Just a book. It had a pretty gold cover, so we took it from him. ”
“Him?” Leo asked.
Akmon and Passalos exchanged a nervous look.
“Minor god,” Passalos said. “In Venice. Really, it’s nothing. ”
“Venice. ” Jason frowned at Leo. “Isn’t that where we’re supposed to go next?”
“Yeah. ” Leo examined the book. He couldn’t read the text, but it had lots of illustrations: scythes, different plants, a picture of the sun, a team of oxen pulling a cart. He didn’t see how any of that was important, but if the book had been stolen from a minor god in Venice—the next place Hecate had told them to visit—then this had to be what they were looking for.
“Where exactly can we find this minor god?” Leo asked.
“No!” Akmon shrieked. “You can’t take it back to him! If he finds out we stole it—”
“He’ll destroy you,” Jason guessed. “Which is what we’ll do if you don’t tell us, and we’re a lot closer. ” He pressed the point of his sword against Akmon’s furry throat.
“Okay, okay!” the dwarf shrieked. “La Casa Nera! Calle Frezzeria!”
“Is that an address?” Leo asked.
The dwarfs both nodded vigorously.
“Please don’t tell him we stole it,” Passalos begged. “He isn’t nice at all!”
“Who is he?” Jason asked. “What god?”
“I—I can’t say,” Passalos stammered.
“You’d better,” Leo warned.
“No,” Passalos said miserably. “I mean, I really can’t say. I can’t pronounce it! Tr—tri—It’s too hard!”
“Truh,” Akmon said. “Tru-toh—Too many syllables!”
They both burst into tears.
Leo didn’t know if the Kerkopes were telling them the truth, but it was hard to stay mad at weeping dwarfs, no matter how annoying and badly dressed they were.
Jason lowered his sword. “What do you want to do with them, Leo? Send them to Tartarus?”
“Please, no!” Akmon wailed. “It might take us weeks to come back. ”
“Assuming Gaea even lets us!” Passalos sniffled. “She controls the Doors of Death now. She’ll be very cross with us. ”
Leo looked at the dwarfs. He’d fought lots of monsters before and never felt bad about dissolving them, but this was different. He had to admit he sort of admired these little guys. They played cool pranks and liked shiny things. Leo could relate. Besides, Percy and Annabeth were in Tartarus right now, hopefully still alive, trudging toward the Doors of Death. The idea of sending these twin monkey boys there to face the same nightmarish problem…well, it didn’t seem right.
He imagined Gaea laughing at his weakness—a demigod too softhearted to kill monsters. He remembered his dream about Camp Half-Blood in ruins, Greek and Roman bodies littering the fields. He remembered Octavian speaking with the Earth Goddess’s voice: The Romans move east from New York. They advance on your camp, and nothing can slow them down.
“Nothing can slow them down,” Leo mused. “I wonder…”
“What?” Jason asked.
Leo looked at the dwarfs. “I’ll make you a deal. ”
Akmon’s eyes lit up. “Thirty percent?”
“We’ll leave you all your treasure,” Leo said, “except the stuff that belongs to us, and the astrolabe, and this book, which we’ll take back to the dude in Venice. ”
“But he’ll destroy us!” Passalos wailed.
“We won’t say where we got it,” Leo promised. “And we won’t kill you. We’ll let you go free. ”
“Uh, Leo…?” Jason asked nervously.
Akmon squealed with delight. “I knew you were as smart as Hercules! I will call you Black Bottom, the Sequel!”
“Yeah, no thanks,” Leo said. “But in return for us sparing your lives, you have to do something for us. I’m going to send you somewhere to steal from some people, harass them, make life hard for them any way you can. You have to follow my directions exactly. You have to swear on the River Styx. ”
“We swear!” Passalos said. “Stealing from people is our specialty!”