by Rick Riordan
‘I – I –’ He took a shaky breath, then seemed to forget how to exhale.
Piper’s friends were careful not to watch. Leo fiddled with a lug nut from his tool belt. Jason gazed at the valley below – the roads backing up as mortals stopped their cars and gawked at the burning mountain. Gleeson chewed on the stub of his carnation, and for once the satyr didn’t look in the mood to yell or boast.
Tristan McLean wasn’t supposed to be seen like this. He was a star. He was confident, stylish, suave – always in control. That was the public image he projected. Piper had seen the image falter before. But this was different. Now it was broken, gone.
‘I didn’t know about Mom,’ Piper told him. ‘Not until you were taken. When we found out where you were, we came right away. My friends helped me. No one will hurt you again.’
Her dad couldn’t stop shivering. ‘You’re heroes – you and your friends. I can’t believe it. You’re a real hero, not like me. Not playing a part. I’m so proud of you, Pipes.’ But the words were muttered listlessly, in a semi-trance.
He gazed down on the valley, and his grip on Piper’s hand went slack. ‘Your mother never told me.’
‘She thought it was for the best.’ It sounded lame, even to Piper, and no amount of charmspeak could change that. But she didn’t tell her dad what Aphrodite had really worried about: If he has to spend the rest of his life with those memories, knowing that gods and spirits walk the earth, it will shatter him.
Piper felt inside the pocket of her jacket. The vial was still there, warm to her touch.
But how could she erase his memories? Her dad finally knew who she was. He was proud of her, and for once she was his hero, not the other way around. He would never send her away now. They shared a secret.
How could she go back to the way things were?
She held his hand, speaking to him about small things – her time at the Wilderness School, her cabin at Camp Half-Blood. She told him how Coach Hedge ate carnations and got knocked on his butt on Mount Diablo, how Leo had tamed a dragon, and how Jason had made wolves back down by talking in Latin. Her friends smiled reluctantly as she recounted their adventures. Her dad seemed to relax as she talked, but he didn’t smile. Piper wasn’t even sure he heard her.
As they passed over the hills into the East Bay, Jason tensed. He leaned so far out of the doorway Piper was afraid he’d fall.
He pointed. ‘What is that?’
Piper looked down, but she didn’t see anything interesting – just hills, woods, houses, little roads snaking through the canyons. A highway cut through a tunnel in the hills, connecting the East Bay with the inland towns.
‘Where?’ Piper asked.
‘That road,’ he said. ‘The one that goes through the hills.’
Piper picked up the com helmet the pilot had given her and relayed the question over the radio. The answer wasn’t very exciting.
‘She says it’s Highway 24,’ Piper reported. ‘That’s the Caldecott Tunnel. Why?’
Jason stared intently at the tunnel entrance, but he said nothing. It disappeared from view as they flew over downtown Oakland, but Jason still stared into the distance, his expression almost as unsettled as Piper’s dad’s.
‘Monsters,’ her dad said, a tear tracing his cheek. ‘I live in a world of monsters.’
XLVI
PIPER
Air traffic control didn’t want to let an unscheduled helicopter land at the Oakland Airport – until Piper got on the radio. Then it turned out to be no problem.
They unloaded on the tarmac, and everyone looked at Piper.
‘What now?’ Jason asked her.
She felt uncomfortable. She didn’t want to be in charge, but for her dad’s sake she had to appear confident. She had no plan. She’d just remembered that he’d flown into Oakland, which meant his private plane would still be here. But today was the solstice. They had to save Hera. They had no idea where to go or if they were even too late. And how could she leave her dad in this condition?
‘First thing,’ she said. ‘I – I have to get my dad home. I’m sorry, guys.’
Their faces fell.
‘Oh,’ Leo said. ‘I mean, absolutely. He needs you right now. We can take it from here.’
‘Pipes, no.’ Her dad had been sitting in the helicopter doorway, a blanket around his shoulders. But he stumbled to his feet. ‘You have a mission. A quest. I can’t –’
‘I’ll take care of him,’ said Coach Hedge.
