Contents
XXI
Overview
Annabeth and Percy traverse Tartarus with Bob, surviving by drinking from the Phlegethon. Bob leads them to a fallen Hermes shrine to rest and reveals that defeated Titans and giants are tracking them. Annabeth grapples with trusting Bob as his past as Iapetus looms, while Percy stands watch.
Summary
Annabeth resolves not to die to the landscape but from the relentless strangeness of Tartarus: drinking fire from the Phlegethon to survive, surviving empousai, and being rescued by Bob, a Titan janitor with a broom-spear. She and Percy follow Bob toward a storm of darkness, sustained by painful sips of firewater.
As they travel, Annabeth studies Bob’s torn coveralls and remembers he was once Iapetus, left in Hades’s palace after his memory was wiped. Fearing his memories could return in Tartarus, she weighs the risk even as Bob casually destroys a gestating drakon blister, reinforcing that monsters are reborn here.
Bob brings them to a crater with broken black columns around a dark altar—an old Hermes shrine that fell into Tartarus. He cannot recall how he knows it, unsettling Annabeth. Bob admits they’re being followed by defeated Titans and giants but insists this is the best nearby place to rest and promises to guard them and find food.
Reluctant to sleep under a Titan’s watch, Annabeth still succumbs to exhaustion. Percy remains on first watch with Bob, trying to reassure Annabeth as they prepare for the pursuit closing in beyond the storm front.
Who Appears
- Annabeth ChaseNarrates their trek through Tartarus, doubts Bob’s reliability, and reluctantly sleeps at a fallen Hermes shrine.
- Bob (Iapetus)Amnesiac Titan guide; leads them along the Phlegethon, kills a drakon blister, warns of pursuing Titans and giants, stands guard.
- Percy JacksonSupports Annabeth, trusts Bob’s guidance, keeps first watch at the Hermes shrine, reassures Annabeth despite looming threats.