Chapter 24 - The Staff of Hermes
Piper knew Luke and Annabeth had a history, though what it was (beyond Luke hosting a deranged psychopath) baffled her. Nevertheless, she didn't want to ask.
Beyond feeling like a third wheel next to the two extremely experienced demigods, she didn't trust Luke. She couldn't trust him, not with how much affection he felt for Kronos. Being a daughter of Aphrodite she could sense how people felt about others and if Kronos hadn't mated to Percy, she could tell that Luke would have done so.
So, quite frankly, the sheer conflicting emotions between both Luke and Annabeth made her want to sit them down and have a long session with them until they could talk about their problems with each other.
But Piper said nothing, letting both of them keep to their delusions.
"So," she huffed, "this giant, what can we expect?"
"I don't think he's a real giant," Luke said, his voice echoing up to her through the shaft. "He's not a son of Gaea and Tartarus, just a son of Hephaestus."
"He breathes fire," Annabeth said helpfully.
"Oh. Great."
"We're at the bottom," Luke finally said, and Piper heard a faint splash when he landed in a puddle of… something.
"So what's his story?" Piper questioned.
"He stole some of Apollo's cattle, and some of Hercules'," Annabeth explained. "Hercules strangled him."
"It's always Hercules," Luke said with a bitter smile.
"Wow," Piper murmured as she saw the giant cavern stretched out before them. The factory-sized cavern was scattered with old building equipment, from bulldozers to stacks of bricks and steel.
"Well," Luke mused, "he's definitely a son of Hephaestus."
Then, hanging from thick hooks embedded in the roof of the cavern, Piper noticed the rows of animal carcasses. Along with the smell and flies coming from them, the sight was enough to make her throw up her meagre breakfast.
Luke raised an eyebrow at her.
"Sorry," Piper apologised. "Vegetarian."
The son of Hermes snorted before turning to study the carcasses. "So… Cacus, was he a-"
"Cannibal?" Annabeth finished for him. "Yes. He hung human skulls of his victims outside his cave."
Piper cleared her throat. "Hopefully he's got out of that habit."
Then, much to her horror, one of the animals hanging upside down bleated and squirmed on the meat hook. Immediately, Piper's eyes widened. "Annabeth-" but the daughter of Athena was already making her way over to the squirming goat.
"Annabeth," Luke slowly said.
Piper quickly moved forwards to help Annabeth lift the wriggling goat off the meat hook. "Oh, you poor thing," Piper cooed.
"Annabeth," Luke insisted.
"Shut up, Luke," Annabeth said curtly. "It's important to Piper." The goat bleated in panic and squealed as Annabeth carefully took the meat hook out. She pressed down on the blood spurting out as Piper reached for their emergency first aid kit, but then the goat's side shifted beneath Annabeth's hands and she quickly withdrew them to watch in disbelief as the wound glowed, and the goat's injury healed itself.
"What the-"
"I was trying to warn you," Luke sighed.
"But how?" Piper watched in astonishment as the goat staggered to it's hooves.
"You didn't see it's eyes?" Luke asked in faint amusement as he watched the goat prance on it's hooves without a care in the world. As they watched, it turned to face them, sharp amber eyes glowing like headlights in the darkness of the cavern.
Piper realised that the blood caking its side was gone too, as if the wound had simply never existed.
"An immortal goat?" Piper asked in disbelief.
"A child of Kronos?" Annabeth demanded, those amber eyes a giveaway to the sire of the goat.
Luke grinned as he watched the goat. "More like grandchild, I think. Haven't you ever heard the story of Pricus the sea-goat?"
"Yes," Annabeth said, "but Pricus was placed in the stars as Capricorn. There's no possible way for this to be one of his children."
"Pricus?" Piper echoed.
"For some weird reason," Luke said, "Kronos thought it would be a good idea to create a sea-goat – I really don't know what he was thinking at the time – and that goat he called Pricus. So this sea-goat had the front half of a goat and the bottom half of a fish. Pricus had his own kids, and those kids wanted to explore the earth, they wanted to leave the sea. Now, Pricus had inherited some of Kronos' power over time, so he tried to stop those kids of his from escaping the sea by re-winding time, because whenever his kids were bathing on the beaches they lost their fish halves and gained hind legs – they became goats. Basically, Pricus eventually decided that it would be impossible to stop his kids from becoming land-goats forever, so he turned to Kronos and asked him to kill him."
"What?" Piper asked. "Why would he do that?"
"He didn't want to watch his kids all become land-goats, he didn't want to be left alone," Annabeth said.
"Exactly," Luke said. "But Kronos said no, because he was fond of Pricus. So, instead, Kronos turned him into the constellation Capricorn so he could watch his kids forever."
