Chapter 19

A Monster Gives Me Wood

Once you were looking for them, it was amazing how many dens there really were. My torch illuminated them as I walked- entirely hollowed-out clumps of roots, elaborate tunnels with three or more entrances. I walked until reaching the first visible root, then spun and started my work. I wouldn't to miss a single den, I could do that much at least.

The first one was squat and spherical, pressed against the base of the wall. It was no wonder everyone had missed it- the entrance wasn't much wider than both my fists held together. I pressed my face against the gap to look inside.

Only my demigod-enhanced reflexes kept my eye from being gouged out by a sharpened bit of wood. I jerked back, stumbling away. As my arms wobbled to help keep my balance the torch lit the area. A tiny kallikantzaroi hissed, blinking rapidly and continuing to stab the air.

"Whoa there," I told him. "Chill out a second. I'm not going to hurt you."

Understandably, he didn't listen. He even started projectile spitting, which would have been pretty impressive if I wasn't busy dodging the borderline-green liquid. Finally I darted close and grabbed his weapon.

"Give me that for now."

The tug-of-war lasted longer than I was proud of considering he was a tenth my size, but eventually I was holding the bark shard and he was holding nothing. He sunk most of the way back into the den, just leaving his fingers and half of his face sticking out. His pointy nose rested on the lip like a mountain climber's pick.

First, I held my hands up. "See? Nothing too scary about me. I'm trying to help."

Slowly, he started pulling himself into sight. I smiled coaxingly.

"That's it, just come out for a second. There's a good goblin."

He was almost out now. There was his torso, and then his hips, and then-

He hawked a glob of saliva straight on my forehead. The residue oozed down my nose, and my eyebrow twitched.

"I'm trying to help you!" I wasn't being reasonable, and I knew it. He had good reason to be defensive. But we were on a time limit, and boy did whatever the guy had eaten stink.

"What ith it you think you're doing?"

I whipped around. A female kallikantzaroi was staring me down- or squinting me down, her eyes narrowed because of my light. She was holding a club, and a few adolescents were hovering behind her holding onto the hem of her dress. But what surprised me most was that she had spoken, not chirped or squawked. Aside from pronouncing the 's' in is identical to the 'th' in think, her speech was flawless.

"You can talk?"

"As well as you can ask idiotic questions," she drawled, lisp still present. "Now answer, before I knock your head from your shoulders. What are you doing to my cousin?"

"Cousin?" I glanced at the little goober that had spit on me, then back to her. "I'm trying to get him out of the den."

Her eye narrowed even more. Somehow. "Why?"

"So that I can burn it."

She lifted her club, and I threw out my hands. "Wait! I can explain."

"Best do it quickly."

I couldn't help but admire her confidence. She could barely look my direction, but when she said she would kill me it was hard not to believe it.

"I'm not the only one here," I said. "Obviously. And the others, they sent me back to burn the dens. They'll check that I did it, and if they see the roots still standing they'll do it themselves. What I can do, is make sure nothing is inside when they burn."

Her mouth split in a snarl, revealing splinters stuck in the gaps between serrated fangs. "You're asking us to stand aside and let you burn our homes to ash?"

"Better that than you burning with them, right?" I shook my head. "Look, this sucks. I'm sorry this is happening to you, but I can't stop it. This is the most I can do."

She stared at me a while. She was trying her best to keep up her confident façade, but she was wavering. I didn't blame her- it wasn't a choice I ever wanted to make.

Then I heard a noise behind me. The tiny kallikantzaroi was hoisting himself out. He vaulted his legs over the edge and dropped to the floor. For a second he made eye contact with the other kallikantzaroi, then he scurried along the wall, chirping.

The female sighed. "I suppose that's the choice made. All of you, help him."

The adolescents joined the tiny one, chirping their way down the opposite side. It was incredible to watch. Every chirp had another kallikantzaroi appearing from one crevice or another. Some dropped from the ceiling. Soon nearly forty of them were standing around chittering to each other. Most were clearly children, some were women. One hobbled on a crude wooden crutch, his foot mangled. Another was missing his arm below the elbow.

Now that I was surrounded, I had no idea what to say. Going "Hey guys, sorry your friends are dead, but I'm going to be burning your houses now!" seemed insensitive, and possibly a good way to get myself attacked. Or worse, spit on again. My nose was still sticky, and I couldn't escape the stench of rotted wood.

Luckily, I didn't have to decide. The female that had confronted me stepped forward and cleared her throat.

"A dark day, today is," she proclaimed. "The last for the home we have built. A day of goodbyes."

She paused, allowing time for the crowd to react. A wave of cooing swept over them. The noise rolled mournfully off the walls, heavy in my ears.

"But dark days? We are used to those."

