The Titan's Curse (3 page)

The manticore growled. “If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!”

He lunged at Thalia and me, knowing we were weak and dazed.

“No!” Annabeth yelled, and she charged at the monster.

“Get back, half-blood!” the girl with the circlet said. “Get out of the line of fire!”

But Annabeth leaped onto the monster's back and drove her knife into his mane. The manticore howled, turning in circles with his tail flailing as Annabeth hung on for dear life.

“Fire!” Zoë ordered.

“No!” I screamed.

But the Hunters let their arrows fly. The first caught the manticore in the neck. Another hit his chest. The manticore staggered backward, wailing, “This is not the end, Huntress! You shall pay!”

And before anyone could react, the monster, with Annabeth still on his back, leaped over the cliff and tumbled into the darkness.

“Annabeth!” I yelled.

I started to run after her, but our enemies weren't done with us. There was a
snap-snap-snap
from the helicopter—the sound of gunfire.

Most of the Hunters scattered as tiny holes appeared in the snow at their feet, but the girl with auburn hair just looked up calmly at the helicopter.

“Mortals,” she announced, “are not allowed to witness my hunt.”

She thrust out her hand, and the helicopter exploded into dust—no, not dust. The black metal dissolved into a flock of birds—ravens, which scattered into the night.

The Hunters advanced on us.

The one called Zoë stopped short when she saw Thalia. “You,” she said with distaste.

“Zoë Nightshade.” Thalia's voice trembled with anger. “Perfect timing, as usual.”

Zoë scanned the rest of us. “Four half-bloods and a satyr, my lady.”

“Yes,” the younger girl said. “Some of Chiron's campers, I see.”

“Annabeth!” I yelled. “You have to let us save her!”

The auburn-haired girl turned toward me. “I'm sorry, Percy Jackson, but your friend is beyond help.”

I tried to struggle to my feet, but a couple of the girls held me down.

“You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs,” the auburn-haired girl said.

“Let me go!” I demanded. “Who do you think you are?”

Zoë stepped forward as if to smack me.

“No,” the other girl ordered. “I sense no disrespect, Zoë. He is simply distraught. He does not understand.”

The young girl looked at me, her eyes colder and brighter than the winter moon. “I am Artemis,” she said. “Goddess of the Hunt.”

THREE

After seeing Dr. Thorn turn into a monster and plummet off the edge of a cliff with Annabeth, you'd think nothing else could shock me. But when this twelve-year-old girl told me she was the goddess Artemis, I said something real intelligent like, “Um . . . okay.”

That was nothing compared to Grover. He gasped, then knelt hastily in the snow and started yammering, “Thank you, Lady Artemis! You're so . . . you're so . . . Wow!”

“Get up, goat boy!” Thalia snapped. “We have other things to worry about. Annabeth is gone!”

“Whoa,” Bianca di Angelo said. “Hold up. Time out.”

Everybody looked at her. She pointed her finger at all of us in turn, like she was trying to connect the dots. “Who . . . who are you people?”

Artemis's expression softened. “It might be a better question, my dear girl, to ask who are
you
? Who are your parents?”

Bianca glanced nervously at her brother, who was still staring in awe at Artemis.

“Our parents are dead,” Bianca said. “We're orphans. There's a bank trust that pays for our school, but . . .”

She faltered. I guess she could tell from our faces that we didn't believe her.

“What?” she demanded. “I'm telling the truth.”

“You are a half-blood,” Zoë Nightshade said. Her accent was hard to place. It sounded old-fashioned, like she was reading from a really old book. “One of thy parents was mortal. The other was an Olympian.”

“An Olympian . . . athlete?”

“No,” Zoë said. “One of the gods.”

“Cool!” said Nico.

“No!” Bianca's voice quavered. “This is not cool!”

Nico danced around like he needed to use the restroom. “Does Zeus really have lightning bolts that do six hundred damage? Does he get extra movement points for—”

“Nico, shut up!” Bianca put her hands to her face. “This is not your stupid Mythomagic game, okay? There are no gods!”

As anxious as I felt about Annabeth—all I wanted to do was search for her—I couldn't help feeling sorry for the di Angelos. I remembered what it was like for me when I first learned I was a demigod.

Thalia must've been feeling something similar, because the anger in her eyes subsided a little bit. “Bianca, I know it's hard to believe. But the gods are still around. Trust me. They're immortal. And whenever they have kids with regular humans, kids like us, well . . . Our lives are dangerous.”

