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FIC: Daughter of Wisdom, chapter 2
Title: Daughter of Wisdom
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Grover Underwood, Chiron, various others, Gen
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Summary: What Annabeth Chase wants most is to undertake a quest, and when that chance comes, she’s taking it-even if that means teaming up with the son of her mother’s biggest rival. She thinks she’s prepared for everything that could happen, but right from the start, nothing goes to plan. And everything she thinks she knows about the quest, her life, and her family, may just be turned on its head. An alternate PoV retelling of The Lightning Thief.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: We Leave Storms Brewing Over New York
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Luke Castellan, multiple others
Word Count: 2,583
Chapter Summary: Annabeth wakes from a series of dreams and catches a cab with her companions back to Half-Blood Hill.
Back to Fic Content Page
I dreamt of my friend Grover. He was the satyr who had come to fetch us to camp five years ago, on that ill-fated mission when we had lost Thalia, though I didn’t blame Grover for any of that. He’d only been a kid, and he’d done his best to take care of us.
He was out in the world again now, having finally convinced the Council of Cloven Elders to give him a second mission to earn his Searcher’s License. He’d been gone since fall.
In my dream, he hobbled into a classroom on crutches, his goat half disguised with baggy jeans and loose shoes. One of the students, who resembled a redheaded Clarisse, stuck her leg out as he came down the aisle. Grover tripped and his crutches went flying. His shoe came half off, revealing a section of hoof, and he panicked, flailing his arms and landing on his butt. He looked around wildly as he forcefully shoved his shoe back on, but the Mist-the substance that obscured anything mystical from mortal eyes-was functioning. No one seemed to notice.
'Leave him be, Nancy.' A skinny boy with black hair came down the aisle with Grover’s crutches. He held out his hand to help Grover up. 'Or …'
'Or what?' Nancy sneered.
She would probably have said more, but the teacher came in and said, 'Settle down!'
Grover hastened to his seat behind the skinny boy who’d helped him up. He looked up at the teacher and his face froze in an expression of horror. Curious, I looked at her. She was a reed-thin woman in a heavy leather jacket, whose lips were pursed in a thin line. Something about her face felt familiar, but I couldn’t think why. She turned to write large letters on the blackboard: ATMSH. I squinted, willing the letters to make sense. Having a mind hard-wired for reading in ancient Greek makes most of us demigods dyslexic. Deciphering English letters took me a while.
MATHS. Right.
'I am Mrs Dodds,' the teacher said. 'I will be substituting for Mrs Kerr this term.' Her eyes roved up and down the rows of students, as though searching for one in particular to call out. She passed over Grover and paused at the boy in front of him before moving on to the next student.
He is the one! hissed a low, gravelly voice. I started and looked around the classroom, but it wasn’t coming from any of the students. None of them seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. A few in the back were throwing wads of spitballs at each other. The girl called Nancy had pulled out a book and was piously writing something in it. The kid in front of Grover put his arms on the table and leaned his head on them.
He will finish the job, said the disembodied voice with satisfaction. It sounded old, almost ancient, as though it held a millennia of secrets within it.
Did Mrs Dodds hear it too? She was starting on her second round scrutinising the students now. Once again, she paused on the boy in front of Grover, considering, and then shook her head in confusion. I shivered. I’d heard that monsters often posed as teachers in schools, trying to snuff out half-bloods before our satyrs could find them. I tried to get a better look at the black-haired boy, wondering if he was one of us, but the dream scene was already fading into mist.
It reformed into a familiar place, though it was one I hadn’t seen for years. A large Dobermann pounced on me, its tail wagging madly. Its wet, slobbery tongue slurped out to lick my cheek. I held a rubber ball in my hand.
'Down, Daisy!' I scolded. My voice sounded young, no older than six. The dog licked me again. 'Sit!'
Daisy paid no attention. She poked her nose at the ball. I moved it behind my back. 'No ball for you unless you sit!'
Daisy whined, but she pulled back and perched on her haunches.
