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FIC: Daughter of Wisdom, chapter 13
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: My Arachnophobia Is Broadcasted to Olympus
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, Luke Castellan, Ares
Word Count: 4,537
Chapter Summary: Annabeth runs into two creeps and her greatest fear.
A/N: Okay, so I know they are twelve. I was really scratching my head trying to think of what might be going on during the car wash scene and my mind must just be a bit twisted with what I came up with. I'm not entirely satisfied with it, but let's just say that there definitely are creeps out there, and Annabeth probably looks somewhat older than her age? Anyway, I'm bumping up the rating for that bit, just to be on the safe side. (If anyone has any suggestions for an alternative scene, I'm all ears!)
While I've played around with the scene with Ares, any recognisable dialogue is, again, from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.
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We found a run-down car wash in the heart of Denver and spent the last of our spare change-the mortal coins, anwyay-to get the spray nozzle going. As soon as the rainbow flickered in the fine mist, I made the offering to Iris and called for Half-Blood Hill.
I felt a pang of homesickness as the view of the campgrounds appeared, exactly as it would look from the Big House if there were a layer of fine mist separating the back porch and the lawns. Then my heart did a somersault because instead of Chiron, as I'd expected, Luke was leaning casually against the porch rail, sword in hand. It had been years since I'd last done this-I'd forgotten I had to specify who we were calling as well as where.
'Luke!' Percy said.
'Percy!' Luke said in surprise. He tilted his head to the side. 'Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods!'
Sweat beaded on my forehead, though I thought it had nothing to do with the Denver heat. Luke seemed genuinely glad to see me-to see us-but I couldn't help thinking of how I'd seen him with Silena in my dreams.
'Are you guys okay?' He looked me up and down in concern. I was suddenly very conscious of the fact that my hair was a total rat's nest, that my clothes were a mess and I hadn't showered or brushed my teeth in three days. If the ground could just swallow me up right then, I would have been real fine with it.
'We're … uh … fine,' I managed. I tucked a stray curl behind my ear and tugged self-consciously at my t-shirt. 'We thought-Chiron-I mean-' I didn't need a mirror to tell me that my face was flaming.
'He's down at the cabins. We're having some issues with campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?'
'I'm right here!' Grover said. He leaned over to give Luke a wave. 'What kind of issues?'
I thought I knew. My brain helpfully supplied the image of a capture-the-flag standoff … followed by the scene of Luke and Silena walking hand-in-hand right after. I looked at Luke and saw her kissing his cheek last night. Now I really couldn't meet Luke's eyes, for fear I might blurt out what I'd dreamed.
Luke's explanation was drowned out in a blast of bass beats as an ostentatious blue car pulled up into the stall next to us, its stereos turned up to maximum.
'I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady,' it car screamed.
'What's the noise?' Luke yelled.
Thank you, Slim Shady. 'I'll take care of it!' I offered quickly. I yanked Grover with me. 'Grover, come on.'
'What? But-'
'Give Percy the nozzle and come on!'
Grover threw the spray gun at Percy. 'Girls! I swear, they're more mysterious than the Oracle at Delphi.'
'Shut up, Goat-Boy.'
The guy in the next stall was one of those rich teenage punks, with spiky hair that was so carefully styled, I could see the layers of gel stuck in it, and jeans hanging so low that his boxers were practically on display. He wore a loose-fitting leather jacket despite the heat, and black Ray-bans. He was counting out change for the car wash in his palm. When he saw us appear, he immediately changed his pose, leaning casually against the hood of his car.
'Hey, do you mind?' I yelled over the blare of Eminem's rapping. I gestured towards the stereo, trying to signal to him to turn it down.
Punk-boy growled something back, but I couldn't make out what he was saying.
'Turn it down!' Grover yelled.
Finally, he leaned in and fiddled with a dial so that the bass beat became ear-splitting rather than earth-shattering.
'I said, what's it to you, babe?' he sneered. His eyes travelled up and down my body, taking in my dishevelled appearance. It made me feel even more unclean, like slimy creatures were sliding up and down my bare skin. 'Not trying to earn some … cash, are you?'
'What-no!'
'You look like you've been down on your luck, babe. But no problem. I'm a generous guy. I'm sure we can work out some … arrangement.'
Grover tensed next to me. 'Er, no.'
'Are you smelling anything?' I asked Grover.
'No-he's one hundred percent mortal. But I don't need to smell him to know he's also one hundred percent jerk.'
'Hey, hey, who're you calling a jerk?' Punk-boy said. 'Babe, I think your little boyfriend needs to learn some manners.'
'Okay, stop!' I said. 'Look, thanks for turning it down and all. We'll just be going, now.'
We turned to go, but Punk-boy stepped out to the side, blocking our path.
'Hey, now, what's the hurry? We were just getting to talking.'
'No we aren't,' Grover said.
'I'm not talking to you, loser.'
'Okay, uncool, dude!'
'Run along, kiddo. I'm just getting to know beautiful over here.' He put a hand on my arm. 'Don't you want some attention, babe?'
