The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3)

by Rick Riordan

Percy looked at Coach Hedge and Frank. “A trap?” “Probably,” Frank said. “She’s not mortal,” Hedge said, sniffing the air. “Probably some sort of goat-eating, demigod-destroying fiend from Tartarus.” “No doubt,” Percy agreed. “Awesome.” Hedge grinned. “Let’s go.”

Frank hesitated. Then he stuffed some T-shirts in his backpack. “Dude,” Percy said, “what are you doing?” “She said I could,” Frank whispered. “Besides, I need more clothes. I didn’t pack for a long trip!”

“Whale sharks,” Coach Hedge growled. “Now we shall battle to the death!”

“Walk this way!” Phorcys scuttled sideways through the tunnel. Frank scratched his head. “Do we have to—?” He turned sideways. “It’s just a figure of speech, man,” Percy said. “Come on.”

Dude. Percy sent his thoughts through the water, the way he spoke with other sea creatures. A goldfish? Frank’s voice came back to him: I freaked. We were talking about goldfish, so it was on my mind. Sue me. I’m having a telepathic conversation with a giant koi, Percy said. Great. Can you turn into something more…useful? Silence. Maybe Frank was concentrating, though it was impossible to tell, since koi don’t have many expressions. Sorry. Frank sounded embarrassed. I’m stuck. That happens sometimes when I panic.

Well, that’s it, he thought dejectedly. I’ll have to live in a plastic gingerbread house the rest of my life, fighting my giant goldfish friend and waiting for feeding time.

Hedge yelled a question that might have been: Where’s Frank? Percy pointed at the giant koi. Frank waved his left dorsal fin. ’Sup?

Hazel crossed her arms. “So the Romans fought on the Confederate side? As a girl whose grandmother was a slave, can I just say…not cool?”

Annabeth realized that if six of them went on these two quests, it would leave Percy alone on the ship with Coach Hedge, which was maybe not a situation a caring girlfriend should put him in. Nor was she eager to let Percy out of her sight again—not after they’d been apart for so many months.

The beautiful design and the vast open space reminded her of Mount Olympus. Grand buildings made her feel better—maybe because being in a place so permanent made her feel more permanent.

Annabeth’s nails bit into her palms. The silver coin seemed to grow warmer in her hand. “Percy is everything to me.”

Annabeth kissed him. “Good luck, Seaweed Brain. Just come back to me, okay?” “I will,” he promised. “You do the same.”

Mostly she breathed in the sea air and thought about Percy. Gods forbid she ever had to break up with him. She’d never be able to visit the sea again without remembering her broken heart.

She recognized this woman, even though her face changed by the second, becoming more and more beautiful. “Aphrodite,” she said. “Venus?” Hazel asked in amazement. “Mom,” Piper said, with no enthusiasm. “Girls!” The goddess spread her arms like she wanted a group hug.

Next came Percy, who was infuriating but sweet, yet he had seemed to be falling for another girl named Rachel, and then he almost died, several times. Finally Annabeth had gotten Percy to herself, only to have him vanish for six months and lose his memory.

“You other two…” He pointed his blade at Hazel and Piper. “Put your weapons on the dock. No funny bus—” All around the Romans, Charleston Harbor erupted like a Las Vegas fountain putting on a show. When the wall of seawater subsided, the three Romans were in the bay, spluttering and frantically trying to stay afloat in their armor. Percy stood on the dock, holding Annabeth’s dagger. “You dropped this,” he said, totally poker-faced. Annabeth threw her arms around him. “I love you!”

Coach Hedge came pounding up the stairs with Hazel at his hooves. “Where are they?” he demanded. “Who do I kill?” “No killing!” Annabeth ordered. “Just defend the ship!” “But they interrupted a Chuck Norris movie!”

“That lady, Doña Callida, she warned me.” Sammy shook his head sadly. “She said Hazel’s great danger would not happen in my lifetime. But I promised I would be there for her. You will have to tell her I’m sorry, Leo. Help her if you can.”

WHAT?!?!?!

“Sonar?” Hedge demanded. “Pan’s pipes, Valdez! Maybe if you hadn’t been staring into Hazel’s eyes, holding hands for so long—” “What?” Frank yelped. “It wasn’t like that!” Hazel protested.

Frank finna crash out

“Leo,” Hazel gasped, “I can’t—my arms—” “Hazel,” he said. “Do you trust me?” “No!” “Me neither,”

“Oh, man,” Leo said when he had finished the story. “I don’t feel so good. But I swear on the Styx, that’s what we saw.” Frank had the same expression as the monster catfish head—wide glassy eyes and an open mouth. “Hazel…Hazel liked your great-grandfather? That’s why she likes you?” “Frank, I know this is weird. Believe me. But I don’t like Hazel—not that way. I’m not moving in on your girl.” Frank knit his eyebrows. “No?”

Leo had seen a lot of crazy stuff, but he had always thought merpeople were silly fictional creatures, like Smurfs or Muppets.

