tartarus and back ⇩

30. Oh, goody! We meet the Big Boss.

I thought I had seen some awful things. I helped defeat Medusa, I battled Echidna, I faced Kronos straight after falling into Tartarus, I survived for five years on my own fighting countless monsters while I was going insane, I faced the arai with only my dog, I talked to Misery herself, and ran through the house of night. Nothing compared to the sight ahead of me.

Spread to the horizon was an army of monsters – flocks of winged arai, tribes of lumbering Cyclopes, clusters of floating evil spirits. Thousands of baddies, maybe tens of thousands, all milling restlessly, pressing against one another, growling and fighting for space – like the locker area of an overcrowded school between classes, if all the students were 'roid-raging mutants who smelled really bad.

Bob led them towards the edge of the army. He made no effort to hide, not that it would have done any good. Being ten feet tall and glowing silver, Bob didn't do stealth very well.

That was when I noticed Lucy wasn't with us. "Bob, where's Lucy?"

"Oh, she went ahead of me. She will be with the monsters."

About thirty yards from the nearest monsters, Bob turned to face Percy.

"Stay quiet and stay behind me," he advised. "They will not notice you."

"We hope," Percy muttered.

On the Titan's shoulder, Small Bob woke up from a nap. He purred seismically and arched his back, turning skeletal then back to calico. At least he didn't seem nervous.

Annabeth examined her own zombie hands. "Bob, if we're invisible ... how can you see us? I mean, you're technically, you know ..."

"Yes,"' Bob said. "But we are friends."

"Nyx and her children could see us," Annabeth said.

Bob shrugged. "That was in Nyx's realm. That is different."

"Uh ... right." Annabeth didn't sound reassured, but we were here now. There was no other choice but to try.

Percy stared at the swarm of vicious monsters. "Well, at least we won't have to worry about bumping into any other friends in this crowd."

Bob grinned. "Yes, that is good news! Now, let's go. Death is close."

If I didn't look so ghostly now, my face would have paled.

"The Doors of Death are close," Annabeth corrected. "Let's watch the phrasing."

They plunged into the crowd. I could tell even Percy and Annabeth, who had faced troubles worse than mine, were scared, so it made me less ashamed to be terrified.

A few feet away, a group of empousai tore into the carcass of a gryphon while other gryphons flew around them, squawking in outrage. A six-armed Earthborn and a Laistrygonian giant pummelled each other with rocks. A dark wisp of smoke seeped into a Cyclops, made the monster hit himself in the face, then drifted off to possess another victim.

Annabeth whispered, "Guys, look."

A stone's throw away, a guy in a cowboy outfit was cracking a whip at some fire-breathing horses. The wrangler wore a Stetson hat on his greasy hair, an extra-large set of jeans and a pair of black leather boots. From the side, he might have passed for human – until he turned, and you saw that his upper body was split into three different chests, each one dressed in a different colour Western shirt.

"Who's that?" I whispered.

"An old enemy." Percy responded.

After everything, it was hard to believe I would be leaving Tartarus. I would feel the earth beneath my feet, the ocean rushing past my legs, the sun beating down on my shoulders. I would get to spend time getting to know my grown up friends. I could even visit my mother's grave, because she could possibly be dead, all because of me.