Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
79
79
"You don't love me."
"I promise I . . . I do love you. Go to camp. I will see that you get a quest soon. Perhaps you
can defeat the Hydra, or steal the apples of Hesperides. You will get a chance to be a great hero
before . . ."
"Before what?" Luke's voice was trembling now. "What did my mom see that made her like
this? What's going to happen to me? If you love me, tell me."
Hermes's expression tightened. "I cannot."
"Then you don't care!" Luke yelled.
In the kitchen, the talking died abruptly.
"Luke?" May Castellan called. "Is that you? Is my boy all right?"
Luke turned to hide his face, but I could see the tears in his eyes. "I'm fine. I have a new
family. I don't need either of you."
"I'm your father," Hermes insisted.
"A father is supposed to be around. I've never even met you. Thalia, Annabeth, come on!
We're leaving!"
"My boy, don't go!" May Castellan called after him. "I have your lunch ready!"
Luke stormed out the door, Thalia and Annabeth scrambling after him. May Castellan tried to
follow, but Hermes held her back.
As the screen door slammed, May collapsed in Hermes's arms and began to shake. Her
eyes opened—glowing green—and she clutched desperately at Hermes's shoulders.
"My son," she hissed in a dry voice. "Danger. Terrible fate!"
"I know, my love," Hermes said sadly. "Believe me, I know."
The image faded. Prometheus pulled his hand away from my forehead.
"Percy?" Thalia asked. "What . . . what was that?"
I realized I was clammy with sweat.
Prometheus nodded sympathetically. "Appalling, isn't it? The gods know what is to come,
and yet they do nothing, even for their children. How long did it take for them to tell you your
prophecy, Percy Jackson? Don't you think your father knows what will happen to you?"
I was too stunned to answer.
"Perrrcy," Grover warned, "he's playing with your mind. Trying to make you angry."
Grover could read emotions, so he probably knew Prometheus was succeeding.
"Do you really blame your friend Luke?" the Titan asked me. "And what about you, Percy?
Will you be controlled by your fate? Kronos offers you a much better deal."
I clenched my fists. As much as I hated what Prometheus had shown me, I hated Kronos a
lot more. "I'll give you a deal. Tell Kronos to call off his attack, leave Luke Castellan's body, and
return to the pits of Tartarus. Then maybe I won't have to destroy him,"
The empousa snarled. Her hair erupted in fresh flames, but Prometheus just sighed.
"If you change your mind," he said, "I have a gift for you."
A Greek vase appeared on the table. It was about three feet high and a foot wide, glazed
with black-and-white geometric designs. The ceramic lid was fastened with a leather harness.
Grover whimpered when he saw it.
Thalia gasped. "That's not—"
"Yes," Prometheus said. "You recognize it."
Looking at the jar, I felt a strange sense of fear, but I had no idea why.
"This belonged to my sister-in-law," Prometheus explained. "Pandora."
A lump formed in my throat. "As in Pandora's box?"
Prometheus shook his head. "I don't know how this box business got started. It was never a
box. It was a pithos, a storage jar. I suppose Pandora's pithos doesn't have the same ring to it, but
never mind that. Yes, she did open this jar, which contained most of the demons that now haunt
mankind—fear, death, hunger, sickness."
"Don't forget me," the empousa purred.
"Indeed," Prometheus conceded. "The first empousa was also trapped in this jar, released
by Pandora. But what I find curious about the story—Pandora always gets the blame. She is
punished for being curious. The gods would have you believe that this is the lesson: mankind should