'Good girl!' I praised. Daisy barked happily in return and I tossed her the ball, which she caught with a snap of her powerful jaws. She deposited it back at my feet and trotted away, looking at me expectantly.
'Stay!' I commanded gleefully, picking up the ball. Daisy wagged her tail, enjoying the game. I launched the ball across the room this time. Daisy bounded after it, snatching it out of the air … and knocked into a mantle. A jar of flowers flew off, smashing into a pile of shard glass and petals. Someone cursed loudly and a moment later, my stepmother, Janet, charged into the room with a large book in her hands. She held it like a shield, looking wary.
'What now, Annabeth?' she said, staring at Daisy as though the Dobermann might suddenly grow three heads.
'It-it was an accident! We were just playing.'
Daisy seemed to know she was in trouble. She lay down and put her paws over her nose. Janet squinted at the dog as though trying to make sure she was seeing her right, then she turned her angry eyes on me.
'Don’t we have enough to do keeping the real trouble away? You don’t have to make more on your own!'
'I’m sorry!'
'Go to your room,' Janet snapped. 'I don’t have time for this today.'
I fled, tears filling my eyes. I stumbled through the door to my room, but emerged instead on a rugged cliff. A tall lady was standing near the edge, looking out to sea. It was Athena, her eyes as tempestuous as the gathering storm.
'We will need much wisdom to guide us in the coming days,' she said.
'Mom?'
Athena turned. 'You will have much to do in the months to come, daughter. It is more important now than ever that you train hard.'
'What’s happening?'
'Let your head guide you and not your heart. You are the daughter of wisdom. There is no room for fickle emotion in a quest for truth.'
'I don’t understand.'
Athena made an impatient noise. 'You must wake up now, daughter. It is time to leave, lest you outstay your welcome. The solstice is at an end. Wake.'
Her voice echoed over the cliffs: wake, wake, wake …
'Wake up!'
I opened my eyes to find Luke shaking me. I was still in the amphitheatre, which was now completely silent. Hypnos was gone, the stage empty and bare. The other campers were coming to around me, stretching and yawning. Connor Stoll was still asleep, his mouth gaping wide open, but his eyes flew open when Clarisse punched his shoulder.
'Ow!' he yelped, sitting bolt upright.
'We gotta go,' Luke said. 'Stupid concert. You’ve-we’ve been out for a while.'
'Huh.' I rubbed at my eyes. My teeth felt fuzzy, like I’d been asleep all night. I ran my tongue uncomfortably over them.
'The solstice is almost over. The god’s council’s already broken up, and Mr D’s pretty ticked off that we’ve been here the whole time. We gotta go.'
We hurried out of the concert hall. It was dark out, and there were fewer residents of Olympus out in the open. Was it just my imagination, or were the several dryads that were hanging about whispering and pointing at us?
'Should we say goodbye or anything?' Beckendorf asked, glancing at the Palace of Olympia.
Luke shook his head. 'They’ve already scattered. We should just go.' He reached out to press the elevator button, but it arrived first. Ding! The door opened and a large, beefy man with greasy dark hair and a sneering expression stepped out.
'Still here, are you?'
'Father!' Clarisse’s eyes widened and she bowed low. The rest of us followed suit. The god of war wasn’t someone you wanted to anger by failing to show proper respect.
Ares scratched his thick head of hair. 'One of my girls, huh?' he said. 'Don’t get too many of those. Slayed anything good yet? Won any great battles?'
'Um,' Clarisse said. It was the first time I’d ever heard her sounding nervous. 'We won capture the flag last week.'
'Bah,' Ares said. 'Camp games. Mere training. You need a real quest, girl. No real bloodshed and destruction unless you’re out in the real world.' He glared round at the rest of them. 'No quest heroes among you?'
We stayed silent, even Luke, as Ares’s fiery eyes bore into us. They seemed to grow slightly misty as they passed over Luke, though I couldn’t imagine why. Maybe actually attempting a quest had gained him a modicum of respect.
'Well, get going. Come back when you’ve actually done something worth bragging about.' He eyed Clarisse meanly before he stalked off. I decided I was really lucky that the goddess of war was nothing like the the god of it.
