As Annabeth walked into the throne room she looked at the gods. She made a mental note that they looked sad. depressed (Poseidon), and pale. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Athena glance at her in worry. She shrugged it off. Maybe the Olympians were just having a bad day or something that Hera said ticked them off?
The thought that they might know about Percy never crossed her mind.
She looked at her friends and found that they seemed okay. They were playing around and talking- except for Travis, who was glancing at Thalia in worry. She wondered what Travis had done to become so scared at Thalia. When she sat down next to Thalia she raised in eyebrow in question but Thalia just shrugged and mouthed, I'll tell you later.
As soon as Annabeth sat down, Apollo reached for the book in Zeus' hands but Dionysus got it before him.
"Hey!" Apollo protested. Dionysus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Oh, calm down. You'll get to read eventually."
"I Settle My Tab," Dionysus read.
Hephaestus looked at Ares, "You still haven't paid for your repair on your last motorcycle repair."
Ares rolled his eyes but took out his credit card. "Go ahead and charge it for two motorcycle accidents."
"Why?"
"In case I crash it again."
Demeter snorted. "Three thousand years and you still don't know how to ride that thing?"
Ares frowned. "One, I do know how to ride her. Two, you don't call her a thing because she's not a thing, she's a her. Of course I wouldn't expect a serial killer to understand."
In response, Demeter glared at Ares.
It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.
Dionysus smiled fondly throughout this sentence.
Chiron had told me that long ago. As usual, I didn't appreciate his wisdom until much later.
"No one does."
According to the L.A. news,
"Oh," Thalia said. "This'll be good. The news almost never tells the truth."
the explosion at the Santa Monica beach had been caused when a crazy kidnapper
Ares frowned. "I'm not crazy."
Everyone looked away from him in an attempt to hide the accusing looks on their faces.
fired a shotgun at a police car. He accidentally hit a gas main that had ruptured during the earthquake.
Hephaestus shook his head.
This crazy kidnapper
Ares sighed exasperatedly.
was the same man who had abducted me and two other adolescents in New York and brought us across country on a ten-day odyssey of terror.
Poor little Percy Jackson wasn't an international criminal after all.
Poseidon smiled a little.
He'd caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor (and afterward, witnesses would even swear they had seen the leather-clad man on the bus—
Almost everyone rolled their eyes.
"Why didn't I remember him before?"). The crazy man had caused the explosion in the St. Louis Arch. After all, no kid could've done that.
Ares' right eye twitched. "So I get all the blame?"
Hades rolled his eyes. "Suck it up Ares. What'd you expect?"
A concerned waitress in Denver had seen the man threatening his abductees outside her diner, gotten a friend to take a photo, and notified the police. Finally, brave Percy Jackson (I was beginning to like this kid)
"Me too."
Annabeth smiled a little.
had stolen a gun from his captor in Los Angeles and battled him shotgun-to-rifle on the beach. Police had arrived just in time. But in the spectacular explosion, five police cars had been destroyed and the captor had fled. No fatalities had occurred. Percy Jackson and his two friends were safely in police custody.
Athena relaxed a little. At least Annabeth is safe.
The reporters fed us this whole story. We just nodded and acted tearful and exhausted and played victimized kids for the cameras.
"Well," Connor started. "At least that'll be easy to do. There's no way they could tell that you're lying."
"All I want," I said, choking back my tears, "is to see my loving stepfather again.
Aphrodite growled. She got out a sketchpad and started drawing Gabe as a catfish.
Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk,
Poseidon pursed his lips.
I knew ... somehow ... we would be okay. And I know he'll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store.
A roar of approval went up from the people in the room.
Here's the phone number."
Ares smirked slightly. "I don't like your son that much Poseidon, but that was brilliant. I mean, even Athena has to agree with that."
When everyone turned to Athena she merely rolled her eyes and signaled Dionysus to read.
The police and reporters were so moved that they passed around the hat and raised money for three tickets on the next plane to New York.
Poseidon and Zeus frowned.
I knew there was no choice but to fly. I hoped Zeus would cut me some slack, considering the circumstances. But it was still hard to force myself on board the flight.
Zeus smirked. "I remember the time where we went to Japan for a vacation and we had to force Poseidon on the flight. That was hilarious."
A smirk bloomed on to all of the Olympians' faces.
"That was comedy gold." Hephaestus said. "I wish we could have recorded it."
Hermes nodded. "You could probably imagine how hard it was to get Percy on board."
"He must have been wining a lot." Athena said.
Annabeth sighed. "That's an understatement."
The counselors smirked at her while everyone else continued laughing at Poseidon.
"Oh sure," Poseidon grumbled. "Laugh it up. Really. My torture is your amusement."
