Ethereal

IX

After Percy had left, we pulled up outside the farm house and Eurytion dragged us out of the trolley before disarming us, tying us up and tossing us in a corner.

After a few moments, both Geryon and Eurytion had disappeared into the house. Annabeth whispered to me "Hey, Lia doesn't your ring return back to you whenever?"

"Yeah and my necklace," I responded. "But it's usually a lot quicker than this."

We quickly fell back into silence when Geryon came back out of the house, this time wearing a rather... spectacular apron.

The deck was quickly set up for a party. Streamers and balloons decorated the railing. Geryon started 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.

From the positioning of the sun, I guessed that roughly 30 minutes had passed before we saw Percy running up the steps to the house.

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

Geryon turned. 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 pretty impatient, but he told him about his encounter and deal with the Naiad.

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

"Let my friends go," Percy said. "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. Orthus growled. One head leaned down next to Grover's ear and bared its fangs.

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

Eurytion studied him. I didn't like his odds against him and that huge club.

"Kill him yourself," Eurytion said.

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 getting tired of dying for you. You want to fight the kid, do it yourself."

It was the most un-Areslike thing I'd ever heard a son of Ares say.

As he said this though, he reached into his pocket and placed our confiscated weapons on the table. My ring and necklace quickly return to me.

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 immediately stopped growling at Grover and came 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. Percy deflected one with his sword. The other impaled itself in the picnic table an inch from Eurytion's hand.

Percy went on the attack. Geryon parried his first strike with a pair of red-hot tongs and lunged at his face with a barbecue fork. Percy got inside his next thrust and stabbed him right through the middle chest.