Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. Okay, who thinks I should do alternating POVs for BotL and TLO? If majority rules that way by the end of this book, then Luke and Ana will both tell the last two parts of the series.

Chapter Fourteen

Meeting the Santa of the Sea

"Tell me when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to us so we couldn't fall, but Thalia still clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world, and she was entrusted with its' protection.

"Everything's fine," I promised her, calling on all of my not-inconsiderable ability to lie to make myself sound believable.

"Are… are we very high?"

I looked down. Below us, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. I stretched out my foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks.

"Nah," I said, as casually as I could. "Not that high." On the bright side, I had my winged shoes on. And automatons couldn't get tired, right? Please don't let them drop us, I prayed to the gods in general. Ana would never let me live it down (so to speak).

"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoe yelled. She and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, 'Frisco!" our angel called. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man," the other angel laughed. "I am so there!"

"You guys have visited San Francisco?" I asked, bemused.

"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And—"

"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man." Oh, gods. That gave me seriously disturbing images. I so didn't want to know. Ever.

"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, I swear Hank did. "Back to flying."

We sped up, so I knew that the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then we were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.

Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoe got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as we flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store—and we passed dozens of them—she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour. I entertained myself with having a silent debate with Mental Ana over which band was better, Nickelback or Queen. Ana was Nickelback all the way, but I put up a good defence for Queen.

Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying.

"How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway?" she asked after a while. "You said that they cornered you."

I told her about the mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who was one of the few mortals to be able to see right through the Mist. I'd been too distracted to understand at the time, but I realized that she was one of them now. Like my mother had been, only she'd gone mad from the strain of seeing the true world.

Thalia nodded. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal." She said that as if she'd given it a lot of thought. Probably had. I certainly a lot thought about what a wonderful life it must be, to have things like dating and SATs as your worst problems. But still, if I wasn't a half-blood, I wouldn't have my siblings, my friends. Ana. A conundrum.

"Where you guys want to land?" Hank asked, waking me up from a much-needed nap I had unintentionally fallen into.

I looked down. "Whoa," I muttered at the sight.

I'd seen San Francisco in pictures before, but never in real life. I'd learned early on that it was monster central when I was on the streets, so I'd avoided pretty much the entire East Coast as much as I could.

But I had to admit, it was probably the most beautiful city I'd ever seen: a bit like a smaller, cleaner Manhattan, if Manhattan had been surrounded by green hills and fog. There was a huge bay and ships, islands and sailboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge sticking up out of the fog.

"Buy a postcard and send it home," Mental Ana suggested. "Greetings from Frisco. Haven't Died Yet. Wish You Were Here." Good one, I thought back, smirking. Mental Ana was as hilariously sarcastic as Real Ana.

"There," Zoe suggested. "By the Embarcadero Building."

"Good thinking," Chuck said, nodding in approval. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons."

We all looked at him blankly.

"Kidding," he huffed. "Sheesh, can't statues have a sense of humour anymore?"

As it turned out, there wasn't much need to blend in. It was early morning and not many people were around. We freaked out a homeless guy on the ferry dock when we landed. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars.

Aliens'd be a helluva easier to deal with then my reality.

We said our good-byes to the angels, who flew off to party with their statue friends. That's when I realized I had no idea what we were going to do next.

We'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was here somewhere. Ana too, I hoped. But I had no idea how to find them, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. Nor did I have any clue what monster Artemis had been hunting. It was supposed to find us on the quest. It was supposed to "show the trail," but it never had. Now we were stuck on the ferry dock with not much money, no friends, and no luck.

After a brief discussion, we agreed that we needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was.

"But how?" I wondered, running a hand through my hair.

"Nereus," Grover said.

I looked at him. "What?"

"Isn't that what Apollo told you to do? Find Nereus?"

I nodded. I'd completely forgotten my last conversation with the sun god. (Partially on purpose. I tried to block meeting any Olympians from my mind, for the sake of my fragile sanity.)

The old man of the sea," I remembered. "I'm supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows. But how do I find him?"

Zoe made a face. "Old Nereus, eh?"

"I don't recognize the name," I admitted. "Think I've heard of him, but I can't remember the details." There were so many monsters and myths. Too many to keep track of them all.

