I was woken up by Percy jabbing me in the ribs, "we're on Mount Tam," I yawned and stretched, we had turned off the wide roads of San Francisco and were instead on narrow country roads. "Why does everything smell like cough drops?" Percy asked as we got closer to the top.
"Eucalyptus," Zoë said pointing to the huge trees planted at the side of the road.
"The stuff koala bears eat?"
"And monsters, they love chewing the leaves, especially dragons."
"Dragons chew eucalyptus leaves?" Percy asked in surprise.
"Believe me," Zoë said, "if you had dragon breath, you would chew eucalyptus too," that shut Percy up, well for a while at least.
"So, that's the mountain of despair?"
"Yes," Zoë said sounding more than a little fed up with Percy.
"Why's it called that?"
Zoë was silent for almost two minutes before answering, "after the war between the Titans and the Gods, many Titans were punished and imprisoned. Kronos was sliced to pieces and thrown into Tartarus, Kronos' right hand man, the general of his forces, was imprisoned up there, just beyond the Garden of the Hesperides."
"The General," Percy said quietly, I looked at the summit, it looked like slow moving tornado was trapped up there as the clouds swirled around the peak. "What's going on up there? A storm?" Zoë did not answer, but from the pained expression on her face I guessed she knew exactly what it was.
"We have to concentrate," Thalia said, "the Mist is really strong up here."
"The magical kind or the mortal kind?" Percy asked.
"Both," I said as I concentrated on the background magic, "and magic is acting strangely, I don't like this."
"Look!" Percy shouted in horror.
"What?" Thalia asked ready-ing her spear.
"A big white ship, docked near the beach, it looked like a cruise ship."
"Luke's here," I said, "the Mist would have turned away any mortal captain before he got that close," the hair on the back of my neck went up.
"Stop the car, NOW!" Thalia shouted, Zoë slammed on the brakes, sending us spinning, we stopped just before the cliff. Thalia tackled Zoë out the car whilst I pushed out Percy, I barely got a shield up before, with a great flash of light and a massive boom that could probably be heard back in San Francisco, the little yellow convertible exploded as it was hit by lightening.
"You saved my life," Percy said to me as he swallowed nervously.
"I noticed," I said.
"One shall perish by a parent's hand," Thalia muttered, "curse him, he would destroy me? Me?"
"That might not have been your Dad," I said, "lots of wizards can summon lightning, I can, Tala can and we know she works for Kronos."
"No," Thalia said angrily, shaking her head, "that's not it."
"Shush," Zoë hushed us, "you'll wake Ladon."
"Are we're there yet?" Percy asked nervously.
"Very close, follow me," she slunk off into fog, she stepped into the Mist and was gone, I followed, and a minute later so did Percy and Thalia who were having a whispered conversation, when the Mist cleared we were still on the mountain, but the road was dirt and the grass was thicker and longer, the sunset reflected as a red gash on the ocean's surface. The top of the mountain was closer now, swirling with clouds and so much power that it almost physically hurt.
The road led to the top of the mountain, it led us straight through a garden full of silvery grass, the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen, and shadows that formed shapes like animals and flowers, but disappeared when you looked at them. In the middle was the centre piece, surrounded by polished black granite stepping stones was an apple tree taller than the Whomping Willow. The tree was heaving under the golden apples that hung from its branches, by golden, I mean polished gold with each apple being worth a fortune, we had arrived in the Garden of Twilight.
"The apples of immortality," Thalia said, "Hera's wedding gift from Zeus," the apples looked delicious, I would have tried to eat one, if it were not for the massive dragon curled around the trunk. By dragon I mean a seriously massive dragon. Its emerald green body was as thick as I was tall, it had at least a hundred python heads, all curled together like spaghetti as it slept on the grass, all eyes closed, and venom dripping from its mouths. The shadows moved as a beautiful, eerie singing in a dead language started, the shadows coalesced into the shapes of four figures and then shimmered, revealing four girls. They looked about the same age as Zoë did, their skin was the colour of caramel, and loose silky black hair flowed over their plain white chitons, and they were just as beautiful as Zoë, they were definitely all sisters.
"Sisters," Zoë said emotionlessly.
"We do not see any sister," one girl said coldly, "we see a Hunter and three Halfbloods, all of whom shall soon die."
"You've got it wrong," Percy said stepping forward, "nobody is going to die."
The four girls studied us in silence, they had eerie pure black eyes, "Percy Jackson," one said.
"Yes," another said, "I do not see why he is a threat."
"Hello, we're still here," I said.
All four turned to me, "Janet Harker," the third said.
"Pretty little thing, but not a threat," the fourth said dismissively.
"Every rose has its thorns," I said sweetly.
"They fear thee," the first said to Percy, "they are unhappy that this one has not killed thee yet," she pointed at Thalia.
'Antique English runs in the family it seems,' I thought to myself.
"Tempting sometimes," Thalia admitted, "but no thanks, he's my friend."
"There are no friends here daughter of Zeus, only enemies, go back."
"Not without Annabeth," Thalia said.
"And Artemis," Zoë said angrily, "we must approach the mountain."
"You know he will kill thee," one said sounding almost sad, "you are no match for him."
"Artemis must be freed," Zoë insisted, "let us pass."
One girl shook her head, "you have no rights here any more, we only have to raise our voices and Ladon will wake."
"He will not hurt me," Zoë said.
"No?" The girl sounded like she was about to laugh, "and what about thy so-called friends?"
Then Zoë did something stupid, like Percy levels of stupid, she shouted. "Ladon, wake!"
Ladon stirred like a mountain of jewels was moving, "are you mad?" Shouted the lead girl as they scattered into shadows.
"You never had any courage sisters," Zoë said, "that is thy problem."
Ladon was awake now, a hundred heads wiped around to glare at us, a hundred tongues tasted the air, Zoë stepped forward arms raised, "Zoë don't!" Thalia shouted, "you're not a Hesperide any more, he'll kill you."
"Ladon is trained to protect the tree," Zoë said nervously, "skirt round the edges of the garden, go up the mountain, as long as I am a bigger threat, he should ignore thee."
"Should?" Percy said, "not exactly reassuring."
"It is the only way," she said, "even the four of us together cannot fight him."
Ladon opened his mouths and one hundred heads hissed at us, it sent shivers down my spine, then I smelt his breath. Dragon morning breath is a horrible smell. It was acidic. It made my eyes water. My head hurt. My lungs felt like they were burning. It smelt worse than the ogre in first year, or the basilisk's lair in second year, it was horrifying. Then mixed with it was the sickly smell of eucalyptus, it did nothing to mask the smell, in fact it seemed to actually amplified it by providing a reference point to compare it too. Thalia went left, Percy and I went right. Zoë was trying to talk to the dragon, but it did not work. I watched him snap at her, she dodged endless sets of gnashing teeth, Percy stepped forward, I stopped him.
"Allow me," I said, I grabbed a hold of the air and used it to catapult Zoë over Ladon, who snapped as she went over, barely missing her, she landed in a roll next to us. Thalia waved Aegis in Ladon's face, he hissed and pulled away, we ran up the mountain, Ladon did not pursue. The Hesperides carried on their singing, but it was no longer as beautiful, more like a funeral march.