Percy Jackson The Complete Collection (96 page)

I heard an explosion in the distance. About half a mile away, a mountain of coral disintegrated under the weight of two giant creatures. I could dimly make out their shapes. One was a lobster. The other was a giant humanoid like a Cyclops, but he was surrounded by a flurry of limbs. At first I thought he was wearing a bunch of giant octopi. Then I realized they were his own arms – a hundred flailing, fighting arms.

‘Briares!’ I said.

I was happy to see him, but he looked like he was fighting for his life. He was the last of his kind – a Hundred-handed One, cousin of the Cyclopes. We’d saved him from Kronos’s prison last summer and I knew he’d come to help Poseidon, but I hadn’t heard of him since.

‘He fights well,’ Poseidon said. ‘I wish we had a whole army like him, but he is only one.’

I watched as Briares bellowed in rage and picked up the lobster, which thrashed and snapped its pincers. He threw it off the coral mountain and the lobster disappeared into the darkness. Briares swam after it, his hundred arms spinning like the blades of a motorboat.

‘Percy, we may not have much time,’ my dad said. ‘Tell me of your mission. Did you see Kronos?’

I told him everything, though my voice choked up when I explained about Beckendorf. I looked down at the courtyards below and saw hundreds of wounded mermen lying on makeshift cots. I saw rows of coral mounds that must’ve been hastily made graves. I realized Beckendorf wasn’t the first death. He was only one of hundreds, maybe thousands. I’d never felt so angry and helpless.

Poseidon stroked his beard. ‘Percy, Beckendorf chose a heroic death. You bear no blame for that. Kronos’s army will be in disarray. Many were destroyed.’

‘But we didn’t kill him, did we?’

As I said it, I knew it was a naive hope. We might blow up his ship and disintegrate his monsters, but a Titan lord wouldn’t be so easy to kill.

‘No,’ Poseidon admitted. ‘But you’ve bought our side some time.’

‘There were demigods on that ship,’ I said, thinking of the kid I’d seen in the stairwell. Somehow I’d allowed myself to concentrate on the monsters and Kronos. I’d convinced myself that destroying their ship was all right because they were evil, they were sailing to attack my city and, besides, they couldn’t really be permanently killed. Monsters just vaporized and re-formed eventually. But demigods …

Poseidon put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Percy, there
were only a few demigod warriors aboard that ship, and they all chose to battle for Kronos. Perhaps some heeded your warning and escaped. If they did not … they chose their path.’

‘They were brainwashed!’ I said. ‘Now they’re dead and Kronos is still alive. That’s supposed to make me feel better?’

I glared at the mosaic – little tile explosions destroying tile monsters. It seemed so easy when it was just a picture.

Tyson put his arm around me. If anybody else had tried that, I would’ve pushed them away, but Tyson was too big and stubborn. He hugged me whether I wanted it or not. ‘Not your fault, brother. Kronos does not explode good. Next time we will use a big stick.’

‘Percy,’ my father said. ‘Beckendorf’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. You have scattered the invasion force. New York will be safe for a time, which frees the other Olympians to deal with the bigger threat.’

‘The bigger threat?’ I thought about what the golden Titan had said in my dream:
The gods have answered the challenge. Soon they will be destroyed.

A shadow passed over my father’s face. ‘You’ve had enough sorrow for one day. Ask Chiron when you return to camp.’

‘Return to camp? But you’re in trouble here. I want to help!’

‘You can’t, Percy. Your job is elsewhere.’

I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. I looked at Tyson for backup.

My brother chewed his lip. ‘Daddy … Percy can fight with a sword. He is good.’

‘I know that,’ Poseidon said gently.

‘Dad, I can help,’ I said. ‘I know I can. You’re not going to hold out here much longer.’

A fireball launched into the sky from behind the enemy lines. I thought Poseidon would deflect it or something, but it landed on the outer corner of the yard and exploded, sending mermen tumbling through the water. Poseidon winced as if he’d just been stabbed.

‘Return to camp,’ he insisted. ‘And tell Chiron it is time.’

‘For what?’

‘You must hear the prophecy. The
entire
prophecy.’

