The Son of Neptune (24 page)

Frank turned the piece of tinder in his fingers. Even in his ghostly purple form, he looked so big and sturdy. Hazel figured he would be huge when he was an adult—as strong and healthy as an ox. She couldn’t believe his life depended on something as small as a stick.

“Frank, how can you carry it around with you?” she asked. “Aren’t you terrified something will happen to it?”

“That’s why I’m telling you.” He held out the firewood. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but would you keep it for me?”

Hazel’s head spun. Until now, she’d accepted Frank’s presence in her blackout. She’d led him along, numbly replaying her past, because it seemed only fair to show him the truth.

But now she wondered if Frank was really experiencing this with her, or if she was just imagining his presence. Why would he trust her with his life?

“Frank,” she said, “you
know
who I am. I’m Pluto’s daughter. Everything I touch goes wrong. Why would you trust me?”

“You’re my best friend.” He placed the firewood in her hands. “I trust you more than anybody.”

She wanted to tell him he was making a mistake. She wanted to give it back. But before she could say anything, a shadow fell over them.

“Our ride is here,” Frank guessed.

Hazel had almost forgotten she was reliving her past. Nicodi Angelo stood over her in his black overcoat, his Stygian iron sword at his side. He didn’t notice Frank, but he locked eyes with Hazel and seemed to read her whole life.

“You’re different,” he said. “A child of Pluto. You remember your past.”

“Yes,” Hazel said. “And you’re alive.”

Nico studied her like he was reading a menu, deciding whether or not to order.

“I’m Nico di Angelo,” he said. “I came looking for my sister. Death has gone missing, so I thought…I thought I could bring her back and no one would notice.”

“Back to life?” Hazel asked. “Is that possible?”

“It should have been.” Nico sighed. “But she’s gone. She chose to be reborn into a new life. I’m too late.”

“I’m sorry.”

He held out his hand. “You’re my sister too. You deserve another chance. Come with me.”

“H
AZEL.”
P
ERCY WAS SHAKING HER SHOULDER
.
“Wake up. We’ve reached Seattle.”

She sat up groggily, squinting in the morning sunlight. “Frank?”

Frank groaned, rubbing his eyes. “Did we just…was I just—?”

“You both passed out,” Percy said. “I don’t know why, but Ella told me not to worry about it. She said you were…sharing?”

“Sharing,” Ella agreed. She crouched in the stern, preening her wing feathers with her teeth, which didn’t look like a very effective form of personal hygiene. She spit out some red fluff. “Sharing is good. No more blackouts. Biggest American blackout, August 14, 2003. Hazel shared. No more blackouts.” Percy scratched his head. “Yeah…we’ve been having conversations like that all night. I still don’t know what she’stalking about.”

Hazel pressed her hand against her coat pocket. She could feel the piece of firewood, wrapped in cloth.

She looked at Frank. “You
were
there.”

He nodded. He didn’t say anything, but his expression was clear: He’d meant what he said. He wanted her to keep the piece of tinder safe. She wasn’t sure whether she felt honored or scared. No one had ever trusted her with something so important.

“Wait,” Percy said. “You mean you guys
shared
a blackout? Are you guys both going to pass out from now on?”

“Nope,” Ella said. “Nope, nope, nope. No more blackouts. More books for Ella. Books in Seattle.”

Hazel gazed over the water. They were sailing through a large bay, making their way toward a cluster of downtown buildings. Neighborhoods rolled across a series of hills. From the tallest one rose an odd white tower with a saucer on the top, like a spaceship from the old Flash Gordon movies Sammy used to love.

No more blackouts? Hazel thought. After enduring them for so long, the idea seemed too good to be true.

How could Ella be sure they were gone? Yet Hazel
did
feel different . .. more grounded
,
as if she wasn’t trying to live in two time periods anymore. Every muscle in her body began to relax. She felt as if she’d finally slipped out of a lead jacket she’d been wearing for months. Somehow, having Frank with her during the blackout had helped. She’d relived her entire past, right through to the present. No wall she had to worry about was the future—assuming she
had
one.

Percy steered the boat toward the downtown docks. As they got closer, Ella scratched nervously at her nest of books.

Hazel started to feel edgy, too. She wasn’t sure why. It was a bright, sunny day, and Seattle looked like a beautiful place, with inlets and bridges, wooded islands dotting the bay, and snowcapped mountains rising in the distance. Still, she felt as if she were being watched.

“Um…why are we stopping here?” she asked.

Percy showed them the silver ring on his necklace. “Reyna has a sister here. She asked me to find her and show her this.”

“Reyna has a
sister
?” Frank asked, like the idea terrified him.

