The Son of Neptune hoo-2

by Rick Riordan

  He swivelled the barrel, took aim at the lead ogre, and pressed the trigger. Eight high-powered spuds blasted the giant in the chest, propelling him backwards with such force that he crashed into a stack of bronze cannonballs, which promptly exploded, leaving a smoking crater in the yard.

  Apparently starch was bad for ogres.

  While the rest of the monsters ran around in confusion, Frank pulled his bow and rained arrows on them. Some of the missiles detonated on impact. Others splintered like buckshot and left the giants with some painful new tattoos. One hit an ogre and instantly turned him into a potted rosebush.

  Unfortunately, the ogres recovered quickly. They began throwing cannonballs – dozens at a time. The whole house groaned under the impact. Frank ran for the stairs. The attic disintegrated behind him. Smoke and fire poured down the second-floor hallway.

  ‘Grandmother!’ he cried, but the heat was so intense, he couldn’t reach her room. He raced to the ground floor, clinging to the banister as the house shook and huge chunks of the ceiling collapsed.

  The base of the staircase was a smoking crater. He leaped over it and stumbled through the kitchen. Choking from the ash and soot, he burst into the garage. The Cadillac’s headlights were on. The engine was running and the garage door was opening.

  ‘Get in!’ Percy yelled.

  Frank dived in the back next to Hazel. Ella was curled up in the front, her head tucked under her wings, muttering, ‘Yikes. Yikes. Yikes.’

  Percy gunned the engine. They shot out of the garage before it was fully open, leaving a Cadillac-shaped hole of splintered wood.

  The ogres ran to intercept, but Percy shouted at the top of his lungs, and the irrigation system exploded. A hundred geysers shot into the air along with clods of earth, pieces of pipe and very heavy sprinkler heads.

  The Cadillac was going about forty when they hit the first ogre, who disintegrated on impact. By the time the other monsters overcame their confusion, the Cadillac was half a mile down the road. Flaming cannonballs burst behind them.

  Frank glanced back and saw his family mansion on fire, the walls collapsing inward and smoke billowing into the sky. He saw a large black speck – maybe a buzzard – circling up from the fire. It might’ve been Frank’s imagination, but he thought it had flown out of the second-storey window.

  ‘Grandmother?’ he murmured.

  It seemed impossible, but she had promised she would die in her own way, not at the hands of the ogres. Frank hoped she had been right.

  They drove through the woods and headed north.

  ‘About three miles!’ Frank said. ‘You can’t miss it!’

  Behind them, more explosions ripped through the forest. Smoke boiled into the sky.

  ‘How fast can Laistrygonians run?’ Hazel asked.

  ‘Let’s not find out,’ Percy said.

  The gates of the airfield appeared before them – only a few hundred yards away. A private jet idled on the runway. Its stairs were down.

  The Cadillac hit a pothole and went airborne. Frank’s head slammed into the ceiling. When the wheels touched the ground, Percy floored the brakes, and they swerved to a stop just inside the gates.

  Frank climbed out and drew his bow. ‘Get to the plane! They’re coming!’

  The Laistrygonians were closing in with alarming speed. The first line of ogres burst out of the woods and barrelled towards the airfield – five hundred yards away, four hundred yards …

  Percy and Hazel managed to get Ella out of the Cadillac, but as soon as the harpy saw the aeroplane, she began to shriek.

  ‘N-n-no!’ she yelped. ‘Fly with wings! N-n-no aeroplanes.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ Hazel promised. ‘We’ll protect you!’

  Ella made a horrible, painful wail like she was being burned.

  Percy held up his hands in exasperation. ‘What do we do? We can’t force her.’

  ‘No,’ Frank agreed. The ogres were three hundred yards out.

  ‘She’s too valuable to leave behind,’ Hazel said. Then she winced at her own words. ‘Gods, I’m sorry, Ella. I sound as bad as Phineas. You’re a living thing, not a treasure.’

  ‘No planes. N-n-no planes.’ Ella was hyperventilating.

  The ogres were almost in throwing distance.

  Percy’s eyes lit up. ‘I’ve got an idea. Ella, can you hide in the woods? Will you be safe from the ogres?’

  ‘Hide,’ she agreed. ‘Safe. Hiding is good for harpies. Ella is quick. And small. And fast.’

