章節 9: They Fight the Furies
Finally, the bus came and Albert held his breath. They stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled something particularly iffy.
"What is it?" Percy asked, noticing the strange behavior.
"I don't know," Grover replied tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."
Albert could tell it wasn't anything. He wasn't the only one by any means. Percy started looking over his shoulder too, like his demigod spider-sense was tingling. He couldn't really see Annabeth's face, but she had better instincts than then all of the put together.
The relief on their faces as they finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus was clear as day. They stowed their backpacks, and Grover and Percy were sitting together in the seat behind while Annabeth and Albert were sitting next to each other, an odd arrangement for them, but they didn't make any comments.
Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh and Albert was getting increasingly anxious by the constant noise of that.
"You can feel it too, can't you?"
"What?" As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto his knee.
"Something is wrong..." He quietly said so the boys wouldn't hear. "It had been a suspiciously peaceful so far, but... I can tell if we have company. The bad kind. Be alert. Ready your weapon and by the Gods, if the opportunity arises, let me do the talking."
Just as he finished his words and Annabeth gave him an affirmative nod, an old and suspicious lady boarded the bus. The old lady wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face and added to her mysterious aura, and she carried a big paisley purse. An illusion, Albert immediately thought. This was a product of the Mist, hiding her even from the unsuspecting eyes of demigods.
Chiron had explained to him in one of their afternoons together before, in a pause in his training. A time he enjoyed and basically got schooled in demigod lore by the centaur. He had told him that this was why monsters were so dangerous to demigods. They hid well. The most important factor for the survival of young and inexperienced demigods on their quests is to locate the danger before the danger finds them first.
When the old woman tilted her head up, her eyes changed. The normal human eyes blinked like that of a bird and in a second it turned pitch-glittering black. He felt his heart racing and his hands turning cold.
"Mrs. Dodds?" He heard Percy ask in shock almost to himself as if he truly couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Older, more withered, and with an evil face. She was dangerous, really dangerous. A Fury, just like he predicted, and now he almost regretted not staying behind at Camp. Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise, they looked exactly like the first one, Mrs. Dodds, Percy referred to her. She was his mean teacher and her sisters were with her this time. The triplet monster hags. The Furies.
The menacing black-eyed ladies sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was a casual gesture and it was enough, it sent a clear message to them: nobody leaves.
Albert calmed his anxious heart, one mistake and things might change for worse. If I look back I am lost, he repeated over and over and over in his mind. It was the simple mantra of sorts that one of his favorite characters, Daenerys Targaryen, uses to calm her own heart in times when she must be focused and not stay tied to the past. He had read the Song of Ice and Fire books a few months back to practice his reading, he didn't know he would be facing monsters then.
The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan.
"She didn't stay dead long," Percy said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime!"
"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not!"
"All of you, calm yourselves," Albert said sharply. "They are not attacking... be alert and do not mess it up."
"All three of them," Grover whimpered in fear. "Di immortales!"
"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows!"
"They don't open!" Grover moaned.
"The back exit?" She suggested quickly.
However, there wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel. Albert cursed in Portuguese out loud.
"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"
"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist. They won't even notice."
"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"
"No, Jackson... they probably won't. This isn't a game, stop daydreaming!"
Annabeth suddenly asked, "Maybe an emergency exit in the roof . . . ?"
They hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain. Albert hated how ominous it made everything look as if they needed any help to look positively fucked.
In a flat and bored voice, as if she'd rehearsed it or was simply used to say it, the ringleader, Alect, announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the restroom."
"So do I," said the second sister.
"So do I," said the third sister.
"Sorry, ma'ams but it's not today!" Albert announced as they started coming down the aisle. All three of them. He summoned the power inside him as he had trained so many times before with his sisters, with a compelling tone he commanded the passengers, "Don't let them pass! Get in the way!" He turned around as soon as the first passenger moved to do as he said, "We gotta get out!"
"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat. They are targetting you."
"What?"
"Now is not the time to look dumb! You're the one they want, Jackson!" Albert almost growled at the boy, an unbecoming look for someone so pretty and usually graceful, but he could not care less. "Do as she said, she is the daughter of Athena here. Turn invisible and go up the aisle! Let them pass you while you can get to the front and get away."
"But you guys—No!"
"There's an outside chance they might not care too much about us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three here and they are after you not us."
"I can't just leave you," Percy said firmly, but there was fear in his eyes. He wasn't buying it.
Albert felt the urge to simply charmspeak him to it, but it would ruin the confidence he needed for this entire thing to work in the end.
"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"
Percy looked at the three of them, hands trembling. It was the look of helplessness Albert had seen before only once on his face when the Minotaur crushed his mother into a pile of dust. He must have felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.
