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FIC: The Necklace of Harmonia, chpt 5
Title: The Necklace of Harmonia (Daughter of Wisdom 3)
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Chiron, Clarisse La Rue, Chase family, OCs, various others, Gen with slight Percy/Annabeth
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Summary: After an eventful summer, Annabeth Chase is on her way to boarding school for the first time. With her friends Thalia and Percy close by, she's looking forward to spending the year in New York. But soon, she finds herself dealing with unfathomable dreams, tangled plots, and a mysterious necklace that keeps finding its way back to her. Worse still, her father wants her to move to the most dangerous city in the country. The choices Annabeth faces this year will have her questioning the meaning of friendship, loyalty, and family. And most of all, just what it means to keep a promise. An alternate PoV retelling of Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse. Part 3 of the Daughter of Wisdom series.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: We Get An SOS From The Desert
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Chiron, Clarisse La Rue, Gleeson Hedge, Chris Rodriguez
Word Count: 3,893
Chapter Summary: An urgent call arrives during Annabeth's first weekend break at camp.
Notes: The song Thalia sings along to is Church on Sunday by Green Day. That line just seemed particularly appropriate for age-defying Thalia!
Clarisse's reference to her chariot adventure with Percy comes, of course, from the short story, The Stolen Chariot in The Demigod Files. RR's timeline for everything isn't the easiest to make sense of; some sources indicate that all of TDF takes place between BotL and TLO, but that can't possibly be true, given the ages given for the characters in some parts (Annabeth is listed as 13 in one of the interviews, and she's clearly 15 at the end of BotL). So I'm assuming that the different snippets of TDF were taken from different time periods, and placing The Stolen Chariot between SoM and TC. This makes the most sense, since Clarisse indicates that driving the war chariot is a ritual for Ares's sons (and presumably daughters) when they turn fifteen. I've always pegged Clarisse as a year or so older than Percy and Annabeth, since she's described as thirteen or fourteen in LT.
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I was glad when the weekend finally arrived. Not only did it mean we'd made it through the first week of school (fortunately without any further demerits), it also meant we could go home. Well, to camp, which was as good as home.
It was with a light heart that Thalia and I signed ourselves out from campus after breakfast on Saturday morning. Argus met us in the same van he used to deliver strawberries to the city. He didn't say anything (the eyes on his tongue made him shy to speak) but he winked at us when we got in the cab-which for him meant shutting all the eyes on one side of his body in unison.
Thalia perked up with every mile we drove away from St Catherine's. She was looking more like herself today, in her old army jacket and favourite Green Day t-shirt. She hummed and tapped her feet in an off-beat against the car mat. As we turned down Old Farm Road, she rolled down the windows and belted out, 'I'm not getting any younger as long as you don't get any older!'
She nudged me. 'Come on, Annabeth.'
'I don't know that song.'
'Seriously? We need to do something about your rock knowledge …'
When we arrived at camp, Chiron was clopping around the front porch of the Big House with a pair of pruning shears, trimming the bushes that framed the farmhouse. He straightened when he saw us and shoved the shears into the tool pocket of the gardening apron he was wearing over his PONIES CONVENTION '03 shirt.
'Annabeth, my dear! And Thalia-welcome back!' He held out his arm to shake our hands, then realised that his were crusted with soil. He wiped them on his apron. 'How is school?'
Thalia and I exchanged a look.
'Ah.' Chiron winced. 'I see. I imagine the first week is a difficult adjustment. And mortal school is always a challenge for most demigods. Do not be downhearted, my dears.'
'It's fine,' Thalia muttered. 'I'm not downhearted.'
Chiron nodded. 'Annabeth, would you mind if I had a chat with Thalia? There are a few things we need to discuss in private. We can all catch up afterwards.'
I looked at Thalia, who shrugged. 'Okay,' I said. 'See you later.'
Chiron put his arm around Thalia's shoulder and steered her into the Big House. I hoped she'd tell him about Luke's photographs. Chiron might be able to help her sort out her confusion. At the very least, he would warn her about just how devious Kronos could be.
Morning fog curled over the tops of the strawberry field. A dryad skipped across it, her leafy hair beginning to redden with fall colour, but no one else was in sight.
The emptiness was disconcerting. Fall at camp was always quieter than summer, but there were usually enough year-rounders that someone was bound to be out of doors playing volleyball, or flying pegasi, or (particularly if you were a Demeter kid or Dionysus's twins) puttering around in the strawberry fields. I knew more campers had headed out into the world to help the satyrs recruit new half-bloods this year, but knowing something and actually seeing its effects were two different things.
I crossed the lawn to the cabins. The lights were on in several of them-Ares, Apollo, and my own cabin six-but only one or two heads were visible through each window. The fire in the central hearth was blazing merrily, tended by a rosy-cheeked girl no older than eight. I'd seen her before, but she wasn't a camper. A nymph, maybe, or a spirit. She appeared from time to time, but there was always a faint, ethereal quality to her, like she wasn't all fully formed. The only time I'd ever seen her looking completely solid was on my first day at camp.
The hearth-tender looked at me, gave a small, sweet smile, and vanished.
The door to cabin four opened and Clarisse stepped out. Her head was turned over her shoulder to shout at someone inside, '… until you pass Dad's rite of passage!'
