Indigo Eyes

Chapter 80

Annabeth shuddered. "I hate it when he does that."

"I will not serve," Tyson said in a deep, wounded voice. He switched to the monster's voice: "Then I shall enjoy your pain, Briares." Tyson faltered when he said that name - he'd never broken when mimicking somebody but he let out a strangled gulp.

Then he continued in the monster's voice. "If you thought your first imprisonment was unbearable, you have yet to feel true torment. Think on this until I return."

The dragon-lady then spread her wings and soared across the courtyard, a hot sulphurous wind blasting their faces as she flew overhead before disappearing around the corner.

"H-h-horrible," Grover said. "I've never smelled any monster that strong."

"Cyclopes' worst nightmare," Tyson murmured. "Kampê."

And he really needed the hug Cressida gave him, her smell of grapes oddly calming.

"Who?" Percy asked, watching how his brother hunched over so she could cradle his head to her shoulder in an attempt to make him feel better.

"You think Kronos was a bad parent," Cressida said. "Well, his parents were worse. They had Kampe jail their first children. Cyclopes and the Hekatonheires. Every Cyclops knows about her."

"Hekatonheries! I remember now!" Annabeth exclaimed quietly. "Gaia and Ouranos had them imprisoned when the Titans ruled."

"The Heka-what?" Percy asked.

"The Hundred-Handed Ones," Annabeth said. "They called them that because... well, they had a hundred hands. They were elder brothers of the Cyclopes."

Cressida was now hugged to Tyson's side as he played with her braid absentmindedly, a finger trailing down the white stripe of hair that was weaved through it.

"Very powerful. Wonderful!" Tyson said. "As tall as the sky. So strong they could break mountains!"

"Cool," Percy said. "Unless you're a mountain."

Cressida glared at him. As someone who had literally been tied up and jailed for years of her life, she knew that this was absolutely no joking matter. "And Kampe was the creature that imprisoned them, even when Kronos ruled. It wasn't until Zeus came and killed Kampe that they were all freed from Tartarus. They helped fight in the first Titan War."

"And now Kampe is back," Percy said.

"Bad," Tyson summed up.

"So, who's in that cell? You said a name -"

"Briares!" Tyson perked up. "'He is a Hundred-handed One. They are as tall as the sky and –"

"Yeah," Percy said with a small smile. "They break mountains."

"I guess we should check it out. we're already here," Annabeth said.

"You're the boss," Cressida said as she let go of Tyson. "But let's make this quick before Kampe comes back."

As they approached the cell, the weeping got louder. He was human-size and his skin was very pale, the colour of milk. He wore a loincloth like a big diaper. His feet seemed too big for his body, with cracked dirty toenails, and eight toes on each foot. But the top half of his body was the weird part. He made Janus look downright normal. His chest sprouted more arms than you could count, in rows, all around his body. The arms looked like normal arms, but there were so many of them, all tangled together, that his chest looked kind of like a forkful of spaghetti somebody had twirled together. Several of his hands were covering his face as he sobbed.

"Either the sky isn't as tall as it used to be," Percy muttered, "or he's short."

And Cressida smacked the back of his head. Hard.