We stepped into the elevator and began our descent back to earth.
Somewhere between what would probably have been floor two hundred and the actual Empire State Building, Luke tapped my shoulder.
'You dropped this in the concert hall,' he said, holding up my Yankees cap.
'Oh!' I blushed and grabbed it gratefully. It wouldn’t have done for Athena to find it carelessly discarded on Olympus. 'Thanks.'
He shrugged and looked away. I studied him. His face was far away, his expression brooding.
Let your head guide you and not your heart.
My mom was right. I couldn’t let my stupid crush get in the way of being a good friend.
'Luke, are you okay?' I said quietly.
Luke looked down at me in surprise. 'Yeah.'
'You know Hera’s wrong, right? You’re not a coward.' My cheeks were aflame, but I forced myself to keep going. I should have told him this long ago. 'You’re-you’re the bravest guy I know.'
'You think so?'
'I know so.'
Luke smiled faintly. 'Thanks, Annabeth. She is right, though. I … failed a lot.' His face darkened. 'But I won’t next time.' Something his his voice made me shiver. 'Ares wasn’t kidding, you know. Everything at camp-that’s just training. It’s when you get out there … that’s when you know if you’re good enough.' He shook his head and seemed to discard his moodiness the way one might shrug off a cape. 'But you won’t need to worry about any of that for a while. You’re still so young.'
The elevator let us out on the ground floor and we trooped out past a disgruntled security guard.
'We’re supposed to be closed,' he complained as he unlocked the main doors to let us out onto Fifth Avenue. The night was chilly and a light snow had started to dust the pavements powder white.
'How will we get back to camp?' Beckendorf said, shivering. 'Are there even trains running this late?'
'I’ve got this,' Luke said. He dug in his pockets and came up with a golden drachma.
'Let’s hurry,' Travis said. His breath came out in little puffs and he rubbed his hands together.
Luke tossed the coin into the air and yelled, 'Anakoche, harma epitribeios!'
'You idiot!' Clarisse hissed. 'You’re gonna attract every monster in a two mile radius!'
The drachma disappeared. Where it had fallen, a seven-foot rectangle dissolved into dark sludge. In the dim streetlights, it glowed faintly red. A ghostly cab sprang out of the sludge. I heard its brakes screech, although it hadn’t really been speeding along anything that I could see. A head poked out the passenger window, which I mistook for an actual mop at first, with its grey, stringy hair.
'Passage?' she muttered.
'Five to Camp Half-Blood,' Luke said, depositing another drachma in her palm, and the car elongated like a limousine. Two more doors appeared in the back. 'Grey Sisters Taxi, fastest service anywhere in Greater New York. Hop in, guys.'
Clarisse and the Stoll brothers got in the back door. I squeezed into the middle one with Luke and Beckendorf. Shotgun was already claimed by the lady who’d taken our fare, and the driver was another mop-headed lady … actually, there were three of them squished into the front seats.
'Long Island’s out-of-metro,' one sister screeched. 'I hope you have the fare bonus.'
'Of course,' Luke said.
'Hit the road!' her sister shouted, and the taxi leapt into action. A gods-awful pre-recorded rap started to play: Yo, I got the best ride in town, fast as the winds blow, no matter where you’re going down, buckling up’s the way to go, yeah! Apollo, out!
'Better take the advice,' Luke said. 'It’s a pretty wild ride.'
'I hate that thing,' the sister in the passenger seat complained, except it sounded more like, 'I 'ate zat heeng,' because she had Luke’s drachma in her mouth.
'Give me the coin, Wasp, you’re not making any sense,' the middle sister said.
'She’s right, we need to change the safety announcement,' the driver said. 'There’s only so many times you can listen to Apollo before going round the bend.' She swerved hard around an actual bend as she said this, and I was thrown into Luke. Beckendorf smashed up painfully against me.
'Ganymede’s offered to do one,' Wasp said. She must have handed over the drachma because she sounded intelligible again. 'I vote we take him up on it.'