When they continued laughing Poseidon frowned. Then he got a twinkle in his eye.
"Sure. I'll admit that I was pretty bad when we went on the plane... but not as bad when we took that vacation to Hawaii and Zeus wouldn't get on the ship."
Zeus gaped at Poseidon while everyone else was sent into another round of laughter.
Hades remembered an embarrassing trip that he took to the Bahamas with everyone else and he wouldn't get into the water. He decided to tell Dionysus to read because he was afraid someone might bring that up.
Takeoff was a nightmare. Every spot of turbulence was scarier than a Greek monster.
Zeus smirked knowingly at Poseidon.
I didn't unclench my hands from the armrests until we touched down safely at La Guardia.
"Wow."
The local press was waiting for us outside security, but we managed to evade them thanks to Annabeth, who lured them away in her invisible Yankees cap, shouting, "They're over by the frozen yogurt! Come on!" then rejoined us at baggage claim
Connor smiled dreamily. "Frozen yougurt..."
Travis shook his head at Connor and gestured for Dionysus to read.
We split up at the taxi stand. I told Annabeth and Grover to get back to Half-Blood Hill and let Chiron know what had happened. They protested, and it was hard to let them go after all we'd been through, but I knew I had to do this last part of the quest by myself. If things went wrong, if the gods didn't believe me ... I wanted Annabeth and Grover to survive to tell Chiron the truth.
Athena sent a thankful look to Poseidon.
I hopped in a taxi and headed into Manhattan.
Thirty minutes later, I walked into the lobby of the Empire State Building.
I must have looked like a homeless kid, with my tattered clothes and my scraped-up face. I hadn't slept in at least twenty-four hours.
I went up to the guard at the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor."
"That's not going to work... he'll threaten him... and pull out a bazooka... or a knife..." Travis muttered.
Leo raised an eyebrow. "And how would you know that?"
"I've been here before during the winter solstice and the big event that occured...where there were a lot of monsters... and crazy titans..."
"Oh."
"That still doesn't explain anything." Annabeth said. "When we came here during the winter solstice Chiron was here so the guy let us through without any probelms and during the war he didn't pull out a bazooka on us, how-"
She stopped at the creepy look Travis was giving off and hurriedly told Dionysus to read.
He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. I wasn't much into fantasy, but the book must've been good, because the guard took a while to look up. "No such floor, kiddo."
"I need an audience with Zeus."
He gave me a vacant smile. "Sorry?"
Nico frowned. "Who is that guy anyways?"
When the demigods looked towards the gods they shrugged. "I don't know," Artemis said. "Some guy Hermes hired. Probably one of his kids."
When they looked at Hermes he merely stated. "My lips are sealed."
"You heard me."
I was about to decide this guy was just a regular mortal, and I'd better run for it before he called the straitjacket patrol,
Nico sighed. "Why does that always happen?"
Everyone, except for Travis, Leo, Apollo, Connor, Hades, and Hermes, looked at him with an apprehensively.
when he said, "No appointment, no audience, kiddo. Lord Zeus doesn't see anyone unannounced."
"Oh, I think he'll make an exception." I slipped off my backpack and unzipped the top.
"Oh... that'll work."
The guard looked inside at the metal cylinder, not getting what it was for a few seconds. Then his face went pale. "That isn't..."
"Yes, it is," I promised. "You want me take it out and—"
"No! No!" He scrambled out of his seat, fumbled around his desk for a key card, then handed it to me. "Insert this in the security slot. Make sure nobody else is in the elevator with you."
Zeus rolled his eyes. "Because we'd actually want mortals to ride up to Olympus."
"Really?" Apollo said, a bit confused.
"No!"
I did as he told me. As soon as the elevator doors closed, I slipped the key into the slot. The card disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red one that said 600.
Piper, Leo, and Jason waited in anticipation. They'd never been to Olympus before.
I pressed it and waited, and waited.
Music played. "Raindrops keep falling on my head..."
Apollo frowned and made a mental note to change the music in the elevator.
Finally, ding. The doors slid open. I stepped out and almost had a heart attack.
Zeus and Ares smirked evilly.
When Hades glanced at Zeus and Hades he shivered. "See? That's what you call an evil smile, not what I do."
Everyone rolled their eyes at him but had to agree that Ares and Zeus did look a bit off. Maybe they ate cereal today?
"Why'd he almost have a heart attack?" Piper asked.
"You'll see."
I was standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air. Below me was Manhattan, from the height of an airplane.
"Oh."
In front of me, white marble steps wound up the spine of a cloud, into the sky. My eyes followed the stairway to its end, where my brain just could not accept what I saw.
Look again, my brain said.
