AS HAZEL AND FRANK talked quietly and Percy looked off at the shoreline, Camilla busied her restless fingers with a new bracelet. She chose three different shades of blue for the threads, braiding them together guided by muscle memory. As she worked, she wondered if Jason still had his—wherever he was. Maybe it had gotten lost; maybe he'd gotten rid of it; maybe it was buried six feet under with him.
Whoa, Camilla scolded herself. Don't think like that.
As they passed Stinson Beach, Percy pointed inland, where a single mountain rose above the green hills.
"That looks familiar," he said.
"Mount Tam," Camilla said quietly. "That's where we fought the final battle of the Titan War—it's the old Titan base."
Percy frowned. "You guys were there?"
"Just me," Camilla said. "It was back in August. The legion destroyed the enemy's palace and about a million monsters. Scythian Dracanae, telekhines, scorpions, empousai—it was insane. The legion lost a lot of soldiers, but we won in the end. Jason fought Krios himself. Hand-to-hand combat with a Titan, if you can imagine."
"I can imagine," Percy muttered.
Camilla didn't know what he meant, but Percy reminded her almost painfully of Jason. They looked nothing alike, but they both had the same aura of quiet power, and a kind of sadness—as if they'd seen their destiny and knew it was only a matter of time before they met a monster they couldn't beat.
Camilla looked away from the son of Neptune and to the horizon, missing her best friend a little more than usual.
Hazel fell asleep on Frank's shoulder, which the blushing son of Mars didn't seem to mind. Camilla kept her hands and her mind busy with the bracelet.
Percy seemed about as restless as she was, tapping his fingers against his knees, trying to expel some of his nervous energy. After a while of nothing but the sound of the water hitting the boat, Percy turned to Camilla and asked, "Were you and Jason together?"
That was the last thing Camilla was expecting him to ask. Her fingers froze on the bracelet as she looked up at him with wide eyes. "W-what? Why—why do you ask?"
Percy shrugged. "The way you talk about him," he said. "You sound like you like him."
Camilla prayed the setting sun hid her reddening cheeks. "I do like him, he's my—my best friend. But we're—we're not together."
"Dakota said he had a crush on you," Frank said. He didn't sound like he was trying to tease her, necessarily—more like he was trying to make casual conversation.
Camilla's cheeks felt like they were on fire. "That's ridiculous," she said. "Jason didn't have a crush on me."
"What about you?" Percy said. "Did you have a crush on him?"
"I—" Gods, how much hotter could her face get? "I don't see how that's relevant."
Percy smirked. "So, that's a yes."
"I didn't—!" she started to protest, but the knowing look on Percy's face and the amused smile on Frank's face made her falter.
"So what?" she muttered. "He's gone. It doesn't even matter."
The boys seemed to realize they'd hit a sore spot. Frank looked away, focusing on the sea ahead of them and Hazel still sleeping soundly next to him.
Percy's method of attack seemed to be changing the subject. "Who's that for?" he asked, pointing at the half-finished bracelet.
Camilla shrugged. She was thankful for the breeze coming off of the sea now that the sun was beginning to set, cooling her warm cheeks. "No one in particular," she said. "I just like to keep myself busy. Making bracelets gives me something to focus on."
Percy nodded. "Makes sense," he said. After a moment, he asked, "Can I have it? Blue's my favorite color."
That didn't surprise Camilla—she remembered his bright blue soda at dinner the night before. "Sure," she said. "Let me see your wrist."
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Hours later, Hazel was still unconscious, and they couldn't wake her up.
Percy pulled the boat onto a beach and he and Frank carried Hazel out of the boat, hoping the solid ground would help wake her up. Camilla trailed behind, a flask of nectar in her shaking hands as they set Hazel on the ground.
"Hazel!" Frank shook her arms, his voice full of panic. "Come on, please! Wake up!"
Hazel finally opened her eyes. She sat up slowly. "Where are we?"