She slammed the door behind her and jogged down the porch steps. A sword swung from her belt, clinking against the bronze breastplate she was wearing over her orange camp t-shirt.
'Hi Clarisse,' I said.
All the Ares kids had a mean streak in them, like their father, and as their head counsellor, Clarisse was the biggest and meanest of the lot. But she was also, in a weird way, my friend. We had helped her last year on her quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Since then, her regular threats to pulverise Percy and me (not that she'd ever succeeded) had become perfunctory rather than hateful.
Clarisse didn't look particularly surprised to see me. 'Oh, it's you,' she said. 'Should've known you'd pop up at some point, too.'
Too?
'Well, since you're here,' she lifted her sword slightly, 'wanna come get pulverised?'
I rolled my eyes. 'In your dreams, Clarisse. Give me five minutes.'
Clarisse laughed and bumped me with her shoulder, hard enough to leave a bruise. 'See you at the arena.'
Ten minutes later, I had deposited my weekend bag on my bunk (I said a quick hello to Malcolm Pace, the only Athena kid staying the year) and picked up a sword and breastplate from the armoury (Charles Beckendorf, who was hammering away at the forge next door, waved at me as I passed). Weapon in hand, I faced off with Clarisse on the floor of the sword-fighting arena.
The sword wasn't really either of our weapon of choice. For years, I'd trained with my dagger, the same one Luke had gifted me on our first meeting, while Clarisse favoured her spear (or her own bare fists). But all the best heroes were good all-rounders. We had a few good bouts before retiring to the canoe lake to cool off.
'You're not half bad, Chase,' Clarisse said grudgingly as she poured handfuls of fresh water over her head.
'Not half bad?' I crossed my arms. 'I wiped the floor with you!'
'You wish you did.' Clarisse shook her dripping hair. A moment later, she admitted, 'There aren't many kids who're more of a challenge than you.'
It was possibly the closest Clarisse would ever come to a compliment. I grinned and dipped my legs in the cool lake. 'What did you mean earlier, when you said you expected me to pop up, too?'
'Oh. I ran into Prissy the other day.'
'Priss-you mean Percy?' My heart did a somersault. 'Percy was here?'
'Not here. I wasn't at camp.' Clarisse tossed her head proudly. 'My dad gave me the keys to his chariot.'
'Ares's war chariot?'
'It's a rite of passage when we turn fifteen-for the boys, anyway.' She scowled a little at the unfairness of this, then said with satisfaction, 'I'm the first girl to get a go in years.'
As Clarisse had turned fifteen nearly a year ago, I guessed it wasn't her birthday that had earned her this honour. She must have gained her dad's approval with the successful completion of her quest last summer.
'How did Percy get involved, then?' Somehow, I couldn't imagine that Clarisse would have swung by Manhattan on her first test drive of Ares's war chariot to take Percy on a joyride. Aside from the fact that she liked to pretend they were arch-nemeses, Percy and Ares actually were sworn enemies.
'He was butting in as usual,' Clarisse sniffed, though I noticed that her ears were slightly red. 'Ran into some-er-technical issues in his school's back yard. He just had to stick his nose in. Typical Prissy.'
'Uh-huh.' From her evasive tone (and knowing Percy), I guessed the technical issues had involved a monster or two. I would've bet a hundred drachmas that Percy had saved Clarisse's ass. Not that she'd ever admit it.
Before I could press her for details, the air over the lake shimmered, just as it had in my dorm room when Percy had IM-ed me. Several naiads skimming the lake surface scattered in alarm as a short, buff satyr with a curly goatee and a giant club appeared inches above them. He was supporting an unconscious kid in full battle armour-not just a breastplate like we were wearing, but also greaves strapped to his legs and a plumed helmet that covered half his face.
'Hedge?' Clarisse sprang to her feet. 'What's wrong? Who-'
The satyr, Hedge, shifted the burlap bag slung around his shoulders and lifted the head of the unconscious boy leaning against him. The boy's helmet tipped up, giving us a good look at his face.
Clarisse turned pale.
'That's Chris Rodriguez!' I said, stunned. He was-well, he'd been an undetermined camper a year ago, until he'd left camp to join Luke's army. 'What happened to him?'
'Are you under attack?' Clarisse asked.
'Nah, I took out the monster dogs.' Hedge dropped Chris and struck a threatening pose with his club. He feigned a swing and a couple of karate kicks, as if demonstrating how he'd single-handedly fought off the monster horde.
'But where did you find him?' I asked. 'Did the monsters get him?' It didn't make sense. If Chris was working for Kronos, why would he have drawn a monster attack? Unless he'd been with the monsters …
'He was just wandering around in the middle of the desert!' Hedge said. 'I didn't notice him at first-there was this lady surrounded by orange dogs, so I jumped right in to help, of course.' He threw another pretend punch at an invisible monster dog. 'Hai-yah! They didn't stand a chance once I got going.'
'What other lady?'
At the same time, Clarisse asked, 'What are you doing in the middle of the desert?'
Hedge tugged at the collar of his lime-green polo shirt. 'Oh, um-it's the weekend, you know, I get a break from scouting. There may have been a date with a nephele, and another one may have gotten jealous and dropped me over the rez …'
None of this made any sense to me. 'What about the lady?' I repeated.
'Dunno, she disappeared when I was pulverising the dogs. Maybe she was one of those desert Mist things.'