What I did then was probably really stupid. Okay, it was definitely really stupid. If I'd even thought for two seconds, I probably wouldn't have done it. But I was frustrated, dirty, and tired. I hadn't had a good night's sleep in three days, and I'd just embarrassed myself in front of a guy I really liked. I was not in the mood to deal with a rich, entitled paedophile.
'I'll show you attention!'
I wrenched my arm out of his grip, whipped out my Yankees cap and vanished from sight. Punk-boy stumbled back against his car, like whoa, where'd she just go? Then I unsheathed my dagger and flung it straight at the car's stereo system. At such close range, I definitely didn't miss.
'Please stand up!' the stereo blared, and then it went silent. Punk-boy stared at the knife, which to him had just appeared out of nowhere, dumbstruck.
I leaned over and retrieved my knife, then revealed myself, standing right next to Punk-boy, knife in hand.
Punk-boy screamed like a ten-year-old girl. He dove into his car faster than you could say Slim Shady. The sports car zipped out with a deafening squeal of tyres.
'Pan's pipes, Annabeth!' Grover cried.
I put my knife away. My heart was going a million miles an hour. 'Oh gods,' I put a hand to my mouth, 'I can't believe I just …'
'That was amazing.'
'And totally stupid,' I moaned.
'But amazing!' Grover said. 'His face-'
'Oh gods, I didn't think, I just …'
Grover held his hand up to me for a high-five. I started to laugh.
'Okay, that did make me feel better.' I slapped his palm. 'But I think I'll leave the crazy ideas to Percy next time. He does it better.'
'Nah, you're pretty brilliant yourself.'
I felt much more confident now, ready to talk properly to Luke. The conversation was already over, though. Percy was holding a dripping nozzle, frowning, his brow furrowed and his eyes dark with concern. Grover and I stopped giggling over Punk-boy.
'What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?'
'Not much,' Percy said, but he was carefully avoiding our eyes. Grover and I exchanged a look. It seemed like we had more to pry out of our friend.
OoOoO
I guess it was just my day for running into creepy guys. We found a diner nearby but we hadn't sat for five minutes when an enormous (and annoyingly loud) motorcycle pulled up at the entrance and its rider, a beefy guy with heavy shades and a bulky jacket, stomped in, drawing the attention of the entire restaurant. He made a beeline for our booth.
After my encounter with slimy Punk-boy in the car wash, I wasn't thrilled when the biker slid right up to me and squashed me into the corner of the booth, up against the window. In fact, I was filled with red-hot rage. I might have repeated my stunt with Punk-boy if the biker hadn't said, 'So, you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?'
The familiarity in his tone rang alarm bells in my head. My mother's cool, collected voice-calm even in the face of war-floated to the front of my mind: Let your head guide you and not your heart. I took a closer look at the biker. This time, I recognised him, and with that, I wrestled my emotions out of my uncle's control.
Percy wasn't so quick on the uptake, though. 'What's it to you?' he sneered, rather like Punk-boy.
I tried to cut in with an introduction. 'Percy, this is-'
Ares raised his hand to stop me.
'S'okay, I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?'
'You're Clarisse's dad,' Percy said after a long, hard look. Percy named him, and after that, I had the strange feeling that we were all experiencing Ares in different ways. It happens sometimes, with the gods. They exist on so many planes, in the minds of so many mortals, that their essence can sort of split even when they've picked a single form of appearance. Sometimes they can even appear to a single mortal while everyone around them goes about oblivious to their presence.
That wasn't the case now-I was fairly sure we could all see him, biker helmet and all. It was more like he was having an individual conversation with each one of us simultaneously. I could tell because Percy and Grover both seemed to be responding, too, but not in relation to what Ares was telling me.
What I heard was, 'Well, then, I came looking for Seaweed Boy; wasn't expecting one of old Grey-Eyes'. All hoity-toity like her, too. Blonde, though. That's different.'
I bristled a little, though I was trying to hold my emotions in check. It wasn't my fault that somehow Athena managed to pass down a hair colour everyone associated with airheads.
Ares laughed. 'I can see you now, trying to be all nonchalant. Your mom's the same way. She doesn't like emotions, does she now, Athena? But they're fun. War's built on emotions, kiddo. And speaking of war, you realise you're on the wrong side here? My sis is being her usual daddy's pet self, you know. And here you are hanging out with fish-boy.'
'Sometimes we have to put aside rivalries for the sake of the quest,' I told him. It was what my mother had said. She had to approve. I was confident that she would always have a deeper strategy for everything.
'The quest,' Ares said, grinning. 'Oh yes, I know all about it. Good luck with that. Your mom couldn't locate the bolt, despite all her brains. Our old Dad put me on the case, too, of course.'
'And you didn't find it either?'
'Nah … but I had a theory. Your mom thinks it's codswallop, so of course Dad dismissed it, but at least my uncle-the salty one, that is-thinks I'm on to something. So his son here gets to do him a big favour and chase down my creepy uncle.'
