by Rick Riordan
Annabeth froze. ‘Oh, that’s not good.’
‘It’s like Tartarus,’ Percy said, his voice edgy. ‘You remember … his heartbeat. When he appeared –’
‘Don’t,’ Annabeth said. ‘Just don’t.’
‘Sorry.’ In the light of his sword, Percy’s face was like a large firefly – a hovering, momentary smudge of brightness in the dark.
The voice of Gaia spoke again, louder: At last.
Piper’s singing wavered.
Fear washed over her, as it had in the Spartan temple. But the gods Phobos and Deimos were old friends to her now. She let the fear burn inside her like fuel, making her voice even stronger. She sang for the snake people, for her friends’ safety. Why not for Gaia, too?
Finally they reached the top of a steep slope, where the path ended in a curtain of green goo.
Kekrops faced the demigods. ‘Beyond this camouflage is the Acropolis. You must remain here. I will check that your way is clear.’
‘Wait.’ Piper turned to address the crowd of gemini. ‘There is only death above. You will be safer in the tunnels. Hurry back. Forget you saw us. Protect yourselves.’
The fear in her voice channelled perfectly with the charmspeak. The snake people, even the guards, turned and slithered into the darkness, leaving only the king.
‘Kekrops,’ Piper said, ‘you’re planning to betray us as soon as you step through that goo.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘I will alert the giants. They will destroy you.’ Then he hissed. ‘Why did I tell you that?’
‘Listen to the heartbeat of Gaia,’ Piper urged. ‘You can sense her rage, can’t you?’
Kekrops wavered. The end of his staff glowed dimly. ‘I can, yes. She is angry.’
‘She’ll destroy everything,’ Piper said. ‘She’ll reduce the Acropolis to a smoking crater. Athens – your city – will be utterly destroyed, your people along with it. You believe me, don’t you?’
‘I – I do.’
‘Whatever hatred you have for humans, for demigods, for Athena, we are the only chance to stop Gaia. So you will not betray us. For your own sake, and your people, you will scout the territory and make sure the way is clear. You will say nothing to the giants. Then you will return.’
‘That is … what I’ll do.’ Kekrops disappeared through the membrane of goo.
Annabeth shook her head in amazement. ‘Piper, that was incredible.’
‘We’ll see if it works.’ Piper sat down on the cool stone floor. She figured she might as well rest while she could.
The others squatted next to her. Percy handed her a canteen of water.
Until she took a drink, Piper hadn’t realized how dry her throat was. ‘Thanks.’
Percy nodded. ‘You think the charm will last?’
‘I’m not sure,’ she admitted. ‘If Kekrops comes back in two minutes with an army of giants, then no.’
The heartbeat of Gaia echoed through the floor. Strangely, it made Piper think of the sea – how the waves boomed along the cliffs of Santa Monica back home.
She wondered what her father was doing right now. It would be the middle of the night in California. Maybe he was asleep, or doing a late-night TV interview. Piper hoped he was in his favourite spot: the porch off the living room, watching the moon over the Pacific, enjoying some quiet time. Piper wanted to think he was happy and content right now … in case they failed.
She thought about her friends in the Aphrodite cabin at Camp Half-Blood. She thought about her cousins in Oklahoma, which was odd, since she’d never spent much time with them. She didn’t even know them very well. Now she was sorry about that.
She wished she’d taken more advantage of her life, appreciated things more. She would always be grateful for her family aboard the Argo II – but she had so many other friends and relatives she wished she could see one last time.
‘Do you guys ever think about your families?’ she asked.
It was a silly question, especially on the cusp of a battle. Piper should have been focused on their quest, not distracting her friends.
But they didn’t chide her.
Percy’s gaze became unfocused. His lower lip quivered. ‘My mom … I – I haven’t even seen her since Hera made me disappear. I called her from Alaska. I gave Coach Hedge some letters to deliver to her. I …’ His voice broke. ‘She’s all I’ve got. Her and my stepdad, Paul.’
‘And Tyson,’ Annabeth reminded him. ‘And Grover. And –’
‘Yeah, of course,’ Percy said. ‘Thanks. I feel much better.’
