“Well," said Apollo with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?”
“You wrote this right?” he said. “It tells how to defeat Set.”Thoth unfolded the papyrus pages. “Oh, dear. I hate reading my old work. Look at this sentence. I’d never write it that way now.” He patted his lab coat pockets. “Red pen—does anyone have one?”Isis chafed against my willpower, insisting that we blast some sense into Thoth. One fireball, she pleaded. Just one enormous magical fireball?I couldn’t say I was tempted, but I kept her under control.“Since when does drool make you powerful?”
“There!" Apollo pointed. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, dear. 'Dead' is only an expression.”
“And now, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."These demigods will also need a ride," Artemis said, pointing to us. "Some of Chiron's campers."No problem!" Apollo checked us out. "Let's see... Thalia, right? I've heard all about you.".Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."Zues's girl. yes? Makes you my half sister. Used to be a tree didn't you? Glad your back. I hate it when pretty girls get turned into trees. Man, I remeber one time-”
“But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami.”
“I looked at Thalia. "You're afraid of heights."Now that we were safely down the mountain, her eyes had their usual angry look. "Don't be stupid."That explains why you freaked out on Apollo's bus. Why you didn't want to talk about it."She took a deep breath. Then she brushed the pine needles out of her hair. "If you tell anyone, I swear—"No, no," I said. "That's cool. It's just… the daughter of Zeus, the Lord of the Sky, afraid of heights?”
“Athena called, "Annabeth Chase, my own daughter."Annabeth squeezed my arm, then walked forward and knelt at her mother's feet.Athena smiled. "You, my daughter, have exceeded all expectations. You have used your wits, your strength, and your courage to defend this city, and our seat of power. It has come to our attention that Olympus is...well, trashed. The Titan lord did much damage that will have to be repaired. We could rebuild it by magic, of course, and make it just as it was. But the gods feel that the city could be improved. We will take this as an opportunity. And you, my daughter, will design these improvements."Annabeth looked up, stunned. "My...my lady?"Athena smiled wryly. "You are an architect, are you not? You have studied the techniques of Daedalus himself. Who better to redesign Olympus and make it a monument that will last for another eon?""You mean...I can design whatever I want?""As your heart desires," the goddess said. "Make us a city for the ages.""As long as you have plenty of statues of me," Apollo added."And me," Aphrodite agreed."Hey, and me!" Ares said. "Big statues with huge wicked swords and-"All right!" Athena interrupted. "She gets the point. Rise, my daughter, official architect of Olympus.”