Rick Riordan - Heroes of Olympus Book 2 - The Son of …

1 rick RIORDANH eroes of Olympus : The Son of NeptunePUFFINT able of Contents I Percy II Percy III Percy IV Percy V Hazel VI Hazel VII Hazel VIII Hazel IX Frank X Frank XI Frank XII Frank XIII Percy XIV Percy XV Percy XVI Percy XVII Hazel XVIII Hazel XIX Hezel XX Hazel XXI Frank XXII Frank XXIII Frank XXIV Frank XXV Percy XXVI Percy XXVII Percy XXVIII Percy XXIX Hazel XXX Hazel XXXI Hazel XXXII Hazel XXXIII Frank XXXIV Frank XXXV Frank XXXVI Frank XXXVII Percy XXXVIII Percy XXXIX Percy XL Percy XLI Hazel XLII Hazel XLIII Hazel XLIV Hazel XLV Frank XLVI Frank XLVII Frank XLVIII Frank XLIX Percy L Percy LI Percy LII Percy Books by rick RiordanThe Percy Jackson series:PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEFPERCY JACKSON AND THE SEA OF MONSTERSPERCY JACKSON AND THE TITAN S CURSEPERCY JACKSON AND THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTHPERCY JACKSON AND THE LAST OLYMPIANPERCY JACKSON: THE DEMIGOD FILESThe Heroes of Olympus series:THE LOST HEROTHE SON OF NEPTUNEThe kane Chronicles series:THE RED PYRAMIDTHE THRONE OF Becky, who shares my sanctuary in New Hera could never make me forget 1 Camp JupiterI Percy THE SNAKE-HAIRED LADIES WERE starting to annoy should have died three days ago when he droppeda crate of bowling balls on them at the Napa Bargain should have died two days ago when he ran overthem with a police car in Martinez.

2 They definitely shouldhave died this morning when he cut off their heads in matter how many times Percy killed them andwatched them crumble to powder, they just kept re-forminglike large evil dust bunnies. He couldn t even seem tooutrun reached the top of the hill and caught his breath. Howlong since he d last killed them? Maybe two hours. Theynever seemed to stay dead longer than past few days, he d hardly slept. He d eatenwhatever he could scrounge vending machine gummibears, stale bagels, even a Jack in the Crack burrito, whichwas a new personal low. His clothes were torn, burnt andsplattered with monster d only survived this long because the two snake-haired ladies gorgons, they called themselves couldn tseem to kill him either. Their claws didn t cut his skin. Theirteeth broke whenever they tried to bite him. But Percycouldn t keep going much longer. Soon he d collapse fromexhaustion, and then, as hard as he was to kill, he waspretty sure the gorgons would find a to run?

3 He scanned his surroundings. Under differentcircumstances, he might ve enjoyed the view. To his left,golden hills rolled inland, dotted with lakes, woods and afew herds of cows. To his right, the flatlands of Berkeleyand Oakland marched west a vast chequerboard ofneighbourhoods, with several million people who probablydid not want their morning interrupted by two monsters anda filthy west, San Francisco Bay glittered under a silveryhaze. Past that, a wall of fog had swallowed most of SanFrancisco, leaving just the tops of skyscrapers and thetowers of the Golden Gate vague sadness weighed on Percy s chest. Somethingtold him he d been to San Francisco before. The city hadsome connection to Annabeth the only person he couldremember from his past. His memory of her wasfrustratingly dim. The wolf had promised he would see heragain and regain his memory if he succeeded in he try to cross the bay?It was tempting. He could feel the power of the ocean justover the horizon.

4 Water always revived him. Salt water wasthe best. He d discovered that two days ago when he hadstrangled a sea monster in the Carquinez Strait. If he couldreach the bay, he might be able to make a last he could even drown the gorgons. But the shorewas at least two miles away. He d have to cross an hesitated for another reason. The she-wolf Lupa hadtaught him to sharpen his senses to trust the instincts thathad been guiding him south. His homing radar was tinglinglike crazy now. The end of his journey was close almostright under his feet. But how could that be? There wasnothing on the wind changed. Percy caught the sour scent of hundred yards down the slope, something rustled throughthe woods snapping branches, crunching leaves, the millionth time, Percy wished their noses weren tso good. They had always said they could smell himbecause he was a demigod the half-blood son of someold Roman god. Percy had tried rolling in mud, splashingthrough creeks, even keeping air-freshener sticks in hispockets so he d have that new-car smell, but apparentlydemigod stink was hard to scrambled to the west side of the summit.