Frank exhaled, and Camilla felt herself relax significantly. "Thank the gods you're awake! We're in Mendocino, about a hundred and fifty miles north of the Golden Gate."
"A hundred and fifty miles?" Hazel groaned. "I've been out that long?"
Percy knelt beside her, the sea wind sweeping his hair. He put his hand on her forehead as if checking for a fever. "We couldn't wake you. Finally we decided to bring you ashore. We thought maybe the seasickness—"
"It wasn't seasickness." Hazel took a deep breath. "I—I haven't been honest with you," she said. "What happened was a blackout. I have them once in a while."
"A blackout?" Frank asked. He took Hazel's hand. "Is it medical? Why haven't I noticed before?"
Camilla frowned. How had she not noticed? She and Hazel lived together, how could she miss something this serious?
"I try to hide it," Hazel admitted. "I've been lucky so far, but it's getting worse. It's not medical... not really. Nico says it's a side effect from my past, where he found me."
"Where exactly did Nico find you?" Percy asked.
Hazel sighed. "I'll explain," she promised. She looked through her pack. "Is... is there anything to drink?"
"Yeah." Percy muttered something in a language Camilla didn't understand. "That was dumb. I left my supplies down at the boat."
Hazel shouldered her pack and sword. "Never mind. I can walk..."
"Don't even think about it," Frank said. "Not until you've had some food and water. I'll get the supplies."
"No, I'll go." Percy scanned the horizon as if he sensed trouble, but there was nothing to see—just the towering lighthouse and the field of grass stretching inland. "You three stay here. I'll be right back."
"I'll go with you," Camilla offered. "No one should go off alone if we can help it."
"You sure?" Hazel said feebly. "I don't want you to—"
"It's fine," Percy said. "Frank, just keep your eyes open. Something about this place... I don't know."
"I'll keep her safe," Frank promised.
Camilla gave Hazel a small smile, then followed Percy back to the boat.
They'd just grabbed the supplies when they heard Frank yelling Hazel's name. Camilla's head snapped back in the direction they'd come, and without a word needing to be spoken, she and Percy sprinted back in the direction of their companions.
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They found Hazel on a giant rock surrounded by mean-looking cherubs in diapers. The three of them burst out of the grass and massacred every little cherub they could find. Camilla felt a little bad about fighting monsters that looked like toddlers, but then she got blasted with a wave of grain—wheat?—and didn't feel as bad.
Within minutes, the cherubs had been reduced to piles of seeds and various breakfast cereals. One of them started to re-form, but Percy pulled a lighter from his pack and sparked a flame.
"Try it," he threatened, "and I'll set this whole field on fire. Stay dead. Stay away from us, or the grass gets it!"
Frank winced like the flame terrified him.
"He'll do it!" Hazel shouted at the grain piles. "He's crazy!"
The remnants of the cherub monsters scattered in the wind.
Percy extinguished his lighter and grinned at Hazel. "Thanks for yelling. We wouldn't have found you otherwise. How'd you hold them off so long?"
Hazel pointed at the rock she'd been standing on. "A big pile of schist."
"Hazel!" Camilla gasped.
Percy raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"Guys," Frank called from the top of the rock he'd climbed up onto. "You need to see this."
Camilla, Percy, and Hazel climbed up to join him. As soon as Hazel saw what he was looking at, she inhaled sharply. "Percy, no light! Put up your sword!"
"Schist!" He touched the sword tip, and his sword shrank back into a pen.
Down below them, an army was on the move.
The field dropped into a shallow ravine, where a country road wound north and south. On the opposite side of the road, grassy hills stretched to the horizon, empty of civilization except for one darkened convenience store at the top of the nearest rise.
The whole ravine was full of monsters—column after column marching south, so many and so close, Camilla was amazed they hadn't heard Hazel's shouting.