Piper probably shouldn’t have laughed, but she was too full of nervousness and melancholy to hold it in. ‘What about you, Annabeth?’
‘My dad … my stepmom and stepbrothers.’ She turned the drakon-bone blade in her lap. ‘After all I’ve been through in the past year, it seems stupid that I resented them for so long. And my dad’s relatives … I haven’t thought about them in years. I have an uncle and cousin in Boston.’
Percy looked shocked. ‘You, with the Yankees cap? You’ve got family in Red Sox country?’
Annabeth smiled weakly. ‘I never see them. My dad and my uncle don’t get along. Some old rivalry. I don’t know. It’s stupid what keeps people apart.’
Piper nodded. She wished she had the healing powers of Asclepius. She wished she could look at people and see what was hurting them, then whip out her prescription pad and make everything better. But she guessed there was a reason Zeus kept Asclepius locked away in his underground temple.
Some pain shouldn’t be wished away so easily. It had to be dealt with, even embraced. Without the agony of the last few months, Piper never would have found her best friends, Hazel and Annabeth. She never would’ve discovered her own courage. She certainly wouldn’t have had the guts to sing show tunes to the snake people under Athens.
At the top of the tunnel, the green membrane rippled.
Piper grabbed her sword and rose, prepared for a flood of monsters.
But Kekrops emerged alone.
‘The way is clear,’ he said. ‘But hurry. The ceremony is almost complete.’
Pushing through a curtain of mucus was almost as fun as Piper imagined.
She emerged feeling like she’d just rolled through a giant’s nostril. Fortunately, none of the gunk stuck to her, but still her skin tingled with revulsion.
Percy, Annabeth and she found themselves in a cool, damp pit that seemed to be the basement level of a temple. All around them, uneven ground stretched into darkness under a low ceiling of stone. Directly above their heads, a rectangular gap was open to the sky. Piper could see the edges of walls and the tops of columns, but no monsters … yet.
The camouflage membrane had closed behind them and blended into the ground. Piper pressed her hand against it. The area seemed to be solid rock. They wouldn’t be leaving the way they’d come.
Annabeth ran her hand along some marks on the ground – a jagged crow’s-foot shape as long as a human body. The area was lumpy and white, like stone scar tissue. ‘This is the place,’ she said. ‘Percy, these are the trident marks of Poseidon.’
Hesitantly, Percy touched the scars. ‘He must’ve been using his extra-extra-large trident.’
‘This is where he struck the earth,’ Annabeth said, ‘where he made a saltwater spring appear when he had the contest with my mom to sponsor Athens.’
‘So this is where the rivalry started,’ Percy said.
‘Yeah.’
Percy pulled Annabeth close and kissed her … long enough for it to get really awkward for Piper, though she said nothing. She thought about the old rule of Aphrodite’s cabin: that to be recognized as a daughter of the love goddess, you had to break someone’s heart. Piper had long ago decided to change that rule. Percy and Annabeth were a perfect example of why. You should have to make someone’s heart whole; that was a much better test.
When Percy pulled away, Annabeth looked like a fish gasping for air.
‘The rivalry ends here,’ Percy
said. ‘I love you, Wise Girl.’
Annabeth made a little sigh, like something in her ribcage had melted.
Percy glanced at Piper. ‘Sorry, I had to do that.’
Piper grinned. ‘How could a daughter of Aphrodite not approve? You’re a great boyfriend.’
Annabeth made another grunt-whimper. ‘Uh … anyway. We’re beneath the Erechtheion. It’s a temple to both Athena and Poseidon. The Parthenon should be diagonally to the southeast of here. We’ll need to sneak around the perimeter and disable as many siege weapons as we can, make an approach path for the Argo II.’
‘It’s broad daylight,’ Piper said. ‘How will we go unnoticed?’
Annabeth scanned the sky. ‘That’s why I made a plan with Frank and Hazel. Hopefully … ah. Look.’
A bee zipped overhead. Dozens more followed. They swarmed around a column, then hovered over the opening of the pit.
‘Say hi to Frank, everybody,’ Annabeth said.
Piper waved. The cloud of bees zipped away.
‘How does that even work?’ Percy said. ‘Like … one bee is a finger? Two bees are his eyes?’
