Valen sighed, he needed to be calm for what came next. He levitated Riptide and Franks weapons out of the stash and handed them back.
"Valen," Percy said as he accepted the pen.
"I'm fine," he said, "Just, lost my cool for a moment."
He nodded, "I understand."
Valen turned towards the only remaining Amazon and raised an eyebrow, "What, not gonna enact vengeance for what I did to your sisters?"
Kinzie shrugged, "They were Otrera's supporters,"
"What?" He asked, confused.
His friends explained to him what had happened with Hylla, and the returned Amazonian queen. And the issue she was faced with.
"Like Midas," He whispered.
"What?"
He shook his head, "Nevermind that." He turned to Kinzie, "Am I right to assume that Hyllas supporters won't be an issue with our escape."
She glared at him for a moment before answering, "No, we wont."
"Good," He said, staring at the exit, "I'm not going to pull any punches this time."
The first part of their escape was easy enough. Every time an Amazon tried to stop them, they would either get crushed by mountains of jewelry, or skewered by a sword. When they got to the bottom of the ladder, they found a scene that looked like Mardi Gras Armageddon—Amazons trapped up to their necks in bead necklaces, several more upside down in a mountain of amethyst earrings, and a battle forklift buried in silver charm bracelets.
"You, Hazel Levesque," Frank said, "are entirely freaking incredible."
They ran back to the throne room. They stumbled across one Amazon who must've been loyal to Hylla. As soon as she saw the escapees, she turned away like they were invisible.
The second Amazon they met wasn't so friendly. She was dressed in full armor, blocking the throne-room entrance. She spun her spear with lightning speed, but this time Percy was ready. He drew Riptide and stepped into battle. As the Amazon jabbed at him, he sidestepped, cut her spear shaft in half, and slammed the hilt of his sword against her helmet. The guard crumpled.
"Mars Almighty," Frank said. "How did you—that wasn't any Roman technique!" \
Percy grinned. "The graecus has some moves, my friend. After you."
They ran into the throne room. As promised, Hylla and her guards had cleared out. Hazel dashed over to Arion's cage and swiped anAmazon card across the lock. Instantly the stallion burst forth, rearing in triumph.
Percy, Valen and Frank stumbled backward.
"Um…is that thing tame?" Frank said.
The horse whinnied angrily.
"I don't think so," Percy guessed. "He just said, 'I will trample you to death, silly Chinese Canadian baby man.'"
Valen suppressed a chuckle, "Good one,"
"You speak horse?" Hazel asked.
"'Baby man'?" Frank spluttered.
"Speaking to horses is a Poseidon thing," Percy said. "Uh, Imean a Neptune thing."
"Then you and Arion should get along fine," Hazel said. "He's a son of Neptune too."
Percy turned pale. "Excuse me?"
"Please, you're related to the Pegasus and have a cyclops half-brother," Valen said, remembering Tyson, "and this surprises you?"
Percy blinked as the memory came back to him, "Yeah, I suppose I should be used to this."
"The point is, he's fast. He can get us out of here." Hazel said.
Frank did not look thrilled. "Three of us can't fit on one horse, can we? We'll fall off, or slow him down, or—"
Arion whinnied again.
"Ouch," Percy said. "Frank, the horse says you're a—you know, actually, I'm not going to translate that. Anyway, he says there's a chariot in the warehouse, and he's willing to pull it."
"There!" someone yelled from the back of the throne room. A dozen Amazons charged in, followed by males in orange jumpsuits. When they saw Arion, they backed up quickly and headed for the battle forklifts.
Hazel vaulted onto Arion's back. She grinned down at her friends. "I remember seeing that chariot. Follow me, guys!"
She galloped into the larger cavern and scattered a crowd of males. Percy knocked out an Amazon. Frank swept two more off their feet with his spear. Valen used their armor against them, keeping them pinned on the walls.
Hazel bowled into a patrol of Amazons, who scattered in terror at the sight of the horse. They ran after her. Finally they reached the chariot. Arion stopped by the yoke, and Percy set to work with the reins and harness.
"You've done this before?" Frank asked.
Percy didn't need to answer. His hands flew. In no time the chariot was ready. He jumped aboard and yelled, "Frank, Valen, come on! Hazel, go!"
A battle cry went up behind them. A full army of Amazons stormed into the warehouse. Otrera herself stood astride a battle forklift, her silver hair flowing as she swung her mounted crossbow toward the chariot. "Stop them!" she yelled.
