The Second Jackson- Piper McLean book 1

Surprise I'm Not Dead (Neither are the twins)

Frank

Percy and Lani were waiting for us. They looked mad.

They stood at the edge of the glacier, Percy leaning on the staff with the golden eagle, Lani with her arms crossed over her chest, both gazing down at the wreckage they'd caused: several hundred acres of newly open water dotted with icebergs and flotsam from the ruined camp.

The only remains of the glacier were the main gates, which listed sideways, and a tattered blue banner lying over a pile of snow-bricks.

When we ran up to them, Lani said, "Hey" like we were meeting for lunch or something.

"You're alive!" I marveled.

Percy frowned. "The fall? That was nothing. We fell twice that far from the St. Louis Arch."

"You did what?" Hazel asked.

"Never mind. The important thing was I didn't drown" Percy said, glancing at his sister before turning back to me.

"So the prophecy was incomplete!" Hazel grinned. "It was probably something like: The son of Neptune will drown a whole bunch of ghosts"

Percy shrugged. He was still looking at me like he was miffed. "I got a bone to pick with you, Zhang. You turn into an eagle? And a bear?"

"And an elephant" Hazel said proudly.

"An elephant" Percy shook his head in disbelief. "That's your family gift? You can change shape?"

I shuffled my feet. "Um... yeah. Periclymenus, my ancestor, the Argonaut- he could do that. He passed down the ability."

"And he got that gift from Poseidon" Percy said. "That's completely unfair. I can't turn into animals."

I stared at him. "Unfair? You can breathe underwater and blow-up glaciers and summon freaking hurricanes- and it's unfair that I can be an elephant?"

Percy considered. "Okay. I guess you got a point. But next time I say you're totally beast-"

"Just shut up," I said. "Please"

Percy cracked a smile.

"If you guys are done," Hazel said, "we need to go. Camp Jupiter is under attack. They could use that gold eagle"

Lani nodded. "One thing first, though. Hazel, there's about a ton of Imperial gold weapons and armor at the bottom of the bay now, plus a really nice chariot. I'm betting that stuff could come in handy..."

It took us a long time- too long- but we all knew those weapons could make the difference between victory and defeat if we got them back to camp in time.

Hazel used her abilities to levitate some items from the bottom of the sea. Percy and Lani swam down and brought up some more. Even I helped by turning into a seal, though Lani claimed my breath smelled like fish.

It took all three of us in the water to raise the chariot, but finally we'd managed to haul it ashore to a black sand beach near the base of the glacier. We couldn't fit everything in the chariot, but we used my rope to strap down most of the gold weapons and the best pieces of armor.

"It looks like Santa's sleigh," I said. "Can Arion even pull that much?"

Arion huffed.

"Hazel" Percy said. "I am seriously going to wash your horse's mouth out with soap. He says yes, he can pull it, but he needs food."

Hazel picked up an old Roman dagger, a pugio. It was bent and dull, so it wouldn't be much good in a fight, but it looked like solid Imperial gold.

"Here you go Arion," she said. "High-performance fuel."

The horse took the dagger in his teeth and chewed it like an apple. I made a silent oath never to put my hand near that horse's mouth.

"I'm not doubting Arion's strength" I said carefully, "but will the chariot hold up? The last one-"

"This one has Imperial gold wheels and axel," Lani said. "It should hold"

"If not," Hazel said, "this is going to be a short trip. But we're out of time. Come on!"

Percy, Lani, and I climbed into the chariot. Hazel swung up onto Arion's back.

"Giddyup!" She yelled.

The horse's sonic boom echoed across the bay. We sped south, avalanches tumbling down the mountains as we passed.