If only guns could stop nightmares (Hanora pov)
We finally stopped in a room full of waterfalls. The floor was one big pit, ringed by a slippery stone walkway. Around us, on all four walls, water tumbled from huge pipes. The water spilled down into the pit, and even when I shined a light, I couldn’t see the bottom. I pulled out my leather gun holster from my backpack and readjusted it through my jeans belt loops. I figured that having my Beretta in a more easily accessible place would be better considering how useful it had just been against Kampê, I guess gun really does beat everything.
Briares slumped against the wall. He scooped up water in a dozen hands and washed his face. “This pit goes straight to Tartarus,” he murmured. “I should jump in and save you trouble.”
“Don’t talk that way,” Annabeth told him. “You can come back to camp with us. You can help us prepare. You know more about fighting Titans than anybody.”
“I have nothing to offer,” Briares said. “I have lost everything.”
“What about your brothers?” Tyson asked. “The other two must stand tall as mountains! We can take you to them.”
Briares’s expression morphed to something even sadder: his grieving face. “They are no more. They faded.”
The waterfalls thundered. Tyson stared into the pit and blinked tears out of his eye.
“What exactly do you mean, they faded?” Percy asked. “I thought monsters were immortal, like the gods.”
“Percy,” Grover said weakly, “even immortality has limits. Sometimes…sometimes monsters get forgotten and they lose their will to stay immortal.”
Looking at Grover’s face, I wondered if he was thinking of Pan. I’d never thought about it too much, but I supposed that fading immortals was not really a new concept. I mean Helios had faded leaving his duties to Apollo, so it was not all that difficult to believe that it had happened to the hundred handed ones as well. In a way I understood the loneliness of being the last of your kind, I had been nine when I was separated from what was left of my family and my home. I had felt pretty hopeless myself in those three months that I was on the run before I ended up at camp, giving up was an ever present thought back then.
“I must go,” Briares said.
“Kronos’s army will invade camp,” Tyson said. “We need help.”
Briares hung his head. “I cannot, Cyclops.”
“You are strong.”
“Not anymore.” Briares rose.
“Hey,” Percy grabbed one of his arms and pulled him aside, where the roar of the water would hide their words. They had a hushed conversation that was swallowed by the roar of the water, and their visages were distorted behind the waterfall.
I turned to see Annabeth staring at a scroll she had packed while Grover and Tyson were both in varying degrees of distress watching Percy and Briares. With the way our new companion had been acting I knew that there was no convincing him to go with us on our adventure in this maze. He was on the verge of collapse, but hopefully Percy could figure out the right words to convince him. He was much better with people then I could ever hope to be.
I heard a heavy sigh, so I turned just in time to see Briares trudge off down the corridor until he was lost in the shadows.
Tyson sobbed.
“It’s okay,” Grover hesitantly patted his shoulder, which must’ve taken all his courage.
Tyson sneezed. “It’s not okay, goat boy. He was my hero.”
I wanted to make him feel better, but I wasn’t sure what to say.
Finally, Annabeth stood and shouldered her backpack. “Come on, guys. This pit is making me nervous. Let’s find a better place to camp for the night.”
***
We settled in a corridor made of huge marble blocks. It looked like it could’ve been part of a Greek tomb, with bronze torch holders fastened to the walls. It had to be an older part of the maze, and Annabeth decided this was a good sign.
“We must be close to Daedalus’s workshop,” she said. “Get some rest, everybody. We’ll keep going in the morning.”
“How do we know when it’s morning?” Grover asked.
“Just rest,” she insisted.
Grover didn’t need to be told twice. He pulled a heap of straw out of his pack, ate some of it, made a pillow out of the rest, and was snoring in no time. Tyson took longer getting to sleep. He tinkered with some metal scraps from his building kit for a while, but whatever he was making, he wasn’t happy with it. He kept disassembling the pieces. I would have gone over to help him, but Percy scooted over to him, so I let the brothers have their moment instead.
I settled myself next to Annabeth and took out some of my tools and cleaning supplies to make sure my gun was in battle ready mode. She looked over at me with only a small shake of her head before plopping her head onto my shoulder.
“Never took you for a firearms enthusiast,” she mumbled.
I shrugged carefully to not jostle her head,” I mean I still prefer Aigéan if I’m honest. But sometimes you need a different tool to get the job done, so,” I made a small jester toward the now unloaded Beretta. "I made sure I am always prepared.”
