Percy Jackson is a dyslexic twelve-year-old with ADHD. While on a school trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the chaperones, Mrs. Dodds, turns into a Fury and attacks him. Percy’s favorite teacher, Mr. Brunner, later revealed as Chiron, lends Percy a magical sword-pen to defeat her. Percy and his mother Sally go to Long Island. Percy’s friend Grover reveals himself as a satyr and warns of danger. At a summer camp, Sally is attacked by a minotaur and disappears in a flash of light. Percy kills the beast with one of its own horns. He learns that the camp is called Camp Half-Blood, and that he is a demigod: the son of a human and a Greek god. He settles into camp life and meets several other demigods, including Luke and Annabeth. After a hellhound attacks him, he is saved by Chiron and then claimed by his father, the god Poseidon. Chiron explains to Percy how the three eldest male gods—Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades—swore an oath not to have children; Percy represents a violation of the oath. He is the second violation of the oath, as the first was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. She was killed by monsters sent by Hades. This, coupled with the fact that Zeus’s master lightning bolt has recently been stolen, has bred much suspicion between the gods.
Percy must locate Zeus’s lightning bolt. Annabeth and Grover accompany him to the realm of Hades—the most likely culprit. Percy brings Chiron’s magic sword Anaklusmos and Luke’s flying sneakers. The trio travels to Los Angeles to visit Hades. Along the way, they are attacked by the Furies, Medusa, Echidna, and the Chimera. They perform a favor for the god Ares, who gives them a backpack full of supplies and safe transportation to Nevada. Percy learns more about his companions, his powers, and the world of the Greek gods. In Hades’s realm, Grover is nearly dragged into Tartarus by Luke’s flying shoes. The battered group finally meets Hades, who reveals that his Helm of Darkness has also been mysteriously stolen, and accuses Percy of stealing it. Hades threatens to kill his hostage Sally and reanimate the dead unless his helm is returned. When Percy finds the missing master bolt inside Ares’s backpack, the group realizes they’ve all been manipulated by Ares. Narrowly escaping the Underworld, Percy challenges Ares to a duel on the beach. After a long and tough fight, Percy wins, and he gives the Helm of Darkness to the Furies. Hades realizes that Percy is not the thief of the helm nor the master bolt, and returns Sally home.
Percy takes the master bolt back to Zeus on Mount Olympus. Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood as a hero and enjoys the rest of his summer. On the last day of camp, however, he goes into the woods with Luke, who reveals himself to be the real thief of Hades’s Helm and Zeus’s bolt, following the orders of Kronos. Kronos had manipulated the power-hungry Ares into taking part in the scheme. Luke explains his beliefs that the gods are too irresponsible and are poor leaders who need to be overthrown. He offers Percy the chance to join him, and when Percy refuses, Luke tries to kill him with a scorpion. Percy is bit and faints. When he wakes up he is given a choice to stay in camp or finish the school year. He decides to spend the school year with his mother. Grover and Annabeth also leave the camp due to Luke.
Percy Jackson recounts the story of Thalia Grace: Pursued by monsters on their way to Camp Half-Blood, a young Thalia sacrificed herself to save her friends, Annabeth Chase, Luke Castellan and Grover Underwood. Her father Zeus honored her sacrifice by turning her into a tree, which forms a protective barrier around the camp, keeping everyone within a safe zone. In the present day, Percy’s quest for Zeus’s bolt[a] has faded in popularity and he is called a one-quest wonder by camp bully Clarisse La Rue, but is still supported by Annabeth and Grover. He is joined at camp by a young cyclops named Tyson, a previously unknown son of Poseidon, and therefore his brother, albeit the son of Poseidon and a sea-nymph, rather than a human.
After an attack by a Colchis bull, the campers discover Thalia’s tree has been poisoned by Luke and the barrier is vulnerable. Percy consults the Oracle, who tells him of a prophecy of a half-blood of the eldest gods either saving or destroying Olympus. Chiron tells Percy that he is the only living human half-blood of the eldest gods, so the Prophecy may refer to him. Annabeth and Grover learn about the Golden Fleece, which has the power to heal anything and propose a quest to retrieve the Fleece and use it to heal Thalia’s tree. Counsellor Mr. D claims the idea as his and chooses Clarisse to lead the quest.
Percy and Annabeth set off without being chosen, joined by Tyson. They leave camp on the Chariot of Damnation (a New York City cab), where the three drivers (the Graeae) tell Percy more about his prophecy and coordinates for the Sea of Monsters (the Bermuda Triangle). The group are ejected in Washington D.C. for lacking drachmas, where Grover is kidnapped. The others, with the help of Hermes, track him down to Luke’s yacht, the Andromeda, which they reach riding Hippokamposes. On board, they meet Luke (joined by other disillusioned demi-gods,) who reveals his plan to have Kronos the titan destroy Olympus by reviving him with the fleece and locks the group in the brig, but Percy uses his ability to manipulate water to break them free.
Escaping the yacht, they are consumed by Charybdis, where they discover Clarisse also in the monster’s stomach. They work together to escape by shooting a hole through Charybdis’s gut, then chart a course to Circeland, off the coast of Florida. There they discover Polyphemus’s lair, where the fleece is kept and Grover is in disguise working for the cyclops. They rescue Grover, retrieve the fleece and trap Polyphemus in his cave. Luke ambushes them and shoots at Percy with a crossbow for not handing over the fleece, but Tyson takes the bolt and falls into a roaring stream. Luke takes the fleece and the group hostage.
As Luke begins reviving Kronos from his sarcophagus, Annabeth encourages Percy to take leadership. The team escapes and Percy fights Luke over the fleece. Luke defeats Percy but he is saved by Tyson, who survived his injury by being healed by the water, as he is Poseidon’s son. Kronos rises from the sarcophagus and consumes Luke, Grover and several other demi-gods before battling Percy. Percy realizes that his sword is the “cursed blade” of the prophecy and slices Kronos into pieces imprisoning the titan in the sarcophagus once again. Those eaten are regurgited with Luke landing in Polyphemus’s Lair and is presumably eaten. Annabeth is impaled by the Manticore and dies in Percy’s arms, but is resurrected by the fleece.
Percy gives the fleece to Clarisse and they return to Camp Half-Blood, where she places it on Thalia’s tree. The next day Thalia is found alive, as the fleece was powerful enough to resurrect and return her to human form, while keeping the tree as protection for Camp Half-blood. Percy realizes that Thalia, as the daughter of Zeus, is another possible child referred to in the prophecy about Olympus.
Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Thalia Grace infiltrate the West Hall boarding school in Bar Harbor, Maine, to escort the siblings, Bianca and Nico di Angelo, to Camp Half-Blood. Though their extraction is a success, the manticore Dr. Thorn captures Annabeth, escaping when Artemis and her Hunters arrive. Artemis sets off alone to track down a monster which, in the wrong hands, has the power to destroy Mount Olympus. Beforehand, she sends the half-bloods and her Hunters to Camp Half-Blood, via her brother Apollo and his sun chariot. Bianca joins the Hunters, granting her immortality.
At camp, Percy and his pegasus Blackjack unknowingly rescue an Ophiotaurus which Percy nicknamed “Bessie”. Artemis’ lieutenant Zoë Nightshade begins to have dreams of the goddess in danger, whilst Percy dreams of Annabeth saving Luke Castellan by holding up a cave’s ceiling. The mummified Oracle of Delphi disrupts a capture the flag game to give Zoë a prophecy; instructing her to travel to Mount Tamalpais, the modern day location of the Titans’ domain of Mount Othrys, to rescue Artemis and Annabeth. Zoë takes Thalia, Bianca, and Grover Underwood with her on the quest. Percy decides to sneak off on his own, reluctantly promising Nico that he will protect Bianca.
Travelling to Washington D.C., Percy follows Thorn to the Smithsonian, witnessing Luke, Thorn, and a man called “The General” summoning spartoi to waylay Zoë’s group. Percy warns his friends, helping them defeat the Nemean lion, claiming its impenetrable pelt as a reward. Zoë allows Percy to join the group, realising her prophecy implied this. They travel to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, where Grover senses the missing god Pan, who sends the Erymanthian Boar to help the group escape the spartoi.
They reach Gila Claw, Arizona, the “Junkyard of the Gods”. Bianca reveals she and Nico unknowingly spent years in the Lotus Hotel, actually born in the 1930s, until taken to West Hall. Percy briefly has an encounter with Ares and Aphrodite, who warn him not to take anything from the junkyard. Bianca, regretting her choice to leave Nico, tries to take a figurine from the junkyard for her brother, awakening a prototype of Talos, giving her life to destroy it. The survivors sullenly travel to Hoover Dam, where Percy encounters Bessie, as well as Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal who can see through the Mist, providing him an escape route by distracting the spartoi. The group fly to San Francisco with help from the dam’s Winged Figures of the Republic.
Percy seeks out Nereus, learning that Bessie is the monster Artemis was hunting. After destroying Thorn, Percy sends Grover back to Camp Half-Blood with Bessie, sacrificing the lion pelt to his father Poseidon for his friend’s safe passage. Percy, Zoë, and Thalia turn to Annabeth’s father Frederick Chase for help, borrowing his car to reach Mount Othrys. There, they enter the Garden of the Hesperides, where Zoë is revealed to be the daughter of Atlas, the General’s true identity. Zoë was exiled by her siblings after aiding Hercules steal a golden apple as per his labours, having gifted him with Percy’s sword Riptide.
Reaching the peak of Mount Othrys, the group find Artemis holding up the sky, a role that Annabeth was also subjected too, explaining the true nature of Percy’s dreams. Percy briefly takes the sky’s weight, freeing Artemis. Luke tempts Thalia into joining Kronos’ forces, but she declines, knocking him off the mountainside. Percy and Artemis trap Atlas beneath the sky, but not before he casts Zoë off a cliff, mortally wounding her. Frederick flies to the rescue, piloting a Sopwith Camel, the half-bloods escaping to a nearby airfield where Zoë dies of her wounds, transformed into a new constellation by Artemis called the “Hunter”.
Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Artemis travel to Mount Olympus to attend the gods’ winter solstice meeting, Artemis convincing the Olympians of the Titans’ threat. Bessie is kept on Olympus for safekeeping. Thalia joins the Hunters to forestall the Great Prophecy, in which a child of either Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades could be used to bring victory for Kronos. Percy learns from Poseidon that Luke is alive. Upon returning to Camp Half-Blood, Percy informs Nico of Bianca’s demise. A distraught Nico blames Percy, revealing he is a son of Hades when he banishes the spartoi to the Underworld, before fleeing. Percy tells Annabeth and Grover of Nico’s lineage, the trio promising to keep it a secret, fearful that Nico will be the subject of the Great Prophecy.
Percy Jackson attends freshman orientation at Goode High School, where he sees Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal who can see through the Mist. She helps him fight two empousai and escape. Percy travels to Camp Half-Blood, where he learns Grover is in trouble with the Council of Cloven Elders for not having found Pan. During a competition organized by the new sword instructor Quintus, Annabeth Chase and Percy accidentally find an entrance into the Labyrinth, which presents a possible invasion route for Luke Castellan. Annabeth is given leadership of a quest to find Daedalus and convince him not to give the Ariadne’s string to Luke, which would help him navigate the Labyrinth. She chooses Grover, Percy, and Tyson to accompany her. Before leaving, Percy learns that Nico di Angelo plans to bring back his late sister, Bianca (with help from King Minos) by exchanging her soul for someone who has cheated death – like Percy. In the maze, Percy and his friends face a number of trials, including meeting Briares and Janus, before arriving at the ranch of Geryon and meeting Nico. Nico is not happy to see Percy again, but the spirit of Bianca manages to convince him to trust Percy. So that Nico can be safe, he remains at the ranch whilst Percy and the others return to the labyrinth. They seek out Hephaestus’ help. After speaking to him, they part ways; Tyson and Grover search for Pan, while Annabeth and Percy go to the God’s forge in the volcano Mount St. Helens.
In the forge, Percy is almost killed by Kronos’s smiths, but escapes by causing an earthquake that ejects him from the volcano. When Percy awakens, he finds himself on the island Ogygia with Calypso, a daughter of the Titan Atlas. Calypso tells Percy she is cursed to fall in love with every hero that lands on her island, but the hero can never stay. After Hephaestus tells him of events in the mortal world, Percy realizes that he too must leave. Back at Camp Half-Blood, Percy and Annabeth go to Manhattan to find Rachel, who should be able to navigate the Labyrinth. Despite being captured by Luke’s minions, they eventually reach Daedalus’s workshop and learn that Quintus is actually the ancient inventor, living as an automaton. He informs them that, believing they could not withstand a Titan assault, he has already helped Luke. The group is discovered by Nico, who tells them Minos has been planning to exchange Daedalus’s soul for his own. The four teenagers fight to escape, while the betrayed Daedalus remains in the maze with his hellhound.
The quartet later discover the Titan fortress at Mount Othrys, and learn that Luke has been somehow possessed by Kronos. They run into Grover and Tyson, and discover the resting place of Pan, who speaks to them and passes part of his fading spirit into each of them. The group, minus Rachel, then heads back to Camp Half-Blood to fight. The Titan army floods out of the Labyrinth and appears to be winning until Daedalus arrives with Mrs. O’Leary and Briares, who kill Kampê. Grover scares off the remaining Titan forces by causing a Panic. After the battle, Nico helps Daedalus pass on and die, hence destroying the Labyrinth. After a memorial service for the dead campers, Percy leaves camp for the school year. On his fifteenth birthday at summer’s end, Percy receives a visit from his father Poseidon, who gives him a sand dollar, advising him to “spend it wisely”. Nico later appears to tell Percy his plan to defeat Luke once and for all.
While Percy Jackson is on a drive with Rachel Dare, he is approached by Charles Beckendorf, and the two head off to attack Luke’s ship, The Princess Andromeda. Kronos, hosted in the mortal body of Luke, is not caught off guard because of a spy at Camp Half-Blood, and Beckendorf is killed in an explosion. Percy awakens later in his father Poseidon’s underwater palace, which is under siege by the Titan Oceanus. Percy wants to help fight, but Poseidon sends Percy back to Camp Half-Blood to hear the “Great Prophecy”. Once there, Percy informs the camp of the spy and learns that the Olympians are fighting Typhon. The following night, Percy leaves with Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, following a lead on how to defeat Kronos. After visiting Luke’s mother in Westport, Connecticut, and talking with Hestia, Percy procures a blessing from his mother. He then descends into the Underworld to bathe in the River Styx and take on the curse of Achilles. Despite being betrayed by Nico in exchange for information on the boy’s mother, Percy is successful and uses his new invulnerability to defeat a small army of Hades’s minions.
Percy emerges from the Underworld in New York City, leaving Nico behind to convince his father to join the fight against Kronos. Percy calls the campers to help defend Olympus, as the gods refuse to end their struggle with Typhon. Just before the battle begins, New York City is affected by a powerful sleeping spell from Morpheus, Hecate, and Kronos himself. Despite being joined by Thalia’s Hunters of Artemis, the Party Ponies, and a few other allies, the Olympian army struggles to hold back repeated assaults by the Titan army. Camp Half-Blood suffers 16 losses, out of an original 40 campers. Annabeth herself is badly injured when she saves Percy from an attack by Ethan Nakamura that would have hit Percy in his Achilles’ point. Even after these setbacks, Percy refuses a chance to surrender offered by Prometheus, and entrusts the Titan’s gift of Pandora’s pithos to Hestia. The campers successfully defeat Hyperion, further enraging Kronos. Rachel Dare, who has been experiencing inexplicable moments of prophecy, arrives to warn Percy of a drakon that can only be killed by a child of Ares. The campers do poorly against the drakon until Silena Beauregard arrives disguised as Ares’s head counselor Clarisse and breaks the cabin’s boycott of the war, getting badly injured in the process. The real Clarisse arrives in a fury and kills the drakon by herself. As Silena lies dying, the campers learn that she was the camp’s spy, but chose to right her wrongs after her boyfriend Beckendorf’s death.
Percy contacts his father and asks Poseidon to join the fight against Typhon; he reluctantly agrees. Driven back to the blocks surrounding the Empire State Building, Percy and his friends make their last stand to protect Mount Olympus. Even when Hades arrives with Nico and an army, Kronos still manages to enter Olympus. Percy attacks Kronos, without either side gaining a significant advantage. In an Iris message-vision, the combatants are able to see Typhon approaching New York, only to be defeated with the aid of Poseidon and his cyclopes. Ethan Nakamura rebels against Kronos but is killed. When Kronos attacks Annabeth, Luke is able to regain control of his body and, with Percy’s help, he injures himself at his mortal point and apparently kills Kronos. As he dies, Luke tells Percy that Ethan had the right idea; the war was caused by the resentment of unrecognized gods and unclaimed children. He dies peacefully, and the Fates carry his body away.
