Текст книги "The Titan's Curse"

Автор книги: Rick Riordan

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“Now, my boy.” The General turned to Luke. “The first thing we must do is isolate the half-blood Thalia. The monster we seek will then come to her.”

“The Hunters will be difficult to dispose of,” Luke said. “Zoë Nightshade—”

“Do not speak her name!”

Luke swallowed. “S–sorry, General. I just—”

The General silenced him with a wave of his hand. “Let me show you, my boy, how we will bring the Hunters down.”

He pointed to a guard on the ground level. “Do you have the teeth?”

The guy stumbled forward with a ceramic pot. “Yes, General!”

“Plant them,” he said.

In the center of the room was a big circle of dirt, where I guess a dinosaur exhibit was supposed to go. I watched nervously as the guard took sharp white teeth out of the pot and pushed them into the soil. He smoothed them over while the General smiled coldly.

The guard stepped back from the dirt and wiped his hands. “Ready, General!”

“Excellent! Water them, and we will let them scent their prey.”

The guard picked up a little tin watering can with daisies painted on it, which was kind of bizarre, because what he poured out wasn’t water. It was dark red liquid, and I got the feeling it wasn’t Hawaiian Punch.

The soil began to bubble.

“Soon,” the General said, “I will show you, Luke, soldiers that will make your army from that little boat look insignificant.”

Luke clenched his fists. “I’ve spent a year training my forces! When the Princess Andromeda arrives at the mountain, they’ll be the best—”

“Ha!” the General said. “I don’t deny your troops will make a fine honor guard for Lord Kronos. And you, of course, will have a role to play—”

I thought Luke turned paler when the General said that.

“—but under my leadership, the forces of Lord Kronos will increase a hundredfold. We will be unstoppable. Behold, my ultimate killing machines.”

The soil erupted. I stepped back nervously.

In each spot where a tooth had been planted, a creature was struggling out of the dirt. The first of them said:

“Mew?”

It was a kitten. A little orange tabby with stripes like a tiger. Then another appeared, until there were a dozen, rolling around and playing in the dirt.

Everyone stared at them in disbelief. The General roared, “What is this? Cute cuddly kittens? Where did you find those teeth?”

The guard who’d brought the teeth cowered in fear. “From the exhibit, sir! Just like you said. The saber-toothed tiger—”

“No, you idiot! I said the tyrannosaurus! Gather up those . . . those infernal fuzzy little beasts and take them outside. And never let me see your face again.”

The terrified guard dropped his watering can. He gathered up the kittens and scampered out of the room.

“You!” The General pointed to another guard. “Get me the right teeth. NOW!”

The new guard ran off to carry out his orders.

“Imbeciles,” muttered the General.

“This is why I don’t use mortals,” Luke said. “They are unreliable.”

“They are weak-minded, easily bought, and violent,” the General said. “I love them.”

A minute later, the guard hustled into the room with his hands full of large pointy teeth.

“Excellent,” the General said. He climbed onto the balcony railing and jumped down, twenty feet.

Where he landed, the marble floor cracked under his leather shoes. He stood, wincing, and rubbed his shoulders. “Curse my stiff neck.”

“Another hot pad, sir?” a guard asked. “More Tylenol?”

“No! It will pass.” The General brushed off his silk suit, then snatched up the teeth. “I shall do this myself.”

He held up one of the teeth and smiled. “Dinosaur teeth—ha! Those foolish mortals don’t even know when they have dragon teeth in their possession. And not just any dragon teeth. These come from the ancient Sybaris herself! They shall do nicely.”

He planted them in the dirt, twelve in all. Then he scooped up the watering can. He sprinkled the soil with red liquid, tossed the can away, and held his arms out wide. “Rise!”

The dirt trembled. A single, skeletal hand shot out of the ground, grasping at the air.

The General looked up at the balcony. “Quickly, do you have the scent?”

“Yesssss, lord,” one of the snake ladies said. She took out a sash of silvery fabric, like the kind the Hunters wore.