She hummed, twisting her ring as she looked out at the entrances to the room. We settled into a comfortable silence with the only sound in the room being Tyson’s snores and Percy’s restless tossing and turning.
He must have eventually given up on sleep since he picked up his bedroll and dragged it over to us. He plopped down to sit on Annabeth’s other side. He looked exhausted but also wired which was probably because he was still on an adrenaline high.
“You should sleep,” Annabeth said, lifting her head to look at him.
“Can’t. You doing all right?”
“Sure. First day leading the quest. Just great.”
“We’ll get there,” he said. “We’ll find the workshop before Luke does.”
She brushed her hair out of her face. She had a smudge of dirt on her chin, that I resisted the urge to wipe away. She was one of the strongest people I had ever met, at seven years old she had run away from home and met Thalia and Luke out in the wild. She had fought monsters and even faced a cyclops all on her own before making it to camp. All demigods had their own struggles, but if I am honest Annabeth had survived the most with only her wit to rely on. Which was why Percy, and I were kind of a mess last winter, actually we were nightmares trying to go find her. I would never willingly be Annabethless again.
“I just wish the quest was logical,” she complained. “I mean, we’re traveling but we have no idea where we’ll end up. How can you walk from New York to California in a day?”
“Space isn’t the same in the maze.”
“Neither is time,” I agreed as I put away my cleaning supplies.
“I know, I know. It’s just…” She looked between us hesitantly. “I was kidding myself. All that planning and reading, I don’t have a clue where we’re going.”
Percy shook his head. “You’re doing great. Besides, we never know what we’re doing. It always works out. Remember Circe’s Island?”
She snorted. “You made a cute guinea pig.”
I holstered my gun and made the most patronizing noises as possible as I pretended to reach over to him for head scratches. He only hesitated for a second before smacking my hands away with an indignant huff.
“Shut up, Specs.” then he turned back to Annabeth who was giggling at us. "And Waterland, how you got us thrown off that ride?”
“I got us thrown off? That was totally your fault!”
“See? It’ll be fine.” He said.
“Nothing like a little bit of chaos,” I giggled.
She smiled, which I was glad to see, but the smile faded quickly.
“Percy, what did Hera mean when she said you knew the way to get through the maze?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Honestly.”
“You’d tell me if you did?”
“Ummmm,” I interrupted. “Us, you mean us.”
Annabeth just waved me off keeping her eyes on Percy.
He hesitated. “Sure. Maybe…”
“Maybe what?”
“Maybe if you told me the last line of the prophecy, it would help.”
Annabeth shivered. “Not here. Not in the dark.”
I gave in and grabbed her hand. If she told me to, I would set the whole room on fire to drive back the darkness. And that thought scared me more than any monster we had faced.
“What about the choice Janus mentioned? Hera said—”
“Stop,” Annabeth snapped. Then she took a shaky breath. “I’m sorry, Percy. I’m just stressed. But I don’t…I’ve got to think about it.”
We sat in silence, listening to strange creaks and groans in the maze, the echo of stones grinding together as tunnels changed, grew, and expanded. Annabeth laced our fingers together and I nearly forgot how to breathe. It almost made me forget about Hera, almost.
“Nico is down here somewhere,” Percy said. “That’s how he disappeared from camp. He found the Labyrinth. Then he found a path that led down even farther—to the Underworld. But now he’s back in the maze. He’s coming after me.”
I found that hard to believe. Nico had practically worshiped the ground Percy walked on before we had left for our winter quest. Even if he were that mad at Percy, I could not imagine him trying to, well, kill Percy.
Annabeth was quiet for a long time. “Percy, I hope you’re wrong. But if you’re right…” she stared at the flashlight beam, casting a dim circle on the stone wall. I had a feeling she was thinking about her prophecy. I’d never seen her look more tired.
“How about I take first watch?” He said. “I’ll wake you if anything happens.”
Annabeth looked like she wanted to protest, but she just nodded, slumped into her bedroll, and closed her eyes.
***
Percy and I sat in silence for a while listening to Annabeth’s breaths even out.
“You should get some rest too, Han. I’ve got this for now.”
I leaned back on my hands and stared up into the dark ceiling. “You’re probably right.”
“Oh, wow. Are you admitting that I am right sometimes?”
“Don’t push it, Jackson.”
I layed down on my own bed roll and turned on my side so I could still see him in the dark. “Feels like old times a little bit.”