We're looking, my eyes insisted. It's really there.
"Woah..." Apollo said. "And you all call me insane?"
From the top of the clouds rose the decapitated peak of a mountain, its summit covered with snow. Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multileveled palaces—a city of mansions—all with white-columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace gleamed against the snow.
"Snow? Isn't it supposed to be summer?"
Precariously perched gardens
Demeter and Hades smiled. Persephone liked the gardens.
with olive trees and rosebushes.
Athena and Aphrodite smiled.
I could make out an open-air market filled with colorful tents, a stone amphitheater built on one side of the mountain,
Now Apollo smiled.
a hippodrome and a coliseum on the other. It was an Ancient Greek city, except it wasn't in ruins. It was new, and clean, and colorful, the way Athens must've looked twenty-five hundred years ago.
"To bad it had to get trashed." Thalia murmured. The demigods around her nodded.
This place can't be here, I told myself.
"Yes it can."
The tip of a mountain hanging over New York City like a billion-ton asteroid?
"Well... when you put it that way..."
How could something like that be anchored above the Empire State Building, in plain sight of millions of people, and not get noticed?
"Holy pinneapple," Apollo sighed. "The mist! It's the mist!"
Artemis glanced at Athena and mouthed, Pinneapple?
Athena shrugged, He's your blood-related brother.
But here it was. And here I was.
My trip through Olympus was a daze. I passed some giggling wood nymphs who threw olives at me from their garden.
Poseidon frowned. Athena probably got the tree nymphs to do that. How obvious could it be? OLIVES.
Hawkers in the market offered to sell me ambrosia-on-a-stick, and a new shield, and a genuine glitter-weave replica of the Golden Fleece, as seen on Hephaestus-TV.
"We don't need a replica now."
The nine muses were tuning their instruments for a concert in the park while a small crowd gathered—satyrs and naiads and a bunch of good-looking teenagers
"Minor gods and goddesses." Athena muttered.
"Or a bunch of good looking Apollos." Apollo waggled his eyebrows suggestively while everyone ignored him.
who might've been minor gods and goddesses. Nobody seemed worried about an impending civil war. In fact, everybody seemed in a festive mood.
"They probably know he's here." Hades mumbled.
Several of them turned to watch me pass, and whispered to themselves.
I climbed the main road, toward the big palace at the peak. It was a reverse copy of the palace in the Underworld.
Apollo sighed in content. "So then it won't be depressing and spoil my mood."
There, everything had been black and bronze. Here, every thing glittered white and silver.
I realized Hades must've built his palace to resemble this one. He wasn't welcomed in Olympus except on the winter solstice, so he'd built his own Olympus underground.
At the questioning looks being sent towards him Hades shrugged and gestured to Dionysus to continue reading.
Despite my bad experience with him, I felt a little sorry for the guy. To be banished from this place seemed really unfair. It would make anybody bitter.
Steps led up to a central courtyard. Past that, the throne room.
Room really isn't the right word.
"It isn't." Piper said. For the first time in the many days that she'd been there, she took a good look around the throne 'room'.
The place made Grand Central Station look like a broom closet. Massive columns rose to a domed ceiling, which was gilded with moving constellations.
Twelve thrones, built for beings the size of Hades, were arranged in an inverted U, just like the cabins at Camp Half-Blood. An enormous fire crackled in the central hearth pit. The thrones were empty except for two at the end: the head throne on the right, and the one to its immediate left. I didn't have to be told who the two gods were that were sitting there, waiting for me to approach. I came toward them, my legs trembling.
"Wuss." Ares muttered.
The gods were in giant human form, as Hades had been, but I could barely look at them without feeling a tingle, as if my body were starting to burn. Zeus, the Lord of the Gods, wore a dark blue pinstriped suit. He sat on a simple throne of solid platinum. He had a well-trimmed beard, marbled gray and black like a storm cloud. His face was proud and handsome and grim, his eyes rainy gray.
Zeus raised an eyebrow at the description. "That's surprisingly... accurate."
As I got nearer to him, the air crackled and smelled of ozone.
"Just like the way when Thalia gets mad?" Nico asked innocently.
"Yes," Zeus answered. "I suppose..."
The god sitting next to him was his brother, without a doubt, but he was dressed very differently. He reminded me of a beachcomber from Key West.
Ares stifled a laugh. "Did your son just call you a beach bum?"
Laughter erupted from the occupants of the room.
Nico felt an urge to defend Poseidon. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because Percy kept on trying to find him, even after he'd made it clear that he didn't want him to. "Technically, Poseidon is a beach bum."
More laughter from the male gods and demigods while the goddesses and female demigods composed theirself. Poseidon sent a look that was a mix between a question and a glare.