I blinked at the sudden change. Her voice no longer sounded sad. It wasn't whining, nor was it angry. She was simply stating a fact. Around the crowd, I saw a lot of shrugging.

"Eight hundred years ago, the Nemean lion stumbled into my village. Our arrows bounced from its pelt. One swipe sent five warriors flying and tore our homes from the ground. It was a slaughter." She spread her arms. "You all. Share."

The old guy with the crutch hobbled forward and spoke with the same lisp: "Stumbled onto a young dragon, a few decades ago. Nothing more than a hatchling. Still bit through my ankle in one snap before my brother pulled me to safety. Then he got eaten."

A teenage one a couple of years off full-grown went next. "My family was killed after teaching me to eat. Spotted by heroes on a quest, I think. I'm not sure, since I wasn't there. That's why I'm here."

One by one, others gave their stories. Lost family members, destroyed homes, even their own deaths and struggles returning from Tartarus. The culprits varied as much as the tragedies, everything from demigods to other monsters to natural disasters. After about ten had spoken, the original held her hand up for silence.

"These are the lives of weak monsters. We lose, die, and return to die again." She slammed her club into the ground. "So it goes!"

The crowd nodded their agreement. Some chuckled.

She glanced at me from the corner of her eye. For the first time, she gave a small smile. "What I mean to say, demigod, is do not be upset. This is our way of things, and we are long used to it. Pity is more mercy than we need, so do what you must."

There was buzzing in my ears. A feeling I'd never experienced swept over me, somewhere between respect and despair. I walked to the nearest roots.

"My name's Percy," I said.

She tilted her head. "Mm. Mine is Eupheme."

I touched flames to the bark.

It took a moment to catch, but once it did the fire spread fast. Soon it crackled all along the right wall. I repeated the action on the other side, and we found ourselves wedged in a channel between burning roots.

The scene would've been beautiful if it weren't so horrible. I kept finding myself comparing it to a huge campfire, before remembering that those were homes going up in smoke.

"I should go," I said.

Eupheme had covered her eyes, along with the rest of the kallikantzaroi. The light from the flames was too intense for them. "Very well. Travel safely."

I started to hurry away, before stopping as something bit into my palm. Looking down, I found the sharp bit of wood I had wrestled away from the first kallikantzaroi. I closed the fist, a decision made.

I found him deeper in, standing dangerously close to the fire. Even with so many gathered, he was close to the smallest. Despite that, there was a firmness in the way he was standing, like he was ready to fight at a moment's notice.

"Here," I said, laying a hand on his shoulder and holding the bark out to him. "This is yours."

He turned, and unlike the others he wasn't shielding his eyes. They were nearly shut, sure, but his arm wasn't blocking anything. It was like he wanted to see.

Then his eyes fell onto the bark. He recognized it instantly. Bony fingers reached out, brushing over its surface. They started to wrap around it, only to stop.

"Will you remember this?"

I jumped at the raspy whisper. I had assumed him too young to speak, but he did so now calmly and confidently, tilting his tiny head with the statement.

"Not really," I said. "If I had saved you, you'd still have your houses, and so many wouldn't have died. This was just a crappy replacement."

"More than others did," he said. "You seem different. Keep it."

It was strangely touching. "You sure?"

"Just don't forget," he said.

I stuck the wood in a pocket, making sure it was positioned in a way that wouldn't splinter. "What exactly shouldn't forget? I mean, we should make sure we're on the same page right, just to be safe. So that I don't take the wrong lesson or whatever…"

"You already know," he said. His eyes opened fully to make eye contact, which I could tell hurt, because I could see them watering. "Don't you?"

"Maybe? Well… sort of?"

I assumed it was something to do with the stories they'd told, about all their dying and struggling. Monsters are people too, or something along those lines. But I wasn't sure exactly.

He only nodded. "Think you do."

Great. Apparently being annoyingly vague was a widespread condition. Dedalus had it, Luke was showing symptoms, and even little monsters weren't safe. Boy, did they start them young. "What's your name, at least?"

"Don't have one yet," he said. "Got to earn one first. Tell you next time."

"Next… time?"

"Uh-huh. We'll probably meet again, I think."

I thought about asking why, but figured I would only get another vague, completely unhelpful answer. "Cool. I'm Percy."

"Goodbye Percy."

He returned to squinting into the flames. I straightened, brushed the soot off my pants, and gently pushed through the last of the kallikantzaroi crowd.

The figure waiting made me jump so high I almost headbutted the ceiling.

She was clearly a demigod from Luke's army. In fact, it was the girl I had seen chatting with a younger boy right before the fighting started. Long black hair was tied in tight a ponytail. Her leather breastplate was worn over top of a white t-shirt and simple cargo pants. Instead of a helmet she wore a bronze headband. Golden eyes the shade of first-place medals were giving nothing away, but her sword was sheathed, so I figured she at least wasn't about to gut me on the spot.