He shifted to look at me, a small smile on his face. “Oh? Did you miss me and my apparent drooling problem in cabin eleven?”
I giggled, “maybe a little. Hermes kids are a lot.”
That got us both laughing and reminiscing on our short time sharing the same floor space his first summer at camp. It was funny to think on how that short time together could have forged a strong enough friendship for all of our future adventures. I took to him about as fast as I had taken to Annabeth, except she had been stalking me while I had been unofficially assigned to show Percy around.
“I’m sorry she was stalking you too?”
I giggled,” Oh yeah. She was always just around the corner judging my ten-year-old ass. Just imagine the most serious nine-year-old you have ever seen, armed with a book and a healthy distaste for anyone she deemed boring.”
“Okay, okay. Then how did you become friends? Wasn’t she obsessed with big three kids?” He asked In between laughs.
“Yeah, well. She was not the only persistent one in this friendship.” I mused watching Percy’s face scrunch up in uncontained laughter. “I would just go up to her and sit in silence. Cause two could play that game.”
“So, you stalked the stalker?”
“I do believe I out stalked the stalker.”
After another round of laughter Percy sobered up quicker than I did. “How could someone like that cause a goddess to dislike her so much?”
I shrugged turning back to the ceiling, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I do tend to say what’s on my mind. Regardless of who it is.”
He leaned closer to me, “but why ‘worm’. That just feels so…so...”
“Specific?”
“I was going to say wrong, but sure.”
I readjusted my sleeves keeping my eyes on the ceiling. I heard shuffling until Percy had clamored his way next to me. His green eyes shined through the dark like the eye of a hurricane.
“Are your arms, okay? Should I get some water? Cause you know-”
“Percy,” I interrupted, sitting up to grab his flailing hands. “I am okay.”
He readjusted his position but made no move to pull his hands back. “Does- does she have anything to do with your burns?”
I suppose I resigned myself at that moment to the fact that as long as Percy Jackson was in my life, no secret would ever remain a secret. I pulled up my sleeves revealing two hand shaped burns on either forearm.
“These are her prints.” I whispered. I could feel his anger rising like a tidal wave, but I had to keep going before I lost my nerve.” Before I came to camp, I spent some time in Hephestus’s forge and when she found out she was not at all happy. She came storming in yelling at him making all of these threats, and I couldn’t bear it. So, one thing led to another, and I got burned in the process.”
“But Han-”
“Percy if you want to hear the truth then you need to shut up before I change my mind.” His mouth immediately clamped shut. I enjoyed the silence a second before releasing his arms and continuing. “I am not sure if that is why she hates me, but it certainly did not help. I got between her and her son. And I may or may not have said that she was a terrible mother. Which, I still stand by that assessment.” I looked down at my bare arms, for once they did not itch at all. “She wanted to make it clear that I was not to be in a place of the gods. She said that I was nothing more than a- a ‘pathetic worm’. Which is partially a jab at my mortal existence in comparison to her ‘far superior immortal self’.” I nearly wanted to gag at the mere thought of that witch being of a so-called higher status.
Percy leaned in a bit and gently linked our hands again, “and the other part?”
I let out a wet laugh that held no humor in it. “It was a slur used by the people that enslaved my nan. It is meant to mock the blood of the dragon as nothing but dirt and lies, to lower our status to even less than those who walk on the earth. My grandfather had all but legally outlawed that word when he freed and married her, he would not allow any of his people make her feel othered.”
Percy rubbed slow circles into the back of my hands with his thumbs, it was annoyingly calming. “So, Hera called you a slur and you just wanted us to ignore that.”
“Well- it wasn’t that important. I mean her opinion of me doesn’t matter, I couldn’t care less about her or her less than creative insults.”
He leveled me with a disbelieving stare,” Okay so then why are you so upset?”
“I-I am not- It’s just.” I let out a frustrated huff, “You are infuriating. You know that?”
He squeezed my hands, “yeah. You’ve said before.”
I huffed a laugh, “I guess identifying the problem is the first step to recovery.”
He shook his head with a smile and playfully pushed my shoulder. “Are you going to tell Annabeth, or am I?”
“I mean she probably put most of it together anyway. She has called me out on a few occasions about how I practically speed walk past cabins one and two. That and any mention of the bitchy queen tends to make my burns itch. Knowing AB, she probably has already figured it out and is just waiting for confirmation.”
