by Rick Riordan
Immediately Porphyrion raised his staff, then brought it down.
As he did so, Jason yelled, ‘Notus!’
A dry breeze whipped through the cavern. It knocked Porphyrion off balance, and he dropped his staff. The other giants charged in the direction of the intruders. Percy forced the water to shoot up around the giants’ legs, and, with some effort, froze it. The giants bellowed in rage. The breeze came around again, knocking Porphyrion onto his big butt. Without a second’s thought, Percy directed a stream of water at him and froze Porphyrion’s feet to the ground.
Now freed from the giant’s grip, he and Annabeth sat up as a bronze-skinned man materialized in the cavern. He wore a wreath of withered, smoking barley on his head, and a Greek chiton. Percy guessed correctly that he was Notus.
‘You called?’ Notus smirked at Jason.
‘Thank you, Notus,’ said Jason.
As his friend spoke, Percy heard the ice begin to crack; he wouldn’t be able to hold the giants for much longer.
‘Sir, how do we stop Gaia?’ Jason asked the god of the South Wind.
Notus looked at his surroundings. He wore a weary expression.
‘To storm or fire, the world must fall,’ he finally said. ‘If the fire ever gets here.’
He’d barely finished speaking when the ice shattered and the giants were free. In an instant Notus held his hand up and a wicked wind tore through the cavern. It propelled a number of the giants into each other, but some managed to stand against it. Slowly they edged closer to the god. Porphyrion charged forward, the wind ineffective on him this time. He grabbed his staff and swung it like a baseball bat, sending Notus flying into the ceiling. The old god moaned, and the wind abruptly stopped. He fell face first to the ground as Jason sent an arc of lighting at Porphyrion. The giant smirked, though; it had caused him no pain.
Percy and Annabeth raced towards their friends and the breach in the cavern wall. They had to get out. Spotting their escape, Porphyrion swung his staff again and caught Annabeth, slamming her into the wall. She landed with a sickening crunch.
‘Annabeth!’ Percy cried.
She did not reply.
A hot white rage filled Percy. He howled in fury and uncapped Riptide. He charged at Porphyrion. Shards of ice and a wave of water followed in his wake.
The whole cavern shook with Percy’s anger. He was causing an earthquake.
Hazel and Frank dragged Annabeth towards the hole they’d made, while Jason shot bolts of lightning at any giant that got too close. Frank turned into a dragon and jumped onto the nearest giant, knocking it down.
Percy thrust his sword forward. The shards of ice shot into Porphyrion’s legs. The wave surged high over the giant’s head and came crashing down, propelling the giant backwards. A huge jagged rock pierced his back as he hit the ground. He roared in pain and his face began to crumble. By this time Notus had gathered his bearings. The god flew over to where Porphyrion lay and gave him a hard kick. With that, the giant crumbled to dust.
Percy breathed hard at the sight before him. The other giants stopped still, shocked at the demise of their king.
‘Capture the boy!’ Gaia commanded, her voice echoing through the cavern.
Percy ran for his life, while Notus distracted the remaining giants, who were now super angry. Annabeth lay between Hazel and Piper, but they moved away on his approach. Beside them, Leo furiously worked on his contraption.
‘Is she . . .’ Percy’s voice broke.
Hazel and Piper exchanged a look.
‘Percy, I’m sorry,’ Hazel whispered.
‘No!’ He pressed his ear to Annabeth’s chest.
There was not a thud to be heard.
‘Annabeth, please!’ he sobbed. ‘You can’t!’
He hit her chest again and again, trying to make her heart beat. Tears burned his eyes.
‘Percy, stand back,’ Jason instructed. ‘I think I can help.’ Reluctantly Percy moved away from Annabeth’s body. He felt numb inside. Jason crouched calmly over her and placed his hands on her chest. He sent a surge of electricity through her body; it convulsed, then fell still. He repeated the process twice more. Percy watched anxiously, his heart hammering in his chest. Jason pressed his ear to Annabeth’s chest and sent another wave of electricity into her body. Slowly her chest began to rise and fall. She was alive.