"Zoe, you know him?" Thalia asked.

"My mother was a sea goddess," Zoe sniffed. "Yes, I know him. Unfortunately, he is never very hard to find. Just follow the smell."

"What do you mean?" I asked warily.

"Come," she replied without enthusiasm. "I will show thee."

I knew I was in trouble the moment that we stopped at the Goodwill drop box. Five minutes later, Zoe had me outfitted in a ragged flannel shirt and jeans three sizes too big, bright red sneakers, and a floppy rainbow hat.

"Oh, yeah," Grover snickered, trying not to bust out laughing, "you look completely inconspicuous now."

Zoe nodded with satisfaction. "A typical male vagrant."

"Thanks a lot," I grumbled. "Why am I doing this again?"

"I told thee. To blend in."

"For Ana," Grover added. I sighed and gave in. I would do anything for Ana.

She led the way back down to the waterfront. After a long time spent searching the docks, Zoe finally stopped in her tracks. She pointed down a pier where a bunch of homeless guys were huddled together in blankets, waiting for the soup kitchen to open for lunch.

"He will be down there somewhere," Zoe declared. "He never travels very far from the water. He likes to sun himself during the day."

"How do I know which one is him?"

"Sneak up," she said. "Act homeless. You will know him. He will smell… different."

"Great." I didn't want to ask for particulars. "And once I find him?"

"Grab him," she instructed me. "And hold on. He will try anything to get rid of thee. Whatever he does, do not let go. Force him to tell thee about the monster."

"We've got your back," Thalia inserted. She picked something off the back of my shirt—a big clump of fuzz that came from who-knows-where. "Eww. On second thought… I don't want your back. But we'll be rooting for you."

Grover gave me a big thumbs-up.

I grumbled how nice it was to have super-powerful friends. Then I headed toward the dock. Time to get this over with. It's all for Ana, I reminded myself as I pulled my hat down and stumbled like I was about to pass out, which wasn't hard considering how tired I was, nap or no nap. I passed our homeless friend from the Embarcadero, who was still trying to warn the other guys about the metal angels from Mars.

He didn't smell good, but he didn't smell… different. I kept walking.

A couple of grimy dudes with plastic grocery bags for hats checked me out as I came close.

"Beat it, kid!" one of them muttered.

I moved away. They smelled pretty bad, but just regular old bad. Nothing unusual.

There was a lady with a bunch of plastic flamingos sticking out of a shopping cart. She glared at me like I was going to steal her birds or something. Granted, she was right to be suspicious, as I had just snatched a pack of cigarettes and a lighter off one of the guys. I lit one as I continued to wander around the pier.

At the end of the pier, a guy who looked about a million years old was passed out in a patch of sunlight. He wore pajamas and a fuzzy bathrobe that probably used to be white. He was fat, with a white beard that had turned yellow, kind of like Santa Claus, if Santa had been rolled out of bed and dragged through a landfill.

And his smell?

As I got closer, I froze. He smelled bad, all right—but ocean bad. Like hot seaweed and dead fish and brine. Completely unlike Ana, who smelled of salt water, narcissus and water lilies. She was the embodiment of the good side of the sea, and this guy was her complete opposite, the ocean's ugly side.

I tried not to gag as I sat down near him like I was tired. Santa opened one eye suspiciously. I could feel him staring at me, but I didn't look. I muttered something about stupid school and stupid parents, figuring that might sound reasonable. That was the type of drama that made mortal teenagers run away, wasn't it? Not insane mothers spewing green smoke, gripping their shoulders and screaming about their kids having some grim fate.

He went back to sleep.

I tensed. I knew this was going to look strange. I didn't know how the other homeless people would react. But I jumped the man anyway.

"Ahhhhh!" he screamed. I meant to grab him, but he seemed to grab me instead. It was as if he had never been asleep at all. He certainly didn't act like a weak old man. He had a grip like steel. "Help me!" he screamed as he tried to squeeze me to death. I put up a fight though, punching and kicking, swearing like a sailor.

"That's a crime!" one of the other homeless guys yelled. "Kid rolling an old man like that!"

I rolled, all right—straight down the pier until my head slammed into a post. I was dazed for a second, and Nereus' grip slackened. He was making a break for it. Before he could, I regained my senses and tackled him from behind.