'A mirage?'
'Yeah, that. She could've given the nephelae a run for their money.' He looked disappointed that she hadn't been real.
'But what about Chris?' Clarisse demanded. 'What's he doing in Arizona?'
'Beats me. I only noticed him after I got rid of the dogs. Hard to miss him then-walking around in circles and babbling like a whackjob.'
The reddish tint of Chris's light brown skin took on a more dire meaning. If they were in the middle of the desert in late summer, he had to be practically melting in his heavy Greek armour. 'Did he pass out from heatstroke or something?'
'Eh?' Hedge glanced at Chris as though just realising that he was unconscious. 'Oh. That might've been me.' He held up his hands defensively. 'He was totally whacked out! Kept shaking me and muttering about string. Had to knock him out to drag him back to civilisation. Anyway,' he crossed his arms and glared at us, 'what should I do about him?'
'Can't you bring him back to camp?' Even as I said it, I realised it might not be the best idea. Chris had run away from camp, after all. What good would bringing him back do? Would he even stay once he came to his senses?
Chris gave a soft moan. His eyelids fluttered, but didn't lift.
'Chris?' Clarisse said. Her voice was strangely tentative. 'Can you hear us?'
Chris made an indistinct rasping noise. Hedge dug into his burlap bag and came up with a bottle of amber liquid, which he tipped into Chris's open mouth.
'Are you crazy?' I demanded. 'He can't take that much nectar at once!'
'It's not nectar, it's one of my homemade remedies,' Hedge snapped. 'Bit of birch sap mixed with Gatorade. Does wonders-see?'
'Need … the … string,' Chris gasped. He sat up so quickly, Hedge had to jump back to avoid being smacked in the chest by his helmet.
'Chris!' Clarisse leaned towards the Iris-message. 'Chris, it's me-'
But Chris backed away on his hands and knees, his eyes wide and fearful. 'You're not real, you're not real,' he babbled.
Hedge put his hand on Chris's shoulder. 'Relax, kid, it's just-ouch!' He withdrew his hand quickly as Chris turned his head and tried to bite it.
'Mary!' Chris yelled. He grabbed the hem of Hedge's shirt and yanked him back and forth. 'You have to help me! I have to find the string. I'll never get out of here if I don't-I have to find the string!'
'What string is he talking about?' I asked.
'No-blasted-clue-' Hedge tried in vain to tug his shirt out of Chris's grip. He finally lifted his club and gave Chris a big clunk on the head.
'String,' Chris repeated dizzily, and collapsed to the ground.
'See what I mean?' Hedge said.
I glanced at Clarisse. All the colour had drained out of her face. I couldn't understand why she looked so worried. I mean, this wasn't good, but she looked as if she'd been made an ambassador for peace or something-like the world as she knew it had ended.
'We have to tell Chiron,' I said. 'He'll know what to do.'
'Fine. You do that,' Hedge growled. 'But get back to me pronto. I'm gonna look for a place to hide him, but I can't very well bring him to school, and-oh blast, I'm losing the rainbow.'
Sure enough, the image warped, throwing Hedge and Chris out of focus.
'Go to my mom's place,' Clarisse said, recovering from her shock. 'Bring him there and we'll get to you-'
The Iris-message fizzled out.
We ran for the Big House. Chiron and Thalia were sitting (well, standing, in his case) at the card table on the back porch. From the grin on Thalia's face and the fond, reminiscent expression on Chiron's, they had moved on from any serious topics they might have been discussing earlier.
Thalia spotted us first. Her amusement faded the moment she saw our faces.
Chiron set his coffee mug down on the card table. 'What is it, Annabeth?'
We explained about Hedge's Iris-message and Chris's predicament. Chiron's thick eyebrows grew increasingly furrowed as he listened, until they almost made a single line across his forehead.
'This is troubling news indeed. Chris Rodriguez, did you say? Yes, I remember him.'
'Which one was he?' Thalia asked.
'You wouldn't have met him,' I said. 'He left camp before you returned. We saw him last on Luke's ship, when we were heading for the Sea of Monsters.'
Chiron tugged on his scraggly brown beard. 'And you say he appeared quite mad?'
'Raving!' Clarisse said. 'He didn't seem to see any of us at all. Kept moaning about string and-' I had never heard Clarisse's voice shake so badly before, 'he mentioned Mary.'
The blood drained from Chiron's face. 'It cannot be,' he said, and he seemed now to be muttering to himself. 'A ghost, perhaps? But that would mean Lord Hades-unless …' He shook his head sharply and, without explaining any of this, said, 'It may not be feasible to bring him back to camp.'
'But we can't leave him to die!' Clarisse protested.
I stared at her. Not that I disagreed-enemy or not, it would be wrong to leave a fellow half-blood for dead-but last summer, Clarisse had been all for slaughtering the rebel half-bloods who had betrayed us. I didn't expect her to stick up for Chris all of a sudden.
'No, of course not, child,' Chiron said gently. 'But it does not sound like he would be ready to make such a long journey right now. Assuming we can ascertain that he has a desire to do so.'
'I told Hedge to take him to my mom's place in Phoenix.'
'Yes, that's not a bad idea.' Chiron rubbed his chin. 'Can your mother care for him, then?'
Clarisse frowned. 'I don't know. I don't think she's on assignment at the moment. Fine-I know. I'll go home. If I can borrow my dad's chariot again, I could get there in two days.'