'So Hades does have the bolt?'
'Sure, wouldn't be a proper family feud if he didn't get involved, would it? You're the daughter of Athena, you oughta recognise a strategy when you see one. Nick something, frame your brother: BOOM, world war three. Old Skeleton-Head's an expert! Why, the last world war … that was maximum carnage. Of course, he doesn't have a kid any more, so he had to find someone else to do his dirty work for him-'
'Who?'
Ares looked unsettled for a moment, as though he'd had the information but suddenly lost it. He swatted the air around his ears like there was an invisible fly pestering him. Then his arrogant look returned.
'Uh, that's not important. Anyway, my point is, I know you guys are popping down to the dungeons, so to speak, so I'm gonna offer you some help. But my cousin here's gonna do me a favour first.' He clapped Percy on the shoulder. Percy sank lower in the cushioned seats, but scowled back.
'Why don't you go back and get it yourself?' he shot, in his own personal conversation with the god. Clearly they'd already got further into whatever task Ares wanted done.
'What kind of favour?' I asked.
'Nothing much,' my facet of Ares said. 'Just picking up something I left behind on a date. It's not far from here-Lakewood Waterland. Dropped my shield in the Tunnel of Love. In return, I'll get you a ride. Oh, I can see the boy's reluctant. He's a little punk, this one. I'd like to see how he keeps that smart mouth if I make him a prairie rat. I did one kid in Berkeley just the other day …'
He cracked his knuckles and looked at Percy contemplatively, as though already imagining him in rodent form.
'Please don't, Lord Ares.'
'Huh. Bit of respect, eh? That's good. Well, you've got some smarts in that head of yours,' he said grudgingly. 'So you'll be smart enough to know what to do when a god asks a favour.'
The sad thing was, I did. Ares was probably my least favourite of the gods, but you ignored a direct request from any god at your own, very great, peril. Percy wasn't going to have a choice. Our quest was about to take a little detour.
Well, we still had seven days. And if Ares was promising us transportation, that would solve a lot of problems.
'Wait,' I said, 'we were just having three different conversations with you-did you tell us all the same thing?'
'Oh, hm.' He considered for a minute. 'Yeah, I think I did the whole split appearances thing, didn't I? Strange, mortals don't usually catch it when that happens. But yeah, you all got the basics: Waterland, shield, go get it and be rewarded. Easy peasy. Now get to it!'
Ares snapped his fingers and I was no longer squashed up against the diner window. The table in front of us was still laden with fast food. I took a long, calming sip of chocolate shake-a lot easier to do with Ares and his emotion-stirring aura gone-and hoped this side quest would be as easy as Ares had said it'd be. Somehow, I had my doubts.
OoOoO
To begin with, Ares's idea of 'not far' could use some revision. We walked for miles in the blistering heat. By the time we found it, it was late in the evening and we were parched. The place looked like it had been abandoned for centuries. Past the rusted barbed wire fence, it was full of buildings with peeling paint that stood with doors ajar, and water slides that didn't look like they'd pass state regulations.
On the bright side, the gift shop mustn't have been closed for too long, because it still had stacks of souvenir clothing and merchandise, all free for the taking. It was the first stroke of luck we'd had in a while. I stocked up quickly, ignoring Percy's protests.
He hadn't lived on the streets before. You took what you could find.
The entrance to the Tunnel of Love was right in the heart of the water park, past the creaky roller coasters and attractions with tacky signs. Seriously, who named a ride 'Head over Wedgie'? Percy snickered when Grover read it out to us. I rolled my eyes.
'"Thrill Ride of Love,"' Grover read. He snorted. 'That's catchy.'
The ride sign was painted in faded capital letters, of which I could only make out the last word: LOVE. It was propped between two bronze Cupids, who pointed their arrows wickedly at us. There were a whole bunch of the little statues lined up around the entrance. The nearest one had something carved into its neck: Eta, the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet. I traced it thoughtfully. Had Ares left it as a sign?
Maybe he'd meant to carve his name in the statue. It was the third letter of his name in Greek, which didn't make much sense-surely if you wanted to leave your mark, you'd leave your initial. But Ares wasn't known for his brains. For all I knew, he couldn't spell his own name.
Through the Cupid statues, an algae-covered path led down to a canopy-topped boat that sat in an empty pool. A ring of bronze glinted up at us-Ares's shield.
I had a sudden vision of Ares and his girlfriend Aphrodite sitting wrapped around each other in the love boat, except in my head, Aphrodite looked like her daughter, Silena Beauregard. The image of her kissing Luke on the cheek popped into my head again. My face burned.
'Annabeth, come with me.'
For a moment, it was Luke's voice I heard-which was embarrassing enough-but of course it was just Percy. Asking me to go with him. On our own. On the 'Thrill Ride of Love'.
I had the sudden, heart-stopping thought of someone-like Luke, gods forbid-getting a dream-glimpse of that, the way I'd ended up seeing him and Silena.
'Are you kidding?'
He looked at me as though I'd grown a second head. 'Whats the problem now?'
