Mark of Athena Words

Or an Amazon?”

Percy had to read the sign twice because of his dyslexia, and then twice more to let the message sink in.

On a normal trireme, most of the space would’ve been taken up with three rows of benches for a few hundred sweaty guys to do the manual labor, but Leo’s oars were automated and retractable, so they took up very little room inside the hull.

They only eat plankton.”

“With a hint of potpourri,” he said.

Nico di Angelo trapped in a bronze jar, slowly dying from asphyxiation with pomegranate seeds at his feet.

She’d been assaulted by chauvinist ghosts.

“Oh, you are a spoilsport, Jackson!”

They become quite schizophrenic, I’m afraid.

Her eyes were as black as obsidian.

She sat up groggily.

Rome’s greatest generals, but he came to be remembered as a reclusive and somber ruler who never really wanted to be emperor.

A silver platter zoomed toward her and hit the wall to her left, splattering scrambled eggs.

Jason insisted he was well enough to take sentry duty, along with Coach Hedge, who was still so charged with adrenaline that every time the ship hit turbulence, he swung his bat and yelled, “Die!”

Instantly a blur of beige shot across the forum.

Octavian is on the warpath.”

We were always pushing teamwork, working as a unit.

Riding full gallop on a beast that could vaporize at any moment made her a bit nervous.

Hercules broke off one of the river god’s horns, which became the first cornucopia.”

Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. trireme an Ancient Greek or Roman warship, having three tiers of oars on each side

Annabeth 357/590 had been captured by the Titan Atlas.

He seemed to be the only one who didn’t defer to Reyna as his superior, despite the fact that he was scrawny and pale and for some reason had three teddy bears hanging from his belt.

From the Sibylline

“...Riordan kickstarts the action, never lets up on the gas, balances laughs and losses with a sure hand, and expertly sets up the coming climactic struggle without (thankfully) ending on a cliff-hanger.

Upon reaching adulthood, they founded Rome.

People of Rome,” refers to the government of the Roman Republic and is used as an official emblem of Rome skolopendra a gargantuan Greek sea monster with hairy nostrils, a flat crayfish-like tail, and rows of webbed feet lining its flanks

She had perky dimpled cheeks, thick-framed glasses, braces, and frizzy black hair pulled to the sides in pigtails, so that even though she was probably in her late twenties, she looked like a schoolgirl nerd—sort of cute, but sort of odd.

She felt it again—that familiar shiver, as if a psychotic snowman had crept up behind her and was breathing down her neck.

Glaring white fluorescent bulbs illuminated the stairs.

“They don’t really make sense,” Piper said, “just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike.

Unfortunately, between Annabeth and that exit, the floor was bisected by a chasm fifty feet across.

New York Yankees cap of invisibility, had stopped working, and was still back in her cabin on the Argo II.

Then, just as in her nightmares, the Mark of Athena burned across the walls, incinerating the spiders until the room was empty except for the smell of sickly sweet ashes.

Their minds seemed addled.

“No. There’s a sort of flashback that happens to me.

Leo’s chest felt like it might implode from guilt.

At the top of his bovine neck was the head of a man with short curly black hair, a beard done in ringlets Ancient Greek style, deep, mournful eyes behind bifocal glasses, and a mouth that seemed set in a permanent pout.

Rods, pistons, and bronze shards flew everywhere.

“The first volume in the Kane Chronicles, this fantasy adventure delivers what fans loved about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: young protagonists with previously unsuspected magical powers, a riveting story marked by headlong adventure, a complex background rooted in ancient mythology, and wry, witty twenty-first-century narration.”

The machine men tumbled down the stairs, and Leo forced them to jitterbug like 1920s flappers.

“Understatement,” Annabeth muttered.

He didn’t see the rocket-launcher boxes, but tucked against the back wall was a strange contraption like an artist’s easel, fitted with rows of missile launchers.

You could rub your craftsmanship in Athena’s nose for all eternity.

He probably could have impaled Jason several times, but the giant insisted on doing a pirouette with every attack, which slowed him down.

“Beyond the explosive action and fireworks, Riordan deftly develops the theme of the duality of the universe—order versus chaos, living a normal life versus risking the extraordinary, being protected by parents versus growing up and stepping out of their shadows.

Now, in severe pain, with her ankle wrapped in boards and Bubble Wrap, and carrying no weapon except her dagger, she faced Arachne—a monstrous half-spider who wanted to kill her and make a commemorative tapestry about it.

She sat cross-legged on Mrs. O’Leary’s back, preening her wings.

Outside the tank’s display wall was an amphitheater with seating for several hundred.

She got an angry glint in her eyes when he told her about the giants planning some sort of Rome-destroying extravaganza that would include their painful deaths as the opening event.

“Careful, you dolt!”

The structure is a cylindrical biaxial braid, so it has excellent resilience.”

He turned into a snake and slithered over the edge.

“Such optimism, yet you have heartrending days ahead of you.

It ricocheted off his gladius and blasted Percy off his horse.

Even by demigod standards, Leo was seriously ADHD.

Underworld, later subsumed by Pluto pauldron a piece of plate armor for the shoulder and the upper part of the arm

Two years ago, she’d inherited the machine from the greatest inventor of all time, and it was loaded with invention ideas, schematics, and diagrams, most of which Annabeth was still trying to figure out.