“Excellent,” the General said. “Once my warriors catch its scent, they will pursue its owner relentlessly. Nothing can stop them, no weapons known to half-blood or Hunter. They will tear the Hunters and their allies to shreds. Toss it here!”

As he said that, skeletons erupted from the ground. There were twelve of them, one for each tooth the General had planted. They were nothing like Halloween skeletons, or the kind you might see in cheesy movies. These were growing flesh as I watched, turning into men, but men with dull gray skin, yellow eyes, and modern clothes—gray muscle shirts, camo pants, and combat boots. If you didn’t look too closely, you could almost believe they were human, but their flesh was transparent and their bones shimmered underneath, like X-ray images.

One of them looked straight at me, regarding me coldly, and I knew that no cap of invisibility would fool it.

The snake lady released the scarf and it fluttered down toward the General’s hand. As soon as he gave it to the warriors, they would hunt Zoë and the other hunters until they were extinct.

I didn’t have time to think. I ran and jumped with all my might, plowing into the warriors and snatching the scarf out of the air.

“What’s this?” bellowed the General.

I landed at the feet of a skeleton warrior, who hissed.

“An intruder,” the General growled. “One cloaked in darkness. Seal the doors!”

“It’s Percy Jackson!” Luke yelled. “It has to be.”

I sprinted for the exit, but heard a ripping sound and realized the skeleton warrior had taken a chunk out of my sleeve. When I glanced back, he was holding the fabric up to his nose, sniffing the scent, handing it around to his friends. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. I squeezed through the door just as the guards slammed it shut behind me.

And then I ran.

TEN

I BREAK A FEW ROCKET SHIPS

I tore across the Mall, not daring to look behind me. I burst into the Air and Space Museum and took off my invisibility cap once I was through the admissions area.

The main part of the museum was one huge room with rockets and airplanes hanging from the ceiling. Three levels of balconies curled around, so you could look at the exhibits from all different heights. The place wasn’t crowded, just a few families and a couple of tour groups of kids, probably doing one of those holiday school trips. I wanted to yell at them all to leave, but I figured that would only get me arrested. I had to find Thalia and Grover and the Hunters. Any minute, the skeleton dudes were going to invade the museum, and I didn’t think they would settle for an audio tour.

I ran into Thalia—literally. I was barreling up the ramp to the top-floor balcony and slammed into her, knocking her into an Apollo space capsule.

Grover yelped in surprise.

Before I could regain my balance, Zoë and Bianca had arrows notched, aimed at my chest. Their bows had just appeared out of nowhere.

When Zoë realized who I was, she didn’t seem anxious to lower her bow. “You! How dare you show thy face here?”

“Percy!” Grover said. “Thank goodness.”

Zoë glared at him, and he blushed. “I mean, um, gosh. You’re not supposed to be here!”

“Luke,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “He’s here.”

The anger in Thalia’s eyes immediately melted. She put her hand on her silver bracelet. “Where?”

I told them about the Natural History Museum, Dr. Thorn, Luke, and the General.

“The General is here?” Zoë looked stunned. “That is impossible! You lie.”

“Why would I lie? Look, there’s no time. Skeleton warriors—”

“What?” Thalia demanded. “How many?”

“Twelve,” I said. “And that’s not all. That guy, the General, he said he was sending something, a ‘playmate,’ to distract you over here. A monster.”

Thalia and Grover exchanged looks.

“We were following Artemis’s trail,” Grover said. “I was pretty sure it led here. Some powerful monster scent . . . She must’ve stopped here looking for the mystery monster. But we haven’t found anything yet.”

“Zoë,” Bianca said nervously, “if it is the General—”

“It cannot be!” Zoë snapped. “Percy must have seen an Iris-message or some other illusion.”

“Illusions don’t crack marble floors,” I told her.

Zoë took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. I didn’t know why she was taking it so personally, or how she knew this General guy, but I figured now wasn’t the time to ask.

“If Percy is telling the truth about the skeleton warriors,” she said, “we have no time to argue. They are the worst, the most horrible . . . We must leave now.”