'Me, go with you to the … the "Thrill Ride of Love". How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?'
'Who's going to see you?' But he didn't sound too confident. He glared at me for a few seconds, then threw up his hands. 'Fine, I'll do it myself.'
'Boys,' I muttered. Of course I had to go with him. But … he didn't need to state the obvious. Come with me, Annabeth. My heart did a little somersault. What did he need to say that for?
It occurred to me that I might not be being exactly fair. Like when we'd met Ares, some other force was driving my anger and embarrassment. This didn't make me feel any better about it.
I hopped down from the last step, onto the boat, and I thought I knew what the problem was. Lying innocently on the seat next to Ares's shield was a flimsy pink scarf-just your average female token. Percy picked it up, holding it to his nose. He inhaled deeply and immediately, a vague, scattered sort of look overtook his face.
Innocent scarf my ass. I snatched it away quickly. 'Oh no you don't,' I told him sternly. 'Stay away from that love magic.'
'What?' He stared at me stupidly.
'Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here.'
He came to his senses and reached forward to grab the shield. I felt the back of my neck prickling, as though an invisible, malevolent someone was watching me. My eyes darted around to the side of the boat. Another Eta was etched into it. One, before, I could write off, but here, again?
'Wait,' I said to Percy.
He turned, shield in hand. 'Too late.'
'There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, the Eta. This is a trap.'
The bronze Cupids came to life, along with the pool underneath us. It started churning away like the missing water was rushing below, while a collection of thin golden threads shot out from the statues, weaving a net over our heads.
'Guys!' Grover shouted belatedly.
'We have to get out,' Percy said.
'Duh!' What was with his stating the obvious today? I was already clambering up the path. The old algae slowed me down. Percy slipped and slid behind me, trying to get purchase.
'Come on!' Grover hovered above the growing golden net, pulling against the Cupids' threads to create an opening. He wasn't having much success. The threads resisted, wrapping around his hands to stop him.
With a loud whirring noise, all the statues' heads snapped back. Out of the decapitated Cupids, video cameras popped up like little jack-in-the-boxes. The entire pool felt suddenly like a grand stage, complete with white-hot spotlights and an invisible host crying, 'Annnnnd … we're going LIVE to Olympus in one minute!'
As the hidden loudspeakers continued counting down the seconds to air, I realised exactly what the little Greek letter meant. 'Hephaestus!'
'What?'
'I'm so stupid! Eta is "H". He made this trap to catch his wife and Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!'
Easy peasy. Yeah, right. Easy, except for the massive trap set by an irate cuckold god who just so happened to be a genius mechanic.
And then, things got infinitely worse.
I'd been plenty terrified on this journey. The Furies were an old nightmare. Medusa had been horrifying. I'd been devastated when I thought we'd lost Percy. But nothing-nothing-compared to the absolute terror I felt now when a wave of mechanical spiders came flooding out of the sides of the net.
I forgot about Ares's shield, forgot about the cameras waiting to humiliate us on Olympus-TV, forgot everything except the only thing that mattered, which was getting away from the deadliest creatures in the world.
Arachnophobia was the curse of every child of Athena, a legacy passed down ever since the ill-fated weaving contest between our mother and the arrogant Arachne. They tormented us mercilessly, seeking us out wherever possible, never letting go of the ancient grudge.
My brain turned to mush in their presence. They swarmed me, skittering closer on gangly legs, pincers clicking menacingly. I screamed and tried to run, but my legs had turned to jelly with all the spiders trying to climb on them. I covered my face and sobbed.
'Annabeth, help me! Do something!' I heard Percy yell. Somehow he'd gotten both of us into the boat and he was shoving spiders away from it, but he wasn't having much success. They were overwhelming in their numbers. The entire surface of the boat was a thriving colony of them. They would overcome us and I would die here, swallowed by spiders, prey to my worst nightmare.
Percy leaned over me, covering me from them. He pulled a strap across my chest. Something clicked next to me. I screamed again. Or had I even stopped?
WHOOSH.
A colossal wave slammed down on us. The clicking of the spiders stopped. I lowered my trembling hands from my face. The canopy had been torn off completely. Our boat was tossing about in a whirlpool. The spiders sloshed off the sides, making little sizzling noises as they sank. Percy sat next to me, his hands held up like a magician's.
Things started to make sense again-the boat churning on the rising water, Percy keeping us steady and afloat, the currents (wait, why were there currents?) carrying us towards a looming tunnel …
We picked up speed and dived at an angle that felt as steep as a free-fall. I screamed again, but this time it was half from giddy excitement as the boat jerked us left and right. Next to me, Percy was yelling his head off as well. Ironically, we'd ended up holding each other's hands tightly on the Thrill Ride of Love-in front of a live Olympus audience-after all.
Then we shot out into open air, still trundling along at top speed.
'Unfasten your seat belt!' Percy cried.
'Are you crazy?'
'Unless you want to get smashed to death.'
