Chapter 11
They were all sitting at a café table with their hands calmly folded across their chests, dozing pleasantly. It was a sunny morning. The air was brisk but not unpleasant for sitting outside. At the other tables, a mix of bicyclists, business people, and college kids sat chatting and drinking coffee. The smell of eucalyptus trees filled the air. Lots of foot traffic passed in front of quaint little shops. The street was lined with bottle-brush trees and blooming azaleas as if winter was a foreign concept. In other words: they were in California.
Piper woke up first. Piper looked down at her outfit and gasped. “Mother!” She yelled louder than she meant. Jason flinched, bumping the table with his knees, and then all of them were awake.
“What?” Hedge demanded. “Fight who? Where?”
“Falling!” Leo grabbed the table. “No—not falling. Where are we?”
Jason blinked, trying to get his bearings. He focused on Piper and made a little choking sound. “What are you wearing?”
Piper probably blushed. She was wearing the turquoise dress she’d seen in her dream, with black leggings and black leather boots. She had on her favorite silver charm bracelet, even though she’d left that back home in L.A., and her old snowboarding jacket from her dad, The real one not the replacement Jason had gotten her, which amazingly went with the outfit pretty well. She pulled out Katoptris, and judging from the reflection in the blade, she’d gotten her hair done, too.
“It’s nothing,” she said. “It’s my mom.”
Leo grinned. “Aphrodite strikes again, huh? You’re gonna be the best-dressed warrior in town, beauty queen.”
“Hey, Leo.” Jason nudged his arm. “You look at yourself recently?”
“What ... oh.”
All of them had been give a makeover. Leo was wearing pinstriped pants, black leather shoes, a white collarless shirt with suspenders, and his tool belt, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a porkpie hat. “God, Leo.” Piper tried not to laugh. “I think my dad wore that to his last premiere, minus the tool belt.”
“Hey, shut up!” Leo snapped even as Jason was smiling thinking he looked cute.
“I think he looks good,” said Coach Hedge. “’Course, I look better.”
The satyr was a pastel nightmare. Aphrodite had given him a baggy canary yellow zoot suit with two-tone shoes that fit over his hooves. He had a matching yellow broad-brimmed hat, a rose-colored shirt, a baby blue tie, and a blue carnation in his lapel, which Hedge sniffed and then ate.
“Well,” Jason said, “at least your mom overlooked me.”
Piper knew that wasn’t exactly true. Looking at him, her heart did a little tap dance. Jason was dressed simply in jeans and a clean purple T-shirt, like he’d worn at the Grand Canyon. He had new track shoes on, and his hair was newly trimmed. His eyes were the same color as the sky. Aphrodite’s message was clear: This one needs no improvement. Piper and Leo both had the same thought… they agreed. Jason then looked at Leo and they both blushed, how would Aphrodite dress Nico?
“Anyway,” she said getting everyone including herself back on track “how did we get here?”
“Oh, that would be Mellie,” Hedge said, chewing happily on his carnation. “Those winds shot us halfway across the country, I’d guess. We would’ve been smashed flat on impact, but Mellie’s last gift—a nice soft breeze—cushioned our fall.”
“And she got fired for us,” Leo said. “Man, we suck.”
“Ah, she’ll be fine,” Hedge said. “Besides, she couldn’t help herself. I’ve got that effect on nymphs. I’ll send her a message when we’re through with this quest and help her figure something out. That is one aura I could settle down with and raise a herd of baby goats.”
“I’m going to be sick,” Piper said. “Anyone else want coffee?”
“Coffee!” Hedge’s grin was stained blue from the flower. “I love coffee!”
“Um,” Jason said, “but—money? Our packs?”
Piper looked down. Their packs were at their feet, and everything seemed to still be there. She reached into her coat pocket and felt two things she hadn’t expected. One was a wad of cash. The other was an extra glass vial—the amnesia potion. She left the vials in her pocket and brought out the money.
Leo whistled. “Allowance? Piper, your mom rocks!”
“Waitress!” Hedge called. “Six double espressos, and whatever these guys want. Put it on the girl’s tab.”
They soon enough got menus and coffee ordered. On the menus it told them they were at Café Verve, Walnut Creek, CA. Jason smiled at the waitress sweetly, everyone faced with that smile would have told him anything he wanted. He asked the time, turns out it was 9 a.m. on December 21, the winter solstice. That gave them exactly three hours until Enceladus’s deadline.
They didn’t even need to look for Mount Diablo either. They could see it on the horizon, right at the end of the street. They were delaying their journey there with a plate of chocolate chip scones and coffee. Only a few miles away, somewhere on that peaceful looking mountain, Enceladus was threatening to have Piper’s dad for lunch.
Leo pulled something out of his pocket, the old crayon drawing Aeolus had given him. Aphrodite knew it was important being she’d magically transferred it to his new outfit. “What is that?” Piper asked.
Leo folded it up gingerly again and put it away. “Nothing. You don’t want to see my kindergarten artwork.”