The gods grant rewards to several heroes who were instrumental in defeating the Titans, including Thalia, Grover, Annabeth, Tyson, Clarisse, and Nico. Finally, Percy is called forward. Zeus offers him the greatest gift of all time: immortal godhood. Much to the Olympians’ shock, Percy instead asks the gods to swear on the River Styx that they will claim all demigods by the time they turn thirteen, have cabins built for the children of all minor gods and Hades, and give amnesty to innocent Titans and their former allies such as Calypso. Percy also relieves Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades of their oath to not have demigod children. Privately, Hermes reveals to Percy that Kronos is not dead, but is instead hopefully spread so thin that he can never form a consciousness again, let alone a body, as the Titans cannot die any more than the gods can. After the meeting, Percy discovers that Rachel plans to become the new Oracle, and he rushes to camp with Annabeth and Nico. With Apollo’s supervision, Rachel safely becomes the new Oracle and speaks the next Great Prophecy. Annabeth celebrates Percy’s birthday and the two begin dating. The gods keep to their new promises, and Camp Half-Blood slowly returns to normal. The fallen demigods are honored with the end-of-summer’s bead.
Jason Grace awakens on a school bus which belongs to the Wilderness School, unable to remember anything about his past. He is next to Piper McLean, his apparent girlfriend, and Leo Valdez, his apparent best friend. All three are part of a class field trip to the Grand Canyon. After they arrive there, a classmate, Dylan, turns into a storm spirit and attacks the trio and their trip leader, Coach Gleeson Hedge. In the ensuing fight, Jason battles the spirit and surprises everyone with his powers. Hedge is revealed to be a satyr and is captured by the storm spirit as it flees. A flying chariot with two demigods appear on the scene. The female demigod, Annabeth Chase, expresses her frustration upon seeing that her missing boyfriend, Percy Jackson, is not there as she had hoped, as he has been missing for three days without a trace. Jason, Piper, and Leo are told that they are Greek demigods and are taken back to Camp Half-Blood. There, Leo is revealed as a son of Hephaestus, Piper as a daughter of Aphrodite and Jason as a son of Jupiter, though Hera, the Greek form of Juno, tells him he is her champion.
Leo, who has the rare ability to conjure fire, does not use nor tell anyone about it out of guilt about his mother’s death seven years prior. Meanwhile, Jason finds out about his sister Thalia Grace, a daughter of Zeus and lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. In the woods, Leo discovers a damaged mechanical bronze dragon and rejuvenates it. Shortly thereafter, the three are given a quest to rescue Hera from danger. After encountering Boreas, Piper, Jason, and Leo discover that their enemies are working under orders from Gaea, the Greek primordial goddess of the Earth, to overthrow the gods. Throughout their journey, they overcome numerous obstacles and eventually manage to save Coach Hedge, and also meet Thalia and the Hunters, who have also been looking for Percy. Thalia and Jason reunite for the first time since Jason was two, but they are separated on the way to Aeolus’s castle. After almost being imprisoned by Aeolus under Gaea’s orders, the trio manage to escape and end up in San Francisco.
They defeat the giant Enceladus at Mount Diablo and rescue Piper’s father, who was being held captive. After saving Piper’s dad, she gave him a potion given to her by Aphrodite and he forgot about the mythical world. Jason, Piper and Leo, with the Hunters of Artemis, travel to the Wolf House and defeats the forces of Gaea, saving Hera. They temporarily stall Gaea’s plans, but are unable to completely destroy the ancient beings. Meanwhile, at camp, Leo creates plans for a ship that can sail to Greece, and the Hephaestus campers decide to build it, appointing Leo as their new counselor. With part of his memory returned, Jason realizes that he is a son of Jupiter, a hero from a Roman counterpart camp to Camp Half-Blood called Camp Jupiter somewhere near San Francisco. Hera, known as Juno to the Romans, has switched him with the Greek hero Percy Jackson, who is now at the Roman camp with no memory of his previous life. Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter have had a ruthless rivalry, and whenever they came into contact, things never ended well.
10 months after Percy Jackson’s defense of Mount Olympus in The Last Olympian, Percy finds himself alone and on the run from monsters in northern California without his memories. With the guidance of Lupa, the wolf-goddess and protector of ancient Rome, he makes his way to Camp Jupiter, a Roman demigod training camp and counterpart to the Greek demigods’ Camp Half-Blood. Upon arriving, he is attacked by Gorgons — Stheno and Euryale — and successfully defends a disguised Juno and the camp with the help of the guards on duty. Having been protected by Percy during the attack, Juno announces Percy’s arrival with approval, identifying him as a son of Neptune. Nobody knows that he is actually a son of the Greek god Poseidon. She tells him privately that he can only regain his memory by learning to be a hero again and successfully surviving the challenges he encounters at camp.
He quickly befriends Frank Zhang, son of Mars, and Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. Frank is revealed to also be a distant descendant of Poseidon and his grandson the Argonaut Periclymenus with shapeshifting powers while Hazel died in the 1940s and was recently resurrected by her half-brother Nico di Angelo. He is introduced to the praetor of the camp, Reyna, and the augur Octavian, who quickly takes a disliking to Percy. Octavian tells Percy that the Book of Prophecies is missing. Being outcasts themselves at Camp Jupiter, Frank and Hazel empathize with Percy’s outsider status and consider it their duty to help him adjust and acclimatize quickly to the camp’s routines and leadership. But before any of them has a chance to gain their footing, they receive a prophecy from Mars, the Roman god of war, and are ordered to go on a quest to rescue Thanatos, the god of death, from the Giant Alcyoneus, who is hiding deep in Alaska. Over the course of the adventure, Hazel reveals that she was used to raise Alcyoneus in the 1940s, but she sacrificed herself to stop him, resulting in the Giant’s rise being delayed by several decades.
On their journey, they encounter Phineas, the blind human who helped Jason, leader of the Argonauts on his journey, and befriend a harpy named Ella. They also see the three Cyclopes that Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez encountered in The Lost Hero. During the trip, the trio learns that the goddess Gaea is awakening from several millennia of slumber with a plan to destroy the gods and the world along with them. Her seven Giant children are being woken, each of whom is matched to fight its counterpart god. Each Giant has the skills to oppose one god and can only be defeated if the gods and the demigods join forces. Percy and his friends manage to defeat the Alaskan Giant and save Camp Jupiter from destruction. During their journey, Hazel and Frank become true heroes who know how to use their powers and have self-confidence. Percy regains his memory on their return to Camp Jupiter and finds an army of monsters (including Stheno, Euryale, and the three Cyclopes) led by Polybotes attacking it. Percy successfully defeats Polybotes with the help of Terminus, his Cyclops half-brother, Tyson and Percy’s pet hellhound Mrs. O’Leary. As a reward for Percy’s bravery, he is elevated to the rank of praetor, replacing the missing Jason Grace. At the end of the book, the Greek airship, Argo II arrives, setting the stage for The Mark of Athena.
Six months after the events of The Lost Hero, Leo Valdez has constructed a flying trireme named Argo II, for use in the quest to Greece and Rome to stop Gaea from awakening. Leo, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Annabeth Chase, accompanied by Coach Hedge, arrive at Camp Jupiter to rendezvous with Percy Jackson and Roman demigods Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque. Camp Jupiter’s praetor Reyna tells Annabeth that in order to unite Greek and Roman demigods against Gaea, they have to retrieve the Athena Parthenos, a giant statue of Athena that was stolen by the Romans from the Greeks in ancient times. The statue can only be retrieved by the demigod children of Athena through the help of the Mark of Athena, and no one has succeeded. Their conversation is interrupted by an Eidolon, who possesses Leo and forces him to attack the Roman camp. This causes the paranoid augur, Octavian, to convince the Romans that the Greeks are a threat and have to be destroyed.
The seven demigods escape Camp Jupiter and briefly land near the Great Salt Lake. While there, Leo meets Nemesis, who gives him a fortune cookie that will help him if he breaks it, though doing so has consequences. Then, the group heads to Kansas, where Percy, Jason, and Piper disembark to find Bacchus, who tells them that they should find Phorcys. Gaea sends Eidolons to possess Percy and Jason in Kansas but they are repelled by Piper’s charmspeak. When the demigods meet Phorcys and his sister, Keto, at the Georgia Aquarium, they turn out to be hostile, and the demigods are forced to battle them. Throughout the journey, tensions rise between Hazel, Frank, and Leo, especially when Leo discovers that Hazel’s previous boyfriend was Leo’s identical-looking great-grandfather. The group also learn that Nico di Angelo, who has been captured by the Giants during his travel to find the Doors of Death, is dying and must be saved. While searching for the Mark of Athena at Fort Sumter in Charleston, the demigods are ambushed by the Romans, but Reyna decides to let Annabeth continue her search for the Athena Parthenos, telling her that their next encounter will not be friendly. Annabeth finds a map about the mark of Athena, and returns to the ship.
While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Argo II is attacked by the Scolopendra, one of Keto’s children, and Leo, Frank, and Hazel are briefly sent underwater to Chiron’s brother, the Ichthyocentaurs. While traveling to Rome, they dodge Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar and sail through the Mediterranean Sea, confronting Chrysaor along the way. There, the group splits up: Hedge guards the ship; Percy, Jason, and Piper scout the Colosseum; Frank, Hazel, and Leo search for Nico; and Annabeth looks for the Athena Parthenos. Percy and Jason defeat Ephialtes and Otis, the twin Giants who captured Nico, with the help of Bacchus. Frank, Hazel, and Leo are trapped by the Eidolons underground, but Leo uses his fortune cookie to bail them out. Annabeth, meanwhile, faces a variety of challenges, eventually confronting Arachne and defeats her using trickery, pushing her into Tartarus. The demigods secure the Athena Parthenos and save Nico, however Arachne uses her remaining silk and pulls Annabeth and Percy into Tartarus; Percy hanging on the edge, asks Nico to meet them at the other side of the Doors of Death and falls into the abyss. Leo realizes that Percy and Annabeth’s fall are the “consequences” mentioned by Nemesis and feels personally responsible. The remaining members set sail for Greece.
After Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson fall into Tartarus at the end of The Mark of Athena, the other five demigods of the “Prophecy of Seven” (Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque, Jason Grace, Leo Valdez and Piper McLean), aided by Nico di Angelo and Coach Hedge, prepare to go to Greece to find and close the Doors of Death from the mortal world in order to prevent the monsters of Gaea’s army from continuously resurrecting. In Bologna, the Argo II is raided by the Kerkopes; Leo goes after them to retrieve his stolen Archimedes’s sphere, and takes an agricultural book belonging to Triptolemus and an astrolabe made by Odysseus as recompense. He also sends the Kerkopes to harass the Roman army massing at Camp Half-Blood. In Venice, Frank, Hazel and Nico retrieve barley cakes designed to protect them from poison in the Necromanteion from Triptolemus. In exchange for the barley cakes, Frank has to get a replacement snake for Triptolemus’ chariot, which is powered by two snakes. After remembering that his father, Mars, can turn enemies to snakes, Frank decides to battle all the Katobleps (cow monsters) in exchange for a snake. He defeats all of the monsters and receives the blessing of Mars for his heroism, becoming physically stronger and gaining a snake for Triptolemus. During a later encounter with the bandit Sciron and after a meeting with the goddess Hecate, Hazel successfully learns to manipulate the Mist, a power that alters other people’s reality layers by deceiving them.
At Jason’s behest, the demigods travel to Split to visit the tomb of Diocletian, retrieve his powerful scepter, and leave a note for Reyna (who has been asked by Annabeth to find the Greek demigods). The god Cupid, guardian of the scepter, refuses to relinquish it until Nico admits that he once had a crush on Percy Jackson. While sailing through the Adriatic Sea, the ship is attacked by Khione and the Boreads. Piper uses her powerful charmspeaking skills to defend the group. During the attack, Leo is transported to Ogygia, where he falls in love with Calypso. Although he leaves the island, Leo promises to return for her. While Leo is detained, the rest of the crew meets with Notus, who helps Jason to realize that he has chosen to be a Greek rather than a Roman demigod, settling an internal conflict within himself. Jason later gives up his praetorship to Frank in accordance with this decision. Arriving at the Necromanteion, the reunited crew is attacked by Clytius, Pasiphaë, and a group of their minions. Each of the demigods uses some aspect of their newly strengthened powers or identities to help defeat these monsters; for example, Hazel’s new power and alliance with Hecate helps her defeat Pasiphaë and Clytius.
Meanwhile, Percy and Annabeth travel through Tartarus to the other side of the Doors of Death, aided by the Titan Iapetus, who now goes by “Bob” after a previous encounter with Percy, the giant Damasen, and a few other beings. As the other demigods fight in the world above, Percy and Annabeth’s group reach the Doors of Death and fight the personification of Tartarus, eventually destroying the chains holding the Doors in place. Bob stays behind amongst hordes of angry monsters to defend the Doors while Percy and Annabeth escape and reunites with the other five demigods, who successfully close the Doors of Death. Reyna arrives on her dying Pegasus and Annabeth tasks Reyna, a Roman, with bringing the Athena Parthenos (using the Argo II’s hold) back to Camp Half-Blood to appease both the Greeks and Romans, with Nico and Coach Hedge volunteering to accompany her.
After the events of the previous novel, Jason, Piper, and Annabeth disguise themselves with Hazel’s Mist to infiltrate Odysseus’ home in Ithaca, where Gaea’s resurrected souls are gathering. They learn that Gaea’s army does not plan to invade Mount Olympus, but instead the Acropolis in Athens. Since the Gulf of Corinth is heavily fortified and guarded by the army, the demigods decide they have to circle the whole Peloponnese to reach Athens. When Michael Varus, one of the souls, recognizes the demigods, he forces Jason to confront his mother’s insane spirit, and mortally wounds Jason. As Jason recuperates, the three demigods use Odysseus’ marriage bed to summon Juno, who tells them to seek Nike and find Artemis and Apollo, both of whom have been banished by Zeus. At Olympia, Percy, Leo, Hazel, and Frank are forced to participate in Nike’s deadly Olympic Games, but eventually captures her. She reveals that one of them is destined to die, and that he needs the Physician’s Cure to survive, a cure that consists of Pylosian mint, the heartbeat of the chained god, and the curse of Delos.
Frank obtains the first ingredient from his shapeshifter relatives in Pylos. Piper and Annabeth obtain the second ingredient, the Makhai or the chained god’s heartbeat, from a chained Ares statue by defeating Mimas at the temple of Ares in Sparta. While sailing through the Aegean Sea, a violent storm hits the Argo II. Percy and Jason discover it is caused by Kymopoleia, a daughter of Poseidon who is working with Polybotes. Jason convinces Kymopoleia to switch sides and they kill Polybotes together. In return, he swears to become a Pontifex Maximus after the war; Jason’s resolution of his internal conflict heals his mortal wound. After reaching Mykonos, Leo, Frank, and Hazel meet with Artemis and Apollo. Apollo gives them the third ingredient, the cursed aster, and reveals that his son Asclepius is able to make the physician’s cure and is at Epidaurus. Leo tells Hazel and Frank about his plan to sacrifice himself and defeat Gaea.
Meanwhile, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Nico di Angelo, and Coach Hedge shadow-travel to Camp Half-Blood with the Athena Parthenos. At Évora, they are attacked by Lycaon and his aides, whom they defeat, and they shadow-travel to San Juan, Reyna’s homeland. Reyna is captured by the Hunters of Artemis, who are working together with the Amazons, led by Reyna’s sister, Hylla. A giant, revealed to be Orion, appears and massacres both the Hunters and the Amazons. Reyna, Nico, and Hedge shadow-travel to South Carolina. Reyna reveals that she killed her father’s insane spirit to Nico and Hedge, and Bryce Lawrence, a legacy who was exiled from New Rome but recently reinstated, overhears. He tries to capture Reyna and bring her in for patricide but is turned into a ghost by a furious Nico.
Transported close to Camp Half-Blood with the help of Pegasus and several of his brethren, Nico and Hedge head to the camp along with several defecting Romans where Nico, Will Solace and several other demigods sabotage the Roman onagers. Reyna is confronted by Orion, and she kills him with the help of her mother Bellona, and Athena. Reyna then returns the Athena Parthenos, ending the warfare and rivalry. Meanwhile, the demigods head to the Acropolis and battle the army of giants, whom they kill with the help of the gods in their Greek forms, their split personalities healed by the return of Athena Parthenos. However, the Giants injure Percy and Annabeth, whose blood wakes Gaea. The seven demigods, transported by Zeus, arrive and confront Gaea at the camp. As Jason contains the goddess, Piper charmspeaks Gaea to sleep while Leo and a newly repaired Festus bombard her with fire. Octavian attacks Gaea with an onager, accidentally launching himself to his death as well which Nico chooses to allow to happen. Leo’s supernova of fire and Octavian’s onager shot atomize Gaea and scatter her essence, hopefully spreading her so thin that Gaea can never form a consciousness again as had happened to Kronos.