Relief washed over Percy. He wiped tears from his eyes, and weariness settled over him. Taking on Porphyrion had drained him drastically. He could barely stay conscious.
‘Thanks,’ he sniffed.
‘Don’t mention it,’ said Jason.
Before Percy could get closer to Annabeth, there was a brilliant light and the twelve Olympian gods appeared. They wore purple and orange, signifying that their dual personalities were stable. Reyna, Nico and Coach Hedge must have reached camp safely and made peace between the Greeks and Romans. Some of the Olympians nodded at Percy in acknowledgement, ignoring the giants who were shouting in anger.
Zeus scanned the room. He locked his eyes on Jason, who stood stock still, staring up at him. He spoke one word: ‘Attack.’
The Olympians attacked the giants on his command, and fighting broke out all around. Jason joined Zeus, and together they took down Alcyoneus, before moving on to the next nearest giant. Frank and Ares took down Mimas. Hazel and Piper, too, fought together with their respective Olympian parents in vicious battle. Hades summoned an army of the dead, who surged forward and took to hacking and stabbing at various giants’ legs.
Leo, meanwhile, continued to work frantically on his device. His dad, Hephaestus, went over to take a look.
Finding it impossible to miss out on the action, Percy kissed Annabeth’s forehead and then leapt up to join the battle. One after another, the giants fell.
Above the noise of the melee, the voice of Gaia boomed through the cavern. She didn’t sound happy. Cracks appeared in the surface of the ground, and from them hundreds of Earthborn emerged. Each had six arms and wore nothing except canvas loincloths.
‘Done!’ Leo announced finally, holding up the device.
Piper ran towards him. Aphrodite shrank to human size and followed. As they moved, huge clumpy fingers of soil and rock formed from the ground and shot up in their direction. Piper tripped and fell, and the clump exploded on impact, leaving scrapes and gashes across her body. She screamed in pain, but Aphrodite helped her to rise, and they managed to reach Leo.
Poseidon fought alongside Percy. Together they sent wave after wave at the giants. Poseidon created dozens of hurricanes and unleashed them on any giant and Earthborn in his sight. The god of the sea managed to tear apart two dozen Earthborn and sent three giants sprawling into the walls, which crumbled on impact. One at a time, Percy stabbed his sword into the monsters before they could reform, and they turned completely to dust.
‘Good work, my boy,’ Poseidon said with pride.
Percy beamed. It had been a long time since he had seen his dad, and he loved it when his dad complimented him.
Leo welded the device to a pole he’d pulled from his toolbelt, so that neither would come loose, and he hammered the pole into the ground. Hephaestus swatted clumps of dirt away whenever they got too close to Leo, Piper and Aphrodite. Suddenly the ground at their feet turned to quicksand. Without hesitation, Hephaestus summoned a huge chunk of scrap metal and slid it under them before they and Leo’s contraption were pulled under. Huge hands made of rock emerged from the ground in response, flinging cannonballs of mud. They tried to crush the device, but Hephaestus pulled a hammer from his pocket and promptly smashed them all to pieces.
‘All right, ladies,’ Leo said. ‘Sing!’
He handed Piper and Aphrodite each a microphone.
‘Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all,’ they sang, voices oozing with charmspeak. ‘Sleep, Gaia, sleep. Your father tends the sheep. Your mother shakes the dreamla
nd tree. And from it fall sweet dreams for thee. Sleep, Gaia, sleep. Sleep, Gaia, sleep . . .’
They continued to sing lullabies, most of which had come from the Internet because the crew of the Argo II hadn’t known all that many. Percy jammed mud into his ears to block out the charmspeak, though he was already feeling extremely sleepy. Leo’s creation caused their voices to resonate down through every layer of the earth. The remaining Earthborn curled into balls on the floor and started snoring. Gradually they sank back into the ground, and so too did the hands of rock.