‘I don’t know,’ Annabeth admitted. ‘But he’s our go-between. As soon as he gives Hazel the word, she will –’
‘Gah!’ Percy yelped.
Annabeth clamped her hand over his mouth.
Which looked strange, because suddenly each of them had turned into a hulking, six-armed Earthborn.
‘Hazel’s Mist.’ Piper’s voice sounded deep and gravelly. She looked down and realized that she, too, now had a lovely Neanderthal body – belly hair, loincloth, stubby legs and oversized feet. If she concentrated, she could see her normal arms, but when she moved them they rippled like mirages, separating into three different sets of muscular Earthborn arms.
Percy grimaced, which looked even worse on his newly uglified face. ‘Wow, Annabeth … I’m really glad I kissed you before you changed.’
‘Thanks a lot,’ she said. ‘We should get going. I’ll move clockwise around the perimeter. Piper, you move counterclockwise. Percy, you scout the middle –’
‘Wait,’ Percy said. ‘We’re walking right into the whole blood-spilling sacrifice trap we’ve been warned about, and you want to split up even more?’
‘We’ll cover more ground that way,’ Annabeth said. ‘We have to hurry. That chanting …’
Piper hadn’t noticed it until then, but now she heard it: an ominous drone in the distance, like a hundred forklifts idling. She looked at the ground and noticed bits of gravel trembling, skittering southeast, as if pulled towards the Parthenon.
‘Right,’ Piper said. ‘We’ll meet up at the giant’s throne.’
At first it was easy.
Monsters were everywhere – hundreds of ogres, Earthborn and Cyclopes milling through the ruins – but most of them were gathered at the Parthenon, watching the ceremony in progress. Piper strolled along the cliffs of the Acropolis unchallenged.
Near the first onager, three Earthborn were sunning themselves on the rocks. Piper walked right up to them and smiled. ‘Hello.’
Before they could make a sound, she cut them down with her sword. All three melted into slag heaps. She slashed the onager’s spring cord to disable the weapon, then kept moving.
She was committed now. She had to do as much damage as possible before the sabotage was discovered.
She skirted a patrol of Cyclopes. The second onager was surrounded by an encampment of tattooed Laistrygonian ogres, but Piper managed to get to the machine without raising suspicion. She dropped a vial of Greek fire in the sling. With luck, as soon as they tried to load the catapult, it would explode in their faces.
She kept moving. Gryphons roosted on the colonnade of an old temple. A group of empousai had retreated into a shadowy archway and appeared to be slumbering, their fiery hair flickering dimly, their brass legs glinting. Hopefully the sunlight would make them sluggish if they had to fight.
Whenever she could, Piper slew isolated monsters. She walked past larger groups. Meanwhile the crowd at the Parthenon grew larger. The chanting got louder. Piper couldn’t see what was happening inside the ruins – just the heads of twenty or thirty giants standing in a circle, mumbling and swaying, maybe doing the evil monster version of ‘Kumbayah’.
She disabled a third siege weapon by sawing through the torsion ropes, which should give the Argo II a clear approach from the north.
She hoped Frank was watching her progress. She wondered how long it would take for the ship to arrive.
Suddenly, the chanting stopped. A BOOM echoed across the hillside. In the Parthenon, the giants roared in triumph. All around Piper, monsters surged towards the sound of celebration.
That couldn’t be good. Piper blended into a crowd of sour-smelling Earthborn. She bounded up the main steps of the temple, then climbed a section of metal scaffolding so she could see above the heads of the ogres and Cyclopes.
The scene in the ruins almost made her cry aloud.
Before Porphyrion’s throne, dozens of giants stood in a loose ring, hollering and shaking their weapons as two of their number paraded around the circle, showing off their prizes. The princess Periboia held Annabeth by the neck like a feral cat. The giant Enceladus had Percy wrapped in his massive fist.
Annabeth and Percy both struggled helplessly. Their captors displayed them to the cheering horde of monsters, then turned to face King Porphyrion, who sat in his makeshift throne, his white eyes gleaming with malice.
‘Right on time!’ the giant king bellowed. ‘The blood of Olympus to raise the Earth Mother!’