“So…” Percy raised an eyebrow at me,” does that mean neither of us are going to tell her until she asks?”
“Would you really keep it from her even if I asked you too?”
“Not a chance.”
“Yeah, I figured as much.”
We stayed up for a little bit longer before Percy convinced me to try and get some sleep. I ruffled his hair and then reluctantly set up my bedroll next to Annabeth.
“Make sure you actually switch shifts with someone, Sea. Don’t be a hero.”
His laugh was the last thing I heard as I drifted off to sleep.
***
Demigod dreams were not known for being peaceful, and it was for good reason too. My dreams spiraled into the water.
I had never feared the water; my brother Valerius was insistent that there was not a thing to fear about it. We had spent many days splashing about the Italian coastline, traipsing up and down the beach, and many nights laid out under the stars with the sound of the waves crashing on the jetty. The ocean was something that had become synonyms with home for me, but the dreams I had been plagued with since coming back to camp in the winter were starting to make me a little jumpy.
My dream started by pulling me into the water. It was dark, cold, and something was wrapped around my legs pulling me down. No amount of thrashing could loosen its grip, I even tried activating my blade, but the dream would not allow Aigéan to open. I tried to remind myself that it wasn’t real, it was just an annoying nightmare. But even while I was repeating that mantra over and over, the lack of oxygen still made me panic.
Just as my dream self-began to black out, I heard a gargled voice.
You must choose well child, for the threads you cling to could be your greatest strength or your greatest weakness.
I looked down, and in the dark I could finally see that what was wrapped around my legs were hundreds of colorful threads that glowed softly in the waves. I could not make out any specific threads as the cacophony of colors were too much for my oxygen less brain. My vision blurred into a glowing tie dye until I finally blacked out.
When I came to, I was sat at the edge of Zephyros creek at camp. The same creek that I had spent many afternoons hiding by to escape the other campers. The woods being stocked full of monsters was not all that great of a deterrent since I preferred a good monster fight to one more half-blood squabble any day.
All traces of the dark water were gone as the light of the setting sun shone through the trees. I took a moment to catch my breath staring into the clear shallow waters flowing past. I was slowly lulled into a fragile sense of peace dragging my hand through the current.
A spot in the creek about a pace and a half off the shore suddenly darkened and the water became choppy. It looked like that area was more set for a deep-sea environment as opposed to the shallow creek it was a part of. It bubbled and thrashed as if something was clawing to get to the surface.
Against my better judgment I stepped into the creek and crept closer to the dark patch. I kneeled down in ankle deep water and stared into the darkness. As I leaned down a hand swiped across the water without breaking the surface, almost like there was a pane of glass in the way. I nearly fell back in surprise.
I pulled myself closer again to peer down. The hand was back, but this time it brought its mirror image to join it. Both pale hands tried in vain to break the surface. I reached my own hand down and lightly touched the water, but unlike the being below my hand could pass through the water and back out again untroubled.
The disturbance my hand had caused in the water reinvigorated whatever was beneath the surface. Both hands shot up again now pressed up against the invisible wall as the rest of their body came into view. I was met with the sight of a mop of blonde hair and a pair of familiar blue eyes, a prominent scar cut down his cheek under his eye all the way to his chin.
My hands shot back into the water before I could even stop to consider what I was doing. I grabbed his wrists and began heaving him out of the water. It was more difficult than I anticipated. It was like trying to pull up a two-ton corpse. Something was pulling him down, and for some reason he was letting it.
“Luke!” Vacant blue eyes looked up at me almost unseeing. “Please, you have to help me!” I pulled and yanked but I was getting sucked in deeper more than I was pulling him up.
“Come on Lu! Fight it!” I felt my eyes burning as I was now elbow deep in the water.
I squeezed his hands; I was losing him all over again and I couldn’t figure out what to do.
So, I used my last weapon in my arsenal to kick him into gear. I took a deep breath and braced myself to pull again.
“Fratellone.” He looked up, his eyes regaining some focus. "Don’t give up.”
It was like whatever haze he had been in washed away as his gaze sharpened and the weight lessened. In a few moments I pulled him up through the barrier and half dragged him onto the shore. We both collapsed into the sand breathing heavily.
“What- in the- na-me of Hades- was that?” I choked out trying to catch my breath.
“You- you saved me.” He whispered in disbelief.
“That did not answer my question, Castellan.”
