The Demigod Files(13)

Back in the clearing, the dragon stumbled. A great cloud of acid mist was roiling off its hide.

‘We can’t let it die!’ Silena said.

‘It’s too dangerous,’ Beckendorf said sadly. ‘Its wiring –’

‘Charlie,’ Silena pleaded, ‘it saved your life! Please, for me.’

Beckendorf hesitated. His face was still bright red from the ant spit, and he looked as if he were going to faint any minute, but he struggled to his feet. ‘Get ready to run,’ he told us. Then he gazed across the clearing and shouted, ‘DRAGON! Emergency defence, beta-ACTIVATE!’

The dragon turned towards the sound of his voice. It stopped struggling against the ants, and its eyes glowed. The air smelled of ozone, like before a thunderstorm.

ZZZZZAAAAAPPP!

Arcs of blue electricity shot from the dragon’s skin, rippling up and down its body and connecting with the ants. Some of the ants exploded. Others smoked and blackened, their legs twitching. In a few seconds there were no more ants on the dragon. The ones that were still alive were in full retreat, scuttling back towards their ruined hill as fingers of electricity zapped them in the butt to prod them along.

The dragon bellowed in triumph, then it turned its glowing eyes towards us.

‘Now,’ Beckendorf said, ‘we run.’

This time we did not yell, ‘For Hephaestus!’ We yelled, ‘Heeeeelp!’

The dragon pounded after us, spewing fire and zapping lightning bolts over our heads like it was having a great time.

‘How do you stop it?’ Annabeth yelled.

Beckendorf, whose legs were now working fine (nothing like being chased by a huge monster to get your body back in order) shook his head and gasped for breath. ‘You shouldn’t have turned it on! It’s unstable! After a few years, automatons go wild!’

‘Good to know,’ I yelled. ‘But how do you turn it off?’

Beckendorf looked around wildly. ‘There!’

Up ahead was an outcrop of rock, almost as tall as the trees. The woods were full of weird rock formations, but I’d never seen this one before. It was shaped like a giant skateboard ramp, slanted on one side, with a sheer drop on the other.

‘You guys, run around to the base of the cliff,’ Beckendorf said. ‘Distract the dragon. Keep it occupied!’

‘What are you going to do?’ Silena said.

‘You’ll see. Go!’

Beckendorf ducked behind a tree while I turned and yelled at the dragon, ‘Hey, lizard-lips! Your breath smells like gasoline!’

The dragon spewed black smoke out of its nostrils. It thundered towards me, shaking the ground.

‘Come on!’ Annabeth grabbed my hand. We ran for the back of the cliff. The dragon followed.

‘We have to hold it here,’ Annabeth said. The three of us readied our swords.

The dragon reached us and lurched to a stop. It tilted its head like it couldn’t believe we’d be so foolish as to fight. Now it had caught us, there were so many different ways it could kill us it probably couldn’t decide which to use.

We scattered as its first blast of fire turned the ground where we’d been standing into a smoking pit of ashes.

Then I saw Beckendorf above us – at the top of the cliff – and I understood what he was trying to do. He needed a clear shot. I had to keep the dragon’s attention.

‘Yaaaah!’ I charged. I brought Riptide down on the dragon’s foot and sliced off a talon.

Its head creaked as it looked down at me. It seemed more confused than angry, like, Why did you cut off my toe?

Then it opened its mouth, baring a hundred razor-sharp teeth.

‘Percy!’ Annabeth warned.

I stood my ground. ‘Just another second…’

‘Percy!’

And just before the dragon struck, Beckendorf launched himself off the rocks and landed on the dragon’s neck.

The dragon reared back and shot flames, trying to shake off Beckendorf, but he held on like a cowboy as the monster bucked around. I watched in fascination as he ripped open a panel at the base of the dragon’s head and yanked a wire.

Instantly, the dragon froze. Its eyes went dim. Suddenly it was only the statue of a dragon, baring its teeth at the sky.

Beckendorf slid down the dragon’s neck. He collapsed at its tail, exhausted and breathing heavily.

‘Charlie!’ Silena ran to him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. ‘You did it!’

Annabeth came up to me and squeezed my shoulder. ‘Hey, Seaweed Brain, you okay?’

‘Fine… I guess.’ I was thinking how close I’d come to being chopped into demigod hash in the dragon’s mouth.

‘You were great.’ Annabeth’s smile was a lot nicer than that stupid dragon’s.

‘You, too,’ I said shakily. ‘So… what do we do with the automaton?’

Beckendorf wiped his forehead. Silena was still fussing over his cuts and bruises, and Beckendorf looked pretty distracted by the attention.

‘We – uh – I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Maybe we can fix it, get it to guard the camp, but that could take months.’

‘Worth trying,’ I said. I imagined having that bronze dragon in our fight against the Titan lord Kronos. His monsters would think twice about attacking camp if they had to face that thing. On the other hand, if the dragon decided to go berserk again and attack the campers – that would pretty much stink.