I didn’t need to ask him which prophecy. I’d been hearing about the ‘Great Prophecy’ for years, but nobody would ever tell me the whole thing. All I knew was that I was supposed to make a decision that would decide the fate of the world – but no pressure.

‘What if
this
is the decision?’ I said. ‘Staying here to fight, or leaving? What if I leave and you …’

I couldn’t say
die.
Gods weren’t supposed to die, but I’d seen it happen. Even if they didn’t die, they could be reduced to nearly nothing, exiled, imprisoned in the depths of Tartarus like Kronos had been.

‘Percy, you must go,’ Poseidon insisted. ‘I don’t know what your final decision will be, but your fight lies in the world above. If nothing else, you must warn your friends at camp. Kronos knew your plans. You have a spy. We will hold here. We have no choice.’

Tyson gripped my hand desperately. ‘I will miss you, brother!’

Watching us, our father seemed to age another ten years.
‘Tyson, you have work to do as well, my son. They need you in the armoury.’

Tyson pouted some more.

‘I will go,’ he sniffled. He hugged me so hard he almost cracked my ribs. ‘Percy, be careful! Do not let monsters kill you dead!’

I tried to nod confidently, but it was too much for the big guy. He sobbed and swam away towards the armoury where his cousins were fixing spears and swords.

‘You should let him fight,’ I told my father. ‘He hates being stuck in the armoury. Can’t you tell?’

Poseidon shook his head. ‘It is bad enough I must send you into danger. Tyson is too young. I must protect him.’

‘You should trust him,’ I said. ‘Not try to protect him.’ Poseidon’s eyes flared. I thought I’d gone too far, but then he looked down at the mosaic and his shoulders sagged. On the tiles, the mermaid guy in the crawfish chariot was coming closer to the palace.

‘Oceanus approaches,’ my father said. ‘I must meet him in battle.’

I’d never been scared for a god before, but I didn’t see how my dad could face this Titan and win.

‘I will hold,’ Poseidon promised. ‘I will not give up my domain. Just tell me, Percy, do you still have the birthday gift I gave you last summer?’

I nodded and pulled out my camp necklace. It had a bead for every summer I’d been at Camp Half-Blood, but since last year I’d also kept a sand dollar on the cord. My father had given it to me for my fifteenth birthday. He’d told me I would know when to ‘spend it’, but so far I
hadn’t figured out what he meant. All I knew was that it didn’t fit the vending machines in the school cafeteria.

‘The time is coming,’ he promised. ‘With luck, I will see you for your birthday next week, and we will have a proper celebration.’

He smiled, and for a moment I saw the old light in his eyes.

Then the entire sea grew dark in front of us, like an inky storm was rolling in. Thunder crackled, which should’ve been impossible underwater. A huge icy presence was approaching. I sensed a wave of fear roll through the armies below us.

‘I must assume my true godly form,’ Poseidon said. ‘Go – and good luck, my son.’

I wanted to encourage him, to hug him or something, but knew better than to stick around. When a god assumes his true form, the power is so great that any mortal looking on him will disintegrate.

‘Goodbye, Father,’ I managed.

Then I turned away. I willed the ocean currents to aid me. Water swirled around me and I shot towards the surface at speeds that would’ve caused any normal human to pop like a balloon.

When I looked back, all I could see were flashes of green and blue as my father fought the Titan and the sea itself was torn apart by the two armies.

If you want to be popular at Camp Half-Blood, don’t come back from a mission with bad news.

Word of my arrival spread as soon as I walked out of the ocean. Our beach is on the North Shore of Long Island, and it’s enchanted so most people can’t even see it. People don’t just
appear
on the beach unless they’re demigods or gods or really, really lost pizza delivery guys. (It’s happened – but that’s another story.)

Anyway, that afternoon the lookout on duty was Connor Stoll from Hermes cabin. When he spotted me, he got so excited he fell out of his tree. Then he blew the conch horn to signal the camp and ran to greet me.

Connor had a crooked smile that matched his crooked sense of humour. He’s a pretty nice guy, but you should always keep one hand on your wallet when he’s around and do not, under any circumstances, give him access to shaving cream unless you want to find your sleeping bag full of it. He’s got curly brown hair and is a little shorter than his brother Travis, which is the only way I can tell them apart. They are both so unlike my old enemy Luke it’s hard to believe they’re all sons of Hermes.