Thalia raised her eyebrows. 'You're just going to run off to help a crazy person who, as far as we know, is working for Kronos?'
Clarisse rounded on her. 'You don't understand! Chris isn't-he-if he's seen Ma-' She crossed her arms and stamped her foot on the ground. 'I have to speak to him.'
I didn't know whether to be amused or horrified by the idea that was forming in my head. The thought of Clarisse caring about anyone the way Thalia and I cared about Luke was so foreign, I almost dismissed it right away. But I knew the look on Clarisse's face all too well. I'd worn it myself often enough-most recently when Thalia had shown me Luke's photos and I'd entertained the brief, tantalising hope that he might return to us.
'We need to find out what is behind all of this,' Chiron said. 'It may be our chance to learn the Titan lord's plans-or one of them, at least. I do not doubt that he has several up his chiton. The whole situation is disturbing. I think …' He shook his head. 'No, I should not speculate until we have more answers. Clarisse, if you are indeed willing-'
'I'm gonna go pack.' With another glare at Thalia and me, she stalked off towards the cabins, muttering, 'Phobos and Deimos better not show up this time.'
'I don't get it. What's going on? And who's Mary?' Thalia looked at me expectantly.
I shrugged. I'd never heard of anyone named Mary either. 'Maybe it was the lady Hedge saw with him. The one who disappeared.
'I don't think so. Mary was …' Chiron shook his head. 'I will leave it for Clarisse to decide if she is willing to share that story,' he said. 'In the meantime, it would be best not to discuss the matter until we learn more about what is happening. We shall see soon enough what Clarisse discovers in Arizona.'
He gave Thalia and me a stern look. We nodded quickly. Thalia mimed pulling a zipper across her mouth.
'Well, then, there are some matters I must attend to before our lessons this afternoon. The nymphs should be serving lunch right about now. Annabeth, you are welcome to join us later if you wish.' He nodded to Thalia and me and trotted indoors.
The nymphs were indeed serving up platters of bread, fruit, and cheese in the dining pavilion. After scraping our usual offerings into the bronze braziers (I burnt my mom extra portions to make up for the times I couldn't do it at school), I joined Thalia at the Zeus table. It wasn't like there were enough of us around for anyone to care about the seating rules.
'So what did you and Chiron talk about?' I asked Thalia. 'Did he tell you about Kr-the Titan lord?'
'Actually …' Thalia raised a goblet of apple juice to her lips and took a long sip. 'He told me about Luke. About when he was here.'
I didn't know what to say to this. In the silence, I took a small bite of cheese.
'I thought he'd be really angry at Luke, after-after-you know. But he wasn't. He seemed really worried about him, too.'
'Chiron cares about all of us.'
Thalia put down her goblet. It made a wet ring on the stone table. 'Yeah. I got that. He's okay, I guess. I was a bit mad at him before, for wanting to keep me here, like I should just train up for the prophecy like a good little girl, but it wasn't really like that at all. He just wants to help me catch up on stuff you guys got to learn when I was stuck as a tree. That's what the private training is for.'
'Are you going to stay here now, then? I mean, since you hate school and all.' I wondered what I would do if she did. After all the pleading I'd done to get my dad to send me to St Catherine's, what would he think if I dropped out after only a week? And where would I go if I did?
Thalia made another ring on the table, next to the first, and drew a line connecting them, like a pair of handcuffs. 'I could stay,' she admitted, 'but it'd just be like last summer. After a while, I needed to leave. I know this place is home for you, Annabeth, but it's different for me. I just don't feel like I've found where I belong.' She erased her drawings, leaving a smeared wet patch on the stone. 'Maybe it doesn't even matter. Maybe I won't be around long anyway.'
My cheese tasted like it had turned to ash in my mouth. 'Don't say that.'
'It's true, isn't it?'
'Maybe not. Maybe there's a way, a loophole or something-' But nothing came to mind. Prophecies were worse than oaths on the Styx; you could break the latter if you were willing to risk the alternative of being cursed. But you couldn't thwart a prophecy. Greek mythology was full of stories about heroes who had fulfilled a prophecy simply by trying to avoid it. There was this one king, for instance, who'd left his son to die when an Oracle prophesied that the baby would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. That son had later grown up with foster parents, and on hearing the same prophecy, left home to avoid it. During his travels, he'd ended up killing a stranger, saving a kingdom, and marrying its widowed queen. I'm sure I don't need to tell you who the stranger and the queen were.
The point was, if the prophecy foretold that Thalia's soul would be reaped by a cursed blade, her efforts to avoid said blade would probably just lead her to a different cursed blade-maybe even earlier than we'd otherwise expect.
I didn't know how Thalia dealt with it. Maybe the same way I did-pretend like it wasn't there hanging over our heads. At least Thalia was here now, very much alive, and if our time was limited … well, this was the story of my life, after all. Nothing really lasted-not situations, not homes, and not people. Nothing was eternal, unless you were a god. And with Kronos and his festering plots, maybe not even for them.
Maybe that was why Thalia couldn't figure out where she belonged. Camp had at least established some permanence in my life. For her, everything was temporary.
A wry smile twisted across Thalia's face. 'Don't worry, Annabeth,' she said. 'I won't go down without a fight. And if that's what it comes to, I'll take him down with me.'