“It’s more than that,” Jason guessed. “Aeolus said it was the key to our success.”
Leo shook his head. “Not today. He was talking about... later.”
“How can you be sure?” Piper asked.
“Trust me,” Leo said. “Now—what’s our game plan?”
Coach Hedge belched. He’d already had three espressos and a plate of doughnuts, along with two napkins and another flower from the vase on the table. He would’ve eaten the silverware, except Piper had slapped his hand.
“Climb the mountain,” Hedge said. “Kill everything except Piper’s dad. Leave.”
“Thank you, General Eisenhower,” Jason grumbled.
“Hey, I’m just saying!”
“Guys,” Piper said. “There’s more you need to know.” She told them about her dream. Her mom had never said to hide any of it. How she was supposed to be some mediator of the Seven. She told them about their real enemy: Gaea.
“Gaea?” Leo shook his head. “Isn’t that Mother Nature? She’s supposed to have, like, flowers in her hair and birds singing around her and deer and rabbits doing her laundry.”
“Leo, that’s Snow White,” Piper said.
“Okay, but—”
“Listen, cupcake.” Coach Hedge dabbed the espresso out of his goatee. “Piper’s telling us some serious stuff, here. Gaea’s no softie. I’m not even sure I could take her.”
Leo whistled. “Really?”
Hedge nodded. “This earth lady—she and her old man the sky were nasty customers.”
“Ouranos,” Piper said. She couldn’t help looking up at the blue sky, wondering if it had eyes.
“Right,” Hedge said then proceeded to tell them about how Gaea after losing the Cyclopes to Tartarus, has a second set of kids, the Titans. She then used them to kill Ouranos in revenge using Kronos. Granting him his scythe and convincing him this was all in his favor to rule the world. They all knew she succeeded. No demi-god was ever comfortable with this story. Many a God and Goddess took it as a warning.
Kronos was just plain evil. Gaea was way worse. Thankfully being the earth itself, she was huge making it incredibly difficult for her to be fully conscious. Like all of the original Primordial that still lived, they either slept or existed in their large body with a tiny sliver of them active. Not that there wasn’t active consciousness in all of them, related to their domains. Gaea was still able to shift things in her favor, or shift the earth to her will.
They were all figuring out that Gaea was getting more powerful as the giants rose. Porphyrion rising the army Gaea was gathering for him, was the fear. If they giants succeeded not only would the resulting war destroy the gods, but Gaea herself would destroy anything left of them, if they didn’t wipe themselves out trying to kill her fully awake self. They were seriously in trouble, for all they needed to stay off the ground, they also needed to climb a mountain to rescue Piper’s dad.
Piper’s heart sank and it showed on her face. She couldn’t ask them to help her after being asked to betray them all. It was just too much to ask, walking into a trap, fighting a Giant, all with the most powerful thing they’d ever heard of at the root of it all. “Guys, I can’t ask you to do this,” Piper said. “This is too dangerous.”
“You kidding?” Gleeson belched and showed them his blue carnation smile. “Who’s ready to beat stuff up?” The three demi-gods all shared a look at their over eager satyr. “Come on. We got monsters to kill.” He was already out of his seat making them all move.
They all shrugged and got moving. Leo hailed a cab. They all piled in and told the cabby their destination. The moment they started climbing the mountain road the cab made lurching, grinding sounds, and halfway up they found the ranger’s station closed, a chain blocking the way.
“Far as I can go,” the cabbie said. “You sure about this? Gonna be a long walk back, and my car’s acting funny. I can’t wait for you.”
“We’re sure.” Leo was the first one out. The bad feeling about what was wrong with the cab was proven right when he looked. The wheels were sinking into the road, just fast enough to make the driver think he had a transmission problem or a bad axle. The road was hard-packed dirt, it was all Gaea messing with them. While his friends got out, Leo paid the cabbie. “Keep the change,” he said. “And get out of here. Quick.” The driver didn’t argue. Soon all they could see was his dust trail, his car problems in the wind.
The view from the mountain was amazing. The whole inland valley around Mount Diablo was a patchwork of towns making grids of tree-lined streets and nice middle-class suburbs, shops, and schools. All these normal people living normal lives down below, the kind no demi-god had ever known.
“That’s Concord,” Jason said, pointing to the north. “Walnut Creek below us. To the south, Danville, past those hills. And that way ...” He pointed west, where a ridge of golden hills held back a layer of fog, like the rim of a bowl. “That’s the Berkeley Hills. The East Bay. Past that, San Francisco.”
“Jason?” Piper touched his arm. “You remember something? You’ve been here?”
“Yes ... no.” He gave her an anguished look, as he knew but didn’t know why he knew. “It just seems important.”
“That’s Titan land.” Coach Hedge nodded toward the west. “Bad place, Jason. Trust me, this is as close to ’Frisco as we want to get.”
