PIPER DIDN’T WANT TO get yelled at by a three-legged table.
When Jason visited her cabin that evening, she made sure to keep the door open, because Buford the Wonder Table took his duties as acting chaperone very seriously. If he had the slightest suspicion a girl and a boy were in the same cabin without supervision, he would steam and clatter down the hall, his holographic projection of Coach Hedge yelling, ‘CUT THAT OUT! GIVE ME TWENTY PUSH-UPS! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!’
Jason sat at the foot of her bunk. ‘I was about to go on duty. Just wanted to check on you first.’
Piper nudged his leg with her foot. ‘The guy who got run through with a sword wants to check on me? How are you feeling?’
He gave her a lopsided smile. His face was so tanned from their time on the coast of Africa that the scar on his lip looked like a chalk mark. His blue eyes were even more startling. His hair had grown out corn-silk white, though he still had a groove along his scalp where he’d been grazed by a bullet from the bandit Sciron’s flintlock. If such a minor scrape from Celestial bronze took so long to heal, Piper wondered how he’d ever get over the Imperial gold wound in his gut.
‘I’ve been worse,’ Jason assured her. ‘Once, in Oregon, this dracaena cut off my arms.’
Piper blinked. Then she slapped his arm gently. ‘Shut up.’
‘I had you for a second.’
They held hands in comfortable silence. For a moment, Piper could almost imagine they were normal teenagers, enjoying each other’s company and learning to be together as a couple. Sure, Jason and she had had a few months at Camp Half-Blood, but the war with Gaia had always been looming. Piper wondered what it would be like if they didn’t have to worry about dying a dozen times every day.
‘I never thanked you.’ Jason’s expression turned serious. ‘Back on Ithaca, after I saw my mom’s … remnant, her mania … When I was wounded, you kept me from slipping away, Pipes. Part of me …’ His voice faltered. ‘Part of me wanted to close my eyes and stop fighting.’
Piper’s heart did a slow twist. She felt her own pulse in her fingers. ‘Jason … you’re a fighter. You’d never give up. When you faced your mother’s spirit – that was you being strong. Not me.’
‘Maybe.’ His voice was dry. ‘I didn’t mean to lay something so heavy on you, Pipes. It’s just … I have my mom’s DNA. The human part of me is all her. What if I make the wrong choices? What if I make a mistake I can’t take back when we’re fighting Gaia? I don’t want to end up like my mom – reduced to a mania, chewing on my regrets forever.’
Piper cupped her hands around his. She felt like she was back on the deck of the Argo II, holding the Boreads’ ice grenade just before it detonated.
‘You’ll make the right choices,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what will happen to any of us, but you could never end up like your mom.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
Piper studied the tattoo on his forearm – SPQR, the eagle of Jupiter, twelve lines for his years in the legion. ‘My dad used to tell me this story about making choices …’ She shook her head. ‘No, never mind. I’ll sound like Grandpa Tom.’
‘Go on,’ Jason said. ‘What’s the story?’
‘Well … these two Cherokee hunters were out in the woods, right? Each of them was under a taboo.’
‘A taboo – something they weren’t allowed to do.’
‘Yeah.’ Piper began to relax. She wondered if this was why her dad and granddad always liked telling stories. You could make even the most terrifying topic easier to talk about by framing it as something that happened to a couple of Cherokee hunters hundreds of years ago. Take a problem; turn it into entertainment. Perhaps that’s why her dad had become an actor.
‘So one of the hunters,’ she continued, ‘he wasn’t supposed to eat deer meat. The other guy wasn’t supposed to eat squirrel meat.’
‘Why?’
‘Hey, I don’t know. Some Cherokee taboos were permanent no-no’s, like killing eagles.’ She tapped the symbol on Jason’s arm. ‘That was bad luck for almost everybody. But sometimes, individual Cherokee took on temporary taboos – maybe to cleanse their spirit, or because they knew, from listening to the spirit world or whatever, that the taboo was important. They went with their instincts.’
‘Okay.’ Jason sounded unsure. ‘So back to these two hunters.’
‘They were out hunting in the woods all day. The only things they caught were squirrels. At night they made camp, and the guy who could eat squirrel meat started cooking it over the fire.’
‘Yum.’
‘Another reason I’m a vegetarian. Anyway, the second hunter, who wasn’t allowed squirrel meat – he was starving. He just sat there clutching his stomach while his friend ate. Finally the first hunter started feeling guilty. “Ah, go ahead,” he said. “Eat some.” But the second hunter resisted. “It’s taboo for me. I’ll get in serious trouble. I’ll probably turn into a snake or something.” The first hunter laughed. “Where did you get that crazy idea? Nothing will happen to you. You can go back to avoiding squirrel meat tomorrow.” The second hunter knew he shouldn’t, but he ate.’
