Daughter of Wine

Callida

"Festus, play my song." I smile as the Acropolis comes into range. Jason, Frank, and Hazel have already gone below to join in on the fight. It's just me and Leo up on the Argo II, ready to rain hellfire on the giant army below.

ACDC's "Immigrant Song" blasts through the ship's stereo, aimed directly at the Acropolis.

We fire the ballistae and the catapults simultaneously, the weapons programmed with surgical precision. A wall of Greek fire roars upward around the Parthenon. It doesn't touch the interior, but in a flash most of the smaller monsters around it are incinerated.

Leo grabs the mic, his voice booming over the song. "SURRENDER! YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY ONE SPANKIN' HOT WAR MACHINE!"

Faintly, I hear Enceladus howl in outrage. "Valdez!"

I take the mic from Leo. "AND RIVERA! WHAT'S UP, ENCHILADAS? NICE DAGGER IN YOUR FOREHEAD."

"Gah!" The giant pulls Piper's knife out of his head. "Monsters: destroy the ship!"

The remaining forces try their best. A flock of gryphons rises to attack. Festus the figurehead blows flames and charbroils them out of the sky. A few Earthborn launch a volley of rocks, but I spin the Wii controller and a dozen Archimedes spheres spray out, intercepting the boulders and blasting them to dust.

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" Buford commands through the mic.

"Gods, I love you." Leo tells me, shaking his head in awe at me.

I peer down at the battle. "I think they might need an assist."

He kisses me on the cheek. "Just be home for dinner."

"Fine." I smile at him warmly, and appear in the Acropolis in a flash of purple flame.

Instantly, I'm overwhelmed by the amount of giants surrounding my friends, but I try not to let it show.

"Alright, guys." I look around at the massive monsters, my hands spread. "Who wants to be a dolphin, and who wants to go insane?"

Porphyrion and Enceladus seem wary, but the giants charge us.

Hazel spurs Arion off the colonnade and they leap into battle. The forty-foot fall would break any other horse's legs, but Arion hits the ground running. Hazel zips from giant to giant, stinging them with the blade of her spatha.

With extremely bad timing, Kekrops and his snake people choose this moment to join the fight. In four or five places around the ruins, the ground turns to green goo and armed gemini burst forth, Kekrops himself in the lead.

"Kill the demigods!" He hisses. "Kill the tricksters!"

Before many of his warriors can follow, Hazel points her blade at the nearest tunnel. The ground rumbles. All the gooey membranes pop and the tunnels collapse, billowing plumes of dust. Kekrops looks around at his army, now reduced to six guys.

"SLITHER AWAY!" he orders.

Frank's arrows cut them down as they try to retreat. He fires to the beat of the song.

The giantess Periboia tries to grab Annabeth, who I notice is bleeding from a gash in her leg. Everywhere drops of her blood hit the earth, they sizzle and turn to gold.

The Blood of Olympus.

That's not good.

Despite her bad leg, Annabeth is standing her ground. She stabs at the giantess with her hunting knife and leads her in a deadly game of tag around the throne.

Percy is on his feet looking dazed. He's got Riptide in his hands and his nose is bleeding, but he seems to be holding his own against the old giant Thoon.

Piper stands back to back with Jason, fighting every giant who dares come close.

I slam my thyrsus on the ground, the sound echoing through the Acropolis. The groundrumbles, and grapevines burst from the earth, wrapping and tangling every giant they can get to. I start working my way through the giant army, slashing and burning and just generally causing a mass panic. However, as soon as I leave an area, my grapevines whither and tumble away, and my panic fades. Despite that, I've got about a twenty-foot zone of terror around me at all times. It's so effective that the giants are wary to charge me.

Well, all of them except for Otis and Ephialtes, who are immune to my abilities. They charge me with such a murderous look in their eyes that I almost turn and run away.

Our element of surprise is fading. The giants are overcoming their confusion.

I dart between the two giants, but I had a hard enough time fighting them one at a time. Frank runs out of arrows. He changes into a rhinocerous and leaps into battle, but as fast as he can knock down the giants, they get up again. Their wounds seem to be healing faster.

Annabeth loses ground against Periboia. Hazel gets knocked out of her saddle at sixty miles an hour. Jason summons another lightning strike, but this time Porphyrion simply deflects it off the tip of his spear.

The giants are bigger, stronger, and more numerous. They can't be killed without the help of the gods. And they don't seem to be tiring.

The seven of us are forced into a defensive ring. The only thing keeping the giants from overwhelming us instantly is my aura of madness.

Another volley of Earthborn rocks hit the Argo II. This time Leo doesn't return fire fast enough. Rows of oars are sheared off. The ship shudders and tilts in the sky.

Then Encelados throws his fiery spear. It pierces the ship's hull and explodes inside, sending spouts of fire through the oar openings. An ominous black cloud billows from the deck. The Argo II begins to sink.

"Leo!" I cry.

Porphyrion laughs. "You demigods have learned nothing. There are no gods to aid you. We only need one more thing from you to make our victory complete."

The giant king smiles expectantly. He seems to be looking at Percy Jackson.

I glance over. Percy's nose is still bleeding. He seems unaware that a trickle of blood has made its way down his face to the end of his chin.

"Percy, look out..." I start to speak, but it's too late.

A single drop of blood falls from his chin. It hits the ground between his feet and sizzles like water on a frying pan.

The blood of Olympus waters the ancient stones.

The Acropolis groans and shifts as the Eartth Mother wakes.