"However, he's a beach bum that probably gets sympathy from a lot fo girls who go to the beach."
The laughter ceased immediately while Poseidon beamed at Nico. In their embarassed state, the gods urged Dionysus to read.
He wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts, and a Tommy Bahama shirt with coconuts and parrots all over it.
His skin was deeply tanned, his hands scarred like an old-time fisherman's. His hair was black, like mine. His face had that same brooding look that had always gotten me branded a rebel.
A large sigh erupted from the people who had known Percy personally.
But his eyes, sea green like mine, were surrounded by sun-crinkles that told me he smiled a lot, too.
"Yeah," Athena frowned. "From pranking people with Hermes too much."
His throne was a deep-sea fisherman's chair. It was the simple swiveling kind,
Hephaestus knit his eyebrows. "Why don't you ever get the high tech ones? Why stick with that old thing?"
In response Poseidon shrugged. "I like simple things. When it's complicated, it gets dramatic. Besides, Dramatic is Zeus' profesionality."
He ignored the irritated look being sent his way.
with a black leather seat and a built-in holster for a fishing pole. Instead of a pole, the holster held a bronze trident, flickering with green light around the tips.
The gods weren't moving or speaking, but there was tension in the air, as if they'd just finished an argument.
I approached the fisherman's throne and knelt at his feet. "Father."
Zeus' eye twitched. "Poseidon, don't you think your son should-"
"Calm down Zeus. I'm sure I'll tell him."
I dared not look up. My heart was racing. I could feel the energy emanating from the two gods. If I said the wrong thing, I had no doubt they could blast me into dust.
"Not with Poseidon there."
To my left, Zeus spoke. "Should you not address the master of this house first, boy?"
I kept my head down, and waited.
"Peace, brother," Poseidon finally said. His voice stirred my oldest memories: that warm glow I remembered as a baby, the sensation of this god's hand on my forehead,
Poseidon smiled fondly, remembering those old memories.
Athena sat up and looked at Poseidon. "Like a blessing?"
"What?"
"You put your hand on Percy like you were giving him a blessing?"
"So?"
"So, were you?"
Poseidon sighed. "I knew what he would probably go through so I thought that I should put a blessing on him so that he could at least survive 'til his sixteenth birthday."
"The boy defers to his father. This is only right."
"You still claim him then?" Zeus asked, menacingly. "You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath?"
"You know," Poseidon said. "You're talking a lot of smack for a god who sired a demigod before I did. Two, I mean."
Zeus merely stared at him and turned back to Dionysus so he could read.
"I have admitted my wrongdoing," Poseidon said. "Now I would hear him speak."
"OH!" A shout erupted from all of the demigods on the floor.
"What?" Zeus asked frantically. "Is something wrong?"
"Yes!" Nico nearly shouted. "Why would you say wrongdoing? You're going to completely crush his spirit!"
Wrongdoing.
Poseidon grimaced. His immediately became depressed. Why would he say that about Percy?
A lump welled up in my throat. Was that all I was? A wrongdoing? The result of a god's mistake?
The gods glanced at Thalia and Nico to find that they were glaring at them bitterly. After a moment of silence Dionysus decided to keep reading.
"I have spared him once already," Zeus grumbled. "Daring to fly through my domain ... pah! I should have blasted him out of the sky for his impudence."
Annabeth's grip tightened a little.
"And risk destroying your own master bolt?" Poseidon asked calmly. "Let us hear him out, brother."
Zeus grumbled some more. "I shall listen," he decided. "Then I shall make up my mind whether or not to cast this boy down from Olympus."
Hephaestus' body became rigid. Just like Hera.
"Perseus," Poseidon said. "Look at me."
I did, and I wasn't sure what I saw in his face. There was no clear sign of love or approval. Nothing to encourage me. It was like looking at the ocean: some days, you could tell what mood it was in. Most days, though, it was unreadable, mysterious.
Everyone nodded.
I got the feeling Poseidon really didn't know what to think of me. He didn't know whether he was happy to have me as a son or not. In a strange way, I was glad that Poseidon was so distant. If he'd tried to apologize, or told me he loved me, or even smiled, it would've felt fake. Like a human dad, making some lame excuse for not being around.
The silence in the throne room was defeaning.
I could live with that. After all, I wasn't sure about him yet, either.
"Address Lord Zeus, boy," Poseidon told me. "Tell him your story."
So I told Zeus everything, just as it had happened. I took out the metal cylinder, which began sparking in the Sky God's presence, and laid it at his feet.
Zeus' smile broke out into a huge grin. He seemed to be holding back a shriek of joy.
There was a long silence, broken only by the crackle of the hearth fire.
