🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
All right, I thought as Aimee fell asleep—pretty clear signal she didn't want to talk.
We flew in silence for a while. Festus seemed to know where he was going. He kept his course, gently curving toward the southwest and hopefully Aeolus's fortress. Another wind god to visit, a whole new flavor of crazy—Oh, boy, I just couldn't wait.
I had way too much on my mind to sleep, but now that I was out danger, my body had different ideas. My energy level was crashing. The monotonous beat of the dragon's wings made my eyes feel heavy and the subtle warmth from Aimee made me even more relaxed. My head started to nod.
"Catch a few Z's," Jason said from his spot behind Aimee. "It's cool. Hand me the reins."
"Nah, I'm okay—"
"Leo," Jason said, "you're not a machine. Besides, I'm the only one who can see the vapor trail. I'll make sure we stay on course."
My eyes started to close on their own. "All right. Maybe just ..."
I didn't finish the sentence before slumping back leaning my head back on Aimee's shoulder.
In my dream, I heard a voice full of static, like a bad AM radio: "Hello? Is this thing working?"
My vision came into focus—sort of. Everything was hazy and gray, with bands of interference running across his sight. I'd never dreamed with a bad connection before.
I seemed to be in a workshop. Out of the corners of my eyes I saw bench saws, metal lathes, and tool cages. A forge glowed cheerfully against one wall.
It wasn't the camp forge—too big. Not Bunker 9—much warmer and more comfortable, obviously not abandoned.
Then I realized something was blocking the middle of my view—something large and fuzzy, and so close, I had to cross my eyes to see it properly. It was a large ugly face.
"Holy mother!" I yelped stumbling backwards.
The face backed away and came into focus. Staring down at me was a bearded man in grimy blue coveralls. His face was lumpy and covered with welts, as if he'd been bitten by a million bees, or dragged across gravel. Possibly both.
"Humph," the man said. "Holy father, boy. I should think you'd know the difference."
I blinked. "Hephaestus?"
Being in the presence of his father for the first time, I probably should've been speechless and awestruck or something. But after what I'd been through the last couple of days, with Cyclopes and a sorceress and a face in the potty sludge, all I felt was a surge of complete annoyance.
"Now you show up?" I demanded,clearly pissed off. "After fifteen years? Great parenting, Fur Face. Where do you get off sticking your ugly nose into my dreams?"
The god raised an eyebrow. A little spark caught fire in his beard. Then he threw back his head and laughed so loudly, the tools rattled on the workbenches.
"You sound just like your mother," Hephaestus said. "I miss Esperanza."
"She's been dead seven years." My voice trembled. "Not that you'd care."
"But I do care, boy. About both of you."
"Uh-huh. Which is why I never saw you before today."
The god made a rumbling sound in his throat, but he looked more uncomfortable than angry. He pulled a miniature motor from his pocket and began fiddling absently with the pistons—just the way Leo did when he was nervous.
"I'm not good with children," the god confessed. "Or people. Well, any organic life forms, really. I thought about speaking to you at your mom's funeral. Then again when you were in fifth grade ... that science project you made, steam-powered chicken chucker. Very impressive."
"You saw that?"
Hephaestus pointed to the nearest worktable, where a shiny bronze mirror showed a hazy image of me asleep on the dragon's back with my head on Aimee's shoulder.
"Is that me?" I asked. "Like—me right now, having this dream—looking at me having a dream?"
Hephaestus scratched his beard. "Now you've confused me. But yes—it's you. I'm always keeping an eye on you, Leo. But talking to you is, um ... different."
"You're scared," I said.
"Grommets and gears!" the god yelled. "Of course not!"
"Yeah, you're scared." But my anger seeped away. I'd spent years thinking about what I'd say to my dad if we'd ever met—how I would chew him out for being a deadbeat. Now, looking at that bronze mirror, I thought about my dad watching my progress over the years, even my stupid science experiments.
