The Heroes of Olympus: The Complete Series

by Rick Riordan

  Piper dragged her father below the ridge. The last Earthborn charged after her.

  Leo was out of tricks, but he couldn’t let that monster get to Piper. He ran forward, straight through the flames, and grabbed something – anything – from his tool belt.

  ‘Hey, stupid!’ he yelled, and threw a screwdriver at the Earthborn.

  It didn’t kill the ogre, but it sure got his attention. The screwdriver sank hilt-deep into the Earthborn’s forehead like he was made of Play-Doh.

  The Earthborn yelped in pain and skittered to a halt. He pulled out the screwdriver, turned and glared at Leo. Sadly, this last ogre looked like the biggest and nastiest of the bunch. Gaia had really gone all out creating him – with extra muscle upgrades, deluxe ugly face, the whole package.

  Oh, great, Leo thought. I’ve made a friend.

  ‘You die!’ the Earthborn roared. ‘Friend of Yay-son dies!’

  The ogre scooped up handfuls of dirt, which immediately hardened into rock cannonballs.

  Leo’s mind went blank. He reached into his tool belt, but he couldn’t think of anything that would help. He was supposed to be clever – but he couldn’t craft or build or tinker his way out of this one.

  Fine, he thought. I’ll go out blaze-of-glory style.

  He burst into flames, yelled, ‘Hephaestus!’ and charged at the ogre barehanded.

  He never got there.

  A blur of turquoise and black flashed behind the ogre. A gleaming bronze blade sliced up one side of the Earthborn and down the other.

  Six large arms dropped to the ground, boulders rolling out of their useless hands. The Earthborn looked down, very surprised. He mumbled, ‘Arms go bye-bye.’

  Then he melted into the ground.

  Piper stood there, breathing hard, her dagger covered with clay. Her dad sat at the ridge, dazed and wounded, but still alive.

  Piper’s expression was ferocious – almost crazy, like a cornered animal. Leo was glad she was on his side.

  ‘Nobody hurts my friends,’ she said, and, with a sudden warm feeling, Leo realized she was talking about him. Then she yelled, ‘Come on!’

  Leo saw that the battle wasn’t over. Jason was still fighting the giant Enceladus – and it wasn’t going well.

  XLIII

  JASON

  When Jason’s lance broke, he knew he was dead.

  The battle had started well enough. Jason’s instincts kicked in, and his gut told him he’d duelled opponents almost this big before. Size and strength equalled slowness, so Jason just had to be quicker – pace himself, wear out his opponent and avoid getting smashed or flame-broiled.

  He rolled away from the giant’s first spear thrust and jabbed Enceladus in the ankle. Jason’s javelin managed to pierce the thick dragon hide, and golden ichor – the blood of immortals – trickled down the giant’s clawed foot.

  Enceladus bellowed in pain and blasted him with fire. Jason scrambled away, rolling behind the giant, and struck again behind his knee.

  It went on like that for seconds, minutes – it was hard to judge. Jason heard combat across the clearing – construction equipment grinding, fire roaring, monsters shouting and rocks smashing into metal. He heard Leo and Piper yelling defiantly, which meant they were still alive. Jason tried not to think about it. He couldn’t afford to get distracted.

  Enceladus’s spear missed him by a hair’s breadth. Jason kept dodging, but the ground stuck to his feet. Gaia was getting stronger, and the giant was getting faster. Enceladus might be slow, but he wasn’t dumb. He began anticipating Jason’s moves, and Jason’s attacks were only annoying him, making him more enraged.

  ‘I’m not some minor monster,’ Enceladus bellowed. ‘I am a giant, born to destroy gods! Your little gold toothpick can’t kill me, boy.’

  Jason didn’t waste energy replying. He was already tired. The ground clung to his feet, making him feel like he weighed an extra hundred pounds. The air was full of smoke that burned his lungs. Fires roared around him, stoked by the winds, and the temperature was approaching the heat of an oven.

  Jason raised his javelin to block the giant’s next strike – a big mistake. Don’t fight force with force, a voice chided him – the wolf Lupa, who’d told him that long ago. He managed to deflect the spear, but it grazed his shoulder, and his arm went numb.

