The Blood of Olympus

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014

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Chapters 45-48Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 45 Summary: “Nico”

Nico summons his zombie chauffeur to bring himself, Leila, and Dakota back to the Roman lines. He’s shocked by the vast number of monsters overwhelming the Roman numbers. After sending Leila and Dakota to cause a distraction, he melts into the shadows to disable the onagers by stealth. He almost dissolves but recovers his strength enough to make it back out.

Nico notices that Octavian is filled with hate and has loaded the onagers with explosives and imperial gold—enough to annihilate everything in the blast zone, monsters and demigods. Nico considers shadow-jumping to Octavian’s tent—where he expects that the Roman leader will wait out the attack on the Greek camp—and assassinating him, but he’s intercepted by Will Solace, who is on a scouting mission. He passes on the news that Hedge’s wife, Mellie, had a satyr baby boy. Realizing that Nico won’t survive another jump, Will forbids him to shadow-travel. They must find another way to stop the Romans. Nico grudgingly agrees and orders the others to follow his lead.

Chapter 46 Summary: “Nico”

Nico and the Camp Half-Blood demigods successfully sabotage three onagers. Nico endangers himself by using his underworld power, and Will offers him medicinal gum to recover his strength. Their skirmishes with the Romans attract Octavian’s attention. He accosts them, ordering them to drop their weapons and ordering his elite guard of dog-headed warriors (cynocephali) to tear them apart.

Chapter 47 Summary: “Nico”

Will stuns the cynocephali with an ultrasonic whistle, and Nico vaporizes them with his sword, shocking Octavian, who orders his legionnaires to fire the onagers. Nico considers killing him but hesitates, remembering his unease after Bryce Lawrence’s death. Octavian tauntingly asks if the Greeks have offered him a place in their camp. Nico replies that he’s fighting for both Greeks and Romans and then announces that he plans to leave both camps after the war is over, upsetting Will, who tells Nico that he has friends there. The two bicker until Octavian offers to top any offer the Greeks have made him. Apollo has shown him the future. Will retorts that prophecy power has been cut off, but Octavian insists that his father foretold that he’ll be Rome’s savior by destroying the Greeks.

The onagers fire, but the sabotage works, and they explode harmlessly into the sky. Dakota leads his cohorts forward, announcing that Reyna ordered the Romans to stand down. As Octavian orders Dakota arrested, against Will’s warning not to make his people choose, the Camp Half-Blood army appears over the crest of Half-Blood Hill. Clarisse is at the head, ordering the Romans to “[w]ithdraw or be destroyed” (326). Octavian orders his legion to charge.

Chapter 48 Summary: “Nico”

Will saves the day with his ultrasonic whistle and points to the sky, where Reyna, riding in front, leads the winged horses who are carrying the Athena Parthenos. She announces that she’s returning the Greek’s “most sacred statue […] wrongly taken by the Romans […] as a gesture of peace” (328). She sets the statue on the hill, and it fills Nico with warmth and a sense of belonging. As Reyna and Nico urge the Greeks and Romans to stand together, Gaea’s voice interrupts them. She’s awake, and her monsters surround the demigods.

Chapters 45-48 Analysis

Returning to Nico’s perspective back at Camp Half-Blood, The Blood of Olympus reaches a climactic moment when Reyna arrives with the Athena Parthenos just as war is about to break out between the camps. The zombie chauffeur story that Nico told Reyna to comfort her and encourage her to open up earlier in the novel makes its appearance as Nico looks for a way to deliver Dakota and Leila to the Roman lines, bringing that storyline full circle. There, Nico is disgusted to realize that Octavian’s plan is to destroy both Camp Half-Blood and Gaea’s monster allies but, recalling his earlier discomfort after killing Bryce, restrains himself, the same advice Reyna wanted to give Hylla when Orion appeared in Puerto Rico.

Will Solace, a son of Apollo who appeared in earlier books, saves the day twice with his ultrasonic whistle. Characteristically, it takes a group of demigods working together to achieve outcomes. Success isn’t vested in one leader but the cooperation and collaboration of all, bringing their gifts to bear in the crisis of the moment, again showing how mutual understanding and self-acceptance strengthen The Makings of a Good Leader. Feeling that his overtures of friendship and romance are being rejected, Will is offended to hear Nico say that he plans to leave both camps. This, in turn, surprises Nico, who has been so consumed with feeling left out and feared that he hasn’t noticed the friends who support him.

Reyna’s question at the beginning of the novel, wondering whether Octavian has collaborated with Gaea or has become power-hungry and unhinged, isn’t definitively resolved. Ultimately, the risk he poses to Camp Half-Blood renders the question beside the point. With Gaea’s awakening in Athens, the demigods must work together or face defeat.

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