“Dangerous,” Bianca said, “like the girl who fell.”

Thalia turned away. Even Artemis looked pained.

“Do not despair for Annabeth,” the goddess said. “She was a brave maiden. If she can be found, I shall find her.”

“Then why won't you let us go look for her?” I asked.

“She is gone. Can't you sense it, Son of Poseidon? Some magic is at work. I do not know exactly how or why, but your friend has vanished.”

I still wanted to jump off the cliff and search for her, but I had a feeling that Artemis was right. Annabeth was gone. If she'd been down there in the sea, I thought, I'd be able to feel her presence.

“Oo!” Nico raised his hand. “What about Dr. Thorn? That was awesome how you shot him with arrows! Is he dead?”

“He was a manticore,” Artemis said. “Hopefully he is destroyed for now, but monsters never truly die. They re-form over and over again, and they must be hunted whenever they reappear.”

“Or they'll hunt us,” Thalia said.

Bianca di Angelo shivered. “That explains . . . Nico, you remember last summer, those guys who tried to attack us in the alley in D.C.?”

“And that bus driver,” Nico said. “The one with the ram's horns. I
told
you that was real.”

“That's why Grover has been watching you,” I said. “To keep you safe, if you turned out to be half-bloods.”

“Grover?” Bianca stared at him. “You're a demigod?”

“Well, a satyr, actually.” He kicked off his shoes and displayed his goat hooves. I thought Bianca was going to faint right there.

“Grover, put your shoes back on,” Thalia said. “You're freaking her out.”

“Hey, my hooves are clean!”

“Bianca,” I said, “we came here to help you. You and Nico need training to survive. Dr. Thorn won't be the last monster you meet. You need to come to camp.”

“Camp?” she asked.

“Camp Half-Blood,” I said. “It's where half-bloods learn to survive and stuff. You can join us, stay there year-round if you like.”

“Sweet, let's go!” said Nico.

“Wait.” Bianca shook her head. “I don't—”

“There
is
another option,” Zoë said.

“No, there isn't!” Thalia said.

Thalia and Zoë glared at each other. I didn't know what they were talking about, but I could tell there was bad history between them. For some reason, they seriously hated each other.

“We've burdened these children enough,” Artemis announced. “Zoë, we will rest here for a few hours. Raise the tents. Treat the wounded. Retrieve our guests' belongings from the school.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“And, Bianca, come with me. I would like to speak with you.”

“What about me?” Nico asked.

Artemis considered the boy. “Perhaps you can show Grover how to play that card game you enjoy. I'm sure Grover would be happy to entertain you for a while . . . as a favor to me?”

Grover just about tripped over himself getting up. “You bet! Come on, Nico!”

Nico and Grover walked off toward the woods, talking about hit points and armor ratings and a bunch of other geeky stuff. Artemis led a confused-looking Bianca along the cliff. The Hunters began unpacking their knapsacks and making camp.

Zoë gave Thalia one more evil look, then left to oversee things.

As soon as she was gone, Thalia stamped her foot in frustration. “The nerve of those Hunters! They think they're so . . . Argh!”

“I'm with you,” I said. “I don't trust—”

“Oh, you're with me?” Thalia turned on me furiously. “What were you thinking back there in the gym, Percy? You'd take on Dr. Thorn all by yourself ? You
knew
he was a monster!”

“I—”

“If we'd stuck together, we could've taken him without the Hunters getting involved. Annabeth might still be here. Did you think of that?”

My jaw clenched. I thought of some harsh things to say, and I might've said them too, but then I looked down and saw something navy blue lying in the snow at my feet. Annabeth's New York Yankees baseball cap.

Thalia didn't say another word. She wiped a tear from her cheek, turned, and marched off, leaving me alone with a trampled cap in the snow.

* * *

The Hunters set up their camping site in a matter of minutes. Seven large tents, all of silver silk, curved in a crescent around one side of a bonfire. One of the girls blew a silver dog whistle, and a dozen white wolves appeared out of the woods. They began circling the camp like guard dogs. The Hunters walked among them and fed them treats, completely unafraid, but I decided I would stick close to the tents. Falcons watched us from the trees, their eyes flashing in the firelight, and I got the feeling they were on guard duty, too. Even the weather seemed to bend to the goddess's will. The air was still cold, but the wind died down and the snow stopped falling, so it was almost pleasant sitting by the fire.

