by Rick Riordan
‘Like infrared scopes,’ Michael Yew muttered. ‘We’re being targeted.’
‘Let’s get to the palace,’ I said.
No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Our footsteps echoed as we walked into the throne room.
Of course, ‘room’ doesn’t really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a hearth. In one corner, a house-sized globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam my old friend the Ophiotaurus – half-cow, half-serpent.
‘Moooo!’ he said happily, turning in a circle.
Despite all the serious stuff going on, I had to smile. Two years ago we’d spent a lot of time trying to save the Ophiotaurus from the Titans, and I’d got kind of fond of him. He seemed to like me, too, even though I’d originally thought he was a girl and named him Bessie.
‘Hey, man,’ I said. ‘They treating you okay?’
‘Mooo,’ Bessie answered.
We walked towards the thrones and a woman’s voice said, ‘Hello again, Percy Jackson. You and your friends are welcome.’
Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She wore the same kind of simple brown dress as she had before, but she was a grown woman now.
I bowed. ‘Lady Hestia.’
My friends followed my example.
Hestia regarded me with her red glowing eyes. ‘I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles.’
The other campers started muttering among themselves: ‘What did she say?’ ‘What about Achilles?’
‘You must be careful,’ Hestia warned me. ‘You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order.’
Annabeth nudged me. ‘Um … what is she talking about?’
I stared into Hestia’s eyes and an image rushed into my mind: I saw a dark alley between red-brick warehouses. A sign above one of the doors read: RICHMOND IRON WORKS.
Two half-bloods crouched in the shadows – a boy about fourteen and a girl about twelve. I realized with a start that the boy was Luke. The girl was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. I was seeing a scene from back in the days when they were on the run, before Grover found them.
Luke carried a bronze knife. Thalia had her spear and shield of terror, Aegis. Luke and Thalia both looked hungry and lean, with wild animal eyes, like they were used to being attacked.
‘Are you sure?’ Thalia asked.
Luke nodded. ‘Something down here. I sense it.’
A rumble echoed from the alley, like someone had banged on a sheet of metal. The half-bloods crept forward.
Old crates were stacked on a loading dock. Thalia and Luke approached with their weapons ready. A curtain of corrugated tin quivered as if something was behind it.
Thalia glanced at Luke. He counted silently: One, two, three! He ripped away the tin and a little girl flew at him with a hammer.
‘Whoa!’ Luke said.
The girl had tangled blonde hair and was wearing flannel pyjamas. She couldn’t have been more than seven, but she would’ve brained Luke if he hadn’t been so fast.
He grabbed her wrist and the hammer skittered across the cement.
The little girl fought and kicked. ‘No more monsters! Go away!’
‘It’s okay!’ Luke struggled to hold her. ‘Thalia, put your shield down. You’re scaring her.’
Thalia tapped Aegis and it shrank into a silver bracelet. ‘Hey, it’s all right,’ she said. ‘We’re not going to hurt you. I’m Thalia. This is Luke.’
‘Monsters!’
‘No,’ Luke promised. ‘But we know all about monsters. We fight them, too.’
Slowly, the girl stopped kicking. She studied Luke and Thalia with large intelligent grey eyes.
‘You’re like me?’ she said suspiciously.
‘Yeah,’ Luke said. ‘We’re … well, it’s hard to explain, but we’re monster-fighters. Where’s your family?’
‘My family hates me,’ the girl said. ‘They don’t want me. I ran away.’
Thalia and Luke locked eyes. I knew they both related to what she was saying.
‘What’s your name, kiddo?’ Thalia asked.
‘Annabeth.’
Luke smiled. ‘Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth – you’re pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you.’
Annabeth’s eyes widened. ‘You could?’
‘Oh, yeah.’ Luke turned his knife and offered her the handle. ‘How’d you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer.’
Maybe under most circumstances, offering a seven-year-old kid a knife would not be a good idea, but when you’re a half-blood regular rules kind of go out of the window. Annabeth gripped the hilt.
‘Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters,’ Luke explained. ‘They don’t have the reach or power of a sword, but they’re easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy’s armour. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you’re pretty clever.’
Annabeth stared at him with adoration. ‘I am!’
Thalia grinned. ‘We’d better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We’ll get you some clothes and food.’
‘You’re – you’re not going to take me back to my family?’ she said. ‘Promise?’
Luke put his hand on her shoulder. ‘You’re part of our family now. And I promise I won’t let anything hurt you. I’m not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?’
‘Deal!’ Annabeth said happily.
‘Now come on,’ Thalia said. ‘We can’t stay put for long!’
The scene shifted. The three demigods were running through the woods. It must’ve been several days later, maybe even weeks. All of them looked beaten up like they’d seen some battles. Annabeth was wearing new clothes – jeans and an oversized army jacket.