Maybe Hephaestus was still a jerk, but I kind of understood where he was coming from. I knew about running away from people, not fitting in. I knew about hiding out in a workshop rather than trying to deal with organic life forms.
"So," I grumbled, "you keep track of all your kids? You got like twelve back at camp. How'd you even—Never mind. I don't want to know."
Hephaestus might've blushed, but his face was so beat up and red, it was hard to tell. "Gods are different from mortals, boy. We can exist in many places at once—wherever people call on us, wherever our sphere of influence is strong. In fact, it's rare our entire essence is ever together in one place—our true form. It's dangerous, powerful enough to destroy any mortal who looks upon us. So, yes ... lots of children. Add to that our different aspects, Greek and Roman—"
The god's fingers froze on his engine project. "Er, that is to say, being a god is complicated. And yes, I try to keep an eye on all my children, but you especially.I watch over her sometimes too."Hephaestus pointed to Aimee who had just woke up.I watched her move me slightly so she could sit up more then she started to talk to Jason.
I was pretty sure Hephaestus had almost slipped and said something important, but I wasn't sure what.I noticed that Aimee did the same thing too,she would almost say something that she didn't want to and correct herself quickly.
"Why contact me now?" I asked still slightly annoyed at the fact that he waited so long to finally talk to me. "I thought the gods had gone silent."
"We have," Hephaestus grumped. "Zeus's orders—very strange, even for him. He's blocked all visions, dreams, and Iris-messages to and from Olympus. Hermes is sitting around bored out of his mind because he can't deliver the mail. Fortunately, I kept my old pirate broadcasting equipment."
Hephaestus patted a machine on the table. It looked like a combination satellite dish, V-6 engine, and espresso maker. Each time Hephaestus jostled the machine, my dream flickered and changed color.
"Used this in the Cold War," the god said fondly. "Radio Free Hephaestus. Those were the days. I keep it around for pay-for-view, mostly, or making viral brain videos—"
"Viral brain videos?"
"But now it's come in handy again. If Zeus knew I was contacting you, he'd have my hide."
"Why is Zeus being such a jerk?" Why is his wife such a bitch?
I shook that thought out of my head quickly.
"Hrumph. They excel at that, boy." Hephaestus called him boy as if I were an annoying machine part—an extra washer, maybe, that had no clear purpose, but that Hephaestus didn't want to throw away for fear he might need it someday.
Not exactly heartwarming. Then again, I wasn't sure I wanted to be called "son." I wasn't about to start calling this big awkward ugly guy "Dad."
Hephaestus got tired of his engine and tossed it over his shoulder. Before it could hit the floor, it sprouted helicopter wings and flew itself into a recycling bin.
"It was the second Titan War, I suppose," Hephaestus said. "That's what got Zeus upset. We gods were ... well, embarrassed. Don't think there's any other way to say it."
"But you won," I said.
The god grunted. "We won because the demigods of"—again he hesitated, as if he'd almost made a slip—"of Camp Half-Blood took the lead. We won because our children fought our battles for us, smarter than we did. If we'd relied on Zeus's plan, we would've all gone down to Tartarus fighting the storm giant Typhon, and Kronos would've won. Bad enough mortals won our war for us, but then that young upstart, Percy Jackson—"
"The guy who's missing."
"Hmph. Yes. Him. He had the nerve to turn down our offer of immortality and tell us to pay better attention to our children. Er, no offense."
"Oh, how could I take offense? Please, go on ignoring me."
"Mighty understanding of you ..." Hephaestus frowned, then sighed wearily. "That was sarcasm, wasn't it? Machines don't have sarcasm, usually. But as I was saying, the gods felt ashamed, shown up by mortals. At first, of course, we were grateful. But after a few months, those feelings turned bitter. We're gods, after all. We need to be admired, looked up to, held in awe and admiration."
"Even if you're wrong?"
"Especially then! And to have Jackson refuse our gift, as if being mortal were somehow better than being a god... well, that stuck in Zeus's craw. He decided it was high time we got back to traditional values. Gods were to be respected. Our children were to be seen and not visited. Olympus was closed. At least that was part of his reasoning. And, of course, we started hearing of bad things stirring under the earth."
