Percy Jackson The Complete Collection (70 page)

Then she began to change. The colour drained out of her face and arms. Her skin turned as white as chalk, her eyes completely red. Her teeth grew into fangs.

‘A vampire!’ I stammered. Then I noticed her legs. Below the cheerleader skirt, her left leg was brown and shaggy, with a donkey’s hoof. Her right leg was shaped like a human leg, but it was made of bronze. ‘Uhh, a vampire with –’

‘Don’t mention the legs!’ Tammi snapped. ‘It’s rude to make fun!’

She advanced on her weird, mismatched legs. She looked totally bizarre, especially with the pom-poms, but I couldn’t laugh – not facing those red eyes and sharp fangs.

‘A vampire, you say?’ Kelli laughed. ‘That silly legend was based on
us,
you fool. We are
empousai,
servants of Hecate.’

‘Mmmm.’ Tammi edged closer to me. ‘Dark magic formed us from animal,
bronze
and ghost! We exist to feed on the blood of young men. Now come, give me that kiss!’

She bared her fangs. I was so paralysed I couldn’t move, but Rachel threw a snare drum at the
empousa’s
head.

The demon hissed and batted the drum away. It went rolling along the aisles between music stands, its springs rattling against the drum head. Rachel threw a xylophone, but the demon just swatted that away, too.

‘I don’t usually kill girls,’ Tammi growled. ‘But for you, mortal, I’ll make an exception. Your eyesight is a little
too
good!’

She lunged at Rachel.

‘No!’ I slashed with Riptide. Tammi tried to dodge my blade, but I sliced straight through her cheerleader uniform, and with a horrible wail she exploded into dust all over Rachel.

Rachel coughed. She looked like she’d just had a sack of flour dumped on her head. ‘Gross!’

‘Monsters do that,’ I said. ‘Sorry.’

‘You killed my trainee!’ Kelli yelled. ‘You need a lesson in school spirit, half-blood!’

Then she, too, began to change. Her wiry hair turned to flickering flames. Her eyes turned red. She grew fangs. She loped towards us, her brass foot and hoof clopping unevenly on the band-room floor.

‘I am senior
empousa,’
she growled. ‘No hero has bested me in a thousand years.’

‘Yeah?’ I said. ‘Then you’re overdue!’

Kelli was a lot faster than Tammi. She dodged my first strike and rolled into the brass section, knocking over a row of trombones with a mighty crash. Rachel scrambled out of the way. I put myself between her and the
empousa.
Kelli circled us, her eyes going from me to the sword.

‘Such a pretty little blade,’ she said. ‘What a shame it stands between us.’

Her form shimmered – sometimes a demon, sometimes a pretty cheerleader. I tried to keep my mind focused, but it was really distracting.

‘Poor dear.’ Kelli chuckled. ‘You don’t even know what’s happening, do you? Soon, your pretty little camp in flames, your friends made slaves to the Lord of Time, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. It would be merciful to end your life now, before you have to see that.’

From down the hall, I heard voices. A tour group was approaching. A man was saying something about locker combinations.

The
empousa’s
eyes lit up. ‘Excellent! We’re about to have company!’

She picked up a tuba and threw it at me. Rachel and I ducked. The tuba sailed over our heads and crashed through the window.

The voices in the hall died down.

‘Percy!’ Kelli shouted, pretending to be scared. ‘Why did you throw that?’

I was too surprised to answer. Kelli picked up a music stand and swiped a row of clarinets and flutes. Chairs and musical instruments crashed to the floor.

‘Stop it!’ I said.

People were tromping down the hall now, coming in our direction.

‘Time to greet our visitors!’ Kelli bared her fangs and ran for the doors. I charged after her with Riptide. I had to stop her from hurting the mortals.

‘Percy, don’t!’ Rachel shouted. But I hadn’t realized what Kelli was up to until it was too late.

Kelli flung open the doors. Paul Blofis and a bunch of freshmen stepped back in shock. I raised my sword.

At the last second, the
empousa
turned towards me like a cowering victim. ‘Oh no, please!’ she cried. I couldn’t stop my blade. It was already in motion.