Did you know that young sea serpents can regurgitate the flesh of their victims and keep themselves fed for up to six years on the same meal?

Prioritize.”

“He’s so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur— with a horse butt for a face.”

“Like hibernation, or a coma.

The more Kate giggled and acted friendly, the more Percy didn’t like her; but Coach Hedge didn’t seem fazed.

She had no way of knowing if this room was older than the shrine of Mithras, or if—like the labyrinth—the rooms were a hodgepodge from many eras thrown randomly together.

Her wispy hair was somewhere between brown and blond and gray, so it blended with the dry grass.

Scattered around her were old pieces of lumber—some cracked and desiccated, others broken into kindling.

Maybe they were enjoying the afterlife.

Frank levitated nearby in meditation position.

“Nemesis,” he said.

“Tacky.”

The book’s glossy cover showed a photographic montage of

It’s just a stupid phobia, he assured himself.

She didn’t want to jinx that wish, and she definitely didn’t want to find out that he’d wished for something different.

The ocean breeze swept away the muggy heat of the summer afternoon, and it was pleasantly cool under the shade of the palmetto trees.

Bacchus waved his hand dismissively.

It was an archetypal force, as

We’ve been looting and pillaging ships on the Mare Nostrum for eons.”

Then it dawned on him: the way he had felt back then, for a few days, was probably how Annabeth had felt for the six months he had been missing with amnesia.

BOOM!Lightning stirred the water into a boiling cauldron, steaming and hissing with electricity.

The sphere was constructed from five concentric rings, each inscribed with zodiac symbols—the bull, the scorpion, et cetera—and seemingly random numbers and letters.

A bad premonition gnawed at her gut.

Ephialtes and Otis always wanted to do things better, flashier, more spectacular!

Next to him, the dust swirled and solidified into the figure of a woman.

The facades had soaring white columns like Roman temples.

Doctors use it for traction, and electrical contractors—”

He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.

Now she wasn’t sure which was more excruciating—living with that horrible absence, or being with him again.

She couldn’t imagine anything that would make Annabeth suddenly turn vengeful.

He didn’t have much use for his siblings the twins, either.

One of his powers as a son of Hephaestus was that he could summon flames at will; but he had to be careful not to do so by accident, especially on a ship filled with explosives and flammable supplies.

With that cone on his head, he would’ve looked like a gnome.

Hazel, from what she had said, could find her way underground with flawless accuracy and even create or change the course of tunnels.

All she wanted to do was be with Percy—preferably alone.

“I’ve sailed these waters for centuries, waylaying any demigods foolish enough to explore the Mare

She smirked.

Besides, her dad had taken a potion that had erased all of

He wondered if he could produce a stick of dynamite from his tool belt and do a little discreet demolition; but he figured the caretakers of this place probably wouldn’t approve.

Every civil war…so much bloodshed and heartbreak…has been orchestrated largely by Athena’s children.”

Its head surfaced last—the slimy pink face of an enormous catfish with glassy dead eyes, a gaping toothless maw, and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril, making the bushiest nose beard Leo had ever had the displeasure to behold.

That left her nothing to do but watch in amazement and horror as Arachne worked, her eight legs moving with hypnotic speed, slowly unraveling the silk strands around the statue.

Anything that could fit into the pockets, Leo could tote around.

It must have been some sort of magic, either Octavian or Gaea or one of her minions.

The magical plates could conjure up a great selection of vegetarian stuff.

Hedge danced through the tentacles with his nimble goat hooves, smashing away with gusto.

Either the monster was trying to give them a hug, or it was about to capsize them.

Arachne allowed herself a smug smile.

Annabeth had had nothing but trouble from that overbearing goddess, and she’d never forgive Hera for taking Percy away, even if it was for a noble cause.

About a hundred yards away, he spotted a raised dais with two empty oversized praetor chairs.

The whole room was like one massive, scary, unreliable machine.

Percy smiled at her—that sarcastic, troublemaker smile that had annoyed her for years but eventually had become endearing.

“I will not have weapons inside the Pomerian Line!” he announced in a fussy teacher voice.

“Percy Jackson fans can rest easy: this first book in Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus spin-off series is a fast-paced adventure with enough familiar elements to immediately hook those eager to revisit his modern world of mythological mayhem.

He also noticed the baleful look Frank was giving Leo.

“Wax in our ears—standard procedure when battling evil sirens.

Piper couldn’t hear him, but the gist was obvious: We need to kill those Greeks!

With his chubby face and his grumpy expression, he looked like a Buddha who’d achieved enlightenment and wasn’t thrilled about it.

She extended her arms to take the baby, but the old man cuddled him a moment longer.

Piper and Nico struggled down from the emperor’s box as the Colosseum’s magical renovations began to turn into mist.

Jason slipped the guidebook in his back pocket the way he might holster a dangerous weapon.

The way the old satyr was glowering, Leo almost wondered if the coach was going to order him to do push-ups.

Either that, or the spirits that possessed the boys had also made them extra resilient.

He invented a hydraulic screw that could move water through pipes.”

