Celedon strength

Anyway, she had her back to us, so we had an
advantage. I was tempted to sneak up behind
her and push her off, but she was so strong I
hadn't been able to budge her before. Besides, she'd probably just turn into a bird and ...Hmm. A bird.
An idea formed in my mind. Yes, I do get
ideas sometimes.

My plan was simple: Gag the celedon. She
would turn back into a bird and try to escape. 1
would grab her and shove her into a birdcage*
What could go wrong?
On the last line of "New York, New York,” I
jumped on her back, locking my legs around
her waist and yanking the blindfold across her
mouth like a horse's bridle.
Her grand finale was cut short with a “Newr
Yor—urff!”
"Grover, now!" I yelled.
The celedon stumbled forward. I had a dizzy¬
ing view of the chaos below in Times Square-
cops trying to clear the crowd, lines of tourists
doing impromptu high-kick routines like the
Radio City Rockettes. The electronic billboards
down the side of the Times Tower looked like a
very steep, psychedelic waterslide, with nothing
but hard pavement at the bottom.

The celedon staggered backward, flailing and
mumbling through the gag
Grover desperately strummed his lyre. The
strings sent powerful magic vibrations through
the air, but Grover's voice quivered with uncer¬
tainty.
"Um, birds!” he warbled* “La, la, la! Birds in
cages! Very strong cages! Birds!”
He wasn't going to win any Gram my s with
those lyrics, and I was losing my grip. The cele¬
don was strong. Td ridden a Minotaur before,
and the golden lady was at least that hard to
hold on to.
The celedon spun around, trying to throw me*
She clamped her hands around my forearms
and squeezed. Pain shot up to my shoulders*
I yelled, “Grover, hurry! But with my teeth
clenched, the words came out more like, “Grr—
huh.”
“Birds in cages!” Grover strummed another
chord “La, la, la, cages!”
Amazingly, a birdcage shimmered into being
at the edge of the roof I was too busy getting tossed around to have a good look, but Grover
seemed to have done a good job. The cage was
just large enough for a parrot, or a fat quail, and
the bars glowed faintly ... Celestial bronze.
Now if I could just get the celedon into bird
form. Unfortunately, she wasn't cooperating.
She spun hard, breaking my grip and shoving
me over the side of the bu ilding.
I tried not to panic. Sadly, this wasn’t the first
time Id been thrown off a skyscraper.





SoA Pg.31,34