A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.
"I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said.
The room was . . . grand, to say the least. Maybe it was better to just say it was as any other throne room, except the throne was occupied by a god.
He was the first god who really struck Y/N as godlike.
He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.
Y/N immediately felt like he should be giving the orders. He knew more than Y/N did. He should be his master. Then Y/N told himself to snap out of it.
Hades's aura was affecting him, just as Ares's had. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures he had seen of Adolph Hitler, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma.
"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."
Numbness crept into Y/N's joints, tempting him to lie down and just take a little nap at Hades's feet. Curl up here and sleep forever. He fought the feeling and stepped backward.
Percy stepped forward. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."
Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of Y/N wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What would you have to do in your life to get into Hades's underwear?
"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."
Y/N glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. He wished Queen Persephone were here. He recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons.
Annabeth cleared her throat. She pushed Percy a little more forward.
"Lord Hades," Percy said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be . . . bad."
"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.
"A disaster for the production of fries," Ethan said, quite serious.
"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," Percy said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."
Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"
Percy glanced back at the others. Y/N was as confused as he was.
"Um . . . Uncle," Percy said. "You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"
The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.
Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"
Well, these guys don't look like peace activists, Y/N thought.
"You are the Lord of the Dead," Percy said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"
"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"
"Well . . ."
"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in the past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open? More security ghouls," Hades moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"
"Charon wants a pay raise," Y/N blurted, thinking it was probably the best time to bring it up, by association of ideas.
"Don't get me started on Charon, Son of Hera!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godlings. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."
"But you took Zeus's master bolt," Percy said.
"Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goalpost. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."
"His plan?" Percy repeated.
"You were the thief on the winter solstice," Hades said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus. You took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"
"But . . ." Annabeth spoke. Y/N could tell her mind was going a million miles an hour. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"
"Do not play innocent with me, girl. The satyrs, the Son of Hera, and you have been helping this hero—coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt—to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"
"No!" Percy said. "Poseidon didn't—I didn't—"
"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusion that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."
"You didn't try to stop us?" Y/N said. "But—"
"Return the helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson—your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."
The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.
"You're as bad as Zeus," Percy said. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"
"Of course," Hades said.
"And the other monsters?" Y/N asked.
Hades curled his lips. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you—I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"
"Easily?" Apparently, Hades hadn't the same definition of the word "easy" as Y/N.
"Return my property!" Hades roared at Percy.
"But I don't have your helm. I came for the master bolt," Percy said.
"Which you already have!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could threaten me!"
"But I didn't!"
"Open your pack, then."
Percy slung the backpack off his shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.
"Percy," Annabeth said. "How—"
"I—I don't know. I don't understand."
"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now . . . my helm. Where is it?"
We don't have your helm! Y/N thought. And the bolt here has nothing to do with us. He realized there was only one possibility. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had been set at each other's throats by someone else. The master bold had been in the backpack, and they had gotten the backpack from . . .
"Lord Hades, wait," he said. "This is all a mistake."
"A mistake?" Hades roared.
The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne. One, the one Y/N had killed with his sword, grinned at him eagerly and flicked her whip.
"There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come here—I know the real reason you brought the bolt. Percy Jackson came to bargain for her."
Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of Percy, and there was a woman, frozen in a shower of gold, as if somebody was squeezing her to death. Percy's mom.
Percy reached out to touch her, but was forced to back away as apparently the light was as hot as a bonfire.
"Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."
Percy didn't move, his left hand in his pocket.
"Ah, the pearls," Hades said. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."
Percy's hand moved as if against his will and brought out the pearls.
"Only five," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."
Percy looked back at the others. "We were tricked," he told them. "Set up."
"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit—"
"I don't know yet," Percy said. "But I intend to ask."
"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.
"Percy." Grover put his hand on Percy's shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt."
"I know that."
"Leave me there," Grover said. "Use the third pearl on your mom."
"No!" Percy blurted out.
"I'm a satyr," Grover said. "We don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."
"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You four go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher's license and start your quest for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."
"No way," Grover said. "I'm staying behind."
"Think again, goat boy," Annabeth said.
"Stop it, both of you!" Y/N said. "Nobody will do anything! We've not gone this far to mess everything up now." He remembered Grover dive-bombing Medusa in the statue garden, Annabeth saving them from Cerberus, and Ethan hitting a Fury with his hooves; they had survived Hephaestus's Waterland ride, the St. Louis Arch, the Lotus Casino. We'll survive a crazy god who wants to whack us, right?
"I know what to do," Percy said. "Take these." He handed them each a pearl.
Ethan said, "But, Percy . . ."
Percy turned and faced his mother. "I'm sorry," he told her. "I'll be back. I'll find a way."
The smug on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling . . . ?"
"I'll find your helm, Uncle," Percy told him. "I'll return it."
"Remember about Charon's pay raise," Y/N chipped in.
"Don't defy me—"
"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while," he said. "He likes red rubber balls."
"Y/N L/N, you will not—Percy Jackson . . . !"
Percy shouted, "Now, guys!"
They smashed the pearls at their feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened.
Hades yelled, "Destroy them!"
The army of skeletons rushed forward, sword out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into flame.
Just as the skeleton opened fire, the pearl fragments at Y/N's feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh wind. He bowed as he had in front of the Cupid-cams. Then he was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground.
Annabeth, Ethan, Percy and Grover were around him. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as they floated up. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook and he knew it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A.
"Look up!" Ethan yelled. "We're going to crash!"
Sure enough, they were racing right toward the stalactites, which would certainly pop their bubbles and skewer them.
"How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted.
"I don't think you do!" Percy shouted back.
They screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and. . . Darkness.
Were they dead?
No, Y/N could still feel the racing sensation. They were going up, right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water.
For a few moments, he couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of his sphere, then his pearl broke through on the ocean floor. The four other milky spheres kept pace with him as they soared upward through the water. And—ker-blam!
They exploded on the surface, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"
Y/N felt Percy grabbing him and hauling him over to a life buoy. Then Percy dragged the others over too. A curious shark was circling them.
Percy said, "Beat it."
The shark turned and raced away.
The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from them as fast as he could.
In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighborhoods all over the city. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades's fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after them right now.
But at the moment, the Underworld wasn't their biggest problem. They had to get Zeus's thunderbolt back to Olympus.
"What have we learned today, Y/N?" Ethan said, wiping away the water on his face.
"That Hades doesn't like us?"
"No," Ethan told him. "That the Underworld is a really bad place go for a walk and that they've got no respect for the production of fries during wartime."