This Cold Year ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase²

―xxii. naomi and death meet again

AS ARION SPRINTED THEM TOWARD HUBBARD GLACIER, Naomi remembered Festus the dragon. She remembered the way he'd flown relatively smoothly through the sky (save for the two free-falls), and how despite the height, Naomi hadn't really been terrified. 

What she would give to be back on that flying mechanical dragon right about now. 

Arion raced over the water at the speed of sound, heating the air around them so that Naomi couldn't even feel the cold. Percy's arms were locked around Naomi's waist like a bar on a rollercoaster. Naomi could hardly keep her eyes open without them getting painfully dry. 

They raced through ice straits, past blue fjords and cliffs with waterfalls spilling into the sea. Arion jumped over a breaching humpback whale and kept galloping, startling a pack of seals off an iceberg. 

It seemed like only minutes before they zipped into a narrow bay. The water turned the consistency of shaved ice in blue sticky syrup. Arion came to a halt on a frozen turquoise slab. 

A half a mile away stood Hubbard Glacier—at least, Naomi assumed it was Hubbard Glacier. Purple snowcapped mountains marched off in either direction, with clouds floating around their middles like fluffy belts. In a massive valley between two of the largest peaks, a ragged wall of ice rose out of the sea, filling the entire gorge. The glacier was blue and white with streaks of black, so that it looked like a hedge of dirty snow left behind on a sidewalk after a snowplow had gone by, only four million times as large.

As soon as Arion stopped, Naomi felt the temperature drop. All that ice was sending off waves of cold, turning the bay into the world's largest refrigerator. The eeriest thing was a sound like thunder that rolled across the water.

"What is that?" Frank gazed at the clouds above the glacier. "A storm?"

"No," Hazel said. "Ice cracking and shifting. Millions of tons of ice."

"You mean that thing is breaking up?" Frank asked.

As if on cue, a sheet of ice silently calved off the side of the glacier and crashed into the sea, spraying water and frozen shrapnel several stories high. A millisecond later, the sound hit them—a BOOM almost as jarring as Arion hitting the sound barrier.

"We can't get close to that thing!" Naomi said. 

 "We have to," Percy said. "The giant is at the top."

Arion nickered.

"Jeez, Hazel," Percy said, "tell your horse to watch his language."

Hazel looked like she was fighting a laugh. "What did he say?" 

"With the cussing removed? He said he can get us to the top."

Frank looked incredulous. "I thought the horse couldn't fly!"

This time Arion whinnied so angrily, even Naomi could guess he was cursing.

"Dude," Percy told the horse, "I've gotten suspended for saying less than that. Hazel, he promises you'll see what he can do as soon as you give the word."

"Um, hold on, then, you guys," Hazel said nervously. "Arion, giddyup!"

Arion shot toward the glacier like a runaway rocket, barreling straight across the slush like he wanted to play chicken with the mountain of ice.

The air grew colder. The crackling of the ice grew louder. As Arion closed the distance, the glacier loomed so large, Naomi felt dizzy trying to take it all in. The side was riddled with crevices and caves, spiked with jagged ridges like ax blades. Pieces were constantly crumbling off—some no larger than snowballs, some the size of houses.