Continue to chapter 6
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Chiron, Clarisse La Rue, Chase family, OCs, various others, Gen with slight Percy/Annabeth
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Summary: After an eventful summer, Annabeth Chase is on her way to boarding school for the first time. With her friends Thalia and Percy close by, she's looking forward to spending the year in New York. But soon, she finds herself dealing with unfathomable dreams, tangled plots, and a mysterious necklace that keeps finding its way back to her. Worse still, her father wants her to move to the most dangerous city in the country. The choices Annabeth faces this year will have her questioning the meaning of friendship, loyalty, and family. And most of all, just what it means to keep a promise. An alternate PoV retelling of Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse. Part 3 of the Daughter of Wisdom series.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: We Get An SOS From The Desert
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Chiron, Clarisse La Rue, Gleeson Hedge, Chris Rodriguez
Word Count: 3,893
Chapter Summary: An urgent call arrives during Annabeth's first weekend break at camp.
Notes: The song Thalia sings along to is Church on Sunday by Green Day. That line just seemed particularly appropriate for age-defying Thalia!
Clarisse's reference to her chariot adventure with Percy comes, of course, from the short story, The Stolen Chariot in The Demigod Files. RR's timeline for everything isn't the easiest to make sense of; some sources indicate that all of TDF takes place between BotL and TLO, but that can't possibly be true, given the ages given for the characters in some parts (Annabeth is listed as 13 in one of the interviews, and she's clearly 15 at the end of BotL). So I'm assuming that the different snippets of TDF were taken from different time periods, and placing The Stolen Chariot between SoM and TC. This makes the most sense, since Clarisse indicates that driving the war chariot is a ritual for Ares's sons (and presumably daughters) when they turn fifteen. I've always pegged Clarisse as a year or so older than Percy and Annabeth, since she's described as thirteen or fourteen in LT.
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I was glad when the weekend finally arrived. Not only did it mean we'd made it through the first week of school (fortunately without any further demerits), it also meant we could go home. Well, to camp, which was as good as home.
It was with a light heart that Thalia and I signed ourselves out from campus after breakfast on Saturday morning. Argus met us in the same van he used to deliver strawberries to the city. He didn't say anything (the eyes on his tongue made him shy to speak) but he winked at us when we got in the cab-which for him meant shutting all the eyes on one side of his body in unison.
Thalia perked up with every mile we drove away from St Catherine's. She was looking more like herself today, in her old army jacket and favourite Green Day t-shirt. She hummed and tapped her feet in an off-beat against the car mat. As we turned down Old Farm Road, she rolled down the windows and belted out, 'I'm not getting any younger as long as you don't get any older!'
She nudged me. 'Come on, Annabeth.'
'I don't know that song.'
'Seriously? We need to do something about your rock knowledge …'
When we arrived at camp, Chiron was clopping around the front porch of the Big House with a pair of pruning shears, trimming the bushes that framed the farmhouse. He straightened when he saw us and shoved the shears into the tool pocket of the gardening apron he was wearing over his PONIES CONVENTION '03 shirt.
'Annabeth, my dear! And Thalia-welcome back!' He held out his arm to shake our hands, then realised that his were crusted with soil. He wiped them on his apron. 'How is school?'
Thalia and I exchanged a look.
'Ah.' Chiron winced. 'I see. I imagine the first week is a difficult adjustment. And mortal school is always a challenge for most demigods. Do not be downhearted, my dears.'
'It's fine,' Thalia muttered. 'I'm not downhearted.'
Chiron nodded. 'Annabeth, would you mind if I had a chat with Thalia? There are a few things we need to discuss in private. We can all catch up afterwards.'
I looked at Thalia, who shrugged. 'Okay,' I said. 'See you later.'
Chiron put his arm around Thalia's shoulder and steered her into the Big House. I hoped she'd tell him about Luke's photographs. Chiron might be able to help her sort out her confusion. At the very least, he would warn her about just how devious Kronos could be.
Morning fog curled over the tops of the strawberry field. A dryad skipped across it, her leafy hair beginning to redden with fall colour, but no one else was in sight.
The emptiness was disconcerting. Fall at camp was always quieter than summer, but there were usually enough year-rounders that someone was bound to be out of doors playing volleyball, or flying pegasi, or (particularly if you were a Demeter kid or Dionysus's twins) puttering around in the strawberry fields. I knew more campers had headed out into the world to help the satyrs recruit new half-bloods this year, but knowing something and actually seeing its effects were two different things.
I crossed the lawn to the cabins. The lights were on in several of them-Ares, Apollo, and my own cabin six-but only one or two heads were visible through each window. The fire in the central hearth was blazing merrily, tended by a rosy-cheeked girl no older than eight. I'd seen her before, but she wasn't a camper. A nymph, maybe, or a spirit. She appeared from time to time, but there was always a faint, ethereal quality to her, like she wasn't all fully formed. The only time I'd ever seen her looking completely solid was on my first day at camp.
The hearth-tender looked at me, gave a small, sweet smile, and vanished.
The door to cabin four opened and Clarisse stepped out. Her head was turned over her shoulder to shout at someone inside, '… until you pass Dad's rite of passage!'
She slammed the door behind her and jogged down the porch steps. A sword swung from her belt, clinking against the bronze breastplate she was wearing over her orange camp t-shirt.
