by Rick Riordan
Piper wanted to shout that Aphrodite was wrong. Her dad was the strongest person she knew. Piper would never take his memories the way Hera had taken Jason’s.
But somehow she couldn’t stay angry with Aphrodite. She remembered what her dad had said months ago, at the beach at Big Sur: If I really believed in Ghost Country, or animal spirits, or Greek gods … I don’t think I could sleep at night. I’d always be looking for somebody to blame.
Now Piper wanted someone to blame, too.
‘Who is she?’ Piper demanded. ‘The one controlling the giants?’
Aphrodite pursed her lips. She moved to the next rack, which held battered armour and ripped togas, but Aphrodite looked through them as if they were designer outfits.
‘You have a strong will,’ she mused. ‘I’m never given much credit among the gods. My children are laughed at. They’re dismissed as conceited and shallow.’
‘Some of them are.’
Aphrodite laughed. ‘Granted. Perhaps I’m conceited and shallow, too, sometimes. A girl has to indulge. Oh, this is nice.’ She picked up a burnt and stained bronze breastplate and held it up for Piper to see. ‘No?’
‘No,’ Piper said. ‘Are you going to answer my question?’
‘Patience, my sweet,’ the goddess said. ‘My point is that love is the most powerful motivator in the world. It spurs mortals to greatness. Their noblest, bravest acts are done for love.’
Piper pulled out her dagger and studied its reflective blade. ‘Like Helen starting the Trojan War?’
‘Ah, Katoptris.’ Aphrodite smiled. ‘I’m glad you found it. I get so much flack for that war, but, honestly, Paris and Helen were a cute couple. And the heroes of that war are immortal now – at least in the memories of men. Love is powerful, Piper. It can bring even the gods to their knees. I told this to my son Aeneas when he escaped from Troy. He thought he had failed. He thought he was a loser! But he travelled to Italy –’
‘And became the forebear of Rome.’
‘Exactly. You see, Piper, my children can be quite powerful. You can be quite powerful, because my lineage is unique. I am closer to the beginning of creation than any other Olympian.’
Piper struggled to remember about Aphrodite’s birth. ‘Didn’t you … rise from the sea? Standing on a seashell?’
The goddess laughed. ‘That painter Botticelli had quite an imagination. I never stood on a seashell, thank you very much. But, yes, I rose from the sea. The first beings to rise from Chaos were the Earth and Sky – Gaia and Ouranos. When their son the Titan Kronos killed Ouranos –’
‘By chopping him to pieces with a scythe,’ Piper remembered.
Aphrodite wrinkled her nose. ‘Yes. The pieces of Ouranos fell into the sea. His immortal essence created sea foam. And from that foam –’
‘You were born. I remember now. So you’re –’
‘The last child of Ouranos, who was greater than the gods or the Titans. So, in a strange way, I’m the eldest Olympian god. As I said, love is a powerful force. And you, my daughter, are much more than a pretty face. Which is why you already know who is waking the giants, and who has the power to open doors into the deepest parts of the earth.’
Aphrodite waited, as if she could sense Piper slowly putting together the pieces of a puzzle, which made a dreadful picture.
‘Gaia,’ Piper said. ‘The earth itself. That’s our enemy.’
She hoped Aphrodite would say no, but the goddess kept her eyes on the rack of tattered armour. ‘She has slumbered for aeons, but she is slowly waking. Even asleep, she is powerful, but once she wakes … we will be doomed. You must defeat the giants before that happens, and lull Gaia back into her slumber. Otherwise the rebellion has only begun. The dead will continue to rise. Monsters will regenerate with even greater speed. The giants will lay waste to the birthplace of the gods. And, if they do that, all civilization will burn.’
‘But Gaia? Mother Earth?’
‘Do not underestimate her,’ Aphrodite warned. ‘She is a cruel deity. She orchestrated Ouranos’s death. She gave Kronos the sickle and urged him to kill his own father. While the Titans ruled the world, she slumbered in peace. But when the gods overthrew them, Gaia woke again in all her anger and gave birth to a new race – the giants – to destroy Olympus once and for all.’
‘And it’s happening again,’ Piper said. ‘The rise of the giants.’
