The Titan's Curse

understand,” I said. “Why can’t Artemis just let go of the sky?”
    Atlas laughed. “How little you understand, young one. This is the point where the sky and the earth first met, where Ouranos and Gaia first brought forth their mighty children, the Titans. The sky still yearns to embrace the earth. Someone must hold it at bay, or else it would crush down upon this place, instantly flattening the mountain and everything within a hundred leagues. Once you have taken the burden, there is no escape.” Atlas smiled. “Unless someone else takes it from you.”
    He approached us, studying Thalia and me. “So these are the best heroes of the age, eh? Not much of a challenge.”
    “Fight us,” I said. “And let’s see.”
    “Have the gods taught you nothing? An immortal does not fight a mere mortal directly. It is beneath our dignity. I will have Luke crush you instead.”
    “So you’re another coward,” I said.
    Atlas’s eyes glowed with hatred. With difficulty, he turned his attention to Thalia.
    “As for you, daughter of Zeus, it seems Luke was wrong about you.”
    “I wasn’t wrong,” Luke managed. He looked terribly weak, and he spoke every word as if it were painful. If I didn’t hate his guts so much, I almost would’ve felt sorry for him. “Thalia, you still can join us. Call the Ophiotaurus. It will come to you. Look!”
    He waved his hand, and next to us a pool of water appeared: a pond ringed in black marble, big enough for the Ophiotaurus. I could imagine Bessie in that pool. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I was sure I could hear Bessie mooing.
    Don’t think about him! Suddenly Grover’s voice was inside my mind—the empathy link. I could feel his emotions. He was on the verge of panic. I’m losing Bessie. Block the thoughts!
    I tried to make my mind go blank. I tried to think about basketball players, skateboards, the different kinds of candy in my mom’s shop. Anything but Bessie.
    “Thalia, call the Ophiotaurus,” Luke persisted. “And you will be more powerful than the gods.”
    “Luke . . .” Her voice was full of pain. “What happened to you?”
    “Don’t you remember all those times we talked? All those times we cursed the gods? Our fathers have done nothing for us. They have no right to rule the world!”
    Thalia shook her head. “Free Annabeth. Let her go.”
    “If you join me,” Luke promised, “it can be like old times. The three of us together. Fighting for a better world. Please, Thalia, if you don’t agree . . .”
    His voice faltered. “It’s my last chance. He will use the other way if you don’t agree. Please.”
    I didn’t know what he meant, but the fear in his voice sounded real enough. I believed that Luke was in danger.
    His life depended on Thalia’s joining his cause. And I was afraid Thalia might believe it, too.
    “Do not, Thalia,” Zoë warned. “We must fight them.”
    Luke waved his hand again, and a fire appeared. A bronze brazier, just like the one at camp. A sacrificial flame.
    “Thalia,” I said. “No.”
    Behind Luke, the golden sarcophagus began to glow. As it did, I saw images in the mist all around us: black marble walls rising, the ruins becoming whole, a terrible and beautiful palace rising around us, made of fear and shadow.
    “We will raise Mount Othrys right here,” Luke promised, in a voice so strained it was hardly his. “Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Thalia. We are not weak.”
    He pointed toward the ocean, and my heart fell. Marching up the side of the mountain, from the beach where the Princess Andromeda was docked, was a great army. Dracaenae and Laestrygonians, monsters and half-bloods, hell hounds, harpies, and other things I couldn’t even name. The whole ship must’ve been emptied, because there were hundreds, many more than I’d seen on board last summer. And they were marching toward us. In a few minutes, they would be here.
    “This is only a taste of what is to come,” Luke said. “Soon we will be ready to storm Camp Half-Blood. And after that, Olympus itself. All we need is your help.”
    For a terrible moment, Thalia hesitated. She gazed at Luke, her eyes full of pain, as if the only thing she wanted in the world was to believe him. Then she leveled her spear. “You aren’t Luke. I don’t know you anymore.”
    “Yes, you do, Thalia,” he pleaded. “Please. Don’t make me . . . Don’t make him destroy you.”
    There was no time. If that