Hazel spurred Arion. They raced across the cavern, weaving around pallets and forklifts. An arrow whizzed past Hazel's head. Something exploded behind her, but she didn't look back.
"The stairs!" Frank yelled. "No way this horse can pull a chariot up that many flights of—OH MY GODS!"
Thankfully the stairs were wide enough for the chariot, because Arion didn't even slow down. He shot up the steps with the chariot rattling and groaning. Finally they reached the lobby. Arion crashed through the main doors into the plaza and scattered a bunch of guys in business suits.
"Ella!" Hazel shouted at the sky. "Where are you? We have to leave!"
Behind them a battle forklift clattered up the stairs and roared through the lobby, a mob of Amazons behind it. "Surrender!" Otrera screamed. The forklift raised its razor-sharp tines.
Valen raised his hand, focusing on the forklift as beads of sweat accumulated on his forehead. Finally the forklift raised off the ground, and flew up a few metres before it was hurled back down. The sound of metal creaking and breaking drowned out the pained screams of any who were unlucky enough to be crushed by it.
"Ella!" Hazel cried out again desperately.
In a flash of red feathers, Ella landed in the chariot. "Ella is here. Amazons are pointy. Go now."
"Hold on!" Hazel warned. She leaned forward and said, "Arion, run!"
The world seemed to elongate. Sunlight bent around them. Arion shot away from the Amazons and sped through downtown Seattle. He thundered toward the docks, leaping over cars, barreling through intersections. Arion reached the water and leaped straight off the docks. With a sonic boom Arion tore over Puget Sound, seawater turning to steam in his wake as the skyline of Seattle receded behind them.
The horse rocketed onto dry land. He followed Highway 99 north, running so fast, the cars seemed to be standing still.
Finally, just as they were getting into Vancouver, the chariot wheels began to smoke.
"Hazel!" Frank yelled. "We're breaking up!"
She got the message and pulled the reins. The horse didn't seem happy about it, but he slowed to subsonic as they zipped through the citystreets. They crossed the Ironworkers bridge into North Vancouver, and the chariot started to rattle dangerously. At last Arion stopped at the top of a wooded hill. He snorted with satisfaction, as if to say, That's how we run, fools. The smoking chariot collapsed, spilling its occupants onto the wet mossy ground.
Valen pushed himself off the ground, glad it was over. "That is one fast horse," He breathed out.
Frank stumbled to his feet. Percy groaned and started unhitching Arion from the ruined chariot. Ella fluttered around in dizzy circles, bonking into the trees and muttering, "Tree. Tree. Tree."
Only Hazel seemed unaffected by the ride. Grinning with pleasure, she slid off the horse's back. "That was fun!"
"Yeah." Frank swallowed back his nausea. "So much fun."
Arion whinnied.
"He says he needs to eat," Percy translated. "No wonder. He probably burned about six million calories."
Hazel studied the ground at her feet and frowned. "I'm not sensing any gold around here.…Don't worry, Arion. I'll find you some. In the meantime, why don't you go graze? We'll meet you—"
The horse zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake. Hazel knit her eyebrows. "Do you think he'll come back?"
"I don't know," Percy said. "He seems kind of…spirited."
"I'd say he took a liking to you," Valen said, "He'll come back when you call for him."
"I hope so," She said. They began salvaging supplies from the chariot wreckage. There had been a few boxes of random Amazon merchandise in the front, and Ella shrieked with delight when she found a shipment of books. She snatched up a copy of The Birds of North America, fluttered to the nearest branch, and began scratching through the pages.
I'm practically home," Frank suddenly said. "My grandmother's house is right over there."
Hazel squinted. "How far?"
To the south, across Vancouver Harbor, the downtown skyline gleamed red in the sunset. To the north, the hills and rain forests of Lynn Canyon Park snaked between the subdivisions of North Vancouver until they gave way to the wilderness.
"Just over the river and through the woods."
Percy raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? To Grandmother's house we go?"
Frank cleared his throat. "Yeah, anyway."
Hazel clasped her hands in prayer. "Frank, please tell me she'll let us spend the night. I know we're on a deadline, but we've got to rest, right? And Arion saved us some time. Maybe we could get an actual cooked meal?"
"And a hot shower?" Percy pleaded. "And a bed with, like, sheets and a pillow?"
"As much as I'd like to keep going," Valen said, "We do need to rest and restock."