  He backed up, almost tripping over a burning log.

  He had to delay – to keep the giant’s attention fixed on him while his friends dealt with the Earthborn and rescued Piper’s dad. He couldn’t fail.

  He retreated, trying to lure the giant to the edge of the clearing. Enceladus could sense his weariness. The giant smiled, baring his fangs.

  ‘The mighty Jason Grace,’ he taunted. ‘Yes, we know about you, son of Jupiter. The one who led the assault on Mount Othrys. The one who single-handedly slew the Titan Krios and toppled the black throne.’

  Jason’s mind reeled. He didn’t know these names, yet they made his skin tingle, as if his body remembered the pain his mind didn’t.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ he asked. He realized his mistake when Enceladus breathed fire.

  Distracted, Jason moved too slowly. The blast missed him, but heat blistered his back. He slammed into the ground, his clothes smouldering. He was blinded by ash and smoke, choking as he tried to breathe.

  He scrambled back as the giant’s spear cleaved the ground between his feet.

  Jason managed to stand.

  If he could only summon one good blast of lightning – but he was already drained, and in this condition the effort might kill him. He didn’t even know if electricity would harm the giant.

  Death in battle is honourable, said Lupa’s voice.

  That’s real comforting, Jason thought.

  One last try: Jason took a deep breath and charged.

  Enceladus let him approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Jason faked a strike and rolled between the giant’s legs. He came up quickly, thrusting with all his might, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, as if the earth were helping him move. He swept his spear sideways, met Jason’s javelin – and, with a snap like a shotgun blast, the golden weapon shattered.

  The explosion was hotter than the giant’s breath, blinding Jason with golden light. The force knocked him off his feet and squeezed the breath out of him.

  When he regained his focus, he was sitting at the rim of a crater. Enceladus stood at the other side, staggering and confused. The javelin’s destruction had released so much energy it had blasted a perfect cone-shaped pit thirty feet deep, fusing the dirt and rock into a slick glassy substance. Jason wasn’t sure how he’d survived, but his clothes were steaming. He was out of energy. He had no weapon. And Enceladus was still very much alive.

  Jason tried to get up, but his legs were like lead. Enceladus blinked at the destruction, then laughed. ‘Impressive! Unfortunately, that was your last trick, demigod.’

  Enceladus leaped the crater in a single bound, planting his feet on either side of Jason. The giant raised his spear, its tip hovering six feet over Jason’s chest.

  ‘And now,’ Enceladus said, ‘my first sacrifice to Gaia!’

  XLIV

  JASON

  Time seemed to slow down, which was really frustrating, since Jason still couldn’t move. He felt himself sinking into the earth like the ground was a waterbed – comfortable, urging him to relax and give up. He wondered if the stories of the Underworld were true. Would he end up in the Fields of Punishment or Elysium? If he couldn’t remember any of his deeds, would they still count? He wondered if the judges would take that into consideration, or if his dad, Zeus, would write him a note: ‘Please excuse Jason from eternal damnation. He has had amnesia.’

  Jason couldn’t feel his arms. He could see the tip of the spear coming towards his chest in slow motion. He knew he should move, but he couldn’t seem to do it. Funny, he tho
ught. All that effort to stay alive, and then boom. You just lie there helplessly while a fire-breathing giant impales you.

  Leo’s voice yelled, ‘Heads up!’

  A large black metal wedge slammed into Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant toppled over and slid into the pit.

  ‘Jason, get up!’ Piper called. Her voice energized him, shook him out of his stupor. He sat up, his head groggy, while Piper grabbed him under his arms and hauled him to his feet.

  ‘Don’t die on me,’ she ordered. ‘You are not dying on me.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’ He felt light-headed, but she was about the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Her hair was smouldering. Her face was smudged with soot. She had a cut on her arm, her dress was torn and she was missing a boot. Beautiful.

  About a hundred feet behind her, Leo was standing over a piece of construction equipment – a long cannonlike thing with a single massive piston, the edge broken clean off.