I turned my head to look at him and found that he was already watching me. He was on his back with his head turned toward me and his closest hand had dropped in the space between us like he had begun to reach over but then thought better of it. His blonde hair was short cropped but still streaked with gray in several places, and his clothes were rumpled and dirty but dry, actually he was completely dry.
“Are you real?” Luke whispered. His blue eyes had so many emotions swirling in them that it was hard to identify just one.
I had never seen him like that before. At camp he was always the strong leader with a sense of humor. He did not get emotional, he was never unsure, or gods forbid lost. But in this moment, he was just so deeply vulnerable in a way that I had only seen for split seconds in the past. Despite everything that had happened in the last few years I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around him and lay out on the creek’s shore like we had so many times before.
“-Or is- is this just a dream?”
I adjusted my hand so that it was laying next to his own with a small space still in between them. “Well, this is a dream, Lu.” His face started to fall but his eyes never faltered. "But that does not mean that I’m not really here. Come on, you know how demigod dreams are.” I tried to joke, but the moment was a bit too serious for that.
He lifted his hand up and slowly brought it to my face. I tried very hard to remain statue still, which was not normally something I was good at. Luke’s hand brushed a loose strand behind my ear and then placed the palm of his hand gently on to my cheek.
“Hani, love I really miss you.”
“I wish you wouldn’t say that.”
“But I do, I miss you.”
“That is not what I meant, and you know it.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, "yeah well. Maybe if I say it enough you will start to believe it.”
“I always believed you.” I paused green meeting blue with a million unsaid questions and rants. Things that stirred just under the surface that would never be able to break through. "I believed in you until the moment you left.”
“You could have come with me.”
I let out a humorless laugh,” after all that you had done. I’m not sure I could have done that. All of the sneaking around, the lies, plots. Gods Lu you tried to kill Percy just for existing. And don’t get me started on all of the things you did after that, to him and Annabeth.”
This thumb brushed away a stray tear from my eye. “If I had left him alone, would you have come with me?”
I paused for a moment in thought,” If there were no titans involved or if I did not know they were involved. Then yes, I think I would have.”
“The titans really are your line in the sand?”
“Lu I am not jumping ship from one shity immortal system to another one. Especially if said system is known for eating his children for fear of losing his power. Not great options there.”
He hummed noncommittally, “Is there a way I could convince you to join me now?”
“Luke for a long time I knew that if you asked, I would have followed you anywhere.” I put my own hand on top of his,” and I miss the Luke I knew. But that time has passed.”
His eyes were sad, but he nodded in understanding anyway. “Can- can we stay here for a little longer than?”
I turned over onto my side and held my arms out. Without hesitation he shifted into them, the first hug we shared in a long time. And probably the last.
“Yeah, I think I can stay for a while.”
***
There was no morning in the maze, but once everyone woke up and had a breakfast of granola bars and juice boxes, A true breakfast of champions. Then we kept traveling.
The old stone tunnels changed to dirt with cedar beams, like a gold mine or something.
Annabeth started getting agitated. “This isn’t right,” she said. “It should still be stone.”
We came to a cave where stalactites hung low from the ceiling. In the center of the dirt floor was a rectangular pit, like a grave.
Grover shivered. “It smells like the Underworld in here.”
Then I saw something glinting at the edge of the pit—a foil wrapper. Percy shined his flashlight into the hole and saw a half-chewed cheeseburger floating in brown carbonated muck.
“Nico,” Percy said. “He was summoning the dead again.”
Tyson whimpered. “Ghosts were here. I don’t like ghosts.”
“We’ve got to find him.” Percy said with urgency before sprinting ahead of us.
“Percy!” Annabeth called.
I sprinted after him without a second thought. The image of Nico alone in a never-ending dark hallway from my nightmares last winter fueling my adrenaline. I saw a flash of a deep black thread blip in and out of existence out of the corner of my eye. Nico was close.
Percy and I ducked into a tunnel and saw light up ahead. By the time Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover caught up with us, we were staring at daylight streaming through a set of bars above our heads. We were under a steel grate made out of metal pipes. I could see trees and blue sky.
“Where are we?” Percy wondered.
Then a shadow fell across the grate and a cow stared down at me. It looked like a normal cow except with was a weird color—bright red, like a cherry. I didn’t know cows came in that color. The cow mooed but for my ears I unfortunately understood as run while you still can, as it put one hoof tentatively on the bars, then backed away. Which was not a good sign.