Jason looked toward the foggy basin with such longing that Leo felt uneasy. Why did Jason seem so connected with a place Hedge said was evil, full of bad magic and old enemies? What if Jason came from here? Everybody kept hinting Jason was an enemy, that his arrival at Camp Half-Blood was a dangerous mistake. Leo instantly discarded the thought because Jason was their friend. Then another thought crept into place, like why the gods seemed to change randomly like they were out of sync, like there was two different pantheons with two different situations… The bridge, a bridge to what? The enemy or… a secret from the civil war... Then there was having Piper as a mediator like they were enemies before they’d even met… Leo tried to move his foot, but his heels were now completely embedded in the dirt. “Hey, guys,” he said. “Let’s keep moving.”
The others noticed the problem.
“Gaea is stronger here,” Hedge grumbled. He popped his hooves free from his shoes, then handed the shoes to Leo. “Keep those for me, Valdez. They’re nice.”
Leo snorted. “Yes, sir, Coach. Would you like them polished?”
“That’s varsity thinking, Valdez.” Hedge nodded approvingly. “But first, we’d better hike up this mountain while we still can.”
“How do we know where the giant is?” Piper asked.
Jason pointed toward the peak. Drifting across the summit was a plume of smoke. From a distance, the rest of them had mistaken it for a cloud, but it wasn’t. Something was burning. “Smoke equals fire,” Jason said. “We’d better hurry.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It felt like hours as they walked up the mountain with Gaea sucking at their feet, making it ten times harder. They were all tired, dirty and sweaty when they finally reached the final crest. It had been an aggravating journey, at each rise. Leo was the dirtiest of them as he’d distracted himself making a noisemaker that he tucked away for later use.
Finally, they were crouching behind a wall of rocks. Coach Hedge reluctantly as he didn’t want to get his pastel nightmare dirty. Below them in the shadow of the mountain’s final crest, was a forested depression about the size of a football field. They’d found the giant Enceladus’s camp. The trees had been cut down to make a towering purple bonfire. The outer rim of the new clearing was littered with extra logs and construction equipment including an earthmover, a tree harvester and a hydraulic ax. Why a giant needed construction equipment none of them were sure. Enceladus couldn’t even fit in the driver’s seat.
The giant Enceladus himself was thirty feet tall. His head was seriously at the treetops. The giant could’ve seen them behind the ridge, if he’d been paying attention. Instead, he was intent on the purple bonfire, circling it and chanting under his breath. From the waist up, the giant appeared humanoid, his muscular chest clad in bronze armor, decorated with flame designs. His arms were completely ripped. Each of his biceps was the size of a demi-god. His skin was bronze but sooty with ash. His face was crudely shaped, like a half-finished clay figure, but his eyes glowed white, and his hair was matted in shaggy dreadlocks down to his shoulders, braided with bones. From the waist down, he was terrifying. His legs were scaly green, with claws instead of feet like the forelegs of a dragon. In his hand, Enceladus held a spear the size of a flagpole. Every so often he dipped its tip in the fire, just to heat it up.
“Okay,” Coach Hedge whispered. “Here’s the plan—”
Leo elbowed him. “You’re not charging him alone!”
“Aw, c’mon.”
Piper choked back a sob. “Look.”
Just visible on the other side of the bonfire was a man tied to a post. His head slumped like he was unconscious, there was no doubt on who it was. “Dad,” Piper choked again. Tristan McLean was half dead and about to be eaten. They couldn’t yet see that he wore a ragged dress shirt and torn slacks. His bare feet were caked with mud. He had a nasty cut down the side of his face, and he looked thin and sickly. The only people who could stop it were three fashionably dressed teenaged demi-gods and a megalomaniac goat. Their odds weren’t looking good.
“There’s four of us,” Hedge whispered urgently. “And only one of him.”
“Did you miss the fact that he’s thirty feet tall?” Leo asked.
“Okay,” Hedge said. “So you, me, and Jason distract him. Piper sneaks around and frees her dad.”
They all looked at Jason. “What?” Jason asked. “I’m not the leader.”
“Yes,” Piper said. “You are.”
They’d never really talked about it, but no one disagreed, not even Hedge. Coming this far had been a team effort, but when it came to a life-and-death decision, they all knew Jason was the one to ask. Even if he had no memory, Jason had a kind of balance to him. You could just tell he’d been in battles before, and he knew how to keep his cool. Leo wasn’t exactly the trusting type, but he trusted Jason with his life. Piper was trusting them all with hers and her father’s lives.
“I hate to say it,” Jason sighed, “but Coach Hedge is right. A distraction is Piper’s best chance.”
Not a good chance, not even a survivable chance. Just their best chance. They couldn’t sit there all day and talk about it, though. It was close to noon, the giant’s deadline, and the ground was still trying to pull them down. Leo looked at the construction equipment and got a crazy idea. He brought out the little toy he’d made on the climb, and he realized what it could do … if he was lucky, which he almost never was. This was going to go horribly wrong and they were all going to die… might as well get started.