Piper stared at him. The satyr was the last person she’d expected to offer. ‘You?’ she asked.
‘I’m a protector,’ Gleeson said. ‘That’s my job, not fighting.’
He sounded a little crestfallen, and Piper realized maybe she shouldn’t have recounted how he got knocked unconscious in the last battle. In his own way, maybe the satyr was as sensitive as her dad.
Then Hedge straightened, and set his jaw. ‘Of course, I’m good at fighting, too.’ He glared at them all, daring them to argue.
‘Yes,’ Jason said.
‘Terrifying,’ Leo agreed.
The coach grunted. ‘But I’m a protector, and I can do this. Your dad’s right, Piper. You need to carry on with the quest.’
‘But …’ Piper’s eyes stung, as if she were back in the forest fire. ‘Dad …’
He held out his arms, and she hugged him. He felt frail. He was trembling so much, it scared her.
‘Let’s give them a minute,’ Jason said, and they took the pilot a few yards down the tarmac.
‘I can’t believe it,’ her dad said. ‘I failed you.’
‘No, Dad!’
‘The things they did, Piper, the visions they showed me …’
‘Dad, listen.’ She took out the vial from her pocket. ‘Aphrodite gave me this, for you. It takes away your recent memories. It’ll make it like none of this ever happened.’
He gazed at her, as if translating her words from a foreign language. ‘But you’re a hero. I would forget that?’
‘Yes,’ Piper whispered. She forced an assuring tone into her voice. ‘Yes, you would. It’ll be like – like before.’
He closed his eyes and took a shaky breath. ‘I love you, Piper. I always have. I – I sent you away because I didn’t want you exposed to my life. Not the way I grew up – the poverty, the hopelessness. Not the Hollywood insanity either. I thought – I thought I was protecting you.’ He managed a brittle laugh. ‘As if your life without me was better, or safer.’
Piper took his hand. She’d heard him talk about protecting her before, but she’d never believed it. She’d always thought he was just rationalizing. Her dad seemed so confident and easygoing, like his life was a joyride. How could he claim she needed protecting from that?
Finally Piper understood he’d been acting for her benefit, trying not to show how scared and insecure he was. He really had been trying to protect her. And now his ability to cope had been destroyed.
She offered him the vial. ‘Take it. Maybe some day we’ll be ready to talk about this again. When you’re ready.’
‘When I’m ready,’ he murmured. ‘You make it sound like – like I’m the one growing up. I’m supposed to be the parent.’ He took the vial. His eyes glimmered with a small desperate hope. ‘I love you, Pipes.’
‘Love you, too, Dad.’
He drank the pink liquid. His eyes rolled up into his head, and he slumped forward. Piper caught him, and her friends ran up to help.
‘Got him,’ Hedge said. The satyr stumbled, but he was strong enough to hold Tristan McLean upright. ‘I already asked our ranger friend to call up his plane. It’s on the way now. Home address?’
Piper was about to tell him. Then a thought occurred to her. She checked her dad’s pocket, and his BlackBerry was still there. It seemed bizarre that he’d still have something so normal after all he’d been through, but she guessed Enceladus hadn’t seen any reason to take it.
‘Everything’s on here,’ Piper said. ‘Address, his chauffeur’s
number. Just watch out for Jane.’
Hedge’s eyes lit up, like he sensed a possible fight. ‘Who’s Jane?’
By the time Piper had explained, her dad’s sleek white Gulfstream had taxied next to the helicopter.
Hedge and the flight attendant got Piper’s dad on board. Then Hedge came down one last time to say his goodbyes. He gave Piper a hug and glared at Jason and Leo. ‘You cupcakes take care of this girl, you hear? Or I’m gonna make you do push-ups.’
‘You got it, Coach,’ Leo said, a smile tugging at his mouth.
‘No push-ups,’ Jason promised.
Piper gave the old satyr one more hug. ‘Thank you, Gleeson. Take care of him, please.’