The camps celebrate their victory together at Camp Half-Blood but mourn their losses, including Leo who is killed taking down Gaea and vanishes along with Festus. Nico decides to stay in Camp Half-Blood and also reveals his crush to Percy, but decides that he has moved on and shows a possible interest in Will Solace instead whom Nico had bonded with during the battle. Jason, having been made a Pontifex, plans to visit Camp Jupiter occasionally to make offerings. Percy and Annabeth plan to move to Camp Jupiter to attend college after they graduate from high school. Meanwhile, Leo is resurrected by Festus with the physician’s cure and arrives at Ogygia using an astrolabe created by Odysseus to pick up Calypso, fulfilling his vow to come back and rescue her. They leave into the unknown to seek adventure.
Carter and his father Julius Kane are visiting Carter’s sister Sadie, who has lived with her maternal grandparents in London since the death of their mother, Ruby Kane. Julius, a magician posing as a simple Egyptologist, takes the siblings to the British Museum, where he tries to bring Osiris (the Egyptian god of the Underworld) into the mortal world. His magic has the unintended side effect of summoning the gods Horus, Isis, Nephthys, and Set, as well as alerting the magicians Zia Rashid and Michel Desjardins to his actions, which are illegal in the magic community. Set, a god of chaos, captures Julius and declares his intention to become king of the world. Unbeknownst to Carter and Sadie, each of the released gods chooses a mortal host from the humans in the room.
Carter and Sadie are taken to Brooklyn by their uncle Amos, who tells them they are descended from a long line of magicians, beginning with the Egyptian pharaohs Ramesses the Great and Narmer. He also explains the grave danger Set poses to the world and goes to find him. While he is away, the mansion is attacked by Set’s minions. With help from Sadie’s cat Muffin, who is host to the goddess Bast, and Zia Rashid, they escape to Cairo. Once there, Carter and Sadie discover they are hosts to the gods Horus and Isis, respectively. They train in magic until the magicians’ leader Iskandar dies and Michel Desjardins orders their deaths for collaborating illegally with the gods. The siblings escape and form a plan to defeat Set — hoping to rescue their father and clear their names within the magic community. They travel to Set’s lair in Arizona, gathering ingredients for a magic spell and evading hostile monsters and magicians.
Bast sacrifices herself while defending Carter and Sadie from Sobek, then they encounter Amos and then Zia. The foursome heads to Set’s hideout, where they learn the final piece of the spell they need from a dying Zia, the unknowing host of Nephthys. Carter, Sadie, Horus, and Isis use the spell to subdue Set, although they stop short of completely destroying him because they realize his actions were dictated by a far worse enemy — Apophis, a much more powerful god of chaos. Desjardins reluctantly allows Carter and Sadie to go free after they part with Horus and Isis. After a tearful goodbye with Zia, who turns out to have been a magical copy of the real magician, Carter and Sadie return to Brooklyn. They visit their father, now in the underworld, reunited with their ghostly mother. As a gift, the other gods as well as Osiris (hosted by the deceased Julius) help Bast return to the mortal world. Carter and Sadie describe their plans to recruit other magicians to (illegally) study the path of the gods, and Carter also resolves to seek out the real Zia Rashid.
Sadie and Carter Kane must find the three scrolls of the Book of Ra, to wake the sun god Ra from his sleep, and stop Apophis, the serpent of chaos, from destroying the world. The first scroll is hidden inside the Brooklyn Museum. With two of their magician trainees, Jaz and Walt, the Kane siblings manage to retrieve the scroll, fighting off a griffin and evil spirits. That night as she sleeps, Sadie’s ba (soul) leaves her body and travels to the Hall of Ages, the House of Life’s headquarters. She sees Desjardins, the Chief Lector of the House of Life, discussing a plot to destroy Brooklyn House with a man named Vladimir Menshikov. Meanwhile, Carter’s ba meets with the god Horus, who warns him that the gods might attack him if he tries to wake Ra.
On Sadie’s birthday, she decides to go to London to visit friends, but is attacked by the baboon god Babi and the vulture goddess Nekhbet, who are possessing her grandparents. She is rescued by Bes, the dwarf god. He then accompanies Sadie and Carter to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. There, the siblings find the second scroll with Menshikov, who has summoned Set and trapped him in a vase. Menshikov discovers them and unleashes a four-legged, two-headed snake that wounds and poisons Carter before Sadie kills it. Sadie is no match for Menshikov’s magic, so she releases Set from the vase, and he knocks Menshikov unconscious. Set tells Sadie the location of the third scroll and the name of Zia’s home village. In exchange, Sadie gives back his secret name, releasing her control over him. Then, she heals Carter.
Carter and Sadie separate: Walt helps Sadie find the third scroll in the Valley of Golden Mummies, and Bes escorts Carter to Zia’s village. Walt and Sadie successfully obtain the third scroll after warding off a horde of angry Roman mummies. Carter and Bes find Zia in an induced sleep. Carter wakes her, and Zia, having no memories of the adventures her shabti (animated clay or wax figures that can appear to be real humans or animals) had with Carter, attacks him, believing him to be a traitor. Desjardins and Menshikov arrive, and they cage Bes and decide to execute Carter. Sadie and Walt appear just in time, releasing Bes from his cage. Bes banishes Menshikov and Desjardins back to the Hall of Ages, and Menshikov begins assembling a demonic task force to destroy Brooklyn House. Sadie persuades Zia to join forces with them, and Zia and Walt leave to defend Brooklyn House. Carter and Sadie climb into Ra’s boat and travel into the Duat to retrace Ra’s journey along the River of Night, through the Houses of Night.
On the way, they encounter a giant man with horns, one of three aspects of Ra’s soul. They read to him from the first scroll of Ra, and he allows them to pass. The siblings travel through a Lake of Fire, and Bes joins them at the Fourth House, a special care facility for elderly, forgotten minor gods. Tawaret, a fertility goddess who takes the form of a hippo and shares a turbulent romantic history with Bes, runs the facility. By reading from the second scroll, Carter and Sadie find Ra and wake him. He is old, feeble, and has the mind of a child; he seems unaware of his surroundings and constantly speaks gibberish. The Kanes continue down the River of Night until they reach the Seventh House. Unfortunately, they cannot continue through the Eighth House, because it is past eight o’clock. To finish their journey, Carter, Sadie and Bes play a game of senet with the moon god Khonsu, gambling their rens (secret names) for three extra hours of moonlight. They successfully earn three hours at the cost of Bes’s ren. The Kanes resume their journey deep into the Duat to the pit where Apophis is imprisoned. Menshikov, already there and waiting for the siblings, challenges them to a duel. While Carter keeps Menshikov preoccupied, Sadie reads the third scroll to wake the third part of Ra’s soul, which takes the form of a golden scarab. Apophis possesses Menshikov and prepares to destroy the Kanes, but Desjardins appears. He execrates Apophis even deeper into the Duat, but kills himself in the process.
As dawn approaches, the Kanes travel back to Brooklyn House, which is being attacked by demons, evil magicians, monsters and flying snakes. Carter and Sadie help defend it while Bast escorts a still incoherent Ra to his place in the sky, but not before he gives the golden scarab to Zia. After winning the battle, the Kanes give the enemy magicians the option to join them and learn the path of the gods. Some accept; others flee. Because Apophis’ defeat is only temporary, Sadie and Carter must work harder than ever to unite all magicians. The gods reluctantly acknowledge Sadie and Carter’s victory and pledge to fight beside them in the coming war against the forces of Chaos.
This book begins six months after the events of the preceding novel, when Carter Kane and Sadie Kane travel to the 51st nome, Dallas, with their initiates and meet J.D. Grissom, the leader of the nome. They tell him that they need a magic scroll from the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, or his nome will be attacked and destroyed by the forces of Apophis, the god of chaos. In three days, Apophis will rise, swallow the sun, and destroy the world. Sadie sees a face in the wall which tells them they instead need a golden box. However, the nome is attacked, and the scroll is destroyed. To save everyone from getting killed, Sadie summons Ma’at, repulsing the forces of chaos, but blacking out. When she awakens, she finds that the 51st nome has been destroyed, and all of its magicians killed. At the 21st nome in Brooklyn, they discover that the golden box Sadie was told to retrieve is a shadow box of King Tut
Horus visits Carter and hints at a connection between shadows and statues, leading Carter to suspect that there is a better way to execrate Apophis, and decides to consult Thoth. He tells the others at dinner and makes plans to find Thoth that night, but Sadie makes him go to their school dance. During the dance, Sadie meets with Anubis, and he suggests that the shadow is like a computer backup drive, but Shu, the god of wind and Anubis’ great-grandfather separates them. Sadie gets an idea about using Bes’ sheut to give him back his ren and restore the god’s soul.
Leonid, the Russian magician they met last year comes with bad news and reveals he has secretly been learning the Path of Shu, which is forbidden. Sadie takes him to the First Nome to meet Amos. He tells them that the rebels, led by Sarah Jacobi and Kwai, have teamed up with Apophis. Amos tells Zia and Sadie to visit Bes. Meanwhile, Carter and Walt go visit Thoth, who is being attacked by demons. Walt and Carter repulse them, and Thoth helps them understand who Setne is. They realize they have to visit the Land of the Dead at his trial and persuade Osiris to help them.
When Zia and Sadie are visiting the House of Rest, Sadie realizes that Amos is learning the Path of Set, who he was once forced to host. Tawaret, the hippopotamus goddess, tells them where Bes once hid his sheut. Carter, Sadie, Zia, and Walt meet and exchange information. They meet Osiris, and persuade him to let Setne go with them. Zia and Carter manage to help Setne retrieve the Book of Thoth from the Temple of the Apis bull. It is revealed that Ra, or more specifically, his morning incarnation, Khepri has chosen Zia as a host. She manages to survive but later Setne tricks them by giving orders to the captain to kill them and at the same time bringing them to the Land of Demons.
Meanwhile, Sadie and Walt visit the goddess Neith, who tells them she will help them if they can survive her hunt till sunset. They survive by using their shen amulets to split up and transfer to each other’s side, and then in the end, right before sunset Sadie tricks Neith by mesmerizing her with tales of hunting jelly babies. Walt uses the rest of his energy to revive Bes’ sheut, and dies before suddenly reviving as the host of Anubis. Sadie realizes that Walt had been inadvertently channeling the god’s power for some time, explaining his mysterious death powers and Walt and Anubis had planned for Walt to become Anubis’ host as a method of surviving the curse. Neith agrees to fight Apophis alongside the House of Life when he rises, before Sadie jumps into a portal made by Neith, leaving Walt behind.
Meanwhile, Carter and Zia can’t interpret the map and have to let Setne go so he can lead them to the shadow. They allow him to cast a glamour on them, so they blend in and look like demons and follow him to the Sea of Chaos. There is a single pillar of Ma’at and a small dock, implied to be the first land that rose from Chaos, that survive the sea’s effect, and to capture the shadow, they must be on the very edge of the dock while preventing themselves from getting sucked in. Their glamours start to fade and flicker. Setne is surprised that they are still alive as they approach closer, but Horus reveals to Carter that Ra’s power channeled through Zia is protecting them. They manage to summon the serpent’s shadow and trap it within the statue, but Setne betrays them, changing the glamour to a binding curse. He explains that he will bind the shadow within a figurine and blackmail Apophis with execration unless he does as he orders; he wants to destroy Egypt and all mention of his father (Ramses the Great) as well as most magicians, but not the entire world. However, there are some spells he can’t cast since he’s a ghost, so he needed Carter and Zia’s help. Sadie drops out of a portal above them and manages to bind Setne and unbind Carter and Zia. Sadie manages to capture the shadow and they turn back to Setne, but he has disappeared, bindings and all. However, they have bigger problems: the shadow called for reinforcements and an army of demons are marching toward them .
Tawaret arrives with the gods from the Fourth House (Sunny Acres) and saves them from a tragic death. The fight gave the old gods and goddesses a purpose, and Bes has returned to his old ugly self, just in time to get them to Ra’s sun barge, which is just passing by. When they get on board, Ra is still old and senile, but is reborn as a more fit old man once he merges with Zia.
They arrive in Giza to find Bast distracting Apophis as best as she can. Bes and Ra/Zia go to help her, while Sadie and Carter help to defend the First Nome. The rebel magicians are already there, guarding the door to the Hall of Ages, where Amos is trapped with the hit squad. The initiates of the Brooklyn house manage to fight their way through, with Walt/Anubis helping with his death magic. When they enter, Amos holds his own against the magicians because he is now the host of Set, and manages to keep Set’s power in check. Sadie and Carter channel Isis and Horus and join the fight, but they’re all subdued. The lead rebel, Sarah Jacobi, comes close to killing Sadie, but Walt/Anubis save her and bring forth the spirits of the dead to pull Jacobi into the Duat. Her lieutenant, Kwai channels Apophis, and is killed, but manages to cast one last spell “bring down” to destroy the Nome. Sadie channels Isis’ power and manages to speak the most difficult Word of Power of all: “Ma’at” and restores the Nome, passing out in the process.
In order to do the execration, they must face the serpent. Carter/Horus call on the gods and with their help, they march out to meet Apophis, but he is fracturing reality and they’re all separated on different levels of the Duat, fighting different parts of Apophis. Sadie and Carter manage to find where the serpent is strongest and though he manages to swallow Ra/Zia, they still cast the execration spell and destroy him forever. Zia escapes, blowing up Apophis’ head in the process but the gods have to withdraw, as Chaos and Ma’at are so intertwined that by pushing away and banishing Chaos, the forces of Ma’at must also be pushed away.
Though Ra has returned, he offers Horus the throne, and Carter takes the throne of the Pharaoh in the First Nome as well. However, Carter chooses to focus on running Brooklyn House while leaving Amos as the Chief Lector to deal with the day-to-day affairs of running the House of Life. Walt has gone missing, and Bast and Bes have also withdrawn. Their father is just happy that they’re alive and succeeded in saving the world. They return to Brooklyn House, where Walt/Anubis is waiting for them. Because Walt is Anubis’ permanent host, he doesn’t have to withdraw from the world and can stay with Sadie. Sadie shares a dance with them, excited to have a chance to finally be with both of the boys she loves at the same time.
Carter takes Zia out on a date in the Mall of America. She tells him that she will be staying in Brooklyn House. They share a passionate kiss and start a relationship. Setne is still on the loose with the Book of Thoth and Brooklyn House has had an influx of initiates, as have most of the Nomes in the world. Carter and Sadie explain that they’ll be so busy that there probably won’t be any more recordings. The book ends with an invitation to anyone with pharaoh’s blood to join the House of Life
The novel opens on the sixteenth birthday of protagonist Magnus Chase, who has been living on the streets of Boston since his mother Natalie’s death two years ago. After learning that his uncle Randolph has unexpectedly sent his uncle Frederick and cousin Annabeth to search for him, Magnus breaks into Randolph’s house to look for answers. Randolph catches Magnus and drives him to Longfellow Bridge, claiming that Magnus is the son of a Norse god, making him the target of an unnamed magical enemy. Randolph tells the boy that he must magically retrieve an ancient sword (Sumarbrander, or the “Sword of Summer”) hidden in Boston Harbor to protect himself. A fire giant known as Surt appears, and begins to destroy the bridge. Magnus attacks Surt with the sword to allow other pedestrians time to escape. As he realizes that he is about to die, he manages to wound the giant and hurl the two of them off the bridge. He dies on impact with the water.
Magnus awakens in a place called Hotel Valhalla as an einherjar, where he is told he will spend eternity training for Ragnarök. He is introduced to the Valkyrie who brought him to Valhalla, Sam, and to his new einherjar hallmates. During Magnus’ welcome feast, the three Norns pronounce Magnus a son of Frey and deliver a confusing prophecy. The hotel’s ruling council banishes Sam the Valkyrie for apparently “wrongly choosing” Magnus. That night, Magnus’s friends Hearth and Blitz arrive and reveal they are actually an elf and dwarf, respectively. They convince him to leave the hotel. In Midgard, the trio joins up with Sam. The group meets with the god Mimir, who tasks them with finding the Sword before Surt and bringing it to the island of Fenris Wolf. They retrieve the sword from the sea goddess Ran and journey to Nidavellir to secure a new binding for the Wolf. During the quest, Magnus experiences dream-visions of Loki, and once even of the goddess Hel offering to reunite him with his late mother—a proposal he struggles to refuse.