The four demigods crouched against the rock. They watched in disbelief as several dozen large, hairy humanoids passed by, dressed in tattered bits of armor and animal fur. The creatures had six arms each, three on each side, so they looked like cavemen evolved from insects.
"Gegenes," Hazel whispered. "The Earthborn."
"You've fought them before?" Percy asked.
Hazel shook her head. "Just heard about them in monster class at camp. The Earthborn fought the Argonauts. And those things behind them—"
"Centaurs," Percy said. "But... that's not right. Centaurs are good guys."
Camilla looked at him, bewildered. "That's not what we were taught at camp," she said. "Centaurs are crazy, always getting drunk and killing heroes."
She looked back at the horse-men as they cantered past. They were human from the waist up, palomino from the waist down. They were dressed in barbarian armor of hide and bronze, armed with spears and slings. They had horns growing out of their heads, which Camilla had never seen before.
"Are they supposed to have bull's horns?" Hazel asked.
"Maybe they're a special breed," Frank said. "Let's not ask them, okay?"
"Works for me," Camilla mumbled.
Percy gazed farther down the road and his face went slack. "My gods... Cyclopes."
Sure enough, lumbering after the centaurs was a battalion of one-eyed ogres, both male and female, each about ten feet tall, wearing armor cobbled out of junkyard metal. Six of the monsters were yoked like oxen, pulling a two-story-tall siege tower fitted with a giant scorpion ballista.
Percy pressed the sides of his head. "Cyclopes. Centaurs. This is wrong. All wrong."
The monster army was enough to make anyone despair, but Camilla could see something else was going on with Percy. He looked pale and sickly in the moonlight, as if his lost memories were trying to come back, scrambling his mind in the process.
"We should get him back to the boat," Camilla said, looking at Hazel and Frank. "The sea might make him feel better."
"No argument here," Frank said. "There are too many of them. The camp... we have to warn the camp."
"They know," Percy groaned. "Reyna knows."
Camilla swallowed hard. There was no way the legion could fight so many monsters. They were only a few hundred miles from camp—the four of them could never make it to Alaska and back in time.
"Come on," Hazel urged. "Let's..."
Her voice faltered as all their eyes landed on the giant.
When he appeared over the ridge, Camilla couldn't believe her eyes. He was taller than the siege tower—thirty feet tall, at least—with scaly reptilian legs like a Komodo dragon from the waist down and green-blue armor from the waist up. His breastplate was shaped like rows of hungry monstrous faces, their mouths open as if demanding food. His face was human, but his hair was wild and green, like a mop of seaweed. As he turned his head from side to side, snakes dropped from his dreadlocks.
He was armed with a massive trident and a weighted net.
Camilla's stomach twisted in knots at the sight of those two weapons. She'd faced that type of fighter time and time again in gladiator training. It was the trickiest, sneakiest, most evil combat style she knew.
This giant was a supersize retiarius.
"Who is he?" Frank's voice shook. "That's not—"
"Not Alcyoneus," Hazel said weakly. "One of his brothers, I think. The one Terminus mentioned. The grain spirits mentioned him, too. That's Polybotes."
They needed to leave—their hiding place on top of the rock would be in plain sight if the giant chose to look in their direction. But it seemed they all could sense that something important was about to happen. They crept a little farther down the schist and kept watching.
As the giant got close, a Cyclops woman broke ranks and ran back to speak with him. She was enormous, far, and horribly ugly, wearing a chain mail dress. Next to the giant, though, she looked like a child.
She pointed to the closed-up convenience store on top of the nearest hill and muttered something about food. The giant snapped back an answer, as if he was annoyed. The female Cyclops barked an order to her kindred, and three of them followed her up the hill.
When they were halfway to the store, a searing light turned night into day. Camilla was momentarily blinded. Below them, the enemy army dissolved into chaos, monsters screaming in pain and outrage.
"Too pretty!" the Cyclopes shrieked. "Burns our eye!"
