DON'T BLAME ME! (p. jackson) (#2) (ON HOLD)

- eleven

PUSHING THROUGH A CURTAIN OF MUCUS WAS ALMOST AS FUN AS ROSE IMAGINED.

she emerged feeling like she'd just rolled through a giant's nostril. fortunately, none of the gunk stuck to her, but still her skin tingled with revulsion.

percy, annabeth, piper, and she found themselves in a cool, damp pit that seemed to be the basement level of a temple. all around them, uneven ground stretched into darkness under a low ceiling of stone. directly above their heads, a rectangular gap was open to the sky. rose could see the edges of walls and the tops of columns, but no monsters... yet.

the camouflage membrane had closed behind them and blended into the ground. piper pressed her hand against it. the area seemed to be solid rock. they wouldn't be leaving the way they'd come.

annabeth ran her hand along some marks on the ground– a jagged crow's-foot shape as long as a human body. the area was lumpy and white, like stone scar tissue. "this is the place," she said. "percy, these are the trident marks of poseidon."

hesitantly, percy touched the scars. "he must've been using his extra-extra-large trident."

"this is where he struck the earth," annabeth said, "where he made a saltwater spring appear when he had the contest with my mom to sponsor athens. we're beneath the erechtheion. it's a temple to both athena and poseidon. the parthenon should be diagonally to the southeast of here. we'll need to sneak around the perimeter and disable as many siege weapons as we can, make an approach path for the argo ii."

"it's broad daylight," piper said. "how will we go unnoticed?"

annabeth scanned the sky. "that's why i made a plan with frank and hazel. hopefully... ah. look."

a bee zipped overhead. dozens more followed. they swarmed around a column, then hovered over the opening of the pit.

"say hi to frank, everybody," annabeth said.

rose waved. the cloud of bees zipped away.

"as soon as he gives hazel the word, she'll–"

percy yelped. rose clamped her hand over his mouth.

which looked strange, because suddenly each of them had turned into a hulking, six-armed earthborn.

"hazel's mist." piper's voice sounded deep and gravelly. she looked down and realized that she, too, now had a lovely neanderthal body– belly hair, loincloth, stubby legs and oversized feet. if she concentrated, she could see her normal arms, but when she moved them they rippled like mirages, separating into three different sets of muscular earthborn arms.

percy grimaced, which looked even worse on his newly uglified face. "wow."

"we should get going," said annabeth. "i'll move clockwise around the perimeter. piper, you move counterclockwise. rose, percy, you scout the middle –"

"wait," percy said. "we're walking right into the whole blood-spilling sacrifice trap we've been warned about, and you want to split up even more?"

"we'll cover more ground that way," annabeth said. "we have to hurry. that chanting..."

rose hadn't noticed it until then, but now she heard it: an ominous drone in the distance, like a hundred forklifts idling. she looked at the ground and noticed bits of gravel trembling, skittering southeast, as if pulled towards the parthenon.

"right," piper said. "we'll meet up at the giant's throne."

at first it was easy.

monsters were everywhere– hundreds of ogres, earthborn and cyclopes milling through the ruins– but most of them were gathered at the parthenon, watching the ceremony in progress. rose and percy strolled along the cliffs of the acropolis unchallenged.

near the first onager, three earthborn were sunning themselves on the rocks. rose walked right up to them and smiled. "hello."

before they could make a sound, she cut them down with her sword. all three melted into slag heaps. she slashed the onager's spring cord to disable the weapon, high-fived percy, then kept moving.

she was committed now. she had to do as much damage as possible before the sabotage was discovered.

she skirted a patrol of cyclopes. the second onager was surrounded by an encampment of tattooed laistrygonian ogres, but they managed to get to the machine without raising suspicion. she dropped a vial of greek fire in the sling. with luck, as soon as they tried to load the catapult, it would explode in their faces.

they kept moving. gryphons roosted on the colonnade of an old temple. a group of empousai had retreated into a shadowy archway and appeared to be slumbering, their fiery hair flickering dimly, their brass legs glinting. hopefully the sunlight would make them sluggish if they had to fight.

whenever she could, rose slew isolated monsters. she walked past larger groups. meanwhile the crowd at the parthenon grew larger. the chanting got louder. piper couldn't see what was happening inside the ruins– just the heads of twenty or thirty giants standing in a circle, mumbling and swaying, maybe doing the evil monster version of 'kumbayah'.

percy disabled a third siege weapon by sawing through the torsion ropes, which should give the argo ii a clear approach from the north.

she hoped frank was watching her progress. she wondered how long it would take for the ship to arrive.

suddenly, the chanting stopped. a BOOM echoed across the hillside. in the parthenon, the giants roared in triumph. all around them, monsters surged towards the sound of celebration.

that couldn't be good. percy and rose blended into a crowd of sour-smelling earthborn. they bounded up the main steps of the temple, then climbed a section of metal scaffolding so she could see above the heads of the ogres and cyclopes.

the scene in the ruins almost made her cry aloud.

before porphyrion's throne, dozens of giants stood in a loose ring, hollering and shaking their weapons as two of their number paraded around the circle, showing off their prizes. the princess periboia held annabeth by the neck like a feral cat. the giant enceladus had piper wrapped in his massive fist.

annabeth and piper both struggled helplessly. their captors displayed them to the cheering horde of monsters, then turned to face king porphyrion, who sat in his makeshift throne, his white eyes gleaming with malice.

"right on time!" the giant king bellowed. "the blood of olympus to raise the earth mother!"