THE PILOT SAID THE PLANE COULDN’T WAIT for them, but that
was okay with Percy. If they survived till the next day, he
hoped they could find a different way back – anything but
a plane.
He should’ve been depressed. He was stuck in Alaska,
the giant’s home territory, out of contact with his old friends
just as his memories were coming back. He had seen an
image of Polybotes’s army about to invade Camp Jupiter.
He’d learned that the giants planned to use him as some
kind of blood sacrifice to awaken Gaia. Plus, tomorrow
evening was the Feast of Fortuna. He, Frank and Hazel
had an impossible task to complete before then. At best,
they would unleash Death, who might take Percy’s two
friends to the Underworld. Not much to look forward to.
Still, Percy felt strangely invigorated. His dream of
Tyson had lifted his spirits. He remembered Tyson, his
brother. They’d fought together, celebrated victories,
shared good times at Camp Half-Blood. He remembered
his home, and that gave him a new determination to
succeed. He was fighting for two camps now – two
families.
Juno had stolen his memory and sent him to Camp
Jupiter for a reason. He understood that now. He still
wanted to punch her in her godly face, but at least he got
her reasoning. If the two camps could work together, they
stood a chance of stopping their mutual enemies.
Separately, both camps were doomed.
There were other reasons Percy wanted to save Camp
Jupiter. Reasons he didn’t dare put into words – not yet,
anyway. Suddenly he saw a future for himself and for
Annabeth that he’d never imagined before.
As they took a taxi into downtown Anchorage, Percy told
Frank and Hazel about his dreams. They looked anxious
but not surprised when he told them about the giant’s
army closing in on camp.
Frank choked when he heard about Tyson. ‘You have a
half-brother who’s a Cyclops?’
‘Sure,’ Percy said. ‘Which makes him your great-greatgreat
–’
‘Please.’ Frank covered his ears. ‘Enough.’
‘As long as he can get Ella to camp,’ Hazel said. ‘I’m
worried about her.’
Percy nodded. He was still thinking about the lines of
prophecy the harpy had recited – about the son of
Neptune drowning, and the mark of Athena burning
through Rome. He wasn’t sure what the first part meant,
but he was starting to have an idea about the second. He
tried to set the question aside. He had to survive this
quest first.
The taxi turned on Highway One, which looked more
like a small street to Percy, and took them north towards
downtown. It was late afternoon, but the sun was still high
in the sky.
‘I can’t believe how much this place has grown,’ Hazel
muttered.
The taxi driver grinned in the rearview mirror. ‘Been a
long time since you visited, miss?’
‘About seventy years,’ Hazel said.
The driver slid the glass partition closed and drove on
in silence.
According to Hazel, almost none of the buildings were
the same, but she pointed out features of the landscape:
the vast forests ringing the city, the cold, grey waters of
Cook Inlet tracing the north edge of town, and the
Chugach Mountains rising greyish-blue in the distance,
capped with snow even in June.
Percy had never smelled air this clean before. The town
itself had a weather-beaten look to it, with closed stores,
rusted-out cars and worn apartment complexes lining the
road, but it was still beautiful. Lakes and huge stretches of
woods cut through the middle. The Arctic sky was an
amazing combination of turquoise and gold.
Then there were the giants. Dozens of bright-blue men,
each thirty feet tall with grey frosty hair, were wading
through the forests, fishing in the bay and striding across
the mountains. The mortals didn’t seem to notice them.
The taxi passed within a few yards of one who was sitting
at the edge of a lake washing his feet, but the driver didn’t
panic.
‘Um …’ Frank pointed at the blue guy.
‘Hyperboreans,’ Percy said. He was amazed he
remembered that name. ‘Northern giants. I fought some
when Kronos invaded Manhattan.’
‘Wait,’ Frank said. ‘When who did what?’
‘Long story. But these guys look … I don’t know,
peaceful.’
‘They usually are,’ Hazel agreed. ‘I remember them.
They’re everywhere in Alaska, like bears.’
‘Bears?’ Frank said nervously.
‘The giants are invisible to mortals,’ Hazel said. ‘They
never bothered me, though one almost stepped on me by
accident once.’
That sounded fairly bothersome to Percy, but the taxi
kept driving. None of the giants paid them any attention.
One stood right at the intersection of Northern Lights
Road, straddling the highway, and they drove between his
legs. The Hyperborean was cradling a Native American
totem pole wrapped in furs, humming to it like a baby. If
the guy hadn’t been the size of a building, he would’ve
been almost cute.
The taxi drove through downtown, past a bunch of
tourists’ shops advertising furs, Native American art and
gold. Percy hoped Hazel wouldn’t get agitated and make
the jewellery shops explode.