"It's worth a try," Frank decided. "To Grandmother's house we go."
"Monsters," Valen said as the approached the house, he could sense the soulless husks that depicted monsters in his minds eye. They crouched behind a fallen log and peered into the clearing.
"Bad," Ella murmured. "This is bad for harpies."
It was fully dark now. Around a blazing campfire sat half a dozen shaggy-haired humanoids. Standing up, they probably would've been eight feet tall—tiny compared to the giant Polybotes or even the Cyclopes they'd seen in California, but that didn't make them any less scary. They wore only knee-length surfer shorts. Their skin was sunstroke red—covered with tattoos of dragons, hearts, and bikini-clad women. Hanging from a spit over the fire was a skinned animal, maybe a boar, and the ogres were tearing off chunks of meat with their claw like fingernails, laughing and talking as they ate, baring pointy teeth. Next to the ogres sat several mesh bags filled with bronze spheres like cannonballs. The spheres must have been hot, because they steamed in the cool evening air. Two hundred yards beyond the clearing, the lights of the Zhang mansion glowed through the trees.
"What are these guys?" Frank whispered.
"Canadians," Percy said.
Frank leaned away from him. "Excuse me?"
"Uh, no offense," Percy said. "That's what Annabeth called them when I fought them before. She said they live in the north, in Canada."
"Yeah, well," Frank grumbled, "we're in Canada. I'm Canadian. But I've never seen those things before."
"They're called Laistrygonians," Valen said, "Fun fact, they're descended from Posiedon too."
"Of course," Percy grumbled.
Ella plucked a feather from her wings and turned it in her fingers. "Cannibals. Northern giants. Sasquatch legend. Yep, yep. They're not birds. Not birds of North America."
Frank scowled at the dudes in the clearing. "They could be mistaken for Bigfoot. Maybe that's where the legend came from. Ella, you're pretty smart."
"Ella is smart," she agreed. She shyly offered Frank her feather.
"Oh…thanks." He stuck the feather in his pocket, then noticed Hazel was glaring at him. "What?" he asked.
"Nothing." She turned to Percy and Valen. "So your memories are coming back? Do you remember how you beat these guys?"
Valen shrugged, "I've regained a lot of my memories since leaving camp, but I don't remember much about them."
"Sort of," Percy said. "It's still fuzzy. I think I had help. We killed them with Celestial bronze, but that was before…you know."
"Before Death got kidnapped," Hazel said. "So now, they might not die at all."
Percy nodded. "Those bronze cannonballs…those are bad news. I think we used some of them against the giants. They catch fire and blow up."
"So it's a trap." Hazel looked at Frank with concern. "What about your grandmother? We've got to help her."
"We need a distraction," he decided. "If we can draw this group into the woods, we might sneak through without alerting the others."
"I wish Arion was here," Hazel said. "I could get the ogres to chase me."
Valen stared at them neutrally, "Did you guys forget that I can just shadow travel us in?"
"Oh, right." Frank smiled sheepishly. Percy chuckled.
"Won't it alert them?" Hazel asked.
"Not if I warp us inside the house." He said, extending his arm, "Grab my hand, all of you."
Once he was certain none of them would slip off, he shadow travelled the distance and inside Franks house. Inside, the house smelled closed-up and musty. They examined the living room, the dining room, the kitchen. In the parlor, Buddha statues and Taoist immortals grinned at them like psycho clowns. The fireplace was dark and cold.
Hazel hugged her chest as if to keep the piece of firewood from jumping into the hearth. "Is that—"
"Yeah," Frank said. "That's it."
"That's what?" Percy asked.
"It's the fireplace,"
"That explains everything," Valen muttered.
The steps creaked under their feet. They went inside Frank's old room. None of his things had been touched—his extra bow and quiver, his spelling awards from school, and his photos of his mom.
"Your mother?" Hazel asked gently. "She's beautiful."
Frank didn't answer. They checked the other bedrooms. The middle two were empty. A dim light flickered under the last door.
Frank knocked quietly. No one answered. He pushed open her door. His grandmother lay in bed, looking gaunt and frail, her white hair spread around her face like a basilisk's crown. A single candle burned on the nightstand.
A shiver ran up Valen's spine, they were not alone. He narrowed his eyes, his vision switching. There, sitting by the bedside, was a single bright soul. Red as blood, and smelling like iron.
Mars," Frank said.
"Frank?" Hazel whispered. "What do mean, Mars? Is your grandmother ... is she okay?"