‘Just a little further!’ Luke promised. Annabeth stumbled and he took her hand. Thalia brought up the rear, brandishing her shield like she was driving back whatever pursued them. She was limping on her left leg.
They scrambled to a ridge and looked down the other side at a white colonial-style house – May Castellan’s place.
‘All right,’ Luke said, breathing hard. ‘I’ll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here.’
‘Luke, are you sure?’ Thalia asked. ‘You swore you’d never come back here. If she catches you –’
‘We don’t have a choice!’ he growled. ‘They burned our nearest safe house. And you’ve got to treat that leg wound.’
‘This is your house?’ Annabeth said with amazement.
‘It was my house,’ Luke muttered. ‘Believe me, if it wasn’t an emergency –’
‘Is your mom really horrible?’ Annabeth asked. ‘Can we see her?’
‘No!’ Luke snapped.
Annabeth shrank away from him, like his anger surprised her.
‘I – I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing’s going to hurt you. I’ll be back –’
A brilliant golden flash illuminated the woods. The demigods winced, and a man’s voice boomed: ‘You should not have come home.’
The vision shut off.
My knees buckled, but Annabeth grabbed me. ‘Percy! What happened?’
‘Did – did you see that?’ I asked.
‘See what?’
I glanced at Hestia, but the goddess’s face was expressionless. I remembered something she’d told me in the woods: If you are to understand your enemy Luke, you must understand his family. But why had she shown me those scenes?
‘How long was I out?’ I muttered.
Annabeth knitted her eyebrows. ‘Percy, you weren’t out at all. You just looked at Hestia for, like, one second and collapsed.’
I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. I couldn�
��t afford to look weak. Whatever those visions meant, I had to stay focused on our mission.
‘Um, Lady Hestia,’ I said, ‘we’ve come on urgent business. We need to see –’
‘We know what you need,’ a man’s voice said. I shuddered, because it was the same voice I’d heard in the vision.
A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-and-pepper hair and elfin features. He wore a military pilot’s flight suit, with tiny birds’ wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.
‘I will leave you now,’ Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. I understood why she was so anxious to go. Hermes, the god of messengers, did not look happy.
‘Hello, Percy.’ His brow furrowed like he was annoyed with me, and I wondered if he somehow knew about the vision I’d just had. I wanted to ask why he’d been at May Castellan’s house that night, and what had happened after he caught Luke. I remembered the first time I’d met Luke at Camp Half-Blood. I’d asked him if he’d ever met his father, and he looked at me bitterly and said: Once. But I could tell from Hermes’ expression that this was not the time to ask.
I bowed awkwardly. ‘Lord Hermes.’
Oh, sure, one of the snakes said in my mind. Don’t say hi to us. We’re just reptiles.
George, the other snake scolded. Be polite.
‘Hello, George,’ I said. ‘Hey, Martha.’
Did you bring us a rat? George asked.
George, stop it, Martha said. He’s busy!
Too busy for rats? George said. That’s just sad.
I decided it was better not to get into it with George. ‘Um, Hermes,’ I said. ‘We need to talk to Zeus. It’s important.’
Hermes’ eyes were steely cold. ‘I am his messenger. May I take a message?’
Behind me, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This wasn’t going as planned. Maybe if I tried to speak with Hermes in private …
‘You guys,’ I said. ‘Why don’t you do a sweep of the city? Check the defences. See who’s left in Olympus. Meet Annabeth and me back here in thirty minutes.’
Silena frowned. ‘But –’
‘That’s a good idea,’ Annabeth said. ‘Connor and Travis, you two lead.’
The Stolls seemed to like that – getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet-paper raids. ‘We’re on it!’ Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Annabeth and me with Hermes.
‘My lord,’ Annabeth said. ‘Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it.’
‘Your mother,’ Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered, Ow, ow, ow. ‘Don’t get me started on your mother, young lady. She’s the reason I’m here at all. Zeus didn’t want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, “It’s a trap, it’s a diversion,” blah, blah, blah. She wanted to come back herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number-one strategist leave his side while we’re battling Typhon. And so, naturally, he sent me to talk to you.’
‘But it is a trap!’ Annabeth insisted. ‘Is Zeus blind?’
Thunder rolled through the sky.
‘I’d watch the comments, girl,’ Hermes warned. ‘Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended.’
‘But there are these blue lights –’
‘Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I’d wager, but you may have noticed they aren’t doing any damage. Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus, the king of the winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky.’
I raised my hand. ‘Um … what about that materializing/teleporting thing you guys do?’
‘That’s a form of air travel, too, Jackson. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No – if Kronos wants Olympus, he’ll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?’
Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous – hordes of monsters going up in the elevator twenty at a time, listening to ‘Stayin’ Alive’. Still, I didn’t like it.
‘Maybe just a few of you could come back,’ I suggested.
Hermes shook his head impatiently. ‘Percy Jackson, you don’t understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy.’
‘I thought that was Kronos.’
The god’s eyes glowed. ‘No, Percy. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is husband of Echidna –’
‘Met her at the Arch,’ I muttered. ‘Not nice.’
‘– and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all – how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he’s fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter and Persephone follow his lead. It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can’t divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we’re making progress.’
‘Progress?’ I said. ‘He nearly destroyed St Louis.’
‘Yes,’ Hermes admitted. ‘But he destroyed only half of Kentucky. He’s slowing down. Losing power.’
I didn’t want to argue, but it sounded like Hermes was trying to convince himself.
In the corner, the Ophiotaurus mooed sadly.
‘Please, Hermes,’ Annabeth said. ‘You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?’
‘Messages,’ he muttered. ‘“It’ll be a great job,” they told me. “Not much work. Lots of worshippers.” Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It’s always about other people’s messages.’
Rodents, George mused. I’m in it for the rodents.
Shhh, Martha scolded. We care what Hermes has to say. Don’t we, George?
Oh, absolutely. Can we go back to the battle now? I want to do laser mode again. That’s fun.
‘Quiet, both of you,’ Hermes grumbled.
The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her ‘big pleading grey eyes’ thing.
‘Bah,’ Hermes said. ‘Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn’t know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I’m not sure.’
‘Anything else?’ Annabeth asked.
‘She said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you would know what that meant.’
Annabeth’s face paled. Obviously, she knew what it meant, and she didn’t like it. ‘Go on.’
‘Last thing.’ Hermes looked at me. ‘She said to tell Percy: “Remember the rivers.” And, um – something about staying away from her daughter.’
I’m not sure whose face was redder: Annabeth’s or mine.
‘Thank you, Hermes,’ Annabeth said. ‘And I – I wanted to say … I’m sorry about Luke.’
The god’s expression hardened like he’d turned to marble. ‘You should’ve left that subject alone.’
Annabeth stepped back nervously. ‘Sorry?’
‘SORRY doesn’t cut it!’
George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a high-voltage cattle prod.
‘You should’ve saved him when you had the chance,’ Hermes growled at Annabeth. ‘You’re the only one who could have.’
I tried to step between them. ‘What are you talking about? Annabeth didn’t –’
‘Don’t defend her, Jackson!’ Hermes turned the cattle prod towards me. ‘She knows exactly what I’m talking about.’
‘Maybe you should blame yourself!’ I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but all I could think about was turning his attention awa
y from Annabeth. This whole time – he hadn’t been angry with me. He’d been angry with her. ‘Maybe if you hadn’t abandoned Luke and his mom!’
Hermes raised his cattle prod. He began to grow until he was three metres tall. I thought: Well, that’s it.
But as he prepared to strike, George and Martha leaned in close and whispered something in his ear.
Hermes clenched his teeth. He lowered the cattle prod and it turned back to a staff.
‘Percy Jackson,’ he said, ‘because you have taken on the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. But you will never speak to me like that again. You have no idea how much I have sacrificed, how much –’
His voice broke, and he shrank back to human size. ‘My son, my greatest pride … my poor May …’
He sounded so devastated I didn’t know what to say. One minute he was ready to vaporize us. Now he looked like he needed a hug.
‘Look, Lord Hermes,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry, but I need to know. What happened to May? She said something about Luke’s fate, and her eyes –’
Hermes glared at me and my voice faltered. The look on his face wasn’t really anger, though. It was pain. Deep, incredible pain.
‘I will leave you now,’ he said tightly. ‘I have a war to fight.’
He began to shine. I turned away and made sure Annabeth did the same, because she was still frozen in shock.
Good luck, Percy, Martha the snake whispered.
Hermes glowed with the light of a supernova. Then he was gone.
Annabeth sat at the foot of her mother’s throne and cried. I wanted to comfort her, but I wasn’t sure how.
‘Annabeth,’ I said, ‘it’s not your fault. I’ve never seen Hermes act that way. I guess – I don’t know – he probably feels guilty about Luke. He’s looking for somebody to blame. I don’t know why he lashed out at you. You didn’t do anything to deserve that.’
Annabeth wiped her eyes. She stared at the hearth like it was her own funeral pyre.
I shifted uneasily. ‘Um, you didn’t, right?’
She didn’t answer. Her celestial bronze knife was strapped to her arm – the same knife I’d seen in Hestia’s vision. All these years, I hadn’t realized it was a gift from Luke. I’d asked her many times why she preferred to fight with a knife instead of a sword, and she’d never answered me. Now I knew.