After a detour to Jotunheim, where they help the god Thor and Magnus discovers new magical powers, they finally arrive at Fenris’s island. Despite being attacked by a group of Valkyries, some of Magnus’ hallmates, and Surt, they successfully rebind the Wolf. Magnus has a brief vision of his father Frey before returning to Hotel Valhalla to stand trial for his disobedience. Before he can be punished, however, Magnus’s hallmate X stands and reveals himself to be the god Odin, in disguise. Odin rewards each of the heroes in turn, finally offering Magnus a chance to return to life or choose a different afterlife. Magnus declines, but returns to Boston to speak with his cousin Annabeth. The two hold a funeral for Natalie Chase and exchange stories of each other’s lives as demigods. Meanwhile, in the epilogue, Loki punishes Randolph for not being able to stop Magnus from rebinding Fenris. Loki implies that Randolph’s family will be in danger if the man does not cooperate
The book opens six weeks after the close of the preceding novel, The Sword of Summer. Magnus Chase meets with Samirah “Sam” al-Abbas and Otis, one of the god Thor’s two goats, who inform the heroes that Thor’s hammer is still missing. The jötnar are beginning to suspect Thor does not have his weapon to defend Midgard and plan to invade. Magnus returns to Hotel Valhalla to rest and prepare, where he meets Alex Fierro, Sam’s newest einherji recruit and a transgender/genderfluid child of Loki. While in Valhalla, Magnus has dreamlike visions of Loki manipulating his uncle Randolph. Loki also tells Magnus about a wedding between Samirah and the giant Thrym in five days and says that Magnus will need to bring the bride-price. Magnus, Sam, and their friends Blitzen and Hearthstone travel to the Provincetown barrow but discover the Skofnung Sword instead of Thor’s hammer. Loki appears and tells the quartet that the sword and matching whetstone will be Sam’s bride-price. They are reluctant to help Loki, who causes Randolph to wound Blitzen with the sword.
Because wounds caused by the sword can only be healed by its whetstone, the four are forced to hunt for the stone. Hearth, Magnus, and a petrified Blitz travel to Alfheim. There, Magnus learns the stone is in the possession of Hearth’s father, Alderman. Alderman insists Hearth repay a wergild he owes because Alderman resents Hearth for being unable to prevent his younger brother Andiron’s death at the hands of a Brunnmigi before he may take the stone. Magnus and Hearthstone track down a dwarf named Andvari and force him to give them his treasure, which they use to repay Hearth’s debt. With the stone, they heal Blitzen. After escaping Alderman, who has been driven insane by Andvari’s cursed ring, the trio returns to Midgard. With Alex and Sam, Magnus visits the god Heimdall to locate Utgard-Loki. Rejoining Blitz and Hearth, Magnus’s quest group then travels to Utgard-Loki. After completing some tasks to prove their worth, the giant king tells them Thrym has Thor’s hammer to be given to the bride as part of the traditional Norse wedding ritual and helps them track Thrym. Utgard-Loki also reveals that, according to Norse rituals, the father of the bride (i.e., Loki) will receive the Skofnung Sword which can free Loki from his cave. To retrieve the hammer and stop the giants’ invasion of Midgard, the quest group must go through with the wedding and deliver the Skofnung Sword to Loki.
The goddess Sif arrives and transports the mortals to Asgard. They explain the situation to Thor, who agrees to help them trick Thrym and retrieve the hammer. Since Sam is already betrothed, Alex volunteers to act as the bride because she is a daughter of Loki. The group travels to the cave where Loki is bound. Although they find the hammer, Loki forces Randolph to use the Skofnung Sword to cut his bonds. Magnus’s hallmates and a group of gods arrive and defeat the giants, but Loki escapes, and Randolph is killed by the spirits of the sword. The mortals and einherjar return to Hotel Valhalla and are told by Helgi their next mission will be to find and attempt to recapture Loki, who has gone to find the boat Naglfar. Magnus contacts his cousin Annabeth to ask for help from her boyfriend Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon.
Magnus and Alex Fierro travel to the Chase Mansion, where they recover notes written by Randolph at different points in time. After reaching Valhalla, Magnus summons a ship gifted by his father Frey. Mallory Keen, Halfborn Gunderson, Thomas Jefferson Jr., Samirah al-Abbas and Alex accompany Magnus, while they plan to pick up Blitzen and Hearthstone along the way. The crew’s conversation is heard by the Nine Billow Maidens, who take them to the court of Aegir, where they discover Hearth and Blitz are being held prisoner. Aegir’s eldest daughter recognizes Magnus from his previous encounter with her mother Rán. Upon being threatened, Magnus swears by his troth to defeat Loki in a flyting contest and to avenge Aegir’s humiliation, as Aegir was previously defeated by the god in a contest. Aegir invites them to escape while he isn’t looking, but the crew is attacked by Aegir’s nine daughters. They manage to escape with the help of Magnus’ grandfather, Njord. Njord reveals Magnus that the only way to defeat Loki is by drinking Kvasir’s mead. The crew continue on their journey, with Blitz and Hearth travelling separately to retrieve Bolverk’s whetstone.
As the crew heads to York, the backstories of the members are revealed. Mallory died disarming a bomb in Ireland; Halfborn died near Jorvik; TJ died after forcefully accepting a hopeless challenge, a trait inherited from his father Tyr. Samirah fasts during the Ramadan season. The crew arrives at York, where they duel with the giant Hrungnir for the location of Kvasir’s mead. They get the information that they need: Kvasir’s mead is in Jorvik, also known as Norway in the human realm. The crew goes to Norway, retrieve Kvasir’s mead from Suttung’s daughter, Gunnlöð, and kill Baugi. Suttung is killed single-handedly by Halfborn. They also learn that Naglfar is frozen between Niflheim and Jotunheim. They almost froze to death while travelling to Niflheim, but they are rescued by Skadi, Njord’s ex-wife. Magnus drinks Kvasir’s mead, and the crew goes to Naglfar. There, Magnus begins his flyting against Loki, but decides not to insult the god. Instead, he expresses the love and trust he has for his crew and pities Loki for his evident loneliness, as even his wife Sigyn abandons him. Loki shrinks to the size of a nut upon hearing Magnus’s words, and he is imprisoned in a walnut given to Mallory earlier by Frigg. Magnus and his friends go to Vigridr, the Last Battlefield, and meet the gods, who congratulate them for defeating Loki and delaying Ragnarök. For this, Magnus is rewarded with a boon from Odin, and he asks Odin to lend him his lawyers so that he could convert Randolph’s mansion into an orphanage and homeless shelter. He later recounts his adventure to Annabeth.
After falling into a dumpster in a New York City alley, the god Apollo has only very vague memories of his father, Zeus, punishing him. He learns that he was turned into a human teenager named Lester Papadopoulos. In the alley, two thugs try to mug him, but a young girl named Meg McCaffrey saves him, using fruit to chase the thugs away. Meg claims Apollo’s service, binding him to her until he is done with his trials, which he must complete to become a god again. Apollo and Meg go to find Percy Jackson.
With the help of Percy, Apollo and Meg journey to Camp Half Blood, a camp for demigods. On their way, they get attacked by plague spirits. Meg subconsciously summons a karpos, who defeats the spirits. Meg decides to keep him and names him Peaches, but he only shows up when she’s in trouble. After arriving at the Camp, Apollo discovers that the Oracle of Delphi, in the form of Rachel Elizabeth Dare, can no longer issue prophecies; similarly, travel and communication do not work for any of the demigods. The centaur Chiron also mentions that campers have been randomly disappearing into the woods.
At dinner, Meg is attacked by demigods who she previously angered. Peaches comes to her rescue, but the other demigods then attack Peaches, believing him to be dangerous. To save him, Meg reveals that her golden rings can turn into sickles made of Imperial gold. Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, claims her as her daughter.
The next day, Apollo tries to practice music and archery; being imperfect, he swears on the river Styx to never use a bow or a musical instrument until he is a god again. During a “three-legged death race” inside the Labyrinth, Apollo and Meg end up under Delphi in Greece. They overhear Delphi’s guard, Python, talking to “the Beast” about how to control all the oracles and destroy the Grove of Dodona. “The Beast” assures Python that he has “well-placed help within the camp.” The encounter terrifies them, especially Meg. They escape the Labyrinth, and Chiron reveals that Apollo’s children, Kayla and Austin, disappeared. Chiron and Meg advise Apollo to not search for them and the other missing demigods just yet, much to his anger. Instead, Apollo and Meg keep a lookout for them, and Meg reveals that she knows “the Beast” because of his reputation of taking demigods to train and use as servants. When Meg refused to work for him, he killed her father. Her stepfather then took her in, gave her the swords, and taught her how to fight.
Rachel arrives at the camp. She reveals that a secretive company, Triumvirate Holdings, has conspired against the gods and is attempting to control all the oracles, starting with Dodona, which is located at the camp and has been drawing campers to itself. The next day, Apollo and Meg go searching for the grove, but are attacked by myrmekes. In an attempt to drive them away, Apollo plays music, breaking his oath. The myrmekes kidnap Meg and escape. Apollo tries to return to the camp, but begins to hallucinate; before passing out, he finds Rhea, who gives him wind chimes to put on the largest tree in the Grove of Dodona and teleports him back to camp. Upon awakening, he learns that the leader of Triumvirate Holdings is Emperor Nero.
Apollo returns to the forest and finds the home of the myrmekes, rescuing Meg. They discover the entrance of the grove, along with the missing demigods. Nero appears and reveals that he is now a “god-emperor,” as he found a way to turn himself and the other two emperors in Triumvirate Holdings into gods, using the worshipping they received throughout history. He also reveals that Meg is the “well-placed help,” and he is her stepfather. Meg commands Apollo to help her open the Grove, and he is forced to obey. Nero tries to burn the grove down, but Peaches, sensing Meg’s true feelings of guilt and regret, attacks him before he can. Nero and Apollo briefly fight each other, and Meg runs into the Grove. Apollo regains his godly strength for a few seconds, allowing him to defeat his guards. Nero uses Greek fire in a last attempt to destroy the grove. The dryads come to help, consuming the fire to save the grove and sacrificing themselves in the process. Apollo helps Meg put the wind chimes on the largest tree, which gives a prophecy to Apollo. Meg releases him from her service and runs away, insisting that Nero isn’t “the Beast” and there’s still hope for him. Apollo realizes that she views Nero and “the Beast” as two separate people, a result of Nero’s years of mental/emotional abuse.
Nero sends the Colossus Neronis to destroy the camp, but with the help of Percy and the other campers, Apollo defeats the statue by hitting it with a plague-enchanted arrow. The next morning, Leo Valdez and Calypso return to Camp Half-Blood, and the two offer to help Apollo in his quest to rescue the Oracle of Trophonius from Triumvirate Holdings.
Six weeks after losing Meg McCaffrey to Nero and receiving the first prophecy, Apollo, Leo, Festus and Calypso are headed on a journey to stop Nero, the Beast, from controlling all of the oracles. They are rescued from a group of attacking blemmyae by Hemithea and invited into the Waystation, in the Indianapolis Union Station, where Apollo recalls answering to Hemithea’s prayer back when she was a Greek princess and turning Hemithea into a goddess, only to have his gift rejected when she joined the Hunters of Artemis. He learns that she is in a relationship with Josephine and the two of them have sacrificed their immortality as Hunters for love and are living as mortals. Their adopted daughter Georgina went missing after searching for the Oracle of Trophonius to receive a prophecy to prevent the Emperor Commodus from taking their griffins. Instead, she receives a message that damages her mind and causes her to wander away. Britomartis, the goddess of nets and owner of the Waystation, issues Apollo and Calypso a quest to rescue the griffins stolen by Commodus. The duo manages to rescue the griffins but is cornered by Lityerses, Commodus’ man and the son of King Midas who holds a grudge against Leo for his role in Midas’ second death and Lityerses getting turned into a golden statue. Meg McCaffrey arrives just in time and duels with Lityerses until Apollo releases the rest of the caged animals. Apollo then picks up Meg on his griffin while Lityerses is trampled, and the three go to the Waystation.
Apollo, Leo, and Meg head to Commodus’s lair and free all the captured animals and prisoners, including Georgina. They search for the Throne of Memory and find it, but they are discovered by Commodus. They manage to escape with the help of Festus and the Huntresses of Artemis and rescue Lit, who was to be executed. They take everyone back to the Waystation, where Georgina relays a recorded message instead of a prophecy by Trophonius, who is revealed to be Apollo’s son. He refers to Georgina as a sister, leading everyone to believe she is Apollo’s daughter. Apollo and Meg decide to travel to the Oracle for the prophecy, while the rest defend the Waystation. At the Oracle, Apollo drinks from both the River of Memory and of Forgetfulness to prepare himself for taking the prophecy, but which also makes him lose his sanity for the time being. Meg sings a song of her sorrows which jogs Apollo back to reality and awakens the spirit of Trophonius. Apollo pleads with Trophonius to take him instead of Meg, to which Trophonius agrees in return for a wish, but gives her the prophecy anyway.
Apollo performs CPR on Meg and destroys the Oracle, fulfilling Trophonius’s wish. Peaches the karpoi and his friends drive them to the Waystation in time for battle. Apollo finds Commodus fighting Josephine, Calypso, Lit, and Thalia while holding Leo, Hemithea, and Georgina hostage. Apollo feels a surge of godly strength inside him and warns Commodus to stand down. Commodus does not pay heed to Apollo’s words. Apollo manages to reveal his true divine form, blinding Commodus and his men who are forced to flee. Meg reveals a prophecy in the form of a Shakespearan sonnet, which tells them that they must warn Camp Jupiter of an attack in five days and will have to travel in the Labyrinth with the assistance of a satyr. Meg summons the closest satyr using her powers, who turns out to be Grover Underwood
The story begins a few days after the events of the previous book, “The Dark Prophecy”. Apollo, in the body of the 16-year-old Lester Papadopoulos, ventures through the Labyrinth with 12-year-old Meg McCaffrey and the satyr, Grover Underwood in a bid to find the third emperor of the Triumvirate Holdings. As the trio face a continuous attack of Strix, Grover unleashes the cry of Pan, the lost god of the wild, and brings them to Aeithales, which is later revealed to be Meg’s former home, in Palm Springs, California. Mellie, the wife of the satyr Gleeson Hedge, asks Apollo and Grover to go and check up on Hedge, who is in an army surplus store nearby. The duo goes there, only to face Naevius Sutorius Macro. They escape, when seemingly, a horse, comes and contacts somebody. They head back, and Apollo reveals that the horse is Incitatus, and the third emperor is Caligula, the most feared and bloodthirsty Roman emperor, famous for his murderous reign and insanity. Apollo and Meg along with Piper face Medea in the Labyrinth and defeat her with a poison dart and decide to steal Caligula ‘s shoes.
Mellie reveals that Jason Grace and Piper McLean had gone into the Labyrinth. Apollo and Meg pick up Piper, who is moving away to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and Jason, who is at school and occasionally has fights with monsters disguised as teachers. Jason secretly tells Apollo that he had met with Herophile, the sibyl inside the Labyrinth, who told him that when the next time the duo comes, one of them will die. Fearing Piper’s demise, Jason keeps this to himself.
Apollo, Meg, Jason, and Piper sneak into Caligula’s ship to steal his shoes, which are a priority according to the Dark Prophecy. All of them are captured by Pandai, loyal servants to Caligula. They escape with the help of Crest, a young Pandai and Apollo find the shoes, but then they are captured by Incitatus the righthand horse of Caligula. Jason engages Caligula in a one-sided battle to buy time, only to be stabbed twice by Caligula’s spear and kicked by Incitatus. Jason calls his venti (air spirit) before dying, helping the others escape. Upon reaching Piper’s home in Malibu, Piper angrily blames Apollo as the reason for Jason’s death. Caligula meanwhile sails North to Camp Jupiter.
Apollo, Meg, Grover, and Crest enter the Labyrinth and are faced with riddles that seemingly lead to Herophile’s prison. However, Apollo panics and gives the wrong answer to one of them. Facing certain death, Apollo decides to find the cause of the flames that have been engulfing the southern lands for a long time and discovers the faded but still burning body of Helios, the former titan of the sun being used by Medea in order to make Caligula the new sun god, and Apollo promises to exact revenge for Helios.
The trio reaches the Herophile and is faced with another prophecy. They get out with the help of Meliai, ash-tree spirits Meg had earlier planted. They kill Medea and Incitatus but Crest also gets killed in the process. Apollo and Meg entrust Aeithales’ safety with the Meliai and continue their journeys. Jason’s body is given to Apollo for burial at Camp Jupiter, and Leo takes Hedge, Mellie, and Piper to Oklahoma.
The story is set at Camp Jupiter in the San Francisco Bay Area. The story starts off with Apollo and Meg taking Jason’s body to Camp Jupiter. On their way to Camp Jupiter, they are attacked by eurynomos, but a girl with pink hair arrives with dryads and a faun and kills the Eurynomous. She then introduces herself as Lavinia and says she will take them to Camp Jupiter. After that, all the dryads and fauns start to leave. But as the last faun, Don tries to leave, Lavinia spots him and said that he will not leave because of what he is supposed to owe Lavinia for helping him. They carry Jason’s tomb to the tunnel where she knows a shortcut to Camp Jupiter.