"What an annoying trick you get there, child!" One of the furies yelled.
"I have always disliked this sort of trickery," said the other one.
Alecto was frowning as the passengers got in her way, but she was sniffing around after she noticed Percy was gone from her sight. There is no way in hell, he would let her find him.
"You must be Alecto, the Fury of Anger!" He yelled trying to have her attention on him, "The others must be your sisters, Mageara and Tisiphone. Jealousy and the Avenger! You have come a long from the Fields of Punishment, my ladies. What do we own the pleasure of the esteemed servants of the Lord of the Underworld?"
Alecto groaned as a random man bumped into her, she looked at Albert and the other two before focusing on him, "Looks like you know us, stranger? I assume you will have the courtesy of introducing yourself, brat!" She exclaimed, "I know the other one, Annabeth, the pride of Athena's offspring, and last time I saw the cowardly satyr, but not you."
"You don't have to do what she says!" Annabeth said from his side.
"Don't worry," He said reassuringly, "In a twisted way this is kinda legendary, isn't it? Not many people can claim to have a chat with them," The boy argued, "I am Albert, son of Aphrodite, ma'am. It's an honor to talk to Lord Hades' loyal servants."
"He addressed our master with respect," One of them spoke in genuine surprise. "Demigods are rude. Fools the lot of them! They don't respect the King."
"He is talking to us!" The other one exclaimed as if this was a novelty.
Albert was shaking, but he knew Percy was free. He had made it to the front of the bus. They were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. He must have bypassed them successfully, the boy hoped.
The old ladies were not old ladies anymore, the Mist was lifting. Their faces had changed almost completely— their monster ugliness was showing— but their bodies had shriveled and shifted into leathery brown hag bodies with menacing bat-like wings and hands and feet had sets of black sharp claws and talons. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips, their voices changed too, and they became strident.
The Furies charged at them lashing their whips, hissing: "Enough talking, chatty boy. Where is it? Where?! Tell us!"
"He's not here, obviously!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"
The Furies didn't look pleased at her tone and raised their whips. Annabeth drew her bronze knife and was ready to at least hurt them back. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it. Albert was still calming his heart. He was very very mad at this situation. What he hated the most was the fact that he could only blame himself for it.
What I did next caught all of them off guard. The bus abruptly turned to the side. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right. His instincts kicked in the nick of time and he grabbed the nearest thing to hold and Annabeth and Grover followed him, barely, barely managing to do the same. Albert closed his eyes as he heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.
The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, and throwing sparks a mile behind them. He wondered if this turned into a Fast and Furious movie without anyone telling him! If the monsters didn't kill them the person on the wheel definitely would.
They finally careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins. It was a mess!
Somehow the driver found an exit. They shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of the rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York, not that Albert would know. There were woods to the left, a river-no-the Hudson River to their right, and the mad driver seemed to be veering toward the river. Albert was sure at this point that this was Percy Jackson's doing, nobody else would have resorted to these crude and dangerous ways!
Suddenly, somebody hit the emergency brake.
The bus wailed loudly, they might as well have spun a full circle on the wet asphalt before the bus crashed into the trees. The impact of the crash was disorientating. The emergency lights came on taking Albert out of his stupor. The door flew open with a loud thud. The bus driver was the first one out, at this point the charmseak had run out and the passengers were yelling as they stampeded after the dude.
The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans. Albert was waiting for the right moment to attack.
Suddenly, the fool took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"
The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at Percy, and the idea of letting them bite that stupid boy suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Alecto stalked up the aisle, every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather. If anything she was gonna cause a fire!
The other sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward him in a fucking creepy fashion, like huge nasty lizards-bat-demonic women. Straight out of a horror movie with great CGI.
"Perseus Jackson looks like you didn't run away and abandon your friends, like a coward, I've seen some of your kind do it for much less. I can give you that," Alecto said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere neither of them were familiar with. "You have offended the gods! You shall die for it!"
"I liked you better as a math teacher," He said to her.
She growled like a furious beast. Unarioniclly so.
Annabeth took the opportunity and gave Albert a signal, and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.
At the front, their companion was still facing Alecto, the ballpoint pen out of his pocket and uncapped. Riptide in all its magical glory elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.
The Furies hesitated to see the weapon as if it felt particularly repulsive to them. Albert and Annabeth quietly moved closer to them as their attention was locked on their target.
"Submit now, demigod!" Alecto hissed in a demonic voice, it sent shivers don't Albert's spine. "And you will not suffer eternal torment for your transgressions! Me and my sisters we take great care of you in the Fields of Punishment where you belong!"
"Nice try," Percy told her. "But you see, my mother told me not to accept weird invitations for old ladies on the streets!"