Zeus opened his palm. The lightning bolt flew into it.
Zeus cleared his throat and stood up. "I need to step outside for a moment."
He disappeared into the gardens beside the palace.
Hades looked at Poseidon. "What do you think he's going to do?"
Poseidon cocked his head. "I don't know. Most likely something dramatic."
"Shhh!" Aphrodite said. "I think I hear something."
"Woo! ALRIGHT! Who's the boss? I AM! I GOT MY MASTERBOLT BACK! WOO!"
Everyone's jaw dropped. "Is... is that Zeus?" Artemis asked incredulously.
"I think so." Poseidon said. They all got up and walked over to the windows facing the garden to find Zeus dressed in a toga and doing a victory dance.
"YEAH! WOO!" When Zeus finally calmed down- at least that's what they thought- he walked over to the terrace.
"HELLO WORLD! Hey! You there!" Zeus pointed down at the streets, probably yelling at some mortal. "TASTE LIGHTNING BOLT SUCKER!"
There was a flash of lightning and a shriek from some mortal in the streets.
Poseidon shook his head in disbelief. "I told you he was dramatic."
"I don't doubt that." Annabeth murmured.
Suddenly, there was a golden light in the garden and all of the demigods had to look away to avoid getting disintegrated. When they finally looked, Hera was standing in the garden and scolding Zeus. "What on Olympus is wrong with you? Why are you-!"
She was cut off because then Zeus decided to turn around and throw a lightning bolt in front of her. Hera gaped at Zeus-who was still doing a victory dance- and she shook her head and flashed away.
Zeus continued his incredulous rant. After a couple of minutes Apollo snapped his fingers. A row of chairs appeared with a bag of popcorn on each. For the next forty minutes or so everyone sat on a chair and ate popcorn while watching Zeus go crazy.
Hephaestus even brought out a camera to record Zeus.
"About time." Dionysus muttered. They all watched Zeus march back to his throne-finally back in his pin-stripe suit- and sit down.
As he closed his fist, the metallic points flared with electricity, until he was holding what looked more like the classic thunderbolt, a twenty-foot javelin of arcing, hissing energy that made the hairs on my scalp rise.
Zeus rubbed his masterbolt on his cheek.
"I sense the boy tells the truth," Zeus muttered. "But that Ares would do such a thing ... it is most unlike him."
"He is proud and impulsive," Poseidon said. "It runs in the family."
"Yup."
"Lord?" I asked.
They both said, "Yes?"
"Ares didn't act alone. Someone else—something else— came up with the idea."
I described my dreams, and the feeling I'd had on the beach, that momentary breath of evil that had seemed to stop the world, and made Ares back off from killing me.
The room got quiet again.
"In the dreams," I said, "the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld. Ares hinted that he'd been having dreams, too. I think he was being used, just as I was, to start a war."
Ares nodded.
"You are accusing Hades, after all?" Zeus asked.
Hades sighed and face-palmed.
"No," I said. "I mean, Lord Zeus, I've been in the presence of Hades. This feeling on the beach was different. It was the same thing I felt when I got close to that pit. That was the entrance to Tartarus, wasn't it? Something powerful and evil is stirring down there ... something even older than the gods."
"Like I said before," Zeus muttered. "Scare us all to Tartarus."
Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. I only caught one word. Father.
Poseidon made some kind of suggestion, but Zeus cut him off. Poseidon tried to argue. Zeus held up his hand angrily. "We will speak of this no more," Zeus said.
"And by trying to avoid it," Athena stated. "It's going to happen."
"I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal."
He rose and looked at me. His expression softened just a fraction of a degree. "You have done me a service, boy. Few heroes could have accomplished as much."
"I had help, sir," I said. "Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase—"
Annabeth smiled warmly.
"To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for the sake of peace in the family, I shall let you live."
"Um... thank you, sir."
"Do not presume to fly again. Do not let me find you here when I return. Otherwise you shall taste this bolt.
"Like the other many mortals in New York who have just tasted it." Hades rolled his eyes while Zeus blushed.
And it shall be your last sensation."
Leo whistled. "That's some threat..."
Thunder shook the palace. With a blinding flash of lightning, Zeus was gone.
"Dramatic..." Apollo sung.
I was alone in the throne room with my father. "Your uncle," Poseidon sighed, "has always had a flair for dramatic exits. I think he would've done well as the god of theater."
Laughter erupted in the throne room.
An uncomfortable silence.
"Sir," I said, "what was in that pit?"
And the defeaning silence returns.
Poseidon regarded me. "Have you not guessed?"
"Kronos," I said. "The king of the Titans."
