The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus, #5)(66)

Percy’s face brightened. ‘Hey, I know Briares. He’s a friend of mine! I freed him from Alcatraz.’

‘Yes, I know.’ Kym’s eyes glinted coldly. ‘I hate my husband. I was not at all pleased to have him back.’

‘Oh. So … is Briares around?’ Percy asked hopefully.

Kym’s laugh sounded like dolphin chatter. ‘He’s off at Mount Olympus in New York, shoring up the gods’ defences. Not that it will matter. My point, dear brother, is that Poseidon has never treated me fairly. I like to come here, to his old palace, because it pleases me to see his works in ruins. Someday soon his new palace will look like this one, and the seas will rage unchecked.’

Percy looked at Jason. ‘This is the part where she tells us she’s working for Gaia.’

‘Yeah,’ Jason said. ‘And the Earth Mother promised her a better deal once the gods are destroyed, blah, blah, blah.’ He turned to Kym. ‘You understand that Gaia won’t keep her promises, right? She’s using you, just like she’s using the giants.’

‘I am touched by your concern,’ said the goddess. ‘The Olympian gods, on the other hand, have never used me, eh?’

Percy spread his hands. ‘At least the Olympians are trying. After the last Titan war, they started paying more attention to the other gods. A lot of them have cabins now at Camp Half-Blood: Hecate, Hades, Hebe, Hypnos … uh, and probably some that don’t begin with H, too. We give them offerings at every meal, cool banners, special recognition in the end-of-summer programme –’

‘And do I get such offerings?’ Kym asked.

‘Well … no. We didn’t know you existed. But –’

‘Then save your words, brother.’ Kym’s jellyfish-tentacle hair floated towards him, as if anxious to paralyse new prey. ‘I have heard so much about the great Percy Jackson. The giants are quite obsessed with capturing you. I must say … I don’t see what the fuss is about.’

‘Thanks, sis. But, if you’re going to try to kill me, I gotta warn you it’s been tried before. I’ve faced a lot of goddesses recently – Nike, Akhlys, even Nyx herself. Compared to them, you’re not scaring me. Also, you laugh like a dolphin.’

Kym’s delicate nostrils flared. Jason got his sword ready.

‘Oh, I won’t kill you,’ Kym said. ‘My part of the bargain was simply to get your attention. Someone else is here, though, who very much wants to kill you.’

Above them, at the edge of the broken roof, a dark shape appeared – a figure even taller than Kymopoleia.

‘The son of Neptune,’ boomed a deep voice.

The giant floated down. Clouds of dark viscous fluid – poison, perhaps – curled from his blue skin. His green breastplate was fashioned to resemble a cluster of open hungry mouths. In his hands were the weapons of a retiarius – a trident and a weighted net.

Jason had never met this particular giant, but he’d heard stories. ‘Polybotes,’ he said, ‘the anti-Poseidon.’

The giant shook his dreadlocks. A dozen serpents swam free – each one lime green with a frilled crown around its head. Basilisks.

‘Indeed, son of Rome,’ the giant said. ‘But, if you’ll excuse me, my immediate business is with Perseus Jackson. I tracked him all the way across Tartarus. Now, here in his father’s ruins, I mean to crush him once and for all.’





XXVII


Jason


JASON HATED BASILISKS.

The little scum-suckers loved to burrow under the temples in New Rome. Back when Jason was a centurion, his cohort always got the unpopular chore of clearing out their nests.

A basilisk didn’t look like much – just an arm-length serpent with yellow eyes and a white frill collar – but it moved fast and could kill anything it touched. Jason had never faced more than two at a time. Now a dozen were swimming around the giant’s legs. The only good thing: underwater, basilisks wouldn’t be able to breathe fire, but that didn’t make them any less deadly.

Two of the serpents shot towards Percy. He sliced them in half. The other ten swirled around him, just out of blade’s reach. They writhed back and forth in a hypnotic pattern, looking for an opening. One bite, one touch was all it would take.

‘Hey!’ Jason yelled. ‘How about some love over here?’

The snakes ignored him.

So did the giant, who stood back and watched with a smug smile, apparently happy for his pets to do the killing.

‘Kymopoleia.’ Jason tried his best to pronounce her name right. ‘You have to stop this.’

She regarded him with her glowing white eyes. ‘Why would I do that? The Earth Mother has promised me unrestricted power. Could you make me a better offer?’

A better offer …

He sensed the possibility of an opening – room to negotiate. But what did he have that a storm goddess would want?

The basilisks closed in on Percy. He blasted them away with currents of water, but they just kept circling.

‘Hey, basilisks!’ Jason yelled.

Still no reaction. He could charge in and help, but even together he and Percy couldn’t possibly fight off ten basilisks at once. He needed a better solution.

He glanced up. A thunderstorm raged above, but they were hundreds of feet down. He couldn’t possibly summon lightning at the bottom of the sea, could he? Even if he could, water conducted electricity a little too well. He might fry Percy.