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couldn’t last much longer. Steam was rising from its bronze skin.
    Even worse, a few of the ants turned toward us. I guess they didn’t like us stealing their dinner. I slashed at one and lopped off its head. Annabeth stabbed another right between the feelers. As the celestial bronze blade pierced its shell, the whole ant disintegrated.
    “I—I think I can walk now,” Beckendorf said, and immediately fell on his face when we let go of him.
    “Charlie!” Silena helped him up and pulled him along while Annabeth and I cleared a path through the ants. Somehow we managed to reach the edge of the clearing without getting bitten or splashed, though one of my sneakers was smoking from acid.
    Back in the clearing, the dragon stumbled. A great cloud of acid mist was roiling off its hide.
    “We can’t let it die!” Silena said.
    “It’s too dangerous,” Beckendorf said sadly. “Its wiring—”
    “Charlie,” Silena pleaded, “it saved your life! Please, for me.”
    Beckendorf hesitated. His face was still bright red from the ant spit, and he looked as if he were going to faint any minute, but he struggled to his feet. “Get ready to run,” he told us. Then he gazed across the clearing and shouted, “DRAGON! Emergency defense, beta-ACTIVATE!”
    The dragon turned toward the sound of his voice. It stopped struggling against the ants, and its eyes glowed. The air smelled of ozone, like before a thunderstorm.
    ZZZZZAAAAAPPP!
    Arcs of blue electricity shot from the dragon’s skin, rippling up and down its body and connecting with the ants. Some of the ants exploded. Others smoked and blackened, their legs twitching. In a few seconds there were no more ants on the dragon. The ones that were still alive were in full retreat, scuttling back toward their ruined hill as fingers of electricity zapped them in the butt to prod them along.
    The dragon bellowed in triumph, then it turned its glowing eyes toward us.
    “Now,” Beckendorf said, “we run.”
    This time we did not yell, “For Hephaestus!” We yelled, “Heeeeelp!”
    The dragon pounded after us, spewing fire and zapping lightning bolts over our heads like it was having a great time.
    “How do you stop it?” Annabeth yelled.
    Beckendorf, whose legs were now working fine (nothing like being chased by a huge monster to get your body back in order) shook his head and gasped for breath. “You shouldn’t have turned it on! It’s unstable! After a few years, automatons go wild!”
    “Good to know,” I yelled. “But how do you turn it off ?”
    Beckendorf looked around wildly. “There!”
    Up ahead was an outcropping of rock, almost as tall as the trees. The woods were full of weird rock formations, but I’d never seen this one before. It was shaped like a giant skateboard ramp, slanted on one side, with a sheer drop-off on the other.
    “You guys, run around to the base of the cliff,” Beckendorf said. “Distract the dragon. Keep it occupied!”
    “What are you going to do?” Silena said.
    “You’ll see. Go!”
    Beckendorf ducked behind a tree while I turned and yelled at the dragon, “Hey, lizard-lips! Your breath smells like gasoline!”
    The dragon spewed black smoke out of its nostrils. It thundered toward me, shaking the ground.
    “Come on!” Annabeth grabbed my hand. We ran for the back side of the cliff. The dragon followed.
    “We have to hold it here,” Annabeth said. The three of us readied our swords.
    The dragon reached us and lurched to a stop. It tilted its head like it couldn’t believe we’d be so foolish as to fight. Now that it had caught us, there were so many different ways it could kill us it probably couldn’t decide.
    We scattered as its first blast of fire turned the ground where we’d been standing into a smoking pit of ashes.
    Then I saw Beckendorf above us—at the top of the cliff—and I understood what he was trying to do. He needed a clear shot. I had to keep the dragon’s attention.
    “Yaaaah!” I charged. I