PERCY ALREADY FELT LIKE THE lamest demigod in the history
of lame. The bag was the final insult.
They’d left R.O.F.L. in a hurry, so maybe Iris hadn’t
meant the bag as a criticism. She’d quickly stuffed it with
vitamin-enriched pastries, dried fruit leather, macrobiotic
beef jerky and a few crystals for good luck. Then she’d
shoved it at Percy: Here, you’ll need this. Oh, that looks
good.
The handbag – sorry, masculine accessory bag – was
rainbow tie-dyed with a peace symbol stitched in wooden
beads and the slogan Hug the Whole World. Percy
wished it said Hug the Commode. He felt like the bag was
a comment on his massive, incredible uselessness. As
they sailed north, he put the man satchel as far away from
him as he could, but the boat was small.
He couldn’t believe how he’d broken down when his
friends had needed him. First, he’d been dumb enough to
leave them alone when he had run back to the boat, and
Hazel had been kidnapped. Then he’d watched that army
marching south and had some kind of nervous
breakdown. Embarrassing? Yeah. But he couldn’t help it.
When he’d seen those evil centaurs and Cyclopes, it had
seemed so wrong, so backwards, that he thought his head
would explode. And the giant Polybotes … that giant had
given him a feeling the opposite of what he felt when he
stood in the ocean. Percy’s energy had drained out of
him, leaving him weak and feverish, like his insides were
eroding.
Iris’s medicinal tea had helped his body feel better, but
his mind still hurt. He’d heard stories about amputees who
had phantom pains where their missing legs and arms
used to be. That’s how his mind felt – like his missing
memories were aching.
Worst of all, the further north Percy went, the more those
memories faded. He had started to feel better at Camp
Jupiter, remembering random names and faces. But now
even Annabeth’s face was getting dimmer. At R.O.F.L.,
when he’d tried to send an Iris-message to Annabeth,
Fleecy had just shaken her head sadly.
It’s like you’re dialling somebody, she said, but you’ve
forgotten the number. Or someone is jamming the signal.
Sorry, dear. I just can’t connect you.
He was terrified that he’d lose Annabeth’s face
completely when he got to Alaska. Maybe he’d wake up
one day and not remember her name.
Still, he had to concentrate on the quest. The sight of
that enemy army had shown him what they were up
against. It was early in the morning of 21 June, now. They
had to get to Alaska, find Thanatos, locate the legion’s
standard and make it back to Camp Jupiter by the
evening of 24 June. Four days. Meanwhile, the enemy
had only a few hundred miles to march.
Percy guided the boat through the strong currents off
the northern California coast. The wind was cold, but it felt
good, clearing some of the confusion from his head. He
bent his will to push the boat as hard as he could. The hull
rattled as the Pax ploughed its way north.
Meanwhile, Hazel and Frank traded stories about the
events at Rainbow Organic Foods. Frank explained about
the blind seer Phineas in Portland, and how Iris had said
that he might be able to tell them where to find Thanatos.
Frank wouldn’t say how he had managed to kill the
basilisks, but Percy got the feeling it had something to do
with the broken point of his spear. Whatever had
happened, Frank sounded more scared of the spear than
the basilisks.
When he was done, Hazel told Frank about their time
with Fleecy.
‘So this Iris-message worked?’ Frank asked.
Hazel gave Percy a sympathetic look. She didn’t
mention his failure to contact Annabeth.
‘I got in touch with Reyna,’ she said. ‘You’re supposed to
throw a coin into a rainbow and say this incantation, like O
Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Except
Fleecy kind of changed it. She gave us her – what did she
call it – her direct number? So I had to say, O Fleecy, do
me a solid. Show Reyna at Camp Jupiter. I felt kind of
stupid, but it worked. Reyna’s image appeared in the
rainbow, like in a two-way video call. She was in the baths.
Scared her out of her mind.’
‘That I would’ve paid to see,’ Frank said. ‘I mean – her
expression. Not, you know, the baths.’
‘Frank!’ Hazel fanned her face like she needed air. It
was an old-fashioned gesture, but cute, somehow.
‘Anyway, we told Reyna about the army, but, like Percy
said, she pretty much already knew. It doesn’t change
anything. She’s doing what she can to shore up the
defences. Unless we unleash Death, and get back with the
eagle –’
‘The camp can’t stand against that army,’ Frank
finished. ‘Not without help.’
After that, they sailed in silence.
Percy kept thinking about Cyclopes and centaurs. He
thought about Annabeth, the satyr Grover and his dream
of a giant warship under construction.
You came from somewhere, Reyna had said.
Percy wished he could remember. He could call for
help. Camp Jupiter shouldn’t have to fight alone against
the giants. There must be allies out there.
He fingered the beads on his necklace, the lead
probatio tablet and the silver ring Reyna had given him.
Maybe in Seattle he’d be able to talk to her sister, Hylla.
She might send help – assuming she didn’t kill Percy on
sight.
After a few more hours of navigating, Percy’s eyes
started to droop. He was afraid he’d pass out from
exhaustion. Then he caught a break. A killer whale
surfaced next to the boat, and Percy struck up a mental
conversation with him.
It wasn’t exactly like talking, but it went something like
this: Could you give us a ride north, Percy asked, like as
close to Portland as possible?
Eat seals, the whale responded. Are you seals?
No, Percy admitted. I’ve got a man satchel full of
macrobiotic beef jerky, though.