“Let’s boogie,” Leo said. “Before I come to my senses.”
Piper scrambled along the ridge, trying to keep her head down, while Leo, Jason, and Coach Hedge walked straight into the clearing. Jason summoned his golden lance. He brandished it over his head and yelled, “Giant!” with a confidence he didn’t know where it came from.
Enceladus stopped chanting at the flames. He turned toward them and grinned, revealing fangs like a saber-tooth tiger. That’s pretty much when the plan started going horrifically wrong as Leo predicted. While Jason and Couch Hedge thought they were distracting the giant, Leo was trying to covertly reach the Bulldozer. That lasted as long as Enceladus opening his mouth wide, his teeth began to glow.
“Scatter!” Leo yelled.
Jason and Hedge dove to the left as the giant blew fire. a furnace blast so hot even Festus would’ve been jealous. Leo dodged behind the bulldozer, wound up his homemade device, and dropped it into the driver’s seat. Then he ran to the right, heading for the tree harvester.
Meanwhile Jason rose and charged the giant. Coach Hedge ripped off his canary yellow jacket, which was now on fire, and bleated angrily. “I liked that outfit!” Then he raised his club and charged, too.
Before they could get very far, Enceladus slammed his spear against the ground. The entire mountain shook. The shockwave sent them sprawling momentarily stunning the demigods. Through a haze of grassfire and bitter smoke, Jason was staggering to his feet on the other side of the clearing. Coach Hedge was knocked out cold. Leo was watching from the ground.
Piper had been spotted too from the way the giant bellowed, “I see you, Piper McLean!” He turned and blew fire at a line of bushes. Piper ran into the clearing like a flushed quail, the underbrush burning behind her. Enceladus laughed. “I’m happy you’ve arrived. And you brought me my prizes!”
All their guts twisted. This was the moment Piper had warned them about. They’d played right into Enceladus’s hands. But they weren’t going to give into him. The Giant gloated.
Piper’s dad wasn’t completely unconscious because he lifted his head and groaned. “Dad!” Piper yelled.
Mr. McLean blinked, trying to focus. “Pipes ... ? Where ...”
Piper drew her dagger and faced Enceladus. “Let him go!”
“Of course, dear,” the giant rumbled. “Swear your loyalty to me, and we have no problem. Only these others must die.”
Piper looked back and forth between Leo and her dad. She was hesitating, how could they blame her, this was her dad. The only person she had. “He’ll kill you,” Leo warned. “Don’t trust him!”
“Oh, come now,” Enceladus bellowed. “You know I was born to fight Athena herself? Mother Gaea made each of us giants with a specific purpose, designed to fight and destroy a particular god. I was Athena’s nemesis, the anti-Athena, you might say. Compared to some of my brethren—I am small! But I am clever. And I keep my bargain with you, Piper McLean. It’s part of my plan!”
Jason was on his feet now, lance ready; but before he could act, Enceladus roared. It was a call so loud it echoed down the valley and was heard all the way to San Francisco, but not recognized for what it was, disguised as an airplane flying too low.
In response to the call at the edge the woods, half a dozen ogre-like creatures rose up straight out of the earth. The ogres shuffled forward. They were small compared to Enceladus, about seven feet tall. These were Gegenees. Otherwise known at The Earthborn. Lesser children of Gaea, also apparently very good with construction equipment. They also seemed to have a score to settle with Jason… The original Jason mind you, but any demi-god worked too, especially ones named Jason.
“Yay-son!” the Earthborn screamed. They all picked up clumps of earth, which solidified in their hands, turning to nasty pointed stones. “Where Yay-son? Kill Yay-son!” they were strong…. Not smart.
Enceladus smiled. “You see, Piper, you have a choice. Save your father, or ah, try to save your friends and face certain death.”
Piper stepped forward. Her eyes blazed with such rage, even the Earthborn backed away. She radiated power and beauty, but it had nothing to do with her clothes or her makeup. “You will not take the people I love,” she said. “None of them.” This was a power only the most powerful of Aphrodite’s children could master.
Her words rippled across the clearing with such force, the Earthborn muttered, “Okay. Okay, sorry,” and began to retreat.
“Stand your ground, fools!” Enceladus bellowed. He snarled at Piper. “This is why we wanted you alive, my dear. You could have been so useful to us. But as you wish. Earth-born! I will show you Jason.”
Unlike what they thought would happen, the giant didn’t point to Jason. He pointed to the other side of the bonfire, where Tristan McLean hung helpless and half conscious. “There is Jason,” Enceladus said with pleasure. “Tear him apart!”
In that second the ADHD and the instincts that kept Demi-gods alive triggered. Thanks to the time they’d spent together, the trust and truth they’d all shared, one look from Jason, and all three of them knew the game plan. Jason charged Enceladus, while Piper rushed to her father, and Leo dashed for the tree harvester, which stood between Mr. McLean and the Earthborn. The Earthborn were fast, but pissed off Demi-gods could run like a storm spirit.
