PERCY WAS WAITING FOR THEM. He looked mad.
He stood at the edge of the glacier, leaning on the staff
with the golden eagle, gazing down at the wreckage he’d
caused: several hundred acres of newly open water dotted
with icebergs and flotsam from the ruined camp.
The only remains on the glacier were the main gates,
which listed sideways, and a tattered blue banner lying
over a pile of snow-bricks.
When they ran up to him, Percy said, ‘Hey,’ like they
were just meeting for lunch or something.
‘You’re alive!’ Frank marvelled.
Percy frowned. ‘The fall? That was nothing. I fell twice
that far from the St Louis Arch.’
‘You did what?’ Hazel asked.
‘Never mind. The important thing was I didn’t drown.’
‘So the prophecy was incomplete!’ Hazel grinned. ‘It
probably said something like: The son of Neptune will
drown a whole bunch of ghosts.’
Percy shrugged. He was still looking at Frank like he
was miffed. ‘I got a bone to pick with you, Zhang. You can
turn into an eagle? And a bear?’
‘And an elephant,’ Hazel said proudly.
‘An elephant.’ Percy shook his head in disbelief. ‘That’s
your family gift? You can change shape?’
Frank shuffled his feet. ‘Um … yeah. Periclymenus, my
ancestor, the Argonaut – he could do that. He passed
down the ability.’
‘And he got that gift from Poseidon,’ Percy said. ‘That’s
completely unfair. I can’t turn into animals.’
Frank stared at him. ‘Unfair? You can breathe
underwater and blow up glaciers and summon freaking
hurricanes – and it’s unfair that I can be an elephant?’
Percy considered. ‘Okay. I guess you got a point. But
next time I say you’re totally beast –’
‘Just shut up,’ Frank said. ‘Please.’
Percy cracked a smile.
‘If you guys are done,’ Hazel said, ‘we need to go. Camp
Jupiter is under attack. They could use that gold eagle.’
Percy nodded. ‘One thing first, though. Hazel, there’s
about a ton of Imperial gold weapons and armour at the
bottom of the bay now, plus a really nice chariot. I’m
betting that stuff could come in handy …’
It took them a long time – too long – but they all knew
those weapons could make the difference between victory
and defeat if they got them back to camp in time.
Hazel used her abilities to levitate some items from the
bottom of the sea. Percy swam down and brought up
more. Even Frank helped by turning into a seal, which was
kind of cool, though Percy claimed his breath smelled like
fish.
It took all three of them to raise the chariot, but finally
they’d managed to haul everything ashore to a black sand
beach near the base of the glacier. They couldn’t fit
everything in the chariot, but they used Frank’s rope to
strap down most of the gold weapons and the best pieces
of armour.
‘It looks like Santa’s sleigh,’ Frank said. ‘Can Arion even
pull that much?’
Arion huffed.
‘Hazel,’ Percy said, ‘I am seriously going to wash your
horse’s mouth with soap. He says, yes, he can pull it, but
he needs food.’
Hazel picked up an old Roman dagger, a pugio. It was
bent and dull, so it wouldn’t be much good in a fight, but it
looked like solid Imperial gold.
‘Here you go, Arion,’ she said. ‘High-performance fuel.’
The horse took the dagger in his teeth and chewed it
like an apple. Frank made a silent oath never to put his
hand near that horse’s mouth.
‘I’m not doubting Arion’s strength,’ he said carefully, ‘but
will the chariot hold up? The last one –’
‘This one has Imperial gold wheels and axle,’ Percy
said. ‘It should hold.’
‘If not,’ Hazel said, ‘this is going to be a short trip. But
we’re out of time. Come on!’
Frank and Percy climbed into the chariot. Hazel swung
up onto Arion’s back.
‘Giddyup!’ she yelled.
The horse’s sonic boom echoed across the bay. They
sped south, avalanches tumbling down the mountains as
they passed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment