Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson, #1)

by Rick Riordan

Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn’t human. She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

‘Don’t say his name,’ she warned. ‘Names have power.’

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying. Oops.

‘You’re a god.’ ‘Yes, child.’ ‘A god. You.’

I’d made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn’t understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.

Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They’d had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.

‘My father?’ I asked, completely bewildered. ‘Poseidon,’ said Chiron. ‘Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God.’

‘Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr D,’ Chiron put in. ‘Nonsense,’ Dionysus said. ‘Boy wouldn’t feel a thing. Nevertheless, I’ve agreed to restrain myself. I’m thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father.’

Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask. I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath.

‘But a quest to …’ Grover swallowed. ‘I mean, couldn’t the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine’s very nice this time of year.’

Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn’t know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.

When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.

‘You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn’t lived with him every summer, you probably would’ve been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must’ve loved you a lot to put up with that guy – if that makes you feel any better.’

In a way, it’s nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.

Annabeth muttered to me, ‘Circus caravan?’ ‘Always have a strategy, right?’ ‘Your head is full of kelp.’

‘Hey!’ Grover interrupted. ‘You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don’t even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?’

‘I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It’s the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened.’

‘I’m not saying hello to a pink poodle,’ I said. ‘Forget it.’ ‘Percy,’ Annabeth said. ‘I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle.’ The poodle growled. I said hello to the poodle.

‘It allows him to become darkness,’ Grover confirmed. ‘He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can’t be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?’

I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning. Your father believes in you, she had said. She’d also called me brave … unless she was talking to the catfish.

‘To threaten Hades,’ Grover suggested. ‘To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back.’ I whistled. ‘You have evil thoughts for a goat.’ ‘Why, thank you.’

‘We want to go the Underworld,’ she said. Charon’s mouth twitched. ‘Well, that’s refreshing.’ ‘It is?’ she asked. ‘Straightforward and honest. No screaming. No “There must be a mistake, Mr Charon”.’ He looked us over. ‘How did you die, then?’

‘Here now,’ he said. ‘You couldn’t read my name correctly. Are you dyslexic, lad?’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m dead.’

I pretended not to see Annabeth wipe a tear from her cheek as she listened to the mournful keening of Cerberus in the distance, longing for his new friend.

When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades’s underwear?

‘Obedience does not come naturally to you, does it?’ ‘No … sir.’ ‘I must take some blame for that, I suppose. The sea does not like to be restrained.’

‘You did well, Perseus. Do not misunderstand me. Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true son of the Sea God.’