'Hi Clarisse,' I said.
All the Ares kids had a mean streak in them, like their father, and as their head counsellor, Clarisse was the biggest and meanest of the lot. But she was also, in a weird way, my friend. We had helped her last year on her quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Since then, her regular threats to pulverise Percy and me (not that she'd ever succeeded) had become perfunctory rather than hateful.
Clarisse didn't look particularly surprised to see me. 'Oh, it's you,' she said. 'Should've known you'd pop up at some point, too.'
Too?
'Well, since you're here,' she lifted her sword slightly, 'wanna come get pulverised?'
I rolled my eyes. 'In your dreams, Clarisse. Give me five minutes.'
Clarisse laughed and bumped me with her shoulder, hard enough to leave a bruise. 'See you at the arena.'
Ten minutes later, I had deposited my weekend bag on my bunk (I said a quick hello to Malcolm Pace, the only Athena kid staying the year) and picked up a sword and breastplate from the armoury (Charles Beckendorf, who was hammering away at the forge next door, waved at me as I passed). Weapon in hand, I faced off with Clarisse on the floor of the sword-fighting arena.
The sword wasn't really either of our weapon of choice. For years, I'd trained with my dagger, the same one Luke had gifted me on our first meeting, while Clarisse favoured her spear (or her own bare fists). But all the best heroes were good all-rounders. We had a few good bouts before retiring to the canoe lake to cool off.
'You're not half bad, Chase,' Clarisse said grudgingly as she poured handfuls of fresh water over her head.
'Not half bad?' I crossed my arms. 'I wiped the floor with you!'
'You wish you did.' Clarisse shook her dripping hair. A moment later, she admitted, 'There aren't many kids who're more of a challenge than you.'
It was possibly the closest Clarisse would ever come to a compliment. I grinned and dipped my legs in the cool lake. 'What did you mean earlier, when you said you expected me to pop up, too?'
'Oh. I ran into Prissy the other day.'
'Priss-you mean Percy?' My heart did a somersault. 'Percy was here?'
'Not here. I wasn't at camp.' Clarisse tossed her head proudly. 'My dad gave me the keys to his chariot.'
'Ares's war chariot?'
'It's a rite of passage when we turn fifteen-for the boys, anyway.' She scowled a little at the unfairness of this, then said with satisfaction, 'I'm the first girl to get a go in years.'
As Clarisse had turned fifteen nearly a year ago, I guessed it wasn't her birthday that had earned her this honour. She must have gained her dad's approval with the successful completion of her quest last summer.
'How did Percy get involved, then?' Somehow, I couldn't imagine that Clarisse would have swung by Manhattan on her first test drive of Ares's war chariot to take Percy on a joyride. Aside from the fact that she liked to pretend they were arch-nemeses, Percy and Ares actually were sworn enemies.
'He was butting in as usual,' Clarisse sniffed, though I noticed that her ears were slightly red. 'Ran into some-er-technical issues in his school's back yard. He just had to stick his nose in. Typical Prissy.'
'Uh-huh.' From her evasive tone (and knowing Percy), I guessed the technical issues had involved a monster or two. I would've bet a hundred drachmas that Percy had saved Clarisse's ass. Not that she'd ever admit it.
Before I could press her for details, the air over the lake shimmered, just as it had in my dorm room when Percy had IM-ed me. Several naiads skimming the lake surface scattered in alarm as a short, buff satyr with a curly goatee and a giant club appeared inches above them. He was supporting an unconscious kid in full battle armour-not just a breastplate like we were wearing, but also greaves strapped to his legs and a plumed helmet that covered half his face.
'Hedge?' Clarisse sprang to her feet. 'What's wrong? Who-'
The satyr, Hedge, shifted the burlap bag slung around his shoulders and lifted the head of the unconscious boy leaning against him. The boy's helmet tipped up, giving us a good look at his face.
Clarisse turned pale.
'That's Chris Rodriguez!' I said, stunned. He was-well, he'd been an undetermined camper a year ago, until he'd left camp to join Luke's army. 'What happened to him?'
'Are you under attack?' Clarisse asked.
'Nah, I took out the monster dogs.' Hedge dropped Chris and struck a threatening pose with his club. He feigned a swing and a couple of karate kicks, as if demonstrating how he'd single-handedly fought off the monster horde.
'But where did you find him?' I asked. 'Did the monsters get him?' It didn't make sense. If Chris was working for Kronos, why would he have drawn a monster attack? Unless he'd been with the monsters …
'He was just wandering around in the middle of the desert!' Hedge said. 'I didn't notice him at first-there was this lady surrounded by orange dogs, so I jumped right in to help, of course.' He threw another pretend punch at an invisible monster dog. 'Hai-yah! They didn't stand a chance once I got going.'
'What other lady?'
At the same time, Clarisse asked, 'What are you doing in the middle of the desert?'
Hedge tugged at the collar of his lime-green polo shirt. 'Oh, um-it's the weekend, you know, I get a break from scouting. There may have been a date with a nephele, and another one may have gotten jealous and dropped me over the rez …'
None of this made any sense to me. 'What about the lady?' I repeated.
'Dunno, she disappeared when I was pulverising the dogs. Maybe she was one of those desert Mist things.'
'A mirage?'