But first they wanted to humiliate him by making his revelries look tame!”

He feinted and thrust at Chrysaor’s gut, but Chrysaor anticipated the move.

The last thing they needed as they flew a magical Greek trireme into a potentially hostile Roman camp was a middle-aged satyr in gym clothes waving a club and yelling “Die!”

He had leathery skin, curly white hair, and gnarled hands, like he’d spent a lifetime working in a machine shop.

He wore a dirty shirt the color of grease rags, threadbare wool trousers (in this heat, they couldn’t have been comfortable), and no shoes at all.

Pain like a hot steel wire jabbed its way up her leg and into her hip.

He gingerly lifted out one of the scrolls.

He summoned some breath mints and a pair of welding goggles from his tool belt.

The lantern’s sides were perforated with pinholes, so at night glimmering constellations drifted across her walls.

Centurions!”

Some had gray snouts.

Hedy Lamarr nearly dies of boredom in English class.”

Some waddled on legs partially fused together, while others had flippers for feet, which reminded Percy of clown shoes.

As augur, you should burn an offering to thank the gods for bringing Jason back to us safely.”

Percy had recounted their trip to Alaska, which sounded as harrowing as anything Piper had experienced.

Such bravado, Gaea hissed.

Within minutes she’d used a dozen balls of string and a crateful of swords to create a makeshift rope ladder—a 400/590 braided line, woven for strength yet not too thick, with swords tied at two-foot intervals to serve as hand- and footholds.

She’d opened the supply box and almost dropped the two glass vials she was holding.

At the far end of the room, the altar was elaborately carved with a frieze showing the man with the ice-cream-scoop hat holding a knife to the neck of a bull.

Hazel emerged from the kelp forest, escorted by two vicious-looking mermaids, who were baring their fangs and hissing.

He didn’t see the rocket-launcher boxes, but tucked against the back wall was a strange contraption like an artist’s easel, fitted with rows of missile launchers.

Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits—aurae—swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies.

Ornate carvings of Roman gods decorated the roofline.

If the spider came any closer, her sweet stench alone would have been enough to make Annabeth faint.

Around the back side of the room, opposite the stairwell, nine alcoves were carved into the wall.

An asteroid could have hit the planet and wiped out all life, and Annabeth wouldn’t have cared.

The jellyfish slowly wrapped its tendrils tighter and tighter around its prey.

Outside the glass, Keto was leading Coach Hedge through the amphitheater, lecturing him on something while the coach nodded and admired the stadium seating.

Even with the nectar and ambrosia they’d managed to force-feed him, Piper couldn’t be sure he would be okay when he woke up.

Gliding above them were multicolored jellyfish the size of trash cans, each with hundreds of tentacles that looked like silky barbed wire.

He looked glum and miserably uncomfortable, but he managed a dancer’s bow, which couldn’t have been easy with snake feet and a huge spear on his back.

Hazel studied him warily, like she wanted to believe it.

To the north, an aqueduct marched toward the Berkeley Hills.

The chairs were cushy recliners with thousand-finger massage, built-in headphones, and sword and drink holders for all your demigod kicking-back needs.

Leo listened to the Spanish tour guide for a few seconds, and then he reported to his friends, “This is the Pantheon.

Frank waved his left dorsal fin.

Horrible boors, those two.

A majestic horse materialized next to the fountain.

The ghostly crowd gave them a standing ovation as the Argo II extended its landing gear and settled on the arena floor.

Greek fire an incendiary weapon used in naval battles because it can continue burning in water

Annabeth took a deep breath, relaxing for the first time in hours.

Percy, for his part, wanted to hear every detail about the aquatic camp.

The air shimmered like a mirage, and Percy heard the roar of a crowd above him.

Jason’s mouth twisted in a gruesome smile.

The curved walls had once been painted with frescoes, which were now faded to eggshell white with only flecks of color.

Compared to Narcissus, he looked like an 92/590 undergrown troll.

One landed nearby and blasted a toga shop to rubble.

She muscled her car through traffic while regaling them with stories about the crazy families of Atlanta— the old plantation owners, the founders of Coca-Cola, the sports stars, and the CNN news people.

Alarms blared as they fled the exhibits.

My second wife dead, after being tricked into poisoning me and leaving me to a painful demise.

The air didn’t smell like a sewer—just old and musty, and slightly sweet, like moldering flowers.

Hazel sighed in exasperation.

Kate got them past the ticket queue and into the aquarium with no problem.

In the engine room below, it sounded like Leo and the others were doing an Irish line dance with anvils tied to their feet.

He knocked open the lid and rummaged through the ice.

Most guys would look pretty awkward walking around with a scabbard strapped to their jeans, but on Jason it seemed perfectly natural.

A dozen of his dolphin-man warriors stayed in a ring around them, spears leveled at Percy’s chest, while dozens more ransacked the ship, banging and crashing around belowdecks.

The ghosts cheered and threw spectral confetti as Bacchus strode around the stadium with his arms raised triumphantly, exulting in the worship.

Supreme Commander Leo for your superfun list of chores!”

“Don’t underestimate Camp Half-Blood,” Annabeth warned.

Camp Jupiter, so hopefully his familiar face would make the Romans hesitant to blow the ship out of the sky.