Jason traced his finger across her knuckles, which made it hard to concentrate. ‘What happened?’
‘In the middle of the night, the second hunter woke up screaming in pain. The first hunter ran over to see what was wrong. He threw off his friend’s covers and saw that his friend’s legs had fused together in a leathery tail. As he watched, snakeskin crept up his friend’s body. The poor hunter wept and apologized to the spirits and cried in fear, but there was nothing to be done. The first hunter stayed by his side and tried to comfort him until the unfortunate guy fully transformed into a giant snake and slithered away. The end.’
‘I love these Cherokee stories,’ Jason said. ‘They’re so cheerful.’
‘Yeah, well.’
‘So the guy turned into a snake. The moral is: Frank has been eating squirrels?’
She laughed, which felt good. ‘No, stupid. The point is, trust your instincts. Squirrel meat might be just fine for one person, but taboo for another. The second hunter knew he had a serpent spirit inside him, waiting to take over. He knew he shouldn’t feed that bad spirit by eating squirrel meat, but he did it anyway.’
‘So … I shouldn’t eat squirrels.’
Piper was relieved to see the gleam in his eyes. She thought about something Hazel had confided to her a few nights ago: I think Jason is the linchpin to Hera’s whole scheme. He was her first play; he’s going to be her last.
‘My point,’ Piper said, poking his chest, ‘is that you, Jason Grace, are very familiar with your own bad spirits, and you try your best not to feed them. You have solid instincts, and you know how to follow them. Whatever annoying qualities you have, you are a genuinely good person who always tries to make the right choice. So no more talk about giving up.’
Jason frowned. ‘Wait. I have annoying qualities?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Come here.’
She was about to kiss him when there was a knock on the door.
Leo leaned inside. ‘A party? Am I invited?’
Jason cleared his throat. ‘Hey, Leo. What’s going on?’
‘Oh, not much.’ He pointed upstairs. ‘The usual obnoxious venti trying to destroy the ship. You ready for guard duty?’
‘Yeah.’ Jason leaned forward and kissed Piper. ‘Thanks. And don’t worry. I’m good.’
‘That,’ she told him, ‘was kind of my point.’
After the boys left, Piper lay on her pegasus-down pillows and watched the constellations her lamp projected on the ceiling. She didn’t think she could sleep, but a full day of fighting monsters in the summer heat had taken its toll. At last she closed her eyes and drifted into a nightmare.
The Acropolis.
Piper had never been there, but she recognized it from pictures – an ancient stronghold perched on a hill almost as impressive as Gibraltar. Rising four hundred feet over the night-time sprawl of modern Athens, the sheer cliffs were topped with a crown of limestone walls. On the clifftop, a collection of ruined temples and modern cranes gleamed silver in the moonlight.
In her dream, Piper flew above the Parthenon – the ancient temple of Athena, the left side of its hollow shell encased in metal scaffolding.
The Acropolis seemed devoid of mortals, perhaps because of the financial problems in Greece. Or perhaps Gaia’s forces had arranged some pretext to keep the tourists and construction workers away.
Piper’s view zoomed to the centre of the temple. So many giants had gathered there it looked like a cocktail party for redwood trees. A few Piper recognized: those horrible twins from Rome, Otis and Ephialtes, dressed in matching construction worker outfits; Polybotes, looking just as Percy had described him, with poison dripping from his dreadlocks and a breastplate sculpted to resemble hungry mouths; worst of all, Enceladus, the giant who had kidnapped Piper’s dad. His armour was etched with flame designs, his hair braided with bones. His flagpole-sized spear burned with purple fire.
Piper had heard that each giant was born to oppose a particular god, but there were way more than twelve giants gathered in the Parthenon. She counted at least twenty and, if that wasn’t intimidating enough, around the giants’ feet milled a horde of smaller monsters – Cyclopes, ogres, six-armed Earthborn and serpent-legged dracaenae.
In the centre of the crowd stood an empty, makeshift throne of twisted scaffolding and stone blocks apparently yanked at random from the ruins.
As Piper watched, a new giant lumbered up the steps at the far end of the Acropolis. He wore a massive velour tracksuit with gold chains around his neck and greased-back hair, so he looked like a thirty-foot-tall mobster – if mobsters had dragon feet and burnt-orange skin. The mafia giant ran towards the Parthenon and stumbled inside, flattening several Earthborn under his feet. He stopped, gasping for breath at the foot of the throne.
‘Where is Porphyrion?’ he demanded. ‘I have news!’