"The giants, you mean. Monsters re-forming instantly. The dead rising again. Little stuff like that?"
"Aye, boy." Hephaestus turned a knob on his pirate broadcasting machine. My dream sharpened to full color, but the god's face was such a riot of red welts and yellow and black bruises, I wished it would go back to black and white.
"Zeus thinks he can reverse the tide," the god said, "lull the earth back to sleep as long as we stay quiet. None of us really believes that. And I don't mind saying, we're in no shape to fight another war. We barely survived the Titans. If we're repeating the old pattern, what comes next is even worse."
"The giants," I said. "Aimee said that Hera told her and Jason that demigods and gods had to join forces to defeat them. Is that true?"
"Mmm. I hate to agree with my mother about anything, but yes. Those giants are tough to kill, boy. They're a different breed."
"Breed? You make them sound like racehorses."
"Ha!" the god said. "More like war dogs. Back in the beginning, y'see, everything in creation came from the same parents—Gaea and Ouranos, Earth and Sky. They had their different batches of children—your Titans, your Elder Cyclopes, and so forth. Then Kronos, the head Titan—well, you've probably heard how he chopped up his father Ouranos with a scythe and took over the world. Then we gods came along, children of the Titans, and defeated them. But that wasn't the end of it. The earth bore a new batch of children, except they were sired by Tartarus, the spirit of the eternal abyss—the darkest, most evil place in the Underworld. Those children, the giants, were bred for one purpose—revenge on us for the fall of the Titans. They rose up to destroy Olympus, and they came awfully close."
Hephaestus's beard began to smolder. He absently swatted out the flames. "What my blasted mother Hera is doing now—she's a meddling fool playing a dangerous game, but she's right about one thing: you demigods have to unite. That's the only way to open Zeus's eyes, convince the Olympians they must accept your help. And that's the only way to defeat what's coming. You're a big part of that, Leo. "
The god's gaze seemed far away. I wondered if really he could split himself into different parts—where else was he right now? Maybe his Greek side was fixing a car or going on a date, while his Roman side was watching a ball game and ordering pizza. I tried to imagine what it would feel like to have multiple personalities. I hope it isn't hereditary.
"Why me?" I asked, and as soon as I said it, more questions flooded out. "Why claim me now? Why not when I was thirteen, like you're supposed to? Or you could've claimed me at seven, before my mom died! Why didn't you find me earlier? Why didn't you warn me about this?"
My hand burst into flames.The flames danced across my palm in a complicated dance.
Hephaestus regarded him sadly. "Hardest part, boy. Letting my children walk their own paths. Interfering doesn't work. The Fates make sure of that. As for the claiming, you were a special case, boy. The timing had to be right. I can't explain it much more, but—"
My dream went fuzzy. Just for a moment, it turned into a rerun of Wheel of Fortune. Then Hephaestus came back into focus.
"Blast," he said. "I can't talk much longer. Zeus is sensing an illegal dream. He is lord of the air, after all, including the airwaves. Just listen, boy: you have a role to play. Your friends Jason and Aimee are right—fire is a gift, not a curse. I don't give that blessing to just anyone. They'll never defeat the giants without you, much less the mistress they serve. She's worse than any god or Titan."
"Who?" I demanded.
Hephaestus frowned, his image becoming fuzzier. "I told you. Yes, I'm pretty sure I told you. Just be warned: along the way, you're going to lose some friends and some valuable tools.But that isn't your fault, Leo. Nothing lasts forever, not even the best machines. And everything can be reused."
"What do you mean? I don't like the sound of that."
"No, you shouldn't." Hephaestus's image was barely visible now, just a blob in the static. "Just watch out for—"
My dream switched to Wheel of Fortune just as the wheel hit Bankrupt and the audience said, "Awwww!"
Then I snapped awake to Jason and Piper screaming.