“Good idea,” I said.

“I was not including thee, boy,” Zoë said. “You are not part of this quest.”

“Hey, I’m trying to save your lives!”

“You shouldn’t have come, Percy,” Thalia said grimly. “But you’re here now. Come on. Let’s get back to the van.”

“That is not thy decision!” Zoë snapped.

Thalia scowled at her. “You’re not the boss here, Zoë. I don’t care how old you are! You’re still a conceited little brat!”

“You never had any wisdom when it came to boys,” Zoë growled. “You never could leave them behind!”

Thalia looked like she was about to hit Zoë. Then everyone froze. I heard a growl so loud I thought one of the rocket engines was starting up.

Below us, a few adults screamed. A little kid’s voice screeched with delight: “Kitty!”

Something enormous bounded up the ramp. It was the size of a pick-up truck, with silver claws and golden glittering fur. I’d seen this monster once before. Two years ago, I’d glimpsed it briefly from a train. Now, up close and personal, it looked even bigger.

“The Nemean Lion,” Thalia said. “Don’t move.”

The lion roared so loud it parted my hair. Its fangs gleamed like stainless steel.

“Separate on my mark,” Zoë said. “Try to keep it distracted.”

“Until when?” Grover asked.

“Until I think of a way to kill it. Go!”

I uncapped Riptide and rolled to the left. Arrows whistled past me, and Grover played a sharp tweet-tweet cadence on his reed pipes. I turned and saw Zoë and Bianca climbing the Apollo capsule. They were firing arrows, one after another, all shattering harmlessly against the lion’s metallic fur. The lion swiped the capsule and tipped it on its side, spilling the Hunters off the back. Grover played a frantic, horrible tune, and the lion turned toward him, but Thalia stepped into its path, holding up Aegis, and the lion recoiled. “ROOOAAAR!”

“Hi-yah!” Thalia said. “Back!”

The lion growled and clawed the air, but it retreated as if the shield were a blazing fire.

For a second, I thought Thalia had it under control. Then I saw the lion crouching, its leg muscles tensing. I’d seen enough cat fights in the alleys around my apartment in New York. I knew the lion was going to pounce.

“Hey!” I yelled. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I charged the beast. I just wanted to get it away from my friends. I slashed with Riptide, a good strike to the flank that should’ve cut the monster into Meow Mix, but the blade just clanged against its fur in a burst of sparks.

The lion raked me with its claws, ripping off a chunk of my coat. I backed against the railing. It sprang at me, one thousand pounds of monster, and I had no choice but to turn and jump.

I landed on the wing of an old-fashioned silver airplane, which pitched and almost spilled me to the floor, three stories below.

An arrow whizzed past my head. The lion jumped onto the aircraft, and the cords holding the plane began to groan.

The lion swiped at me, and I dropped onto the next exhibit, a weird-looking spacecraft with blades like a helicopter. I looked up and saw the lion roar—inside its maw, a pink tongue and throat.

Its mouth, I thought. Its fur was completely invulnerable, but if I could strike it in the mouth . . . The only problem was, the monster moved too quickly. Between its claws and fangs, I couldn’t get close without getting sliced to pieces.

“Zoë!” I shouted. “Target the mouth!”

The monster lunged. An arrow zipped past it, missing completely, and I dropped from the spaceship onto the top of a floor exhibit, a huge model of the earth. I slid down Russia and dropped off the equator.

The Nemean Lion growled and steadied itself on the spacecraft, but its weight was too much. One of the cords snapped. As the display swung down like a pendulum, the lion leaped off onto the model earth’s North Pole.

“Grover!” I yelled. “Clear the area!”

Groups of kids were running around screaming. Grover tried to corral them away from the monster just as the other cord on the spaceship snapped and the exhibit crashed to the floor. Thalia dropped off the second-floor railing and landed across from me, on the other side of the globe. The lion regarded us both, trying to decide which of us to kill first.

Zoë and Bianca were above us, bows ready, but they kept having to move around to get a good angle.

