After tripping and Percy cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, Noelle started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. She could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. She realized she hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since her last cupcake from her dad last October. Only because at Half-Blood Hill they live on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue.

They kept walking until Noelle saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.

It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like she'd thought. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for any demigod to read, because if there's anything worse for a demigod's dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.

To the demigods, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.

"What the heck does that say?" Percy asked.

"I don't know," Annabeth said.

She loved reading so much, Noelle had forgotten she was dyslexic, too.

Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."

Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.

Percy crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers. The rest of them followed, Grover and Noelle a little more reluctant.

"Hey..." Grover warned.

"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."

"Snack bar," Percy said wistfully.

"Snack bar," she agreed.

"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."

"Yeah. The only thing open is a gnome emporium? Kind of sketchy," Noelle agreed.

Percy and Annabeth ignored them.

The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.

"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"

They stopped at the warehouse door.

"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."

"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"

"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."

"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," Noelle reminded him.

"Those are vegetables. Aren't you on my side? Come on. Let's leave. These statues are... looking at me."

Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall Middle Eastern woman-at least, Noelle assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all Noelle could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so it was easy to imagine she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.

Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"

"They're... um..." Annabeth started to say.

"We're orphans," Percy said.

"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"

"We got separated from our caravan," Percy said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"

"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."

They thanked her and went inside.

"This is bad," Noelle muttered to Grover.

"You're telling me."

The warehouse was filled with more statues-people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. Noelle was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size.

Grover was whimpering nervously and Noelle had to elbow him to make him stop. Although, she could understand why he was scared when the statues eyes seemed to follow them or the fact that this Aunty Em person locked the door behind them.

She led them to the back of the warehouse. The dining area would have been pretty cool had Grover's words about smelling monsters not been floating around Noelle's brain.

The dining area had a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.

"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.

"Awesome," Percy said.

"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."

Percy shot him a glare, but Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."

"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.

Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done some-thing wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly. It made Noelle nervous, as if she had something against Annabeth.

"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."

Noelle wondered how she knew Annabeth's name, even though they had never introduced themselves.

Their hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before they knew it, she'd brought them plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.

Percy was halfway through his burger before he remembered to breathe.

Annabeth slurped her shake.

Noelle slowly ate one fry at a time.

Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.

"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.

Noelle listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.

"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."

"I take vitamins. For my ears."

"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."

Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head-dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched them eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at Noelle when she couldn't see her face.

"So, you sell gnomes," Percy said, trying to sound interested.

"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."

"A lot of business on this road?"

"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."

Noelle's neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at her. She turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.

"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."

"You make these statues yourself?" Noelle asked.

"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company."

Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"

"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."

The story she told jogged a few stories to come to Noelle's mind. Stone people. Two sisters. Terrible accident. The way she looked at Annabeth with loathing.

"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking him to get his attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."

She sounded tense. Probably for the same reason as Grover and Noelle. Grover was eating the wax paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.

"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."

She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.

"We really should go."

"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"

"Wouldn't want the circus to leave without us." Noelle stood up and pushed the tray forward slightly.

She was glad Annabeth had finally come to her senses.

Noelle finally noticed the hissing that Grover had mentioned. It sounded like snakes, and she wasn't too fond of snakes.

"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"

"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.

"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."

Noelle shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy-"

"Sure we can," Percy said, irritation making itself evident. "It's just a photo, Noelle. What's the harm?"

"Yes, Noelle," the woman purred. "No harm."

Annabeth could tell Noelle didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead them back out the front door, into the garden of statues.

Aunty Em directed them to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young blond in the middle, I think, and the lovely silver speckle-eyed brunette next to her. The two young gentlemen on either side, please."

"Not much light for a photo," Noelle remarked.

"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"

"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.

Aunty Em ignored him and stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"

Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."

"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."

She still had no camera in her hands.

"Percy-" Noelle said.

"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil...."

"Percy, something's wrong," Noelle insisted.

"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"

"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.

"Look away from her!" Noelle shouted. Annabeth whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover off the bench. Noelle tackled Percy to the gravel, scraping her exposed knees in the process.

Aunty Em was focused on Percy, who was on the ground next to Noelle. His eyes trailed up her body, almost looking into her eyes.