Percy nodded. “Apparently Reyna thinks her sister could send help for the camp.”

“Amazons,” Ella muttered. “Amazon country. Hmm. Ella will find libraries instead. Doesn’t like Amazons. Fierce. Shields. Swords. Pointy. Ouch.”

Frank reached for his spear. “Amazons? Like…female warriors?”

“That would make sense,” Hazel said. “If Reyna’s sister is also a daughter of Bellona, I can see why she’d join the Amazons. But…is it safe for us to be here?”

“Nope, nope, nope,” Ella said. “Get books instead. No Amazons.”

“We have to try,” Percy said. “I promised Reyna. Besides, the
Pax
isn’t doing too great. I’ve been pushing it pretty hard.”

Hazel looked down at her feet. Water was leaking between the floorboards. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Percy agreed. “We’ll either need to fix it or find a new boat. I’m pretty much holding it together with my willpower at this point. Ella, do you have any idea where we can find the Amazons?”

“And, um,” Frank said nervously, “they don’t, like, kill men on sight, do they?”

Ella glanced at the downtown docks, only a few hundred yards away. “Ella will find friends later. Ella will fly away now.”

And she did.

“Well…” Frank picked a single red feather out of the air. “That’s encouraging.”

They docked at the wharf. They barely had time to unload their supplies before the
Pax
shuddered and broke into pieces. Most of it sank, leaving only a board with a painted eye and another with the letter
P
bobbing in the waves.

“Guess we’re not fixing it,” Hazel said. “What now?”

Percy stared at the steep hills of downtown Seattle. “We hope the Amazons will help.”

They explored for hours. They found some great salty caramel chocolate at a candy store. They bought some coffee so strong, Hazel’s head felt like a vibrating gong. They stopped at a sidewalk café and had some excellent grilled salmon sandwiches.

Once they saw Ella zooming between high-rise towers, a large book clutched in each foot. But they found no Amazons. All the while, Hazel was aware of the time ticking by. June 22 now, and Alaska was still a long way away.

Finally they wandered south of downtown, into a plaza surrounded by smaller glass and brick buildings. Hazel’s nerves started tingling. She looked around, sure she was being watched.

“There,” she said.

The office building on their left had a single word etched on the glass doors:
AMAZON
.

“Oh,” Frank said. “Uh, no, Hazel. That’s a modern thing. They’re a company, right? They sell stuff on the Internet. They’re not actually Amazons.”

“Unless…” Percy walked through the doors. Hazel had a bad feeling about this place, but she and Frank followed.

The lobby was like an empty fish tank—glass walls, a glossy black floor, a few token plants, and pretty much nothing else. Against the back wall, a black stone staircase led up and down. In the middle of the room stood a young woman in a black pantsuit, with long auburn hair and a security guard’s earpiece. Her name tag said kinzie
.
Her smile was friendly enough, but her eyes reminded Hazel of the policemen in New Orleans who used to patrol the French Quarter at night. They always seemed to look
through
you, as if they were thinking about who might attack them next.

Kinzie nodded at Hazel, ignoring the boys. “May I help you?”

“Um…I hope so,” Hazel said. “We’re looking for Amazons.”

Kinzie glanced at Hazel’s sword, then Frank’s spear, though neither should have been visible through the Mist.

“This is the main campus for Amazon,” she said cautiously. “Did you have an appointment with someone, or—”

“Hylla,” Percy interrupted. “We’re looking for a girl named—”

Kinzie moved so fast, Hazel’s eyes almost couldn’t follow. She kicked Frank in the chest and sent him flying backward across the lobby. She pulled a sword out of thin air, swept Percy off his feet with the flat of the blade, and pressed the point under his chin.

Too late, Hazel reached for her sword. A dozen more girls in black flooded up the staircase, swords in hand, and surrounded her.

Kinzie glared down at Percy. “First rule: Males don’t speak without permission. Second rule, trespassing on our territory is punishable by death. You’ll meet Queen Hylla, all right. She’ll be the one deciding your fate.”

The Amazons confiscated the trio’s weapons and marchedthem down so many flights of stairs, Hazel lost count.

Finally they emerged in a cavern so big it could have accommodated ten high schools, sports fields and all. Stark fluorescent lights glowed along the rock ceiling. Conveyor belts wound through the room like water slides, carrying boxes in every direction. Aisles of metal shelves stretched out forever, stacked high with crates of merchandise. Cranes hummed and robotic arms whirred, folding cardboard boxes, packing shipments, and taking things on and off the belts. Some of the shelves were so tall they were only accessible by ladders and catwalks, which ran across the ceiling like theaters scaffolding.

