Hello there, gods, half-bloods and friends. Welcome to the next chapter of The God Hunter.
A bit shorter than usual, but there is a big fight coming the next chapter, hope you enjoy and now on to the story.
At Hades Palace, the Furies circled the parapets, high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open.
Engraved on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times, an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls, but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago.
Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden ever seen. Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as a fist, clumps of raw diamonds. Standing here and there like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues, petrified children, satyrs, and centaurs, all smiling grotesquely.
In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark.
"The garden of Persephone." Annabeth said, "Keep walking."
The tart smell of those pomegranates was almost overwhelming, but one bit from underworld food and you could never leave, at least according to the story of Persephone.
Walking up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above.
Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered them, but their hollow eye sockets followed them as the foursome walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.
Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at them, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.
"You know." Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."
"...Eh, I doubt it." Matt said, "Door-to-door salesmen are crazy enough to try it. Only ones crazy are Jehovah Witnesses."
A hot wind blew down the corridor, the doors swung open and the guards stepped aside.
"I guess we're expected." Matt said.
The room inside was just like how Percy had described in his dream, but all Matt was focused on was the throne, one occupied by Hades.
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.
"You are brave to come here, Son 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."
"I guess he's both." Matt said as he stepped forward, "Lord and Uncle Hades... How are things in the Underworld?"
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.
"You know its fine. A little dark, a little gloomy and as always full of dead people." Hades said with a shrug, "What are you gonna do about it?"
"That I can't help you with." Matt said, "I humbly have two requests."
"Only two requests, Child of Hera?" Hades said, "You have amused me enough not to strike you down yet. Speak."
"This war between the gods, it's not a good idea." Matt said, "So how about you return Zeus's master bolt, we'll get it back to Olympus and we will let bygones be bygones."
Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what your friend has done?"
Matt glanced to his side at Percy, who looked just as confused as he was.
"Um... Uncle." Percy said, "What exactly have I done?"
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.
Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"
"Wouldn't a war expand your kingdom?" Matt said, "You are the Lord of the Dead afterall."
"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?"
"Unfortunatly I have."
"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"
It seemed this had gotten Hades on a roll.
"More security ghouls." he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"
"Oh speaking of expenses, Charon wants a pay raise." Matt said, "That was my second request."
"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."
"Then who did take it?" Matt said.
"Not me!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goalpost. "Poseidon may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."
"Oh, his plan?" Matt said interested, "Do tell."
"Percy Jackson was the thief on the winter solstice." he said, "His father thought to keep him his little secret. He directed him into the throne room on Olympus, he took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover him at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now he has been forced into the open. He will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"
"Wait." Matt said, holding up his hand, "Your helm is missing as well?"
"Do not play innocent with me, boy. You, the girl and the satyr 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?"
"No!" Percy said, "Poseidon didn't... I didn't..."
"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance." Hades snarled, "Because I had no illusions of being offered the slightest bit of justice from anyone on Olympus, 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."
"Now return my helm, 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."
The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.
"You're as bad as Zeus." Percy said, "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"
"Of course." Hades said.
"And the other monsters?"
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 kingdom so easily?"
"Easily?" Matt said with his hands in his pockets.
"Return my property!"
"But I don't have your helm." Percy said, "I came for the master bolt."
"Which you already possess!" Hades shouted, "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could you threaten me!"
"But I didn't!"
"Open your pack, then."
Percy slung it off his shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.
"Percy." Annabeth said, "How..."
"I-I don't know." Percy said, "I don't understand."
"...I am beyond confused right now." Matt muttered.
"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?"
One would think Hades was pulling some kind of trick. But Matt could feel it in his jellies, the Big Three where being played against each other. The master bolt had been in the backpack, and who did they got it from?...
"So... Lord Hades." Matt said, "Would you believe me if I told you this is all one misunderstanding?"
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 Percy eagerly and flicked her whip.
"A misunderstanding? There is no misunderstanding." Hades roar, "I know why you have come, I know the real reason Percy Jackson brought the bolt. He came to bargain for her."
Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps, and there was Sally Jackson, frozen in a shower of gold, just as she was at the moment when the Minotaur began to squeeze her to death.
Percy didn't speak, he reached out to touch her, but the light was as hot as a bonfire.
"Yes, I took her." Hades said with satisfaction, "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... Ah, the pearls. Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."
Percy's hand move and he brought out the pearls.
"Only four." Hades said, "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."
The four of them looked at each other, each of their faces wearing the same grim expression.
"We were tricked." Percy told them, "Set up."
"Yeah, you don't say." Matt said, "I had already figured that out."
"Percy, you can't give him the bolt." Grover said, putting his hand on Percy's shoulder, "Leave me here, use the fourth pearl on your mom. I'm a satyr, we don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."
"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife, "You three go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher's license and start your quest for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."
"If anyone should stay behind, it's me." Matt said, "I'm immoral afterall."
"Stop it, all of you!" Percy said, "I know what to do, take these." he handed them each a pearl.
Percy turned to his mother, "I'm sorry." he told her, "I'll be back. I'll find a way."
The smug look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling?..."
"I'll find your helm, Uncle." Percy told him, "I'll return it. Remember about Charon's pay raise."
"Oh and play more with Cerberus." Matt said, "He deserves some attention."
They smashed the pearls at their feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened.
Hades yelled, "Destroy them!"
The army of skeletons rushed forward, swords out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into flame. Just as the skeletons opened fire, the pearl fragments exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. Matt was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground.
Percy, Annabeth and Grover were right behind. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as they floated up. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook and it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A.
"Look up." Grover yelled, "We're going to crash!"
Sure enough, they were racing right toward the stalactites, "How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted.
"I don't think you do!" Percy shouted back.
They screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and... Darkness.
Right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. That was the power of the pearls.
For a few moments, Matt couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of his sphere, then it broke through on the ocean floor. The three other milky spheres, kept pace with each other as they soared upward through the water.
They exploded on the surface, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"
Percy grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy. Matt caught Annabeth and dragged her over too. A curious shark was circling them, a great white about eleven feet long.
Percy said, "Beat it."
The shark turned and raced away.
The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from them as fast as he could. It was early in the morning, June 21, the day of the summer solstice.
In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighborhoods all over the city. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades's fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after them right about now.
"Well that's not good." Matt muttered but Hades wasn't the biggest problem.
There you go, hope you enjoyed. Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite, or follows this story.
Take care of yourself, drink plenty of water and I will see you people next time.