‘No . . . stop,’ Gaia slurred.
Her voice was heavy with tiredness. Piper and Aphrodite continued to sing. The other gods had stuck their fingers in their ears to block out the sound. Despite this, Dionysus had been a bit too slow and dropped to the floor, snoring. One by one, the last of the giants dozed off.
The ground rumbled. Gaia was snoring.
Piper and her mother continued to sing for a few more minutes, just to be sure. The rest of the Olympians and their demigod off spring dispensed with the giants, which was made a heck of a lot easier with them being asleep. When the work was done, everyone cheered. They had succeeded. It was over.
‘We have won,’ Zeus declared. ‘There will be a feast on Mount Olympus in celebration.’
There was raucous applause all around.
‘And to the seven heroes who aided us, I guess I must say thank you,’ Zeus grumbled. ‘You may come to the feast . . . if you wish.’
While the Olympians said their goodbyes, Percy managed to get Apollo to heal Annabeth completely. It wasn’t long before she stirred.
‘Thanks,’ said Percy, smiling.
‘No problem, Percy. Catch you later.’ Apollo smiled and disappeared, returning to Mount Olympus.
‘You have become a great young man,’ Zeus said to Jason. ‘I am proud to be your father.’
Jason looked awestruck but maintained enough composure to thank Zeus before he vanished.
Only Notus and Hephaestus remained. They made their way over to Percy and the others. They had gathered beside Annabeth, who was sleeping peacefully.
‘Dad, can you take me to where I want to go?’ Leo asked cryptically.
Hephaestus smiled. ‘My son, I can do one better. She has been freed.’
Leo pumped his fist into the air and whooped with glee. ‘I will take you to her shortly,’ his dad said.
‘Thank you,’ said Leo with a grin.
Percy hadn’t a clue what they were talking about.
‘Do you have the bombs?’ Notus asked the blacksmith god.
‘Yes, I’m not an idiot,’ Hephaestus muttered.
From his pocket, he brought out several huge bronze cylinders with timers on their sides. Greek fire bubbled within them.
Percy stared. ‘Er, why do you have bombs?’
‘We’re going to blow up the cavern so that there’s no chance that Gaia can awaken,’ Notus explained. ‘She can only wake if two demigods are sacrificed here.’
‘Oh, okay,’ Percy replied.
A line from the prophecy made sense to him now. To storm or fire, the world must fall. The bombs were the fire and the world was the cavern. Notus took the bombs and flew around, attaching them to the walls and ceiling. When he was finished, he returned to the others.
‘I’ve primed the bombs. They will detonate in fifteen minutes,’ he said.
With that, the two gods vanished as all the other gods had done.
‘Hey, you can’t just leave us here!’ Hazel shouted.
‘Come on. I’ll get us out,’ said Frank.
He turned into a dragon and everyone jumped on, though they had to keep firm hold of Annabeth to make sure she wouldn’t fall. Frank crawled through the hole in the cavern wall they had created. It was a tight fit, but they managed to make it through and eventually reached the original tunnel. A loud ringing sounded and then there was a huge explosion. The tunnel shook and began to collapse.
‘Hurry!’ Leo yelled.
Frank dashed forward, but his sudden movement loosened the earth above him and a piece of rubble fell on his tail. He let out a roar of pain and flicked it off. Percy bumped this way and that; twice he nearly fell off. Frank shot through the cave entrance just as it collapsed. He returned to his human form, causing the others to fall on top of him in a huge scrum.
‘Oww,’ Frank mumbled.
They all laughed and got off him. As they did so, Annabeth opened her eyes.
‘Percy,’ she croaked. ‘My head hurts.’
Percy crushed her in a bear hug. ‘I thought you were dead down there!’
‘What happened? Did we defeat Gaia?’ she asked.
Percy nodded. He kissed her and didn’t let her go for quite some time.
‘Get a room!’ exclaimed Leo, causing the others, including Percy and Annabeth, to laugh.