Frank glanced at his friends. "You don't see him?"
"See who?" Percy gripped his sword. "Mars? Where?"
"Sitting beside his grandmother," Valen said, "I can see his soul, but not his physical form. It seems he wants to talk with Frank, and only Frank."
"What?"
Valen stared at Frank, waiting for him to confirm it. And he did, "Guys…why don't you take the middle bedrooms?"
"Roof," Ella said. "Roofs are good for harpies."
"Sure," Frank said in a daze. "There's probably food in the kitchen. I…I need to talk with my father."
"Of course," Valen said, turning to the other three. "Come on," He said, "Let's give them some privacy."
"Are you sure it's a good idea to leave him alone with Mars?" Percy asked once they were downstairs.
"Mars is his father, Frank will be fine." He said, opening the fridge, "Hope you two like pasta, cause thats all you're getting tonight."
"Anything except macrobiotic jerky works for me," Percy said, shuddering as he remembered the smell.
And so they had their first proper meal since leaving the Camp. Throughout it, Frank never came back. They went up to check on him once they were done, but he had fallen asleep on the floor. Hazel went back to get a blanket and a pillow from one of the vacant bedrooms and put them on/under Frank, careful not to wake him up. Percy and Valen bunked together for the night, and Hazel took the other room.
Valens dreams that night consisted of old memories, fighting the Titan Atlas, defeating Kampe, and beating Hyperion with his friends. His dream switched to his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, and his dream of a thousand shades. They opened their mouth to say something, and he woke up.
He stared at the ceiling of the bedroom. With each passing hour, more of his memories seemed to return to him. He remembered almost everything now. That made him wonder, just what was it that had stopped his memories from coming back in Camp Jupiter?
Was it because he was amongst Romans? Or did he simply need to see familiar faces for his memories to come back.
He sighed and sat up on the bed. Beside him, Percy was still sleeping. He stared out of the window, the Laistrygonians were waiting outside, eager. He went to the bathroom to freshen up. By the time he returned, Percy had gotten up.
"Morning," He greeted, "Is the water still hot?"
"Yeah, you can go in now." Valen replied, "I'll go down and see if I can make anything for breakfast."
He nodded, and stumbled into the bathroom. Valen walked downstairs, and found Hazel already up and cooking some bacon and eggs.
"Need some help?"
"I've got it," She said, just as the toaster spat out two pieces of toast.
He shrugged and walked up beside her and started boiling some water.
"Coffee?" He asked.
She shook her head, "I'm fine."
He shrugged, returning to the water. A minute later, he was done. As he sat down with his plate, Percy walked in, wide awake and looking a lot better than a day ago.
Valen raised his cup in greeting. Percy nodded back and got a plate for himself before sitting down. A few moments later, Hazel came back with her own plate.
"So, what's the plan?" Percy asked.
"I could shadow travel us away," Valen suggested.
"We can't just leave Franks Grandmother behind!" Hazel protested.
He shrugged, "We can't stay and fight either. Those giants aren't going to die. And we have a deadline to worry about."
"We could lure them away," Percy said, "They're here for us, not Grandma Zhang."
"That would be a bit dangerous, but it's the only way we can leave without putting her in danger." He said, "Alright then, let's go wake up Frank."
"Give me a minute," Hazel said, going back to the stove and starting to prepare another plate. They waited for her to be done before going up.
Frank's grandmother was awake when they entered the room. She took one look at them and said, "Leave the plate here and go to the attic. I will send him up when he wakes up."
They glanced at each other, following what she said. The attic was full of weapons, enough to supply an army. Shields, spears, and quivers of arrows hung along one wall—almost as many as in the Camp Jupiter armory. At the back window, a scorpion crossbow was mounted and loaded, ready for action. At the front window stood something that looked like a machine gun with a cluster of barrels.
Valen whistled in appreciation, "That's a lot of weapons."
"It is," Percy said, equally impressed.
The house suddenly rumbled, and something hit the chimney, breaking it. They pulled down the ladder and got up to the roof. The Laistrygonians had begun growing impatiently, and one of them had thrown the cannonball in his impatience.
"There's a hose here," Percy said, picking it up, "Why would there be a hose on the roof?"
"A question for a later day," Valen said, "You can use it to stop the cannonballs."
Percy nodded, uncapping riptide so that he held the sword in one hand and the hose in the other. They did not have long before the giants decided to attack.