"Okay, so I have a really good explanation for why this is actually not at all what it looks like."

She regarded me a moment before turning away. "Luke sent me to get you. The group is ready to move."

I hurried after her. "Hey, you aren't going to mention this to him right away, are you? I'm telling you, you've got the wrong idea. I was just… trying to be more efficient! Let it burn slowly, so that I don't miss a single one."

"Mhm."

"You know how slippery they are. Super slippery. There was no time for taking chances, or else-"

"Do me a favor," she said. "Zip it."

My mouth opened and closed a few times. "Alright."

We were getting close now. Even as I rubbed the residual saliva off my nose with a shirtsleeve, I could see torchlight up ahead. The thought of stopping her with force passed through my head, but I threw it out. This was a living, breathing girl, not some monster whose soul would reform in Tartarus. That would be crossing a line.

Unfortunately, no other options came to mind. Somehow my smooth sweet-talking had failed. I had no choice but to follow and wait for punishment to come crashing down.

We reached the first monsters from the group. A reluctant dracaena was bandaging a hellhound's injured thigh. The teen girls I had seen Kelli chatting with were examining their fingers, complaining how hard it was to get ash out of claws. One gave a flirty wave as we passed but I didn't even react, preoccupied with worrying about what would happen to me.

I probably wouldn't be killed. For some reason, I was important. Dedalus told me as much, and Luke said the same. Maybe they would lock me up? That would suck, but as long as Dedalus didn't take the blame then it could be worse. Or I could make a break for it. If I was quick enough, I might make it back to the group of homeless sort-of-friends I had left behind.

I was still trying to think up a way out when a cleared throat broke me from thoughts. I looked up to find Luke right in front of us, his arms crossed. The girl saluted, and he waved for her to report. I shut my eyes.

"He did it perfectly. There wasn't a spot untouched."

"Of course he did!" Luke grinned, giving me a smack on the shoulder. "I didn't expect anything else."

"Yeah," I said, chuckling and trying not to stare. There wasn't a hint of a blush on the girl's cheeks. She looked completely unflustered, and absolutely nothing like she was lying in her superior's face. "That's me. The doing-it-perfectly… dude. In the flesh."

"Can I be excused?" The girl shifted her ponytail, adjusting the angle of her sword against her waist.

"Sure," Luke said. "Good work."

She gave a curt nod and left.

"Hey!" I said. "What's your name?"

"Victoria," she said without looking back. Her armor disappeared in the crowd of bodies.

"What's this?" Luke leaned in, wrapping a hand around my shoulder. "Does Percy have a littl H?"

I bucked his arm off. "That's not it. Seriously, you're way off."

"Right," he nodded. "You're just interested in her. Closely interested."

He waggled his eyebrows, and I stomped ahead. "Don't you have an army to be leading?"

"Don't worry," he called after me. "You'll learn to be honest about your feelings soon. Big brother Luke will help you through it."

"Screw off, cousin."

I could hear him busting a gut behind me, and the sound made me shiver. Somehow, with every laugh, it was like the image of him from the battle was being pushed further away. That wasn't something I wanted to lose sight of, but that suddenly seemed a very easy thing to do.

It took a bit of wandering, but we eventually we found the next group of dracaena. They were a little roughed up, and spread across the ground were bits of scrap metal. I kicked a piece over and stared at the head of a squirrel automaton, lying next to the copper hindleg off a rabbit. The new additions were still grumbling about demonic robot mammals as they joined us. Pushed off to the side were two empty sets of leather armor, remnants of dracaena that had fallen under an onslaught of bite-sized metal teeth.

I could feel the mood getting antsier the longer we spent travelling. The intervals between dracaena groups were completely inconsistent. Sometimes we'd meet multiple within minutes of each other, other times we'd walk an hour without seeing one. From the mutterings around me I learned the groups were out of order, too. Somewhere out there were dracaena waiting to direct a force that would never arrive, the fork they were guarding having shifted completely out of our path.

It was a wonder we were finding our way at all. With how the system was collapsing, we should've been hundreds of miles off course. But whenever we were really lost, the torches toward the front would change colors, glowing green in front of the best path to take.

"Is that what you meant by Hecate's torches being reliable?" I asked Luke after the third time.

"I wasn't made aware of quite all their functions." He looked slightly troubled. "But I'm sure she had her reasons. It makes sense, anyway. She is the goddess of crossroads after all."

I remembered the strange vision I'd seen from the torch, along with the woman's voice that had whispered to me. "She helped Demeter find Persephone, didn't she? She lights Persephone's way back from the underworld every year."

"She does," Luke said. "She's also in charge of The Mist, necromancy, and magic. Unpredictable, chaotic things, like her."