“No clear shot!” Zoë yelled. “Get it to open its mouth more!”

The lion snarled from the top of the globe.

I looked around. Options. I needed . . .

The gift shop. I had a vague memory from my trip here as a little kid. Something I’d made my mom buy me, and I’d regretted it. If they still sold that stuff . . .

“Thalia,” I said, “keep it occupied.”

She nodded grimly.

“Hi-yah!” She pointed her spear and a spidery arc of blue electricity shot out, zapping the lion in the tail.

“ROOOOOOOAR!” The lion turned and pounced. Thalia rolled out of its way, holding up Aegis to keep the monster at bay, and I ran for the gift shop.

“This is no time for souvenirs, boy!” Zoë yelled.

I dashed into the shop, knocking over rows of T-shirts, jumping over tables full of glow-in-the-dark planets and space ooze. The sales lady didn’t protest. She was too busy cowering behind her cash register.

There! On the far wall—glittery silver packets. Whole racks of them. I scooped up every kind I could find and ran out of the shop with an armful.

Zoë and Bianca were still showering arrows on the monster, but it was no good. The lion seemed to know better than to open its mouth too much. It snapped at Thalia, slashing with its claws. It even kept its eyes narrowed to tiny slits.

Thalia jabbed at the monster and backed up. The lion pressed her.

“Percy,” she called, “whatever you’re going to do—”

The lion roared and swatted her like a cat toy, sending her flying into the side of a Titan rocket. Her head hit the metal and she slid to the floor.

“Hey!” I yelled at the lion. I was too far away to strike, so I took a risk: I hurled Riptide like a throwing knife. It bounced off the lion’s side, but that was enough to get the monster’s attention. It turned toward me and snarled.

There was only one way to get close enough. I charged, and as the lion leaped to intercept me, I chunked a space food pouch into its maw—a chunk of cellophane-wrapped, freeze-dried strawberry parfait.

The lion’s eyes got wide and it gagged like a cat with a hairball.

I couldn’t blame it. I remembered feeling the same way when I’d tried to eat space food as a kid. The stuff was just plain nasty.

“Zoë, get ready!” I yelled.

Behind me, I could hear people screaming. Grover was playing another horrible song on his pipes.

I scrambled away from the lion. It managed to choke down the space food packet and looked at me with pure hate.

“Snack time!” I yelled.

It made the mistake of roaring at me, and I got an ice-cream sandwich in its throat. Fortunately, I had always been a pretty good pitcher, even though baseball wasn’t my game. Before the lion could stop gagging, I shot in two more flavors of ice cream and a freeze-dried spaghetti dinner.

The lion’s eyes bugged. It opened its mouth wide and reared up on its back paws, trying to get away from me.

“Now!” I yelled.

Immediately, arrows pierced the lion’s maw—two, four, six. The lion thrashed wildly, turned, and fell backward. And then it was still.

Alarms wailed throughout the museum. People were flocking to the exits. Security guards were running around in a panic with no idea what was going on.

Grover knelt at Thalia’s side and helped her up. She seemed okay, just a little dazed. Zoë and Bianca dropped from the balcony and landed next to me.

Zoë eyed me cautiously. “That was . . . an interesting strategy.”

“Hey, it worked.”

She didn’t argue.

The lion seemed to be melting, the way dead monsters do sometimes, until there was nothing left but its glittering fur coat, and even that seemed to be shrinking to the size of a normal lion’s pelt.

“Take it,” Zoë told me.

I stared at her. “What, the lion’s fur? Isn’t that, like, an animal rights violation or something?”

“It is a spoil of war,” she told me. “It is rightly thine.”

“You killed it,” I said.

She shook her head, almost smiling. “I think thy ice-cream sandwich did that. Fair is fair, Percy Jackson. Take the fur.”

I lifted it up; it was surprisingly light. The fur was smooth and soft. It didn’t feel at all like something that could stop a blade. As I watched, the pelt shifted and changed into a coat—a full-length golden-brown duster.

“Not exactly my style,” I murmured.

