NEVER BE THE SAME . . . percy jackson

nine: the messenger.

"HELLO, PERCY." HERMES'S brow furrowed as though he was annoyed.

Percy bowed awkwardly, which nearly made Brooklyn laugh at him. "Lord Hermes."

"Hello, George," he then said. "Hey, Martha."

After probably having a mental conversation with snakes, Percy stammered, "um, Hermes. We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."

Hermes's eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"

Behind Brooklyn, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This probably wasn't going as planned. She didn't think so, at least.

"You guys," Percy said. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus. Meet Brooks, Annabeth, and me back here in thirty minutes."

Silena frowned. "But—"

"That's a good idea," Annabeth said. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."

The Stolls seemed to like that — getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids. "We're on it!" Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Percy, Annabeth, and Brooklyn with Hermes.

"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."

"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come back herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."

"But it's a fucking trap!" Brooklyn insisted. "Is Father blind? Even I can see that."

Thunder rolled through the sky. Oh, so now he was listening?

"I'd watch the comments, sister," Hermes warned. "Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."

"Do you not see those blue lights?"

"Yes, yes. I see them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I'd wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage. Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."

Percy raised his hand. "Um . . . what about that materializing / teleporting thing you guys do?"

"That's a form of air travel too, Jackson. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"

Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous — hordes of monsters going up in the elevator twenty at a time, listening to "Stayin' Alive." Still, Brooklyn's daughter of Zeus instincts didn't like it. Every other instinct could care less.

"Maybe just a few of you could come back," Percy suggested.

Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Percy Jackson, you don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy."

"I thought that was Kronos."

The god's eyes glowed. "No, Percy. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is husband of Echidna—"