Children of the underworld

chapter 4

"Her name was Hazel Levesque," said Anubis. "She was a beautiful girl, dark skinned with eyes like molten gold, and wavy hair of a million different earth tones. She surpassed even Nefertiti in beauty –"

"Who?" asked Percy.

"Nefertiti," Anubis told him. "The greatest beauty of Ancient Egypt."

"Think Helen of Troy, but Egyptian," Carter told him.

"Oh. Ok."

"She was a daughter of Pluto, born to a human woman, a voodoo practicer. The woman was trite and not particularly powerful, little more than a fortune teller to be honest. And she cursed her daughter at her birth, by asking for all the riches of the Underworld," continued Anubis. He must not have seen the glare Sadie was leveling at him, or Percy didn't think he'd be carrying on so calmly. "As Hazel grew, and came into her powers, riches began to be drawn toward her, out of the earth. Some stones and metals were raw, unshaped by human hands. Others were the buried treasures of humans. And still others were from her father's hoards of treasure. All held one thing in common. They cursed anyone who touched them other than Hazel or her mother.

"Freak accidents and deaths plagued any who bought them. Rumors began to spread rampantly about the two. Hazel grew into a beautiful but sad young woman. Her mother grew into a bitter wretch."

"How do you know all this?" demanded Sadie.

Anubis looked a bit surprised at her tone. "I just do."

"No, you just don't know something like this. Did you hear it from one of your death god friends or something?" asked Sadie. "Or did you learn it first hand from watching her?"

Anubis was silent for a second. "From watching her, I suppose."

"No, that's not at all stalkerish."

"Sadie," said Carter.

"Shut up," she told him.

Percy fought the urge to face palm. "Go on, Anubis. What happened?" he asked before this could escalate. When he got the chance, he'd have to let Anubis know in private that it was a bad idea to talk about another girl being pretty in front of your girlfriend.

"Hazel's mother succumbed to evil forces," said Anubis. "With the war in Europe winding to a close, and your last Great Prophecy suggesting that the gods were due to fall, other powers from your mythology, older and darker than any you've already faced, began stirring, preparing, and setting their own plans in motion."

"What are you talking about?" asked Annabeth. She and Percy shared a worried look.

"You say there's stuff in Greek mythology worse than Kronos?" asked Percy.

"What's worse than a monster?" asked Anubis cryptically in return.

Percy scowled. "I don't know."

"A monster's mother," whispered Annabeth, her eyes wide.

"Huh?" asked Percy.

Anubis was nodding. "Gaea was trying to put some pieces on the game board. She summoned Hazel and her mother to Alaska, the land beyond the gods, where they forced Hazel to use her powers to pull riches from the earth, that they used to build a body of precious metals and jewels, so that they could resurrect Alcyoneus."

"And he is?" prompted Percy.

"One of the giants Gaea created after the gods overthrew Kronos the first time," said Annabeth. "Gaea is Kronos's mother."

"Oh. Well that's . . . not good?"

"She sounds like a tool," said Sadie.

"Gaea is a very dangerous goddess," warned Anubis.