I looked up and saw that we were headed straight towards a chained gate. It should have been gold, but the paint was all chipped off so that it looked like a forbidding steel grate. Two boats lay at its foot, smashed up against it. We were about to become minced thrill-riders.
'We're going to have to jump for it,' Percy said. I saw what he meant. There was no stopping the boat from its charge to doom, but if we sprung from our seats, there was a chance we could clear the gates instead, sans boat.
It was a crazy plan, but completely brilliant, too, given the madness of our situation. Except I realised that he meant to leap right away. I thanked the gods my mind was clear of cobwebs-literally!-now.
'No! When I say go!' If we went before we were close enough, the momentum of the boat would suck us downward.
'What?'
'Simple physics!' I formulated the equation out loud. 'Force times the trajectory angle-'
'Fine, when you say go!'
'-between our current vector and the desired resultant vector, oh gods …' I kept a close eye on the gate, estimating, praying I'd got it right. 'Now!'
We jumped, just before we could get stripped to ribbons flying through the gates. Our trajectory took us sailing over it, high enough to avoid getting speared at the top, but also high enough that we were now free-falling towards the ground with no clear plan for landing.
Someone grabbed my shirt, yanking a bunch of my hair painfully with it. Our flight slowed. Grover, his flying shoes flapping away desperately, was jerking us up, trying to keep us from plummeting to our deaths. The three of us together were too heavy for the shoes.
'We're going down!' Grover panted, his arms straining with the exertion of holding on to us. Percy and I clung to each other as we hit the ground, painfully but fortunately not fatally.
We rolled off in different directions, breathing hard.
'You okay?' Percy asked. He got to his feet first and held a hand out to me. I took it and he pulled me up.
'Yeah,' I said. I was completely drenched, badly bruised, and let's not forget the complete arachnid-induced meltdown I'd had.
Percy looked at me for a long moment and I was sure he was going to say something about the spiders, but he just nodded and dropped my hand.
'Uh, a little help, guys?' Grover pleaded. He'd crash-landed through one of those photo-boards with little holes in them for your heads and was stranded in it at the waist. He looked like he'd traded his goat half for a whale half.
'Sorry, G-man,' Percy said as we tugged Grover out of the board. 'That was rough. But you saved our lives!'
'Yeah, thanks, Grover.'
'Ah, shucks, it was nothing,' Grover said.
We were silent for a moment, and then the sound of a mechanical arm made us turn back to the gates we'd just flown over. Twelve Cupid statues with video-camera heads followed us.
Percy shook his fist at them. 'Show's over! Thank you! Goodnight!'
I'd forgotten about the live show. I buried my face in my hands.
Great, just great, I thought. My humiliation at the hands of Hephaestus's mechanical spiders broadcast all over Olympus. Judging from the grim look on Percy's face, he wasn't too thrilled with the set-up either.
'We need to have a little talk with Ares,' he said.
'Let's go, then,' I said. The sooner we got out of here and back on our real quest, the better.
Chapter 14
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: My Arachnophobia Is Broadcasted to Olympus
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, Luke Castellan, Ares
Word Count: 4,537
Chapter Summary: Annabeth runs into two creeps and her greatest fear.
A/N: Okay, so I know they are twelve. I was really scratching my head trying to think of what might be going on during the car wash scene and my mind must just be a bit twisted with what I came up with. I'm not entirely satisfied with it, but let's just say that there definitely are creeps out there, and Annabeth probably looks somewhat older than her age? Anyway, I'm bumping up the rating for that bit, just to be on the safe side. (If anyone has any suggestions for an alternative scene, I'm all ears!)
While I've played around with the scene with Ares, any recognisable dialogue is, again, from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.
Back to Fic Content Page
We found a run-down car wash in the heart of Denver and spent the last of our spare change-the mortal coins, anwyay-to get the spray nozzle going. As soon as the rainbow flickered in the fine mist, I made the offering to Iris and called for Half-Blood Hill.
I felt a pang of homesickness as the view of the campgrounds appeared, exactly as it would look from the Big House if there were a layer of fine mist separating the back porch and the lawns. Then my heart did a somersault because instead of Chiron, as I'd expected, Luke was leaning casually against the porch rail, sword in hand. It had been years since I'd last done this-I'd forgotten I had to specify who we were calling as well as where.
'Luke!' Percy said.
'Percy!' Luke said in surprise. He tilted his head to the side. 'Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods!'
Sweat beaded on my forehead, though I thought it had nothing to do with the Denver heat. Luke seemed genuinely glad to see me-to see us-but I couldn't help thinking of how I'd seen him with Silena in my dreams.
'Are you guys okay?' He looked me up and down in concern. I was suddenly very conscious of the fact that my hair was a total rat's nest, that my clothes were a mess and I hadn't showered or brushed my teeth in three days. If the ground could just swallow me up right then, I would have been real fine with it.
'We're … uh … fine,' I managed. I tucked a stray curl behind my ear and tugged self-consciously at my t-shirt. 'We thought-Chiron-I mean-' I didn't need a mirror to tell me that my face was flaming.