Leo leaped toward the harvester from five feet away and slammed into the driver’s seat. His hands flew across the controls, and the machine responded with unnatural speed. It came to life in response to Leo’s understanding of how important this was. “Ha!” Leo screamed, and swung the crane arm through the bonfire, toppling burning logs onto the Earthborn and spraying sparks everywhere. Two ogres went down under a fiery avalanche and melted back into the earth. The other four ogres stumbled across burning logs and hot coals while Leo brought the harvester around. He smashed a button, and on the end of the crane arm the wicked rotating blades began to whir.
During that time Piper had reached the stake, starting to cut her father free. On the other side of the clearing, Jason fought the giant, managing to dodge his massive spear and blasts of fire breath due to pure muscle memory. Coach Hedge was still passed out with his goat tail sticking up in the air.
The whole side of the mountain would soon be ablaze. While the fire wouldn’t bother Leo, it would be disastrous if the others got trapped in the flames. Leo knew he needed to end this fast. One of the Earthborn, not naturally the most intelligent being, charged the tree harvester, and Leo swung the crane arm in his direction. As soon as the blades touched the ogre, he dissolved like wet clay and splattered all over the clearing. Most of him flew into Leo’s face. He spit clay out of his mouth and turned the harvester toward the three remaining Earthborn, who backed up quickly.
“Bad vroom-vroom!” one yelled.
“Yeah, that’s right!” Leo yelled at them. “You want some bad vroom-vroom? Come on!”
Unfortunately for Leo and the Harvester, they did. Three Earthborn throwing large, hard rocks from each arm at super speed made light work of the harvester, turning it into a crushed pop can. Leo saved his own ass by launching himself in a backward somersault off the harvester half a second before the boulders hit. The ogres were picking up more clumps of earth, intent on throwing them in Piper’s direction.
“Dozer!” Leo yelled.
Thirty feet away, the bulldozer roared to life. Leo’s makeshift gadget had done its job, burrowing into the earthmover’s controls and giving it a temporary life of its own. It roared toward the enemy. Just as Piper cut her father free and caught him in her arms, the giants launched their second volley of stones. The dozer swiveled in the mud, skidding to intercept, and most of the rocks slammed into its shovel. The force was so great it pushed the dozer back. Two rocks ricocheted and struck their throwers. Two more Earthborn melted into clay. Unfortunately, one rock hit the dozer’s engine, sending up a cloud of oily smoke, and the dozer groaned to a stop.
Piper dragged her father below the ridge. The last Earth-born charged after her. Leo determined not to let the monster hurt Piper ran forward, straight through the flames, and grabbed for anything out of his tool belt. “Hey, stupid!” he yelled, and threw a screwdriver at the Earthborn.
It didn’t kill the ogre, but it sure got his attention, which in turn stopped his chase of Piper, so the ‘plan’ worked. The screwdriver sank hilt-deep into the Earthborn’s forehead causing him yelped in pain and skittered to a halt. He pulled out the screwdriver, turned and glared at Leo. Leo’s luck came to haunt them as the last ogre looked like the biggest and nastiest of the bunch. Gaea had really gone all out creating him with extra muscle, and the extra ugly face, but thankfully that also made him extra stupid.
“You die!” the Earthborn roared. “Friend of Yay-son dies!” He scooped up handfuls of dirt, which immediately hardened into rock cannonballs.
While Leo was stunned by suddenly having nothing on hand that could help, his mind having gone blank. He reached into his tool belt, but he couldn’t think of anything that would help. Instead, he caused himself to burst into flames and charge in a last-ditch effort. “Hephaestus!” he yelled as he charged at the ogre barehanded.
Lucky for him, Piper didn’t have that restriction. In a blur of turquoise and black Piper used her knife. Anyone else only saw a gleaming bronze blade sliced up one side of the Earthborn and down the other. Piper had in a fit of emotional driven power cut all six arms off the Earthborn making boulders rolling out of their useless hands. The Earthborn was very surprised mumbling “Arms go bye-bye.” Before he melted into the ground.
Piper stood there, breathing hard, her dagger covered with clay. Her dad sat at the ridge, dazed and wounded, but still alive. Piper’s expression was ferocious making Leo glad she was on their side.
“Nobody hurts my friends,” She stated then looked at Leo. “Come on!”
While that had been going on Jason had been fighting the giant Enceladus. Right at the beginning of the fight, Jason’s instincts kicked in. In his gut he knew he’d fought opponents almost this big before. Size and strength equaled slowness. The idea was that so long as Jason was quicker and paced himself, he’d wear out his opponent, while avoiding getting smashed or flame-broiled.
That’s what he was thinking as he rolled away from the giant’s first spear thrust and jabbed Enceladus in the ankle. Jason’s javelin managed to pierce the thick dragon hide, and golden ichor trickled down the giant’s clawed foot. Enceladus bellowed in pain and blasted him with fire. Jason scrambled away, rolling behind the giant, and struck again behind his knee.