Just before the celestial bronze hit her, Kelli exploded into flames like a Molotov cocktail. Waves of fire splashed over everything. I’d never seen a monster do that before, but I didn’t have time to wonder about it. I backed into the band room as flames engulfed the doorway.

‘Percy?’ Paul Blofis looked completely stunned, staring at me from across the fire. ‘What have you done?’

Kids screamed and ran down the hall. The fire alarm wailed. Ceiling sprinklers hissed into life.

In the chaos, Rachel tugged on my sleeve. ‘You have to get out of here!’

She was right. The school was in flames and I’d be held responsible. Mortals couldn’t see through the Mist properly. To them it would look like I’d just attacked a helpless cheerleader in front of a group of witnesses. There was no way I could explain it. I turned from Paul and sprinted for the broken band-room window.

I burst out of the alley onto East 81st and ran straight into Annabeth.

‘Hey, you’re out early!’ She laughed, grabbing my shoulders to keep me from tumbling into the street. ‘Watch where you’re going, Seaweed Brain.’

For a split second she was in a good mood and everything was fine. She was wearing jeans and an orange camp T-shirt and her clay bead necklace. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her grey eyes sparkled. She looked like she was ready to catch a movie, have a cool afternoon hanging out together.

Then Rachel Elizabeth Dare, still covered in monster dust, came charging out of the alley, yelling, ‘Percy, wait up!’

Annabeth’s smile melted. She stared at Rachel, then at the school. For the first time, she seemed to notice the black smoke and the ringing fire alarms.

She frowned at me. ‘What did you do this time? And who is this?’

‘Oh, Rachel – Annabeth. Annabeth – Rachel. Um, she’s a friend. I guess.’

I wasn’t sure what else to call Rachel. I mean, I barely knew her, but after being in two life-or-death situations together, I couldn’t just call her nobody.

‘Hi,’ Rachel said. Then she turned to me. ‘You are in
so
much trouble. And you still owe me an explanation!’

Police sirens wailed on FDR Drive.

‘Percy,’ Annabeth said coldly, ‘we should go.’

‘I want to know more about half-bloods,’ Rachel insisted. ‘And monsters. And this stuff about the gods.’ She grabbed my arm, whipped out a permanent marker and wrote a phone number on my hand. ‘You’re going to call me and explain, okay? You owe me that. Now get going.’

‘But –’

‘I’ll make up some story,’ Rachel said. ‘I’ll tell them it wasn’t your fault. Just go!’

She ran back towards the school, leaving Annabeth and me in the street.

Annabeth stared at me for a second. Then she turned and took off.

‘Hey!’ I jogged after her. ‘There were these two
empousai,’
I tried to explain. ‘They were cheerleaders, see, and they said camp was going to burn, and –’

‘You told a mortal girl about half-bloods?’

‘She can see through the Mist. She saw the monsters before I did.’

‘So you told her the truth.’

‘She recognized me from Hoover Dam, so –’

‘You’ve met her
before?’

‘Um, last winter. But, seriously, I barely know her.’

‘She’s kind of cute.’

‘I – I never thought about it.’

Annabeth kept walking towards York Avenue.

‘I’ll deal with the school,’ I promised, anxious to change the subject. ‘Honest, it’ll be fine.’

Annabeth wouldn’t even look at me. ‘I guess our afternoon is off. We should get you out of here, now that the police will be searching for you.’

Behind us, smoke billowed up from Goode High School. In the dark column of ashes, I thought I could almost see a face – a she-demon with red eyes, laughing at me.

Your pretty little camp in flames,
Kelli had said.
Your friends made slaves to the Lord of Time.

‘You’re right,’ I told Annabeth, my heart sinking. ‘We have to get to Camp Half-Blood.
Now
.’

Nothing caps off the perfect morning like a long taxi ride with an angry girl.

I tried to talk to Annabeth, but she was acting like I’d just punched her grandmother. All I managed to get out of her was that she’d had a monster-infested spring in San Francisco, she’d come back to camp twice since Christmas but wouldn’t tell me why (which kind of ticked me off, because she hadn’t even told me she was in New York) and she’d learned nothing about the whereabouts of Nico di Angelo (long story).