  Then Jason looked down in the crater and saw where the other end of the hydraulic axe had gone. Enceladus was struggling to rise, an axe blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate.

  Amazingly, the giant managed to pull the axe blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armour, but Enceladus stood.

  Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his spear.

  ‘Good try.’ The giant winced. ‘But I cannot be beaten.’

  As they watched, the giant’s armour mended itself and the ichor stopped flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Jason had worked so hard to make, were now just pale scars.

  Leo ran up to them, saw the giant and cursed. ‘What is it with this guy? Die, already!’

  ‘My fate is preordained,’ Enceladus said. ‘Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes.’

  ‘Only by both,’ Jason said. The giant’s smile faltered, and Jason saw in his eyes something like fear. ‘It’s true, isn’t it? Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you.’

  ‘You will not live long enough to try!’ The giant started stumbling up the crater’s slope, slipping on the glassy sides.

  ‘Anyone have a god handy?’ Leo asked.

  Jason’s heart filled with dread. He looked at the giant below them, struggling to get out of the pit, and he knew what had to happen.

  ‘Leo,’ he said, ‘if you’ve got a rope in that tool belt, get it ready.’

  He leaped at the giant with no weapon but his bare hands.

  ‘Enceladus!’ Piper yelled. ‘Look behind you!’

  It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, even Jason bought it. The giant said, ‘What?’ and turned like there was an enormous spider on his back.

  Jason tackled his legs at just the right moment. The giant lost his balance. Enceladus slammed into the crater and slid to the bottom. While he tried to rise, Jason put his arms around the giant’s neck. When Enceladus struggled to his feet, Jason was riding his shoulders.

  ‘Get off!’ Enceladus screamed. He tried to grab Jason’s legs, but Jason scrabbled around, squirming and climbing over the giant’s hair.

  Father, Jason thought. If I’ve ever done anything good, anything you approved of, help me now. I offer my own life – just save my friends.

  Suddenly he could smell the metallic scent of a storm. Darkness swallowed the sun. The giant froze, sensing it, too.

  Jason yelled to his friends, ‘Hit the deck!’

  And every hair on his head stood straight up.

  Crack!

  Lightning surged through Jason’s body, straight through Enceladus and into the ground. The giant’s back stiffened, and Jason was thrown clear. When he regained his bearings, he was slipping down the side of the crater, and the crater was cracking open. The lightning bolt had split the mountain itself. The earth rumbled and tore apart, and Enceladus’s legs slid into the chasm. He clawed helplessly at the glassy sides of the pit, and just for a moment managed to hold on to the edge, his hands trembling.

  He fixed Jason with a look of hatred. ‘You’ve won nothing, boy. My brothers are rising, and they are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the gods at their roots! You will die, and Olympus will die with –’

  The giant lost his grip and fell into the crevice.

  The earth shook. Jason fell towards the rift.

  ‘Grab hold!’ Leo yelled.

  Jason’s feet were at the edge of the chasm when he grabbed the rope, and Leo and Piper pulled him up.

  They stood together, exhausted and terrified, as the chasm closed like an angry mouth. The ground stopped pulling at their feet.

  For now, Gaia was gone.

  The mountainside was on fire. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air. Jason spotted a helicopter – maybe firefighters or reporters – coming towards them.

  All around them was carnage. The Earthborn had melted into piles of clay, leaving behind only their rock missiles and some nasty bits of loincloth, but Jason figured they would re-form soon enough. Construction equipment lay in ruins. The ground was scarred and blackened.

  Coach Hedge started to move. He sat up with a groan and rubbed his head. His canary-yellow trousers were now the colour of Dijon mustard mixed with mud.

  He blinked and looked around him at the battle scene. ‘Did I do this?’

  Before Jason could reply, Hedge picked up his club and got shakily to his feet. ‘Yeah, you wanted some hoof? I gave you some hoof, cupcakes! Who’s the goat, huh?’

  He did a little dance, kicking rocks and making what were probably rude satyr gestures at the piles of clay.

  Leo cracked a smile, and Jason couldn’t help it – he started to laugh. It probably sounded a little hysterical, but it was such a relief to be alive he didn’t care.