"Percy, don't!" Noelle shrieked. His gaze shot back to the floor.

Noelle heard the rasping of tiny snakes above them. She grabbed Percy's hand, ready to pull him away from the gorgon.

"Run!" Grover bleated. They heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.

Noelle tried to tug Percy away from Medusa, but he stayed as still as one of her statues.

"Percy!" Noelle hissed. "Close your eyes."

"Don't listen to the girl," she told him soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."

Noelle squeezed Percy's hand in her own. "Percy she's one of the three gorgons. She's--"

"Medusa," he cut her off.

"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster.Her voice invited Percy to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."

"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, some-where in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"

"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy,you need not suffer."

"No," he muttered.

"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."

"Percy!" Behind them, they heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"

Noelle pulled Percy down by his hand.

Thwack!

At first they figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.

"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"

"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.

They scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.

Ker-whack!

"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.

Noelle said, "Percy!"

He jumped so high his feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"

Noelle gave him a 'are you serious' look. "I've been next to you the whole time."

Percy shrugged. "I forgot."

"Whatever, just listen. You have to cut her head off."

"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."

"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Noelle swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. You-you've got a chance."

"What? I can't-"

"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"She took her hand out of Percy's and pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.

Noelle grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better. Annabeth could tell you why much better than I could." She tossed him the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."

"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above them. "I think she's unconscious!"

"Roooaaarrr!"

"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.

"Hurry," Noelle told Percy. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."

Percy took out his pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in his hand.

He followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair. Percy kept his eyes locked on the gazing ball so he would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, he saw her.

Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"

"Grover!" Noelle cried. She rushed toward him.

Medusa was about to lunge at both of them when Percy yelled, "Hey!"

Noelle helped a groaning Grover down from the arms of the grizzly while Percy advanced on Medusa.

She let him approach-twenty feet, ten feet.

Noelle could faintly see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.

"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."

Percy hesitated, fascinated by the face he saw reflected in the glass-the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making his arms go weak.

From Noelle's arms, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"

Medusa cackled. "Too late."

She lunged at him with her talons.

Percy slashed up with his sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern-- the sound of a monster disintegrating.

Her head fell down next to Percy's foot, green ooze leaking out of her neck.

"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but Noelle guessed he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega yuck."

Annabeth moved over to Percy, her eyes fixated on the dark sky.  She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."

Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.

"Are you okay?" Noelle asked Percy, her voice trembling.

"Yeah," he decided. "Why didn't... why didn't the head evaporate?"

"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your Minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."

Grover moaned as Noelle helped him over. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green Rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.

"The Red Baron," Percy said. "Good job, man."

Grover managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."

He snatched his shoes out of the air. Percy recapped his sword. Together, the group of four stumbled back to the warehouse.

Percy found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head.

He plopped it on the table where they'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.

Finally Percy said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"

Annabeth flashed Percy an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."

His face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."

Annabeth straightened. In a hilarious imitation of Percy's voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Noelle. What's the harm?'"

"Forget it," Percy said. "You're impossible."

"You're insufferable."

"You're-"

"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines."

"What are we going to do with the head?" Noelle asked.

She stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. She looked away from it, swallowing down the fries that wanted to make a reappearance.

Percy got up. "I'll be back."

"Percy," Noelle called after him. "What are you-"

Percy had already disappeared around a corner before she could finish.

Annabeth looked at Grover and Noelle. "Doesn't this quest seem a little weird?"

"What do you mean?" Grover asked.

"The Kindly Ones," Annabeth said.

Noelle understood what she was saying. "Yeah, they said 'Where is it?' like they were looking for an object."

"And they weren't as aggressive this time," Annabeth agreed.

Noelle knew what she meant by this time. She personally wasn't with Grover and Annabeth when Thalia died, but they'd told her enough stories for her to know about it.

"Well, if they were looking for something it's probably the lightning bolt," Grover suggested.

"But if the King of the Underworld already has it, why would they be looking for it?" Noelle asked.

Grover swallowed nervously.

Before anyone could continue the conversation, Percy he came back to the picnic table. He packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:

The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY

With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned.

Noelle nodded her head, agreeing. "They'll think you're impertinent." Percy poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as he closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!

"I am impertinent," he said.

Percy looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.

She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that he had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."