"You've met?"

"Just once."

The rest of the time we talked. Not about the fate of the world or what we were fighting for, but about inconsequential things. Jokes and stories. He described Annabeth's face when one of his brothers dropped a tarantula in her bed, then the beatdown she gave afterwards. He talked about capture the flag matches and how beautiful the sunsets were along the New York beach. I tried to paint some of the best views I'd seen out of the workshop's teleporting window. Good, lighthearted fun.

Talk stopped dead when we entered a tunnel of solid obsidian. The army had to file down to fit in the narrow passage, only enough width for three people standing shoulder to shoulder. Behind I could hear Laistrygonian's thumping their heads into the low ceiling. I hoped none of them dropped anything. I didn't trust anything of Dedalus's not to combust on impact, or the man not to go on a rampage if someone broke his stuff.

I traced a hand along the smooth volcanic rock. The air was heavy in a way that clued me in long before Luke said, "We're here."

We stepped outside on the peak of a familiar mountain I had never been to before.

Chilly wind blew over us. The view was almost identical to the one from my dream, where the scarred man had been chatting to his metal box. Even the menacing clouds were the same. But we were closer to the summit than my dream had been, which gave a view of something that made my stomach swirl.

Sheer cobblestone walls towered into the sky, ramparts lining the tops and arches scattered around the bottom. It was roughly two-thirds of the most intimidating castle I had ever seen- and I don't mean it was missing a few walls or anything. Instead every part was pockmarked with holes. Arches were only half there. Columns climbed to nothing. Mist coalesced around the incomplete bits, swirling as if working overtime to fill in the gaps.

Our army marched straight up to the front gate.

The guards were identical, and I had never seen anything quite like them. Their bodies were coated in hair thick and long enough to pass a job interview for sasquatch. I got a real good look at it, too, given they were wearing only denim pants. Wide nostrils sat at the end of extended snouts. Their toes looked closer to thumbs, and each was tipped with a crescent claw.

"Welcome Mount Orthrys," the one on the left said in a gruff, somewhat absent voice. "You identify you selves?"

The other snarled. "Identification? Identification!? Do you even see who's in front of you, dimwit? This is why you let me do the talking." He turned to address Luke, clasping his hands and lowering his head. "Terribly sorry, sir. You know how useless Oreius is. Go right through."

"But Agrius-"

"Shut it!" Agrius hissed from the side of his snout.

Luke passed with a smile, moving to the front of the group. "Glad to see you two are fitting into your new role well."

"Of course," Agrius said, his tone immediately pleasant again. The moment Luke was on the other side of him his lips curled back. I heard him say to his brother, "Once we're off-shift, you're deader than a rabbit." and then we were in the castle, and my brain forgot to work.

Pretty wasn't the right word. The courtyard was beautiful in a one-wrong-step-and-you're-dead kind of way. Speckled obsidian coated the ground. Every wall was seamless stone, except for the spots that looked under construction. There was no dust or dirt. Once complete, I imagined the sun would never touch the ground.

Doors stood at all four corners, each leading to a separate tower-like building, all at least a dozen stories. What looked like apartments dotted the walls, spiraling stairs and suspended walkways connecting them to the ground and each other. Dead ahead, so tall the top was lost in the clouds, was a skyscraper in distinctively Greek style. Unlike the other buildings it was one hundred percent black, and I don't mean obsidian. It didn't look real. The walls seemed made of shadows, rather than solid objects, and even the windows were stained dark.

"Okay everyone!" Luke shouted. "All of you except the giants are dismissed! Don't waste time, and make sure to rest up. I don't want you wasting energy with less than a week to go."

A cheer went up from the crowd. Either they were really happy to be out of the Labyrinth, or whatever event was coming up had them totally excited. I did notice one or two that looked nervous more than anything- specifically Victoria, the boy I'd seen her talking to earlier, and another boy standing next to them. I wanted to ask Luke just what was coming up, but he winked and mouthed 'tell you later'.

"What're you all still here for? Go on!"

Luke made a shooing gesture, and the group dispersed in every direction. Soon it was just us, the giants, and Dedalus standing alone in the courtyard.

"So," I said, "what's next? A bath? Seeing our new rooms?"

"I'll take Dedalus to get settled," Luke said. "We've got a room all set up for his stuff, just have to drop it off."

"And for me?" I asked.

"For you?" Luke grinned so wide I expected him to say 'We've got a Pizza party all set up!' or 'Actually you should check out the spa!' But he ruffled my hair and said, "You've got an appointment. The boss wants to meet you."

(-)

Look who's still on that chapter-a-week schedule! Go me for real.

Anyway, this brings us to Mt. Orthrys itself, where we'll stay for a few chapters. Onwards.