  ‘Okay,’ Percy said. ‘Just stay around this area. I can send a friend to meet you and take you to Camp Jupiter.’

  Frank unslung his bow and nocked an arrow. ‘A friend?’

  Percy waved his hand in a tell you later gesture. ‘Ella, would you like that? Would you like my friend to take you to Camp Jupiter and show you our home?’

  ‘Camp,’ Ella muttered. Then in Latin: ‘“Wisdom’s daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome.”’

  ‘Uh, right,’ Percy said. ‘That sounds important, but we can talk about that later. You’ll be safe at camp. All the books and food you want.’

  ‘No planes,’ she insisted.

  ‘No planes,’ Percy agreed.

  ‘Ella will hide now.’ Just like that, she was gone – a red streak disappearing into the woods.

  ‘I’ll miss her,’ Hazel said sadly.

  ‘We’ll see her again,’ Percy promised, but he frowned uneasily, as if he were really troubled by that last bit of prophecy – the thing about Athena.

  An explosion sent the airfield’s gate spinning into the air.

  Frank tossed his grandmother’s letter to Percy. ‘Show that to the pilot! Show him your letter from Reyna too! We’ve got to take off now.’

  Percy nodded. He and Hazel ran for the plane.

  Frank took cover behind the Cadillac and started firing at the ogres. He targeted the largest clump of enemies and shot a tulip-shaped arrow. Just as he’d hoped, it was a hydra. Ropes lashed out like squid tentacles, and the entire front row of ogres ploughed face first into the ground.

  Frank heard the plane’s engines rev.

  He shot three more arrows as fast as he could, blasting enormous craters in the ogres’ ranks. The survivors were only a hundred yards away, and some of the brighter ones stumbled to a stop, realizing that they were now within hurling range.

  ‘Frank!’ Hazel shrieked. ‘Come on!’

  A fiery cannonball hurtled towards him in a slow arc. Frank knew instantly it was going to hit the plane. He nocked an arrow. I can do this, he thought. He let the arrow fly. It intercepted the cannonball midair, detonating a massive fireball.

  Another two cannonballs sailed towards him. Frank ran.

  Behind him, metal groaned as the Cadillac exploded. He dived into the plane just as the stairs started to rise.

  The pilot must’ve understood the situation just fine. There was no safety announcement, no pre-flight drink and no waiting for clearance. He pushed the throttle, and the plane shot down the runway. Another blast ripped through the runway behind them, but then they were in the air.

  Frank looked down and saw the airstrip riddled with craters like a piece of burning Swiss cheese. Swathes of Lynn Canyon Park were on fire. A few miles to the south, a swirling pyre of flames and black smoke was all that remained of the Zhang family mansion.

  So much for Frank being impressive. He’d failed to save his grandmother. He’d failed to use his powers. He hadn’t even saved their harpy friend. When Vancouver disappeared in the clouds below, Frank buried his head in his hands and started to cry.

  The plane banked to the left.

  Over the intercom, the pilot’s voice said, ‘Senatus Populusque Romanus, my friends. Welcome aboard. Next stop: Anchorage, Alaska.’

  XXXVII

  Percy

  AEROPLANES OR CANNIBALS? NO CONTEST.

  Percy would’ve preferred driving Grandma Zhang’s Cadillac all the way to Alaska with fireball-throwing ogres on his ta
il rather than sitting in a luxury Gulfstream.

  He’d flown before. The details were hazy, but he remembered a pegasus named Blackjack. He’d even been in a plane once or twice. But a son of Neptune (Poseidon, whatever) didn’t belong in the air. Every time the plane hit a spot of turbulence, Percy’s heart raced, and he was sure Jupiter was slapping them around.

  He tried to focus as Frank and Hazel talked. Hazel was reassuring Frank that he’d done everything he could for his grandmother. Frank had saved them from the Laistrygonians and got them out of Vancouver. He’d been incredibly brave.

  Frank kept his head down like he was ashamed to have been crying, but Percy didn’t blame him. The poor guy had just lost his grandmother and seen his house go up in flames. As far as Percy was concerned, shedding a few tears about something like that didn’t make you any less of a man, especially when you had just fended off an army of ogres that wanted to eat you for breakfast.

  Percy still couldn’t get over the fact that Frank was a distant relative. Frank would be his … what? Great-times-a-thousand nephew? Too weird for words.