'He's down at the cabins. We're having some issues with campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?'
'I'm right here!' Grover said. He leaned over to give Luke a wave. 'What kind of issues?'
I thought I knew. My brain helpfully supplied the image of a capture-the-flag standoff … followed by the scene of Luke and Silena walking hand-in-hand right after. I looked at Luke and saw her kissing his cheek last night. Now I really couldn't meet Luke's eyes, for fear I might blurt out what I'd dreamed.
Luke's explanation was drowned out in a blast of bass beats as an ostentatious blue car pulled up into the stall next to us, its stereos turned up to maximum.
'I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady,' it car screamed.
'What's the noise?' Luke yelled.
Thank you, Slim Shady. 'I'll take care of it!' I offered quickly. I yanked Grover with me. 'Grover, come on.'
'What? But-'
'Give Percy the nozzle and come on!'
Grover threw the spray gun at Percy. 'Girls! I swear, they're more mysterious than the Oracle at Delphi.'
'Shut up, Goat-Boy.'
The guy in the next stall was one of those rich teenage punks, with spiky hair that was so carefully styled, I could see the layers of gel stuck in it, and jeans hanging so low that his boxers were practically on display. He wore a loose-fitting leather jacket despite the heat, and black Ray-bans. He was counting out change for the car wash in his palm. When he saw us appear, he immediately changed his pose, leaning casually against the hood of his car.
'Hey, do you mind?' I yelled over the blare of Eminem's rapping. I gestured towards the stereo, trying to signal to him to turn it down.
Punk-boy growled something back, but I couldn't make out what he was saying.
'Turn it down!' Grover yelled.
Finally, he leaned in and fiddled with a dial so that the bass beat became ear-splitting rather than earth-shattering.
'I said, what's it to you, babe?' he sneered. His eyes travelled up and down my body, taking in my dishevelled appearance. It made me feel even more unclean, like slimy creatures were sliding up and down my bare skin. 'Not trying to earn some … cash, are you?'
'What-no!'
'You look like you've been down on your luck, babe. But no problem. I'm a generous guy. I'm sure we can work out some … arrangement.'
Grover tensed next to me. 'Er, no.'
'Are you smelling anything?' I asked Grover.
'No-he's one hundred percent mortal. But I don't need to smell him to know he's also one hundred percent jerk.'
'Hey, hey, who're you calling a jerk?' Punk-boy said. 'Babe, I think your little boyfriend needs to learn some manners.'
'Okay, stop!' I said. 'Look, thanks for turning it down and all. We'll just be going, now.'
We turned to go, but Punk-boy stepped out to the side, blocking our path.
'Hey, now, what's the hurry? We were just getting to talking.'
'No we aren't,' Grover said.
'I'm not talking to you, loser.'
'Okay, uncool, dude!'
'Run along, kiddo. I'm just getting to know beautiful over here.' He put a hand on my arm. 'Don't you want some attention, babe?'
What I did then was probably really stupid. Okay, it was definitely really stupid. If I'd even thought for two seconds, I probably wouldn't have done it. But I was frustrated, dirty, and tired. I hadn't had a good night's sleep in three days, and I'd just embarrassed myself in front of a guy I really liked. I was not in the mood to deal with a rich, entitled paedophile.
'I'll show you attention!'
I wrenched my arm out of his grip, whipped out my Yankees cap and vanished from sight. Punk-boy stumbled back against his car, like whoa, where'd she just go? Then I unsheathed my dagger and flung it straight at the car's stereo system. At such close range, I definitely didn't miss.
'Please stand up!' the stereo blared, and then it went silent. Punk-boy stared at the knife, which to him had just appeared out of nowhere, dumbstruck.
I leaned over and retrieved my knife, then revealed myself, standing right next to Punk-boy, knife in hand.
Punk-boy screamed like a ten-year-old girl. He dove into his car faster than you could say Slim Shady. The sports car zipped out with a deafening squeal of tyres.
'Pan's pipes, Annabeth!' Grover cried.
I put my knife away. My heart was going a million miles an hour. 'Oh gods,' I put a hand to my mouth, 'I can't believe I just …'
'That was amazing.'
'And totally stupid,' I moaned.
'But amazing!' Grover said. 'His face-'
'Oh gods, I didn't think, I just …'
Grover held his hand up to me for a high-five. I started to laugh.
'Okay, that did make me feel better.' I slapped his palm. 'But I think I'll leave the crazy ideas to Percy next time. He does it better.'
'Nah, you're pretty brilliant yourself.'
I felt much more confident now, ready to talk properly to Luke. The conversation was already over, though. Percy was holding a dripping nozzle, frowning, his brow furrowed and his eyes dark with concern. Grover and I stopped giggling over Punk-boy.
'What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?'
'Not much,' Percy said, but he was carefully avoiding our eyes. Grover and I exchanged a look. It seemed like we had more to pry out of our friend.