“We have to get out of here,” Grover said. “The security guards won’t stay confused for long.”

I noticed for the first time how strange it was that the guards hadn’t rushed forward to arrest us. They were scrambling in all directions except ours, like they were madly searching for something. A few were running into the walls or each other.

“You did that?” I asked Grover.

He nodded, looking a little embarrassed. “A minor confusion song. I played some Barry Manilow. It works every time. But it’ll only last a few seconds.”

“The security guards are not our biggest worry,” Zoë said. “Look.”

Through the glass walls of the museum, I could see a group of men walking across the lawn. Gray men in gray camouflage outfits. They were too far away for us to see their eyes, but I could feel their gaze aimed straight at me.

“Go,” I said. “They’ll be hunting me. I’ll distract them.”

“No,” Zoë said. “We go together.”

I stared at her. “But, you said—”

“You are part of this quest now,” Zoë said grudgingly. “I do not like it, but there is no changing fate. You are the fifth quest member. And we are not leaving anyone behind.”

ELEVEN

GROVER GETS A LAMBORGHINI

We were crossing the Potomac when we spotted the helicopter. It was a sleek, black military model just like the one we’d seen at Westover Hall. And it was coming straight toward us.

“They know the van,” I said. “We have to ditch it.”

Zoë swerved into the fast lane. The helicopter was gaining.

“Maybe the military will shoot it down,” Grover said hopefully.

“The military probably thinks it’s one of theirs,” I said. “How can the General use mortals, anyway?”

“Mercenaries,” Zoë said bitterly. “It is distasteful, but many mortals will fight for any cause as long as they are paid.”

“But don’t these mortals see who they’re working for?” I asked. “Don’t they notice all the monsters around them?”

Zoë shook her head. “I do not know how much they see through the Mist. I doubt it would matter to them if they knew the truth. Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters.”

The helicopter kept coming, making a lot better time than we were through D.C. traffic.

Thalia closed her eyes and prayed hard. “Hey, Dad. A lightning bolt would be nice about now. Please?”

But the sky stayed gray and snowy. No sign of a helpful thunderstorm.

“There!” Bianca said. “That parking lot!”

“We’ll be trapped,” Zoë said.

“Trust me,” Bianca said.

Zoë shot across two lanes of traffic and into a mall parking lot on the south bank of the river. We left the van and followed Bianca down some steps.

“Subway entrance,” Bianca said. “Let’s go south. Alexandria.”

“Anything,” Thalia agreed.

We bought tickets and got through the turnstiles, looking behind us for any signs of pursuit. A few minutes later we were safely aboard a southbound train, riding away from D.C. As our train came above ground, we could see the helicopter circling the parking lot, but it didn’t come after us.

Grover let out a sigh. “Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway.”

Bianca looked pleased. “Yeah, well. I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it, because it wasn’t here when we used to live in D.C.”

Grover frowned. “New? But that station looked really old.”

“I guess,” Bianca said. “But trust me, when we lived here as little kids, there was no subway.” Thalia sat forward. “Wait a minute. No subway at all?”

Bianca nodded.

Now, I knew nothing about D.C., but I didn’t see how their whole subway system could be less than twelve years old. I guess everyone else was thinking the same thing, because they looked pretty confused.

“Bianca,” Zoë said. “How long ago . . .” Her voice faltered. The sound of the helicopter was getting louder again.

“We need to change trains,” I said. “Next station.”

Over the next half hour, all we thought about was getting away safely. We changed trains twice. I had no idea where we were going, but after a while we lost the helicopter.

Unfortunately, when we finally got off the train we found ourselves at the end of the line, in an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks. And snow. Lots of snow. It seemed much colder here. I was glad for my new lion’s fur coat.

We wandered through the railway yard, thinking there might be another passenger train somewhere, but there were just rows and rows of freight cars, most of which were covered in snow, like they hadn’t moved in years.

A homeless guy was standing at a trash-can fire. We must’ve looked pretty pathetic, because he gave us a toothless grin and said, “Y’all need to get warmed up? Come on over!”