'Ganymede’s a pompous ass,' the middle sister complained. 'Anger, I want the eye!'
'No! Shut up, Tempest, I’m driving!'
'You always use that excuse!'
'Don’t grab!' The cab swerved alarmingly as Tempest lunged at Anger.
'I’m gonna be sick,' Connor moaned in the back seat.
'They’re gonna get us killed,' Clarisse shouted at the same time.
'Relax,' Luke said, 'I’ve done this before. They know what they’re doing. Even if it’s, ah, uncomfortable.'
'When did you-?' I started to ask.
They swerved again, the other way this time.
'Two years ago. They know things, the Grey Sisters-the taxi only services this state, but they know pretty much any location in the world.'
'Go left! No, brake!' Tempest screamed.
'I told you I needed the eye!' Anger yelled.
The myth clicked in my head: Perseus, who had gleaned the location of Medusa’s lair from three ill-tempered hags who had only one eye and one tooth among them.
'Shut up, both of you!' Wasp snarled. 'Just drive, will you?'
The Grey Sisters bickered all the way to camp. Luke handed them another drachma on arrival and the six campers stumbled out of the taxi. Connor was green-faced and gulping, and his brother Travis held his stomach uneasily. Clarisse looked like she wanted to let loose a string of curses.
'Never again,' Beckendorf muttered. I wanted to agree with him, but the logical part of my mind noted that it was always good to keep in mind a method of emergency transportation.
Despite the late hour, their camp director was waiting for them at the top of Half-Blood Hill, next to Thalia’s tree, his centaur body cutting a striking silhouette against the starry sky.
'Chiron!' Luke called.
'Welcome back,' Chiron said. 'I was getting worried. You had all better come quickly.'
'What’s wrong?' I asked.
'Nothing at the moment,' Chiron said, 'but trouble is brewing. Look.'
He pointed across the Long Island Sound. Although the skies over Half-Blood Hill were clear, there was no mistaking the angry black clouds thickening over Manhattan, where they’d just come from.
'Something’s gone awry on Olympus.'
Chapter Three
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Grover Underwood, Chiron, various others, Gen
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Summary: What Annabeth Chase wants most is to undertake a quest, and when that chance comes, she’s taking it-even if that means teaming up with the son of her mother’s biggest rival. She thinks she’s prepared for everything that could happen, but right from the start, nothing goes to plan. And everything she thinks she knows about the quest, her life, and her family, may just be turned on its head. An alternate PoV retelling of The Lightning Thief.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: We Leave Storms Brewing Over New York
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Luke Castellan, multiple others
Word Count: 2,583
Chapter Summary: Annabeth wakes from a series of dreams and catches a cab with her companions back to Half-Blood Hill.
Back to Fic Content Page
I dreamt of my friend Grover. He was the satyr who had come to fetch us to camp five years ago, on that ill-fated mission when we had lost Thalia, though I didn’t blame Grover for any of that. He’d only been a kid, and he’d done his best to take care of us.
He was out in the world again now, having finally convinced the Council of Cloven Elders to give him a second mission to earn his Searcher’s License. He’d been gone since fall.
In my dream, he hobbled into a classroom on crutches, his goat half disguised with baggy jeans and loose shoes. One of the students, who resembled a redheaded Clarisse, stuck her leg out as he came down the aisle. Grover tripped and his crutches went flying. His shoe came half off, revealing a section of hoof, and he panicked, flailing his arms and landing on his butt. He looked around wildly as he forcefully shoved his shoe back on, but the Mist-the substance that obscured anything mystical from mortal eyes-was functioning. No one seemed to notice.
'Leave him be, Nancy.' A skinny boy with black hair came down the aisle with Grover’s crutches. He held out his hand to help Grover up. 'Or …'
'Or what?' Nancy sneered.
She would probably have said more, but the teacher came in and said, 'Settle down!'