OoOoO
I guess it was just my day for running into creepy guys. We found a diner nearby but we hadn't sat for five minutes when an enormous (and annoyingly loud) motorcycle pulled up at the entrance and its rider, a beefy guy with heavy shades and a bulky jacket, stomped in, drawing the attention of the entire restaurant. He made a beeline for our booth.
After my encounter with slimy Punk-boy in the car wash, I wasn't thrilled when the biker slid right up to me and squashed me into the corner of the booth, up against the window. In fact, I was filled with red-hot rage. I might have repeated my stunt with Punk-boy if the biker hadn't said, 'So, you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?'
The familiarity in his tone rang alarm bells in my head. My mother's cool, collected voice-calm even in the face of war-floated to the front of my mind: Let your head guide you and not your heart. I took a closer look at the biker. This time, I recognised him, and with that, I wrestled my emotions out of my uncle's control.
Percy wasn't so quick on the uptake, though. 'What's it to you?' he sneered, rather like Punk-boy.
I tried to cut in with an introduction. 'Percy, this is-'
Ares raised his hand to stop me.
'S'okay, I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?'
'You're Clarisse's dad,' Percy said after a long, hard look. Percy named him, and after that, I had the strange feeling that we were all experiencing Ares in different ways. It happens sometimes, with the gods. They exist on so many planes, in the minds of so many mortals, that their essence can sort of split even when they've picked a single form of appearance. Sometimes they can even appear to a single mortal while everyone around them goes about oblivious to their presence.
That wasn't the case now-I was fairly sure we could all see him, biker helmet and all. It was more like he was having an individual conversation with each one of us simultaneously. I could tell because Percy and Grover both seemed to be responding, too, but not in relation to what Ares was telling me.
What I heard was, 'Well, then, I came looking for Seaweed Boy; wasn't expecting one of old Grey-Eyes'. All hoity-toity like her, too. Blonde, though. That's different.'
I bristled a little, though I was trying to hold my emotions in check. It wasn't my fault that somehow Athena managed to pass down a hair colour everyone associated with airheads.
Ares laughed. 'I can see you now, trying to be all nonchalant. Your mom's the same way. She doesn't like emotions, does she now, Athena? But they're fun. War's built on emotions, kiddo. And speaking of war, you realise you're on the wrong side here? My sis is being her usual daddy's pet self, you know. And here you are hanging out with fish-boy.'
'Sometimes we have to put aside rivalries for the sake of the quest,' I told him. It was what my mother had said. She had to approve. I was confident that she would always have a deeper strategy for everything.
'The quest,' Ares said, grinning. 'Oh yes, I know all about it. Good luck with that. Your mom couldn't locate the bolt, despite all her brains. Our old Dad put me on the case, too, of course.'
'And you didn't find it either?'
'Nah … but I had a theory. Your mom thinks it's codswallop, so of course Dad dismissed it, but at least my uncle-the salty one, that is-thinks I'm on to something. So his son here gets to do him a big favour and chase down my creepy uncle.'
'So Hades does have the bolt?'
'Sure, wouldn't be a proper family feud if he didn't get involved, would it? You're the daughter of Athena, you oughta recognise a strategy when you see one. Nick something, frame your brother: BOOM, world war three. Old Skeleton-Head's an expert! Why, the last world war … that was maximum carnage. Of course, he doesn't have a kid any more, so he had to find someone else to do his dirty work for him-'
'Who?'
Ares looked unsettled for a moment, as though he'd had the information but suddenly lost it. He swatted the air around his ears like there was an invisible fly pestering him. Then his arrogant look returned.
'Uh, that's not important. Anyway, my point is, I know you guys are popping down to the dungeons, so to speak, so I'm gonna offer you some help. But my cousin here's gonna do me a favour first.' He clapped Percy on the shoulder. Percy sank lower in the cushioned seats, but scowled back.
'Why don't you go back and get it yourself?' he shot, in his own personal conversation with the god. Clearly they'd already got further into whatever task Ares wanted done.
'What kind of favour?' I asked.
'Nothing much,' my facet of Ares said. 'Just picking up something I left behind on a date. It's not far from here-Lakewood Waterland. Dropped my shield in the Tunnel of Love. In return, I'll get you a ride. Oh, I can see the boy's reluctant. He's a little punk, this one. I'd like to see how he keeps that smart mouth if I make him a prairie rat. I did one kid in Berkeley just the other day …'
He cracked his knuckles and looked at Percy contemplatively, as though already imagining him in rodent form.
'Please don't, Lord Ares.'
'Huh. Bit of respect, eh? That's good. Well, you've got some smarts in that head of yours,' he said grudgingly. 'So you'll be smart enough to know what to do when a god asks a favour.'
The sad thing was, I did. Ares was probably my least favourite of the gods, but you ignored a direct request from any god at your own, very great, peril. Percy wasn't going to have a choice. Our quest was about to take a little detour.
Well, we still had seven days. And if Ares was promising us transportation, that would solve a lot of problems.
'Wait,' I said, 'we were just having three different conversations with you-did you tell us all the same thing?'