5 It was toosteep to descend. The slope plummeted eighty feet,straight to the roof of an apartment complex built into thehillside. Fifty feet below that, a highway emerged from thehill s base and wound its way towards No other way off the hill. He d managed to gethimself stared at the stream of cars flowing west towards SanFrancisco and wished he were in one of them. Then herealized the highway must cut through the hill. There mustbe a tunnel .. right under his internal radar went nuts. He was in the right place, justtoo high up. He had to check out that tunnel. He needed away down to the highway slung off his backpack. He d managed to grab a lot ofsupplies at the Napa Bargain Mart: a portable GPS, ducttape, lighter, superglue, water bottle, camping roll, a ComfyPanda Pillow Pet (as seen on TV) and a Swiss army knife pretty much every tool a modern demigod could want. Buthe had nothing that would serve as a parachute or a left him two options: jump eighty feet to his death, orstand and fight.

6 Both options sounded pretty cursed and pulled his pen from his pen didn t look like much, just a regular cheapballpoint, but, when Percy uncapped it, it grew into aglowing bronze sword. The blade balanced perfectly. Theleather grip fitted his hand like it had been customdesigned for him. Etched along the guard was an AncientGreek word Percy somehow understood: Anaklusmos d woken up with this sword his first night at the WolfHouse two months ago? More? He d lost track. He dfound himself in the courtyard of a burnt-out mansion in themiddle of the woods, wearing shorts, an orange T-shirt anda leather necklace with a bunch of strange clay had been in his hand, but Percy had had no ideahow he d got there, and only the vaguest idea who he d been barefoot, freezing and confused. And then thewolves came ..Right next to him, a familiar voice jolted him back to thepresent: There you are! Percy stumbled away from the gorgon, almost falling offthe edge of the was the smiley one , her name wasn t really Beano.

7 As near as Percycould figure, he was dyslexic, because words got twistedaround when he tried to read. The first time he d seen thegorgon, posing as a Bargain Mart greeter with a big greenbutton that read: Welcome! My name is STHENO, he dthought it said was still wearing her green Bargain Mart employeevest over a flower-print dress. If you looked just at her body,you might think she was somebody s dumpy oldgrandmother until you looked down and realized she hadrooster feet. Or you looked up and saw bronze boar tuskssticking out of the corners of her mouth. Her eyes glowedred, and her hair was a writhing nest of bright most horrible thing about her? She was still holdingher big silver platter of free samples: Crispy Cheese n Wieners. Her platter was dented from all the times Percyhad killed her, but those little samples looked perfectly just kept toting them across California so she couldoffer Percy a snack before she killed him.

8 Percy didn tknow why she kept doing that, but if he ever needed a suitof armour he was going to make it out of Crispy Cheese n Wieners. They were indestructible. Try one? Stheno fended her off with his sword. Where s yoursister? Oh, put the sword away, Stheno chided. You know bynow that even Celestial bronze can t kill us for long. Have aCheese n Wiener! They re on sale this week, and I d hateto kill you on an empty stomach. Stheno! The second gorgon appeared on Percy s rightso fast he didn t have time to react. Fortunately she was toobusy glaring at her sister to pay him much attention. I toldyou to sneak up on him and kill him! Stheno s smile wavered. But, Euryale .. She said thename so it rhymed with Muriel. Can t I give him a samplefirst? No, you imbecile! Euryale turned towards Percy andbared her for her hair, which was a nest of coral snakesinstead of green vipers, she looked exactly like her Bargain Mart vest, her flowery dress, even her tuskswere decorated with 50% off stickers.

9 Her name badgeread: Hello! My name is DIE, DEMIGOD SCUM! You ve led us on quite a chase, Percy Jackson, Euryalesaid. But now you re trapped, and we ll have our revenge! The Cheese n Wieners are only $ , Stheno addedhelpfully. Grocery department, aisle three. Euryale snarled. Stheno, the Bargain Mart was a front!You re going native! Now, put down that ridiculous tray andhelp me kill this demigod. Or have you forgotten that he sthe one who vaporized Medusa? Percy stepped back. Six more inches, and he d betumbling through thin air. Look, ladies, we ve been overthis. I don t even remember killing Medusa. I don tremember anything! Can t we just call a truce and talkabout your weekly specials? Stheno gave her sister a pouty look, which was hard todo with giant bronze tusks. Can we? No! Euryale s red eyes bored into Percy. I don t carewhat you remember, son of the sea god. I can smellMedusa s blood on you. It s faint, yes, several years old, butyou were the last one to defeat her.

10 She still has notreturned from Tartarus. It s your fault! Percy didn t really get that. The whole dying thenreturning from Tartarus concept gave him a headache. Ofcourse, so did the idea that a ballpoint pen could turn into asword, or that monsters could disguise themselves withsomething called the Mist, or that Percy was the son of abarnacle-encrusted god from five thousand years ago. Buthe did believe it. Even though his memory was erased, heknew he was a demigod the same way he knew his namewas Percy Jackson. From his very first conversation withLupa the wolf, he d accepted that this crazy messed-upworld of gods and monsters was his reality. Which prettymuch sucked. How about we call it a draw? he said. I can t kill can t kill me. If you re Medusa s sisters like theMedusa who turned people to stone shouldn t I bepetrified by now? Heroes ! Euryale said with disgust. They always bringthat up, just like our mother! Why can t you turn people tostone?