by Rick Riordan
I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa’s hair.
I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa’s reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.
Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful ‘Ummphh!’
Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, ‘Hey!’
I advanced on her, which wasn’t easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I’d have a hard time defending myself.
But she let me approach – ten metres, five metres.
I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn’t really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.
‘You wouldn’t harm an old woman, Percy,’ she crooned. ‘I know you wouldn’t.’
I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass – the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.
From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, ‘Percy, don’t listen to her!’
Medusa cackled. ‘Too late.’
She lunged at me with her talons.
I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern – the sound of a monster disintegrating.
Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.
‘Oh, yuck,’ Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. ‘Mega-yuck.’
Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa’s black veil. She said, ‘Don’t move.’
Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster’s head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked me, her voice trembling.
‘Yeah,’ I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. ‘Why didn’t… why didn’t the head evaporate?’
‘Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war,’ she said. ‘Same as your Minotaur horn. But don’t unwrap the head. It can still petrify you.’
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.
‘The Red Baron,’ I said. ‘Good job, man.’
He managed a bashful grin. ‘That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun.’
He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.
We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa’s head. We plopped it on the table where we’d eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.
Finally I said, ‘So we have Athena to thank for this monster?’
Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. ‘Your dad, actually. Don’t you remember? Medusa was Poseidon’s girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother’s temple. That’s why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That’s why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She’s still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him.’
My face was burning. ‘Oh, so now it’s my fault we met Medusa.’
Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: ‘ “It’s just a photo, Annabeth. What’s the harm?” ’
‘Forget it,’ I said. ‘You’re impossible.’
‘You’re insufferable.’
‘You’re –’
‘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 stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!
I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we’d never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.
What had Medusa said?
Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.
I got up. ‘I’ll be back.’
‘Percy,’ Annabeth called after me. ‘What are you –’
I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa’s office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone’s garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld’s billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.
In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.
I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa’s head, and filled out a delivery slip:
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
‘They’re not going to like that,’ Grover warned. ‘They’ll think you’re impertinent.’
I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!
‘I am impertinent,’ I said.
I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.
She didn’t. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. ‘Come on,’ she muttered. ‘We need a new plan.’
12 We Get Advice from a Poodle
We were pretty miserable that night.
We camped out in the woods, a hundred metres from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.
We’d taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em’s, but we didn’t dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn’t want to attract anything else.
We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.
Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.
‘Go ahead and sleep,’ I told him. ‘I’ll wake you if there’s trouble.’
He nodded, but still didn’t close his eyes. ‘It makes me sad, Percy.’
‘What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?’
‘No. This makes me sad.’ He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. ‘And the sky. You can’t even see the stars. They’ve polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr.’
‘Oh, yeah. I guess you’d be an environmentalist.’
He glared at me. ‘Only a human wouldn’t be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast… ah, never mind. It’s useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I’ll never find Pan.’
‘Pam? Like the cooking spray?’
‘Pan!’ he cried indignantly. ‘P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher’s licence for?’
A strange breeze rustled
through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might’ve once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I’d never known.
‘Tell me about the search,’ I said.
Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.
‘The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago,’ he told me. ‘A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, “Tell them that the great god Pan has died!” When humans heard the news, they believed it. They’ve been pillaging Pan’s kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden and wake him from his sleep.’
‘And you want to be a searcher.’
‘It’s my life’s dream,’ he said. ‘My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand… the statue you saw back there –’
‘Oh, right, sorry.’
Grover shook his head. ‘Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I’ll succeed. I’ll be the first searcher to return alive.’
‘Hang on – the first?’
Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. ‘No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They’re never seen alive again.’
‘Not once in two thousand years?’
‘No.’
‘And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?’
‘None.’
‘But you still want to go,’ I said, amazed. ‘I mean, you really think you’ll be the one to find Pan?’
‘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 stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?
‘How are we going to get into the Underworld?’ I asked him. ‘I mean, what chance do we have against a god?’
‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘But back at Medusa’s, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me –’
‘Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out.’
‘Don’t be so hard on her, Percy. She’s had a tough life, but she’s a good person. After all, she forgave me…’ His voice faltered.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘Forgave you for what?’
Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.
‘Wait a minute,’ I said. ‘Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn’t… I mean, your first assignment that went wrong –’
‘I can’t talk about it,’ Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he’d start crying if I pressed him. ‘But as I was saying, back at Medusas, Annabeth and I agreed there’s something strange going on with this quest. Something isn’t what it seems.’
‘Well, duh. I’m getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took.’
‘That’s not what I mean,’ Grover said. ‘The Fu – The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs Dodds at Yancy Academy… why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren’t as aggressive as they could’ve been.’
‘They seemed plenty aggressive to me.’
Grover shook his head. ‘They were screeching at us: “Where is it? Where?”’
‘Asking about me,’ I said.
‘Maybe… but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren’t asking about a person. They said “Where is it?” They seemed to be asking about an object.’
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
‘I know. But if we’ve misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt…’ He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn’t have any.
I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification. ‘I haven’t been straight with you,’ I told Grover. ‘I don’t care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother.’
Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. ‘I know that, Percy. But are you sure that’s the only reason?’
‘I’m not doing it to help my father. He doesn’t care about me. I don’t care about him.’
Grover gazed down from his tree branch. ‘Look, Percy, I’m not as smart as Annabeth. I’m not as brave as you. But I’m pretty good at reading emotions. You’re glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he’s claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That’s why you mailed Medusa’s head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you’d done.’
‘Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you’re wrong. I don’t care what he thinks.’
Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. ‘Okay, Percy. Whatever.’
‘Besides, I haven’t done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we’re stuck here with no money and no way west.’
Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. ‘How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep.’
I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.
In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Grey mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.
They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.
Looking down made me dizzy.
The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.
The little hero, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.
The voice felt ancient – cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.
They have misled you, boy, it said. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.
A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she’d dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!
I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn’t work.
Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.
An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.
Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!
The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!
The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.
I realized it wasn’t interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out
Good, it murmured. Good.
Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!
Someone was shaking me.
My eyes opened, and it was daylight.
‘Well,’ Annabeth said, ‘the zombie lives.’
I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. ‘How long was I asleep?’
‘Long enough for me to cook breakfast.’ Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavoured corn chips from Aunty Em’s snack bar. ‘And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend.’
My eyes had trouble focusing.
Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.
No. It
wasn’t a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.
The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, ‘No, he’s not.’
I blinked. ‘Are you… talking to that thing?’
The poodle growled.
‘This thing,’ Grover warned, ‘is our ticket west. Be nice to him.’
‘You can talk to animals?’
Grover ignored the question. ‘Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy.’
I stared at Annabeth, figuring she’d crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.
‘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.
Grover explained that he’d come across Gladiola in the woods and they’d struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who’d posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn’t really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.
‘How does Gladiola know about the reward?’ I asked.
‘He read the signs,’ Grover said. ‘Duh.’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘Silly me.’
‘So we turn in Gladiola,’ Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, ‘we get money and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple.’
I thought about my dream – the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm and my mother’s face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.
‘Not another bus,’ I said warily.
‘No,’ Annabeth agreed.
She pointed downhill, towards train tracks I hadn’t been able to see last night in the dark. ‘There’s an Amtrack station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon.’
13 I Plunge to My Death
We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.
We weren’t attacked once, but I didn’t relax. I felt that we were travelling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.
