‘Permission to come aboard.’ His rasping voice made Piper think of a straight razor being wiped across a strop – like in her grandfather’s barbershop back in Oklahoma.
‘Who are you?’ she asked.
He fixed his dark eyes on her. ‘I am Kekrops, the first and eternal king of Athens. I would welcome you to my city.’ He held up the covered platter. ‘Also, I brought a Bundt cake.’
Piper glanced at her friends. ‘A trick?’
‘Probably,’ Annabeth said.
‘At least he brought dessert.’ Percy smiled down at the snake guys. ‘Welcome aboard!’
Kekrops agreed to leave his guards above deck with Buford the table, who ordered them to drop and give him twenty push-ups. The guards seemed to take this as a challenge.
Meanwhile, the king of Athens was invited to the mess hall for a ‘get to know you’ meeting.
‘Please take a seat,’ Jason offered.
Kekrops wrinkled his nose. ‘Snake people do not sit.’
‘Please remain standing,’ Leo said. He cut the cake and stuffed a piece in his mouth before Piper could warn him it might be poisoned, or inedible for mortals, or just plain bad.
‘Dang!’ He grinned. ‘Snake people know how to make Bundt cake. Kind of orangey, with a hint of honey. Needs a glass of milk.’
‘Snake people do not drink milk,’ Kekrops said. ‘We are lactose-intolerant reptiles.’
‘Me, too!’ Frank said. ‘I mean … lactose intolerant. Not a reptile. Though I can be a reptile sometimes –’
‘Anyway,’ Hazel interrupted, ‘King Kekrops, what brings you here? How did you know we’d arrived?’
‘I know everything that happens in Athens,’ Kekrops said. ‘I was the city’s founder, its first king, born of the earth. I am the one who judged the dispute between Athena and Poseidon, and chose Athena to be the patron of the city.’
‘No hard feelings, though,’ Percy muttered.
Annabeth elbowed him. ‘I’ve heard of you, Kekrops. You were the first to offer sacrifices to Athena. You built her first shrine on the Acropolis.’
‘Correct.’ Kekrops sounded bitter, like he regretted his decision. ‘My people were the original Athenians – the gemini.’
‘Like your zodiac sign?’ Percy asked. ‘I’m a Leo.’
‘No, stupid,’ Leo said. ‘I’m a Leo. You’re a Percy.’
‘Will you two stop it?’ Hazel chided. ‘I think he means gemini like doubled – half man, half snake. That’s what his people are called. He’s a geminus, singular.’
‘Yes …’ Kekrops leaned away from Hazel as if she somehow offended him. ‘Millennia ago, we were driven underground by the two-legged humans, but I know the ways of the city better than any. I came to warn you. If you try to approach the Acropolis aboveground, you will be destroyed.’
Jason stopped nibbling his cake. ‘You mean … by you?’
‘By Porphyrion’s armies,’ said the snake king. ‘The Acropolis is ringed with great siege weapons – onagers.’
‘More onagers?’ Frank protested. ‘Did they have a sale on them or something?’
‘The Cyclopes,’ Hazel guessed. ‘They’re supplying both Octavian and the giants.’
Percy grunted. ‘Like we needed more proof that Octavian is on the wrong side.’
‘That is not the only threat,’ Kekrops warned. ‘The air is filled with storm spirits and gryphons. All roads to the Acropolis are patrolled by the Earthborn.’
Frank drummed his fingers on the Bundt cake cover. ‘So, what, we should just give up? We’ve come too far for that.’
‘I offer you an alternative,’ said Kekrops. ‘Underground passage to the Acropolis. For the sake of Athena, for the sake of the gods, I will help you.’
The back of Piper’s neck tingled. She remembered what the giantess Periboia had said in her dream: that the demigods would find friends in Athens as well as enemies. Perhaps the giantess had meant Kekrops and his snake people. But there was something in Kekrops’s voice that Piper didn’t like – that razor-against-strop tone, as if he were preparing to make a sharp cut.
‘What’s the catch?’ she asked.
Kekrops turned those inscrutable dark eyes on her. ‘Only a small party of demigods – no more than three – could pass undetected by the giants. Otherwise your scent would give you away. But our underground passages could lead you straight into the ruins of the Acropolis. Once there, you could disable the siege weapons by stealth and allow the rest of your crew to approach. With luck, you could take the giants by surprise. You might be able to disrupt their ceremony.’