“It’s a cattle guard,” Grover said.
“A what?” Percy asked.
“They put them at the gates of ranches so cows can’t get out. They can’t walk on them.”
“How do you know that?”
Grover huffed indignantly. “Believe me, if you had hooves, you’d know about cattle guards. They’re annoying!”
Percy turned to Annabeth. “Didn’t Hera say something about a ranch? We need to check it out. Nico might be there.”
She hesitated. “All right. But how do we get out?”
Tyson solved that problem by hitting the cattle guard with both hands. It popped off and went flying out of sight. We heard a CLANG! and a startled Moo! (Watch it!) Tyson blushed.
“Sorry, cow!” he called.
Then he gave us a boost out of the tunnel.
We were certainly on a ranch. Rolling hills stretched to the horizon, dotted with oak trees and cactuses and boulders. A barbed wire fence ran from the gate in either direction. Cherry-colored cows roamed around, grazing on clumps of grass.
“Red cattle,” Annabeth said. “The cattle of the sun.”
“What?” Percy asked.
“They are the sacred cows of Apollo.” I clarified
“Holy cows?”
Annabeth nodded her head “Exactly. But what are they doing—”
“Wait,” Grover said. “Listen.”
At first everything seemed quiet…but then I heard it: the distant baying of dogs. The sound got louder. Then the underbrush rustled, and two dogs broke through. Except it wasn’t two dogs. It was one dog with two heads. It looked like a greyhound, long and snaky and sleek brown, but its neck V’d into two heads, both of them snapping and snarling so overall very unfriendly.
“Bad Janus dog!” Tyson cried.
“Arf!” Grover told it and raised a hand in greeting.
The two-headed dog bared its teeth. Clearly not a fan of Grover. Then its master lumbered out of the woods, and I might have thought of taking the cows up on their warning. He was a huge guy with stark white hair, a straw cowboy hat, and a braided white beard— kind of like a meathead, red necked Santa Claus. He was wearing jeans, a DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS T-shirt, and a denim jacket with the sleeves ripped off so you could see his muscles. On his right bicep was a crossed-swords tattoo, very much giving Ares vibes. He held a wooden club about the size of a nuclear warhead, with six-inch spikes bristling at the business end.
“Heel, Orthus ,” he told the dog.
The dog growled at us once more, just to make his feelings clear, then circled back to his master’s feet. The man looked us up and down, keeping his club ready.
“What’ve we got here?” he asked. “Cattle rustlers?”
“Just travelers,” Annabeth said. “We’re on a quest.”
The man’s eye twitched. “Half-bloods, eh?”
Percy started to say, “How did you know—”
But Annabeth cut him off by putting her hand on his arm. “I’m Annabeth, daughter of Athena. This is Percy, son of Poseidon. Hanora, who is an undetermined demigod. Grover the satyr. Tyson the—”
“Cyclops,” the man finished. “Yes, I can see that.” He glowered at Percy. “And I know half-bloods because I am one, sonny. I’m Eurytion, the cowherd for this here ranch. Son of Ares. You came through the Labyrinth like the other one, I reckon.”
“The other one?” Percy asked. “You mean Nico di Angelo?”
My pulse quickened. He was there; I could feel it.
“We get a load of visitors from the Labyrinth,” Eurytion said darkly. “Not many ever leave.”
“Wow,” Percy said. “I feel welcome.”
The cowherd glanced behind him like someone was watching. Then he lowered his voice. “I’m only going to say this once, demigods. Get back in the maze now. Before it’s too late.”
“We’re not leaving,” Annabeth insisted. “Not until we see this other demigod. Please.”
I was inclined to agree with her. Getting to Nico had been the one thing on my mind for months, and yet I knew that if we continued something bad was going to happen.
Eurytion grunted. “Then you leave me no choice, missy. I’ve got to take you to the boss.”
***
Eurytion walked alongside us with his club across his shoulder. Orthus the two-headed dog growled a lot and sniffed at Grover’s legs and shot into the bushes once in a while to chase animals, but Eurytion kept him more or less under control. We walked down a dirt path that seemed to go on forever. It must’ve been close to a hundred degrees, which was a shock after San Francisco. Heat shimmered off the ground. Insects buzzed in the trees.
