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“O goddess, accept our offering.” She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer. “Half-Blood Hill,” Annabeth requested.
“Chiron had to break up a fight,” Luke shouted to me over the music. “Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus–Poseidon standoff. We’re still not sure how—probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound.
“Not much,” I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin. “Come on, let’s find some dinner.”
Ares bared his teeth, but I’d seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.
by Zeus.
And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. “We need to have a little talk with Ares.”
The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia:
Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They’d
I’ve got Thalia’s pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer.…”
“I don’t know what my mom will do. I just know I’ll fight next to you.” “Why?” “Because you’re my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?”
My nightmare started out as something I’d dreamed a million times before: I was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, Come on, Percy. You’re not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil.
Grover and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips.
She looked up, annoyed. “What?” “We need to leave.” “Leave? What are you talking about? I’ve just got the towers—” “This place is a trap.” She didn’t respond until I shook her again. “What?”
“Yes, child. I am a Nereid, a spirit of the sea. It was not easy to appear so far upriver, but the naiads, my freshwater cousins, helped sustain my life force.
Houdini, who could escape even the depths of Tartarus. Do you have these talents?” “Um…no, ma’am.”
uh, yes you can
“Ah, but you have something else, Percy. You have gifts you have only begun to know. The oracles have foretold a great and terrible future for you, should you survive to manhood. Poseidon would not have you die before your time. Therefore take these, and when you are in need, smash a pearl at your feet.”
“You remind me of somebody I saw on TV,” he told me. “You a child actor or something?” “Uh…I’m a stunt double…for a lot of child actors.”
“Ergo!”
“Don’t mind her,” I told Procrustes. “She’s impossible.”
mattress. “No waves. See?” I snapped my fingers. “Ergo.”
Annabeth said, “What happens if the plan doesn’t work?” “Don’t think negative.” “Right,” she said. “We’re entering the Land of the Dead, and I shouldn’t think negative.”
I nudged Grover. “Oh,” he said. “Um…drowned…in the bathtub.” “All three of you?” Charon asked. We nodded. “Big bathtub.” Charon looked mildly impressed. “I don’t suppose you have coins for passage. Normally, with adults, you see, I could charge your American Express, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill. But with children…alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you’ll have to take a seat for a few centuries.”
“You deserve better,” I agreed. “A little appreciation. Respect. Good pay.”
“Polluted,” Charon said. “For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across—hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me.”
YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS.
“Who says he’s seeing this place the way we’re seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You’re very stubborn—er, persistent, that way.”
“Obedience school,” she said breathlessly, and I was surprised to see there were tears in her eyes. “When I was little, at my dad’s house, we had a Doberman.…”
The dead aren’t scary. They’re just sad.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Annabeth said, like she was reading my thoughts. “That’s the place for heroes.”
Hades’s aura was affecting me, just as Ares’s had.
I wanted to say, Well, these guys don’t look like peace activists. But I thought that might be a dangerous answer.
“Leave me here,” he said. “Use the third pearl on your mom.” “No!” “I’m a satyr,” Grover said. “We don’t have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won’t get me forever. I’ll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It’s the best way.” “No.” Annabeth drew her bronze knife. “You two go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher’s license and start your quest for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I’ll cover you. I plan to go down fighting.” “No way,” Grover said. “I’m staying behind.” “Think again, goat boy,” Annabeth said.
The smug look on Hades’s face faded. He said, “Godling…?” “I’ll find your helm, Uncle,” I told him. “I’ll return it. Remember about Charon’s pay raise.” “Do not defy me—” “And it wouldn’t hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls.” “Percy Jackson, you will not—”
What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.
“But they’re your family!” Annabeth protested. Ares shrugged. “Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say.”
turned in time to raise his sword, but this time he was disoriented, he didn’t anticipate the trick. I changed direction, lunged to the side, and stabbed Riptide straight down into the water, sending the point through the god’s heel. The roar that followed made Hades’s earthquake look like a minor event. The very sea was blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide. Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed from a gash in the war god’s boot. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he’d been wounded. He limped toward
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“You have made an enemy, godling,” he told me. “You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware.”
She hesitated, then ran a forked tongue over her green, leathery lips. “Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a true hero.
“All I want,” I said, choking back my tears, “is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew…somehow…we would be okay. And I know he’ll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store. Here’s the phone number.” The police and reporters were so moved that they passed around the hat and raised money for three tickets on the next plane to New York.
It was an Ancient Greek city, except it wasn’t in ruins. It was new, and clean, and colorful, the way Athens must’ve looked twenty-five hundred years ago.
I realized Hades must’ve built his palace to resemble this one. He wasn’t welcomed in Olympus except on the winter solstice, so he’d built his own Olympus underground. Despite my bad experience with him, I felt a little sorry for the guy. To be banished from this place seemed really unfair. It would make anybody bitter.
His voice stirred my oldest memories: that warm glow I remembered as a baby, the sensation of this god’s hand on my forehead.
I did, and I wasn’t sure what I saw in his face. There was no clear sign of love or approval. Nothing to encourage me. It was like looking at the ocean: some days, you could tell what mood it was in. Most days, though, it was unreadable, mysterious. I got the feeling Poseidon really didn’t know what to think of me. He didn’t know whether he was happy to have me as a son or not. In a strange way, I was glad that Poseidon was so distant. If he’d tried to apologize, or told me he loved me, or even smiled, it would’ve felt fake. Like a human dad, making some lame excuse for not being around. I
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“To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for the sake of peace in the family, I shall let you live.”
“But—” I stopped myself. Arguing would do no good. It would very possibly anger the only god who I had on my side. “As…as you wish, Father.” A faint smile played on his lips. “Obedience does not come naturally to you, does it?” “No…sir.”
Still…I am sorry you were born, child. I have brought you a hero’s fate, and a hero’s fate is never happy. It is never anything but tragic.”
“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.”
“I think you know, Percy. I think you’re enough like me to understand. If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. I can’t let a god take care of me…or my son. I have to…find the courage on my own. Your quest has reminded me of that.”
Percy, I’ve found a good private school here in the city. I’ve put a deposit down to hold you a spot, in case you want to enroll for seventh grade. You could live at home. But if you want to go year-round at Half-Blood Hill, I’ll understand.
George Washington (who, by the way, was a son of Athena)