Almost . . . except for the pain in my shoulder and the guilt weighing me down. I couldn't believe Annabeth was gone. And as angry as I was at Thalia, I had a sinking feeling that she was right. It
was
my fault.

What had Annabeth wanted to tell me in the gym?
Something serious
, she'd said. Now I might never find out. I thought about how we'd danced together for half a song, and my heart felt even heavier.

I watched Thalia pacing in the snow at the edge of camp, walking among the wolves without fear. She stopped and looked back at Westover Hall, which was now completely dark, looming on the hillside beyond the woods. I wondered what she was thinking.

Seven years ago, Thalia had been turned into a pine tree by her father, to prevent her from dying. She'd stood her ground against an army of monsters on top of Half-Blood Hill in order to give her friends Luke and Annabeth time to escape. She'd only been back as a human for a few months now, and once in a while she would stand so motionless you'd think she was still a tree.

Finally, one of the Hunters brought me my backpack. Grover and Nico came back from their walk, and Grover helped me fix up my wounded arm.

“It's green!” Nico said with delight.

“Hold still,” Grover told me. “Here, eat some ambrosia while I clean that out.”

I winced as he dressed the wound, but the ambrosia square helped. It tasted like homemade brownie, dissolving in my mouth and sending a warm feeling through my whole body. Between that and the magic salve Grover used, my shoulder felt better within a couple of minutes.

Nico rummaged through his own bag, which the Hunters had apparently packed for him, though how they'd snuck into Westover Hall unseen, I didn't know. Nico laid out a bunch of figurines in the snow—little battle replicas of Greek gods and heroes. I recognized Zeus with a lightning bolt, Ares with a spear, Apollo with his sun chariot.

“Big collection,” I said.

Nico grinned. “I've got almost all of them, plus their holographic cards! Well, except for a few really rare ones.”

“You've been playing this game a long time?”

“Just this year. Before that . . .” He knit his eyebrows.

“What?” I asked.

“I forget. That's weird.”

He looked unsettled, but it didn't last long. “Hey, can I see that sword you were using?”

I showed him Riptide, and explained how it turned from a pen into a sword just by uncapping it.

“Cool! Does it ever run out of ink?”

“Um, well, I don't actually write with it.”

“Are you really the son of Poseidon?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Can you surf really well, then?”

I looked at Grover, who was trying hard not to laugh.

“Jeez, Nico,” I said. “I've never really tried.”

He went on asking questions. Did I fight a lot with Thalia, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (I didn't answer that one.) If Annabeth's mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, then why didn't Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff ? (I tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Annabeth my girlfriend? (At this point, I was ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)

I figured any second he was going to ask me how many hit points I had, and I'd lose my cool completely, but then Zoë Nightshade came up to us.

“Percy Jackson.”

She had dark brown eyes and a slightly upturned nose. With her silver circlet and her proud expression, she looked so much like royalty that I had to resist the urge to sit up straight and say “Yes, ma'am.” She studied me distastefully, like I was a bag of dirty laundry she'd been sent to fetch.

“Come with me,” she said. “Lady Artemis wishes to speak with thee.”

* * *

Zoë led me to the last tent, which looked no different from the others, and waved me inside. Bianca di Angelo was seated next to the auburn-haired girl, who I still had trouble thinking of as Artemis.

The inside of the tent was warm and comfortable. Silk rugs and pillows covered the floor. In the center, a golden brazier of fire seemed to burn without fuel or smoke. Behind the goddess, on a polished oak display stand, was her huge silver bow, carved to resemble gazelle horns. The walls were hung with animal pelts: black bear, tiger, and several others I didn't recognize. I figured an animal rights activist would've had a heart attack looking at all those rare skins, but maybe since Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, she could replenish whatever she shot. I thought she had another animal pelt lying next to her, and then I realized it was a live animal—a deer with glittering fur and silver horns, its head resting contentedly in Artemis's lap.

“Join us, Percy Jackson,” the goddess said.

I sat across from her on the tent floor. The goddess studied me, which made me uncomfortable. She had such old eyes for a young girl.

“Are you surprised by my age?” she asked.

“Uh . . . a little.”

“I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray.”

“Go astray?” I asked.

“Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves.”

“Oh.”

Zoë sat down at Artemis's right. She glared at me as if all the stuff Artemis had just said was my fault, like I'd invented the idea of being a guy.