the_blood_of_olympus_-_rick_riordan

xliii
Piper
PIPER WATCHED IN HORROR as the giant king rose to his full height – almost as tall as the temple
columns. His face looked just as Piper remembered – green as bile, with a twisted sneer, his
seaweed-coloured hair braided with swords and axes taken from dead demigods.
He loomed over the captives, watching them wriggle. ‘They arrived just as you foresaw,
Enceladus! Well done!’
Piper’s old enemy bowed his head, braided bones clattering in his dreadlocks. ‘It was simple, my
king.’
The flame designs gleamed on his armour. His spear burned with purplish fire. He only needed one
hand to hold his captive. Despite all of Percy Jackson’s power, despite everything he had survived, in
the end he was helpless against the sheer strength of the giant – and the inevitability of the prophecy.
‘I knew these two would lead the assault,’ Enceladus continued. ‘I understand how they think.
Athena and Poseidon … they were just like these children! They both came here thinking to claim this
city. Their arrogance has undone them!’
Over the roar of the crowd, Piper could barely hear herself think, but she replayed Enceladus’s
words: these two would lead the assault. Her heart raced.
The giants had expected Percy and Annabeth. They didn’t expect her.
For once, being Piper McLean, the daughter of Aphrodite, the one nobody took seriously, might
play to her advantage.
Annabeth tried to say something, but the giantess Periboia shook her by the neck. ‘Shut up! None of
your silver-tongued trickery!’
The princess drew a hunting knife as long as Piper’s sword. ‘Let me do the honours, Father!’
‘Wait, Daughter.’ The king stepped back. ‘The sacrifice must be done properly. Thoon, destroyer
of the Fates, come forward!’
The wizened grey giant shuffled into sight, holding an oversized meat cleaver. He fixed his milky
eyes on Annabeth.
Percy shouted. At the other end of the Acropolis, a hundred yards away, a geyser of water shot into
the sky.
King Porphyrion laughed. ‘You’ll have to do better than that, son of Poseidon. The earth is too
powerful here. Even your father wouldn’t be able to summon more than a salty spring. But never fear.
The only liquid we require from you is your blood!’
Piper scanned the sky desperately. Where was the Argo II?
Thoon knelt and touched the blade of his cleaver reverently against the earth.