Even in the throne room of Olympus, far away from Tartarus, the name Kronos darkened the room, made the hearth fire seem not quite so warm on my back.
The same thing occured in the present throne room.
Poseidon gripped his trident. "In the First War, Percy, Zeus cut our father Kronos into a thousand pieces, just as Kronos had done to his own father, Ouranos. Zeus cast Kronos's remains into the darkest pit of Tartarus. The Titan army was scattered, their mountain fortress on Etna destroyed, their monstrous allies driven to the farthest corners of the earth. And yet Titans cannot die, any more than we gods can. Whatever is left of Kronos is still alive in some hideous way, still conscious in his eternal pain, still hungering for power."
"Psychotic..."
"He's healing," I said. "He's coming back."
Poseidon shook his head. "From time to time, over the eons, Kronos has stirred. He enters men's nightmares and breathes evil thoughts.
"That would really explain Hitler."
He wakens restless monsters from the depths. But to suggest he could rise from the pit is another thing."
"That's what he intends, Father. That's what he said."
Poseidon was silent for a long time.
"Lord Zeus has closed discussion on this matter. He will not allow talk of Kronos. You have completed your quest, child. That is all you need to do."
"But—" I stopped myself. Arguing would do no good. It would very possibly anger the only god who I had on my side.
"As ... as you wish, Father."
"Wow." Thalia said. "That must have been really hard."
A faint smile played on his lips. "Obedience does not come naturally to you, does it?"
"No."
"No ... sir."
"I must take some blame for that, I suppose. The sea does not like to be restrained."
"No."
He rose to his full height and took up his trident. Then he shimmered and became the size of a regular man, standing directly in front of me. "You must go, child. But first, know that your mother has returned."
A smile formed on most of the faces in the room.
I stared at him, completely stunned. "My mother?"
"You will find her at home. Hades sent her when you recovered his helm. Even the Lord of Death pays his debts."
My heart was pounding. I couldn't believe it. "Do you ... would you ..."
I wanted to ask if Poseidon would come with me to see her, but then I realized that was ridiculous.
"I wish I could." Poseidon sighed.
I imagined loading the God of the Sea into a taxi and taking him to the Upper East Side.
"That does sound ridiculous." Leo muttered.
If he'd wanted to see my mom all these years, he would have. And there was Smelly Gabe to think about.
Poseidon's eyes took on a little sadness.
As they did now.
"When you return home, Percy, you must make an important choice. You will find a package waiting in your room."
"A package?"
"What package?"
Everyone turned to Annabeth, who smiled and gestured for Dionysus to continue.
"You will understand when you see it. No one can choose your path, Percy. You must decide."
"Oh great." Nico muttered. "More confusing poetry."
I nodded, though I didn't know what he meant.
"Your mother is a queen among women," Poseidon said wistfully. "I had not met such a mortal woman in a thousand years.
Poseidon looked on in a daze, thinking about Sally. The goddesses smiled at him.
Rachel leaned closer to Thalia. "Do you think that's how Percy thinks about Annabeth?"
Thalia seemed to contemplate it for a minute then she smiled and said, "Completely."
Still ... I am sorry you were born, child. I have brought you a hero's fate, and a hero's fate is never happy. It is never anything but tragic."
The demigods sighed and face-palmed.
I tried not to feel hurt. Here was my own dad, telling me he was sorry I'd been born.
"I don't mind, Father."
"Not yet, perhaps," he said. "Not yet. But it was an unforgivable mistake on my part."
Piper looked at Poseidon. "You're not that good with talking to kids are you?"
Poseidon shook his head. "It's not entirely my fault. I haven't had children in seventy years. Besides, he's not looking at the main point."
"Excuses will only get you so far."
"I'll leave you then." I bowed awkwardly. "I—I won't bother you again."
I was five steps away when he called, "Perseus."
I turned.
There was a different light in his eyes, a fiery kind of pride. "You did well, Perseus. Do not misunderstand me. Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true son of the Sea God."
As I walked back through the city of the gods, conversations stopped. The muses paused their concert.
People and satyrs and naiads all turned toward me, their faces filled with respect and gratitude, and as I passed, they knelt, as if I were some kind of hero.
"Which is kind of true."
Fifteen minutes later, still in a trance,
"Yeah... Olympus does that to you."
I was back on the streets of Manhattan.
I caught a taxi to my mom's apartment, rang the door bell, and there she was—my beautiful mother,
Poseidon smiled.
smelling of peppermint and licorice, the weariness and worry evaporating from her face as soon as she saw me.
"Percy! Oh, thank goodness. Oh, my baby."
The Stolls snickered a little.
She crushed the air right out of me. We stood in the hallway as she cried and ran her hands through my hair.