"I don't have any money!" He tried to get up and run, but I locked my arms around his chest. His rotten fish smell was awful, but I held on.

"I don't want money," I snapped as he continued to fight against me. "I'm a half-blood! I want information."

That just made him struggle harder. "Heroes! Why do you always pick on me?"

"Because you know everything!"

He growled and tried to shake me off his back. It was like holding on to a roller coaster. He thrashed around, making it impossible for me to keep on my feet, but I gritted my teeth and squeezed tighter. We staggered toward the edge of the pier and I got an idea.

"Maia!" I yelled, and we went shooting up into the air, while I wrapped an arm around his throat. The mortals screamed and ran off in fear while my friends ran down the steps from the pier.

"You got him!" Zoe exclaimed.

"You don't have to sound so amazed," I huffed. Nereus had finally given up fighting now that we were in the air, but he had slumped and become deadweight in my arms, causing me to pant breathlessly as I tried to keep from dropping him.

Nereus moaned. "Oh, wonderful. An audience for my humiliation! The normal deal, I suppose? You'll let me go if I answer your question?"

"I've got more than one question," I answered.

"Only one question per capture! That's the rule."

I looked at my friends.

This wasn't good. I needed to find Artemis, and I needed to figure out what the doomsday creature was. I also needed to know if Ana was still alive, and how to rescue her. How could I ask that all in one question?

A voice inside me was screaming 'Ask about Ana!' That's what I cared about most.

But then I imagined what she would say if she ever found out.

"The monster, Luke," Mental Ana whispered to me. "It's the most important thing right now, and you know it. More than me or Artemis."

Mental Ana was right. I sighed in resignation. "All right, Nereus. Tell me where to find this terrible monster that could bring an end to the gods. The one Artemis was hunting."

The Old Man of the Sea smiled, showing off his mossy green teeth.

"Oh, that's too easy," he replied evilly. "He's right there."

Nereus pointed to the water below us.

"Where?" I demanded.

"The deal is complete!" Nereus gloated. With a pop, he turned into a goldfish and fell into the sea.

"You tricked me!" I yelled.

"Wait." Thalia's eyes widened. "What is that?"

"MOOOOOOOO!"

I looked down, and there was my friend the cow serpent, swimming next to the dock. She mooed again and gave me the sad brown eyes.

"Ah, Bessie," I sighed. "Not now."

Grover gasped. "He says his name isn't Bessie."

"You can understand her… er, him?"

Grover nodded. "It's a very old form of animal speech. But he says that his name is the Ophiotaurus."

"Serpent bull in Greek," Thalia noted.

"Very descriptive," I muttered. "But why's s-he following me?"

"Moooooooo!"

"He says that Luke is linked to his protector," Grover announced.

"And he's running from the bad people. He says they are close."

"Wait," Zoe said, looking at me. "You know this cow?"

I was feeling impatient, but I explained it to them anyway.

Thalia shook her head in disbelief. "And you just forgot to mention this before?"

"He's harmless!" I insisted. "And anyway, what did he mean, linked to his protector? Who's his protector?"

"Moo."

Grover's eyes widened and he swallowed. "Ana is, apparently."

"Shit," Thalia muttered.

"I am a fool," Zoe said suddenly. "I know this story!"

"What story?"

"From the War of the Titans," she said. "My… my father told me this tale, thousands of years ago. This is the beast we are looking for."

"Bessie?" I looked down at the bull serpent. "But… he's too cute. He couldn't destroy the world."

"That is how we were wrong," Zoe said. "We have been anticipating a huge dangerous monster, but the Ophiotaurus does not bring down the gods that way. He must be sacrificed."

"MMMM," Bessie lowed.

"I don't think he likes the S-word," Grover said.

I floated down and patted Bessie on the head, trying to calm him down. He let me scratch his ear, but he was trembling.

"How could anyone hurt him?" I wondered. "He's harmless."

Zoe nodded. "But there is power in killing innocence. Terrible power. The Fates ordained a prophecy eons ago, when this creature was born. They said that whoever killed the Ophiotaurus and sacrificed its' entrails to fire would have the power to destroy the gods."

"MMMMMM!"

"Um," Grover said. "Maybe we could avoid talking about entrails, too."