We huddled around his fire. Thalia’s teeth were chattering. She said, “Well this is g-g-g-great.”

“My hooves are frozen,” Grover complained.

“Feet,” I corrected, for the sake of the homeless guy.

“Maybe we should contact camp,” Bianca said. “Chiron—”

“No,” Zoë said. “They cannot help us any more. We must finish this quest ourselves.”

I gazed miserably around the rail yard. Somewhere, far to the west, Annabeth was in danger. Artemis was in chains. A doomsday monster was on the loose. And we were stuck on the outskirts of D.C., sharing a homeless person’s fire.

“You know,” the homeless man said, “you’re never completely without friends.” His face was grimy and his beard tangled, but his expression seemed kindly. “You kids need a train going west?”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “You know of any?”

He pointed one greasy hand.

Suddenly I noticed a freight train, gleaming and free of snow. It was one of those automobile-carrier trains, with steel mesh curtains and a triple-deck of cars inside. The side of the freight train said SUN WEST LINE.

“That’s . . . convenient,” Thalia said. “Thanks, uh . . .”

She turned to the homeless guy, but he was gone. The trash can in front of us was cold and empty, as if he’d taken the flames with him.

An hour later we were rumbling west. There was no problem about who would drive now, because we all got our own luxury car. Zoë and Bianca were crashed out in a Lexus on the top deck. Grover was playing race car driver behind the wheel of a Lamborghini. And Thalia had hot-wired the radio in a black Mercedes SLK so she could pick up the altrock stations from D.C.

“Join you?” I asked her.

She shrugged, so I climbed into the shotgun seat.

The radio was playing the White Stripes. I knew the song because it was one of the only CDs I owned that my mom liked. She said it reminded her of Led Zeppelin. Thinking about my mom made me sad, because it didn’t seem likely I’d be home for Christmas. I might not live that long.

“Nice coat,” Thalia told me.

I pulled the brown duster around me, thankful for the warmth. “Yeah, but the Nemean Lion wasn’t the monster we’re looking for.”

“Not even close. We’ve got a long way to go.”

“Whatever this mystery monster is, the General said it would come for you. They wanted to isolate you from the group, so the monster will appear and battle you one-on-one.”

“He said that?”

“Well, something like that. Yeah.”

“That’s great. I love being used as bait.”

“No idea what the monster might be?”

She shook her head morosely. “But you know where we’re going, don’t you? San Francisco. That’s where Artemis was heading.”

I remembered something Annabeth had said at the dance: how her dad was moving to San Francisco, and there was no way she could go. Half-bloods couldn’t live there.

“Why?” I asked. “What’s so bad about San Francisco?”

“The Mist is really thick there because the Mountain of Despair is so near. Titan magic—what’s left of it—still lingers. Monsters are attracted to that area like you wouldn’t believe.”

“What’s the Mountain of Despair?”

Thalia raised an eyebrow. “You really don’t know? Ask stupid Zoë. She’s the expert.”

She glared out the windshield. I wanted to ask her what she was talking about, but I also didn’t want to sound like an idiot. I hated feeling like Thalia knew more than I did, so I kept my mouth shut.

The afternoon sun shone through the steel-mesh side of the freight car, casting a shadow across Thalia’s face. I thought about how different she was from Zoë—Zoë all formal and aloof like a princess, Thalia with her ratty clothes and her rebel attitude. But there was something similar about them, too. The same kind of toughness. Right now, sitting in the shadows with a gloomy expression, Thalia looked a lot like one of the Hunters.

Then suddenly, it hit me: “That’s why you don’t get along with Zoë.”

Thalia frowned. “What?”

“The Hunters tried to recruit you,” I guessed.

Her eyes got dangerously bright. I thought she was going to zap me out of the Mercedes, but she just sighed.

“I almost joined them,” she admitted. “Luke, Annabeth, and I ran into them once, and Zoë tried to convince me. She almost did, but . . .”

“But?”

Thalia’s fingers gripped the wheel. “I would’ve had to leave Luke.”

