the_blood_of_olympus_-_rick_riordan

their brass legs glinting. Hopefully the sunlight would make them sluggish if they had to fight.
Whenever she could, Piper slew isolated monsters. She walked past larger groups. Meanwhile the
crowd at the Parthenon grew larger. The chanting got louder. Piper couldn’t see what was happening
inside the ruins – just the heads of twenty or thirty giants standing in a circle, mumbling and swaying,
maybe doing the evil monster version of ‘Kumbayah’.
She disabled a third siege weapon by sawing through the torsion ropes, which should give the Argo
II a clear approach from the north.
She hoped Frank was watching her progress. She wondered how long it would take for the ship to
arrive.
Suddenly, the chanting stopped. A BOOM echoed across the hillside. In the Parthenon, the giants
roared in triumph. All around Piper, monsters surged towards the sound of celebration.
That couldn’t be good. Piper blended into a crowd of sour-smelling Earthborn. She bounded up the
main steps of the temple, then climbed a section of metal scaffolding so she could see above the heads
of the ogres and Cyclopes.
The scene in the ruins almost made her cry aloud.
Before Porphyrion’s throne, dozens of giants stood in a loose ring, hollering and shaking their
weapons as two of their number paraded around the circle, showing off their prizes. The princess
Periboia held Annabeth by the neck like a feral cat. The giant Enceladus had Percy wrapped in his
massive fist.
Annabeth and Percy both struggled helplessly. Their captors displayed them to the cheering horde
of monsters, then turned to face King Porphyrion, who sat in his makeshift throne, his white eyes
gleaming with malice.
‘Right on time!’ the giant king bellowed. ‘The blood of Olympus to raise the Earth Mother!’