Aphrodite nodded. ‘Now you know. What will you do?’
‘Me?’ Piper clenched her fists. ‘What am I supposed to do? Put on a pretty dress and sweet-talk Gaia into going back to sleep?’
‘I wish that would work,’ Aphrodite said. ‘But, no, you will have to find your own strengths, and fight for what you love. Like my favoured ones, Helen and Paris. Like my son Aeneas.’
‘Helen and Paris died,’ Piper said.
‘And Aeneas became a hero,’ the goddess countered. ‘The first great hero of Rome. The result will depend on you, Piper, but I will tell you this: the seven greatest demigods must be gathered to defeat the giants, and that effort will not succeed without you. When the two sides meet … you will be the mediator. You will determine whether there is friendship or bloodshed.’
‘What two sides?’
Piper’s vision began to dim.
‘You must wake soon, my child,’ said the goddess. ‘I do not always agree with Hera, but she’s taken a bold risk, and I agree it must be done. Zeus has kept the two sides apart for too long. Only together will you have the power to save Olympus. Now, wake, and I hope you like the clothes I picked out.’
‘What clothes?’ Piper demanded, but the dream faded to black.
XL
PIPER
Piper woke at a table at a sidewalk café.
For a second, she thought she was still dreaming. It was a sunny morning. The air was brisk but not unpleasant for sitting outside. At the other tables, a mix of bicyclists, business people and college kids sat chatting and drinking coffee.
She could smell eucalyptus trees. Lots of foot traffic passed in front of quaint little shops. The street was lined with bottlebrush trees and blooming azaleas as if winter were a foreign concept.
In other words: she was in California.
Her friends sat in chairs around her – all of them with their hands calmly folded across their chests, dozing pleasantly. And they all had new clothes on. Piper looked down at her own outfit and gasped. ‘Mother!’
She yelled louder than she meant. Jason flinched, bumping the table with his knees, and then all of them were awake.
‘What?’ Hedge demanded. ‘Fight who? Where?’
‘Falling!’ Leo grabbed the table. ‘No – not falling. Where are we?’
Jason blinked, trying to get his bearings. He focused on Piper and made a little choking sound. ‘What are you wearing?’
Piper probably blushed. She was wearing the turquoise dress she’d seen in her dream, with black leggings and black leather boots. She had on her favourite silver charm bracelet, even though she’d left that back home in L.A., and her old snowboarding jacket from her dad, which amazingly went with the outfit pretty well. She pulled out Katoptris, and judging from the reflection in the blade, she’d got her hair done, too.
‘It’s nothing,’ she said. ‘It’s my –’ She remembered Aphrodite’s warning not to mention that they’d talked. ‘It’s nothing.’
Leo grinned. ‘Aphrodite strikes again, huh? You’re gonna be the best-dressed warrior in town, beauty queen.’
‘Hey, Leo.’ Jason nudged his arm. ‘You look at yourself recently?’
‘What … oh.’
All of them had been give a makeover. Leo was wearing pinstriped trousers, black leather shoes, a white collarless shirt with suspenders, and his tool belt, Ray-Ban sunglasses and a porkpie hat.
‘God, Leo.’ Piper tried not to laugh. ‘I think my dad wore that to his last premiere, minus the tool belt.’
‘Hey, shut up!’
‘I think he looks good,’ said Coach H
edge. ‘Course, I look better.’
The satyr was a pastel nightmare. Aphrodite had given him a baggy canary-yellow zoot suit with two-tone shoes that fitted over his hooves. He had a matching yellow broad-brimmed hat, a rose-coloured shirt, a baby blue tie and a blue carnation in his lapel, which Hedge sniffed and then ate.
‘Well,’ Jason said, ‘at least your mom overlooked me.’
Piper knew that wasn’t exactly true. Looking at him, her heart did a little tap dance. Jason was dressed simply in jeans and a clean purple T-shirt, like he’d worn at the Grand Canyon. He had new trainers on, and his hair was newly trimmed. His eyes were the same colour as the sky. Aphrodite’s message was clear: This one needs no improvement.
And Piper agreed.
‘Anyway,’ she said uncomfortably, ‘how did we get here?’
‘Oh, that would be Mellie,’ Hedge said, chewing happily on his carnation. ‘Those winds shot us halfway across the country, I’d guess. We would’ve been smashed flat on impact, but Mellie’s last gift – a nice soft breeze – cushioned our fall.’
‘And she got fired for us,’ Leo said. ‘Man, we suck.’
‘Ah, she’ll be fine,’ Hedge said. ‘Besides, she couldn’t help herself. I’ve got that effect on nymphs. I’ll send her a message when we’re through with this quest and help her figure something out. That is one aura I could settle down with and raise a herd of baby goats.’
‘I’m going to be sick,’ Piper said. ‘Anyone else want coffee?’
‘Coffee!’ Hedge’s grin was stained blue from the flower. ‘I love coffee!’
‘Um,’ Jason said, ‘but – money? Our packs?’
Piper looked down. Their packs were at their feet, and everything seemed to still be there. She reached into her coat pocket and felt two things she hadn’t expected. One was a wad of cash. The other was a glass vial – the amnesia potion. She left the vial in her pocket and brought out the money.
Leo whistled. ‘Allowance? Piper, your mom rocks!’
‘Waitress!’ Hedge called. ‘Six double espressos, and whatever these guys want. Put it on the girl’s tab.’
It didn’t take them long to figure out where they were. The menus said ‘Café Verve, Walnut Creek, CA’. And according to the waitress, it was 9 a.m. on 21 December, the winter solstice, which gave them three hours until Enceladus’s deadline.
They didn’t have to wonder where Mount Diablo was, either. They could see it on the horizon, right at the end of the street. After the Rockies, Mount Diablo didn’t look very large, nor was it covered in snow. It seemed downright peaceful, its golden creases marbled with grey-green trees. But size was deceptive with mountains, Piper knew. It was probably much bigger up close. And appearances were deceptive, too. Here they were – back in California – supposedly her home – with sunny skies, mild weather, laid-back people and a plate of chocolate-chip scones with coffee. And only a few miles away, somewhere on that peaceful mountain, a super-powerful, super-evil giant was about to have her father for lunch.
Leo pulled something out of his pocket – the old crayon drawing Aeolus had given him. Aphrodite must’ve thought it was important if she’d magically transferred it to his new outfit.
‘What is that?’ Piper asked.
Leo folded it up gingerly again and put it away. ‘Nothing. You don’t want to see my kindergarten artwork.’
‘It’s more than that,’ Jason guessed. ‘Aeolus said it was the key to our success.’
Leo shook his head. ‘Not today. He was talking about … later.’
‘How can you be sure?’ Piper asked.
‘Trust me,’ Leo said. ‘Now – what’s our game plan?’
Coach Hedge belched. He’d already had three espressos and a plate of doughnuts, along with two napkins and another flower from the vase on the table. He would’ve eaten the silverware, except Piper had slapped his hand.
‘Climb the mountain,’ Hedge said. ‘Kill everything except Piper’s dad. Leave.’
‘Thank you, General Eisenhower,’ Jason grumbled.
‘Hey, I’m just saying!’
‘Guys,’ Piper said. ‘There’s more you need to know.’
It was tricky because she couldn’t mention her mom, but she told them she’d figured some things out in her dreams. She told them about their real enemy: Gaia.
‘Gaia?’ Leo shook his head. ‘Isn’t that Mother Nature? She’s supposed to have, like, flowers in her hair and birds singing around her and deer and rabbits doing her laundry.’
‘Leo, that’s Snow White,’ Piper said.
‘Okay, but –’
‘Listen, cupcake.’ Coach Hedge dabbed the espresso out of his goatee. ‘Piper’s telling us some serious stuff, here. Gaia’s no softie. I’m not even sure I could take her.’
Leo whistled. ‘Really?’
Hedge nodded. ‘This earth lady – she and her old man the sky were nasty customers.’
‘Ouranos,’ Piper said. She couldn’t help looking up at the blue sky, wondering if it had eyes.