‘Percy!’ he yelled. ‘What happened? Where’s Beckendorf?’

Then he saw my expression, and his smile melted. ‘Oh no. Poor Silena. Holy Zeus, when she finds out …’

Together we climbed the sand dunes. A few hundred metres away, people were already streaming towards us, smiling and excited.
Percy’s back
, they were probably thinking.
He’s saved the day! Maybe he brought souvenirs!

I stopped at the dining pavilion and waited for them. No sense rushing down there to tell them what a loser I was.

I gazed across the valley and tried to remember how Camp Half-Blood looked the first time I saw it. That seemed like a bajillion years ago.

From the dining pavilion, you could see pretty much everything. Hills ringed the valley. On the tallest, Half-Blood Hill, Thalia’s pine tree stood with the Golden Fleece hanging from its branches, magically protecting the camp from its enemies. The guard dragon Peleus was so big now I could see him from here – curled around the tree trunk, sending up smoke signals as he snored.

To my right spread the woods. To my left, the canoe lake glittered and the climbing wall glowed from the lava pouring down its side. Twelve cabins – one for each Olympian god – made a horseshoe pattern around the commons area. Further south were the strawberry fields, the armoury and the four-storey Big House with its sky-blue paint job and its bronze-eagle weathervane.

In some ways, the camp hadn’t changed. But you couldn’t see the war by looking at the buildings or the fields. You could see it in the faces of the demigods and satyrs and naiads coming up the hill.

There weren’t as many at camp as four summers ago. Some had left and never come back. Some had died fighting. Others – we tried not to talk about them – had gone over to the enemy.

The ones who were still here were battle-hardened and weary. There was little laughter at camp these days. Even the Hermes cabin didn’t play so many pranks. It’s hard to enjoy practical jokes when your whole life feels like one.

Chiron galloped into the pavilion first, which was easy for him since he’s a white stallion from the waist down. His beard had grown wilder over the summer. He wore a green T-shirt that said
MY OTHER CAR IS A CENTAUR
and a bow slung over his back.

‘Percy!’ he said. ‘Thank the gods. But where …’

Annabeth ran in right behind him, and I’ll admit my heart did a little relay race in my chest when I saw her. It’s not that she tried to look good. We’d been doing so many combat missions lately she hardly brushed her curly blonde hair any more and she didn’t care what clothes she was wearing – usually the same old orange camp T-shirt and jeans and once in a while her bronze armour. Her eyes were stormy grey. Most of the time, we couldn’t get through a conversation without trying to strangle each other. Still, just seeing her made me feel fuzzy in the head. Last summer, before Luke had turned into Kronos and everything went sour, there had been a few times when I thought maybe … well, we might get past the strangle-each-other phase.

‘What happened?’ She grabbed my arm. ‘Is Luke –’

‘The ship blew up,’ I said. ‘He wasn’t destroyed. I don’t know where –’

Silena Beauregard pushed through the crowd. Her hair wasn’t combed and she wasn’t even wearing makeup, which wasn’t like her.

‘Where’s Charlie?’ she demanded, looking around like he might be hiding.

I glanced at Chiron helplessly.

The old centaur cleared his throat. ‘Silena, my dear, let’s talk about this at the Big House –’

‘No,’ she muttered. ‘No.
No.
’

She started to cry, and the rest of us stood around, too stunned to speak. We’d already lost so many people over the summer, but this was the worst. With Beckendorf gone, it felt like someone had stolen the anchor for the entire camp.

Finally Clarisse from the Ares cabin came forward. She put her arm around Silena. They had one of the strangest friendships ever – a daughter of the war god and a daughter of the love goddess – but ever since Silena had given Clarisse advice last summer about her first boyfriend, Clarisse had decided she was Silena’s personal bodyguard.

Clarisse was dressed in her blood-red combat armour, her brown hair tucked into a bandanna. She was as big and beefy as a rugby player, with a permanent scowl on her face, but she spoke gently to Silena.