Thalia stared at the cow serpent with wonder. "The power to destroy the gods… how? I mean, what would happen?"

"No one knows," Zoe said. "The first time, during the Titan war, the Ophiotaurus was in fact slain by a giant ally of the Titans, but thy father, Zeus, sent an eagle to snatch the entrails away before they could be tossed into the fire. It was a close call. Now, after three thousand years, the Ophiotaurus is reborn."

Thalia sat down on the dock. She stretched out her hand. Bessie went right to her. Thalia placed her hand on his head. Bessie shivered.

Thalia's expression worried me. She almost looked… hungry. And when I took into account her fatal flaw of power hunger, I got a sick feeling in my gut.

"We have to protect him," I told her. "If Annabeth and Ethan get their hands on him, they'll-"

"They won't hesitate," Thalia muttered. "The power to overthrow Olympus. That's… that's huge."

"Yes, it is, my dear," said a man's voice in a heavy French accent. "And it is a power you shall unleash."

The Ophiotaurus made a whimpering sound and submerged.

I looked up. We'd been so busy talking, we'd allowed ourselves to be ambushed.

Standing behind us, his two-colour eyes gleaming wickedly, was Doctor Thorn, the manticore himself.

"This is just pairrr-fect," the manticore gloated.

He was wearing a ratty black trench coat over his Westover Hall uniform, which was torn and stained. His military haircut had grown out spiky and greasy. He hadn't shaved recently, so his face was covered in silver stubble. Basically, he didn't look much better than the homeless guys at the pier.

"Long ago, the gods banished me to Persia," the manticore said. "I was forced to scrounge for food on the edges of the world, hiding in forests, devouring insignificant human farmers for my meals. I never got to fight any great heroes. I was not feared and admired in the old stories! But now that will change. The Titans shall honour me, and I shall feast on the flesh of half-bloods!"

On either side of him stood two armed security guys, some of the mortal mercenaries I'd seen in D.C. Two more stood on the next boat dock over, just in case we tried to escape that way. There were tourists all around—walking down the waterfront, shopping at the pier above us—but I knew that wouldn't stop the manticore from acting.

"Where are the skeletons?" I asked the manticore.

He sneered. "I do not need those foolish undead! The General thinks I am worthless? He will change his mind when I defeat you myself!"

I needed time to think. I had to save Bessie. I could grab her out of the sea and fly off, but how far could I get with a five-hundred-pound cow serpent in tow? And what about my friends? Could I seriously leave them to die? No, I couldn't.

"We beat you once before," I pointed out.

"Ha! You could barely fight me with a goddess on your side. And, alas… that goddess is preoccupied at the moment. There will be no help for you now."

Zoe notched an arrow and aimed it straight at the manticore's head. The guards on either side of us raised their guns.

"Wait!" I said. "Zoe, don't!"

The manticore smiled. "The boy is right, Zoe Nightshade. Put away your bow. It would be a shame to kill you before you witnessed Thalia's great victory."

"What are you talking about?" Thalia growled. She had her shield and spear held at the ready.

"Surely it is clear," the manticore said. "This is your moment. This is why Lord Kronos brought you back to life. You will sacrifice the Ophiotaurus. You will bring its entrails to the sacred fire on the mountain. You will gain unlimited power. And for your sixteenth birthday, you will overthrow Olympus."

No one spoke. It made sinister kind of sense. Thalia was only two days away from turning sixteen. She was a child of the Big Three. And here was a choice, a terrible choice that could mean the end of the gods. It was just like the prophecy said. Doomsday was in progress.

Quietly, I wished that Ana was the one making the choice. I loved Thalia, but if I had to choose between putting the world in her or in Ana's hand, I'd chose Ana.

I waited for Thalia to tell the manticore off, but she hesitated. She looked completely stunned. My heart sank.

"You know it is the right choice," the manticore told her. "Your friend Annabeth recognized it. You shall be reunited with him. You shall rule this world together under the auspices of the Titans. Your father abandoned you, Thalia. He cares nothing for you. And now you shall gain power over him. Crush the Olympians underfoot, as they deserve. Call the beast! It will come to you. Use your spear."

"Thalia," I said, "snap out of it!"