The store on the hill was encased in a rainbow, closer and brighter than any Camilla had ever seen. The light was anchored at the store, shooting up into the heavens, bathing the countryside in a weird kaleidoscopic glow.
The lady Cyclops hefted her club and charged at the store. As she hit the rainbow, her whole body began to steam. She wailed in agony and dropped her club, retreating with multicolored blisters all over her arms and face.
"Horrible goddess!" she bellowed at the store. "Give us snacks!"
The other monsters went crazy, charging the convenience store, then running away as the rainbow light burned them. Some threw rocks, spears, swords, and even pieces of their armor, all of which burned up in flames of pretty colors.
Finally the giant leader seemed to realize that his troops were throwing away perfectly good equipment.
"Stop!" he roared.
With some difficulty, he managed to shout and push and pummel his troops into submission. When they'd quieted down, he approached the rainbow-shielded store himself and stalked about the borders of the light. "Goddess!" he shouted. "Come out and surrender!"
No answer from the store. The rainbow continued to shimmer.
The giant raised his trident and net. "I am Polybotes! Kneel before me so I may destroy you quickly."
Apparently, no one in the store was impressed. A tiny dark object came sailing out the window and landed at the giant's feet. Polybotes yelled, "Grenade!"
He covered his face. His troops hit the ground.
When the thing did not explode, Polybotes bent down cautiously and picked it up.
He roared in outrage. "A Ding Dong? You dare insult me with a Ding Dong?" He threw the cake back at the shop, and it vaporized in the light.
The monsters got to their feet. Several muttered hungrily, "Ding Dongs? Where Ding Dongs?"
"Let's attack," said the lady Cyclops. "I am hungry. My boys want snacks!"
"No!" Polybotes said. "We're already late. Alcyoneus wants us at the camp in four days' time. You Cyclopes move inexcusably slowly. We have no time for minor goddesses!"
He aimed that last comment at the store, but got no response.
The lady Cyclops growled. "The camp, yes. Vengeance! The orange and purple ones destroyed my home. Now Ma Gasket will destroy theirs! Do you hear me, Leo? Jason? Piper? I come to annihilate you!"
The other Cyclopes bellowed in approval. The rest of the monsters joined in.
Camilla felt like a giant burden had been lifted off of her chest. "Jason," she whispered. She looked at her companions. "She fought Jason. That means he must be alive."
Frank nodded. "Do those other names mean anything to you?"
Camilla shook her head. She didn't know any Leo or Piper at camp. Percy still looked sickly and dazed—if he recognized the names, he didn't show it.
Orange and purple ones. Purple was obviously the color of Camp Jupiter. But orange... hadn't Percy shown up to their camp in a tattered orange shirt?
Below them, the army began marching south again, but the giant stood to one side, frowning and sniffing the air.
"Sea god," he muttered. To Camilla's horror, he turned in their direction. "I smell sea god."
Percy was shaking. Hazel put her hand on his shoulder and tried to press him flat against the rock.
The lady Cyclopes, Ma Gasket, snarled. "Of course you smell sea god! The sea is right over there!"
"More than that," Polybotes insisted. "I was born to destroy Neptune. I can sense..." He frowned, turning his head and shaking out a few more snakes.
"Do we march or sniff the air?" Ma Gasket scolded. "I don't get Ding Dongs, you don't get sea god!"
Polybotes growled. "Very well. March! March!" He took one last look at the rainbow-encased store, then raked his fingers through his hair. He brought out three snakes that seemed larger than the rest, with white markings around their necks. "A gift, goddess! My name, Polybotes, means 'Many-to-Feed!' Here are some hungry mouths for you. See if your store gets many customers with these sentries outside."
He laughed wickedly and threw the snakes into the tall grass on the hillside.
Then he marched south, his massive Komodo legs shaking the earth. Gradually, the last column of monsters passed over the hills and disappeared into the night.
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