The Tyrant's Tomb

is on April eighth, yep. Farmer’s Almanac. Moon Phase Calendar
supplemental.”
She plopped down again, leaving the audience in stunned silence.
Nothing is quite so disconcerting as having science explained to you by a
supernatural creature.
“Thank you, Ida and Ella,” Reyna said. “Lester, did you have more to
add?”
Her tone suggested that it would be totally okay if I didn’t, since I’d
already shared enough information to cause a camp-wide panic.
“I’m afraid so,” I said. “The emperors have allied themselves with
Tarquin the Proud.”
The Lares in the room guttered and flickered.
“Impossible!” cried one.
“Horrible!” cried another.
“We’ll all die!” screamed a third, apparently forgetting that he was
already dead.
“Guys, chill,” Frank said. “Let Apollo talk.”
His leadership style was less formal than Reyna’s, but he seemed to
command just as much respect. The audience settled, waiting for me to
continue.
“Tarquin is now some sort of undead creature,” I said. “His tomb is
nearby. He was responsible for the attack you repulsed on the new moon—”
“Which is also a really cruddy time to fight the undead,” Ida volunteered.
“And he’ll attack again on the blood moon, in concert with the emperors’
assault.”
I did my best to explain what I’d seen in my dreams, and what Frank and
I had discussed with Ella. I did not mention the reference to Frank’s unholy
piece of firewood—partly because I didn’t understand it, partly because
Frank was giving me the pleading teddy-bear eyes.
“Since Tarquin was the one who originally purchased the Sibylline
Books,” I summed up, “it makes a twisted kind of sense that he would
reappear now, when Camp Jupiter is trying to reconstruct those prophecies.
Tarquin would be…invoked by what Ella is doing.”
“Enraged,” Ella suggested. “Infuriated. Homicidal.”
Looking at the harpy, I thought of the Cumaean Sibyl, and the terrible
curse I’d laid upon her. I wondered how Ella might suffer, just because we’d