Suddenly, Hazel as well as two more euronymous come. They enter the tunnel, while Hazel tries to kill the euronymous. Apollo tries to sing a song to help Hazel but is scratched in the belly by a Eurynomous before Hazel kills it. Due to him being scratched, Apollo starts to turn into a corpse. Hazel sees Jason’s coffin and is terrified because she had a dream about Jason being killed by Emperor Caligula. After that, the five carry Jason’s tomb and arrive in Camp Jupiter where they are greeted by Frank Zhang and Reyna Ramirez-Arellano while everyone watches Jason’s coffin being carried. The camp holds a funeral for Jason, with Apollo singing a song about his quest and touching everyone. They all decide that they will carry on with Jason’s plan to build temples honoring the gods.
Apollo then faints and has a dream about Caligula and Commodus discussing their plan about either taking Camp Jupiter without conflict or destroying it using Greek fire explosions by mortars on Caligula’s yachts. Apollo finds himself in a bed where Meg explains that he had been asleep for about a day and a half. There is a funeral for Jason that night, where Lupa comes and tells Lester to get divine help to defeat their enemies. Apollo and Frank go to Ella and Tyson, who were busy recreating the Sibylline Books. They get a prophecy regarding Tarquin’s tomb, as they found about it in the previous prophecy. They later go to the senator where they select him, Meg, Lavinia, and Hazel to go to for a mission to find more about the final king of Rome, Tarquin, who has returned. After they find out about the old ghost King and his plans, they get more scared for the camp. They also find that Tarquin has kept the soundless god at Sutro Tower. After they return, they realize that to solve communication issues and get divine help, they need to destroy the soundless god. So a quest is issued for Apollo, Meg, and Reyna to go to Sutro Tower. But that is in the evening of the next day, and most of the morning is spent on training.
At the tower, they realize the god is Harpocrates, who had troubles with Apollo. He also has a jar containing the voice of the Sibyl of Cumae. With some difficulty, they manage to get the last breath of Harpocrates, along with Sibyl’s Jar, which is required to get divine help. As they return, they are ambushed by a euronymous again, and after they manage to kill him, they are helped by Lavinia and her friends, who had escaped from the Camp earlier. Reyna and Lavinia issue “plan L” to defeat the yachts that Apollo saw in his dream. After Apollo and Meg return, they see the camp in the midst of a war. Apollo calls for divine help on Temple Hill. He decides to call Diana. Frank (the other praetor of Rome) sacrifices himself holding his firewood, killing Caligula along the way to save the other legionnaires. Apollo later kills Commodus in the grief of losing Frank. Commodus gives the order to fire. Due to “plan L”, it fails and the yachts are destroyed
Meanwhile, Tarquin had reached the bookshop where the books were being re-written, but Ella and Tyson are not there. Meg and Hazel fight Tarquin. Diana finally arrives and kills Tarquin and heals Apollo just in time. Reyna and Lavinia, along with Peaches, return. Arion rescues Frank who mysteriously survives death and Reyna Ramirez-Arellano pledges herself to the goddess Diana (Artemis) and joins the Hunters. Dakota, son of Bacchus, passes away overnight due to wounds that he got in battle. He was the longtime centurion of the Fifth Cohort. Don the faun also dies. He gets reincarnated into a laurel tree, Apollo’s tree of victory. Hazel is voted as the new praetor of Camp Jupiter and Lavinia voted as centurion of the Fifth Cohort.
Apollo receives his old Godly Bow as a gift from Camp Jupiter, Meg receives seeds and they set off to New York after receiving the last and final prophecy from Ella and Tyson, which they realize is a terza rima, and they would have to find more stanzas in the East. They go in hopes to once again be reunited with their old friends from Camp Half-Blood.
While returning to New York, Lester and Meg McCaffrey encounter an amphisbaena, which recites the second stanza of the Terza Rima prophecy. Within minutes, they are attacked by Nero’s Gaul, Luguselwa, or Lu, and her Germani. Apollo and Meg escape with the help of Luguselwa, who turns out to be on their side. The trio reaches the Upper Eastside and decide to go to Percy Jackson for help, but they soon learn that Percy and his girlfriend Annabeth are on the West Coast. They plan on defeating Nero, which involves they fight against Lu in open daylight and Apollo pushing Lu off the building so that Nero believes that Luguselwa is on his side when she really isn’t, as Nero could see it through one of the security cameras installed in a nearby building. All goes according to plan. Then, Lester and Meg reach Camp Half-Blood. The Grey Sisters recite another couplet of the Terza Rima prophecy. After they reach their destination, they find that Chiron had gone to a meeting with gods from other pantheons including Bastet from The Kane Chronicles, and Mímir from Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard to discuss a “common problem”.
Apollo, after fainting due to exhaustion on arrival, he sees in his dream that their plan is working: Lu told Nero about the escape, and Nero gave an ultimatum to Meg and Apollo to surrender within two days or else New York, especially Manhattan, burns. The next day, with the help of the Grey Sisters’ prophecy, Lester, Meg, Will Solace, and Nico di Angelo, go to meet Rachel Elizabeth Dare. There, she warns about some cattle that are standing outside. After a decision to fail Nero’s Greek fire vats with the help of troglodytes (short trogs), a species of very good diggers, Rachel suddenly spouts a prophecy, the final couplet, but Python meddled with it. Suddenly, the cattle, being the Tauri Sylvestre, attack, and the five barely manage to escape. Nico helps them to reach the troglodytes via shadow travel, while Will is revealed to have the power to glow in the dark.
At the trogs’ encampment underground, it is revealed that the trogs are very quick runners and diggers. Soon enough, they decide that Will, Nico, and Rachel will go with the trogs to disable the vats, and then alert Camp Half-Blood, while Meg and Apollo surrender themselves, to get closer to Nero’s fasces, the source of his power and immortality, to destroy it and kill Nero. But it turned out that Nero already knew of their plan. Luguselwa’s hands are cut off, and she and Apollo are thrown in prison, while Meg is forced by Nero to go to her old room in the Imperial Residences inside the Tower of Nero.
Lester, after just managing to revive Luguselwa, decides to find out more about who is guarding the fasces. It turned out to be a leontocephaline, the Persian god Mithras’ creation. He guards immortality, so he requires a sacrifice of it in return to granting access to the fasces. Lu and Lester escape prison. Lu decides to give her immortality up to get the fasces, while Lester goes to save Meg.
Upstairs, he realizes that the entire lower floor area has become a battleground. Camp Half-Blood heroes have come in. Kayla and Austin help Lester to reach Meg. On the way, Lester enters the wrong room, the one with the buttons to burn up Manhattan. The button is pressed, but nothing happens, as the vats have been disabled. Nico also shows up.
After some searching, Lester runs past a laptop. Nero video calls that laptop and tells him that he has a “plan B”: to release Sassanid gas, a very poisonous gas, and kill everyone in the building. Lester has to come to the throne room in fifteen minutes, or else everyone will die. Lester tells the trogs about the gas trap, who run to disable it.
Meanwhile, Lester reaches the throne room, where all the adopted children of Nero are present, including Meg. Nero orders the dryads there to kill Lester or be killed by the Imperial children. However, Meg stops them and chooses to stand by Apollo. Suddenly, Nico shows up with the Tauri Silvestri, who has become a pawn of Nico. Nico orders it to kill Nero. The bull fails, but it ends up creating a lot of chaos. Nero desperately tries to search the remote with the button to release Sassanid gas. In the middle of the chaos, one of the Imperial demigods manages to stab Lester, but he survives.
After the chaos ends, Nero finally finds the correct remote and presses the button. He laughs, but suddenly, Will, Rachel, and Lu show up, along with the trog leader and the emperor’s fasces. To Nero’s disbelief, the troglodytes had been successful in disabling the gas trap as well. Nero is forced to reveal the truth – he is not that powerful, and instead, he is being controlled as a pawn by Python. If he is killed, then Python would be near impossible to kill, as the entire Triumvirate’s power will go to Python. He is given a choice, fight and die a hopeless battle, or live for some more years in a large prison. He chooses the first one, but soon gets entangled in a tug of war with Lester over the fasces, which Lester was trying to break. Lester manages to project his godly powers, using which he revokes Nero’s divinity and immortality, and breaks the fasces, killing him.
Camp Half-Blood stays at the Tower to help the Imperial children rehabilitate after years of abuse, but Lester has to go, as he has to quickly defeat Python. Using the Labyrinth, he manages to reach Delphi, halfway across the world, in a matter of minutes.
Lester faces off against Python for the final time. Python starts calling him Apollo, a big achievement for Lester. But Lester is quickly overpowered by the giant snake, who utters a prophecy, saying Apollo will fall, and loses his bow. The arrow of Dodona sacrifices itself to defeat Python and finishes Python’s prophecy, saying that Apollo will fall, but Apollo must rise again. Apollo manages to blind Python and make him loosen his hold on him by hitting him in the eyes with the arrow of Dodona and his elbow. Then he drags Python into Tartarus with him, fulfilling Python’s recent prophecy, but in a more literal sense.
The two almost fall down into Chaos but are saved by a ledge. Apollo, who is in no mood to fight, is attacked by Python, but manages to throw him off the ledge into Chaos, destroying him forever and freeing the Oracles from his power. Apollo himself is left dangling off the edge, when the goddess of the Styx, who had followed him all along since he broke his vows on the Styx in the first book, congratulates him on learning his lesson which he realizes is to always uphold a promise that you make. Apollo becomes a god again, and, two weeks later, reappears in Olympus, where he is welcomed as an Olympian.
Apollo, now a god again, goes to meet his friends. He splits himself into multiple Apollos and goes to find them in no particular order. He visits Camp Half-Blood, where Nico and Will tell him that Nico suspects that a voice he’s been hearing from Tartarus lately is his old friend the Titan Iapetus, also known as Bob, who supposedly died helping Percy and Annabeth to escape. With the help of the trogs, Nico and Will intend to travel to Tartarus to find out for sure and rescue Bob if they can. As if on cue, Rachel delivers a prophecy, which Will notes to sound bad. Apollo also visits Camp Jupiter, where Frank and Hazel are doing a great job at being praetors. Hazel gets rid of the curse on her jewels, and now they can be spent. Frank is having fun turning his cape into a sweater wrap, while Percy and Annabeth have finally reached university there. Percy studies marine biology and Annabeth architecture, respectively. Apollo gives Percy his mom’s cookies, and Percy retracts ‘almost’ all of the things he has said about Apollo. He visits the Union Station at Indianapolis, where Georgina is being taught by Jo how to forge blades. Reyna, who is there with the other Hunters of Artemis, tells Leo to be more mature when approaching Calypso, who is currently studying in high school and had gone to a summer camp as a counselor. The Hunters are there to hunt down the Teumessian Fox. Apollo visits Piper McLean in Oklahoma, where she has started a new life with her Dad and Shel, her new girlfriend. Apollo also visits Meg McCaffrey, who is living in Palm Springs with the dryads there, Lu, and the Imperial children, whom she is teaching gardening. The Meliais are acting as security guards. Apollo gifts Meg a unicorn, and promises her that he will come back.
Percy Jackson adds his own viewpoint to the Greek myths. Here he presents an introduction to Greek mythology and the 12 major gods and goddesses. With 19 chapters, this includes a variety of stories, from the early tales of Gaea and the Titans to individual tales about the gods readers, encountered in the Camp Half-Blood chronicles. Percy’s irreverent voice is evident from titles such as “Hera Gets a Little Cuckoo,” “Zeus Kills Everyone,” “Athena Adopts a Handkerchief,” and “Artemis Unleashes the Death Pig,” and the stories are told in his voice with his distinctive, sarcastic yet humorous perspective.
Percy Jackson explained that he wrote this book on the Greek Gods at the request of a publisher in New York. At first, he declined in fear of the gods getting mad, but he decided to do it as people will know more about Greek Mythology.
Percy explained how Chaos first created the world including Gaea, Ouranos, Pontos, and Tartarus. Later, Nyx, Hemera, Eros and the twelve Titans were created. Then things started to get rough between Gaea and Ouranos. It got worse when Ouranos threw their next children, the Cyclopes and Hekatonkheires, into Tartarus. Gaea decided to have one of her children cut Ouranos up with a scythe. Only Kronos was willing to do it, though Koios, Krios, Hyperion and Iapetus joined in to hold Ouranos down from the sky. Kronos was successful in chopping up his father and throwing him into the sea, but not before he cursed his son that his own children will overthrow him. The Furies, dryads and satyrs were born in the process.
Kronos wasn’t so bad of a ruler at first. Koios, Krios, Hyperion and Iapetus each got a corner of the world for their participation. Kronos’ tyranny began when he reimprisoned the Cyclopes and Hekatonkheires he freed, but first the titans had children together. Oceanus and Tethys had Klymene, Iapetus and Klymene had Atlas and Prometheus, Koios and Phoebe had Leto, Hyperion and Theia had Helios and Selene, but Kronos and Rhea did not have a titan. They had a goddess named Hestia. Kronos, fearing Ouranos’ curse, swallowed her whole, but Hestia was still alive in his stomach. It was the same with their next four children, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. But when Zeus was born, Rhea gave Kronos a rock instead and gave Zeus to Amaltheia.
As soon as Zeus grew up, he came to his father to be his cupbearer. He gave him a blend of nectar and mustard for Kronos to puke out Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. The gods fled and flew into Tartarus to free the Cyclopes and Hekatonkheires, but this time they were guarded by Kampê. Zeus had them make the Master Bolt, which he used to kill Kampê, the Trident for Poseidon, and the Helm of Darkness for Hades. They made a base at Mount Olympus and eventually, they were able to chop up Kronos and send him and his brothers into Tartarus. Zeus had Atlas hold up the sky as it would crush the world without Koios, Krios, Hyperion and Iapetus. In a game, Zeus won the heavens to rule over, Poseidon won the sea, and Hades won the Underworld.
Halt and Crowley are journeying together in the woods of Gorlan Fief. They leave the fief and travel to a nearby village for the night. While at the village, they learn that Prince Duncan is supposedly raiding villages with a gang of men. Halt and Crowley then travel to another village, where they save the inhabitants from foreign invaders angry about Duncan’s raiding. While at the village, Halt and Crowley later hear a raid by Duncan, where they realize that the “Duncan” is an impostor. After leaving the village, they intercept one of Morgarath’s messengers, and discover through letters a list of 12 Rangers to be dismissed and that the real Duncan is being held captive at Castle Wildriver, while the fake Duncan was actually someone named Tiller. Halt and Crowley then travel to recruit the 12 Rangers, intending to capture Tiller and rescue the King and Duncan, and then reveal Morgarath’s schemes at a tournament. They ultimately manage to recruit 11, since 1 Ranger was murdered, as well as Baron Arald, a baron who had defeated Morgarath in a major tournament and wielded significant influence among the barons. This would give the Rangers more political power if Morgarath had a trial. While traveling towards Castle Wildriver, the Rangers reunite with the old Ranger Pritchard.
The story not only serves as an introduction for the early Rangers Corps, but it brings new life to characters mentioned in The Ruins of Gorlan and The Burning Bridge that ultimately lead to Will Treaty joining the team and beginning his great adventure.
It peace has come to Araluen, but Halt and Crowley suspect that Morgarath is still scheming to take over the kingdom. When Morgarath attacks again with a new dangerous army of Wargals, the group realizes their suspicions have been correct. Halt decides to climb the deadly cliffs of the Mountains of Rain and Night. If he can do so successfully, he’ll be able to become a valuable spy for Araluen. Eventually the Battle at Hackham Heath will decide the fate of one kingdom.
Morgarath, the exiled lord of the bleak, barren Mountains of Rain and Night has been waiting fifteen years in his dark realm, carefully planning his revenge against the Kingdom of Araluen. His former fief, known as Gorlan, was long ago brought to ruin as a result of his unsuccessful rebellion against King Duncan. Now he silently plots to rebel again, rallying hideous creatures known as Wargals to his side. Wargals have little will of their own, and are easy to control, therefore being suitable as soldiers in Morgarath’s army. After fifteen years, Morgarath prepares to unleash his power, except using two strong beasts called the Kalkara, which are very powerful appe-like assassins, to attempt to strengthen the Kingdom before trying to take the Kingdom once more.
Meanwhile, in Araluen, in Redmont Fief, a special day has come for 15-year-old Will and his fellow wardmates (Horace, Alyss, George, and Jenny), called Choosing Day, where they all become an apprentice to a craftmaster or have to work in the local farms. Jenny is apprenticed to Master Chubb, the castle cook. Horace is accepted to Battleschool, and George is accepted to Scribeschool, while Alyss is accepted as a courier. Although Will’s first choice was battleschool (he does this because he thinks his father was a brave knight, although he doesn’t know for sure what happened to him), Baron Arald (the baron of Redmont fief) explains to him that his talents lie in other directions. Instead of being accepted to Battleschool, he becomes apprenticed to Halt the Ranger, after sneaking into a guarded tower at the castle. Rangers are the intelligence group of the country and specialize in long-range weapons and the art of staying unseen. Will is not overly excited about this, but he is trained in these skills. The main reason why he is being trained in these skills is that he needs to prepare for the annual Ranger meeting called the Gathering. During this time he begins to establish a closeness to Halt and starts to realize that being a Ranger is much better than it seems. Will is given a horse named Tug, from an old horse trainer by the name of Old Bob.
