Nico's quest

chapter 9

All Percy had to do to seize control of Kwai's water wall was twitch one hand. He'd been a little worried that it might be a bit tricky since Kwai's magic had to be saturating every last drop in order for him to be standing on the water like it was a solid, as he was doing, but the water came at Percy's call as it had always done. He was the son of the sea god. The water naturally obeyed his commands.

Kwai's twenty long years of study went down the tubes in about five seconds flat. Ironically, that was the exact same amount of time it took him to fall all the way down to the river from which he'd drawn the water. Once Percy had taken control of it, his magic amounted to nothing, and he was no longer able to stand on top of the water.

Percy leaned over the railing and waited until he saw Kwai bob his way to the river's surface, then dropped the entire deluge of water right down on his head. It crashed down over him like a short lived waterfall, sending up a cloud of white mist.

"Hey Beni! It looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!" shouted Bast, leaning over the terrace rail.

Percy looked at her quizzically. "What?"

"Oh." Bast looked sheepish. "Something from a movie Sadie made Carter and Nico watch a couple weeks back."

Percy shrugged. "Okay."

He heard Kwai shouting curses at him, some in English, some in another language, or possibly two other languages. From what Percy could understand, mentions of his mother and barnyard animals were being made. That sparked Percy's temper. Insulting Sally Jackson was a line that Kwai shouldn't have crossed . . . and the stupid magician had yet to get out of the river.

"What's that?" Percy shouted down to him. "I can't hear you over the sound of that whirlpool sucking you under!"

Too late Kwai realized his mistake. He began trying to swim rapidly toward the bank, but it was useless.

Percy pointed one finger skyward and moved it in a circular motion, like a twister. Kwai was sucked under, his scream literally drowned out by the swirling water.

"Percy, have I ever told you how much I love you?" asked Bast.

"Yeah." Percy smirked. "Just a few minutes ago."

"Well, I'm a firm believer that you can never say that to the people you love too many times," said Bast in a breezy manner. "Let's hope Kwai told that to everyone he loves before coming here."

"You know I'm not actually going to kill him," said Percy.

Bast sighed. "I know. But I can dream."

Percy glanced back toward the roof where a fire fight was still raging, and realized that no, it wasn't his imagination, there were definitely streaks of shadows that were thicker than the rest of the night, and he knew that was somehow Nico's doing.

The flying snakes were a problem. The way the flitted about, spitting fire made them very dangerous to the magicians on Nico's side. Freak the Egyptian griffin was their only air support, and he was doing his best to attack them, but he was sorely outnumbered. If this kept up, the griffin would be killed.

Nico, I have an idea, Anubis told him. Those are creatures of the sun. Creatures of the day.

Okay. And?

And you are a prince of the night. You control the shadows.

You think I can drive them off? Nico asked. With shadows?

With your ability to control shadows, using my reserves of power. Focus on bending the shadows as you do at night, when you want to disappear, then arc them toward the uraei.