I'll admit it—my eyes were a little misty, too.
"A little?"
I was shaking, I was so relieved to see her.
She told me she'd just appeared at the apartment that morning, scaring Gabe half out of his wits.
Aphrodite grinned like a lunatic.
She didn't remember anything since the Minotaur, and couldn't believe it when Gabe told her I was a wanted criminal, traveling across the country, blowing up national monuments. She'd been going out of her mind with worry all day because she hadn't heard the news. Gabe had forced her to go into work, saying she had a month's salary to make up and she'd better get started.
Hephaestus and Ares had to restrain Aphrodite.
I swallowed back my anger and told her my own story. I tried to make it sound less scary than it had been, but that wasn't easy. I was just getting to the fight with Ares when Gabe's voice interrupted from the living room. "Hey, Sally! That meatloaf done yet or what?"
A growl came from Aphrodite's throat.
She closed her eyes. "He isn't going to be happy to see you, Percy. The store got half a million phone calls today from Los Angeles ... something about free appliances."
The demigods cracked a smile.
"Oh, yeah. About that..."
She managed a weak smile. "Just don't make him angrier, all right? Come on."
In the month I'd been gone, the apartment had turned into Gabeland. Garbage was ankle deep on the carpet. The sofa had been reupholstered in beer cans. Dirty socks and underwear hung off the lampshades.
Everyone wrinkled their noses.
Gabe and three of his big goony friends were playing poker at the table.
When Gabe saw me, his cigar dropped out of his mouth. His face got redder than lava. "You got nerve coming here, you little punk. I thought the police—"
"He's not a fugitive after all," my mom interjected. "Isn't that wonderful, Gabe?"
Gabe looked back and forth between us. He didn't seem to think my homecoming was so wonderful.
"Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally," he growled.
Apollo and Hermes had to help Hephaestus and Ares but all four of them wanted to release her and watch Aphrodite tear Gabe to shreads. Finger nails could be very lethal.
"Get me the phone. I'll call the cops."
Poseidon's hand tightened around his trident.
"Gabe, no!"
He raised his eyebrows. "Did you just say 'no'? You think I'm gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against him for ruining my Camaro."
"But—"
He raised his hand, and my mother flinched.
Everyone gasped. For a moment they all just stared at the book and then Apollo, Hermes, Ares, and Hephaestus released Aphrodite. Her entire face was red and in an instant she looked ready to knock out someone in a ring. Poseidon was dressed similar also.
Before anyone could do anything, they both flashed out.
"Well," Zeus cleared his throat. "They'll probably be gone all day. Let's continue reading. We'll fill them in tomorrow or tonight."
For the first time, I realized something. Gabe had hit my mother.
I didn't know when, or how much. But I was sure he'd done it. Maybe it had been going on for years, when I wasn't around.
A balloon of anger started expanding in my chest. I came toward Gabe, instinctively taking my pen out of my pocket.
Everyone frowned. Percy wouldn't be able to hurt Gabe.
He just laughed. "What, punk? You gonna write on me? You touch me, and you are going to jail forever, you understand?"
"Hey, Gabe," his friend Eddie interrupted. "He's just a kid."
Gabe looked at him resentfully and mimicked in a falsetto voice: "Just a kid."
His other friends laughed like idiots.
"Reminds me of one of those dodge city or mean girls scenes." Apollo muttered. "You know, when the group of girls come up to the victim and whatever the leader says or does, they copy."
Everyone frowned.
"Except," Thalia stated. "This is with boys and one of them can drown the others in a heartbeat."
"I'll be nice to you, punk." Gabe showed me his tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll give you five minutes to get your stuff and clear out. After that, I call the police."
"Gabe!" my mother pleaded.
"He ran away," Gabe told her. "Let him stay gone."
I was itching to uncap Riptide, but even if I did, the blade wouldn't hurt humans. And Gabe, by the loosest definition, was human.
"Sadly."
My mother took my arm. "Please, Percy. Come on. We'll go to your room."
I let her pull me away, my hands still trembling with rage.
"And there goes protective Percy." Nico said. He stood up and looked off into the distance for a second or two. Then he turned to Apollo with an irritated look on his face. "Apollo!"
"Oh, right!" Apollo snapped his fingers and suddenly, Nico was dressed in a sailor's uniform.
Nico continued. "Protective Percy. Always there for the woman in his life. The one I call aqua dude despite what Thalia says."
Thalia rolled her eyes and pulled Nico back to his seat.
My room had been completely filled with Gabe's junk. There were stacks of used car batteries, a rotting bouquet of sympathy flowers with a card from somebody who'd seen his Barbara Walters interview.
"Gabe is just upset, honey," my mother told me. "I'll talk to him later. I'm sure it will work out."