'Yeah, that. She could've given the nephelae a run for their money.' He looked disappointed that she hadn't been real.
'But what about Chris?' Clarisse demanded. 'What's he doing in Arizona?'
'Beats me. I only noticed him after I got rid of the dogs. Hard to miss him then-walking around in circles and babbling like a whackjob.'
The reddish tint of Chris's light brown skin took on a more dire meaning. If they were in the middle of the desert in late summer, he had to be practically melting in his heavy Greek armour. 'Did he pass out from heatstroke or something?'
'Eh?' Hedge glanced at Chris as though just realising that he was unconscious. 'Oh. That might've been me.' He held up his hands defensively. 'He was totally whacked out! Kept shaking me and muttering about string. Had to knock him out to drag him back to civilisation. Anyway,' he crossed his arms and glared at us, 'what should I do about him?'
'Can't you bring him back to camp?' Even as I said it, I realised it might not be the best idea. Chris had run away from camp, after all. What good would bringing him back do? Would he even stay once he came to his senses?
Chris gave a soft moan. His eyelids fluttered, but didn't lift.
'Chris?' Clarisse said. Her voice was strangely tentative. 'Can you hear us?'
Chris made an indistinct rasping noise. Hedge dug into his burlap bag and came up with a bottle of amber liquid, which he tipped into Chris's open mouth.
'Are you crazy?' I demanded. 'He can't take that much nectar at once!'
'It's not nectar, it's one of my homemade remedies,' Hedge snapped. 'Bit of birch sap mixed with Gatorade. Does wonders-see?'
'Need … the … string,' Chris gasped. He sat up so quickly, Hedge had to jump back to avoid being smacked in the chest by his helmet.
'Chris!' Clarisse leaned towards the Iris-message. 'Chris, it's me-'
But Chris backed away on his hands and knees, his eyes wide and fearful. 'You're not real, you're not real,' he babbled.
Hedge put his hand on Chris's shoulder. 'Relax, kid, it's just-ouch!' He withdrew his hand quickly as Chris turned his head and tried to bite it.
'Mary!' Chris yelled. He grabbed the hem of Hedge's shirt and yanked him back and forth. 'You have to help me! I have to find the string. I'll never get out of here if I don't-I have to find the string!'
'What string is he talking about?' I asked.
'No-blasted-clue-' Hedge tried in vain to tug his shirt out of Chris's grip. He finally lifted his club and gave Chris a big clunk on the head.
'String,' Chris repeated dizzily, and collapsed to the ground.
'See what I mean?' Hedge said.
I glanced at Clarisse. All the colour had drained out of her face. I couldn't understand why she looked so worried. I mean, this wasn't good, but she looked as if she'd been made an ambassador for peace or something-like the world as she knew it had ended.
'We have to tell Chiron,' I said. 'He'll know what to do.'
'Fine. You do that,' Hedge growled. 'But get back to me pronto. I'm gonna look for a place to hide him, but I can't very well bring him to school, and-oh blast, I'm losing the rainbow.'
Sure enough, the image warped, throwing Hedge and Chris out of focus.
'Go to my mom's place,' Clarisse said, recovering from her shock. 'Bring him there and we'll get to you-'
The Iris-message fizzled out.
We ran for the Big House. Chiron and Thalia were sitting (well, standing, in his case) at the card table on the back porch. From the grin on Thalia's face and the fond, reminiscent expression on Chiron's, they had moved on from any serious topics they might have been discussing earlier.
Thalia spotted us first. Her amusement faded the moment she saw our faces.
Chiron set his coffee mug down on the card table. 'What is it, Annabeth?'
We explained about Hedge's Iris-message and Chris's predicament. Chiron's thick eyebrows grew increasingly furrowed as he listened, until they almost made a single line across his forehead.
'This is troubling news indeed. Chris Rodriguez, did you say? Yes, I remember him.'
'Which one was he?' Thalia asked.
'You wouldn't have met him,' I said. 'He left camp before you returned. We saw him last on Luke's ship, when we were heading for the Sea of Monsters.'
Chiron tugged on his scraggly brown beard. 'And you say he appeared quite mad?'
'Raving!' Clarisse said. 'He didn't seem to see any of us at all. Kept moaning about string and-' I had never heard Clarisse's voice shake so badly before, 'he mentioned Mary.'
The blood drained from Chiron's face. 'It cannot be,' he said, and he seemed now to be muttering to himself. 'A ghost, perhaps? But that would mean Lord Hades-unless …' He shook his head sharply and, without explaining any of this, said, 'It may not be feasible to bring him back to camp.'
'But we can't leave him to die!' Clarisse protested.
I stared at her. Not that I disagreed-enemy or not, it would be wrong to leave a fellow half-blood for dead-but last summer, Clarisse had been all for slaughtering the rebel half-bloods who had betrayed us. I didn't expect her to stick up for Chris all of a sudden.
'No, of course not, child,' Chiron said gently. 'But it does not sound like he would be ready to make such a long journey right now. Assuming we can ascertain that he has a desire to do so.'
'I told Hedge to take him to my mom's place in Phoenix.'
'Yes, that's not a bad idea.' Chiron rubbed his chin. 'Can your mother care for him, then?'
Clarisse frowned. 'I don't know. I don't think she's on assignment at the moment. Fine-I know. I'll go home. If I can borrow my dad's chariot again, I could get there in two days.'
