The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

seventeen

PROTECTING CAMP

Percy was waiting for them. He looked mad.

He stood at the edge of the glacier, leaning on the staff with the golden eagle, gazing down at the wreckage he'd caused: several hundred acres of newly open water dotted with icebergs and flotsam from the ruined camp.

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

When they ran up to him, Percy said, "Hey." like they were just meeting for lunch or something.

"You're alive!" Frank marvelled.

Percy frowned. "The fall? That was nothing. I fell twice that far from the st Louis Arch with Ari."

Ariana groaned. "Still mad about that. You didn't even know I was a descendant of Poseidon back then!"

Percy shrugged; sticking his tongue out at her.

"You did what?" Hazel asked.

"Never mind. The important thing was I didn't drown."

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

Percy shrugged. He was still looking at Frank like he was miffed. "I got a bone to pick with you, Zhang. You can 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?"

Frank shuffled his 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."

"Hey!" Ariana complained. "Neither can i."

Frank stared at them. "Unfair? You two can breathe underwater and blow up glaciers and summon freaking  hurricanes - and it's unfair that I can be an elephant? Ariana you literally have like the demigod powes of three gods at your disposal."

Ariana shrugged. "Okay but shape shifting is very cool."

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

"Just shut up." Frank 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."

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

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

Hazel used her abilities to levitate some items from the bottom of the sea. Percy swam down and brought up more. Even Frank helped by turning into a seal, which was kind of cool, though Percy claimed his breath smelled like fish.

It took all four of them to raise the chariot, but finally they'd managed to haul everything ashore to a black sand beach near the base of the glacier.

They couldn't fit everything in the chariot, but they used Frank's rope to strap down most of the gold weapons and the best pieces of armour.

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