‘Come on, girl,’ she said. ‘Let’s get to the Big House. I’ll make you some hot chocolate.’

Everyone turned and wandered off in twos and threes, heading back to the cabins. Nobody was excited to see me now. Nobody wanted to hear about the blown-up ship.

Only Annabeth and Chiron stayed behind.

Annabeth wiped a tear from her cheek. ‘I’m glad you’re not dead, Seaweed Brain.’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Me too.’

Chiron put a hand on my shoulder. ‘I’m sure you did everything you could, Percy. Will you tell us what happened?’

I didn’t want to go through it again, but I told them the story, including my dream about the Titans. I left out the detail about Nico. Nico had made me promise not to tell anybody about his plan until I made up my mind, and the plan was so scary I didn’t mind keeping it a secret.

Chiron gazed down at the valley. ‘We must call a war council immediately to discuss this spy, and other matters.’

‘Poseidon mentioned another threat,’ I said, ‘something even bigger than the
Princess Andromeda.
I thought it might be that challenge the Titan mentioned in my dream.’

Chiron and Annabeth exchanged looks, like they knew something I didn’t. I hated it when they did that.

‘We will discuss that also,’ Chiron promised.

‘One more thing.’ I took a deep breath. ‘When I talked to my father, he said to tell you it’s time. I need to know the full prophecy.’

Chiron’s shoulders sagged, but he didn’t look surprised. ‘I’ve dreaded this day. Very well. Annabeth, we will show Percy the truth – all of it. Let’s go to the attic.’

I’d been to the Big House attic three times before, which was three times more than I wanted to.

A ladder led up from the top of the staircase. I wondered how Chiron was going to get up there, being half horse and all, but he didn’t try.

‘You know where it is,’ he told Annabeth. ‘Bring it down, please.’

Annabeth nodded. ‘Come on, Percy.’

The sun was setting outside, so the attic was even darker and creepier than usual. Old hero trophies were stacked everywhere – dented shields, pickled heads in jars from
various monsters, a pair of fuzzy dice on a bronze plaque that read:
STOLEN FROM CHRYSAOR’S HONDA CIVIC, BY GUS, SON OF HERMES
, 1988.

I picked up a curved bronze sword so badly bent it looked like a letter M. I could still see green stains on the metal from the magical poison that used to cover it. The tag was dated last summer. It read:
SCIMITAR OF KAMPÊ, DESTROYED IN THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH
.

‘You remember Briares throwing those boulders?’ I asked.

Annabeth gave me a grudging smile. ‘And Grover causing a Panic?’

We locked eyes. I thought of a different time last summer, under Mount St Helens, when Annabeth thought I was going to die, and she kissed me.

She cleared her throat and looked away. ‘Prophecy.’

‘Right.’ I put down the scimitar. ‘Prophecy.’

We walked over to the window. On a three-legged stool sat the Oracle – a shrivelled female mummy in a tie-dyed dress. Tufts of black hair clung to her skull. Glassy eyes stared out of her leathery face. Just looking at her made my skin crawl.

If you wanted to leave camp during the summer, it used to be you had to come up here to get a quest. This summer, that rule had been tossed. Campers left all the time on combat missions. We had no choice if we wanted to stop Kronos.

Still, I remembered too well the strange green mist – the spirit of the Oracle – that lived inside the mummy. She looked lifeless now, but whenever she spoke a prophecy she moved. Sometimes fog gushed out of her mouth and created
strange shapes. Once, she’d even left the attic and taken a little zombie stroll into the woods to deliver a message. I wasn’t sure what she’d do for the ‘Great Prophecy’. I half expected her to start tap dancing or something.

But she just sat there like she was dead – which she was.

‘I never understood this,’ I whispered.

‘What?’ Annabeth asked.

‘Why it’s a mummy.’

‘Percy, she wasn’t always a mummy. For thousands of years the spirit of the Oracle lived inside a beautiful maiden. The spirit would be passed on from generation to generation. Chiron told me
she
was like that fifty years ago.’ Annabeth pointed at the mummy. ‘But she was the last.’

‘What happened?’

Annabeth stared to say something then apparently changed her mind. ‘Let’s just do our job and get out of here.’