As the driver turned and headed towards the seashore,
Hazel knocked on the glass partition. ‘Here is good. Can
you let us out?’
They paid the driver and stepped onto Fourth Street.
Compared to Vancouver, downtown Anchorage was tiny –
more like a college campus than a city, but Hazel looked
amazed.
‘It’s huge,’ she said. ‘That – that’s where the Gitchell
Hotel used to be. My mom and I stayed there our first
week in Alaska. And they’ve moved City Hall. It used to be
there.’
She led them in a daze for a few blocks. They didn’t
really have a plan beyond finding the fastest way to the
Hubbard Glacier, but Percy smelled something cooking
nearby – sausage, maybe? He realized he hadn’t eaten
since that morning at Grandma Zhang’s.
‘Food,’ he said. ‘Come on.’
They found a café right by the beach. It was bustling
with people, but they scored a table at the window and
perused the menus.
Frank whooped with delight. ‘Twenty-four-hour
breakfast!’
‘It’s, like, dinnertime,’ Percy said, though he couldn’t tell
from looking outside. The sun was so high it could’ve
been noon.
‘I love breakfast,’ Frank said. ‘I’d eat breakfast, breakfast
and breakfast if I could. Though, um, I’m sure the food
here isn’t as good as Hazel’s.’
Hazel elbowed him, but her smile was playful.
Seeing them like that made Percy happy. Those two
definitely needed to get together. But it also made him
sad. He thought about Annabeth, and wondered if he’d
live long enough to see her again.
Think positive, he told himself.
‘You know,’ he said, ‘breakfast sounds great.’
They all ordered massive plates of eggs, pancakes and
reindeer sausage, though Frank looked a little worried
about the reindeer. ‘You think it’s okay that we’re eating
Rudolph?’
‘Dude,’ Percy said, ‘I could eat Prancer and Blitzen, too.
I’m hungry.’
The food was excellent. Percy had never seen anyone
eat as fast as Frank. The red-nosed reindeer did not stand
a chance.
Between bites of blueberry pancake, Hazel drew a
squiggly curve and an X on her napkin. ‘So this is what I’m
thinking. We’re here.’ She tapped X. ‘Anchorage.’
‘It looks like a seagull’s face,’ Percy said. ‘And we’re the
eye.’
Hazel glared at him. ‘It’s a map, Percy. Anchorage is at
the top of this sliver of ocean, Cook Inlet. There’s a big
peninsula of land below us, and my old home town,
Seward, is at the bottom of the peninsula, here.’ She drew
another X at the base of the seagull’s throat. ‘That’s the
closest town to the Hubbard Glacier. We could go around
by sea, I guess, but it would take forever. We don’t have
that kind of time.’
Frank polished off the last of his Rudolph. ‘But land is
dangerous,’ he said. ‘Land means Gaia.’
Hazel nodded. ‘I don’t see that we’ve got much choice,
though. We could have asked our pilot to fly us down, but I
don’t know … his plane might be too big for the little
Seward airport. And if we chartered another plane –’
‘No more planes,’ Percy said. ‘Please.’
Hazel held up her hand in a placating gesture. ‘It’s okay.
There’s a train that goes from here to Seward. We might
be able to catch one tonight. It only takes a couple of
hours.’
She drew a dotted line between the two Xs.
‘You just cut off the seagull’s head,’ Percy noted.
Hazel sighed. ‘It’s the train line. Look, from Seward, the
Hubbard Glacier is down here somewhere.’ She tapped
the lower right corner of her napkin. ‘That’s where
Alcyoneus is.’
‘But you’re not sure how far?’ Frank asked.
Hazel frowned and shook her head. ‘I’m pretty sure it’s
only accessible by boat or plane.’
‘Boat,’ Percy said immediately.
‘Fine,’ Hazel said. ‘It shouldn’t be too far from Seward. If
we can get to Seward safely.’
Percy gazed out of the window. So much to do, and only
twenty-four hours left. This time tomorrow, the Feast of
fortuna would be starting. Unless they unleashed Death
and made it back to camp, the giant’s army would flood
into the valley. The Romans would be the main course at
a monster dinner.
Across the street, a frosty black sand beach led down to
the sea, which was as smooth as steel. The ocean here
felt different – still powerful, but freezing, slow and primal.
No gods controlled that water, at least no gods Percy
knew. Neptune wouldn’t be able to protect him. Percy
wondered if he could even manipulate water here, or
breathe underwater.
A Hyperborean giant lumbered across the street.