Thalia raised her eyebrows. 'You're just going to run off to help a crazy person who, as far as we know, is working for Kronos?'
Clarisse rounded on her. 'You don't understand! Chris isn't-he-if he's seen Ma-' She crossed her arms and stamped her foot on the ground. 'I have to speak to him.'
I didn't know whether to be amused or horrified by the idea that was forming in my head. The thought of Clarisse caring about anyone the way Thalia and I cared about Luke was so foreign, I almost dismissed it right away. But I knew the look on Clarisse's face all too well. I'd worn it myself often enough-most recently when Thalia had shown me Luke's photos and I'd entertained the brief, tantalising hope that he might return to us.
'We need to find out what is behind all of this,' Chiron said. 'It may be our chance to learn the Titan lord's plans-or one of them, at least. I do not doubt that he has several up his chiton. The whole situation is disturbing. I think …' He shook his head. 'No, I should not speculate until we have more answers. Clarisse, if you are indeed willing-'
'I'm gonna go pack.' With another glare at Thalia and me, she stalked off towards the cabins, muttering, 'Phobos and Deimos better not show up this time.'
'I don't get it. What's going on? And who's Mary?' Thalia looked at me expectantly.
I shrugged. I'd never heard of anyone named Mary either. 'Maybe it was the lady Hedge saw with him. The one who disappeared.
'I don't think so. Mary was …' Chiron shook his head. 'I will leave it for Clarisse to decide if she is willing to share that story,' he said. 'In the meantime, it would be best not to discuss the matter until we learn more about what is happening. We shall see soon enough what Clarisse discovers in Arizona.'
He gave Thalia and me a stern look. We nodded quickly. Thalia mimed pulling a zipper across her mouth.
'Well, then, there are some matters I must attend to before our lessons this afternoon. The nymphs should be serving lunch right about now. Annabeth, you are welcome to join us later if you wish.' He nodded to Thalia and me and trotted indoors.
The nymphs were indeed serving up platters of bread, fruit, and cheese in the dining pavilion. After scraping our usual offerings into the bronze braziers (I burnt my mom extra portions to make up for the times I couldn't do it at school), I joined Thalia at the Zeus table. It wasn't like there were enough of us around for anyone to care about the seating rules.
'So what did you and Chiron talk about?' I asked Thalia. 'Did he tell you about Kr-the Titan lord?'
'Actually …' Thalia raised a goblet of apple juice to her lips and took a long sip. 'He told me about Luke. About when he was here.'
I didn't know what to say to this. In the silence, I took a small bite of cheese.
'I thought he'd be really angry at Luke, after-after-you know. But he wasn't. He seemed really worried about him, too.'
'Chiron cares about all of us.'
Thalia put down her goblet. It made a wet ring on the stone table. 'Yeah. I got that. He's okay, I guess. I was a bit mad at him before, for wanting to keep me here, like I should just train up for the prophecy like a good little girl, but it wasn't really like that at all. He just wants to help me catch up on stuff you guys got to learn when I was stuck as a tree. That's what the private training is for.'
'Are you going to stay here now, then? I mean, since you hate school and all.' I wondered what I would do if she did. After all the pleading I'd done to get my dad to send me to St Catherine's, what would he think if I dropped out after only a week? And where would I go if I did?
Thalia made another ring on the table, next to the first, and drew a line connecting them, like a pair of handcuffs. 'I could stay,' she admitted, 'but it'd just be like last summer. After a while, I needed to leave. I know this place is home for you, Annabeth, but it's different for me. I just don't feel like I've found where I belong.' She erased her drawings, leaving a smeared wet patch on the stone. 'Maybe it doesn't even matter. Maybe I won't be around long anyway.'
My cheese tasted like it had turned to ash in my mouth. 'Don't say that.'
'It's true, isn't it?'
'Maybe not. Maybe there's a way, a loophole or something-' But nothing came to mind. Prophecies were worse than oaths on the Styx; you could break the latter if you were willing to risk the alternative of being cursed. But you couldn't thwart a prophecy. Greek mythology was full of stories about heroes who had fulfilled a prophecy simply by trying to avoid it. There was this one king, for instance, who'd left his son to die when an Oracle prophesied that the baby would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. That son had later grown up with foster parents, and on hearing the same prophecy, left home to avoid it. During his travels, he'd ended up killing a stranger, saving a kingdom, and marrying its widowed queen. I'm sure I don't need to tell you who the stranger and the queen were.
The point was, if the prophecy foretold that Thalia's soul would be reaped by a cursed blade, her efforts to avoid said blade would probably just lead her to a different cursed blade-maybe even earlier than we'd otherwise expect.
I didn't know how Thalia dealt with it. Maybe the same way I did-pretend like it wasn't there hanging over our heads. At least Thalia was here now, very much alive, and if our time was limited … well, this was the story of my life, after all. Nothing really lasted-not situations, not homes, and not people. Nothing was eternal, unless you were a god. And with Kronos and his festering plots, maybe not even for them.
Maybe that was why Thalia couldn't figure out where she belonged. Camp had at least established some permanence in my life. For her, everything was temporary.
A wry smile twisted across Thalia's face. 'Don't worry, Annabeth,' she said. 'I won't go down without a fight. And if that's what it comes to, I'll take him down with me.'
Continue to chapter 6