She looked at me the same way she had looked at Ana the morning she woke up on Half-Blood Hill, dazed and uncertain. It was almost like she didn't know me, like I haven't been her best friend for years. "I… I don't—"

"Her father saved her, twice," Mental Ana hissed. "Remind her. The gods aren't perfect, but they're better than the Titans. Remind her of that."

"Your father helped you," I repeated. "He sent the metal angels. He turned you into a tree to preserve you. The gods aren't perfect, Thals. But they're damn better the Titans'll ever be. You know that."

Her hand tightened on the shaft of her spear. She looked away, a tortured expression on her face. I recognized it from the thousands of times I'd seen myself wearing it while looking in the mirror, or on Ana's face after her father did something. Or on pretty much everyone in Camp. Nobody could do parent problems like a demigod.

I looked at Grover desperately. Thank the gods, he understood what I needed. He raised his pipes to his mouth and played a quick tune.

The manticore yelled, "Stop him!"

The guards had been targeting Zoe, and before they could figure out that the kid with the pipes was the bigger problem, the wooden planks at their feet sprouted new branches and tangled their legs. Zoe let loose two quick arrows that exploded at their feet in clouds of sulphurous yellow smoke. Fart arrows!

I slapped my hand on Ana's dolphin charm, the shield spiralling out.

The guards started coughing. The manticore shot spines in our direction, but they ricocheted off Ana's shield. Even damaged, it was still a damn good shield.

"Grover," I ordered, "tell Bessie to dive deep and stay down!"

"Moooooo!" Grover translated. I could only hope that Bessie got the message.

"The cow…" Thalia muttered, still in a daze.

"Come on!" I pulled her along as we ran up the stairs to the shopping centre on the pier. We dashed around the corner of the nearest store. I heard the manticore shouting at his minions, "Get them!" Tourists screamed as the guards shot blindly into the air.

We scrambled to the end of the pier. We hid behind a little kiosk filled with souvenir crystals—wind chimes and dream catchers and stuff like that, glittering in the sunlight. There was a water fountain next to us. Down below, a bunch of sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks. The whole of San Francisco Bay spread out before us: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, and the green hills and fog beyond that to the north. A picture-perfect moment, except for the fact that we were about to die and the world was going to end as a result.

"Fly away!" Zoe told me. "Use your shoes. Maybe you can save the Ophiotaurus."

She was right, but I couldn't do it. I wasn't Ana, dedicated to my friends' safety over the world's, but I was loyal. I wouldn't leave them.

"I won't leave you guys," I said, setting my jaw. "We fight together."

"You have to get word to camp!" Grover urged. "At least let them know what's going on!"

Then I noticed the crystals making rainbows in the sunlight. There was a drinking fountain next to me…

"Perfect," Mental Ana sighed.

"Get word to camp," I muttered. "Good idea."

I raised Halcyon and slashed off the top of the water fountain. Water burst out of the busted pipe and sprayed all over us.

Thalia gasped as the water hit her. The fog seemed to clear from her eyes. "Are you crazy?" She shrieked.

But Grover understood. He was already fishing around in his pockets for a coin. He threw a golden drachma into the rainbows created by the mist and yelled, "O goddess, accept my offering!"

The mist rippled.

"Camp Half-Blood!" I said.

And there, shimmering in the Mist right next to us, was the last person I wanted to see: Mr. D, wearing his leopard-skin jogging suit and rummaging through the refrigerator as he grumbled to himself (like always).

He looked up lazily. "Do you mind?"

"Where's Chiron?!" I shouted. What did I ever do to piss off the Fates? If I started to sacrifice to them, would they leave us alone? But, I was never gonna find out the answer to that, 'cause I WAS GONNA DIE! Fucking gods, why was I fighting for them again? Seriously, I couldn't remember.

"How rude." Mr. D took a swig from a jug of grape juice. "Is that how you kids say hello these days?"

"Hello," I amended. "We're about to die! Where's Chiron?"

Mr. D considered that. I wanted to scream at him to hurry up, but I knew that wouldn't work. it would just make him more recalcitrant. Behind us, footsteps and shouting—the manticore's troops were closing in.

"About to die," Mr. D mused. "How exciting. I'm afraid Chiron isn't here. Would you like me to take a message?"

I looked at my friends. "We're dead."