Nobody in the café noticed. The giant stepped into the
bay, cracking the ice under his sandals, and thrust his
hands in the water. He brought out a killer whale in one
fist. Apparently that wasn’t what he wanted, because he
threw the whale back and kept wading.
‘Good breakfast,’ Frank said. ‘Who’s ready for a train
ride?’
The station wasn’t far. They were just in time to buy tickets
for the last train south. As his friends climbed on board,
Percy said, ‘Be with you in a sec,’ and ran back into the
station.
He got change from the gift shop and stood in front of
the pay phone.
He’d never used a pay phone before. They were
strange antiques to him, like his mom’s turntable or his
teacher chiron’s Frank Sinatra cassette tapes. He wasn’t
sure how many coins it would take, or if he could even
make the call go through, assuming he remembered the
number correctly.
Sally Jackson, he thought.
That was his mom’s name. And he had a
stepdad … Paul.
What did they think had happened to Percy? Maybe
they had already held a memorial service. As near as he
could figure, he’d lost seven months of his life. Sure, most
of that had been during the school year, but still … not
cool.
He picked up the receiver and punched in a New York
number – his mom’s apartment.
Voice mail. Percy should have figured. It would be like,
midnight in New York. They wouldn’t recognize this
number. Hearing Paul’s voice on the recording hit Percy
in the gut so hard, he could barely speak at the tone.
‘Mom,’ he said. ‘Hey, I’m alive. Hera put me to sleep for
a while, and then she took my memory, and …’ His voice
faltered. How he could possibly explain all this? ‘Anyway,
I’m okay. I’m sorry. I’m on a quest –’ He winced. He
shouldn’t have said that. His mom knew all about quests,
and now she’d be worried. ‘I’ll make it home. I promise.
Love you.’
He put down the receiver. He stared at the phone,
hoping it would ring back. The train whistle sounded. The
conductor shouted, ‘All aboard.’
Percy ran. He made it just as they were pulling up the
steps, then climbed to the top of the double-decker car
and slid into his seat.
Hazel frowned. ‘You okay?’
‘Yeah,’ he croaked. ‘Just … made a call.’
She and Frank seemed to get that. They didn’t ask for
details.
Soon they were heading south along the coast,
watching the landscape go by. Percy tried to think about
the quest, but for an ADHD kid like him the train wasn’t the
easiest place to concentrate.
Cool things kept happening outside. Bald eagles
soared overhead. The train raced over bridges and along
cliffs where glacial waterfalls tumbled thousands of feet
down the rocks. They passed forests buried in snowdrifts,
big artillery guns (to set off small avalanches and prevent
uncontrolled ones, Hazel explained) and lakes so clear
they reflected the mountains like mirrors, so the world
looked upside down.
Brown bears lumbered through the meadows.
Hyperborean giants kept appearing in the strangest
places. One was lounging in a lake like it was a hot tub.
Another was using a pine tree as a toothpick. A third sat in
a snowdrift, playing with two live moose like they were
action figures. The train was full of tourists ohhing and
ahhing and snapping pictures, but Percy felt sorry they
couldn’t see the Hyperboreans. They were missing the
really good shots.
Meanwhile, Frank studied a map of Alaska that he’d
found in the seat pocket. He located Hubbard Glacier,
which looked discouragingly far away from Seward. He
kept running his finger along the coastline, frowning with
concentration.
‘What are you thinking?’ Percy asked.
‘Just … possibilities,’ Frank said.
Percy didn’t know what that meant, but he let it go.
After about an hour, Percy started to relax. They bought
hot chocolate from the dining car. The seats were warm
and comfortable, and he thought about taking a nap.
Then a shadow passed overhead. Tourists murmured
in excitement and started taking pictures.
‘Eagle!’ one yelled.
‘Eagle?’ said another.
‘Huge eagle!’ said a third.
‘That’s no eagle,’ Frank said.
Percy looked up just in time to see the creature make a
second pass. It was definitely larger than an eagle, with a
sleek black body the size of a Labrador retriever. Its
wingspan was at least ten feet across.
‘There’s another one!’ Frank pointed. ‘Strike that. Three,
four. Okay, we’re in trouble.’
The creatures circled the train like vultures, delighting
the tourists. Percy wasn’t delighted. The monsters had
glowing red eyes, sharp beaks and vicious talons.
Percy felt for his pen in his pocket. ‘Those things look
familiar …’
‘Seattle,’ Hazel said. ‘The Amazons had one in a cage.
They’re –’
Then several things happened at once. The emergency
brake screeched, pitching them forward. Tourists
screamed and tumbled through the aisles. The monsters
swooped down, shattering the glass roof of the car, and
the entire train toppled off the rails.
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