Again Frank wondered about Nico’s past, but he was afraid to ask. He caught Hazel’s eye.
Go ahead, she seemed to be saying. Nico needs practice talking to people.
The sounds of assault rifles and atom bombs got louder in Frank’s head. Mars and Ares were trying to outsing each other with “Dixie” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic. ” Frank did his best to push that aside.
“Nico, your mom was Italian?” he guessed. “She was from Venice?”
Nico nodded reluctantly. “She met Hades here, back in the 1930s. As World War Two got closer, she fled to the U. S. with my sister and me. I mean…Bianca, my other sister. I don’t remember much about Italy, but I can still speak the language. ”
Frank tried to think of a response. Oh, that’s nice didn’t seem to cut it.
He was hanging out with not one but two demigods who’d been pulled out of time. They were both, technically, about seventy years older than he was.
“Must’ve been hard on your mom,” Frank said. “I guess we’ll do anything for someone we love. ”
Hazel squeezed his hand appreciatively. Nico stared at the cobblestones. “Yeah,” he said bitterly. “I guess we will. ”
Frank wasn’t sure what Nico was thinking. He had a hard time imagining Nico di Angelo acting out of love for anybody, except maybe Hazel. But Frank decided he’d gone as far as he dared with the personal questions.
“So, the lemures…” He swallowed. “How do we avoid them?”
“I’m already on it,” Nico said. “I’m sending out the message that they should stay away and ignore us. Hopefully that’s enough. Otherwise…things could get messy. ”
Hazel pursed her lips. “Let’s get going,” she suggested.
Halfway across the piazza, everything went wrong; but it had nothing to do with ghosts.
They were skirting the well in the middle of the square, trying to give the cow monsters some distance, when Hazel stumbled on a loose piece of cobblestone. Frank caught her. Six or seven of the big gray beasts turned to look at them. Frank glimpsed a glowing green eye under one’s mane, and instantly he was hit with a wave of nausea, the way he felt when he ate too much cheese or ice cream.
The creatures made deep throbbing sounds in their throats like angry foghorns.
“Nice cows,” Frank murmured. He put himself between his friends and the monsters. “Guys, I’m thinking we should back out of here slowly. ”
“I’m such a klutz,” Hazel whispered. “Sorry. ”
“It’s not your fault,” Nico said. “Look at your feet. ”
Frank glanced down and caught his breath.
Under their shoes, the paving stones were moving—spiky plant tendrils were pushing up from the cracks.
Nico stepped back. The roots snaked out in his direction, trying to follow. The tendrils got thicker, exuding a steamy green vapor that smelled of boiled cabbage.
“These roots seem to like demigods,” Frank noted.
Hazel’s hand drifted to her sword hilt. “And the cow creatures like the roots. ”
The entire herd was now looking their direction, making foghorn growls and stamping their hooves. Frank understood animal behavior well enough to get the message: You are standing on our food. That makes you enemies.
Frank tried to think. There were too many monsters to fight. Something about their eyes hidden under those shaggy manes…Frank had gotten sick from the barest glimpse. He had a bad feeling that if those monsters made direct eye contact, he might get a lot worse than nauseous.
“Don’t meet their eyes,” Frank warned. “I’ll distract them. You two back up slowly toward that black house. ”
The creatures tensed, ready to attack.
“Never mind,” Frank said. “Run!”
As it turned out, Frank could not turn into a rhino, and he lost valuable time trying.
Nico and Hazel bolted for the side street. Frank stepped in front of the monsters, hoping to keep their attention. He yelled at the top of his lungs, imagining himself as a fearsome rhinoceros, but with Ares and Mars screaming in his head, he couldn’t concentrate. He remained regular-old Frank.
Two of the cow monsters peeled off from the herd to chase Nico and Hazel.
“No!” Frank yelled after them. “Me! I’m the rhino!”
The rest of the herd surrounded Frank. They growled, emerald-green gas billowing from their nostrils. Frank stepped back to avoid the stuff, but the stench nearly knocked him over.
Okay, so not a rhino. Something else. Frank knew he had only seconds before the monsters trampled or poisoned him, but he couldn’t think. He couldn’t hold the image of any animal long enough to change form.
Then he glanced up at one of the town-house balconies and saw a stone carving—the symbol of Venice.
The next instant, Frank was a full-grown lion. He roared in challenge, then sprang from the middle of the monster herd and landed eight meters away, on top of the old stone well.
The monsters growled in reply. Three of them sprang at once, but Frank was ready. His lion reflexes were built for speed in combat.