“I am quite good at discerning lies.

As a tornado of food platters settled onto the table, Percy leaned over and whispered, “I want to show you around New Rome.

Lares of Rome brought back for an encore performance.

I’d never seen anyone refuse Circe’s hospitality, much less outwit her.

Annabeth had been afraid the spider’s barbed legs might puncture the silk, but Arachne’s legs were pressed so tightly against her body she could barely move them.

A wave of agony almost made her pass out, but she flipped on her back in time to see a bright red Fiat 500 slam into Arachne’s silk trap, punching through the cavern floor and disappearing with the Chinese Spidercuffs.

Below them spread the city of Atlanta—a cluster of brown and silver downtown skyscrapers two miles away, rising from what looked like an endless flat sprawl of highways, railroad tracks, houses, and green swathes of forest.

Instead, we could send out a decoy to trick the eagles.

Percy and Frank took turns relating what had happened at the Georgia Aquarium, with Coach Hedge interjecting from time to time: “That was awesome!” or “Then I kicked her in the head!”

And the architecture…gods, the architecture— gilded marble columns, dazzling mosaics, monumental arches, and terraced villas.

They were young, beautiful nymphs in shimmering blue gowns, their glossy black curls pinned up with silver and gold brooches.

As Percy’s friends disembarked from the ship, the crowd of ghosts shimmered and disappeared.

Chrysaor gloated.

Let my children destroy the usurpers.”

The squid had apparently skulked back into its cave.

The most famous, Medusa, had eyes that turned the beholder to stone. greaves shin armor

Her eyes were lustrous gold, like the copper and bronze disks inside Festus’s mechanical head.

When he stepped off his bike, the waistline of his slacks was way higher than normal, but somehow he still managed to look manly and stylish and not like a total goober.

Too puny—and those snakes for feet.”

The wheat bent toward them like a million scythes.

Percy and Annabeth lunged for the ladder.

“Titanic, Lusitania, Pax…boats are not for harpies.”

You’d be amazed what you can do with an Archimedes sphere, a girl who can sense stuff underground, and a weasel.”

Now there was something else on the leather cord: a red coral pendant Percy had given her when they had started dating.

And from the way Hazel and Frank tried to help during the exorcism, she could tell they were brave, good people.

The mosquitoes left welts on her ankles, arms, and neck, so she probably looked like a smallpox victim.

(WREAK VENGEANCE UPON GAEA, LEO VALDEZ.)

“Rather hypocritical,” Annabeth said, “since the gods make fun of each other all the time.

A wannabe vampire, or maybe a Kool-Aid freak?

How can you be nostalgic for that?”

You did an awesome job.”

Many thanks to Seán Hemingway, curator of Greek and Roman antiquities at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for helping me follow the Mark of Athena to its source.

“Hercules is despicable.

Narcissus was nocking an arrow, but it was so old and brittle, it broke into splinters.

The ghost cringed.

Percy’s story about freeing the incarnation of death itself really creeped her out.

Gliding above them were multicolored jellyfish the size of trash cans, each with hundreds of tentacles that looked like silky barbed wire.

About fifty yards away, a miniature cyclone three stories tall tore across the tops of the sunflowers like a scene from The Wizard of Oz.

Apparently, though, the idea that Flathead Rufus could be Clark Gable was hilarious to the kids.

The floor was a carpet of sea urchins, which would have been uncomfortable to walk on, so Leo was glad he was floating.

The rim of her plate was embedded with rubies, and Piper was pretty sure they 113/590 hadn’t been there at the beginning of the meal.

“[The] epic battle and the quiet concluding chapters glow, alternating heroism and humanity, with any trace of bombast erased by the wry wit of the alternating narrators, Sadie and Carter . . . powered by Riordan’s talent for creating vividly written action scenes and his ability to keep a complicated story moving, this volume brings the Kane

Capable of seating 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas. cornucopia a large horn-shaped container overflowing with edibles or wealth in some form.

House: a cozy fire on the hearth and Seymour, the stuffed leopard head, snoring contentedly above the mantel.

House: a cozy fire on the hearth and Seymour, the stuffed leopard head, snoring contentedly above the mantel.

It was just functional: a trap.

Nearby lay a corroded bronze dagger very much like her own.

He felt like the lethargy of the addled sea creatures was starting to affect him.

“Percy has a knack for picking good friends.

Ghosts will run rampant.”

They dove together into the nearest trench and the mountain shattered above them, spraying them with plaster shrapnel.

Mosquitoes swarmed over stagnant ponds in the lowest areas.

Somehow she knew he was offering her some sort of gift—a cure, or an antidote.

“You, child of Jupiter—for the horrible betrayal of your predecessor who brought us here, you shall pay.

I blended the colors, contrasting bright yellow with darker hues.

Machinery hummed as the aerial blades that were still working changed to nautical form.

And of all the gods who might help them, the only ones not affected by the Greek–Roman schism seemed to be Aphrodite,

Annabeth wasn’t sure why she had blurted out the lines of the prophecy.

Percy could hear them breaking down the cabin doors, scuffling with his friends.

They massed at the edge of the pit—a seething black carpet of creepiness.

Her thoughts were suddenly as jumbled as kaleidoscope glass.

