Chapter 16

Thunder boomed.

I said, “That’s the most serious oath you can make.”

Grover nodded.

“And the brothers kept their word—no kids?”

Grover’s face darkened. “Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There

was this TV

starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn’t help himself. When

their child was born, a little girl named Thalia .. . well, the River Styx is serious

about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he’s immortal, but he brought a

terrible fate on his daughter.”

“But that isn’t fair.’ It wasn’t the little girl’s fault.”

Grover hesitated. “Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than

other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When

Hades found out about the girl, he wasn’t too happy about Zeus breaking his oath.

Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned

to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to

escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she’d befriended. They almost

made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill.”

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I’d fought the minotaur.

“All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were

about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to

safety while she held off the monsters.

She was wounded and tired, and she didn’t want to live like a hunted animal.

The satyr didn’t want to leave her, but he couldn’t change her mind, and he had to

protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps

protect the borders of the valley. That’s why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill.”

I stared at the pine in the distance.

The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed

herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my

victory over the Minotaur didn’t seem like much. I wondered, if I’d acted differently,

could I have saved my mother?

“Grover,” I said, “have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?”

“Sometimes,” he said. “Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini.”

“And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?”

“No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you’re not seriously thinking—”

“No,” I lied. “I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a

demigod?”

Grover studied me warily. I hadn’t persuaded him that I’d really dropped the

Underworld idea.

“Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-

bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura,

like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since

they could cause really huge problems.”

“And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special.”

Grover looked as if I’d just led him into a trap. “I didn’t... Oh, listen, don’t

think like that. If you were—you know—you’d never ever be allowed a quest, and

I’d never get my license. You’re probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of

the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don’t worry, okay?”

I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood

at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the

pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a

painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion,

Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red,

painted with a bloody spear and a boar’s head.

I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, “Those are the flags?”

“Yeah.”

“Ares and Athena always lead the teams?”

“Not always,” he said. “But often.”

“So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?”

He grinned. “You’ll see. First we have to get one.”

“Whose side are we on?”

He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn’t. The scar on his face

made him look almost evil in the torchlight. “We’ve made a temporary alliance with

Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help.”

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and

Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower

times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter,

Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I’d seen, Dionysus’s kids were actually good

athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter’s kids had the edge with nature

skills and outdoor stuff but they weren’t very aggressive. Aphrodite’s sons and daughters I wasn’t too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked

their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.

Hephaestus’s kids weren’t pretty, and there were only four of them, but they

were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.

That, of course, left Ares’s cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on

Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

“Heroes!” he announced. “You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line.

The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be

prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be

disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will

serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!”

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment:

helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

“Whoa,” I said. “We’re really supposed to use these?”

Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. “Unless you want to get skewered by

your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You’ll be on border

patrol.”

My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the

middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I

hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on

Athena’s side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red

plumes.

Annabeth yelled, “Blue team, forward!”

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south

woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment.

“Hey.”

She kept marching.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked. “Got any magic items you can loan me?”

Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I’d stolen something.

“Just watch Clarisse’s spear,” she said. “You don’t want that thing touching

you. Otherwise, don’t worry. We’ll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you

your job?”

“Border patrol, whatever that means.”

“It’s easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me.

Athena always has a plan.”

She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.

“Okay,” I mumbled. “Glad you wanted me on your team.”

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in

and out of view .

Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then

she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I

felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I’d tried so far, seemed

balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.

There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean,

Olympus had to have liability issues, right?

Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the

clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a

deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Great, I thought. I’ll miss all the fun, as usual.

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl,

somewhere close by.

I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.

Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors

came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

“Cream the punk!” Clarisse screamed.

Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-

foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only

the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.

They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I

could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.

I managed to sidestep the first kid’s swing, but these guys were not as stupid

the Minotaur.

They surrounded me, and Clarisse ****** at me with her spear. My shield

deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on

end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.

Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.

Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit

the dirt.

They could’ve kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.

“Give him a haircut,” Clarisse said. “Grab his hair.”

I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside

with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.

“Oh, wow,” Clarisse said. “I’m scared of this guy. Really scared.”

“The flag is that way,” I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it

didn’t come out that way.

“Yeah,” one of her siblings said. “But see, we don’t care about the flag. We

care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid.”

“You do that without my help,” I told them. It probably wasn’t the smartest

thing to say.

Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my

shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn’t

been wearing an armored breastplate, I would’ve been shish-ke-babbed. As it was,

the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her

cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.

Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.

“No maiming,” I managed to say.

“Oops,” the guy said. “Guess I lost my dessert privilege.

He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I

figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something

happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I’d just had a bag of my

mom’s double-espresso jelly beans.

Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet

them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy’s head

and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as

he crumpled into the water.

Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the

face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy’s horsehair plume.

Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn’t look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As

soon as she ******, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword,

and I snapped it like a twig.

“Ah!” she screamed. “You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!”

She probably would’ve said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with

my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the

boundary line with the red team’s banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of

Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the

Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

“A trick!” she shouted. “It was a trick.”

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the

creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The

red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a

huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up

Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from

the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We’d won.

I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth’s voice, right next to me in

the creek, said,

“Not bad, hero.”

I looked, but she wasn’t there.

“Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?” she asked. The air

shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she’d just

taken it off her head.

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn’t even fazed by the fact that she’d just been

invisible. “You set me up,” I said. “You put me here because you knew Clarisse

would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured

out.”

Annabeth shrugged. “I told you. Athena always, always has a plan.”

“A plan to get me pulverized.”

“I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ...” She shrugged. “You

didn’t need help.”

Then she noticed my wounded arm. “How did you do that?”

“Sword cut,” I said. “What do you think?”

“No. It was a sword cut. Look at it.”

The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white

scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and

disappeared.

“I—I don’t get it,” I said.

Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked

down at my feet, then at Clarisse’s broken spear, and said, “Step out of the water,

Percy.”

“What—”

“Just do it.”

I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go

numb again.

My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.

“Oh, Styx,” she cursed. “This is not good. I didn’t want ... I assumed it would

be Zeus... .”

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much

closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

The campers’ cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient

Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: “Stand ready!

My bow!”

Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with

lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at me.

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, “Percy, run!”

She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over

her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward

and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of

thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From

the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.

By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn’t want to look underneath the ruins of

my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut.

Another second, and the monster would’ve turned me into a hundred pounds of

delicatessen meat.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

“Di immortales!” Annabeth said. “That’s a hellhound from the Fields of

Punishment. They don’t ... they’re not supposed to ...”

“Someone summoned it,” Chiron said. “Someone inside the camp.”

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, “It’s all Percy’s fault! Percy summoned it!”

“Be quiet, child,” Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the

ground until it disappeared.

“You’re wounded,” Annabeth told me. “Quick, Percy, get in the water.”

“I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not,” she said. “Chiron, watch this.”

I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp

gathering around me.

Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the

campers gasped.

“Look, I—I don’t know why,” I said, trying to apologize. “I’m sorry....”

But they weren’t watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something

above my head.

“Percy,” Annabeth said, pointing. “Um ...”

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out

the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

“Your father,” Annabeth murmured. “This is really not good.”

“It is determined,” Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they

didn’t look happy about it.

“My father?” I asked, completely bewildered.

“Poseidon,” said Chiron. “Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail,

Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God.”

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