‘I’ve got this, McLean,’ he assured her. ‘They’ve got root beer and veggie enchiladas on this flight, and one hundred percent linen napkins – yum! I could get used to this.’
Trotting up the stairs, he lost one shoe, and his hoof was visible for just a second. The flight attendant’s eyes widened, but she looked away and pretended nothing was wrong. Piper figured she’d probably seen stranger things, working for Tristan McLean.
When the plane was heading down the runaway, Piper started to cry. She’d been holding it in too long and she just couldn’t any more. Before she knew it, Jason was hugging her, and Leo stood uncomfortably nearby, pulling Kleenex out of his tool belt.
‘Your dad’s in good hands,’ Jason said. ‘You were amazing.’
She sobbed into his shirt. She allowed herself to be held for six deep breaths. Seven. Then she couldn’t indulge herself any more. They needed her. The helicopter pilot was already looking uncomfortable, like she was starting to wonder why she’d flown them here.
‘Thank you, guys,’ Piper said. ‘I –’
She wanted to tell them how much they meant to her. They’d sacrificed everything, maybe even their quest, to help her. She couldn’t repay them, couldn’t even put her gratitude into words. But her friends’ expressions told her they understood.
Then, right next to Jason, the air began to shimmer. At first Piper thought it was heat off the tarmac, or maybe gas fumes from the helicopter, but she’d seen something like this before in Medea’s fountain. It was an Iris message. An image appeared in the air – a dark-haired girl in silver winter camouflage, holding a bow.
Jason stumbled back in surprise. ‘Thalia!’
‘Thank the gods,’ said the Hunter. The scene behind her was hard to make out, but Piper heard yelling, metal clashing on metal and explosions.
‘We’ve found her,’ Thalia said. ‘Where are you?’
‘Oakland,’ he said. ‘Where are you?’
‘The Wolf House! Oakland is good; you’re not too far. We’re holding off the giant’s minions, but we can’t hold them forever. Get here before sunset, or it’s all over.’
‘Then it’s not too late?’ Piper cried. Hope surged through her, but Thalia’s expression quickly dampened it.
‘Not yet,’ Thalia said. ‘But, Jason – it’s worse than I realized. Porphyrion is rising. Hurry.’
‘But where is the Wolf House?’ he pleaded.
‘Our last trip,’ Thalia said, her image starting to flicker. ‘The park. Jack London. Remember?’
This made no sense to Piper, but Jason looked like he’d been shot. He tottered, his face pale, and the Iris message disappeared.
‘Bro, you all right?’ Leo asked. ‘You know where she is?’
‘Yes,’ Jason said. ‘Sonoma Valley. Not far. Not by air.’
Piper turned to the ranger pilot, who’d been watching all this with an increasingly puzzled expression.
‘Ma’am,’ Piper said with her best smile. ‘You don’t mind helping us one more time, do you?’
‘I don’t mind,’ the pilot agreed.
‘We can’t take a mortal into battle,’ Jason said. ‘It’s too dangerous.’ He turned to Leo. ‘Do you think you could fly this thing?’
‘Um …’ Leo’s expression didn’t exactly reassure Piper. But then he put his hand on the side of the helicopter, concentrating hard, as if listening to the machine.
‘Bell 412HP utility helicopter,’ Leo said. ‘Composite four-blade main rotor, cruising speed twenty-two knots, service ceiling twenty-thousand feet. The tank is near full. Sure, I can fly it.’
Piper smiled at the ranger again. ‘You don’t have a problem with an under-aged unlicensed kid borrowing your copter, do you? We’ll return it.’
‘I –’ The pilot nearly choked on the words, but she got them out: ‘I don’t have a problem with that.’
Leo grinned. ‘Hop in, kids. Uncle Leo’s gonna take you for a ride.’
XLVII
LEO
Fly a helicopter? Sure, why not. Leo had done plenty of crazier things that week.
The sun was going down as they flew north over the Richmond Bridge, and Leo couldn’t believe the day had gone so quickly. Once again, nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.
