Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 88

"Snake people do not drink milk," Kekrops said. "We are lactose intolerant reptiles."

"Me, too!" Frank said. "I mean ... lactose intolerant. Not a reptile. Though I can be a reptile sometimes –"

"Alright enough," Cressida said from where she sat at the head of the table this time, Percy leaning on her recliner. "King Kerkrops, I must ask how you knew of our arrival and what brought you to our humble warship?"

"I know everything that happens in Athens," Kekrops said. "I was the city's founder, its first king, born of the earth. I am the one who judged the dispute between Athena and Poseidon, and chose Athena to be the patron of the city."

"No hard feelings, though," Percy muttered.

Annabeth elbowed him. "I've heard of you, Kekrops. You were the first to offer sacrifices to Athena. You built her first shrine on the Acropolis."

"Correct." Kekrops sounded bitter, like he regretted his decision. "My people were the original Athenians – the gemini."

"Like your zodiac sign?" Percy asked. "I'm a Leo. So is Cress."

"No, stupid," Leo said. "I'm a Leo. You're a Percy."

"Alright boys, you're both pretty, now give it a rest," Cressida scolded.

"I think he means gemini," Hazel said. "Like doubled – half man, half snake. That's what his people are called. He's a geminus, singular."

"Yes ..." Kekrops leaned away from Hazel as if she somehow offended him. "Millennia ago, we were driven underground by the two-legged humans, but I know the ways of the city better than any. I came to warn you. If you try to approach the Acropolis aboveground, you will be destroyed."

Jason stopped nibbling his cake. "You mean ... by you?"

"By Porphyrion's armies," said the snake king. "The Acropolis is ringed with great siege weapons – onagers."

"More onagers?" Frank protested. "Did they have a sale on them or something?"

"The Cyclopes," Hazel guessed. "They're supplying both Octavian and the giants." Percy grunted. "Like we needed more proof that Octavian is on the wrong side."

"That is not the only threat," Kekrops warned. "The air is filled with storm spirits and gryphons. All roads to the Acropolis are patrolled by the Earthborn."

Frank drummed his fingers on the Bundt cake cover. "So, what, we should just give up? We've come too far for that."

"I offer you an alternative," said Kekrops. "Underground passage to the Acropolis. For the sake of Athena, for the sake of the gods, I will help you."

While Piper was recalling her dream that said that demigods would find friends as well as enemies in Athens, Cressida now had the chance to study Kekrops and his performance. And she didn't like what she saw.

"There's something else," Dionysus's daughter said.

"What's the catch?" Piper asked and Kekrops's dark eyes flicked between the two girls.

"Only a small party of demigods - no more than three or four - could pass undetected by the giants. Otherwise, your scent would give you away. But our underground passages could lead you straight into the ruins of the Acropolis. Once there, you could disable the siege weapons by stealth and allow the rest of your crew to approach. With luck, you could take the giants by surprise. You might be able to disrupt their ceremony."

"Ceremony/" Leo asked. "Oh ... like, to wake Gaia."

"Even now it has begun," Kekrops warned. "Can you not feel the earth trembling? We, the gemini, are your best chance."