“Oh.”

“Zoë and I got into a fight. She told me I was being stupid. She said I’d regret my choice. She said Luke would let me down someday.”

I watched the sun through the metal curtain. We seemed to be traveling faster each second—shadows flickering like an old movie projector.

“That’s harsh,” I said. “Hard to admit Zoë was right.”

“She wasn’t right! Luke never let me down. Never.”

“We’ll have to fight him,” I said. “There’s no way around it.”

Thalia didn’t answer.

“You haven’t seen him lately,” I warned. “I know it’s hard to believe, but—”

“I’ll do what I have to.”

“Even if that means killing him?”

“Do me a favor,” she said. “Get out of my car.”

I felt so bad for her I didn’t argue.

As I was about to leave, she said, “Percy.”

When I looked back, her eyes were red, but I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or sadness. “Annabeth wanted to join the Hunters, too. Maybe you should think about why.”

Before I could respond, she raised the power windows and shut me out.

* * *

I sat in the driver’s seat of Grover’s Lamborghini. Grover was asleep in the back. He’d finally given up trying to impress Zoë and Bianca with his pipe music after he played “Poison Ivy” and caused that very stuff to sprout from their Lexus’s air conditioner.

As I watched the sun go down, I thought of Annabeth. I was afraid to go to sleep. I was worried what I might dream.

“Oh, don’t be afraid of dreams,” a voice said right next to me.

I looked over. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised to find the homeless guy from the rail yard sitting in the shotgun seat. His jeans were so worn out they were almost white. His coat was ripped, with stuffing coming out. He looked kind of like a teddy bear that had been run over by a truck.

“If it weren’t for dreams,” he said, “I wouldn’t know half the things I know about the future. They’re better than Olympus tabloids.” He cleared his throat, then held up his hands dramatically:

“Dreams like a podcast,

Downloading truth in my ears.

They tell me cool stuff.”

“Apollo?” I guessed, because I figured nobody else could make a haiku that bad.

He put his finger to his lips. “I’m incognito. Call me Fred.”

“A god named Fred?”

“Eh, well . . . Zeus insists on certain rules. Hands off, when there’s a human quest. Even when something really major is wrong. But nobody messes with my baby sister. Nobody.”

“Can you help us, then?”

“Shhh. I already have. Haven’t you been looking outside?”

“The train. How fast are we moving?”

Apollo chuckled. “Fast enough. Unfortunately, we’re running out of time. It’s almost sunset. But I imagine we’ll get you across a good chunk of America, at least.”

“But where is Artemis?”

His face darkened. “I know a lot, and I see a lot. But even I don’t know that. She’s . . . clouded from me. I don’t like it.”

“And Annabeth?”

He frowned. “Oh, you mean that girl you lost? Hmm. I don’t know.”

I tried not to feel mad. I knew the gods had a hard time taking mortals seriously, even half-bloods. We lived such short lives, compared to the gods.

“What about the monster Artemis was seeking?” I asked. “Do you know what it is?”

“No,” Apollo said. “But there is one who might. If you haven’t yet found the monster when you reach San Francisco, seek out Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea. He has a long memory and a sharp eye. He has the gift of knowledge sometimes kept obscure from my Oracle.”

“But it’s your Oracle,” I protested. “Can’t you tell us what the prophecy means?”

Apollo sighed. “You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear through the search.”

“In other words, you don’t know.”

Apollo checked his watch. “Ah, look at the time! I have to run. I doubt I can risk helping you again, Percy, but remember what I said! Get some sleep! And when you return, I expect a good haiku about your journey!”

I wanted to protest that I wasn’t tired and I’d never made up a haiku in my life, but Apollo snapped his fingers, and the next thing I knew I was closing my eyes.

In my dream, I was somebody else. I was wearing an old-fashioned Greek tunic, which was a little too breezy downstairs, and laced leather sandals. The Nemean Lion’s skin was wrapped around my back like a cape, and I was running somewhere, being pulled along by a girl who was tightly gripping my hand.