‘Any word on Luke?’ I asked.

She shook her head. I knew this was a touchy subject for her. Annabeth had always admired Luke, the former head counsellor for Hermes who had betrayed us and joined the evil Titan Lord Kronos. She wouldn’t admit it, but I knew she still liked him. When we’d fought Luke on Mount Tamalpais last winter, he’d somehow survived a fifteen-metre fall off a cliff. Now, as far as I knew, he was still sailing around on his demon-infested cruise ship while his chopped-up Lord Kronos re-formed, bit by bit, in a golden sarcophagus, biding his time until he had enough power to challenge the Olympian gods. In demigod-speak, we call this a ‘problem’.

‘Mount Tam is still overrun with monsters,’ Annabeth
said. ‘I didn’t dare go close, but I don’t think Luke is up there. I think I would know if he was.’

That didn’t make me feel much better. ‘What about Grover?’

‘He’s at camp,’ she said. ‘We’ll see him today.’

‘Did he have any luck? I mean, with the search for Pan?’

Annabeth fingered her bead necklace, the way she does when she’s worried.

‘You’ll see,’ she said. But she didn’t explain.

As we headed through Brooklyn, I used Annabeth’s phone to call my mom. Half-bloods try not to use cell phones if we can avoid it, because broadcasting our voices is like sending up a flare to the monsters:
Here I am! Please eat me now!
But I figured this call was important. I left a message on our home voice mail, trying to explain what had happened at Goode. I probably didn’t do a very good job. I told my mom I was fine, she shouldn’t worry, but I was going to stay at camp until things cooled down. I asked her to tell Paul Blofis I was sorry.

We rode in silence after that. The city melted away until we were off the expressway and rolling through the countryside of northern Long Island, past orchards and wineries and fresh produce stands.

I stared at the phone number Rachel Elizabeth Dare had scrawled on my hand. I knew it was crazy, but I was tempted to call her. Maybe she could help me understand what the
empousa
had been talking about – the camp burning, my friends imprisoned. And why had Kelli exploded into flames?

I knew monsters never truly died. Eventually – maybe weeks, months or years from now – Kelli would re-form
out of the primordial nastiness seething in the Underworld. But, still, monsters didn’t usually let themselves get destroyed so easily. If she really
was
destroyed.

The taxi exited on Route 25A. We headed through the woods along the North Shore until a low ridge of hills appeared on our left. Annabeth told the driver to pull over on Farm Road 3.141, at the base of Half-Blood Hill.

The driver frowned. ‘There ain’t nothing here, miss. You sure you want out?’

‘Yes, please.’ Annabeth handed him a roll of mortal cash, and the driver decided not to argue.

Annabeth and I hiked to the crest of the hill. The young guardian dragon was dozing, coiled around the pine tree, but he lifted his coppery head as we approached and let Annabeth scratch under his chin. Steam hissed out of his nostrils like a kettle and he went cross-eyed with pleasure.

‘Hey, Peleus,’ Annabeth said. ‘Keeping everything safe?’

The last time I’d seen the dragon he’d been two metres long. Now he was at least twice that, and as thick around as the tree itself. Above his head, on the lowest branch of the pine tree, the Golden Fleece shimmered, its magic protecting the camp’s borders from invasion. The dragon seemed relaxed, like everything was okay. Below us, Camp Half-Blood looked peaceful – green fields, forest, shiny white Greek buildings. The four-storey farmhouse we called the Big House sat proudly in the midst of the strawberry fields. To the north, past the beach, the Long Island Sound glittered in the sunlight.

Still… something felt wrong. There was tension in the air, as if the hill itself were holding its breath, waiting for something bad to happen.

We walked down into the valley and found the summer session in full swing. Most of the campers had arrived last Friday, so I already felt out of it. The satyrs were playing their pipes in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow with woodland magic. Campers were having flying horseback lessons, swooping over the woods on their pegasi. Smoke rose from the forges and hammers rang as kids made their own weapons for arts & crafts. The Athena and Demeter teams were having a chariot race around the track, and over at the canoe lake some kids in a Greek trireme were fighting a large orange sea serpent. A typical day at camp.