This kind of fighting lasted for minutes as Jason ignored the construction equipment grinding, fire roaring, monsters shouting, and rocks smashing into metal. He fought harder to ignore Leo and Piper yelling defiantly, or he’d get distracted, which wasn’t something he could afford.
Enceladus’s spear missed him by a millimeter. Jason kept dodging, but the ground stuck to his feet. Gaea was getting stronger, and the giant was getting faster. Enceladus might be slow, but he wasn’t dumb. He began anticipating Jason’s moves, and Jason’s attacks were only annoying him, making him more enraged.
“I’m not some minor monster,” Enceladus bellowed. “I am a giant, born to destroy gods! Your little gold toothpick can’t kill me, boy.”
Jason didn’t waste energy replying. He was already tired. The ground clung to his feet, making him feel like he weighed an extra hundred pounds. The air was full of smoke that burned his lungs. Fires roared around him, stoked by the winds, and the temperature was approaching the heat of an oven. Jason raised his javelin to block the giant’s next strike. ‘Big mistake’ he heard in Hari’s voice in an oddly teaching aspect. ‘Don’t fight force with force’, Lupa chided him. The wolf had told him that long ago. He managed to deflect the spear, but it grazed his shoulder, and his arm went numb.
Jason backed up, almost tripping over a burning log. He knew he had to keep the giant’s attention fixed on him while his friends dealt with the Earthborn and rescued Piper’s dad. He couldn’t fail. He retreated, trying to lure the giant to the edge of the clearing.
Enceladus could sense his weariness. The giant smiled, baring his fangs. “The mighty Jason Grace,” he taunted. “Yes, we know about you, Son of Jupiter. The one who led the assault on Mount Othrys. The one who single-handedly slew the Titan Krios and toppled the Black Throne.”
This news of course sent Jason’s mind reeled. He didn’t know these names, yet they made his skin tingle, as his body remembered the pain his mind didn’t. “What are you talking about?” he asked. He realized his mistake when Enceladus breathed fire. Distracted, Jason moved too slowly. The blast missed him, but heat blistered his back. He slammed into the ground, his clothes smoldering. He was blinded from ash and smoke, choking as he tried to breathe. He scrambled back as the giant’s spear cleaved the ground between his feet. Jason managed to stand.
Jason knew he was reaching his limits. His only thoughts were on the idea of summoning one good blast of lightning, but in this drained condition, the effort might kill him. He didn’t even know if electricity would harm the giant.
‘Death in battle is honorable’, echoed in Lupa’s voice. Jason almost felt comfort in the idea even if he did die, Nico would be waiting for him.
One last try. Jason took a deep breath and charged. Enceladus let him approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Jason faked a strike and rolled between the giant’s legs. He came up quickly, thrusting with all his might, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, the earth was helping him move. He swept his spear sideways, meeting Jason’s javelin. With a snap like a shotgun blast, the golden weapon shattered. That’s the instant Jason knew he was dead. The explosion was hotter than the giant’s breath, blinding Jason with golden light. The force knocked him off his feet and squeezed the breath out of him.
The javelin’s destruction had released so much energy, it had blasted a perfect cone-shaped pit thirty feet deep, fusing the dirt and rock into a slick glassy substance. Jason landed at the rim of the crater while Enceladus stood at the other side, staggering and confused. Jason wasn’t sure how he’d survived, but his clothes were steaming. He was out of energy. He had no weapon. Enceladus was still very much alive.
Jason tried to get up, but his legs were like lead. Enceladus blinked at the destruction, then laughed. “Impressive! Unfortunately, that was your last trick, demigod.” Enceladus leaped the crater in a single bound, planting his feet on either side of Jason. The giant raised his spear, its tip hovering six feet over Jason’s chest. “And now,” Enceladus said, “my first sacrifice to Gaea!”
Gaea was preparing for this sacrifice by pulling Jason into the earth, making it comfortable, urging him to relax and give up. Jason’s mind had speed up in its perceptions, making it so time seemed to be going slower. He absently wondered about how his reception in the Underworld would go with his amnesia, would his father put in a good word for him. All with the tip of the spear coming toward his chest in slow motion. He knew he should move, but he couldn’t seem to do it. ‘Funny,’ he thought. ‘All that effort to stay alive, and then, boom. You just lie there helplessly while a fire-breathing giant impales you.’
Leo yelled, “Heads up!” as he slammed the hydraulic ax down on Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant toppled over and slid into the pit with the black ax head the size of a washing machine lodged into his breastplate.
“Jason, get up!” Piper called. Her voice energized him, shook him out of his stupor. He sat up, his head groggy, while Piper grabbed him under his arms and hauled him to his feet. “Don’t die on me,” she ordered. “You are not dying on me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He felt light-headed, but she had brought his senses back. Her hair was smoldering. Her face was smudged with soot. She had a cut on her arm, her dress was torn, and she was missing a boot. About a hundred feet behind her, Leo was standing over the now broken hydraulic ax, looking about the same, only he managed to keep both shoes, and his injuries were slightly different.