Grover hastened to his seat behind the skinny boy who’d helped him up. He looked up at the teacher and his face froze in an expression of horror. Curious, I looked at her. She was a reed-thin woman in a heavy leather jacket, whose lips were pursed in a thin line. Something about her face felt familiar, but I couldn’t think why. She turned to write large letters on the blackboard: ATMSH. I squinted, willing the letters to make sense. Having a mind hard-wired for reading in ancient Greek makes most of us demigods dyslexic. Deciphering English letters took me a while.
MATHS. Right.
'I am Mrs Dodds,' the teacher said. 'I will be substituting for Mrs Kerr this term.' Her eyes roved up and down the rows of students, as though searching for one in particular to call out. She passed over Grover and paused at the boy in front of him before moving on to the next student.
He is the one! hissed a low, gravelly voice. I started and looked around the classroom, but it wasn’t coming from any of the students. None of them seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. A few in the back were throwing wads of spitballs at each other. The girl called Nancy had pulled out a book and was piously writing something in it. The kid in front of Grover put his arms on the table and leaned his head on them.
He will finish the job, said the disembodied voice with satisfaction. It sounded old, almost ancient, as though it held a millennia of secrets within it.
Did Mrs Dodds hear it too? She was starting on her second round scrutinising the students now. Once again, she paused on the boy in front of Grover, considering, and then shook her head in confusion. I shivered. I’d heard that monsters often posed as teachers in schools, trying to snuff out half-bloods before our satyrs could find them. I tried to get a better look at the black-haired boy, wondering if he was one of us, but the dream scene was already fading into mist.
It reformed into a familiar place, though it was one I hadn’t seen for years. A large Dobermann pounced on me, its tail wagging madly. Its wet, slobbery tongue slurped out to lick my cheek. I held a rubber ball in my hand.
'Down, Daisy!' I scolded. My voice sounded young, no older than six. The dog licked me again. 'Sit!'
Daisy paid no attention. She poked her nose at the ball. I moved it behind my back. 'No ball for you unless you sit!'
Daisy whined, but she pulled back and perched on her haunches.
'Good girl!' I praised. Daisy barked happily in return and I tossed her the ball, which she caught with a snap of her powerful jaws. She deposited it back at my feet and trotted away, looking at me expectantly.
'Stay!' I commanded gleefully, picking up the ball. Daisy wagged her tail, enjoying the game. I launched the ball across the room this time. Daisy bounded after it, snatching it out of the air … and knocked into a mantle. A jar of flowers flew off, smashing into a pile of shard glass and petals. Someone cursed loudly and a moment later, my stepmother, Janet, charged into the room with a large book in her hands. She held it like a shield, looking wary.
'What now, Annabeth?' she said, staring at Daisy as though the Dobermann might suddenly grow three heads.
'It-it was an accident! We were just playing.'
Daisy seemed to know she was in trouble. She lay down and put her paws over her nose. Janet squinted at the dog as though trying to make sure she was seeing her right, then she turned her angry eyes on me.
'Don’t we have enough to do keeping the real trouble away? You don’t have to make more on your own!'
'I’m sorry!'
'Go to your room,' Janet snapped. 'I don’t have time for this today.'
I fled, tears filling my eyes. I stumbled through the door to my room, but emerged instead on a rugged cliff. A tall lady was standing near the edge, looking out to sea. It was Athena, her eyes as tempestuous as the gathering storm.
'We will need much wisdom to guide us in the coming days,' she said.
'Mom?'
Athena turned. 'You will have much to do in the months to come, daughter. It is more important now than ever that you train hard.'
'What’s happening?'
'Let your head guide you and not your heart. You are the daughter of wisdom. There is no room for fickle emotion in a quest for truth.'
'I don’t understand.'
Athena made an impatient noise. 'You must wake up now, daughter. It is time to leave, lest you outstay your welcome. The solstice is at an end. Wake.'
Her voice echoed over the cliffs: wake, wake, wake …
'Wake up!'
I opened my eyes to find Luke shaking me. I was still in the amphitheatre, which was now completely silent. Hypnos was gone, the stage empty and bare. The other campers were coming to around me, stretching and yawning. Connor Stoll was still asleep, his mouth gaping wide open, but his eyes flew open when Clarisse punched his shoulder.
