| the hike up devil mountain |
—Camilla hoped the taxi could take them all the way to the top.
No such luck. The cab made lurching, grinding sounds as it climbed the mountain road, and halfway up they found the ranger's station closed, a chain blocking the way.
"Far as I can go," the cabbie said. "You sure about this? Gonna be a long walk back, and my car's acting funny. I can't wait for you."
"We're sure." Leo was the first one out.
Camilla stepped out as well and followed his gaze to the wheels of the car. They were sinking into the road like it was made of quicksand. Not fast—just enough to make the driver think he had a car problem.
The road was hard-packed dirt. No reason at all it should have been soft, but already Camilla's shoes were starting to sink. Gaea was messing with them.
While the others got out, Leo paid the cabbie.
"Keep the change," he said. "And get out of here. Quick."
The driver didn't argue. Soon all they could see was his dust trail.
The view from the mountain was pretty amazing. The whole inland valley around Mount Diablo was a patchwork of towns—grids of tree-lined streets and nice middle-class suburbs, shops, and schools. All these normal people living normal lives—the kind Camilla had never known.
"That's Concord," Jason said, pointing to the north. "Walnut Creek below us. To the south, Danville, past those hills. And that way..."
He pointed west, where a ridge of golden hills held back a layer of fog, like the rim of a bowl. "That's the Berkeley Hills. The East Bay. Past that, San Francisco."
"Jason?" Piper touched his arm. "You remember something? You've been here?"
"Yes... no." He gave her an anguished look. "It just seems important."
"That's Titan land." Coach Hedge nodded toward the west. "Bad place, Jason. Trust me, this is as close to 'Frisco as we want to get."
But Jason looked toward the foggy basin with such longing that Camilla felt uneasy. Why did Jason seem so connected with that place—a place Hedge said was evil, full of bad magic and old enemies? What if Jason came from here? Everybody kept hinting Jason was an enemy, that his arrival at Camp Half-Blood was a dangerous mistake.
No, Camilla thought. Ridiculous. Jason was their friend.
She tried to move her foot, but her heels were now completely embedded in the dirt.
"Hey, guys," she said. "Let's keep moving."
The others noticed the problem.
"Gaea is stronger here," Hedge grumbled. He popped his hooves free from his shoes, then handed the shoes to Leo. "Keep those for me, Valdez. They're nice."
Leo snorted. "Yes, sir, Coach. Would you like them polished?"
"That's varsity thinking, Valdez." Hedge nodded approvingly. "But first, we'd better hike up this mountain while we still can."
"How do we know where the giant is?" Piper asked.
Jason pointed toward the peak. Drifting across the summit was a plume of smoke. From a distance, Camilla had thought it was a cloud, but it wasn't. Something was burning.
"Smoke equals fire," Jason said. "We'd better hurry."
—The Wilderness School had taken Camilla on several forced marches. She thought she was in good shape. But climbing a mountain when the earth was trying to swallow her feet was like jogging on a flypaper treadmill.
In no time, she had taken off her leather jacket and tied it around her waist, even though the wind was cold and sharp. She wished Aphrodite had given her walking shorts and some more comfortable shoes, but she liked her t-shirt with the bi flag hearts.
To her right, Leo had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and slipped his hands into his toolbelt. He started summoning supplies—gears, a tiny wrench, some strips of bronze. As he walked, he built.
Camilla was tempted to ask what he was building, but she barely had enough energy to walk uphill while trying not to wheeze like a dying horse.
In front of them, Piper and Jason walked and even though Piper wasn't saying anything, Camilla could tell she was dying to ask Jason about this place and why it was so familiar to him.
She was dressed in an orange and pink flannel which at first reminded Camilla of the lesbian flag. Somehow, even sweaty and red from all the climbing, Piper managed to look great.
Jealousy. Camilla was jealous.
By the time they neared the crest of the mountain, Camilla was having an internal battle about Piper.
Finally Jason crouched behind a wall of rock. He gestured for the others to do the same. Leo and Camilla crawled up next to him. Piper had to pull Coach Hedge down.
"I don't want to get my outfit dirty!" Hedge complained.
"Shhh!" Piper said.
Reluctantly, the satyr knelt.
Just over the ridge where they were hiding, in the shadow of the mountain's final crest, was a forested depression about the size of a football field, where the giant Enceladus had set up camp.