Octavian shot Percy a look of absolute loathing.

Gorgons three monstrous sisters who have hair of living, venomous snakes.

Now here was Athena, dressed in jeans and hiking boots and a red flannel shirt, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders.

We were salvaging Imperial gold weapons from the C.S.S.

A chaotic assortment of warehouses, apartments, stores, and cafés crowded the riverfront.

Guides held up colored placards with different numbers and lectured in dozens of languages like they were playing some kind of international bingo.

“We know it leads to something important in Rome, something that might heal the rift between the Romans and Greeks.”

If they survived long enough to graduate from high school, they either stayed on as counselors or left to start lives as best they could in the mortal world.

He was dressed in running shoes, dark cargo pants, and a Vancouver Winter Olympics T-shirt with his Roman centurion badge pinned to the neck (which seemed either sad or hopeful to Percy, now that they were renegades).

She was hunched over, pulling new ones out of a sack and cracking them open.

He sounded so depressed, Piper didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him or resentful.

He had a DJ’s voice, deep and resonant, which did not at all match his appearance.

They were mostly African American, with a sprinkling of Hispanic-looking kids, as young as kindergartners and as old as high schoolers.

She was a ghost—just a vaporous silhouette in the steamy air.

Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium—the lair of Medusa.

When he aligned the last ring, something inside the sphere clicked.

Percy had risen to praetor, but he had rebuffed Reyna too.

“Thank you, my dear,” Tiberinus said with a wry smile.

Percy swung behind a column, grabbed a garbage bag full of Wonder bread, and threw it at the monster.

Hazel marched forward and began nudging her way through the crowd.

But maybe…well, without the other horn, you might not be so lopsided.

Soon the coach was trussed like a rodeo calf and dumped with the other loot—crates of food, extra weapons, even the magical ice chest from the mess hall.

She sounded so knowledgeable that Percy decided to try his luck.

A swell of salt water washed over the bow, dousing

His hair was even more disheveled than normal.

Ephialtes looked unconvinced.

Her robes were forest green, dappled with gold and white like sunlight shifting through branches.

Naturally, Coach Hedge went ballistic; but Percy found it hard to take the satyr seriously since he was barely five feet tall.

“Riordan’s seamless weaving of various cultural mythologies into a modern landscape continues to shine in [The] Son of Neptune.

“Percy Jackson fans can rest easy: this first book in Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus spin-off series is a fast-paced adventure with enough familiar elements to immediately hook those eager to revisit his modern world of mythological mayhem.

Between those two forces, well…my nest has quite eroded.

As they wound their way underground, Piper saw old graffiti gouged into the stones: Roman numerals, names and phrases in Italian.

The walls started closing in on him like the sides of a vise grip.

“Riordan [maximizes] the elements that made the first series so popular: irreverent heroes, plenty of tension-filled moments fighting monsters, and authentic classical mythology mixed in with modern life.

Most are already incapacitated, and their confusion will only grow worse.

The main space was one huge chamber with a circular rotunda, sort of like a capitol building back in the States.

Seeing their cranky old camp director immortalized in stone, wearing a diaper and spewing water from his mouth, made her feel a little better.

She focused on Leo because he was the least intimidating.

You do realize that the ancient lands—and the Mare Nostrum—are dangerous?”

Littered across the white sand floor were glass marbles the size of bowling balls, and a strange assortment of weapons like tridents and spearguns.

They were too busy running and panting, their red eyes glowing like headlights.

Romans had come together, and how Hercules had thrown a temper tantrum when he found out Hera was behind it.

On a normal trireme, most of the space would’ve been taken up with three rows of benches for a few hundred sweaty guys to do the manual labor, but Leo’s oars were automated and retractable, so they took up very little room inside the hull.

Annabeth saw couples with babies, toddlers clinging to their parents’ legs, even some elderly folks in a combination of Roman robes and modern clothes.

Most important, she pulled aside their war-crazed chaperone,

“It’s just a figure of speech, man,” Percy said.

Instead, Arachne stamped her eight legs petulantly.

One of the little boys snickered under his breath: “Hammy

She was constantly second-guessing herself, reading too much into Jason’s expressions, his moods, his offhand comments.

Over his jeans and orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, he’d donned a toga and a purple cloak—symbols of his old rank as praetor.

Too late, said a sleepy voice, humming through the fields all around them and resonating in the ground at Piper’s feet.

She sounded pretty flustered.

Maybe it’s the Greek/Roman schizophrenia that

The whole scene was so familiar yet so completely alien that it gave Annabeth vertigo.

He vaulted straight over the centurion’s head like an acrobat and slammed the hilt of his gladius into the back of the Roman’s head.

He stepped back, gripping his backpack like a mace he was prepared to swing.

Jason’s head hit the asphalt with a nauseating conk.

Phosphorescent moss covered the ceiling, bathing the room in a blue-and-green glow.

But cars make me nauseous, and…”

Leo could tell from the groaning sounds on the port side that some of the aerial oars had been knocked out of alignment or broken off completely, which explained why the ship was listing and shuddering as it flew, the engine wheezing like an asthmatic steam train.

This time, fireworks shot off in front of the glass right on cue, sending up geysers of golden sparkles.