In the meantime, Will’s wardmate Horace is in Battleschool. His life is harsh and he is bullied by three second-year Battleschool cadets: Alda, Bryn, and Jerome. During a local holiday known as Harvest Day, Horace and Will fight, increasing their hatred for each other. Six weeks after this incident, Will and Halt find signs of a wild boar that has been roaming the area. They also meet a rambling, frightened farmer by the name of Salt Peter. The two get a group of men that will kill the boar, and Horace is recruited to the boar hunt. During the hunt, a young knight kills one boar, but while the other hunters are congratulating him, a second boar suddenly bursts out of its den and charges straight for Horace, who tries to kill it but slips and becomes vulnerable. Will distracts the boar, also tries to kill it by shooting at its heart but fails, and is saved by inches from death by Halt’s well-timed arrow. In saving Horace’s life, he cements a friendship between Will and Horace and erases the lasting tension between the two. Sometime after the killing of the boar, Alda, Bryn, and Jerome corner Horace and beat him brutally. They then proceed to the forest to give Will the same treatment. He manages to evade the three for a few minutes but is quickly overpowered. Horace then arrives and intervenes, and the bullies leave Will to continue beating Horace. They are in turn stopped by Halt, who invites Horace to sword fight the bullies individually. One by one, he defeats them and incapacitates Alda. As a punishment, they are banished from the fief, making Horace closer to the Rangers. However, it has now come time for Halt and Will to leave for the Gathering. Here Will meets Halt’s former apprentice, Gilan. During the Gathering, the Rangers receive a report that the Kalkara, vicious creatures under the control of Morgarath, have entered Araluen.
Halt, Will and Gilan leave to track down and kill the Kalkara. Halt thinks that the Kalkara is headed to the Ruins of Gorlan and tells Will to go back to Redmont, bring some soldiers and rendezvous at the ruins. At Redmont, Baron Arald, and Sir Rodney (Arald’s battlemaster) head out to slay the Kalkara and to save Halt. Finding that Halt is battling the Kalkara alone (and not faring so well), Sir Rodney and Baron Arald manage to knock one into the fire, but are badly injured by the other. Will watches, horrified, and knows he must do something. He runs over to a torch that Baron Arald dropped, creates a fire arrow, and shoots the Kalkara in the chest, setting it on fire. Back at his fief, Will is considered a hero and receives his bronze oakleaf which identifies him as a Ranger’s apprentice. When he and his ward mates reunite to congratulate him at an inn, Alyss surprisingly kisses Will. Meanwhile, Araluen prepares for a war with Lord Morgarath and his army of Wargals.
In the prologue, Halt and Will, capture Dirk Reacher, one of Morgarath’s former henchmen. They search Reacher and find Mogarath’s battle plans to invade Araluen. Halt and Will think over it, but decide it is genuine.
Meanwhile, on a special mission for the Ranger Corps, Will, his friend Horace, and the Ranger Gilan travel to Celtica, a neighbouring country southwest of Araluen, where they discover that all the people in the villages have mysteriously vanished. Will and Horace wonder if all the villagers have been slain or captured, but Gilan believes that the evil Lord Morgarath devised a plan to cross the mountain pass faster. If that was true, and the King wasn’t warned, the country would be destroyed. Gilan rides to warn King Duncan, the King of Araluen, and Will and Horace begin to follow a straggling Wargal force.
On their way, they come across an abandoned girl named Evanlyn, who claims to be a maid to Lady Ariana Wulton of the Araluen court, but is actually Princess Cassandra, King Duncan’s daughter, in disguise. When the three of them follow the dimwitted Wargals they discover that a gargantuan bridge is in the process of being built across the impassable Fissure for their war party to cross. They also discover that the King’s army will be trapped on the Plains of Uthal, because the plans that Halt and Will captured in the prologue of the book were merely a ruse to distract them. Will burns the bridge with Evanlyn’s help. Evanlyn tries to warn Will about a rock thrown by a Skandian but is too late, giving a chance for a Skandian to grab them. Will and Evanlyn are taken captive by the group of Skandians ruled by Jarl Erak, but Horace is able to escape their grasp.
After, he tells the King and his aides about what is going to happen, the army starts to get prepared for the army that is supposed to attack them from behind, Halt is sent to take care of them with a force of cavalry and archer units. In the middle of the battle, Morgarath calls a truce and challenges Halt to a duel, but King Duncan forbids it to happen. Then, unexpectedly, Horace challenges Morgarath to single combat. About to be defeated by Morgarath, Horace then, in an attempt to win the duel, throws himself into the path of Mogarath’s battle horse, to throw it off balance. He is successful, but only manages to wind Morgarath. Morgarath is confident that he is going to win by a last powerful stroke of his broadsword, but Horace blocks it with the double-knife defence that Gilan taught Will in Celtics and stabs Morgarath in the heart to win the battle.
The Wargals become harmless as soon as Morgarath dies and the mind domination is broken. Immediately Halt goes looking for Will and Cassandra but he is too late. The Skandians sail for Skandia to sell Will and Princess Cassandra as slaves.
Will, the main character and a Ranger’s apprentice, is captured by the Skandians along with his friend, Evanlyn, in a big war in the previous book, The Burning Bridge. The capturer, Jarl Erak of the Skandians, takes them in as slaves.
Meanwhile, Will’s mentor, Halt, has sworn to save him from the Skandians, but the Ranger Corps forces him to stay back. Halt, however, is so desperate, he insults the King of his country, Araluen. The King and Halt are good friends, so in Halt’s trial, the King takes pity on Halt. Instead of the normal punishment, which is to ban the defendant from the borders of Araluen forever, he banishes Halt from the borders only for a twelvemonth. Halt is banished from the Ranger Corps until the punishment is lifted, but that is just a minor problem for Halt. He then sets out to find his apprentice once more. Halt is determined to get to Skandia quickly, so he takes the quickest route: Gallica. There he meets Will’s old friend, Horace. Horace is Will’s childhood friend, and just like Will, Horace is an orphan. In Gallica, Horace and Halt tried to go as fast as they could, but they were stopped by a lot of inexperienced knights, as Gallica is in a state of anarchy and turmoil. Horace, being a warrior apprentice, takes on the fake name “The Oakleaf Knight”. Horace beats all of them with ease without his grizzled companion, Halt, to step in. Horace’s reputation grows until he is noticed throughout Gallica, which attracts the horrible knight, Deparnieux of Castle Montsombre. Deparnieux soon captures Horace and Halt, and holds them in his keep.
Meanwhile, when Jarl Erak, Will, and Evanlyn soon arrive in Skandia, Will and Evanlyn become slaves. Over the journey the Jarl had become quite attached to the two slaves and thinks they should be treated more respectfully than the normal slave should be treated. This goes for Evanlyn, which gets to work in the kitchen, but Will unfortunately gets the job of working the yard, the deadliest place for slaves to work. Will soon gets the attention from the older crowds, and one of them tricks him to get addicted to a deadly drug, warmweed.
Erak soon sees this and can’t stand it. Will has been put into a daze, and doesn’t remember anyone, including himself. He only responds to orders, which he does in an obedient manner. Erak and Evanlyn soon devise a plan to escape. Throughout Evanlyn and Will’s journey to freedom, Evanlyn weans Will off the drug by slowly reducing the amount of warmweed given to Will. Evanlyn eventually arrives with Will at a mountain cabin, where they take shelter. While hunting with her sling, Evanlyn watches a rider dressed in furs on a horse. Will regains his old self as Evanlyn returns to the cabin, to Cassandra’s great delight and relief. The book ends with Halt and Horace watching an “accidental” fire in Castle Montsombre, which Halt predicts will destroy the tower
In the previous book, The Icebound Land, Cassandra and Will had been captured and sold as slaves in Skandia. As time went on, Halt and Horace travelled across Gallica, defeating knights, and ridding Gallica of the evil warlord Deparnieux. They are now in Gallica ready to travel through a pass into Skandia to save Will and Cassandra. Meanwhile, Will has overcome his addiction to warmweed and finally regains his senses. Cassandra is out checking previously set snares for food when she is captured by a member of a Temujai scout party, or Tem’uj.
Halt and Horace, still on their rescue mission, find a border outpost where a dozen Skandians lay dead, shot by arrows. Halt manages to recognise an arrow, shot by the Temujai and becomes instantly worried. Two decades ago, the Temujai had nearly conquered the world, but with politics and a dish of bad shellfish, the invasion was stopped. Around the same time, Will recovers enough to search for Cassandra after realising she has gone missing and finds her about to be killed by one of the Temujai. In an ensuing battle, Halt and Horace, having managed to track the Temujai down, come to Will’s aid and they rescue Cassandra.
Halt and the group, after being reunited, are then captured by Erak, the Skandian Jarl who had set Cassandra and Will free. Erak had been trying to track down the people who shot the Skandians at the other gate, and hastily comes to the conclusion that Halt was responsible. Halt manages to convince the senior Jarl to listen to him, stating that the Skandians have no chance as they are greatly outnumbered and the Temujai have long-range archers, versus the Skandians in one-on-one close combat. Halt and Erak also manage to find the main army of the Temujai, followed by a very narrow escape because of Erak’s extreme clumsiness.
Halt makes the decision to stay in Skandia to help them in their coming war against the Temujai, as he fears they will take the Skandians’ ships to invade Araluen after they win. Erak agrees to get Ragnak, the Oberjarl, to let Halt become their strategist as he had lived and fought with and against the Temujai before, thus knowing their battle plans and style of fighting.
Halt and Will also attempt to convince the Oberjarl to allow Will to train 100 slaves to become archers with the promise of freedom, and he does so reluctantly. 100 Skandians are also assigned to use hit-and-run tactics to delay the Temujai’s arrival in Hallasholm. The Temujai do not expect this kind of strategic action from the blunt Skandians, and their leaders begin to have some suspicions.
Soon, the Temujai begin their first attack using strategic units of fifty troops known as Ulans and, as Halt had said previously, make a fake retreat, which the Skandians purposely follow. Halt, however, had placed a group of Skandians in a forest behind the frontline to ambush the Temujai. This ambush of their own drives the remaining Temujai forces back to the General of the Army, and his Colonel of Intelligence, who are surprised because the Skandians were not behaving anything at all as they’d expected.
In the battle, Will manages to keep his archers concealed for a while, but they are eventually spotted. Will keeps his archers firing their arrows, but following an assault by multiple Ulan leaders, the force is cut down until they cannot continue. Meanwhile, the Skandians begin to make an impact on the opposing army, and the General orders a retreat back to his homeland as he has lost too many warriors. Halt makes it clear that the Skandians did not win, but rather made it too costly for the Temujai to continue.
Afterward, a funeral is held for Ragnak who succumbed to the dozens of wounds he received in the battle. Erak is subsequently elected as Oberjarl and signs a treaty with Cassandra, stipulating that Skandia will not participate in large-scale raids on Araluen like their alliance with Morgarath again in exchange for a force of archers for Skandia’s defence. Following this, Erak takes the group back to Araluen. After a long and happy reunion, Will and Cassandra then find out that Halt has been banished; Erak saves the awkward moment by trying to include it in their treaty to pardon him, to which King Duncan agrees. In the end, Halt is invited back to the Ranger Corps, Horace is rewarded with a knighthood and position in Cassandra’s personal guard, and Will is given the opportunity to become a lieutenant of the Royal Scouts, a high position in the King’s army that trains archers, into which only nobles are admitted; this would give him fame and reputation, but Will, in his heart, knows that he wishes to continue his training to become a full-fledged Ranger and states this as he rejects the offer. As he rides back to Redmont with Halt, Cassandra voices her sadness as she feels she and Will are becoming distant, but Horace, in an attempt to comfort her, reminds her that the Rangers will always be different.
The book starts off with Will rescuing a dog with a spear wound that he finds on the side of the road. Will then goes on to Castle Seacliff of the fief he has been assigned to and has a meeting with the baron there. After the meeting, a group of Skandians attempt to raid the fief and Will makes a deal with them: if he gives them food and drink, the Skandians will leave. When the owner of the dog tracks it and Will down, he is captured and handed over to the Skandians to become a slave before they leave.
Will is soon assigned to a mission to determine the identity of a mysterious sorcerer in Grimsdell Wood, and to stop him from terrorising the castle of Macindaw. Will goes under disguise as a jongleur; somebody who acts as a jester but doesn’t serve a king, going around the kingdom entertaining for money. He does this because people tend to trust jongleurs, whereas people often clam up around Rangers due to the mystery surrounding their position. This would, in turn, help him to get information on Grimsdell Wood more easily. Will travels to Macindaw, where their lord, Syron, has been poisoned and is now in the hospital. His son Orman has taken over the castle while his father is ill, but Orman’s cousin Keren has been trying to take over as lord, but Will does not know this yet. Will rides to Grimsdell and sees the Night Warrior, one of the ghosts in Grimsdell, and flees in fear on his horse Tug.
Will performs for Orman during his dinner, but Orman claims he is a very bad jongleur due to his inability to play classical music. Will then meets Keren and is under the impression that he is an affable person. Alyss then comes disguised as a noblewoman. The next day, Will sees sorcery books on Orman’s table and suspects he is the sorcerer in the woods. Will takes Alyss to Grimsdell wood during the day and Alyss works out how the magician made the Night Warrior. Following this, Alyss sends a report to Halt and Crowley with a pigeon.
Halt gets the report and decides he should send Horace, a knight on the king’s guard as well as a friend of Will and Alyss, to help with Will’s mission. Meanwhile, Orman has been poisoned too and is dying. The only way to help him is to go to the sorcerer in Grimsdell Wood who used to be a healer. Will is forced to run for Grimsdell Wood but leaves Alyss behind in Castle Macindaw. Shadow finds a trail and leads them to Malcolm’ s house. He greets them after they see a giant walking around and other deformed people who Malcolm took in as helpers and patients. Will then tries to save Alyss, who has been captured by Keren, but Keren walks in the door and Will barely manages to escape alive.
With the overthrow of Castle Macindaw by Keren, Orman’s traitorous cousin, Will needs to find men to help win back the crucial northern stronghold. Will seeks out a group of shipwrecked Skandians and hires them as mercenaries. Halt and Crowley, Will’s former mentor and the leader of the Ranger Corps, send the young knight Horace to help Will. Together, they manage to take the Scotti general MacHaddish prisoner and find that Keren has made a deal with the Scotti and is allowing them access to Araluen’s northern fiefs in return for a portion of their plunder.
The Araluen Courier Alyss has been held captive by Keren who is hypnotising and interrogating her for information. Will sends Alyss a star stone, an anti-hypnosis device, and with it she is able to deceive Keren into thinking he has hypnotised her for a while. Alyss and Will send each other messages using the Courier signal code.
Will and the Skandians make an improvised siege engine, ostensibly to attack the castle. It collapses, according to plan, and the Skandians pretend to flee in panic. The castle defenders quickly become uninterested in the strange machine and are easily distracted by a show of lights to the south, caused by Will’s ally, the “sorcerer” Malcolm. Meanwhile, Keren asks Alyss for her hand in marriage, however she refuses.
When all the focus is away from the west wall, Will and Horace, who had been hidden in the siege engine, breach the wall using a ladder; the Skandians follow them later. They slaughter the defenders and quickly gain a foothold in the castle and Will runs to the central tower to rescue Alyss. Keren, however, has now successfully hypnotised her. Keren tells her to kill Will if he hurts him in any way. Will tells Alyss he loves her, which breaks her hypnotic state. A fight between Keren and Will ensues. Armed only with his saxe knife against Keren’s sword, Will quickly is overpowered but is saved when Alyss throws acid in Keren’s face, causing him to fall out of the tower window to his death.
Later, many soldiers from Castle Norgate come to Macindaw to ensure the Scotti invasion force is turned back, leaving the Skandians to defend Macindaw. When he returns to Malcolm’s home in Grimsdell Wood, Will decides to give his dog Shadow to Malcolm’s friend Trobar. Will goes back to Seacliff Fief and falls into a peaceful but unfulfilling lifestyle. He later receives a letter from Alyss in which she says that she loves him. Will hurriedly saddles his horse Tug and begins the trek to Castle Redmont to deliver his reply.
Erak Starfollower becomes tired of paperwork after becoming the Oberjarl of Skandia during the events of Oakleaf Bearers. He decides to go on one last raid to the desert country of Arrida. His raiding party walks into an ambush and is captured; Erak’s crew are eventually released in order to obtain a ransom for Erak, who is left behind. Meanwhile, at Castle Redmont, senior Ranger Halt and diplomat Lady Pauline are getting married. During the wedding after-party, Svengal, Erak’s first mate, appears. In a small meeting with Ranger Will and the knight Horace, he reveals Erak’s kidnapping, and also tells them that Erak thinks he was betrayed by a small congregant of Skandian dissenters located in Hallasholm who seek to depose him under the leadership of Toshak, a Jarl who was once of follower of the executed Slagor, the treacherous Skirl who previously sought to kill Cassandra.