Trees had been cut down to make a towering purple bonfire. The outer rim of the clearing was littered with extra logs and construction equipment—an earthmover; a big crane thing with rotating blades at the end like an electric shaver—must be a tree harvester, Camilla thought—and a long metal column with an ax blade, like a sideways guillotine—a hydraulic ax.
Why a giant needed construction equipment, Camilla wasn't sure. She didn't see how the creature in front of her could even fit in the driver's seat. The giant Enceladus was so large, so horrible, Camilla didn't want to look at him.
But she forced herself to focus on the monster.
To start with, he was thirty feet tall—easily as tall as the treetops. Camilla was sure the giant could've seen them behind their ridge, but he seemed intent on the weird purple bonfire, circling it and chanting under his breath. From the waist up, the giant appeared humanoid, his muscular chest clad in bronze armor, decorated with flame designs. His arms were completely ripped. Each of his biceps was bigger than Camilla. His skin was bronze but sooty with ash. His face was crudely shaped, like a half-finished clay figure, but his eyes glowed white, and his hair was matted in shaggy dreadlocks down to his shoulders, braided with bones.
From the waist down, he was even more terrifying. His legs were scaly green, with claws instead of feet—like the forelegs of a dragon. In his hand, Enceladus held a spear the size of a flagpole. Every so often he dipped its tip in the fire, turning the metal molten red.
"Okay," Coach Hedge whispered. "Here's the plan—"
Leo elbowed him. "You're not charging him alone!"
"Aw, c'mon."
Piper choked back a sob. "Look."
Just visible on the other side of the bonfire were two men tied to posts. Their heads were slumped like they were unconscious, so Camilla couldn't make out their faces. But she'd recognize her dad anywhere.
The same dark shaggy hair, the same skin tone as her, even from far away Camilla had no doubt.
"Dad" She breathed out. Her throat felt like she was trying to swallow a lump of coal. It hadn't felt real until right then. She knew her dad was kidnapped, knew he would die unless she came to his rescue, but it was a whole different thing to actually look at her dad unconscious and helpless.
He had always seemed invincible to Camilla, always doing the impossible again and again. And now here she was, on her way to try and save him.
She didn't feel like a hero, just like a scared little kid who just wanted her dad.
Piper slipped her hand into Camilla's.
Camilla's hand was sweaty and she probably stank worse than Leo, but Piper looked at her like she didn't care about any of that, just the fact that there was an underlying understanding between them.
Camilla looked at the other man tied next to her dad and wished this were a Tristan McLean movie. Then Piper's dad would be faking unconsciousness. He'd untie his bonds and knock out the giant with some cleverly hidden anti-giant gas. Heroic music would start to play, and Tristan McLean would save Camilla's dad and make his amazing escape, running away in slow motion while the mountainside exploded behind him.
But this wasn't a movie. Tristan McLean was half dead and about to be eaten. The only people who could stop it—four fashionably dressed teenaged demigods and a megalomaniac goat.
"There's five of us," Hedge whispered urgently. "And only one of him."
"Did you miss the fact that he's thirty feet tall?" Camilla asked.
"Okay," Hedge said. "So you, me, and Jason distract him. The girls sneak around and free their dads."
They all looked at Jason.
"What?" Jason asked. "I'm not the leader."
Camilla almost laughed at the panicked expression on his face.
"Yes," Piper said. "You are."
They'd never really talked about it, but no one disagreed, not even Hedge. Coming this far had been a team effort, but when it came to a life-and-death decision, Camilla knew Jason was the one to ask. Even if he had no memory, Jason had a kind of balance to him. You could just tell he'd been in battles before, and he knew how to keep his cool. Camilla wasn't exactly the trusting type, but she trusted Jason with her life.
"I hate to say it," Jason sighed, "but Coach Hedge is right. A distraction is your best chance."
Not a good chance, Camilla thought. Not even a survivable chance. Just their best chance.
They couldn't sit there all day and talk about it, though. It had to be close to noon—the giant's deadline—and the ground was still trying to pull them down. Camilla's knees had already sunk two inches into the dirt.
"Let's boogie," Leo said, squeezing Camilla's shoulder. "Before I come to my senses."
Camilla and Piper whenever given the chance: We should hold hands... for plot purposes-