  Then a man stood up across the clearing. Tristan McLean staggered forward. His eyes were hollow, shell-shocked, like someone who’d just walked through a nuclear wasteland.

  ‘Piper?’ he called. His voice cracked. ‘Pipes, what – what is –’

  He couldn’t complete the thought. Piper ran over to him and hugged him tightly, but he almost didn’t seem to know her.

  Jason had felt a similar way – that morning at the Grand Canyon, when he woke with no memory. But Mr McLean had the opposite problem. He had too many memories, too much trauma his mind just couldn’t handle. He was coming apart.

  ‘We need to get him out of here,’ Jason said.

  ‘Yeah, but how?’ Leo said. ‘He’s in no shape to walk.’

  Jason glanced up at the helicopter, which was now circling directly overhead. ‘Can you make us a bullhorn or something?’ he asked Leo. ‘Piper has some talking to do.’

  XLV

  PIPER

  Borrowing the helicopter was easy. Getting her dad on board was not.

  Piper needed only a few words through Leo’s improvised bullhorn to convince the pilot to land on the mountain. The Park Service copter was big enough for medical evacuations or search and rescue, and when Piper told the very nice ranger pilot lady that it would be a great idea to fly them to the Oakland Airport, she readily agreed.

  ‘No,’ her dad muttered as they picked him up off the ground. ‘Piper, what – there were monsters – there were monsters –’

  She needed both Leo’s and Jason’s help to hold him, while Coach Hedge gathered their supplies. Fortunately, Hedge had put his trousers and shoes back on, so Piper didn’t have to explain the goat legs.

  It broke Piper’s heart to see her dad like this – pushed beyond the breaking point, crying like a little boy. She didn’t know what the giant had done to him exactly, how the monsters had shattered his spirit, but she didn’t think she could stand to find out.

  ‘It’ll be okay, Dad,’ she said, making her voice as soothing as possible. She didn’t want to charmspeak her own father, but it seemed the only way. ‘These people are my friends. We’re going to help you. You’re safe now.’

  He blinked and looked up at helicopter rotors. �
�Blades. They had a machine with so many blades. They had six arms …’

  When they got him to the bay doors, the pilot came over to help. ‘What’s wrong with him?’ she asked.

  ‘Smoke inhalation,’ Jason suggested. ‘Or heat exhaustion.’

  ‘We should get him to a hospital,’ the pilot said.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Piper said. ‘The airport is good.’

  ‘Yeah, the airport is good,’ the pilot agreed immediately. Then she frowned, as if uncertain why she’d changed her mind. ‘Isn’t he Tristan McLean, the movie star?’

  ‘No,’ Piper said. ‘He only looks like him. Forget it.’

  ‘Yeah,’ the pilot said. ‘Only looks like him. I –’ She blinked, confused. ‘I forgot what I was saying. Let’s get going.’

  Jason raised his eyebrows at Piper, obviously impressed, but Piper felt miserable. She didn’t want to twist people’s minds, convince them of things they didn’t believe. It felt so bossy, so wrong – like something Drew would do back at camp, or Medea in her evil department store. And how would it help her father? She couldn’t convince him he would be okay, or that nothing had happened. His trauma was just too deep.

  Finally they got him on board, and the helicopter took off. The pilot kept getting questions over her radio, asking her where she was going, but she ignored them. They veered away from the burning mountain and headed towards the Berkeley Hills.

  ‘Piper.’ Her dad grasped her hand and held on like he was afraid he’d fall. ‘It’s you? They told me – they told me you would die. They said … horrible things would happen.’

  ‘It’s me, Dad.’ It took all her willpower not to cry. She had to be strong for him. ‘Everything’s going to be okay.’

  ‘They were monsters,’ he said. ‘Real monsters. Earth spirits, right out of Grandpa Tom’s stories – and the Earth Mother was angry with me. And the giant, Tsul’kälû, breathing fire –’ He focused on Piper again, his eyes like broken glass, reflecting a crazy kind of light. ‘They said you were a demigod. Your mother was …’

  ‘Aphrodite,’ Piper said. ‘Goddess of love.’