The whale shuddered. Promise not to feed me this, and
I will take you north.
Deal.
Soon Percy had made a makeshift rope harness and
strapped it round the whale’s upper body. They sped north
under whale-power, and at Hazel and Frank’s insistence
Percy settled in for a nap.
His dreams were as disjointed and scary as ever.
He imagined himself on Mount Tamalpais, north of
San Francisco, fighting at the old Titan stronghold. That
didn’t make sense. He hadn’t been with the Romans when
they had attacked, but he saw it all clearly: a Titan in
armour, Annabeth and two other girls fighting at Percy’s
side. One of the girls died in the battle. Percy knelt over
her, watching as she dissolved into stars.
Then he saw the giant warship in its dry dock. The
bronze dragon figurehead glinted in the morning light.
The riggings and armaments were complete, but
something was wrong. A hatch in the deck was open, and
smoke poured from some kind of engine. A boy with curly
black hair was cursing as he pounded the engine with a
wrench. Two other demigods squatted next to him,
watching with concern. One was a teenage guy with short
blond hair. The other was a girl with long dark hair.
‘You realize it’s the solstice,’ the girl said. ‘We’re
supposed to leave today.’
‘I know that!’ The curly-haired mechanic whacked the
engine a few more times. ‘Could be the fizzrockets. Could
be the samophlange. Could be Gaia messing with us
again. I’m not sure!’
‘How long?’ the blond guy asked.
‘Two, three days?’
‘They may not have that long,’ the girl warned.
Something told Percy that she meant Camp Jupiter.
Then the scene shifted again.
He saw a boy and his dog roaming over the yellow hills
of California. But, as the image became clearer, Percy
realized it wasn’t a boy. It was a Cyclops in ragged jeans
and a flannel shirt. The dog was a shambling mountain of
black fur, easily as big as a rhino. The Cyclops carried a
massive club over his shoulder, but Percy didn’t feel that
he was an enemy. He kept yelling Percy’s name, calling
him … brother?
‘He smells further away,’ the Cyclops moaned to the
dog. ‘Why does he smell further?’
‘ROOF!’ the dog barked, and Percy’s dream changed
again.
He saw a range of snowy mountains, so tall they broke
the clouds. Gaia’s sleeping face appeared in the shadows
of the rocks.
Such a valuable pawn, she said soothingly. Do not fear,
Percy Jackson. Come north! Your friends will die, yes. But
I will preserve you for now. I have great plans for you.
In a valley between the mountains lay a massive field of
ice. The edge plunged into the sea, hundreds of feet
below, with sheets of frost constantly crumbling into the
water. On top of the ice field stood a legion camp –
ramparts, moats, towers, barracks, just like Camp Jupiter
except three times as large. At the crossroads outside the
principia, a figure in dark robes stood shackled to the ice.
Percy’s vision swept past him, into the headquarters.
There, in the gloom, sat a giant even bigger than
Polybotes. His skin glinted gold. Displayed behind him
were the tattered, frozen banners of a Roman legion,
including a large, golden eagle with its wings spread.
We await you, the giant’s voice boomed. While you
fumble your way north, trying to find me, my armies will
destroy your precious camps – first the Romans, then the
others. You cannot win, little demigod.
Percy lurched awake in cold grey daylight, rain falling on
his face.
‘I thought I slept heavily,’ Hazel said. ‘Welcome to
Portland.’
Percy sat up and blinked. The scene around him was
so different from his dream that he wasn’t sure which was
real. The Pax floated on an iron-black river through the
middle of a city. Heavy clouds hung low overhead. The
cold rain was so light it seemed suspended in the air. On
Percy’s left were industrial warehouses and railroad tracks.
To his right was a small downtown area – an almost cosylooking
cluster of towers between the banks of the river
and a line of misty forested hills.
Percy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. ‘How did we get
here?’
Frank gave him a look like, You won’t believe this. ‘The
killer whale took us as far as the Columbia River. Then he
passed the harness to a couple of twelve-foot sturgeons.’
Percy thought Frank had said surgeons. He had this
weird image of giant doctors in scrubs and face masks,
pulling their boat upstream. Then he realized Frank
meant sturgeons, like the fish. He was glad he hadn’t said
anything. Would have been embarrassing, his being son
of the sea god and all.
‘Anyway,’ Frank continued, ‘the sturgeons pulled us for
a long time. Hazel and I took turns sleeping. Then we hit
this river –’
‘The Willamette,’ Hazel offered.
‘Right,’ Frank said. ‘After that, the boat kind of took over
and navigated us here all by itself. Sleep okay?’
As the Pax glided south, Percy told them about his
dreams. He tried to focus on the positive: a warship might
be on the way to help Camp Jupiter. A friendly Cyclops
and a giant dog were looking for him. He didn’t mention
what Gaia had said: Your friends will die.
When Percy described the Roman fort on the ice, Hazel
looked troubled.
‘So Alcyoneus is on a glacier,’ she said. ‘That doesn’t
narrow it down much. Alaska has hundreds of those.’
Percy nodded. ‘Maybe this seer dude Phineas can tell
us which one.’
The boat docked itself at a wharf. The three demigods
stared up at the buildings of drizzly downtown Portland.
Frank wiped the rain off his flat-top hair.
‘So now we find a blind man in the rain,’ Frank said.
‘Yay.’
sssssshhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeessssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh
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