Aphros nodded, a glint of pride in his eyes. “We have trained all the famous mer-heroes! Name a mer-hero, and we have trained him or her!” “Oh, sure,” Leo said. “Like…um, the Little Mermaid?” Aphros frowned. “Who? No! Like Triton, Glaucus, Weissmuller, and Bill!”

“You teach combat, I guess.” Aphros threw up his hands in exasperation. “Why does everyone assume that?” Leo glanced at the massive sword on the fish-guy’s back. “Uh, I don’t know.” “I teach music and poetry!” Aphros said. “Life skills! Homemaking! These are important for heroes.” “Absolutely.” Leo tried to keep a straight face. “Sewing? Cookie baking?” “Yes. I’m glad you understand. Perhaps later, if I don’t have to kill you, I will share my brownie recipe.”

“Hercules, huh?” Percy frowned. “That guy was like the Starbucks of Ancient Greece. Everywhere you turn—there he is.”

“Hello,” Piper said. Always a good start. “What’s up?” Hercules said. His voice was deep but casual, very modern. He could’ve been greeting them in the high school locker room. “Uh, not much.” Piper winced. “Well, actually, a lot. I’m Piper. This is Jason. We—”

Hercules glared at the sky accusingly, like he wanted to have words with his father, Zeus. “Don’t believe everything you hear about me. Being famous isn’t as fun as you might think.” “Tell me about it,” Piper sighed.

Not just any demigod can survive the Mare Nostrum. Because of that, I have to give you a quest to complete. Prove your worth, blah, blah, blah. Honestly, I don’t make a big deal of it. Usually I give demigods something simple like a shopping trip, singing a funny song, that sort of thing. After all those labors I had to complete for my evil cousin Eurystheus, well…I don’t want to be that guy, you know?” “Appreciate it,” Jason said. “Hey, no problem.” Hercules sounded relaxed and easy going,

Hercules a real chad

“But we’re like brothers,” Jason protested. “Hera’s messed with my life, too. I understand—” “You understand nothing,” Hercules said coldly. “My first family: dead. My life wasted on ridiculous quests. My second wife dead, after being tricked into poisoning me and leaving me to a painful demise. And my compensation? I got to become a minor god. Immortal, so I can never forget my pain. Stuck here as a gatekeeper, a doorman, a…a butler for the Olympians. No, you don’t understand. The only god who understands me even a little bit is Dionysus. And at least he invented something useful. I have nothing to show except bad film adaptations of my life.”

Jason shifted his feet. “Couldn’t we just sing a funny song?” “I’d get going,” Hercules said coldly. “Sundown. Or your friends are dead.”

She’d never ridden a bull before, but she’d practiced bareback pegasus riding at Camp Half-Blood, and she remembered what to do. She used her momentum, swinging one leg over Achelous’s back. Then she locked her ankles around his neck, wrapped one arm around his throat, and drew her knife with the other. She pressed the blade under the river god’s chin. “Let—Jason—go.” She put all her force into the command. “Now!”

Percy swallowed back his anger. He wasn’t sure if he was mad at Annabeth, or his dream, or the entire Greek/Roman world that had endured and shaped human history for five thousand years with one goal in mind: to make Percy Jackson’s life suck as much as possible.

“And, Percy, his accent sounds familiar because he sounds like his mother. We killed her in New Jersey.” Percy frowned. “I’m pretty sure that accent isn’t New Jersey. Who’s his—? Oh.” It all fell into place. Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium—the lair of Medusa. She’d talked with that same accent, at least until Percy had cut off her head. “Medusa is your mom?” he asked. “Dude, that sucks for you.”

Then he examined the girls like they were Christmas presents, which made Percy grit his teeth.

They battled back and forth, thrusting and parrying. Without meaning to, Percy heard the voice of Luke Castellan, his first sword-fighting mentor at Camp Half-Blood, throwing out suggestions. But it didn’t help.

“Behold!” Percy shouted. “The god’s chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!”

The older he got, the longer he survived as a half-blood, the more his friends looked up to him. They depended on him and relied on his powers. Even the Romans had raised him on a shield and made him praetor, and he’d only known them for a couple of weeks. But Percy didn’t feel powerful. The more heroic stuff he did, the more he realized how limited he was. He felt like a fraud. I’m not as great as you think, he wanted to warn his friends. His failures, like tonight, seemed to prove it. Maybe that’s why he had started to fear suffocation. It wasn’t so much drowning in the earth or the sea, but the feeling that he was sinking into too many expectations, literally getting in over his head.

“Yes,” she said carefully. “It’s on the Tiber River. I think I can find it, but I should—” “Take me along,” Percy finished. “Yeah, you’re right.” Annabeth glared daggers at him. “That’s not—” “Safe,” he supplied.

“Um…hopefully, if I get close enough. I’ll have to walk around the city. Frank, would you come with me?” Frank beamed. “Absolutely.” “And, uh…Leo,” Hazel added. “It might be a good idea if you came along too. The fish-centaurs said we’d need your help with something mechanical.” “Yeah,” Leo said, “no problem.” Frank’s smile turned into something more like Chrysaor’s mask.

Percy, Annabeth…I don’t like you two going off on your own. Just remember: behave. If I hear about any funny business, I will ground you until the Styx freezes over.”