"Mom, it'll never work out. Not as long as Gabe's here."
She wrung her hands nervously. "I can ... I'll take you to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there's another boarding school—"
"Mom."
She lowered her eyes. "I'm trying, Percy. I just... I need some time."
A package appeared on my bed. At least, I could've sworn it hadn't been there a moment before.
It was a battered cardboard box about the right size to fit a basketball. The address on the mailing slip was in my own handwriting:
The Gods
MountOlympus
600th Floor,
EmpireState Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
...
"OH!"
Over the top in black marker, in a man's clear, bold print, was the address of our apartment, and the words: RETURN TO SENDER.
Suddenly I understood what Poseidon had told me on Olympus.
A package. A decision.
Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true son of the Sea God.
"Which means," Athena sighed. "That he'll be completely rash about this."
I looked at my mother. "Mom, do you want Gabe gone?"
"YES! Say yes!"
"Percy, it isn't that simple. I—"
"Mom, just tell me. That jerk has been hitting you. Do you want him gone or not?"
She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly. "Yes, Percy. I do. And I'm trying to get up my courage to tell him. But you can't do this for me. You can't solve my problems."
I looked at the box.
"Yes he can."
I could solve her problem. I wanted to slice that package open, plop it on the poker table, and take out what was inside. I could start my very own statue garden, right there in the living room.
"I'd pay money to see that." Katie said.
That's what a Greek hero would do in the stories, I thought. That's what Gabe deserves.
"Yes."
But a hero's story always ended in tragedy. Poseidon had told me that.
I remembered the Underworld. I thought about Gabe's spirit drifting forever in the Fields of Asphodel, or condemned to some hideous torture behind the barbed wire of the Fields of Punishment—an eternal poker game, sitting up to his waist in boiling oil listening to opera music. Did I have the right to send someone there? Even Gabe?
"Very descriptive for a son of Poseidon." Hades contemplated. "But yes, he can."
A month ago, I wouldn't have hesitated. Now ...
"I can do it," I told my mom. "One look inside this box, and he'll never bother you again."
She glanced at the package, and seemed to understand immediately. "No, Percy," she said, stepping away. "You can't."
"Poseidon called you a queen," I told her. "He said he hadn't met a woman like you in a thousand years."
Her cheeks flushed. "Percy—"
"You deserve better than this, Mom.
"Yup."
You should go to college, get your degree. You can write your novel, meet a nice guy maybe, live in a nice house. You don't need to protect me anymore by staying with Gabe. Let me get rid of him."
She wiped a tear off her cheek. "You sound so much like your father," she said. "He offered to stop the tide for me once. He offered to build me a palace at the bottom of the sea.
The goddesses smiled.
He thought he could solve all my problems with a wave of his hand."
"He can."
"What's wrong with that?"
Her multicolored eyes seemed to search inside me. "I think you know, Percy. I think you're enough like me to understand. If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. I can't let a god take care of me ... or my son.
"Well," Jason said. "When she's old she'll have to let him."
I have to ... find the courage on my own. Your quest has reminded me of that."
We listened to the sound of poker chips and swearing, ESPN from the living room television.
"I'll leave the box," I said. "If he threatens you …"
She looked pale, but she nodded. "Where will you go, Percy?"
"Half-Blood Hill."
"For the summer ... or forever?"
"I guess that depends."
We locked eyes, and I sensed that we had an agreement. We would see how things stood at the end of the summer.
She kissed my forehead. "You'll be a hero, Percy. You'll be the greatest of all."
Clarisse shrugged. "I wouldn't say the greatest..."
Several people rolled their eyes at her.
I took one last look around my bedroom. I had a feeling I'd never see it again. Then I walked with my mother to the front door.
"Leaving so soon, punk?" Gabe called after me. "Good riddance."
I had one last twinge of doubt. How could I turn down the perfect chance to take revenge on him?
"i don't know." Hermes said.
I was leaving here without saving my mother.
"Hey, Sally," he yelled. "What about that meat loaf, huh?"
A steely look of anger flared in my mother's eyes, and I thought, just maybe, I was leaving her in good hands after all. Her own.
"The meat loaf is coming right up, dear," she told Gabe. "Meat loaf surprise."
Now the rest of the deities contemplated joining Aphrodite and Poseidon.
She looked at me, and winked.
"Yes!"
The last thing I saw as the door swung closed was my mother staring at Gabe, as if she were contemplating how he would look as a garden statue.
Everyone grinned at each other knowingly.
"Should we get Aphrodite and Poseidon?" Piper asked.
Then simultaneously everyone said, "No."
Sorry for the long wait. Only three more chapters left.
Erudite19