Princess Cassandra begs her father, King Duncan, to supply the money for Erak’s release. Duncan agrees, but is unable to go himself as he is in talks with the Hibernian kings. Cassandra eventually volunteers herself, much to Duncan’s chagrin. Will, Cassandra, Halt, Svengal, Horace, the ranger Gilan as well as thirty of Erak’s men go to deliver the ransom, which delights Cassandra. As they travel, Cassandra and Will rekindle the friendship they somewhat lost in Oakleaf Bearers and Gilan offers Will advice as the young apprentice worries about how he will fare without Halt’s guidance. Once in Arrida, they learn from Arridi leader Seley el’then that Erak had been sent to Mararoc, a fort in the desert. The party, guided by Seley el’then and his men, head to Mararoc.
During the journey, a sandstorm causes Will to lose his horse Tug. In an attempt to find him, Will gets lost and loses consciousness. A group of nomads called the Bedullin find and restore him, revealing that they have also found Tug. Will manages to reclaim Tug after winning a riding race against Hassan, who had found Tug and claimed him as his own.
Meanwhile, the others continue their journey to Mararoc. On the way they discover the corpses of the people escorting Erak. Seley el’then deduces that they were attacked by the Tualaghi, a nomadic tribe. Gilan scouts and discovers the Tualaghis, however, the Tualaghi also discover the Arridi party. The Tualaghis attack, though the Arridi group wins the first battle. However, the leader of the Tualaghi, Yusal, negotiates with Seley el’then, who is forced to surrender as their group is running out of water and cannot fight a sustained battle against Yusal. A Bedullin scout relays this information to the Bedullin, and the nomads offer to help rescue Will’s friends. On the way, they find and rescue Seley el’then’s soldiers, who had been betrayed and left to die by Yusal after surrendering.
The Tualaghis come into a desert town and locks the party in a storehouse where they had also put Erak. Toshak reveals himself and boasts of betraying Erak, intending to take over as Oberjarl after Erak is killed. Meanwhile, Will, the Bedullins, and the Arridi devise a plan to attack the town. Erak and the other prisoners are scheduled for execution. When the execution were scheduled they built a platform for the execution. As Halt is pulled forward to be executed, Will shoots the executioner. Mayhem ensues, with Arridi and Bedullins mixed in with the crowd revealing themselves and fighting the Tualaghi. The captured prisoners join in the fight, and turn the tide against the Tualaghi. Erak kills Toshak, while Cassandra wounds Yusal in the head with her slingshot, permanently damaging his mind.
The Araluens return to their home country. Some time later, Will graduates from the Ranger program, with his friends cheering him on for his next chapter in his life
While at the annual Rangers’ Gathering, Will is informed by Ranger Commandant Crowley that Ranger Halt will not be able to attend the Gathering as he is investigating happenings in Hibernia, a country to the west of Araluen. The Outsiders, a mysterious religious cult, is gaining followers and stealing gold and jewels. Halt is watching the group, which is acting in Selsey, a small Araluen village. The cult demands gold to build an altar to their god to protect the village and tries to set the village’s boats on fire to persuade them into donating more gold. Halt stops their plan and also discovers that the golden altar is a fake. Rather than being solid gold, it is wooden and gold-plated; the cult has been keeping the gold for themselves.
When Halt captures the Outsiders’ Selsey leader, he becomes puzzled; the leader recognises him though Halt is sure they have never met. Back at the Ranger’s Gathering, Crowley asks Will to take care of three apprentices for a while and tells Will that he is being moved to Redmont Fief to share half the Ranger duties there with Halt. Redmont Fief is where Will grew up, and where his love interest, the diplomat Alyss, and Halt’s wife Pauline also live. Will rides to the fief, where he is greeted by a feast made by his childhood friend and cook, Jenny. Halt arrives back in Redmont and tells of what he has seen. Halt reveals the secret of his past; he is the identical twin brother of the King of Clonmel, Ferris. Halt was born first, meaning he was the heir to the throne. He fled Clonmel and joined the Ranger Corps after Ferris repeatedly tried to kill him to obtain the crown for himself. Halt believes the Outsiders leader recognised him as he thought he was Ferris. Crowley assigns Will, Halt, and the knight Horace to investigate the matter in Clonmel.
The group investigates the Outsiders in Clonmel and works on countering their influence in Clonmel by spreading word of the arrival of the Sunrise Warrior, an old Hibernian legend, as a counter to the Outsiders’ religion, and the two Rangers have Horace play the part. As the Sunrise Warrior’s name begins to equal that of Outsiders’ god in reputation, the trio make for the capital. There, Ferris tells them he made a deal with the Outsiders, so Horace proceeds to knock him out and makes Halt take the king’s place. The Outsiders’ leader, Tennyson, is furious and challenges Horace to duel his two bodyguards. Horace accepts. Meanwhile, Will is investigating one of the Outsiders’ camps, and sees that Tennyson has recruited three foreign men. He notifies Horace and Halt, and Halt immediately identifies them as Genovesans, the most professional assassins in the world, and expects treachery from Tennyson.
The duel proceeds, with Horace barely winning against the chain and mace used by the first bodyguard. Horace is then drugged by the assassins, causing him to be unable to focus on objects. Will and Halt soon realise this and Halt sends Will back to Horace’s tent to retrieve evidence of the drugging. However, he is too late to stop the Genovesan from pouring the water on the ground, but does manage to capture him. He then interrupts Horace’s duel by shooting the second bodyguard in the arm, after which he accuses Tennyson of poisoning Horace’s water with the testimony of an ice vendor. Tennyson insists Will is lying and Will challenges him to trial by combat, taking on the Genovesan from a range of 200 metres. Despite moving being against the rules of the battle, Will is able to predict the Genovesan’s foul play and aims slightly to the side and kills him. The guards then attempt to capture Tennyson but find that he has escaped and has been replaced by an impostor, though not before killing King Ferris. Though Halt is next in line to be king, he chooses to abdicate the throne to his nephew, Sean, who he believes will be a worthy king. At the end of the book, following Horace’s recovery, Halt, Will and Horace begin to follow Tennyson’s trail once more.
Halt, Will, and Horace discover that Tennyson, the leader of a fake religious cult called the Outsiders, and his followers have fled to Picta, a country to the north of Araluen and home of the Scotti, with the assistance of a smuggler named Black O’Malley. The three follow their trail and discover that Tennyson is heading toward Araluen. Tennyson’s plan is to travel to an outlying Araluen village where he has already established influence to reinvigorate his movement. The trio continue to follow Tennyson through Picta and foil some Scotti raiders along the way. As the three catch up to Tennyson, they engage with the remaining two of his hired Genovesan assassins. Halt and Will manage to kill one, but the other injures Halt and escapes uninjured.
After a while, the wound is discovered to be poisoned by a hallucinogen which is slowly killing Halt. In desperation Will decides to seek the healer Malcolm and brings him to help. Malcolm explains that the poison has two possible sources with conflicting cures, and that administering the wrong cure will kill Halt. Will and Horace realise that the remaining assassin has been returning frequently to check on Halt’s condition, and formulate a plan to capture him and force him to identify the poison by piercing him with his own arrow and promising the antidote if he tells them the origin poison. After being cured alongside Halt, the assassin attempts to escape but is killed by Will.
With Halt healthy once more, the group, now with Malcolm accompanying them, continue to trail Tennyson. They find Tennyson in catacombs near a village where he is preaching to the followers of his religion. Halt successfully discredits him with Malcolm’s help. Halt tells all Araluens to leave before Will uses some dirt-bombs to cause the room to shake. In the chaos that follows, the cave system collapses on top of Tennyson, many of the Outsiders and all their gold. Halt, Will and Horace and Malcolm escape, and escort Malcolm back to his home in Grimsdell Wood. Once there, Will’s friend Trobar gives Will a puppy, Ebony, the daughter of the dog Shadow which Will gave to Trobar in The Siege of Macindaw. After separating from Malcolm, the trio head home, with Will and Halt going to Redmont and reuniting with Pauline and Alyss while Horace heads to Castle Araluen.
Horace has gone missing. Months have passed since he was sent on a military mission to the court of the Emperor of Nihon-Ja with his friend, former wardmate and Scribeschool apprentice George, but he has failed to return. Meanwhile, Halt, Will, Selethen and Alyss are in Toscana overseeing a demonstration using tight formations to overcome more skilled opponents and aid in the completion of a treaty between Arrida and Toscana. When Crown Princess Cassandra arrives notifying everyone of Horace’s absence, the Araluens and Selethen embark on a Skandian duty ship to find Horace.
They find that Horace has become embroiled in Nihon-Ja’s politics. An arrogant Senshi warlord known as Arisaka, a member of the Nihon-Ja warrior class, has rebelled against the rightful Emperor Shigeru out of fear that he will usurp the Senshi’s influence in the country and due to his belief that it was he who should have been named Emperor when the previous one died instead of Shigeru. He has convinced the Senshi of his clan, the Shimonseki Clan, and another, the Umaki Clan, to join him in his coup, manipulating them into believing that Shigeru’s actions violate his oath as a Senshi. Shigeru, though a Senshi himself, is also a man of the people and has been trying to reform his nation’s strict social system, which Arisaka argues to be a betrayal of his class. Arisaka’s men have seized the capital of Ito and slaughtered and scattered most of Shigeru’s Clan, while the remaining clans, who are without the strength to face the Shimonseki and Umaki due to their reputed strength as the two strongest clans in Nihon-Ja, are remaining silent and claim that if Arisaka’s claim is to be believed, then perhaps his cause is justified. Horace has chosen to stay and lend support to the deposed ruler. Pursued by the rebel leader and master swordsman Arisaka, Horace and Shigeru flee along with Shigeru’s cousin and guard Shukin and a small force of Senshi from Shigeru’s Clan. Their only hope is to find the fabled fortress of Ran-Koshi, which is mentioned in a legend and said to have impossibly high walls. The three lead their small entourage of 50 Senshi around the native villages recruiting the Kikori, lumberjacks native to the area who have long been abused and looked-down up by the Senshi but are fiercely loyal to the Emperor.
After recruiting, the men flee helplessly from Arisaka and his much larger army of Senshi followers. However, the Emperor’s party is moving slowly because they are burdened down by their injured, and are easily caught up to. In an effort to buy them more time, Shukin and nine other Senshi volunteers to stay back at a river and duel the enemy until they are killed. From a cliff, Shigeru watches as Arisaka kills his cousin in combat and continues the pursuit. Shortly after, they come to a precipice crossed only by a rickety footbridge and quickly cross. However, as the last men are crossing, Arisaka’s army arrives. Horace has a rope tied around his waist and goes back onto the bridge to defend it while the heavy ropes are being cut. When it falls, Horace is thrown against the cliff and as a result, drops his sword into the precipice below. Shigeru later presents a gift to the knight, a perfect copy of his blade but forged with the strong Nihon-Jan steel. With the enemy army stuck on the other side of the precipice, the party is free to carry on to Ran-Koshi.
When they arrive, they discover that the legendary fortress is a valley between high cliffs, defended by a palisade at its narrow opening. The men set up camp, and the Kikori begin refurbishing the fortress as more numbers join from the surrounding villages. After they arrive, the heavy snows of the Nihon-Jan winter come in, giving the men time to prepare while Arisaka is further hindered. Soon, though Ran-Koshi has been transformed into a full military fortress, but the Emperor still only has 50 Senshi and 200 untrained Kikori for an army. Unbeknown to them, Cassandra’s party has arrived and begin their search for Horace, and are found by Kikori scouts and brought out to Ran-Koshi. Horace welcomes his old friends and informs them of the situation.
The problem reminds Will of the Toscan military demonstration, and he and Selethen begin training men to use the tortoise formation. They form four units of 50 men, heavily trained formations of men armed with large wooden shields, short swords, and javelins. Meanwhile, Alyss and Cassandra embark on a journey across a large mountain lake to find a mythical people called the Hasanu, who are intensely loyal to their lord, a honorable man by the name of Lord Nimatsu, who is in turn faithful to Shigeru. When they arrive on the other side, they make contact and find that the Hasanu are large mountain people covered in thick, reddish fur. After learning of Shigeru’s plight, Nimatsu insists that he wishes help, but the way is blocked by a forest haunted by a demon that has killed 17 Hasanu. He further reveals that by asking the Hasanu to cross the forest, which they will refuse, he will humiliate and dishonour them and therefore he refuses to do so. Thus, Alyss and Cassandra set out to kill the demon, and discover that it is a giant snow tiger. After killing it, they bring it back and disperse the Hasanu’s fears, and they soon make preparations march for Ran-Koshi as the two girls finally come to understand one another and become friends.
When spring comes, Arisaka’s army arrives and camps at the bottom of a nearby valley. However, they are now much larger due to reinforcements from the south. Shigeru, Horace, Halt, Will and Selethen know that they are heavily outnumbered, but they prepare for battle to confront Arisaka. They prepare their formations on the plain outside Ran-Koshi, and kill hundreds of Arisaka’s infantry. Just as they are about to engage again, however, another army arrives, bringing hundreds more to Arisaka’s aid under Yamada, a Senshi lord loyal to Shigeru who has been deceived into supporting the rebel lord under the Arisaka’s claim that an impostor has replaced Shigeru. As the enemy forces arrive, so do the Hasanu with three thousand fierce warriors. The Emperor meets with Arisaka, Lord Yamada and unnamed lieutenant and, as Yamada grows unsure of whom to believe, Arisaka’s lieutenant attempts to kill Shigeru, only to be shot by Will. Arisaka then unintentionally reveals his lies in front of Yamada, who, along with his men, turns against the rebel Senshi lord, leaving Arisaka with only his own men, namely the warriors of the Shimonseki. Arisaka prepares to fight to the end, but Shigeru stops the battle, and says that he will give up his position as emperor if it will save hundreds of his people dying and leaving the choice of who will replace him in the care of nobles like Yamanda and Nimatsu. Arisaka’s army, awed by Shigeru’s display, desert their lord, beginning with a minor Shimonseki leader named Matsuda Sato who begins chanting the Emperor’s name. The chant gradually spreads to all Arisaka’s warriors, who take up the call and throw down their weapons. Enraged, Arisaka strikes down Matsuda which shocks his soldiers, who Arisaka slanders as cowards and traitors who have defiled his honour, only to be told by Will that he has no honor. As Arisaka charges the young Ranger, blinded with hate, Will hurls a saxe knife at his neck, killing him.
With the battle won, Shigeru returns to his position as Emperor to restabilize Nihon-Ja. Shigeru gives Horace a painting with which to remember him by, and they head back to Araluen. In the end, Horace and Cassandra become engaged, and Will mentions to Alyss that they should do the same.
The book begins with a scene many years in the future. A professor named Giles MacFarlane is overseeing an archaeological expedition when his assistant, Audrey, finds a little house in an area which is outside the village limits. Inside, Professor MacFarlane finds stories that tell what happens to the Rangers after they return from Nihon-Ja. In the chronicles, Gilan battles several thieves who are trying to kill Jenny, Will’s hideous speech ignites a purple fire as he fights a moondarker, Evanlyn and Horace are married and at the end of the book Will and Alyss are married as well.
Will Treaty tries to cope with the death of Alyss, who died in a fire set in an inn by a gang leader when she went back inside the burning building to save a young child. Will’s friends begin to notice that his once cheerful personality has grown grim and uninviting. After numerous attempts to “snap him out of it”, Gilan, the new Ranger Commandant calls on Halt, Pauline, Cassandra, and Horace to discuss how to deal with Will. Halt suggests that Will take on an apprentice to take his mind off his quest for revenge.
Meanwhile, Princess Madelyn, the daughter of Horace and Cassandra, is upset with her restrained royal life. Against the will of her parents, Maddie sneaks out at night to use her sling to hunt small animals. One night, Cassandra and Horace confront Maddie and ground her to her room for a period of two weeks. Halt suggests that Maddie be the one taken on by Will, which would make Maddie the first female Ranger’s apprentice in Ranger history. At the beginning of her apprenticeship, Will gives Maddie a letter from her parents, in which says she has been disinherited as a princess of Araluen. This is a desperate last resort by her parents to get her under control. Will proceeds to train Maddie, and as he focuses on her, his quest for revenge is slowly forgotten. When Gilan suggests Will take Maddie on a mission, Will accepts without reluctance.