"It's a nice story," Piper said slowly, "but if Pricus is in the stars, how is there an immortal goat here of all places?"
Luke shrugged. "Bleats me," he said, grinning at the sharp glares the two girls directed towards him.
The goat was at this point exploring the far side of the cavern, about to venture into the tunnel at the end, before a blast of fire suddenly erupted out of the tunnel and barbecued the little goat.
Piper's jaw dropped. "What…?"
"Dinner," the giant lumbering out of the tunnel announced, smoke curling from his mouth. Cacus opened his mouth impossibly wide and swallowed the barbecued goat whole. Piper paled.
As far as giants go, Cacus was not a giant. Being ten feet tall he was downright runty when compared to Enceladus or Porphyrion, but he had something that none of the other giants did.
A three foot long staff was clasped in his hand, a pair of wings fluttering wildly at the sphere on top and two snakes writhing around the shaft.
"That's Hermes' caduceus!" Annabeth exclaimed.
Luke's eyes widened. "How'd you manage to get that off him?"
"Oh it was easy," Cacus gloated. "For the god of thievery Hermes is remarkably easy to steal from. You'd think he'd have better protection for his symbol of power."
"You ate the goat," Piper accused.
"Sea-goats are tasty," Cacus defended. "Nice and salty. Besides," he said as he belched. "It's not like it's grandfather is going to care – he ate his own kids. I'm sure he understands the desire to eat his grandkids too."
"Maybe not in the way you're thinking," Luke muttered under his breath.
"Not the time, Luke," Piper warned.
Cacus grinned. "Luke! I've heard of you! The young demigod host of Kronos."
Luke frowned. "Who's told you about recent events?"
The giant laughed. "I shan't tell you," he said smugly.
"It was Gaea, wasn't it?" Annabeth asked
"Curses! What gave it away?"
Annabeth shrugged. "You just look like someone whom can't think up such an idea."
Cacus growled and raised Hermes' staff. "No matter," he finally said. "You won't leave here alive with such information. In return for gifting me with this staff, Gaea has decreed that I kill every hero attempting to take it back." The staff shuddered and turned into something vaguely resembling a bazooka, the muzzle glowing blue.
"Uh... Luke?" Piper questioned.
Luke hesitated. "Is that a bazooka?"
"Laser mode!" Martha, one of Hermes' snakes exclaimed.
"Duck!" Annabeth yelled.
"What - where?" George demanded, curling around the body of the bazooka and wrenching the muzzle to the side. A beam of light rocketed from the muzzle and incinerated an already-crushed car.
"Hermes' staff has a laser mode?" Piper demanded as Cacus swore at the snakes.
"And a cattle prod mode," Luke hollered back as he rolled to the side, desperately trying to avoid a second blast aimed at him. The beam slammed into a cow carcass, blasting the rotten meat off the hook and sending it spiralling through the air.
"Luke!"
"I'm okay," Luke assured Annabeth. "I'll distract him," he said as he lifted his double edged blade. "See if there's anything you can use to take him down with."
Piper hesitated. "What about me?"
"Help me."
Piper nodded. "I can do that," she said as she took out Katoptris. Piper wasn't as experienced as Luke, she knew that, but she could certainly hit Cacus where it hurt.
As Luke raced across the cavern towards the giant, he had to leap to the side yet again to avoid another blast. Piper followed less recklessly, ducking between pieces of old machinery and building equipment. She spotted Annabeth picking her way to the crumpled bulldozer.
As Luke neared Cacus, the giant lowered the staff to face the demigod. The son of Hermes dodged the point and stuck his sword in the giant's thigh. Cacus roared and backhanded him away as he staggered back, before sending a blast from laser mode straight at Luke.
Piper's eyes widened as Luke went flying into the wall of the cavern with enough force to make a normal mortal's bones turn to dust.
Cacus turned the staff back to face the face of the cavern. "Piper!" He boomed. "Come on out!"
Piper ducked to another bit of cover, peeking over at Luke to watch as he groaned and put a hand beneath himself to push himself up.
Cacus grumbled and shook the staff, turning it back into original mode and storming over to Luke. As he passed the rows of hanging carcasses, the point of the staff brushed against a cow, and the entire row turned to stone.
Piper's eyes widened as the giant approached Luke.
The daughter of Aphrodite leapt from her spot. "I thought it was me you wanted, Cacus?" Piper questioned, forcing charmspeak into her words.
The giant spun to glower at her, the staff shifting back into laser mode.