Enceladus was struggling to rise, due to the ax. The giant managed to pull the ax blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armor, but Enceladus stood. Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his spear. “Good try.” The giant winced. “But I cannot be beaten.” The giant’s armor mended itself, and the ichor stopped flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Jason had worked so hard to make, were now just pale scars.
Leo ran up to them, saw the giant, and cursed. “What is it with this guy? Die, already!”
“My fate is preordained,” Enceladus said. “Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes.”
“Only by both,” Jason said. The giant’s smile faltered, and Jason saw in his eyes something like fear. “It’s true, isn’t it? Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you.”
“You will not live long enough to try!” The giant started stumbling up the crater’s slope, slipping on the glassy sides.
“Anyone have a god handy?” Leo asked.
Jason’s heart filled with dread. He looked at the giant below them, struggling to get out of the pit, and he knew what had to happen. Nico was going to kill him if this didn’t go right. “Leo,” he said, “if you’ve got a rope in that tool belt, get it ready.” He leaped at the giant with no weapon but his bare hands.
“Enceladus!” Piper yelled. “Look behind you!”
It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, there wasn’t a chance he wouldn’t look. The giant said, “What?” and turned like there was an enormous spider on his back.
Jason tackled his legs at just the right moment. The giant lost his balance. Enceladus slammed into the crater and slid to the bottom. While he tried to rise, Jason put his arms around the giant’s neck. When Enceladus struggled to his feet, Jason was riding his shoulders. “Get off!” Enceladus screamed. He tried to grab Jason’s legs, but Jason scrabbled around, squirming and climbing over the giant’s hair. It wasn’t pretty but it was working.
‘Father,’ Jason thought. ‘If I’ve ever done anything good, anything you approved of, help me now. I offer my own life—just save my friends.’
Jupiter responded. The air filled with the metallic scent of a storm. Darkness swallowed the sun. The giant froze, sensing it too.
Jason yelled to his friends, “Hit the deck!” as every hair on his head stood straight up.
Crack!
Lightning surged through Jason’s body, straight through Enceladus, and into the ground. The giant’s back stiffened, and Jason was thrown clear. When he regained his bearings, he was slipping down the side of the crater, and the crater was cracking open. The lightning bolt had split the mountain itself. The earth rumbled and tore apart, and Enceladus’s legs slid into the chasm. He clawed helplessly at the glassy sides of the pit, and just for a moment managed to hold on to the edge, his hands trembling.
He fixed Jason with a look of hatred. “You’ve won nothing, boy. My brothers are rising, and they are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the gods at their roots! You will die, and Olympus will die with—” The giant lost his grip and fell into the crevice. The earth shook.
Jason fell toward the rift. “Grab hold!” Leo yelled. Jason’s feet were at the edge of the chasm when he grabbed the rope, and Leo and Piper pulled him up. They stood together, exhausted and terrified, as the chasm closed like an angry mouth. The ground stopped pulling at their feet. For now, Gaea was gone.
The mountainside was on fire. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air. The area was covered in carnage. The Earthborn had melted into piles of clay, leaving behind only their rock missiles and some nasty bits of loincloth, they’d reform sooner then anyone wanted. Construction equipment lay in ruins. The ground was scarred and blackened. Only then did Coach Hedge started to move. He sat up with a groan and rubbed his head. His canary yellow pants were now the color of Dijon mustard mixed with mud. They all ignored the helicopter coming toward them for the moment.
Coach Hedge blinked and looked around him at the battle scene. “Did I do this?” Before anyone could say a word of protest Hedge picked up his club and got shakily to his feet. “Yeah, you wanted some hoof? I gave you some hoof, cupcakes! Who’s the goat, huh?” He did a little dance, kicking rocks and making what were probably rude satyr gestures at the piles of clay. Leo cracked a smile, and Jason couldn’t help it, he started to laugh. It sounded a little hysterical, but it all due to the relief of being alive, he didn’t care.
Tristan McLean stood up across the clearing then staggered forward. His eyes were hollow, shell-shocked, like someone who’d just walked through a nuclear wasteland. “Piper?” he called. His voice cracked. “Pipes, what—what is—” He couldn’t complete the thought. Piper ran over to him and hugged him tightly, but he almost didn’t seem to know her.
Jason had felt a similar way the morning at the Grand Canyon, when he woke with no memory. But Mr. McLean had the opposite problem. He had too many memories, too much trauma, his mind just couldn’t handle it. He was coming apart.
“We need to get him out of here,” Jason said.
“Yeah, but how?” Leo said. “He’s in no shape to walk.”
Jason glanced up at the helicopter, which was now circling directly overhead. “Can you make us a bullhorn or something?” he asked Leo. “Piper has some talking to do.”