‘What now?’ Jason wondered.
‘What do you mean, what now? We just saved the whole world!’ said Piper.
‘Let’s go home,’ said Annabeth.
‘What about the feast?’ Frank asked.
‘You can go, but I’m going home,’ was Annabeth’s answer. ‘Me too,’ Percy added. ‘And then I’m going to get a cheeseburger.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’ Annabeth smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Leo looked up to the sky. ‘Dad, I’m ready!’ he called. ‘See you later, guys!’ And he vanished.
Piper looked to her friends. ‘Does anyone know how to fly the Argo II?’
THE ADVENTURE NEVER STOPS …
THE GREEK GODS ARE ALIVE AND KICKING!
They still fall in love with mortals and bear children with immortal blood in their veins. When Percy Jackson learns he’s the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, he must travel to Camp Half-Blood – a secret base dedicated to the training of young demigods.
PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF
PERCY JACKSON AND THE SEA OF MONSTERS
PERCY JACKSON AND THE TITAN’S CURSE
PERCY JACKSON AND THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH
PERCY JACKSON AND THE LAST OLYMPIAN
THE DEMIGOD FILES
CAMP HALF-BLOOD CONFIDENTIAL
PERCY JACKSON AND THE GREEK GODS
PERCY JACKSON AND THE GREEK HEROES
PERCY JACKSON IS BACK!
Percy and his old friends from Camp Half-Blood join forces with new Roman demigods from Camp Jupiter for a deadly new mission: to prevent the all-powerful Earth Mother, Gaia, from awakening from her millennia-long sleep to bring about the end of the world.
THE LOST HERO
THE SON OF NEPTUNE
THE MARK OF ATHENA
THE HOUSE OF HADES
THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS
THE DEMIGOD DIARIES
AN OLYMPIAN HAS FALLEN!
The god Apollo has been cast down from Olympus in the body of a teenage boy. With the help of friends like Percy Jackson and familiar faces from Camp Half-Blood, he must complete a series of harrowing trials to save the world from a dangerous new enemy.
THE HIDDEN ORACLE
THE DARK PROPHECY
THE BURNING MAZE
THE GODS OF EGYPT AWAKEN!
When an explosion shatters the ancient Rosetta Stone and unleashes Set, the Egyptian god of chaos, only Carter and Sadie Kane can save the day. Their quest takes the pair around the globe in a battle against the gods of Ancient Egypt.
THE RED PYRAMID
THE THRONE OF FIRE
THE SERPENT’S SHADOW
BROOKLYN HOUSE: MAGICIAN’S MANUAL
THE GODS OF ASGARD ARISE!
After being killed in battle with a fire giant, Magnus Chase finds himself resurrected in Valhalla as one of the chosen warriors of the Norse god Odin. The gods of Asgard are preparing for Ragnarok – the Norse doomsday – and Magnus has a leading role ….
MAGNUS CHASE AND THE SWORD OF SUMMER
MAGNUS CHASE AND THE HAMMER OF THOR
MAGNUS CHASE AND THE SHIP OF THE DEAD
> 9 FROM THE NINE WORLDS
HOTEL VALHALLA: GUIDE TO THE NORSE WORLDS
PUFFIN BOOKS
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First published in this collection as an ebook 2018
The Lost Hero
First published in the USA by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group, and in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2010
Text copyright © Rick Riordan, 2010
The Son of Neptune
First published in the USA by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group, and in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2011
Text copyright © Rick Riordan, 2011
The Mark of Athena
First published in the USA by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group, and in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2012
Text copyright © Rick Riordan, 2012
The House of Hades
First published in the USA by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group, and in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2013
Text copyright © Rick Riordan, 2013
The Blood of Olympus
First published in the USA by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group, and in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2014
Text copyright © Rick Riordan, 2014
Alternative ending: written by Ellen Knowles; copyright © Penguin Books Ltd, 2015
The moral right of the authors has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-241-39944-6
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Penguin Random House Children’s
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