Thalia gripped her spear. She looked like her old angry self again, so that was something. Our enemies would hurt as they died. "Then we'll die fighting."

"How noble," Mr. D said, stifling a yawn. "So what is the problem, exactly?"

I didn't see that it would make any difference, but I told him about the Ophiotaurus anyway.

"Mmm." He studied the contents of the fridge. "So that's it. I see."

"Oh, fuck you!"

"Let's see. I think I'm in the mood for pizza tonight."

I wanted to slash through the rainbow and disconnect it, but I didn't have time. The manticore screamed, "There!" And we were surrounded. Two of the guards stood behind him. The other two appeared on the roofs of the pier shops above us. The manticore threw off his coat and transformed into his true self, his lion claws extended and his spiky tail bristling with poison barbs.

"Excellent," he said. He glanced at the apparition in the mist and snorted. "Alone, without any real help. Wonderful."

"You could ask for help," Mr. D murmured to me, as if this were an amusing thought. "You could say please."

When Punishment freezes over, I thought. There was no way I was going to die begging Mister D, just so he could laugh at us as we died fighting a war to protect his godsdamned throne.

Zoe readied her arrows. Grover lifted his pipes. Thalia raised her shield, and I noticed a tear running down her cheek. Suddenly it occurred to me: this had happened to us before. We had been cornered on Half-Blood Hill. She'd willingly given her life for us back then. But this time, she couldn't save us.

How could I let her hurt like this?

"Do it," Mental Ana urged me. "Your lives are worth more than your pride."

"Please, Mister D," I muttered. "Help us."

Of course, nothing happened.

The manticore grinned. "Spare the daughter of Zeus. She will join us soon enough. Kill the others."

The men raised their guns, and something strange happened. You know how you feel when all the blood rushes to your head, like if you hang upside down and turn right-side up too quickly? There was a rush like that all around me, and a sound like a huge sigh. The sunlight tinged with purple. I smelled grapes and something more sour—wine.

SNAP!

It was the sound of many minds breaking at the same time. The sound of madness. One guard put his pistol between his teeth like it was a bone and ran around on all fours. Two others dropped their guns and started waltzing with each other. The fourth began doing what looked like an Irish clogging dance. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so terrifying.

"No!" screamed the manticore. "I will deal with you myself!"

His tail bristled, but the planks under his paws erupted into grape vines, which immediately began wrapping around the monster's body, sprouting new leaves and clusters of green baby grapes that ripened in seconds as the manticore shrieked, until he was engulfed in a huge mass of vines, leaves, and full clusters of purple grapes. Finally, the grapes stopped shivering, and I had a feeling that somewhere inside there, the manticore was no more.

"Well," said Dionysus, closing his refrigerator. "That was fun."

I stared at him in shock. "You helped us," I muttered. "I can't believe this. Gods."

"Such gratitude," he muttered. "The mortals will come out of it. Too much explaining to do if I made their condition permanent. I do hate having to write reports to Father."

He stared resentfully at Thalia. "I hope you learned your lesson, girl. It isn't easy to resist power, is it?"

Thalia blushed as if she were ashamed. I reached over and panted her should reassuringly. She hadn't given in, and that was the important thing.

"Mr. D," Grover said in amazement. "You… you really saved us."

"Mmm. Don't make me regret it, satyr. Now get going, Luke Castellan. I've bought you a few hours at most."

"The Ophiotaurus," I said. "Can you get it to camp?"

Mister D sniffed. "I do not transport livestock. That's your problem."

"But are we even supposed to go?"

Dionysus looked at Zoe. "Oh, I think the huntress knows. You must enter at sunset today, you know, or all is lost. Now good-bye. My pizza is waiting."

He waved his hand, and his image disappeared in the mist.

All around us, the manticore's minions were still acting completely nuts. One of them had found one of the homeless guys, and they were having a serious conversation about metal angels from Mars. Several other guards were harassing the tourists, making animal noises and trying to steal their shoes.

I looked at Zoe. "What did he mean… 'You know where to go'?" Even as I asked, I guessed the answer.

Her face was the colour of the fog. She pointed across the bay, past the Golden Gate. In the distance, a single mountain rose up above the cloud layer.

"The garden of my sisters," she said. "I must go home."