It was hot in a way that turned us all into balls of sweat. (It kind of reminded me of... Actually, let's not talk about that.) Flies swarmed us. Every so often we’d see a pen full of red cows or even stranger animals. Once we passed a corral where the fence was coated in asbestos. Inside, a herd of fire-breathing horses milled around. The hay in their feeding trough was on fire. The ground smoked around their feet, but the horses seemed tame enough. One big stallion looked at me and whinnied, columns of red flame billowing out his nostrils.
“What are they for?” Percy asked.
Eurytion scowled. “We raise animals for lots of clients. Apollo, Diomedes, and…others.”
“Like who?”
“No more questions.”
Percy’s mouth snapped shut in frustration, I couldn’t help but snort.” Wow, is that how to get you to stop talking?”
He only elbow checked me in reply.
Finally, we came out of the woods. Perched on a hill above us was a big ranch house—all white stone and wood and big windows.
“It looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright!” Annabeth said.
Leave it to Annabeth to focus on architecture when we are on the verge of being hostages. We hiked up the hill to what was probably certain doom.
“Don’t break the rules,” Eurytion warned as we walked up the steps to the front porch. “No fighting. No drawing weapons. And don’t make any comments about the boss’s appearance.”
“Why?” Percy asked. “What does he look like?”
Before Eurytion could reply, a new voice said, “Welcome to the Triple G Ranch.”
The man on the porch had a normal head, which was a relief. His face was weathered and brown from years in the sun. He had slick black hair and a black pencil moustache like villains have in old movies. He smiled at us, but it was more sinister than anything else.
Of course, what was more distracting than his villainous energy was his body, or rather bodies. He had three of them. Now if you thought Janus and Briares were built weird then this guy would kill your brain, because he was three complete people. His neck connected to the middle chest like normal, but he had two more chests, one to either side, connected at the shoulders, with a few inches between. His left arm grew out of his left chest, and the same on the right, so he had two arms, but four armpits, if that makes any sense.
The chests all connected into one enormous torso, with two regular but very beefy legs, and he wore the most oversized pair of Levis I’d ever seen. His chests each wore a different color Western shirt—green, yellow, red, like a stoplight. I wondered how he dressed the middle chest, since it had no arms.
The cowherd Eurytion nudged me. “Say Hello to Mr. Geryon.”
“Hi,” Percy said. “Nice chests—uh, ranch! Nice ranch you have.”
Before I could smack him, Nico di Angelo came out of the glass doors onto the porch.
“Geryon, I won’t wait for—”
He froze when he saw us. Then he drew his sword. The blade was short, sharp, and dark as midnight.
Geryon snarled when he saw it. “Put that away, Mr. Di Angelo. I ain’t gonna have my guests killin’ each other.”
“But that’s—”
“Percy Jackson,” Geryon supplied. “Annabeth Chase, Hanora Xanthus. And a couple of their monster friends. Yes, I know.”
“Monster friends?” Grover said indignantly.
“That man is wearing three shirts,” Tyson said, like he was just realizing this.
“They let my sister die!” Nico’s voice trembled with rage. “They’re here to kill me!”
I was too stunned just looking at him. There he was Nico di Angelo alive and right in front of me.
“Nico, we’re not here to kill you.” Percy raised my hands. “What happened to Bianca was—”
“Don’t speak her name! You’re not worthy to even talk about her!”
“Wait a minute,” Annabeth pointed at Geryon. “How do you know our names?”
The three-bodied man winked. “I make it my business to keep informed, darlin ’. Everybody pops into the ranch from time to time. Everyone needs something from ole Geryon. Now, Mr. di Angelo, put that ugly sword away before I have Eurytion take it from you.”
Eurytion sighed, but he hefted his spiked club. At his feet, Orthus growled.
Nico hesitated. He looked thinner and paler than he had in the dream I had. I wondered if he’d eaten in the last week. His black clothes were dusty from traveling in the Labyrinth, and his dark eyes were full of hate. He was too young to look so angry. But when I looked at him all I saw was the excitable kid bundled up in his sleeping bag whispering in the dark. Gods I missed him, it took all of my self-restraint to not run and hug him right then. That and he was still brandishing a very sharp blade.
Reluctantly, he sheathed his sword. “If you come near me, Percy, I’ll summon help. You don’t want to meet my helpers, I promise.”
“I believe you,” Percy said.
Geryon patted Nico’s shoulder. “There, we’ve all made nice. Now come along, folks. I want to give you a tour of the ranch.”