Piloting the chopper, he went back and forth between confidence and panic. If he didn’t think about it, he found himself automatically flipping the right switches, checking the altimeter, easing back on the stick and flying straight. If he allowed himself to consider what he was doing, he started freaking out. He imagined his Aunt Rosa yelling at him in Spanish, telling him he was a delinquent lunatic who was going to crash and burn. Part of him suspected she was right.
‘Going okay?’ Piper asked from the copilot’s seat. She sounded more nervous than he was, so Leo put on a brave face.
‘Aces,’ he said. ‘So what’s the Wolf House?’
Jason knelt between their seats. ‘An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it – Jack London.’
Leo couldn’t place the name. ‘He an actor?’
‘Writer,’ Piper said. ‘Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?’
‘Yeah,’ Jason said. ‘He was a son of Mercury – I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, travelled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion – the Wolf House.’
‘Named that ’cause he wrote about wolves?’ Leo guessed.
‘Partially,’ Jason said. ‘But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves – he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There’re a lot of holes in his life story – how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much – stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod.’
The bay slipped behind them, and the helicopter continued north. Ahead of them, yellow hills rolled out as far as Leo could see.
‘So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood,’ Leo guessed.
‘No,’ Jason said. ‘No, he didn’t.’
‘Bro, you’re freaking me out with the mysterious talk. Are you remembering your past or not?’
‘Pieces,’ Jason said. ‘Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It’s where London started his journey as a child – where he found out he was a demigod. That’s why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn’t meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site.’
‘So,’ Piper said, ‘how do you know all this?’
A shadow crossed Jason’s face. Probably just a cloud, but Leo could swear the shape looked like an eagle.
‘I started my journey there, too,’ Jason said. ‘It’s a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaia can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion – that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully.’
Leo kept his hand on the joystick, guiding the chopper at full speed – racing towards the north. He could see some weather ahead – a spot of darkness like a cloudbank or a storm, right where they were going.
Piper’s dad had called him a hero earl
ier. And Leo couldn’t believe some of the things he’d done – smacking around Cyclopes, disarming exploding doorbells, battling six-armed ogres with construction equipment. They seemed like they had happened to another person. He was just Leo Valdez, an orphaned kid from Houston. He’d spent his life running away, and part of him still wanted to run. What was he thinking, flying towards a cursed mansion to fight more evil monsters?
His mom’s voice echoed in his head: Nothing is unfixable.
Except the fact that you’re gone forever, Leo thought.
Seeing Piper and her dad back together had really driven that home. Even if Leo survived this quest and saved Hera, Leo wouldn’t have any happy reunions. He wouldn’t be going back to a loving family. He wouldn’t see his mom.
The helicopter shuddered. Metal creaked, and Leo could almost imagine the tapping was Morse code: Not the end. Not the end.
He levelled out the chopper, and the creaking stopped. He was just hearing things. He couldn’t dwell on his mom, or the idea that kept bugging him – that Gaia was bringing souls back from the Underworld – so why couldn’t he make some good come out of it? Thinking like that would drive him crazy. He had a job to do.
He let his instincts take over – just like flying the helicopter. If he thought about the quest too much, or what might happen afterwards, he’d panic. The trick was not to think – just get through it.
‘Thirty minutes out,’ he told his friends, though he wasn’t sure how he knew. ‘If you want to get some rest, now’s a good time.’
Jason strapped himself into the back of the helicopter and passed out almost immediately. Piper and Leo stayed wide awake.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Leo said, ‘Your dad’ll be fine, you know. Nobody’s gonna mess with him with that crazy goat around.’
Piper glanced over, and Leo was struck by how much she’d changed. Not just physically. Her presence was stronger. She seemed more … here. At Wilderness School she’d spent the semester trying not to be seen, hiding out in the back row of the classroom, the back of the bus, the corner of the lunchroom as far as possible from the loud kids. Now she would be impossible to miss. It didn’t matter what she was wearing – you’d have to look at her.
