p id="docs-internal-guid-0c824c03-7fff-b50c-36ff-2690ca98b44a" dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, guys," I said. "I suppose we should ... knock?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The room inside looked just like in my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied. He was the third god I'd met, but the first who really struck me as godlike./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I immediately felt like he should be giving the orders. He knew more than I did. He should be my master. Then I told myself to snap out of it./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades's aura was affecting me, just as Ares's had. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures I'd seen of Adolph Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You are brave to come here, Sons of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Numbness crept into my joints, tempting me to lie down and just take a little nap at Hades's feet. Curl up here and sleep forever./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I fought the feeling and stepped forward. I knew what I had to say. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades's underwear?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I swallowed. This was going about as well as I'd feared./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. I wished Queen Persephone were here. I recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded me in the back./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Lord Hades," I said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be ... bad." "Really bad," Jordan added helpfully./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Return Zeus's master bolt to me," I said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?" I glanced back at my friends. They looked as confused as I was./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Um ... Uncle," I said. "You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I wanted to say, Well, these guys don't look like peace activists. But I thought that might be a dangerous answer./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You are the Lord of the Dead," I said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well..."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I opened my mouth to respond, but Hades was on a roll now./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But you took Zeus's master bolt."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goalpost. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""His plan?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, You took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But ..." Annabeth spoke. I could tell her mind was going a million miles an hour. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Do not play innocent with me, girl. You and the brother have been helping this hero-coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt-to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No!" I said. "Poseidon didn't-I didn't-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You didn't try to stop us? But-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson-your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"At that point, I probably should have been terrified. The strange thing was, I felt offended. Nothing gets me angrier than being accused of something I didn't do. I've had a lot of experience with that./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're as bad as Zeus," I said. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?" "Of course," Hades said./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And the other monsters?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades curled his lip. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you-I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my king-dom so easily?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Easily?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Return my property!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But I don't have your helm. I came for the master bolt."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could you threaten me!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But I didn't!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Open your pack, then."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A horrible feeling struck me. The weight in my back-pack, like a bowling ball. It couldn't be.../span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I slung it off my shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Percy," Annabeth said. "How-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I-I don't know. I don't understand."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now ... my helm. Where is it?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I was speechless. I had no helm. I had no idea how the master bolt had gotten into my backpack. I wanted to think Hades was pulling some kind of trick. Hades was the bad guy. But suddenly the world turned sideways. I realized I'd been played with. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had been set at each other's throats by someone else. The master bolt had been in the backpack, and I'd gotten the backpack from .../span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Lord Hades, wait," I said. "This is all a mistake." "A mistake?" Hades roared./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne. The one with Mrs. Dodds's face grinned at me eagerly and flicked her whip./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come-I know the real reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades tossed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of me, and there was my mother, frozen in a shower of gold, just as she was at the moment when the Minotaur began to squeeze her to death./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I couldn't speak. I reached out to touch her, but the light was as hot as a bonfire./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I thought about the pearls in my pocket. Maybe they could get me out of this. If I could just get my mom free .../span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ah, the pearls," Hades said, and my blood froze. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"My hand moved against my will and brought out the pearls./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Only three," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And who will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I looked at Annabeth and Jordan. Their faces were grim. "We were tricked," I told them. "Set up."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit-" "I don't know yet," I said. "But I intend to ask."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Decide, boy!" Hades yelled./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Percy." Jordan put his hand on my shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt," "I know that."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Leave me here," he said. "Use the third pearl on mom."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm a champion of Hecate," Jordan said. "Maybe he'll listen to me one on one and I can explain what happened. It's the best way."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You two go , you have to protect Percy. Get your mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No way," Jordan said. "I'm staying behind." "Think again, wizard boy," Annabeth said./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Stop it, both of you!" I felt like my heart was being ripped in two. They had both been with me through so much. Jordan is my literal brother who's been protecting and loving me since I was born, and Annabeth saved us from Cerberus; we'd survived Hephaestus's Waterland ride, the St. Louis Arch, the Lotus Casino. I had spent thousands of miles worried that I'd be betrayed by a friend, but she would never do that. They both had done nothing but save me, over and over, and now they wanted to sacrifice their lives for mom./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I know what to do," I said. "Take these."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I handed them each a pearl./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Annabeth said, "But, Percy ..."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I turned and faced my mother. I desperately wanted to sacrifice myself and use the last pearl on her, but I knew what she would say. She would never allow it. I had to get the bolt back to Olympus and tell Zeus the truth. I had to stop the war. She would never forgive me if I saved her instead. I thought about the prophecy made at Half-Blood Hill, what seemed like a million years ago. You will fail to save what matters most in the end./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm sorry," I told her. "I'll be back. I'll find a way."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The smug look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling ... ?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'll find your helm, Uncle," I told him. "I'll return it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Do not defy me-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Percy Jackson, you will not-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I shouted, "Now, guys!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We smashed the pearls at our feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades yelled, "Destroy them!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The army of skeletons rushed forward, swords out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into as the skeletons opened fire, the pearl fragments at my feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. I was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Annabeth and Jordan were right behind me. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as we floated up. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook and I knew it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We were racing right toward the stalactites, which I figured would pop our bubbles and skewer us./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't think you do!" I shouted back./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and ... Darkness. Were we dead?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"No, I could still feel the racing sensation. We were going up, right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. That was the power of the pearls, I realized-What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"For a few moments, I couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of my sphere, then my pearl broke through on the ocean floor. The two other milky spheres, Annabeth and Jordan, kept pace with me as we soared upward through the water. And-ker-blam!