Piper was feeling brave up until she was staring down the barrel of the bazooka. Nevertheless, she managed to roll aside at the right moment so avoid the blast. She lunged towards him, but the giant parried the dagger aside and Piper barely managed to avoid being turned to stone as she stumbled back.
Cacus bellowed with laughter as he lumbered after her, brandishing the staff in his meaty fists.
"George and Martha, right?" Piper asked, talking to the staff as she backed up through the puddles.
"We're hungry," George complained.
"I'll get you all the rats you want," Piper promised.
"Enough!" Cacus thundered, raising the staff to strike Piper down, only for Martha to hiss and bury her fangs into his arm. The giant squealed, stumbling back, and in that instant, the bulldozer behind him rolled to life.
Piper's eyes widened as she watched Annabeth, her grey eyes narrowed in concentration as the bulldozer rolled straight into the giant.
Cacus roared and raised his fists, pummelling the shovel flat before turning the bulldozer to stone with the tip of the staff. Annabeth dove from the machine as the ripple of stone extended out towards her.
"You two will die," Cacus promised angrily as he turned back towards them.
"Maybe, but not today," Piper said with a small smile.
Luke spun on the spot to gather the needed momentum, before extending his arm on the spin and slicing straight through the false giant's neck. Cacus crumbled to dust, the staff of Hermes dropping neatly on top of the pile.
"Oh, thank Hermes!" Martha exclaimed as Piper picked up the staff. "We're starving!"
Luke eyed the staff with an odd look. Piper couldn't be sure of what he was thinking, but there was a sharp bitterness in his expression.
"Oh, look, George!" Martha cried. "It's Luke!"
"Luke?" George curled around the staff until he could look at the son of Hermes. "Oh it is! Afternoon, Luke. Do you have any rats?"
Luke sighed and wiped his blade on his shirt before sheathing it. "There should be some around here," he said. "We are close to Manhattan's sewers."
"At least a hundred feet below them, actually," Annabeth corrected as she approached. She was covered in whatever was in the puddles on the floor, and so was Luke.
Piper's nose crinkled. "You two reek."
Luke scowled at her. "Yes, thank you. I can smell that."
Piper eyed the smoking remains of Luke's shirt. "You alright?"
His chest was a little red, but other than that he seemed remarkably healthy for someone who'd been blasted by laser mode. "Fine," Luke promised. "Curse of Achilles. I'll be a little bruised tomorrow, but not any worse for wear than that." He reached out and took Hermes' staff from Piper's hands. "I guess we should return this," he said.
"It would be a good idea," Annabeth agreed. "If we pray to him maybe-"
"No. I'm never going to pray to him," Luke said harshly. "I have a better idea." He dug around their pack for a box of matches.
"Be careful, Luke," Martha whispered. "I hope you know what you're doing."
Luke ignored her, instead striking a match and holding it to the bottom of the staff. "For Hermes," he said. "Maybe you should keep a closer eye on your symbol of power next time." The caduceus disappeared in a bright flash that blinded the three of them.
Piper blinked the spots out of her eyes. "So what now?" She questioned.
Annabeth eyed Luke. "Could you get us back to Camp Jupiter the same way you got us here?"
Luke cocked his head to the side, as if listening to something only he could hear. "No," he said, a strange look in his eyes before he shook his head slightly. "No. Not if I don't want to die halfway back. But, there should be…" he trailed off, making his way over to the wall of the cavern. "Somewhere… ah, here."
Piper raised an eyebrow as she watched Luke brush his hand over a Greek delta in the wall, and part of the brick moved aside to form a doorway.
"The Labyrinth?" Annabeth demanded sharply.
Luke shrugged. "It'll be the quickest way back. Don't worry," Luke said, "Kronos said he'll guide us."
That made Annabeth hesitate even further. "Luke…"
"Maybe that's not a good idea," Piper said as she eyed the passageway beyond the wall. "I'd feel safer driving all the way back."
"This will be faster," Luke said. "Annabeth, you've got to trust me. Please. I want to help get Percy back too."
There was something about the passageway that screamed at Piper, made her want to just refuse to follow Luke into the darkness. If it weren't bad enough it being Luke, Kronos had also said he'd guide them… which quite frankly didn't bode well for Piper.
Annabeth, Piper could trust, but Luke and Kronos? Piper eyed Annabeth. "Your call," she offered.
"He'll take us straight there?" Annabeth questioned. "No detours."
"No detours," Luke promised. "He said he'll get us there in plenty of Time."
Slowly, Annabeth nodded. "Okay," she said. "I trust you."
"Great," Luke said as he stepped into the Labyrinth. "Then follow me, ladies. We're going on an adventure!"
Yeah. Trusting Kronos is a bad idea.
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