Eye of Hecate

Ozzy

Time seems to slow down, which is really frustrating, since I can't move. I feel myself sinking into the earth like the ground is a waterbed—comfortable, urging me to relax and give up. I wonder if the stories of the Land of the Dead are true. Will my heart weigh less than the feather of truth? Or will Ammit the Devourer eat my heart?

I can't feel my arms. I can see the tip of the spear coming toward my chest in slow motion. I know I should move, but I can't seem to do it. Funny. All that effort to stay alive, and then, boom. You just lie there helplessly while a fire-breathing giant impales you.

Leo's voice yells, "Heads up!"

A large black metal wedge slams into Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant topples over and slides into the pit.

"Jason, Ozzy, get up!" Piper calls.

Her voice has no power over me, but Leo's does. "Ozzy! Are you okay?"

I sit up, my chest and back aching. About a hundred feet away, Leo is standing over a piece of construction equipment—a long cannonlike thing with a single massive piston, the edge broken clean off. My heart does a tap-dance in my chest. He just saved my life. Again. And he looks so heroic.

Then I look down in the crater and see where the other end of the hydraulic ax went. Enceladus is struggling to rise, an ax blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate.

Amazingly, the giant manages to pull the ax blade free. He yells in pain and the mountain trembles. Golden ichor soaks the front of his armor, but Enceladus stands.

Shakily, he bends down and retrieves his spear.

"Good try." The giant winces. "But I cannot be beaten."

As we watch, the giant's armor mends itself, and the ichor stops flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Jason and I worked so hard to make, are now just pale scars.

Leo runs up to us, sees the giant, and curses. "What is it with this guy? Die, already!"

"My fate is preordained," Enceladus says. "Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes."

"Only by both," I say. The giant's smile falters, and I see in his eyes something like fear.

"It's true, isn't it?" Jason steps forward. "Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you."

"You will not live long enough to try!" The giant starts stumbling up the crater's slope, slipping on the glassy sides.

"Anyone have a god handy?" Leo asks.

Jason looks at the giant below us, struggling to get out of the pit.

"Leo," he says, "if you've got a rope in that tool belt, get it ready." He turns to me. "You said you're good at elemental magic, yeah?"

I gulp. "What are you thinking?"

"Once I blast him, take care of what's left of him."

"What—"

He leaps at the giant with no weapon but his bare hands.

"Enceladus!" Piper yells. "Look behind you!"

It's an obvious trick, but her voice is so compelling. The giant says, "What?" and turns like there's an enormous spider on his back.

Jason tackles his legs at just the right moment. The giant loses his balance. Enceladus slams into the crater and slides to the bottom. While he tries to rise, Jason puts his arms around the giant's neck. When Enceladus struggles to his feet, Jason is riding his shoulders.