  Frank refused to explain exactly what his ‘family gift’ was, but as they flew north, Frank did tell them about his conversation with Mars the night before. He explained the prophecy Juno had issued when he was a baby – about his life being tied to a piece of firewood, and how he had asked Hazel to keep it for him.

  Some of that, Percy had already figured out. Hazel and Frank had obviously shared some crazy experiences when they had blacked out together, and they’d made some sort of deal. It also explained why even now, out of habit, Frank kept checking his coat pocket, and why he was so nervous around fire. Still, Percy couldn’t imagine what kind of courage it had taken for Frank to embark on a quest, knowing that one small flame could snuff out his life.

  ‘Frank,’ he said, ‘I’m proud to be related to you.’

  Frank’s ears turned red. With his head lowered, his military haircut made a sharp black arrow pointing down. ‘Juno has some sort of plan for us, about the Prophecy of Seven.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Percy grumbled. ‘I didn’t like her as Hera. I don’t like her any better as Juno.’

  Hazel tucked her feet underneath her. She studied Percy with her luminescent golden eyes, and he wondered how she could be so calm. She was the youngest one on the quest, but she was always holding them together and comforting them. Now they were flying to Alaska, where she had died once before. They would try to free Thanatos, who might take her back to the Underworld. Yet she didn’t show any fear. It made Percy feel silly for being scared of aeroplane turbulence.

  ‘You’re a son of Poseidon, aren’t you?’ she asked. ‘You are a Greek demigod.’

  Percy gripped his leather necklace. ‘I started to remember in Portland, after the gorgon’s blood. It’s been coming back to me slowly since then. There’s another camp – Camp Half-Blood.’

  Just saying the name made Percy feel warm inside. Good memories washed over him: the smell of strawberry fields in the warm summer sun, fireworks lighting up the beach on the Fourth of July, satyrs playing panpipes at the nightly campfire and a kiss at the bottom of the canoe lake.

  Hazel and Frank stared at him as though he’d slipped into another language.

  ‘Another camp,’ Hazel repeated. ‘A Greek camp? Gods, if Octavian found out -’

  ‘He’d declare war,’ Frank said. ‘He’s always been sure the Greeks were out there, plotting against us. He thought Percy was a spy.’

  ‘That’s why Juno sent me,’ Percy said. ‘Uh, I mean, not to spy. I think it was some kind of exchange. Your friend Jason – I think he was sent to my camp. In my dreams, I saw a demigod that might have been him. He was working with some other demigods on this flying warship. I think they’re coming to Camp Jupiter to help.’

  Frank tapped nervously on the back of his seat. ‘Mars said Juno wants to unite the Greeks and Romans to fight Gaia. But, jeez – Greeks and Romans have a long history of bad blood.’

  Hazel took a deep breath. ‘That’s probably why the gods have kept us apart this long. If a Greek warship appeared in the sky above Camp Jupiter, and Reyna didn’t know it was friendly -’

  ‘Yeah,’ Percy agreed. ‘We’ve got to be careful how we explain this when we get back.’

  ‘If we get back,’ Frank said.

  Percy nodded reluctantly. ‘I mean, I trust you guys. I hope you trust me. I feel … well, I feel as close to you two as to any of my old friends at Camp Half-Blood. But with the other demigods, at both camps – there’s going to be a lot of suspicion.’

  Hazel did something he wasn’t expecting. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. It was totally a sisterly kiss. But she smiled with such affection that it warmed Percy right down to his feet.

  ‘Of course we trust you,’ she said. ‘We’re a family now. Aren’t we, Frank?’

  ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Do I get a kiss?’

  Hazel laughed, but there was nervous tension in it. ‘Anyway, what do we do now?’

  Percy took a deep breath. Time was slipping away. They were almost halfway through June twenty-third, and tomorrow was the Feast of Fortuna. ‘I’ve got to contact a friend – to keep my promise to Ella.’

  ‘How?’ Frank said. ‘One of those Iris-messages?’

  ‘Still not working,’ Percy said sadly. ‘I tried it last night at your grandmother’s house. No luck. Maybe it’s because my memories are still jumbled. Or the gods aren’t allowing a connection. I’m hoping I can contact my friend in my dreams.’

  Another bump of turbulence made him grab his seat. Below them, snowcapped mountains broke through a blanket of clouds.