I looked nervously at the Oracle’s withered face. ‘So what now?’

Annabeth approached the mummy and held out her palms. ‘O Oracle, the time is at hand. I ask for the Great Prophecy.’

I braced myself, but the mummy didn’t move. Instead, Annabeth approached and unclasped one of its necklaces. I’d never paid too much attention to its jewellery before. I figured it was just hippie love beads and stuff. But when Annabeth turned towards me, she was holding a leather pouch – like a Native American medicine pouch – on a cord braided with feathers. She opened the bag and took out a roll of parchment no bigger than her pinky.

‘No way,’ I said. ‘You mean all these years I’ve been asking about this stupid prophecy, and it’s been right there around her neck?’

‘The time wasn’t right,’ Annabeth said. ‘Believe me, Percy, I read this when I was ten years old, and I still have nightmares about it.’

‘Great,’ I said. ‘Can I read it now?’

‘Downstairs at the war council,’ Annabeth said. ‘Not in front of … you know.’

I looked at the glassy eyes of the Oracle, and I decided not to argue. We headed downstairs to join the others. I didn’t know it then, but it would be the last time I ever visited the attic.

The senior counsellors had gathered around the ping-pong table. Don’t ask me why, but the rec room had become the camp’s informal headquarters for war councils. When Annabeth, Chiron and I came in, though, it looked more like a shouting match.

Clarisse was still in full battle gear. Her electric spear was strapped to her back. (Actually her
second
electric spear, since I’d broken the first one. She called the spear ‘Maimer’. Behind her back, everybody else called it ‘Lamer’.) She had her boar-shaped helmet under one arm and a knife at her belt.

She was in the midst of yelling at Michael Yew, the new head counsellor for Apollo, which looked kind of funny since Clarisse was so much taller. Michael had taken over the Apollo cabin after Lee Fletcher died in battle last summer. Michael stood a little over a metre tall with another half metre of attitude. He reminded me of a ferret, with a pointy nose and scrunched-up features – either because
he scowled so much or because he spent too much time looking down the shaft of an arrow.

‘It’s
our
loot!’ he yelled, standing on his tiptoes so he could get in Clarisse’s face. ‘If you don’t like it, you can kiss my quiver!’

Around the table, people were trying not to laugh – the Stoll brothers, Pollux from the Dionysus cabin, Katie Gardner from Demeter. Even Jake Mason, the hastily appointed new counsellor from Hephaestus, managed a faint smile. Only Silena Beauregard didn’t pay any attention. She sat beside Clarisse and stared vacantly at the ping-pong net. Her eyes were red and puffy. A cup of hot chocolate sat untouched in front of her. It seemed unfair that she had to be here. I couldn’t believe Clarisse and Michael standing over her, arguing about something as stupid as loot when she’d just lost Beckendorf.

‘STOP IT!’ I yelled. ‘What are you guys doing?’

Clarisse glowered at me. ‘Tell Michael not to be a selfish jerk.’

‘Oh, that’s perfect, coming from you,’ Michael said.

‘The only reason I’m here is to support Silena!’ Clarisse shouted. ‘Otherwise I’d be back in my cabin.’

‘What are you talking about?’ I demanded.

Pollux cleared his throat. ‘Clarisse has refused to speak to any us, until her, um, issue is resolved. She hasn’t spoken for three days.’

‘It’s been wonderful,’ Travis Stoll said wistfully.

‘What issue?’ I asked.

Clarisse turned to Chiron. ‘You’re in charge, right? Does my cabin get what we want or not?’

Chiron shuffled his hooves. ‘My dear, as I’ve already
explained, Michael is correct. Apollo’s cabin has the best claim. Besides, we have more important matters –’

‘Sure,’ Clarisse snapped. ‘Always more important matters than what Ares needs. We’re just supposed to show up and fight when you need us and not complain!’

‘That would be nice,’ Connor Stoll muttered.

Clarisse gripped her knife. ‘Maybe I should ask Mr D –’

‘As you know,’ Chiron interrupted, his tone slightly angry now, ‘our director Dionysus is busy with the war. He can’t be bothered with this.’