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‘Thanks.’ I gritted my teeth. ‘Little late on the warning.’
The ivory began to smoulder. When the smoke cleared and the agony subsided, instead of a wand I was holding a Celestial bronze sword that definitely wasn’t Riptide.
‘What is this?’ I asked. ‘It’s huge.’
Carter whistled under his breath. ‘I’ve seen those in museums. That’s a kopis.’
I hefted the sword. Like so many I’d tried, it didn’t feel right in my hands. The hilt was too heavy for my wrist. The single-edged blade was curved awkwardly, like a giant hook knife. I tried a jab and nearly lost my balance.
‘This one doesn’t look like yours,’ I told Carter. ‘Isn’t yours called a kopis?’
‘Mine is a khopesh,’ Carter said. ‘The original Egyptian version. What you’re holding is a kopis – a Greek design adapted from the Egyptian original. It’s the kind of sword Ptolemy’s warriors would’ve used.’
I looked at Sadie. ‘Is he trying to confuse me?’
‘No,’ she said brightly. ‘He’s confusing without trying.’
Carter smacked his palm against his forehead. ‘That wasn’t even confusing. How was that –? Never mind. Percy, the main thing is, can you fight with that sword?’
I sliced the kopis through the air. ‘I feel like I’m fencing with a meat cleaver, but it’ll have to do. What about weapons for you guys?’
Annabeth rubbed the clay beads on her necklace, the way she does when she’s thinking. She looked beautiful. But I digress.
‘Sadie,’ she said, ‘those hieroglyphic spells you used on Rockaway Beach … which one made the explosion?’
‘It’s called – well, I can’t actually say the word without making you blow up. Hold on.’ Sadie rummaged through her backpack. She brought out a sheet of yellow papyrus, a stylus and a bottle of ink – I guess because pen and paper would be un-Egyptian. She knelt, using her backpack as a makeshift writing desk, and scrawled in normal letters: HA-DI.
‘That’s a good spell,’ Carter agreed. ‘We could show you the hieroglyph for it, but unless you know how to speak words of power –’
‘No need,’ Annabeth said. ‘The phrase means explode?’
‘More or less,’ Sadie said.
‘And you can write the hieroglyph on a scroll without triggering the ka-boom?’
‘Right. The scroll will store the magic for later. If you read the word from the papyrus … well, that’s even better. More ka-boom with less effort.’
‘Good,’ Annabeth said. ‘Do you have another piece of papyrus?’
‘Annabeth,’ I said, ‘what are you doing? ’Cause if you’re messing around with exploding words –’
‘Relax,’ she said. ‘I know what I’m doing. Sort of.’
She knelt next to Sadie, who gave her a fresh sheet of papyrus.
Annabeth took the stylus and wrote something in Ancient Greek:
?e?a??ó?
Being dyslexic, I’m lucky if I can recognize English words, but, being a demigod,
Ancient Greek is sort of hardwired into my brain.
‘Ke-rau-noh,’ I pronounced. ‘Blast?’
Annabeth gave me a wicked little smile. ‘Closest term I could think of. Literally it means strike with lightning bolts.’
‘Ooh,’ Sadie said. ‘I love striking things with lightning bolts.’