‘I need to talk to Clarisse,’ Annabeth said.

I stared at her as if she’d just said
I need to eat a large smelly boot.
‘What for?’

Clarisse from the Ares cabin was one of my least favourite people. She was a mean, ungrateful bully. Her dad, the war god, wanted to kill me. She tried to beat me to a pulp on a regular basis. Other than that, she was just great.

‘We’ve been working on something,’ Annabeth said. ‘I’ll see you later.’

‘Working on what?’

Annabeth glanced towards the forest.

‘I’ll tell Chiron you’re here,’ she said. ‘He’ll want to talk to you before the hearing.’

‘What hearing?’

But she jogged down the path towards the archery field without looking back.

‘Yeah,’ I muttered. ‘Great talking with you, too.’

As I made my way through camp, I said hi to some of my friends. In the Big House’s driveway, Connor and Travis
Stoll from the Hermes cabin were hot-wiring the camp’s van. Silena Beauregard, the head counsellor for Aphrodite, waved at me from her pegasus as she flew past. I looked for Grover, but I didn’t see him. Finally I wandered into the sword arena, where I usually go when I’m in a bad mood. Practising always calms me down. Maybe that’s because swordplay is one thing I actually understand.

I walked into the amphitheatre and my heart almost stopped. In the middle of the arena floor, with its back to me, was the biggest hellhound I’d ever seen.

I mean, I’ve seen some pretty big hellhounds. One the size of a rhino tried to kill me when I was twelve. But
this
hellhound was bigger than a tank. I had no idea how it had got past the camp’s magic boundaries. It looked right at home, lying on its belly, growling contentedly as it chewed the head off a combat dummy. It hadn’t noticed me yet, but if I made a sound, I knew it would sense me. There was no time to go for help. I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it.

‘Yaaaaah!’ I charged. I brought down the blade on the monster’s enormous backside, when out of nowhere another sword blocked my strike.

CLANG!

The hellhound pricked up its ears. ‘WOOF!’

I jumped back and instinctively struck at the swordsman – a grey-haired man in Greek armour. He parried my attack with no problem.

‘Whoa there!’ he said. ‘Truce!’

‘WOOF!’ The hellhound’s bark shook the arena.

‘That’s a hellhound!’ I shouted.

‘She’s harmless,’ the man said. ‘That’s Mrs O’Leary.’

I blinked. ‘Mrs O’Leary?’

At the sound of her name, the hellhound barked again. I realized she wasn’t angry. She was excited. She nudged the soggy, badly chewed target dummy towards the swordsman.

‘Good girl,’ the man said. With his free hand he grabbed the armoured manikin by the neck and heaved it towards the stands. ‘Get the Greek! Get the Greek!’

Mrs O’Leary bounded after her prey and pounced on the dummy, flattening its armour. She began chewing on its helmet.

The swordsman smiled dryly. He was in his fifties, I guess, with short grey hair and a clipped grey beard. He was in good shape for an older guy. He wore black mountain-climbing trousers and a bronze breastplate strapped over an orange camp T-shirt. At the base of his neck was a strange mark, a purplish blotch like a birthmark or a tattoo, but before I could make out what it was, he shifted his armour straps and the mark disappeared under his collar.

‘Mrs O’Leary is my pet,’ he explained. ‘I couldn’t let you stick a sword in her rump, now, could I? That might have scared her.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Promise not to kill me if I put my sword away?’

‘I guess.’

He sheathed his sword and held out his hand. ‘Quintus.’

I shook his hand. It was as rough as sandpaper.

‘Percy Jackson,’ I said. ‘Sorry about – How did you, um –’

‘Get a hellhound for a pet? Long story, involving many close calls with death and quite a few giant chew toys. I’m
the new sword instructor, by the way. Helping Chiron out while Mr D is away.’

‘Oh.’ I tried not to stare as Mrs O’Leary ripped off the target dummy’s shield with the arm still attached and shook it like a frisbee. ‘Wait, Mr D is away?’

‘Yes, well… busy times. Even old Dionysus must help out. He’s gone to visit some old friends. Make sure they’re on the right side. I probably shouldn’t say more than that.’

