Indigo Eyes

Chapter 84

When Percy returned, the house smelled like barbecue which strangely made him madder. The deck was set up for a party. Streamers and balloons decorated the railing. Geryon was flipping burgers on a huge barbecue cooker made from an oil drum. Eurytion lounged at a picnic table, picking his fingernails with a knife. The two-headed dog sniffed the ribs and burgers that were frying on the grill.

As for his friends, they were tossed into a corner. Tyson, Grover, Annabeth and Nico were tied up like rodeo animals, with their ankles and wrists roped together and their mouths gagged. As for Cressida, she'd been gagged as well but Eurytion was using her cage, which had shrunk even more, as a footstool. It was so small that she was now hunched over as she hugged her knees, her head brushing the bars on top. Percy imagined that the gag was to prevent the slew of curses that had probably spewed out of her mouth from coming out again. And he also wasn't unfamiliar with the glare of a thousand daggers that she was currently pinning Geryon's back with as if she was planning the perfect way to separate each of his chests.

"Let them go!" he yelled, out of breath from running up the steps. "I cleaned the stables!"

He wore an apron on each chest, with one word on each, so together they spelled out: KISS – THE – CHEF. "Did you, now? How'd you manage it?"

Percy seemed impatient but he still told them, about the Naiad that helped him and how he'd used shells to make water geysers and wash the stables clean without polluting the river and poisoning the river.

He nodded appreciatively. "Very ingenious. It would've been better if you'd poisoned that pesky naiad, but no matter."

"Let my friends go," Percy demanded. "We had a deal."

"Ah, I've been thinking about that. The problem is, if I let them go, I don't get paid."

"You promised!"

Geryon made a tsk-tsk noise. "But did you make me swear on the River Styx? No, you didn't. So it's not binding. When you're conducting business, sonny, you should always get a binding oath."

Percy drew his sword and Orthus growled, one head leaning towards Grover as the other leaned towards Cressida.

"Eurytion," Geryon said, "the boy is starting to annoy me. Kill nim."

Eurytion studied Percy for a time before saying, "Kill him yourself."

Geryon raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Eurytion grumbled. "You keep sending me out to do your dirty work. You pick fights for no good reason, and I'm tired of dying for you. You want to fight the kid, do it yourself."

Considering he was a son of Ares, that was a strange thing for him to say.

Geryon threw down his spatula. "You dare defy me? I should fire you right now!"

"And who'd take care of your cattle? Orthus, heel."

The dog stopped growling and moved to sit by the cowherd's feet.

"Fine!" Geryon snarled. "I'll deal with you later, after the boy is dead!" He picked up two carving knives and threw them at Percy. He deflected one with his sword while the other impaled itself in the picnic table, a millimetre from Eurytion's hand.

Percy attached first, Geryon fighting back with a pair of red-hot tongs and a barbecue fork.

Percy stabbed him in the middle chest, waiting for him to disintegrate, but he just stood up again as his wound began to heal.

"Nice try, sonny," he said. "Thing is, I have three hearts. The perfect backup system."

He tipped over the barbecue, and coals spilled everywhere. One landed next to Annabeth's face, and she let out a muffled scream. Tyson strained against his bonds, but even his strength wasn't enough to break them.