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In one aquarium, a dozen hippocampi--horses with the tails of fish--drifted aimlessly Percy had seen many hippocampi in the wild He’d even ridden a few; but he had never seen any in an aquarium He tried to speak with theainst the glass Their ht," Percyeven worse At the bottom of a sed, facing each other, playing a gareen hair floated listlessly around their faces Their eyes were half closed

Percy felt so angry, he could hardly breathe He glared at Kate "How can you keep thehed "They aren’t very interesting We tried to teach them some tricks, but with no luck, I’m afraid I think you’ll like this tank over here much better"

Percy started to protest, but Kate had already e "Look at these beauties!"

He was gawking at two sea serpents--thirty-foot-longblue scales and jaws that could have bitten a whale shark in half In another tank, peeking out frohteen-wheeler, with a beak like a giant bolt cutter

A third tank held a dozen hulike faces, and human hands They sat on the sand at the bottoh the creatures seemed just as dazed as the Nereids

"Are those--?" Percy struggled to form the question

"Telkhines?" Kate said "Yes! The only ones in captivity"

"But they fought for Kronos in the last war!" Percy said "They’re dangerous!"

Kate rolled her eyes "Well, we couldn’t call it ‘Death in the Deep Seas’ if these exhibits weren’t dangerous Don’t worry We keep them well sedated"

"Sedated?" Frank asked "Is that legal?"

Kate appeared not to have heard She kept walking, pointing out other exhibits Percy looked back at the telkhines One was obviously a youngster He was trying to y to put the pieces together Percy had never liked sea demons, but now he felt sorry for them

"And these sea row five hundred feet long in the deep ocean They have over a thousand teeth And these? Their favorite food is deod?" Frank yelped

"But they will eat whales or small boats, too" Kate turned to Percy and blushed "Sorry…I’ the son of Poseidon, and all"

Percy’s ears were ringing like alarm bells He didn’t like how much Kate knew about him He didn’t like the way she casually tossed out infor captive creatures or which of her babies liked to devour deods

"Who are you?" he de?"

"Kate?" She looked"Oh…" She laughed "No, it’s--"

"Hello!" said a new voice, booh the aquarium

A small man scuttled out of the darkness He walked sideways on bowed legs like a crab, his back hunched, his ar invisible plates

He wore a wet suit that was several horrible shades of green Glittery silver words printed down the side read: PORKY’S FOLLIES A headset reasy wiry hair His eyes were h he s peeled back in a wind tunnel

"Visitors!" the h the microphone He had a DJ’s voice, deep and resonant, which did not at all match his appearance "Welcome to Phorcys’s Follies!"

He swept his ar their attention to an explosion Nothing happened

"Curse it," the rumbled "Telkhines, that’s your cue! I wave etically in your tank, do a synchronized double spin, and land in pyramid formation We practiced this!"

The sea dee leaned toward the crab littery wet suit "Nice outfit"

He didn’t sound like he was kidding Of course, the satyr wore gym uniforms for fun

"Thank you!" The ht from foot to foot "Why does your suit say Porky?"

Phorcys snarled "Stupid uniforht"

Kate tapped her na "I told them my name was Keto They misspelled it as Kate My brother…well, now he’s Porky"

"I am not!" the man snapped "I’m not even a little porky The name doesn’t ith Follies, either What kind of show is called Porky’s Follies? But you folks don’t want to hear us coiant killer squid!"

He gestured dramatically toward the squid tank This tiht on cue, sending up geysers of golden sparkles Music swelled frohtened and revealed the wondrous majesty of an empty tank

The squid had apparently skulked back into its cave

"Curse it!" Phorcys yelled again He wheeled on his sister "Keto, training the squid was your job Juggling, I said Maybe a bit of flesh-rending for the finale Is that too much to ask?"

"He’s shy," Keto said defensively "Besides, each of his tentacles has sixty-two razorlike barbs that have to be sharpened daily" She turned toward Frank "Did you know the ods whole, arestion? It’s true!"