Extraits

(Traduction perso)extrait en VO sur http://rickriordan.com/Files/Documents/StaffofSerapis_excerpt_trade_pbk.pdf

Quand elle vit le monstre à deux têtes, Annabeth pensa que sa journée ne pouvait pas être pire.

Elle avait passé toute la matinée à de maquiller des élèves pour l'école.

(Ou plutôt, sécher les régulièrement les cours pour sauver le monde des monstres et des dieux voyous a sérieusement gâché son AMP.)

Puis elle avait refusé d'aller au cinéma avec Percy et leurs amis afin qu'elle puisse faire un stage d'été chez un architecte.

Malheureusement, son cerveau était comme ramolli. Elle était sûre d'avoir gâché l'entrevue.

Enfin, vers quatre heures de l'après-midi, elle se traîna à Washington Square Park et trouva la station de métro, puis marcha (accidentellement) dans une bouse de vache toute fraîche.

Elle leva les yeux au ciel.

-Héra!

Les piétons lui lancèrent de drôles de regards,mais Annabeth s'en fichait.

Elle était fatiguée des plaisanteries de la déesse.

Annabeth avait fait tant de quêtes pour Héra, mais la reine du ciel lui en voulait toujours et cherchait toutes les occasions de lui voler dans les plumes, notamment en mettant des bouses de vache dans son chemin.

"La déesse a dû avoir un troupeau de vaches patrouillant dans Manhattan" pensa Annabeth.

Lorsque Annabeth arriva à la station West Fourth Street,elle était au pic de sa mauvaise humeur, épuisée comme jamais et voulait juste etre avec Percy.

– Eh bien, à la prochaine !

Annabeth fut un peu étonnée quand Sadie la serra dans ses bras – elles venaient à peine de se rencontrer et auraient très bien pu se combattre sur un malentendu –, toutefois son geste lui fit plaisir. L’expérience lui avait appris qu’il n’y avait rien de tel que d’affronter la mort côte à côte pour sceller une amitié.

– Fais attention à toi, dit-elle en posant une main sur l’épaule de la jeune magicienne.

– Moi ? Tu rêves !

Bien joué ! pensa Annabeth. Tu viens de détruire le bâton de Sadie.

Le champ de force disparut, la laissant face à un dieu de cinq mètres avec un minuscule poignard et une sacrée dose de culot pour toutes armes.

Annabeth lui tendit le morceau d'ambroisie.

-- Tiens, goûte ça. La nourriture des demi-dieux. En principe, ça devrait te rendre tes forces.

-- " En principe "?

-- Si j'ai pu boire ta potion, tu dois pouvoir manger de l'ambroisie.

Sadie mordit dans le morceau. Aussitôt, son visage reprit des couleurs et ses yeux retrouvèrent leur éclat.

-- On dirait les scones de ma grand-mère !

Annabeth sourit.

-- Le goût de l'ambroisie varie en fonction des personnes, expliqua-t-elle. En général, elle te rappelle le plat le plus typique de ton enfance.

-- C'est bien ma veine, soupira Sadie. Les scones de ma grand-mère sont infects. Elle les laisse toujours brûler.

- [...] Moi, son dieu, j’ai décidé d’implanter ici ma nouvelle capitale !

– Quoi, à Rockaway ?

Sérapis s’arrêta net et se gratta le menton.

– Tu as raison. Il va falloir lui trouver un nom. Rockandrie ? Sérapaway ?

Elle [Annabeth] grimaça un sourire à Sérapis, sans cesser de tirer le monstre qui griffait furieusement le sol.

– Maître, je t’en prie, dis­ moi quel est ton plan. Tu parlais de prendre des vies et des âmes ?

Elle était couchée à plat dos dans des mauvaises herbes piquantes. La fille blonde se pencha sur elle en tirant sur son bras.

Until she spotted the two-headed monster, Annabeth didn’t think her day could get any worse.

She’d spent all morning doing makeup work for school.

(Skipping classes on a regular basis to save the world from monsters and rogue Greek gods was seriously messing up her

GPA.) Then she’d turned down a movie with her boyfriend

Percy and some of their friends so she could try out for a summer internship at a local architecture fi rm. Unfortunately, her brain had been mush. She was pretty sure she had fl ubbed the interview.

Finally, around four in the afternoon, she trudged through

Washington Square Park on her way to the subway station and stepped in a fresh pile of cow manure.

She glared at the sky. “Hera!”

The other pedestrians gave her funny looks, but Annabeth didn’t care. She was tired of the goddess’s practical jokes.

Annabeth had done so many quests for Hera, but still the

The Staff of Serapis

Queen of Heaven left presents from her sacred animal right where Annabeth could step in them. The goddess must have had a herd of stealth cows patrolling Manhattan.

By the time Annabeth made it to the West Fourth Street station, she was cranky and exhausted and just wanted to catch the F train uptown to Percy’s place. It was too late for the movie, but maybe they could get dinner or something.

Then she spotted the monster.

Annabeth had seen some crazy stuff before, but this beastie defi nitely made her “What Were the Gods Thinking?”

list. It looked like a lion and a wolf lashed together, wedged butt-fi rst into a hermit crab shell.

The shell itself was a rough brown spiral, like a waffl e cone—about six feet long with a jagged seam down the middle, as if it had been cracked in half, then glued back together.

Sprouting from the top were the forelegs and head of a gray wolf on the left, a golden-maned lion on the right.

The two animals didn’t look happy about sharing a shell.

They dragged it behind them down the platform, weaving left and right as they tried to pull in diff erent directions. They snarled at one another in irritation. Then both of them froze and sniff ed the air.

Commuters streamed past. Most maneuvered around the monster and ignored it. Others just frowned or looked annoyed.

Annabeth had seen the Mist in action many times before, but she was always amazed by how the magical veil could distort mortal vision, making even the fi ercest monster look

The Staff of Serapis like something explainable—a stray dog, or maybe a homeless person wrapped in a sleeping bag.

The monster’s nostrils fl ared. Before Annabeth could decide what to do, both heads turned and glared directly at her.

Annabeth’s hand went for her knife. Then she remembered that she didn’t have one. At the moment, her most deadly weapon was her backpack, which was loaded with heavy architecture books from the public library.

She steadied her breathing. The monster stood about thirty feet away.

Taking on a lion-wolf-crab in the middle of a crowded subway station wasn’t her fi rst choice, but if she had to, she would. She was a child of Athena.

She stared down the beast, letting it know she meant business.

“Bring it on, Crabby,” she said. “I hope you’ve got a high tolerance for pain.”

The lion and wolf heads bared their fangs. Then the fl oor rumbled. Air rushed through the tunnel as a train arrived.

The monster snarled at Annabeth. She could’ve sworn it had a look of regret in its eyes, as if thinking, I would love to rip you to tiny pieces, but I have business elsewhere.

Then Crabby turned and bounded off , dragging its huge shell behind. It disappeared up the stairs, heading for the

A train.

For a moment, Annabeth was too stunned to move. She’d rarely seen a monster leave a demigod alone like that. Given the chance, monsters almost always attacked.

The Staff of Serapis

If this two-headed hermit crab had something more important to do than kill her, Annabeth wanted to know what it was. She couldn’t just let the monster go, pursuing its nefarious plans and riding public transportation for free.

She glanced wistfully at the F train that would’ve taken her uptown to Percy’s place. Then she ran up the stairs after the monster.