'Ow!' he yelped, sitting bolt upright.
'We gotta go,' Luke said. 'Stupid concert. You’ve-we’ve been out for a while.'
'Huh.' I rubbed at my eyes. My teeth felt fuzzy, like I’d been asleep all night. I ran my tongue uncomfortably over them.
'The solstice is almost over. The god’s council’s already broken up, and Mr D’s pretty ticked off that we’ve been here the whole time. We gotta go.'
We hurried out of the concert hall. It was dark out, and there were fewer residents of Olympus out in the open. Was it just my imagination, or were the several dryads that were hanging about whispering and pointing at us?
'Should we say goodbye or anything?' Beckendorf asked, glancing at the Palace of Olympia.
Luke shook his head. 'They’ve already scattered. We should just go.' He reached out to press the elevator button, but it arrived first. Ding! The door opened and a large, beefy man with greasy dark hair and a sneering expression stepped out.
'Still here, are you?'
'Father!' Clarisse’s eyes widened and she bowed low. The rest of us followed suit. The god of war wasn’t someone you wanted to anger by failing to show proper respect.
Ares scratched his thick head of hair. 'One of my girls, huh?' he said. 'Don’t get too many of those. Slayed anything good yet? Won any great battles?'
'Um,' Clarisse said. It was the first time I’d ever heard her sounding nervous. 'We won capture the flag last week.'
'Bah,' Ares said. 'Camp games. Mere training. You need a real quest, girl. No real bloodshed and destruction unless you’re out in the real world.' He glared round at the rest of them. 'No quest heroes among you?'
We stayed silent, even Luke, as Ares’s fiery eyes bore into us. They seemed to grow slightly misty as they passed over Luke, though I couldn’t imagine why. Maybe actually attempting a quest had gained him a modicum of respect.
'Well, get going. Come back when you’ve actually done something worth bragging about.' He eyed Clarisse meanly before he stalked off. I decided I was really lucky that the goddess of war was nothing like the the god of it.
We stepped into the elevator and began our descent back to earth.
Somewhere between what would probably have been floor two hundred and the actual Empire State Building, Luke tapped my shoulder.
'You dropped this in the concert hall,' he said, holding up my Yankees cap.
'Oh!' I blushed and grabbed it gratefully. It wouldn’t have done for Athena to find it carelessly discarded on Olympus. 'Thanks.'
He shrugged and looked away. I studied him. His face was far away, his expression brooding.
Let your head guide you and not your heart.
My mom was right. I couldn’t let my stupid crush get in the way of being a good friend.
'Luke, are you okay?' I said quietly.
Luke looked down at me in surprise. 'Yeah.'
'You know Hera’s wrong, right? You’re not a coward.' My cheeks were aflame, but I forced myself to keep going. I should have told him this long ago. 'You’re-you’re the bravest guy I know.'
'You think so?'
'I know so.'
Luke smiled faintly. 'Thanks, Annabeth. She is right, though. I … failed a lot.' His face darkened. 'But I won’t next time.' Something his his voice made me shiver. 'Ares wasn’t kidding, you know. Everything at camp-that’s just training. It’s when you get out there … that’s when you know if you’re good enough.' He shook his head and seemed to discard his moodiness the way one might shrug off a cape. 'But you won’t need to worry about any of that for a while. You’re still so young.'
The elevator let us out on the ground floor and we trooped out past a disgruntled security guard.
'We’re supposed to be closed,' he complained as he unlocked the main doors to let us out onto Fifth Avenue. The night was chilly and a light snow had started to dust the pavements powder white.
'How will we get back to camp?' Beckendorf said, shivering. 'Are there even trains running this late?'
'I’ve got this,' Luke said. He dug in his pockets and came up with a golden drachma.
'Let’s hurry,' Travis said. His breath came out in little puffs and he rubbed his hands together.
Luke tossed the coin into the air and yelled, 'Anakoche, harma epitribeios!'