"Percy, look out!" Annabeth cried.
Alecto lashed her whip around his sword hand while the Furies on either side lunged at Percy too. It was humiliating in a way, Albert thought for a second. He and the others were kids and everything, but they were so blatantly ignored that it hurt his ego. He almost laughed at his thoughts, looks like the Aphrodite side of him was showing.
Percy struggled with the whip, hot as fire, around his sword, but he managed to strike the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. This was the opportunity Albert had waited for.
"Annabeth, now!" He yelled.
In an almost clumsy, but effective and ungraceful fashion, he and the girl threw their daggers at the two remaining sisters, before they attacked Percy. By the Gods, he couldn't believe their luck when they managed to land the shots. Albert had taken the one on the right and she took the one on the left, the daggers landed on their backs faster than they could react.
"Damn you, son of Aphrodite!" One of them screamed as her body started to turn into dust. "Next time you I won't let my guard down!"
The second Fury just growled a terrible sound as she turned to dust too. Albert heard the system notifications announce the level-ups, but he couldn't care less. He exchanged a glance with the other kids and said.
"Now we run!" He said, "We need to get away before Alecto gets to us, forget about anything else!"
"She is rising again!" Grover quickly said pointing at a very angry Fury, looking at them with hate and resentment.
"Please, please, work!" Albert said in a pleading tone, summoning his power. The Divine Blessing of Aphrodite were almost done, maybe it would last him a couple more days, he was trying to call forth that power too. He needed all he had.
He looked at Alecto, who smirked at him in disdain, "You think you can escape me? I am Alecto!"
Albert felt as if the world had gone silent suddenly, no noises of the frightened passengers on the road, no sound of the frantic breaths of his companions, only the sound of his heart beating on his chest. He closed his eyes and he felt ready.
"Sleep, Alecto!" He commanded, not like a warrior. Almost softly, like his father would, "You deserve some rest, don't you? You have done a great job. I am not your master's enemy, you will see it in time. Forgive me for this... Sleep, sleep soundly. Everything will be back to normal soon."
For a moment he dreaded failure more than anything, he had made a dangerous gamble this time. He was desperate. He was not under the impression that the outcome of this battle would be the same if the sisters weren't so desperate to help, Hades. He was the only one among them who knew the truth of why such powerful monsters had come to their world. They weren't looking for the master bolt, no. They were here to fetch something else, something that Hades cared about.
When Alecto blinked in a dazzled way and fell on one of the seats with a thud sound. He felt all the adrenaline rushing back. He suddenly remembered his companions, they were all equally as surprised as him, all of them looked at him with disbelief and Annabeth especially, had a terribly surprised look on her face.
"You all can gawk and ask your questions later, we need to get out of here quickly, this won't last very long!"
"Shou-should we kill here?" Grover suddenly asked as if he had finally realized their situation.
"This can buy us some more time, Alecto and her sisters will be back very soon, they are known to the the fastest monsters to return from Tartarus," Annabeth said, nodding her face, but waiting for Albert or Percy to say something.
Albert didn't wait for Percy to provide an opinion, he was still staring at him in awe like a dumb fool, he ran out to where Silena's dagger had fallen after the Fury dissolved and did not hesitate. Not this time. He had to buy them time, and deep down he was mad at himself for not thinking about this before Grover. He was still just as foolish as them, but they had the excuse of not knowing better, he didn't. Without saying a word, he struck the sleeping Alecto on the chest.
There was a pregnant and tense pause in the air as if the aftermath of a broken spell had finally come up to them. They had fought monsters and survived to tell the tale. He had killed two Furies.
"I can't believe you managed to Charmspeak a Fury," Annabeth said honestly.
"Your eyes were glowing!" Grover said snipping in as if he had seen a ghost or something. "What was that all about?"
"Glowing?!" Albert asked in genuine confusion. "Wha-How?- I don't know."
"You did this before, you don't remember?" Percy asked. "That night, with the Minotaur. Your eyes were glowing there too. I thought I was wrong, but I didn't."
Albert had no idea how he did that. He wanted to know, but now wasn't the time, "Let's get going, I won't find answers here and they will be back."
All of them quickly got their backpacks, Annabeth grabbed Percy's from where it was stored and Albert grabbed his bow and quiver. Although as a weapon it wasn't suited for closed and small spaces like a bus, he had been thankful for the dagger his sister had given him. It saved their lives. The boy was still getting looks from the other three. All sorts of things going on in their heads, theories, suspicions, feelings. He cared for none of it, not now. He couldn't afford to let this affect him.
"If I look back, I'm lost," Albert recited again, this time he actually spoke it.
每周推薦票狀態
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榜單 
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