XLIII
Piper
Piper watched in horror as the giant king rose to his full height – almost as tall as the temple columns. His face looked just as Piper remembered – green as bile, with a twisted sneer, his seaweed-coloured hair braided with swords and axes taken from dead demigods.
He loomed over the captives, watching them wriggle. ‘They arrived just as you foresaw, Enceladus! Well done!’
Piper’s old enemy bowed his head, braided bones clattering in his dreadlocks. ‘It was simple, my king.’
The flame designs gleamed on his armour. His spear burned with purplish fire. He only needed one hand to hold his captive. Despite all of Percy Jackson’s power, despite everything he had survived, in the end he was helpless against the sheer strength of the giant – and the inevitability of the prophecy.
‘I knew these two would lead the assault,’ Enceladus continued. ‘I understand how they think. Athena and Poseidon … they were just like these children! They both came here thinking to claim this city. Their arrogance has undone them!’
Over the roar of the crowd, Piper could barely hear herself think, but she replayed Enceladus’s words: these two would lead the assault. Her heart raced.
The giants had expected Percy and Annabeth. They didn’t expect her.
For once, being Piper McLean, the daughter of Aphrodite, the one nobody took seriously, might play to her advantage.
Annabeth tried to say something, but the giantess Periboia shook her by the neck. ‘Shut up! None of your silver-tongued trickery!’
The princess drew a hunting knife as long as Piper’s sword. ‘Let me do the honours, Father!’
‘Wait, Daughter.’ The king stepped back. ‘The sacrifice must be done properly. Thoon, destroyer of the Fates, come forward!’
The wizened grey giant shuffled into sight, holding an oversized meat cleaver. He fixed his milky eyes on Annabeth.
Percy shouted. At the other end of the Acropolis, a hundred yards away, a geyser of water shot into the sky.
King Porphyrion laughed. ‘You’ll have to do better than that, son of Poseidon. The earth is too powerful here. Even your father wouldn’t be able to summon more than a salty spring. But never fear. The only liquid we require from you is your blood!’
Piper scanned the sky desperately. Where was the Argo II?
Thoon knelt and touched the blade of his cleaver rev
erently against the earth.
‘Mother Gaia …’ His voice was impossibly deep, shaking the ruins, making the metal scaffold resonate under Piper’s feet. ‘In ancient times, blood mixed with your soil to create life. Now, let the blood of these demigods return the favour. We bring you to full wakefulness. We greet you as our eternal mistress!’
Without thinking, Piper leaped from the scaffolding. She sailed over the heads of the Cyclopes and ogres, landed in the centre of the courtyard and pushed her way into the circle of giants. As Thoon rose to use his cleaver, Piper slashed upward with her sword. She took off Thoon’s hand at the wrist.
The old giant wailed. The cleaver and severed hand lay in the dust at Piper’s feet. She felt her Mist disguise burn away until she was just Piper again – one girl in the midst of an army of giants, her jagged bronze blade like a toothpick compared to their massive weapons.
‘WHAT IS THIS?’ Porphyrion thundered. ‘How dare this weak, useless creature interrupt?’
Piper followed her gut. She attacked.
Piper’s advantages: she was small, she was quick, and she was absolutely insane. She drew her knife Katoptris and threw it at Enceladus, hoping she wouldn’t hit Percy by accident. She veered aside without witnessing the results, but, judging from the giant’s painful howl, she’d aimed well.
Several giants ran at her at once. Piper dodged between their legs and let them bash their heads together.
She wove through the crowd, jabbing her sword into dragon-scale feet at every opportunity and yelling, ‘RUN! RUN AWAY!’ to sow confusion.
‘NO! STOP HER!’ Porphyrion shouted. ‘KILL HER!’
A spear almost impaled her. Piper swerved and kept running. It’s just like capture the flag, she told herself. Only the enemy team is all thirty feet tall.
A huge sword sliced across her path. Compared to her sparring practice with Hazel, the strike was ridiculously slow. Piper leaped over the blade and zigzagged towards Annabeth, who was still kicking and writhing in Periboia’s grip. Piper had to free her friend.
Unfortunately, the giantess seemed to anticipate her plan.
‘I think not, demigod!’ Periboia yelled. ‘This one bleeds!’