'You idiot!' Clarisse hissed. 'You’re gonna attract every monster in a two mile radius!'
The drachma disappeared. Where it had fallen, a seven-foot rectangle dissolved into dark sludge. In the dim streetlights, it glowed faintly red. A ghostly cab sprang out of the sludge. I heard its brakes screech, although it hadn’t really been speeding along anything that I could see. A head poked out the passenger window, which I mistook for an actual mop at first, with its grey, stringy hair.
'Passage?' she muttered.
'Five to Camp Half-Blood,' Luke said, depositing another drachma in her palm, and the car elongated like a limousine. Two more doors appeared in the back. 'Grey Sisters Taxi, fastest service anywhere in Greater New York. Hop in, guys.'
Clarisse and the Stoll brothers got in the back door. I squeezed into the middle one with Luke and Beckendorf. Shotgun was already claimed by the lady who’d taken our fare, and the driver was another mop-headed lady … actually, there were three of them squished into the front seats.
'Long Island’s out-of-metro,' one sister screeched. 'I hope you have the fare bonus.'
'Of course,' Luke said.
'Hit the road!' her sister shouted, and the taxi leapt into action. A gods-awful pre-recorded rap started to play: Yo, I got the best ride in town, fast as the winds blow, no matter where you’re going down, buckling up’s the way to go, yeah! Apollo, out!
'Better take the advice,' Luke said. 'It’s a pretty wild ride.'
'I hate that thing,' the sister in the passenger seat complained, except it sounded more like, 'I 'ate zat heeng,' because she had Luke’s drachma in her mouth.
'Give me the coin, Wasp, you’re not making any sense,' the middle sister said.
'She’s right, we need to change the safety announcement,' the driver said. 'There’s only so many times you can listen to Apollo before going round the bend.' She swerved hard around an actual bend as she said this, and I was thrown into Luke. Beckendorf smashed up painfully against me.
'Ganymede’s offered to do one,' Wasp said. She must have handed over the drachma because she sounded intelligible again. 'I vote we take him up on it.'
'Ganymede’s a pompous ass,' the middle sister complained. 'Anger, I want the eye!'
'No! Shut up, Tempest, I’m driving!'
'You always use that excuse!'
'Don’t grab!' The cab swerved alarmingly as Tempest lunged at Anger.
'I’m gonna be sick,' Connor moaned in the back seat.
'They’re gonna get us killed,' Clarisse shouted at the same time.
'Relax,' Luke said, 'I’ve done this before. They know what they’re doing. Even if it’s, ah, uncomfortable.'
'When did you-?' I started to ask.
They swerved again, the other way this time.
'Two years ago. They know things, the Grey Sisters-the taxi only services this state, but they know pretty much any location in the world.'
'Go left! No, brake!' Tempest screamed.
'I told you I needed the eye!' Anger yelled.
The myth clicked in my head: Perseus, who had gleaned the location of Medusa’s lair from three ill-tempered hags who had only one eye and one tooth among them.
'Shut up, both of you!' Wasp snarled. 'Just drive, will you?'
The Grey Sisters bickered all the way to camp. Luke handed them another drachma on arrival and the six campers stumbled out of the taxi. Connor was green-faced and gulping, and his brother Travis held his stomach uneasily. Clarisse looked like she wanted to let loose a string of curses.
'Never again,' Beckendorf muttered. I wanted to agree with him, but the logical part of my mind noted that it was always good to keep in mind a method of emergency transportation.
Despite the late hour, their camp director was waiting for them at the top of Half-Blood Hill, next to Thalia’s tree, his centaur body cutting a striking silhouette against the starry sky.
'Chiron!' Luke called.
'Welcome back,' Chiron said. 'I was getting worried. You had all better come quickly.'
'What’s wrong?' I asked.
'Nothing at the moment,' Chiron said, 'but trouble is brewing. Look.'
He pointed across the Long Island Sound. Although the skies over Half-Blood Hill were clear, there was no mistaking the angry black clouds thickening over Manhattan, where they’d just come from.
'Something’s gone awry on Olympus.'
Chapter Three