If Dionysus was gone, that was the best news I’d had all day. He was only our camp director because Zeus had sent him here as a punishment for chasing some off-limits wood nymph. He hated the campers and tried to make our lives miserable. With him away, this summer might actually be cool. On the other hand, if Dionysus had got off his butt and actually started helping the gods recruit against the Titan threat, things must be looking pretty bad.

Off to my left, there was a loud BUMP. Six wooden crates the size of picnic tables were stacked nearby, and they were rattling. Mrs O’Leary cocked her head and bounded towards them.

‘Whoa, girl!’ Quintus said. ‘Those aren’t for you.’ He distracted her with the bronze shield frisbee.

The crates thumped and shook. There were words printed on the sides, but with my dyslexia they took me a few minutes to decipher:

TRIPLE G RANCH

 

FRAGILE

 

THIS WAY UP

 

Along the bottom, in smaller letters:

OPEN WITH CARE.

 

TRIPLE G RANCH IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR PROPERTY

 

DAMAGE, MAIMING OR EXCRUCIATINGLY PAINFUL DEATHS.

 

‘What’s in the boxes?’ I asked.

‘A little surprise,’ Quintus said. ‘Training activity for tomorrow night. You’ll love it.’

‘Uh, okay,’ I said, though I wasn’t sure about the ‘excruciatingly painful deaths’ part.

Quintus threw the bronze shield, and Mrs O’Leary lumbered after it. ‘You young ones need more challenges. They didn’t have camps like this when I was a boy.’

‘You – you’re a half-blood?’ I didn’t mean to sound so surprised, but I’d never seen an old demigod before.

Quintus chuckled. ‘Some of us
do
survive into adulthood, you know. Not all of us are the subject of terrible prophecies.’

‘You know about my prophecy?’

‘I’ve heard a few things.’

I wanted to ask
what few
things, but just then Chiron clip-clopped into the arena. ‘Percy, there you are!’

He must’ve just come from teaching archery. He had a quiver and bow slung over his
‘NO. 1 CENTAUR’
T-shirt. He’d trimmed his curly brown hair and beard for the summer, and his lower half, which was a white stallion, was flecked with mud and grass.

‘I see you’ve met our new instructor.’ Chiron’s tone was light, but there was an uneasy look in his eyes. ‘Quintus, do you mind if I borrow Percy?’

‘Not at all, Master Chiron.’

‘No need to call me “master”,’ Chiron said, though he sounded sort of pleased. ‘Come, Percy. We have much to discuss.’

I took one more glance at Mrs O’Leary, who was now chewing off the target dummy’s legs.

‘Well, see you,’ I told Quintus.

As we were walking away, I whispered to Chiron, ‘Quintus seems kind of –’

‘Mysterious?’ Chiron suggested. ‘Hard to read?’

‘Yeah.’

Chiron nodded. ‘A very qualified half-blood. Excellent swordsman. I just wish I understood…’

Whatever he was going to say, he apparently changed his mind. ‘First things first, Percy. Annabeth told me you met some
empousai.’

‘Yeah.’ I told him about the fight at Goode, and how Kelli had exploded into flames.

‘Mm,’ Chiron said. ‘The more powerful ones can do that. She did not die, Percy. She simply escaped. It is not good that the she-demons are stirring.’

‘What were they doing there?’ I asked. ‘Waiting for me?’

‘Possibly.’ Chiron frowned. ‘It is amazing you survived. Their powers of deception… almost any male hero would’ve fallen under their spell and been devoured.’

‘I would’ve been,’ I admitted. ‘Except for Rachel.’

Chiron nodded. ‘Ironic to be saved by a mortal, yet we owe her a debt. What the
empousa
said about an attack on camp – we must speak of this further. But for now, come, we should get to the woods. Grover will want you there.’

‘Where?’

‘At his formal hearing,’ Chiron said grimly. ‘The Council of Cloven Elders is meeting now to decide his fate.’

Chiron said we needed to hurry, so I let him give me a ride on his back. As we galloped past the cabins, I glanced at the dining hall – an open-air Greek pavilion on a hill overlooking the sea. It was the first time I’d seen the place since last summer, and it brought back bad memories.