Hazel remembered newsreels she’d seen as a child. She’d always been impressed by the scenes of factories building planes and guns for the war effort—hundreds and hundreds of weapons coming off the line every day. But that was nothing compared to
this
, and almost all the work was being done by computers and robots. The only humans Hazel could see were some black-suited security women patrolling the catwalks, and some men in orange jumpsuits, like prison uniforms, driving forklifts through the aisles, delivering more pallets of boxes. The men wore iron collars around their necks.

“You keep
slaves
?” Hazel knew it might be dangerous to speak, but she was so outraged she couldn’t stop herself.

“The men?” Kinzie snorted. “They’re not slaves. They just know their place. Now, move.”

They walked so far, Hazel’s feet began to hurt. She thought they must surely be getting to the end of the warehouse when Kinzie opened a large set of double doors and led them into another cavern, just as big as the first.

“The
Underworld
isn’t this big,” Hazel complained, which probably wasn’t true, but it felt that way to her feet.

Kinzie smiled smugly. “You admire our base of operations?Yes, our distribution system is worldwide. It took many years and most of our fortune to build. Now, finally, we’re turning a profit. The mortals don’t realize they are funding the Amazon kingdom. Soon, we’ll be richer than any mortal nation. Then—when the weak mortals depend on us for everything—the revolution will begin!”

“What are you going to do?” Frank grumbled. “Cancel free shipping?”

A guard slammed the hilt of her sword into his gut. Percy tried to help him, but two more guards pushed him back at sword point.

“You’ll learn respect,” Kinzie said. “It’s males like you who have ruined the mortal world. The only harmonious society is one run by women. We are stronger, wiser—”

“More humble,” Percy said. The guards tried to hit him, but Percy ducked. “Stop it!” Hazel said. Surprisingly, the guards listened. “Hylla is going to judge us, right?” Hazel asked. “So take us to her. We’re wasting time.” Kinzie nodded. “Perhaps you’re right. We have more important problems. And time…time is definitely an issue.”“What do you mean?” Hazel asked. A guard grunted. “We could take them straight to Otrera.

Might win her favor that way.”“No!” Kinzie snarled. “I’d sooner wear an iron collar and drive a forklift. Hylla is queen.”“Until tonight,” another guard muttered. Kinzie gripped her sword. For a second Hazel thought the

Amazons might start fighting one another, but Kinzie seemed to get her anger under control. “Enough,” she said. “Let’s go.” They crossed a lane of forklift traffic, navigated a maze of conveyor belts, and ducked under a row of robotic arms that were packing up boxes.

Most of the merchandise looked pretty ordinary: books, electronics, baby diapers. But against one wall sat a war chariot with a big bar code on the side. Hanging from the yoke was a sign that read:
ONLY ONE LEFT IN STOCK. ORDER SOON! (MORE ON THE WAY)

Finally they entered a smaller cavern that looked like a combination loading zone and throne room. The walls were lined with metal shelves six stories high, decorated with war banners, painted shields, and the stuffed heads of dragons, hydras, giant lions, and wild boars. Standing guard along either side were dozens of forklifts modified for war. An iron-collared male drove each machine, but an Amazon warrior stood on a platform in back, manning a giant mounted crossbow. The prongs of each forklift had been sharpened into oversized sword blades.

The shelves in this room were stacked with cages containing live animals. Hazel couldn’t believe what she was seeing—black mastiffs, giant eagles, a lion-eagle hybrid that must’ve been a gryphon, and a red ant the size of a compact car.

She watched in horror as a forklift zipped into the room, picked up a cage with a beautiful white pegasus, and sped away while the horse whinnied in protest.

“What are you doing to that poor animal?” Hazel demanded.

Kinzie frowned. “The pegasus? It’ll be fine. Someone must’ve ordered it. The shipping and handling charges are steep, but—”

“You can
buy
a pegasus online?” Percy asked.

Kinzie glared at him. “Obviously
you
can’t, male. But Amazons can. We have followers all over the world. They need supplies. This way.”

At the end of the warehouse was a dais constructed from pallets of books: stacks of vampire novels, walls of James Patterson thrillers, and a throne made from about a thousand copies of something called
The Five Habits of Highly Aggressive Women.

At the base of the steps, several Amazons in camouflage were having a heated argument while a young woman—Queen Hylla, Hazel assumed—watched and listened from her throne.

Hylla was in her twenties, lithe and lean as a tiger. She wore a black leather jumpsuit and black boots. She had no crown, but around her waist was a strange belt made of interlocking gold links, like the pattern of a labyrinth. Hazel couldn’t believe how much she looked like Reyna—a little older, perhaps, but with the same long black hair, the same dark eyes, and the same hard expression, like she was trying to decide which of the Amazons before her most deserved death.