Piper’s old enemy Enceladus stepped forward. ‘Tardy as usual, Hippolytos. I hope your news is worth the wait. King Porphyrion should be …’
The ground between them split. An even larger giant leaped from the earth like a breaching whale.
‘King Porphyrion is here,’ announced the king.
He looked just as Piper remembered from the Wolf House in Sonoma. Forty feet tall, he towered over his brethren. In fact, Piper realized queasily, he was the same size as the Athena Parthenos that had once dominated the temple. In his seaweed-coloured braids, captured demigod weapons glittered. His face was cruel and pale green, his eyes as white as the Mist. His body radiated its own sort of gravity, causing the other monsters to lean towards him. Soil and pebbles skittered across the ground, pulled towards his massive dragon feet.
The mobster giant Hippolytos kneeled. ‘My king, I bring word of the enemy!’
Porphyrion took his throne. ‘Speak.’
‘The demigod ship sails around the Peloponnese. Already they have destroyed the ghosts at Ithaca and captured the goddess Nike in Olympia!’
The crowd of monsters stirred uneasily. A Cyclops chewed his fingernails. Two dracaenae exchanged coins like they were taking bets for the End-of-the-World office sweepstake.
Porphyrion just laughed. ‘Hippolytos, do you wish to kill your enemy Hermes and become the messenger of the giants?’
‘Yes, my king!’
‘Then you will have to bring fresher news. I know all this already. None of it matters! The demigods have taken the route we expected them to take. They would have been fools to go any other way.’
‘But, sire, they will arrive at Sparta by morning! If they manage to unleash the makhai –’
‘Idiot!’ Porphyrion’s voice shook the ruins. ‘Our brother Mimas awaits them at Sparta. You need not worry. The demigods cannot change their fate. One way or another, their blood shall be spilled upon these stones and wake the Earth Mother!’
The crowd roared approval and brandished their weapons. Hippolytos bowed and retreated, but another giant approached the throne.
With a start, Piper realized this one was female. Not that it was easy to tell. The giantess had the same dragon-like legs and the same long braided hair. She was just as tall and burly as the males, but her breastplate was definitely fashioned for a woman. Her voice was higher and reedier.
‘Father!’ she cried. ‘I ask again: Why here, in this place? Why not on the slopes of Mount Olympus itself? Surely –’
‘Periboia,’ the king growled, ‘the matter is settled. The original Mount Olympus is now a barren peak. It offers us no glory. Here, in the centre of the Greek world, the roots of the gods truly run deep. There may be older temples, but this Parthenon holds their memory best. In the minds of mortals, it is the most powerful symbol of the Olympians. When the blood of the last heroes is spilled here, the Acropolis shall be razed. This hill shall crumble, and the entire city shall be consumed by the Earth Mother. We will be the masters of Creation!’
The crowd hollered and howled, but the giantess Periboia didn’t look convinced.
‘You tempt fate, Father,’ she said. ‘The demigods have friends here as well as enemies. It is not wise –’
‘WISE?’ Porphyrion rose from his throne. All the giants took a step back. ‘Enceladus, my counsellor, explain to my daughter what wisdom is!’
The fiery giant came forward. His eyes glowed like diamonds. Piper loathed his face. She’d seen it too many times in her dreams when her father was held captive.
‘You need not worry, princess,’ Enceladus said. ‘We have taken Delphi. Apollo was driven out of Olympus in shame. The future is closed to the gods. They stumble forward blindly. As for tempting fate …’ He gestured to his left, and a smaller giant shuffled forward. He had ratty grey hair, a wrinkled face and eyes that were milky with cataracts. Instead of armour, he wore a tattered sackcloth tunic. His dragon-scale legs were as white as frost.
He didn’t look like much, but Piper noticed that the other monsters kept their distance. Even Porphyrion leaned away from the old giant.
‘This is Thoon,’ Enceladus said. ‘Just as many of us were born to kill certain gods, Thoon was born to kill the Three Fates. He will strangle the old ladies with his bare hands. He will shred their yarn and destroy their loom. He will destroy Fate itself!’
King Porphyrion rose and spread his arms in triumph. ‘No more prophecies, my friends! No more futures foretold! The time of Gaia shall be our era, and we will make our own destiny!’
The crowd cheered so loudly that Piper felt as if she were crumbling to pieces.
Then she realized someone was shaking her awake.
‘Hey,’ Annabeth said. ‘We made it to Sparta. Can you get ready?’
Piper sat up groggily, her heart still pounding.
‘Yeah …’ She gripped Annabeth’s arm. ‘But first there’s something you need to hear.’
