The Lost Hero

Jason finds himself on a school trip to the Grand Canyon with a busload of kids who know him, especially his friends Piper & Leo. But he doesn’t know them. Once on the Canyon the party is attacked by Wind Spirits when Jason discovers unexpected abilities. Their chaperon, Coach Hedge, turns out to be a Satyr and defends the youngsters but is himself taken away by the Wind Spirits. Annabeth Chase turns up in a Pegasus-drawn chariot and takes Jason, Piper & Leo back to Camp Half-Blood where they learn that each of them is the child of a god and a human. And they also learn that Jason had never met the other two before that day, that all their memories were artefacts of the Mist, a supernatural means of deceiving humans and half-bloods.

Jason discovers that he is the son of Jupiter, Leo is claimed by Hephaestus, and Piper by Aphrodite. At the same time, Piper witnesses an unusual vision by Rachel Dare, the Oracle, which has the three of them agree to go on a quest to free Hera, queen of the gods. There’s an extra mystery about Jason’s past: he’s clearly an experienced half-blood but remembers little; and what he does remember has more to do with the Roman gods than the Greeks. He also dreams of a Wolf House where he is addressed by Lupa, the great she-wolf. Piper’s also been dreaming: of her film-actor father taken captive and held as hostage against her compliance. Leo decides to look in the woods for the mechanical dragon which his cabinmates have been unable to trap. Helped by his fire-resistance he tames it and rebuilds it using equipment in a hidden bunker deep in the woods. The three fly to Quebec to the court of King Boreas to bargain for the return of Hedge Gleeson the satyr and to work backwards to discover who had sent the Wind Spirits. Boreas has orders from Aeolus to kill them but realises from Jason’s presence that Hera is playing a dangerous game, threating to pit Roman against Greek half-bloods, and lets them go, pointing them to Chicago.

They’re halfway there when their dragon Festus drops out of the sky and they end up in a large car assembly plant. While Leo is repairing Festus, Piper & Jason are captured by Cyclopes. Leo has to use his skill with mechanics to defeat the Cyclops family and free his friends. Jason is left unconscious by the cyclops and he dreams of Juno-Hera’s captivity. She tells him that she has placed him in his current position – a Roman demigod among the Greeks – as a bridge to effect peace between the two camps of half-bloods.

The youngsters mount Festus and follow a wind spirit to Chicago. There they enter an abandoned department store refurbished by Medea, wife of the original Jason and niece of the witch Circe. She collects trophies from dead warriors. She also has Hedge Gleeson, the satyr. She reveals that she manipulated Piper’s father’s assistant into arranging for his disappearance. She then bewitches Leo & Jason into fighting each other but Piper employs her own charmspeak and the boys back down. They are attacked by dragons, but Festus comes to their rescue. Smashing the potions which Medea concots, they escape just as the department store explodes.

As they fly away, Leo dreams of meeting Hephaestus, his father who explains that the gods had closed in on themselves, led by Zeus, and that monsters were stirring under the earth. As he awakes, Festus is malfunctioning. Leo tells Jason to fly Piper to safety while he crash-lands the dragon, broken beyond repair. He asks Hephaestus to transport the dragon’s head back to the bunker in the woods of Camp Half-Blood. They have landed in front of King Midas’ mansion. He reveals that he too is working for their enemy and that he had recently been visited by the Hunters of Artemis on the trail of wolves. Midas turns Piper and Leo to gold but Jason calls down lightning and all the gold Midas has created is reverted, leaving him to face many angry people.

Round a fire which Leo starts up, Piper explains that her father is being held hostage and the giant Enceladus has been visiting her in dreams to tell her to sabotage the quest they’re on. At this point they’re surrounded by wolves, led by Lycaon. They barely fight off an attack, but are saved when the maidens of Artemis arrive with their own wolves and Lycaon and his wolf-pack flee. Jason explains to Thalia that he’s her brother whom she had thought dead long ago. They discuss the fact the Jason is the son of Jupiter, Zeus in his Roman aspect, and that he’s at home in Latin and was greeted by Lycaon as child of Rome. Jason, Piper & Leo cross the ice-bridge towards the palace of Aeolus the King of the Winds, while Thalia takes the Hunters to the Wolf House where they believe Hera is held captive.

They give the captured wind spirits to Aeolus who is surrounded by the trappings of weather broadcasts and hardly knows what’s going on. He takes conflicting orders from different gods, now offering them gifts and assistance, now threatening to kill them. With the help of Mellie, a wind nymph, the children and Hedge Gleeson get away. Piper dreams of her mother Aphrodite who explains that their hidden enemy is Gaia, Mother Earth herself. When she wakes, her mother has kitted them all out in fashionable clothes and left them plenty of money. They make their way to Mount Diablo where the giant Enceladus holds Piper’s father captive, guarded by the ogres: the Earthborn. The questers attack with all their strength and ingeuity but the children of the Earth are almost impossible to kill. It is only when they break the giant’s contact with the ground and call on Zeus to send lightning that he is finally defeated.

Piper’s father is in trauma from all he’s witnessed and experienced. Piper uses her charm-speak and an improvised loudhailer to bring a nearby helicopter in to lift them all out to the nearest airport. From there they can call in the filmstar's private jet and Hedge offers to get him to safety and to protect him. Piper gives her father an amnesia potion they’d taken from Medea’s store and he takes it and forgets everything he’s seen. Thalia sends them a message calling them to the Wolf house in a nearby valley. Piper persaudes a helicopter pilot to let Leo fly them all out.

They fly in through a local storm and land in the middle of a battle between the Hunters and the Earthborn. Thalia keeps the enemy at bay while Leo, Piper & Jason struggle to free Hera from her cage before Porphyrion is born from the earth beside her. Khione the ice princess, daughter of Boreas, arrives and turns the battle against them. She reveals that it was she who whispered in a few ears, causing Zeus to close Olympus and giving Aeolus the order to kill the demigods. Leo turns on his fire skills to battle Khione while Jason tames one of the wind horses and uses it to attack the Earthborn. Finally they get the upper hand and return to freeing Hera before Porphyrion’s rebirth. It takes all of them working together: Piper lulling the earth to sleep while Leo works on the cage’s lock and Jason holds off Porphyrion. Finally they free Hera who unlocks her divine power, destroying everything within a radius but catching Jason in the blast. Piper’s voice pulls Jason back from the brink and Hera reveals that Porphyrion was not destroyed by her power, only the Earthborn and the wind and ice spirits. She transports them instantly back to Camp Half-Blood.

They explain what’s happened and Piper challenges the bullying Drew for the leadership of the Aphrodite cabin. Jason’s dreams bring back some of his lost memories. Leo reveals to the others that he’s a fire user and shows them the hidden bunker in the woods. At this point Chiron reveals the truth about the Greek and Roman demigods: that they have co-existed and been at war for hundreds of years and that their existence of each was hidden from the other by the Mist. He also explains that Rachel’s Great Prophecy refers to seven demigods, the greatest of their age, and that some of them are Greek and some Roman. They must travel in a new Argo to the original Mount Olympus. Juno appears to Jason in his cabin and explains that the two tribes of demigods must cooperate with each other and with the gods to defeat the giants. Chiron calls a full Council and announces the quest. Annabeth joins the group, confident that if Jason is in the Greek Camp, Percy Jackson will be in the Roman one.