The imbalance made his head tilt to the left, so that he looked like he was trying to get water out of his ear.

Even with the nectar and ambrosia they’d managed to force-feed him, Piper couldn’t be sure he would be okay when he woke up.

So I guess we’re at an impasse.

He reared, whinnying and scattering the mob.

Annabeth was the cryptic advice Bacchus had provided: the Emmanuel

They hadn’t found anything in the Civil War sub or elsewhere in the museum; just a few elderly tourists, a dozing security guard, and—when they tried to inspect the artifacts—a whole battalion of glowing zombie dudes in gray uniforms.

At the other end of the chamber, an old-looking ghost rose with some difficulty (do ghosts have arthritis?) and stood by the altar, his 406/590 dark eyes fixed on Annabeth.

More Romans emerged from the shops and cafés, gawking and pointing as the ship descended.

Constantly grumpy!”

Why did so many people want to see Fort Sumter on a sweltering summer day?

It had a garish print made up of dying heroes, horrible tortures, and lions eating slaves in the Colosseum.

Annabeth had been tempted, maybe just a little, until she realized the place was a trap, and Percy had been turned into a rodent.

Ancient Greeks believed it marked one entrance to the Underworld, and pilgrims would go there to commune with the dead. hypogeum the area under a coliseum that housed set pieces and machinery used for special effects ichthyocentaur a fish-centaur described as having the forefeet of a horse, a human torso and head, and a fish tail.

The nearest bridge looked fairly new, made from iron girders, but right next to it stood a crumbling line of stone arches that stopped halfway across the river—ruins that might’ve been left over from the days of the Caesars.

Apparently, getting flattened under a plaster mountain had only energized him.

Colosseum an elliptical amphitheater in the center of Rome, Italy.

Like the ones at Camp Half-Blood, these wore gossamer 88/590 dresses.

“Yes, but to get your work shown on Mount Olympus, we’d need a proper audition.

The sphere was constructed from five concentric rings, each inscribed with zodiac symbols—the bull, the scorpion, et cetera—and seemingly random numbers and letters.

A silver platter zoomed toward her and hit the wall to her left, splattering scrambled eggs.

Cyclops a member of a primordial race of giants (Cyclopes, pl.), each with a single eye in the middle of his or her forehead

He slashed his blade across the top, decapitating the controls in a shower of bronze sparks.

I always found him crass and terribly nouveau dieu, personally.

Her thoughts were suddenly as jumbled as kaleidoscope glass.

“I’ve been mulling it over, how much you reminded me of—”

Piper raised her hands in a placating gesture.

“This one will eject a dozen rabid wolves into the Forum.

Annabeth looked at Piper imploringly.

He wondered if the eidolons might just leave those bodies behind, seep underground, and possess one of them instead.

All around him, his beautiful new ship was in shambles.

“Such a squealing whelp.

Around them, the sounds of the feast continued, but muted and distant, as if their little cluster of couches had slipped into a quieter dimension.

It had endangered his friends and botched their quest.

“At the aquarium, sugar,” Esther said.

“Except Festus tells me the port aerial stabilizer got pulverized when the ship raked against the dock at Fort

“The first volume in the Kane Chronicles, this fantasy adventure delivers what fans loved about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: young protagonists with previously unsuspected magical powers, a riveting story marked by headlong adventure, a complex background rooted in ancient mythology, and wry, witty twenty-first-century narration.”

Frank read the plaque next to the tank.

A moment later, two metal dogs raced toward them—automaton greyhounds, one silver and one gold.

In the middle of the courtyard, a full-grown elephant—could that be Frank?—rampaged around the flagpoles, scattering Roman warriors.

He probably could have impaled Jason several times, but the giant insisted on doing a pirouette with every attack, which slowed him down.

Annabeth processed his words with a slight delay.

Two artillery crews had set up catapults just outside the Pomerian Line and were preparing to fire at the Argo II.

Do you consult them for your auguries?”

Can you input latitude and longitude in this thing?”

She watched the hearth of Hestia burning in the middle of the green as the cabins turned off their lights for curfew.

Completely in control of pacing and tone, he balances a faultless comic banter against deeper notes that reveal the characters’ vulnerabilities.

“Better than jousting in a Kansas cornfield,” Percy agreed.

As they wound their way underground, Piper saw old graffiti gouged into the stones: Roman numerals, names and phrases in Italian.

Inexcusable.

“Like hibernation, or a coma.

He brandished it at the dolphin warriors as if spraying them with bug repellent.

His fingers had turned clammy.

She wasn’t invisible, exactly, but she was almost perfectly camouflaged until she moved.

It didn’t budge.

“[The] epic battle and the quiet concluding chapters glow, alternating heroism and humanity, with any trace of bombast erased by the wry wit of the alternating narrators, Sadie and Carter . . . powered by Riordan’s talent for creating vividly written action scenes and his ability to keep a complicated story moving, this volume brings the Kane

Jason insisted he was well enough to take sentry duty, along with Coach Hedge, who was still so charged with adrenaline that every time the ship hit turbulence, he swung his bat and yelled, “Die!”

Her features seemed to shift from those of one glamorous movie star to another.

She remembered her mother’s scathing words.

