love is embarrassing | j. grace

xxxiii. father-daughter bonding

thirty three. father-daughter bonding

      PERCY TOOK THE LEAD AS they crawled down the drainage pipe. After thirty feet, it opened into a wider tunnel. Several hundred feet later, they reached a turn in the tunnel. Percy holds up his hand, and peeks around the corner.

"What is it?" Piper whispers.

Percy doesn't answer, instead he gestures for them to come take a look.

Hanging from the ceiling were cages of live animals — a lion, several zebras, a whole pack of hyenas, and even an eight-headed hydra. Ancient-looking bronze and leather conveyor belts trundled along with stacks of weapons and armor. About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life-size wooden cutout of a gladiator pops up from the floor. It clicks and whirs along a conveyor belt, gets hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof.

Jason murmurs, "What the hell?"

They step inside. There were several thousand things to look at, most of them in motion, but being the daughter of Bacchus meant Ivy was good with chaos.

About a hundred yards away, she spotted a raised dais with two empty oversized praetor chairs. Standing between them was a bronze jar big enough to hold a person.

"Look," Ivy points.

Piper frowns, "That's too easy."

"Of course," Percy says.

"But we have no choice," Jason says, "We've got to save Nico."

"Yeah." Percy starts across the room.

The hellhounds in the hamster wheels paid no attention to them. They jump over a water trench and duck under a row of caged wolves. They make it about halfway to the bronze jar when the ceiling opens over them. A platform lowers, and with one hand raised and his head high, was the purple-haired giant Ephialtes.

He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a garish print made up of dying heroes, horrible tortures, and lions eating slaves in the Colosseum. The giant's hair was braided with gold and silver coins. He had a ten-foot spear strapped to his back. He wore bright white jeans and leather sandals on his well, not feet, but curved snakeheads.

Ephialtes smiles at the demigods, "At last!" He bellows, "So very happy! Honestly, I didn't think you'd make it past the nymphs, but it's so much better that you did. Much more entertaining. You're just in time for the main event!"

Jason and Percy close in close to Piper and Ivy, standing on either side of them and a little ways ahead of them.

"We're here," Percy says, "Let our friend go."

"Of course!" Ephialtes says, "Though I fear he's a bit past his expiration date. Otis, where are you —"

The floor opens, and the other giant rises on a platform.

"Otis, finally!" His brother cries, "You're not dressed the same as me! You're . . . what are you wearing?"

Otis wore a skin-tight baby-blue leotard that made Ivy wince and look away. The toes of his massive dancing slippers were cut away so that his snakes could protrude. A diamond tiara was nestled in his green, firecracker-braided hair.

"Gods and Titans!" Ephialtes yells, "It's showtime! What are you thinking?"

"I didn't want to wear the gladiator outfit," Otis complains, "I still think a ballet would be perfect, you know, while Armageddon is going on. I have some extra costumes — "

"No!" Ephialtes snaps, he looks to the demigods and Ivy felt her knees weaken a little. They may not be that large for giants, but they were still the bane of Bacchus, her father.