/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The room inside looked just like in my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied. He was the third god I'd met, but the first who really struck me as godlike./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I immediately felt like he should be giving the orders. He knew more than I did. He should be my master. Then I told myself to snap out of it./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades's aura was affecting me, just as Ares's had. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures I'd seen of Adolph Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You are brave to come here, Sons of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Numbness crept into my joints, tempting me to lie down and just take a little nap at Hades's feet. Curl up here and sleep forever./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I fought the feeling and stepped forward. I knew what I had to say. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades's underwear?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I swallowed. This was going about as well as I'd feared./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. I wished Queen Persephone were here. I recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded me in the back./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Lord Hades," I said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be ... bad." "Really bad," Jordan added helpfully./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Return Zeus's master bolt to me," I said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?" I glanced back at my friends. They looked as confused as I was./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Um ... Uncle," I said. "You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I wanted to say, Well, these guys don't look like peace activists. But I thought that might be a dangerous answer./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You are the Lord of the Dead," I said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well..."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I opened my mouth to respond, but Hades was on a roll now./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But you took Zeus's master bolt."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goalpost. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""His plan?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, You took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But ..." Annabeth spoke. I could tell her mind was going a million miles an hour. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Do not play innocent with me, girl. You and the brother have been helping this hero-coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt-to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No!" I said. "Poseidon didn't-I didn't-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You didn't try to stop us? But-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson-your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"At that point, I probably should have been terrified. The strange thing was, I felt offended. Nothing gets me angrier than being accused of something I didn't do. I've had a lot of experience with that./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're as bad as Zeus," I said. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?" "Of course," Hades said./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And the other monsters?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades curled his lip. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you-I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my king-dom so easily?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Easily?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Return my property!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But I don't have your helm. I came for the master bolt."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could you threaten me!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But I didn't!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Open your pack, then."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A horrible feeling struck me. The weight in my back-pack, like a bowling ball. It couldn't be.../span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I slung it off my shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Percy," Annabeth said. "How-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I-I don't know. I don't understand."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now ... my helm. Where is it?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I was speechless. I had no helm. I had no idea how the master bolt had gotten into my backpack. I wanted to think Hades was pulling some kind of trick. Hades was the bad guy. But suddenly the world turned sideways. I realized I'd been played with. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had been set at each other's throats by someone else. The master bolt had been in the backpack, and I'd gotten the backpack from .../span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Lord Hades, wait," I said. "This is all a mistake." "A mistake?" Hades roared./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne. The one with Mrs. Dodds's face grinned at me eagerly and flicked her whip./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come-I know the real reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades tossed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of me, and there was my mother, frozen in a shower of gold, just as she was at the moment when the Minotaur began to squeeze her to death./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I couldn't speak. I reached out to touch her, but the light was as hot as a bonfire./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I thought about the pearls in my pocket. Maybe they could get me out of this. If I could just get my mom free .../span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ah, the pearls," Hades said, and my blood froze. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"My hand moved against my will and brought out the pearls./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Only three," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And who will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I looked at Annabeth and Jordan. Their faces were grim. "We were tricked," I told them. "Set up."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit-" "I don't know yet," I said. "But I intend to ask."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Decide, boy!" Hades yelled./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Percy." Jordan put his hand on my shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt," "I know that."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Leave me here," he said. "Use the third pearl on mom."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm a champion of Hecate," Jordan said. "Maybe he'll listen to me one on one and I can explain what happened. It's the best way."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You two go , you have to protect Percy. Get your mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No way," Jordan said. "I'm staying behind." "Think again, wizard boy," Annabeth said./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Stop it, both of you!" I felt like my heart was being ripped in two. They had both been with me through so much. Jordan is my literal brother who's been protecting and loving me since I was born, and Annabeth saved us from Cerberus; we'd survived Hephaestus's Waterland ride, the St. Louis Arch, the Lotus Casino. I had spent thousands of miles worried that I'd be betrayed by a friend, but she would never do that. They both had done nothing but save me, over and over, and now they wanted to sacrifice their lives for mom./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I know what to do," I said. "Take these."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I handed them each a pearl./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Annabeth said, "But, Percy ..."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I turned and faced my mother. I desperately wanted to sacrifice myself and use the last pearl on her, but I knew what she would say. She would never allow it. I had to get the bolt back to Olympus and tell Zeus the truth. I had to stop the war. She would never forgive me if I saved her instead. I thought about the prophecy made at Half-Blood Hill, what seemed like a million years ago. You will fail to save what matters most in the end./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm sorry," I told her. "I'll be back. I'll find a way."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The smug look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling ... ?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'll find your helm, Uncle," I told him. "I'll return it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Do not defy me-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Percy Jackson, you will not-"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I shouted, "Now, guys!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We smashed the pearls at our feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hades yelled, "Destroy them!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The army of skeletons rushed forward, swords out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into as the skeletons opened fire, the pearl fragments at my feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. I was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Annabeth and Jordan were right behind me. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as we floated up. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook and I knew it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We were racing right toward the stalactites, which I figured would pop our bubbles and skewer us./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't think you do!" I shouted back./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and ... Darkness. Were we dead?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"No, I could still feel the racing sensation. We were going up, right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. That was the power of the pearls, I realized-What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"For a few moments, I couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of my sphere, then my pearl broke through on the ocean floor. The two other milky spheres, Annabeth and Jordan, kept pace with me as we soared upward through the water. And-ker-blam!/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /span/p