Talking meant convincing the pilot to land on the mountain, which was incredibly simple for Piper once Leo had improvised a bullhorn. The Park Service copter was big enough for medical evacuations or search and rescue, so it easily fit them all. The very nice ranger pilot lady readily agreed to fly them to the Oakland Airport, when Piper asked her.
They were almost ready to go when Piper’s dad threw a wrench in it, it wasn’t going to be easy to get him in the helo. “No,” her dad muttered, as they picked him up off the ground. “Piper, what—there were monsters—there were monsters—” It took all three demi-gods to hold him, while Coach Hedge gathered their supplies. Fortunately, Hedge had put his pants and shoes back on, so Piper didn’t have to explain the goat legs.
Piper’s dad was a broken man, the monsters had shattered his spirit. He was crying like a little boy which broke Piper’s heart. “It’ll be okay, Dad,” Piper said, making her voice as soothing as possible. She didn’t want to charmspeak her own father, but it really was the only way. “These people are my friends. We’re going to help you. You’re safe now.”
He blinked, and looked up at helicopter rotors. “Blades. They had a machine with so many blades. They had six arms ...”
When they got him to the bay doors, the pilot came over to help. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked.
“Smoke inhalation,” Jason suggested. “Or heat exhaustion.”
“We should get him to a hospital,” the pilot said.
“It’s okay,” Piper said. “The airport is good.”
“Yeah, the airport is good,” the pilot agreed immediately. Then she frowned, Common sense and training was harder for Piper to counter, but she could. “Isn’t he Tristan McLean, the movie star?”
“No,” Piper said. “He only looks like him. Forget it.”
“Yeah,” the pilot said. “Only looks like him. I—” She blinked, confused. “I forgot what I was saying. Let’s get going.”
Jason was impressed by Piper’s ability. Piper felt miserable. This was when she realized the moral dilemma all charm speakers had. Who and when to use it, for good or ill? She knew she didn’t want to twist people’s minds, convince them of things they didn’t believe. It felt so bossy, so wrong, making her think of Medea. Then she questioned how it would help her father. She couldn’t convince him he would be okay, or that nothing had happened. His trauma was just too deep.
Finally, they got him on board, and the helicopter took off. The pilot kept getting questions over her radio, asking her where she was going, but she ignored them. They veered away from the burning mountain and headed toward the Berkeley Hills.
“Piper.” Piper’s dad grasped her hand and held on like he was afraid he’d fall. “It’s you? They told me—they told me you would die. They said ... horrible things would happen.”
“It’s me, Dad.” It took all her willpower not to cry. She had to be strong for him. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
Piper’s friends were careful not to watch. Leo fiddled with a lug nut from his tool belt. Jason gazed at the valley below, the roads backing up as mortals stopped their cars and gawked at the burning mountain. Gleeson chewed on the stub of his carnation, and for once the satyr didn’t look in the mood to yell or boast. All while Tristan McLean showed them how broken he was. Ranting and raving, all while shivering.
Piper talked to him and explaining everything allowing him to grip onto the last of his sanity, but it was a very fragile thing. Piper could see that and was starting to doubt her own strength all over again. What Aphrodite had really worried about, had come to pass. The fear that if he has to spend the rest of his life with those memories, knowing that gods and spirits walk the earth, would shatter him.
Piper felt inside the pocket of her jacket. The vial was still there, warm to her touch. Which was how she’d come to another dilemma. How could she erase his memories? Her dad finally knew who she was. He was proud of her, and for once she was his hero, not the other way around. He would never send her away now. They shared a secret. How could she go back to the way things were?
Piper held his hand, speaking to him about small things, all the things she hadn’t been able to tell him before. Her time at the Wilderness School, her cabin at Camp Half-Blood. She told him how Coach Hedge ate carnations and got knocked on his butt on Mount Diablo, how Leo had tamed a dragon, and how Jason had made wolves back down by talking in Latin. Her friends smiled reluctantly as she recounted their adventures. Her dad seemed to relax as she talked, but he didn’t smile. Piper wasn’t even sure he heard her.
As they passed over the hills into the East Bay, Jason tensed. He leaned so far out the doorway Piper was afraid he’d fall. He pointed. “What is that?” Below them were to the others just hills, woods, houses, little roads snaking through the canyons. A highway cut through a tunnel in the hills, connecting the East Bay with the inland towns.
“Where?” Piper asked.
“That road,” he said. “The one that goes through the hills.”
Piper picked up the com helmet the pilot had given her and relayed the question over the radio. The answer wasn’t very exciting. “She says it’s Highway 24,” Piper reported. “That’s the Caldecott Tunnel. Why?”
Jason stared intently at the tunnel entrance, but he said nothing. It disappeared from view as they flew over downtown Oakland, but Jason still stared into the distance, his expression almost as unsettled as Piper’s dad’s.
“Monsters,” her dad said, a tear tracing his cheek. “I live in a world of monsters.”