Grapevine trellises made a canopy overhead.

It grew a tripod of legs and clattered over to the Taser ball.

Lead the way, Miss Metal Detector.”

After leaving the Pillars of Hercules—unscathed except for a few coconuts lodged in the hull’s bronze plating—the ship traveled by air for a few hundred miles.

The sun beat down, and the humidity was about two hundred percent, even stickier than in Houston.

Frank explained how their harpy friend was freakishly good at memorizing books.

The Wonder bread absorbed the acid like fire extinguisher foam and splattered against the hydra, covering it in a sticky, steaming layer of high-calorie poisonous goo.

Sammy yelled imperiously.

We will raze it and salt the earth.”

Meanwhile Leo beamed and wiggled his eyebrows over his goggles and spread his hands, gesturing for applause.

Hedge grudgingly agreed.

But these…these survived as hybrid creatures.

No one will retrieve that statue.

Piper kept looking around like she expected an ambush.

Gathered at the water’s edge were several dozen nymphs.

No time for fancy maneuvers, but she did know one basic command: Up.

Ephialtes towered over Percy and Jason, both halves of his broken spear poised over their heads.

She handed over her canvas bag like this was an everyday occurrence.

In another tank, peeking out from its cement cave, was a squid the size of an eighteen-wheeler, with a beak like a giant bolt cutter.

Leo had wanted to paint a giant message on the bottom of the hull—WASSUP? with a smiley face—but Annabeth vetoed the idea.

She felt that if she got any closer to him, all the molecules in her body might combust.

The mortal side of the portal is in Greece.

Directly below the ship, nestled at the edge of the lake, the city of

The crowd jeered and shouted for blood.

Hedge danced through the tentacles with his nimble goat hooves, smashing away with gusto.

A row of spindly legs extended from its equator.

She was shouting in sheer desperation.

A sense of dread trickled down Percy’s throat like cough syrup.

The air was turning poisonous.

His eyes were glazed.

Annabeth recoiled.

Festus creaked and whirred warning signals, which were relayed through the intercom to the quarterdeck.

They disappeared behind the ramparts of the fort.

Annabeth watched in horror as Jason—obviously dazed and in pain—lunged for Leo, caught him, then struggled to gain altitude.

Ancient Greeks believed it marked one entrance to the Underworld, and pilgrims would go there to commune with the dead. hypogeum the area under a coliseum that housed set pieces and machinery used for special effects ichthyocentaur a fish-centaur described as having the forefeet of a horse, a human torso and head, and a fish tail.

Annabeth was tempted to tell her about more recent problems: her fight with her mom, the gift of the silver coin, and the nightmares she’d been having—about an old fear so paralyzing, she’d almost decided that she couldn’t go on this quest.

Maybe Piper could shoot their enemies with high-velocity smoked hams.

In the meantime, they’ve been keeping alive the Greek feud with the Romans.

Leo could sense the Celestial bronze running through the workshop like arteries from a heart—ready to conduct magical energy from this spot.

“[The] epic battle and the quiet concluding chapters glow, alternating heroism and humanity, with any trace of bombast erased by the wry wit of the alternating narrators, Sadie and Carter . . . powered by Riordan’s talent for creating vividly written action scenes and his ability to keep a complicated story moving, this volume brings the Kane

Ephialtes and Otis always wanted to do things better, flashier, more spectacular!

It touched down on the road next to Jason and took the form of a horse—a misty steed with lightning flickering through its body.

Behind that rose an expanse of grassy dunes and weathered boulders.

That had been the most embarrassing moment of her life.

Her hair was cut in a short black wedge.

Greek spheres…astronomy, geometry…” Leo got a warm feeling inside.

As in previous books, the plot is engrossing, the characters robust and compelling.

Frank’s face looked like it was being infused with cranberry juice.

The chirring of the cicadas and the oppressive heat reminded Piper of the rez in Oklahoma during the summer.

“The hordes of young readers who have devoured Rick Riordan’s books...will no doubt gulp down this concluding volume as greedily as they would a plateful of ambrosia, or maybe pizza.”

Fracture lines zigzagged from the point of impact, and suddenly the tank burst.

She swallowed back some biting comments.

That’s why he had to do those twelve labors as penance.”

Annabeth realized that if six of them went on these two quests, it would leave Percy alone on the ship with Coach Hedge, which was maybe not a situation a caring girlfriend should put him in.

The ceiling was held up with a combination of steel scaffolding and old granite Roman columns.

Even the most fragile things would never break.

She led them to the central pavilion in the gardens—a whitepillared gazebo, where a table was set with silverware, china cups, and of course a steaming pot of tea, the fragrance shifting as easily as Aphrodite’s appearance—sometimes cinnamon, or jasmine, or mint.

The earth goddess Gaea had killed his mother in a workshop fire when Leo was eight.

“You see these measurements?

In the back of the basement, the floor had been excavated, revealing another set of steps—these of white stone—leading still deeper underground.

She loved to taunt him.

At Camp Half-Blood, demigods got bead necklaces to commemorate years of training.

I have nothing to show except bad film adaptations of my life.”

Coach Gleeson Hedge, and encouraged him to take the morning off in his cabin and watch reruns of mixed martial arts championships.