  ‘I’m not sure I can sleep,’ Percy said. ‘But I need to try. We can’t leave Ella by herself with those ogres around.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Frank said. ‘We’ve still got hours to fly. Take the couch, man.’

  Percy nodded. He felt lucky to have Hazel and Frank watching out for him. What he’d said to them was true – he trusted them. In the weird, terrifying, horrible experience of losing his memory and getting ripped out of his old life – Hazel and Frank were the bright spots.

  He stretched out, closed his eyes and dreamed he was falling from a mountain of ice towards a cold sea.

  The dream shifted. He was back in Vancouver, standing in front of the ruins of the Zhang mansion. The Laistrygonians were gone. The mansion was reduced to a burnt-out shell. A crew of firefighters was packing up their equipment, getting ready to move out. The lawn looked like a war zone, with smoking craters and trenches from the blown-out irrigation pipes.

  At the edge of the forest, a giant shaggy black dog was bounding around, sniffing the trees. The firefighters completely ignored him.

  Beside one of the craters knelt a Cyclops in oversized jeans, boots and a massive flannel shirt. His messy brown hair was spattered with rain and mud. When he raised his head, his big brown eye was red from crying.

  ‘Close!’ he moaned. ‘So close, but gone!’

  It broke Percy’s heart to hear the pain and worry in the big guy’s voice, but he knew they only had a few seconds to talk. The edges of the vision were already dissolving. If Alaska was the land beyond the gods, Percy figured the further north he went, the harder it would be to communicate with his friends, even in his dreams.

  ‘Tyson!’ he called.

  The Cyclops looked around frantically. ‘Percy? Brother?’

  ‘Tyson, I’m okay. I’m here – well, not really.’

  Tyson grabbed the air like he was trying to catch butterflies. ‘Can’t see you! Where is my brother?’

  ‘Tyson, I’m flying to Alaska. I’m okay. I’ll be back. Just find Ella. She’s a harpy with red feathers. She’s hiding in the woods around the house.’

  ‘Find a harpy? A red harpy?’

  ‘Yes! Protect her, okay? She’s my friend. Get her back to California. There’s a demigod camp in the Oakland Hills – Camp Jupiter. Meet me above the Caldecott Tunnel.’

  ‘Oakland H
ills … California … Caldecott Tunnel.’ He shouted to the dog: ‘Mrs O’Leary! We must find a harpy!’

  ‘WOOF!’ said the dog.

  Tyson’s face started to dissolve. ‘My brother is okay? My brother is coming back? I miss you!’

  ‘I miss you, too.’ Percy tried to keep his voice from cracking. ‘I’ll see you soon. Just be careful! There’s a giant’s army marching south. Tell Annabeth -’

  The dream shifted.

  Percy found himself standing in the hills north of Camp Jupiter, looking down at the Field of Mars and New Rome. At the legion’s fort, horns were blowing. Campers scrambled to muster.

  The giant’s army was arrayed to Percy’s left and right – centaurs with bull’s horns, the six-armed Earthborn and evil Cyclopes in scrap-metal armour. The Cyclopes’ siege tower cast a shadow across the feet of the giant Polybotes, who grinned down at the Roman camp. He paced eagerly across the hill, snakes dropping from his green dreadlocks, his dragon legs stomping down small trees. On his green-blue armour, the decorative faces of hungry monsters seemed to blink in the shadows.

  ‘Yes,’ he chuckled, planting his trident in the ground. ‘Blow your little horns, Romans. I’ve come to destroy you! Stheno!’

  The gorgon scrambled out of the bushes. Her lime green viper hair and Bargain Mart vest clashed horribly with the giant’s colour scheme.

  ‘Yes, master!’ she said. ‘Would you like a Puppy-in-a-Blanket?’

  She held up a tray of free samples.

  ‘Hmm,’ Polybotes said. ‘What sort of puppy?’

  ‘Ah, they’re not actually puppies. They’re tiny hot dogs in crescent rolls, but they’re on sale this week -’

  ‘Bah! Never mind, then! Are our forces ready to attack?’

  ‘Oh -’ Stheno stepped back quickly to avoid getting flattened by the giant’s foot. ‘Almost, great one. Ma Gasket and half her Cyclopes stopped in Napa. Something about a winery tour? They promised to be here by tomorrow evening.’