‘Right,’ Hedge said. ‘So Ouranos, he’s not the best dad. He throws their first kids, the Cyclopes, into Tartarus. That makes Gaia mad, but she bides her time. Then they have another set of kids – the twelve Titans – and Gaia is afraid they’ll get thrown into prison, too. So she goes up to her son Kronos –’
‘The big bad dude,’ Leo said. ‘The one they defeated last summer.’
‘Right. And Gaia’s the one who gives him the scythe, and tells him, “Hey, why don’t I call your dad down here? And while he’s talking to me, distracted, you can cut him to pieces. Then you can take over the world. Wouldn’t that be great?” ’
Nobody said anything. Piper’s chocolate-chip scone didn’t look so appetizing any more. Even though she’d heard the story before, she still couldn’t quite get her mind around it. She tried to imagine a kid so messed up he would kill his own dad just for power. Then she imagined a mom so messed up she would convince her son to do it.
‘Definitely not Snow White,’ she decided.
‘Nah, Kronos was a bad guy,’ Hedge said. ‘But Gaia is literally the mother of all bad guys. She’s so old and powerful, so huge, that it’s hard for her to be fully conscious. Most of the time, she sleeps, and that’s the way we like her – snoring.’
‘But she talked to me,’ Leo said. ‘How can she be asleep?’
Gleeson brushed crumbs off his canary-yellow lapel. He was on his sixth espresso now, and his pupils were as big as quarters. ‘Even in her sleep, part of her consciousness is active – dreaming, keeping watch, doing little things like causing volcanoes to explode and monsters to rise. Even now, she’s not fully awake. Believe me, you don’t want to see her fully awake.’
‘But she’s getting more powerful,’ Piper said. ‘She’s causing the giants to rise. And if their king comes back – this guy Porphyrion –’
‘He’ll raise an army to destroy the gods,’ Jason put in. ‘Starting with Hera. It’ll be another war. And Gaia will wake up fully.’
Gleeson nodded. ‘Which is why it’s a good idea for us to stay off the ground as much as possible.’
Leo looked warily at Mount Diablo. ‘So … climbing a mountain. That would be bad.’
Piper’s heart sank. First, she’d been asked to betray her friends. Now they were trying to help her rescue her dad even though they knew they were walking into a trap. The idea of fighting a giant had been scary enough. But the idea that Gaia was behind it – a force more powerful than a god or Titan …
‘Guys, I can’t ask you to do this,’ Piper said. ‘This is too dangerous.’
‘You kidding?’ Gleeson belched and showed them his blue-carnation smile. ‘Who’s ready to beat stuff up?’
XLI
LEO
Leo hoped the taxi could take them all the way to the top.
No such luck. The cab made lurching, grinding sounds as it climbed the mountain road, and halfway up they found the ranger’s station closed, a chain blocking the way.
‘Far as I can go,’ the cabbie said. ‘You sure about this? Gonna be a long walk back, and my car’s acting funny. I can’t wait for you.’
‘We’re sure.’ Leo was the first one out. He had a bad feeling about what was wrong with the cab, and when he looked down he saw he was right. The wheels were sinking into the road like it was made of quicksand. Not fast – just enough to make the driver think he had a transmission problem or a bad axle – but Leo knew different.
The road was hard-packed earth. No reason at all it should have been soft, but already Leo’s shoes were starting to sink. Gaia was messing with them.
While his friends got out, Leo paid the cabbie. He was generous – heck, why not? It was Aphrodite’s money. Plus, he had a feeling he might never be coming off this mountain.
‘Keep the change,’ he said. ‘And get out of here. Quick.’
The driver didn’t argue. Soon all they could see was his dust trail.
The view from the mountain was pretty amazing. The whole inland valley around Mount Diablo was a patchwork of towns – grids of tree-lined streets and nice middle-class suburbs, shops and schools. All these normal people living normal lives – the kind Leo had never known.
‘That’s Concord,’ Jason said, pointing to the north. ‘Walnut Creek below us. To the south, Danville, past those hills. And that way …’
He pointed west where a ridge of golden hills held back a layer of fog, like the rim of a bowl. ‘That’s the Berkeley Hills. The East Bay. Past that, San Francisco.’
‘Jason?’ Piper touched his arm. ‘You remember something? You’ve been here?’
‘Yes … no.’ He gave her an anguished look. ‘It just seems important.’
