A special thank you to Stephanie True Peters for her help with this book
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First published in the USA by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group, and in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2017 001
Text copyright© Rick Riordan, 2017 The moral right of the author has been asserted This book is set in New Baskerville/Fontspring Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St !ves pic A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Lihrary ISBN:
978--<>-141-37769-8
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A few months ago, Chiron - he's the immortal centaur who's also our camp activities director - was called away to rescue two unclaimed demigods and their satyr guide. (The satyr had got himself into a sticky situation. It took him days to get his fur clean.) Anyway, Argus, our resident security guard and parttime chauffeur, drove Chiron on this mission because, well, can you imagine a centaur driving an SUV? (You can? Hmm. Maybe you're a child ofHypnos and saw it in a dream.) Our camp director, Mr D (aka Dionysus, the god of wine), was MIA, so that left us demigods on our own. 'Don't destroy Half-Blood while we're gone,' was Chiron's parting instruction. Argus pointed two fingers at his eyes and then at us. This took a few minutes since he has one hundred eyes, but we got the message - be good, or else. We went about our usual routines - combat practice,
volleyball
practice,
archery
practice,
strawberry-picking practice (don't ask), lava-wallclimbing practice . . . You'll find we practise a lot here. We would have spent the evening in the usual way, too, with a campfire sing-along, if not for an oflhand comment Nico di Angelo dropped at dinner. 4