aren't completely inept. It's all thanks to my training, I suppose."

 

"Urn, yes, sir," I said.

 

Mr. D nodded. "As thanks for my bravery, Zeus has cut my probation at that

miserable camp in half. I now have only fifty years left instead of one

hundred."

 

"Fifty years, huh?" I tried to imagine putting up with Dionysus until I was an

old man, assuming I lived that long.

 

"Don't get so excited, Jackson," he said, and I realized he was saying my name

correctly. "I still plan on making your life miserable."

 

I couldn't help smiling. "Naturally."

 

"Just so we understand each other." He turned and began repairing his grapevine

throne, which had been singed by fire.

 

Grover stayed at my side. From time to time he would break down in tears. "So

many nature spirits dead, Percy. So many."

 

I put my arm around his shoulders and gave him a rag to blow his nose. "You did

a great job, G-man.