Droughts are spreading.

“All I’m saying is this machinery is delicate, sophisticated.

Piper recognized that brooding expression on her friend’s face.

Its head surfaced last—the slimy pink face of an enormous catfish with glassy dead eyes, a gaping toothless maw, and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril, making the bushiest nose beard Leo had ever had the displeasure to behold.

By the time Annabeth and Hazel caught up to her, the ghostly apparition was only a few yards away.

Narcissus added, glaring very handsomely at Leo.

“Now, I know the bounty stipulates that you and the girl Annabeth should be kept alive if possible, but honestly, the girl is already doomed, so I hope you don’t mind if we deviate from the plan.”

“In a feat worthy of his heroic subjects, Riordan crafts a sequel stronger than his compelling debut.”

Her four eyes glimmered as if she had a separate thought behind each and was trying to weave them into a coherent web.

Narcissus a Greek hunter who was renowned for his beauty.

“But she might know about the ordeals!” another cried.

Perhaps later, if I don’t have to kill you, I will share my brownie recipe.”

Piper suspected the noise of the river and the drowsy sound of

You can’t just stock up at Home Depot.”

That does strike me as… well, a little shady.

Thank the gods, Percy turned his sword—maybe on purpose, maybe accidentally—so the flat of it hit Jason’s chest; but the impact was still enough to knock Jason off his mount.

Terminal.

The clouds broke around their hull, revealing the gold-and-green carpet of the Oakland Hills below them.

Frank fumbled for his bow.

“Help,” Echo agreed emphatically.

Bacchus in a sort of ballet position, wearing nothing but a loincloth, his cheeks puffed out and lips pursed, spouting water into a fountain.

The light filtering through the grapevines made shadows writhe across the ground like a swarm of bugs.

A chaotic assortment of warehouses, apartments, stores, and cafés crowded the riverfront.

Hazel looked down at her rumpled denim, not selfconsciously, but baffled, as if she couldn’t imagine what was wrong with them.

He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.

“No more talk about Gaea rising, Nico being held hostage, the world ending, the giants—”

He opened his saddlebags and returned their confiscated supplies.

He was rusty—at least against an adversary like Chrysaor.

And according to her dagger, that crazy teddy-bear-strangling kid, Octavian, was whipping the Romans into a war frenzy.

Smoke clouds billowed from the floor, making donutshaped rings that smelled like real donuts.

Hedge fumed.

Doctors use it for traction, and electrical contractors—”

Entire families had gathered to see the newcomers.

A beam of sunlight slanted into the rotunda and glowed on the floor, like Zeus was up there with a magnifying glass, trying to fry puny humans.

One showed a pastoral scene so three-dimensional, it could’ve been a window.

Down in the valley, the legion reinforcements were halfway to the city.

They had sharklike teeth and leathery skin in colors ranging from coral red to ink black.

A gust of wind caught her and carried her safely over the bank.

He stuck a wrench in his back pocket (why exactly, he wasn’t sure) and he had Hazel draw a tattoo on his biceps with a marker:

Strands of silk as thick as pillars ran from the ceiling all over the room, anchoring the walls and the floor like the cables of a suspension bridge.

Her face was gaunt.

As Arachne fell, she screamed like a freight train on a collision course; but her wailing rapidly faded.

Some waddled on legs partially fused together, while others had flippers for feet, which reminded Percy of clown shoes.

Below, the sounds of fighting tapered off.

Tartarus husband of Gaea; spirit of the abyss; father of the giants telkhines mysterious sea demons and smiths native to the islands of

The mortar between the stones 247/590 blistered.

“But…” Frank huffed like an irritated bear.

“Says here this island has no hotels, no restaurants, no transportation.

The guy seemed fascinated with his reflection in the metal.

Hazel seemed warm and very alive, not like the ghosts or the other reborn mortals Leo had tangled with.

Hedge cried indignantly.

As in previous books, the plot is engrossing, the characters robust and compelling.

If that was true, it had to be good manners to walk her to the start of her epic solo death quest.

If Percy attacked the giant, the hydra would ravage the city.

She manipulated the image so it squeezed in and out like an accordion.

She talked about spilling Jason’s blood, how it would taint the place for generations.

Later on, the Romans called it Imperial gold, but I was the first to ever wield such a blade.

He had a chiseled face with lips and 89/590 eyes that were somewhere between feminine beautiful and masculine handsome.

The circuses will be marvelous!

When it came to work and duty, Jason was Roman to the core.

It might be a bit snug for you.”

The Celestial bronze shields along the rail were enchanted to ward off monsters, and their onboard satyr, Coach Hedge, would have sniffed out any intruders.

Realization dawned on his face.

The forum’s broad plaza was pitted with craters.

Dozens more tendrils curled around the masts, encircling the crossbows and ripping down the rigging.

“The first volume in the Kane Chronicles, this fantasy adventure delivers what fans loved about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: young protagonists with previously unsuspected magical powers, a riveting story marked by headlong adventure, a complex background rooted in ancient mythology, and wry, witty twenty-first-century narration.”

One of the Roman catapults had fired, and the Argo II groaned and tilted sideways, flames bubbling over its bronze-plated hull.