Gilan assigns Will and Maddie to investigate the death of Liam, a Ranger in Trelleth Fief, a northwestern fief. Will and Maddie soon discover a plot by an illicit slave ring who kidnap children. The criminals first send a storyteller to villages which frightens the children with a story about the “Stealer in the Night”. The storyteller seeks out a child who is likely being abused at home and also takes children who aren’t quiet about speaking about the Stealer. Will learns that the Stealer in the Night — the leader of the slave ring — is actually Jory Ruhl, but he manages to set aside his revenge to save the children Ruhl has kidnapped. Will and Maddie go to the slavers’ camp, where Will distracts the criminals, while Maddie frees the slaves. Unfortunately, while Maddie is successful in freeing the children, Will is captured by the gang and tied to a stake to be burned. Maddie then goes to save Will, ending in, Ruhl’s death.
Six months later, Maddie is awarded her Bronze Oakleaf, and Cassandra offers her reinstatement as a princess. However, Maddie declines, saying she wishes to complete her apprenticeship instead. Cassandra is stunned, and the book concludes as Horace explains to her that Rangers have always been different. When Cassandra asks what she should do, Horace tells her they just have to live with it.
An unnamed narrator known as Vulpus Rutilus prepares to give a speech to a group of rebels called the Red Fox Clan. He gives a speech to the fervent crowd, denouncing female rulers and organizing the group to gather at Araluen Fief in two months.
During the gathering, Madelyn fails her unseen movement exercise and must retake it in three months, but is advanced to fourth-year training anyways. Afterwards, her, Halt O’Carrick, Gilan, and Will Treaty discuss the Red Fox Clan, which intel has lead them to believe are a rabble led by leaders who believe in their cause but composed primarily of thugs and mercenaries bought in by the of good pickings. Horace Altman has formed a plan to take Gilan and a company of troops to their believed headquarters by the Wezel River, while Will and Halt investigate another group operating in a fief near Redmont’s northwest border.
On the way back to Castle Araluen, Madelyn, accompanied by Ingrid, are attacked by a trio of bandits, but are easily defeated by Madelyn, who has them taken prisoner by the local lord and forced to perform the unattractive village tasks. During a fair to celebrate her return, Madelyn runs into Dimon, a captain of the palace guard. Gilan and Horace depart, and Cassandra and Madelyn attend training sessions with Maikeru and Dimon. Dimon and Madelyn go hunting during their free time.
Horace and Gilan, with their forces, discover that they have been tricked and the Red Foxes are far more powerful than they believed after the Araluen Army is ambushed by a massive force of Clan members and men from Sonderland. Gilan, Altman and the Army are able to escape Vulpus Rutilus’s Fox forces into a hill fort, injuring the military leader in process, but are surrounded by the army of traitors and foreigners, unable to fight their way out with such few numbers.
On a suggestion from King Duncan, Madelyn explores the castle and discovers secret tunnels leading outside the walls. Meanwhile, Horace and Gilan are confronted by an unexpected troop of armed men from the Red Fox Clan, forcing them to cross a ford. An Iberian ambassador visits Araluen, who expresses belief in a patriarchal line of succession. Cassandra, noticing Madelyn and Dimon’s relationship, tells her that Dimon is a distant relative, but closely enough related not to cause any problems if they were romantically involved, which Maddie denies.
Investing a rumor, Madelyn explores an abbey and discovers a fox face scratched into the floor. Deciding to come back later, she returns to Castle Araluen to meet The Herons. When The Wolfbiter is damaged, The Herons sail down Semath River to help with repairs. Returning to the abbey, Madelyn witnesses a Fox Clan meeting and learns their plans to seize the throne and reintroduce the patriarchal system of royalty, but her presence is discovered and she’s nearly caught.
The Foxes put their plan into motion before Madelyn can make it back to the Castle and raise the alarm. They infiltrate the castle, disguised as members of Horace’s troops. Dimon is revealed to have been the leader of the Foxes, having used them in a bid to take the throne for himself, a goal drilled into his mind by his mother since childhood. Cassandra and a handful of servants are able to escape to the southern tower; Maikeru is killed buying them time. Using the tunnels, Madelyn successfully sneaks into the tower. Her and Cassandra begin to plan their escape, the Foxes having seized the remainder of Castle Araluen.
King Duncan and Princess Cassandra are trapped high in the south tower of Castle Araluen. In the north, Sir Horace and Ranger Commandant Gilan are besieged in an old hill fort, as they wait for the Red Fox Clan’s next attack.
Ranger’s apprentice Maddie must find the Heron brotherband and convince them to join her, so she can give her father the help he needs to break out from the hill fort and ride to confront the traitor. Will they reach Castle Araluen in time? And when the battles have been fought and the dust has settled, who will rule the Kingdom of Araluen? Find out in the gripping third book of Maddie’s adventures as The Royal Ranger continues!
The story begins with Philippe, King of Gallica, his brother, Louis, and a retinue of guards arriving at Castle Araluen on mysterious business, desiring to see King Duncan. Greeted by Lord Anthony, the Royal Chamberlain is quickly disgruntled by Philippe dismissively voicing what he sees as confirmation that Duncan is still a cripple. Meanwhile, in Redmont, a band of four bandits lead by Barton ‘Bearkiller’ watch a farmer’s cart come too and from the market. When they attempt to rob the cart, however, the farmer reveals himself to be in fact Will Treaty, who, with the aid of Madelyn, take out and arrest Barton, Walter Scar and One-Eyed Jem before capturing Donald, who had fled at the sight of danger and bring them to Willow Bend Village for imprisonment till they can be taken to Castle Redmont to face trail at Baron Arald’s court. As they leave, Maddie expresses her annoyance on the false name Will had given her, although she quietens after Will revealed how for most of his life, unlike his four fellow wardmates, he had grown up without a family name. While camping out, Madelyn expresses her desire to never give up the life of the corp, and, when Will points out how she might have to one day take the throne, she dismisses this, pointing out how their were other candidates who would be worthy.
Following their return to the Ranger Cottage, Halt, who has travelled down to return Sable and deliver a message to the pair. The three travel to Castle Araluen, where they discover from Duncan what has happened. Gallica is on the brink of another royal coup! The evil Baron Joubert de Lassigny has captured Philippe’s son and, armed with the knowledge that, should he make a direct threat, Philippe will be able to gather support from the other nobles, has instead claimed that Prince Giles is remaining at the Chateau of his own free will, something the other Barons of Gallica’s fiefs have accepted. Instead, Lassigny has made a silent ransom demand, give him power over a neighbouring fief who’s baron died sometime prior to this which had formerly merged with Lassigny’s domain to form one single barony, which Lassigny has been ejecting towards for some time and Giles will be allowed to return.
Philippe has thus pleaded for aid from the Rangers in liberating his child from Lassigny’s grasp, which Duncan, knowing that a strong leader like Lassigny will be more of a threat to Araluen than a weak king like Philippe, has agreed to provide.
After their plan to rescue the prince of Gallica has gone horribly wrong, Will Treaty and his apprentice, Maddie, are being held captive at the Chateau des Falaises in Gallica. The dangerous baron Lassigny is intent on keeping them–and the prince–no matter what. But Will and Maddie are determined to escape.
When briefly allowed out of their tower to exercise, they find friends are near who can help. But in a dangerous challenge to another knight, Maddie triumphs–only to be dangerously threatened by the arrogant baron, and sentenced to death.
Now, Maddie and Will must find a way to rescue the prince, and escape alive–if they ever want to return to their home. But the dirty tricks of the baron–and the mysterious figure behind the prince’s kidnapping–are no laughing matter. The Rangers will use all the tools of their trade to save themselves, and save the day.
12 years before the book, Mikkel, Hal’s father, died on a raiding trip. Before his death he had his best friend, Thorn, promise that he would help Hal. Thorn promises but loses his right hand on the voyage back. Once in Skandia he becomes a drunk, wallowing in self-pity, however, Hal’s mother, Karina, reminds Thorn of his promise and employs him in her inn/eating house.
Hal Mikkelson, 16, has become a boy who builds whatever he thinks of with the help of his best friends, Stig and Thorn. At the same time he works with Anders, the local shipbuilder. During this time Hal buys an incomplete ship from Anders and finishes building it, naming it the Heron because the sail design was based on a heron’s wing. After sailing the Heron with a few boys Hal recruited, Hal halts work on it to prepare for Brotherband training. During Brotherband training, boys who are 16 in Skandia are taught the basics of fighting and ship navigation. For each Brotherband, a leader must be chosen – this year there are a total of 28 boys divided into 3 Brotherbands: The Sharks, The Wolves, and The Herons. With Hal finding himself the unwilling leader of the Herons, made up of the Heron’s crew and a few additional boys, all outcasts, he must step up to the challenge. Every Brotherband must participate in team and individual activities to earn points. At the end of Brotherband training the points are totaled up. Hal manages to win permission to use the Heron in the sailing challenges.
While Brotherband training continues, a Skandian trading fleet is attacked. The leader of the pirates, Zavac, demands to know about the secret treasure of Skandia, the Andomal, a precious amber stone that washed up on the shores of Skandia a long time ago. The leader of the trading fleet vows not to tell until he sees that one of the pirates had grabbed his nephew. Knowing that his nephew shouldn’t die for his mistakes, the head of the trading fleet begins to tell Zavac about the Andomal, knowing that it is well guarded. As he talks he remembers that one night every year it is not so well protected.
Zavac arrives on the shores of Hallasholm, the Skandian capital, with his “damaged” ship, and claims to be a troubled sailor. Erak, the Oberjarl, or leader of the Skandians, allows them to stay, but appoints Thorn to keep watch on them; he suspects foul play.
Hal and the Herons defeat both rival Brotherbands and are given the honor of defending the Andomal for a night, as is the tradition. Hal leaves the site temporarily to check on the Heron and the watchman falls asleep, allowing Zavac and his pirates to infiltrate the site and steal the Andomal. When it is discovered, a furious Erak harshly scolds the boys, takes away the horned helmets they won, erases the Heron Brotherband from the competition, and demands that they give over their weapons and the Heron. However, the Heron Brotherband, together with Thorn, uses the Heron to chase after Zavac for a chance at redemption and respect.
Hal and his crew are chasing Zavac. However, due to a massive storm, they are forced to stop and resume the chase later. They take shelter at a bay Hal names Shelter Bay for a few weeks, where they repair their ship, add the Mangler, a giant crossbow, a hull fin for extra maneuverability, and train under Thorn. Afterward, they go to a small Skandian village to stock up on supplies while asking about Zavac’s ship, the Raven. Meanwhile, Zavac and his crew take over a small trading vessel and search the strongbox, where they find emeralds. Zavac demands to know where they have come from. The leader of the trading fleet, after extensive torture, tells Zavac that the emeralds came from Limmat, a town further up the coast of Sonderland. Zavac goes to Limmat, tricks the soldiers garrisoned there, easily takes over the town, and forces the miners to work even harder to give Zavac emeralds. However, a girl named Lydia manages to escape using a small skiff.
While Hal is going back to Shelter Bay, he thinks he sees Wolfwind, the Oberjarl Erak’s ship, and sails south for a day. While heading back they find Lydia, who tells them about the pirate attack. Hal thinks it may be Zavac so he continues back to Shelter Bay. Wolfwind, led by the Skandian Svengal, finds them but ends up helping them. The next day, they begin sailing to Limmat, and when they arrive, they see Zavac’s ship. Thus, they hide in the marshes where they find the town’s remaining soldiers, led by Barat, a man who thinks he owns Lydia, in hiding. Hal forms a plan with the locals to take back the town in 5 days. They are able to, after many mishaps, conquer the pirates, but Zavac slips away, burning two of his ships to prevent pursuit, and crippling Wolfwind, forcing the Heron to turn back and help Svengal and his crew bail water and dock in the bay.
While Barat gives a victory speech to the townspeople, claiming all the credit for himself and not the Skandians, and publicly proposing to Lydia and saying that she has already said yes, Thorn and Stefan free an imprisoned pirate to serve as their guide to follow Zavac, and leave on the Heron with Lydia, who is disgusted by Barat and caught in the middle of a love triangle between Hal, Stig, and herself.
Hal, the captain of the Heron, follows Zavac with the help of Rikard, a pirate who’d been betrayed by Zavac. However, Ingvar, a big, wise, but poor-sighted boy, contracts a fever from the arrow wound he received during the battle for Limmat. The Herons wait ashore, and Rikard escapes, but Lydia and Thorn quickly track him down and capture him once again. When Ingvar’s fever breaks, the Herons continue on their chase after Zavac. They follow him to a town where they find evidence of Zavac, but he has already left. The Herons let Rikard go, but one of Zavac’s men kill him for treachery. The Herons are accused of murdering Rikard, but they are cleared and they continue. However, Zavac learns of the Herons following him and he pays the Gatmeister of a nearby city to detain the Herons indefinitely. The Herons escape with the help of Lydia. They burn the Gatmeister’s private yacht in revenge for beating up Hal when Hal wouldn’t tell the Gatmeister where their cash chest was. They continue on to the pirate fortress Raguza, where the Seahawk stops them, but with the help of the Seahawk they enter Raguza under the guise of a pirate. Zavac learns of their presence, but the Herons talk to the Kopaljo first, and the Kopaljo takes the emeralds from Zavac that he stole from Limmat. He then banishes Zavac from Raguza. However, Hal challenges Zavac in a battle of ships. Hal cripples the ship with the Mangler, but it collapses on him. Ingvar frees him, and Hal goes on board The Raven, Zavac’s ship, to recover the Andomal, Skandia’s greatest treasure. Zavac nearly kills Hal, but Thorn saves Hal, and pins Zavac to the sinking Raven, and the Herons return to Skandia, where they are celebrated as heroes for retrieving the Andomal.
Hal and his fellow Herons have returned home to Skandia after defeating the pirate captain Zavac and reclaiming Skandia’s most prized artifact, the Andomal. With their honor restored, the Herons turn to a new mission: tracking down an old rival turned bitter enemy.
Tursgud—leader of the Shark Brotherband and Hal’s constant opponent—has turned from a bullying youth into a pirate and slave trader. After Tursgud captures twelve Araluen villagers to sell as slaves, the Heron crew sails into action . . . with the help of one of Araluen’s finest Rangers!
Hal, his Brotherband crew, and the Ranger Gilan have freed the twelve Araluens sold into slavery. Returning to Araluen, Gilan is given a new mission by King Duncan: protect his daughter’s life. Princess Cassandra has survived one attempt on her life already, and now whispers of a second attempt have reached the kingdom. A deadly sect known as the Scorpion Cult is thought to be behind the assassination threat.
Not waiting to see if the knife will strike true, the Brotherband again team up with Gilan to track down the would-be killers. In this fifth book in the Brotherband Chronicles, old friends reemerge to take on new enemies as the worlds of Ranger’s Apprentice and Brotherband join forces in battle!
When the Brotherband crew are caught in a massive storm at sea, they’re blown far off course and wash up on the shores of a land so far west that Hal can’t recognize it from any of his maps. Eerily, the locals are nowhere in sight, yet the Herons have a creeping feeling they are being watched.
Suddenly the silence is broken when a massive, marauding bear appears, advancing on two children. The crew springs into action and rescues the children from the bear’s clutches, which earns them the gratitude and friendship of the local Mawagansett tribe, who finally reveal themselves.
But the peace is short-lived. The Ghostfaces, a ruthless, warlike tribe who shave their heads and paint their faces white, are on the warpath once more. It’s been ten years since they raided the Mawagansett village, but they’re coming back to pillage and reap destruction. As the enemy approaches, the Herons gear up to help their new friends repel an invasion.
In Hallasholm, Stig is contesting the annual Maktig competition to decide Skandia’s greatest warrior. But a late-night knock on the door brings someone Stig never expected to see again, along with a request the Herons are hard-pressed to refuse: a rescue mission of epic proportions.
Across the ocean, the southern city-state of Byzantos is plagued by a crew of pirates who’ve kidnapped the son of Empress Justina. Slipping out of Hallasholm under the cover of darkness, the brotherband sets sail to recover the boy from his kidnappers, heading south to the island of Santorillos where a near-impenetrable fortress stands atop a cliff, surrounded by a lagoon—a caldera—formed by the crater of a volcano.
In this explosive seventh book in the action-packed Brotherband Chronicles, the Herons battle pirates amid stormy seas as the fate of an empire rests on their shoulders.
The Herons are home in Skandia, but the usually peaceful country is in danger. The Temujai–ruthless warriors from the Eastern Steppes have never given up on their ambition to claim Skandia for their own…and now they’re on the move. Hal and his crew will have to brave the treacherous icy river and rapids to stop them, no matter the cost.
The Herons are home in Skandia—preparing to celebrate two of their own and working on sea trials in the newly constructed Heron. But during a short excursion, they encounter an Iberian pirate ship raiding the coast of Sonderland, so Hal and his crew take action.
Though the Herons quickly triumph, the Iberians voice their fury at the Herons, vowing to take revenge. And soon they do—raiding the harbor and stealing or destroying as many ships as they can. Though there is little proof the Iberians are behind it, the Herons take their ship, the only one that has survived the raid—and race after their enemy in hot pursuit. They will take down these pirates and get justice—no matter what.