Rick Riordan The Last Olympian- 05
He shoved the baby into Chiron ' s arms and ran for the porch. Before he reached the door, the sunny afternoon was shattered by May Castellan ' s terrified scream.
I got up so fast I banged my head on somebody ' s shield. " Ow!" " Sorry, Percy." Annabeth was standing over me. " I was just about to wake you." I rubbed my head, trying to clear the disturbing visions. Suddenly a lot of things made sense to me: May Castellan had tried to become the Oracle. She hadn ' t known about Hades ' s curse preventing the spirit of Delphi from taking another host. Neither had Chiron or Hermes. They hadn ' t realized that by trying to take the job, May would be driven mad, plagued with fits in which her eyes would glow green and she would have shattered glimpses of her child ' s future. " Percy?" Annabeth asked. " What ' s wrong?" " Nothing," I lied. " What... what are you doing in armor? You should be resting." " Oh, I ' m fine," she said, though she still looked pale. She was barely moving her right arm.
" That nectar and ambrosia fixed me up." " Uh-huh. You can ' t seriously go out and fight." She offered me her good hand and helped me up. My head was pounding. Outside, the sky was purple and red. " You ' re going to need every person you have," she said. " I just looked in my shield. There ' s an army—" " Heading south into Central Park," I said. " Yeah, I know." I told her part of my dreams. I left out the vision of May Castellan, because it was too disturbing to talk about. I also left out Ethan ' s speculation about Luke fighting Kronos inside his body. I didn ' t want to get Annabeth ' s hopes up. " Do you think Ethan suspects about your weak spot?" she asked. " I don ' t know," I admitted. " He didn ' t tell Kronos anything, but if he figures it out—" " We can ' t let him." " I ' ll bonk him on the head harder next time," I suggested. " Any idea what surprise Kronos was talking about?" She shook her head. " I didn ' t see anything in the shield, but I don ' t like surprises." " Agreed." " So," she said, " are you going to argue about me coming along?" " Nah. You ' d just beat me up." She managed a laugh, which was good to hear. I grabbed my sword, and we went to rally the troops.
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Thalia and the head counselors were waiting for us at the Reservoir. The lights of the city were blinking on at twilight. I guess a lot of them were on automatic timers. Streetlamps glowed around the shore of the lake, making the water and trees look even spookier.
" They ' re coming," Thalia confirmed, pointing north with a silver arrow. " One of my scouts just reported they ' ve crossed the Harlem River. There was no way to hold them back. The army..." She shrugged. " It ' s huge." " We ' ll hold them at the park," I said. " Grover, you ready?" He nodded. " As ready as we ' ll ever be. If my nature spirits can stop them anywhere, this is the place." " Yes, we will!" said another voice. A very old, fat satyr pushed through the crowd, stumbling over his own spear. He was dressed in wood-bark armor that only covered half of his belly. " Leneus?" I said. " Don ' t act so surprised," he huffed. " I am a leader of the Council, and you did tell me to find
Grover. Well, I found him, and I ' m not going to let a mere outcast lead the satyrs without my help!" Behind Leneus ' s back, Grover made gagging motions, but the old satyr grinned like he was the savior of the day. " Never fear! We ' ll show those Titans!"
I didn ' t know whether to laugh or be angry, but I managed to keep a straight face. " Um... yeah. Well, Grover, you won ' t be alone. Annabeth and the Athena cabin will make their stand here. And me, and... Thalia?"