'Oh, hm.' He considered for a minute. 'Yeah, I think I did the whole split appearances thing, didn't I? Strange, mortals don't usually catch it when that happens. But yeah, you all got the basics: Waterland, shield, go get it and be rewarded. Easy peasy. Now get to it!'
Ares snapped his fingers and I was no longer squashed up against the diner window. The table in front of us was still laden with fast food. I took a long, calming sip of chocolate shake-a lot easier to do with Ares and his emotion-stirring aura gone-and hoped this side quest would be as easy as Ares had said it'd be. Somehow, I had my doubts.
OoOoO
To begin with, Ares's idea of 'not far' could use some revision. We walked for miles in the blistering heat. By the time we found it, it was late in the evening and we were parched. The place looked like it had been abandoned for centuries. Past the rusted barbed wire fence, it was full of buildings with peeling paint that stood with doors ajar, and water slides that didn't look like they'd pass state regulations.
On the bright side, the gift shop mustn't have been closed for too long, because it still had stacks of souvenir clothing and merchandise, all free for the taking. It was the first stroke of luck we'd had in a while. I stocked up quickly, ignoring Percy's protests.
He hadn't lived on the streets before. You took what you could find.
The entrance to the Tunnel of Love was right in the heart of the water park, past the creaky roller coasters and attractions with tacky signs. Seriously, who named a ride 'Head over Wedgie'? Percy snickered when Grover read it out to us. I rolled my eyes.
'"Thrill Ride of Love,"' Grover read. He snorted. 'That's catchy.'
The ride sign was painted in faded capital letters, of which I could only make out the last word: LOVE. It was propped between two bronze Cupids, who pointed their arrows wickedly at us. There were a whole bunch of the little statues lined up around the entrance. The nearest one had something carved into its neck: Eta, the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet. I traced it thoughtfully. Had Ares left it as a sign?
Maybe he'd meant to carve his name in the statue. It was the third letter of his name in Greek, which didn't make much sense-surely if you wanted to leave your mark, you'd leave your initial. But Ares wasn't known for his brains. For all I knew, he couldn't spell his own name.
Through the Cupid statues, an algae-covered path led down to a canopy-topped boat that sat in an empty pool. A ring of bronze glinted up at us-Ares's shield.
I had a sudden vision of Ares and his girlfriend Aphrodite sitting wrapped around each other in the love boat, except in my head, Aphrodite looked like her daughter, Silena Beauregard. The image of her kissing Luke on the cheek popped into my head again. My face burned.
'Annabeth, come with me.'
For a moment, it was Luke's voice I heard-which was embarrassing enough-but of course it was just Percy. Asking me to go with him. On our own. On the 'Thrill Ride of Love'.
I had the sudden, heart-stopping thought of someone-like Luke, gods forbid-getting a dream-glimpse of that, the way I'd ended up seeing him and Silena.
'Are you kidding?'
He looked at me as though I'd grown a second head. 'Whats the problem now?'
'Me, go with you to the … the "Thrill Ride of Love". How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?'
'Who's going to see you?' But he didn't sound too confident. He glared at me for a few seconds, then threw up his hands. 'Fine, I'll do it myself.'
'Boys,' I muttered. Of course I had to go with him. But … he didn't need to state the obvious. Come with me, Annabeth. My heart did a little somersault. What did he need to say that for?
It occurred to me that I might not be being exactly fair. Like when we'd met Ares, some other force was driving my anger and embarrassment. This didn't make me feel any better about it.
I hopped down from the last step, onto the boat, and I thought I knew what the problem was. Lying innocently on the seat next to Ares's shield was a flimsy pink scarf-just your average female token. Percy picked it up, holding it to his nose. He inhaled deeply and immediately, a vague, scattered sort of look overtook his face.
Innocent scarf my ass. I snatched it away quickly. 'Oh no you don't,' I told him sternly. 'Stay away from that love magic.'
'What?' He stared at me stupidly.
'Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here.'
He came to his senses and reached forward to grab the shield. I felt the back of my neck prickling, as though an invisible, malevolent someone was watching me. My eyes darted around to the side of the boat. Another Eta was etched into it. One, before, I could write off, but here, again?
'Wait,' I said to Percy.
He turned, shield in hand. 'Too late.'
'There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, the Eta. This is a trap.'
The bronze Cupids came to life, along with the pool underneath us. It started churning away like the missing water was rushing below, while a collection of thin golden threads shot out from the statues, weaving a net over our heads.
'Guys!' Grover shouted belatedly.
'We have to get out,' Percy said.
'Duh!' What was with his stating the obvious today? I was already clambering up the path. The old algae slowed me down. Percy slipped and slid behind me, trying to get purchase.
'Come on!' Grover hovered above the growing golden net, pulling against the Cupids' threads to create an opening. He wasn't having much success. The threads resisted, wrapping around his hands to stop him.
With a loud whirring noise, all the statues' heads snapped back. Out of the decapitated Cupids, video cameras popped up like little jack-in-the-boxes. The entire pool felt suddenly like a grand stage, complete with white-hot spotlights and an invisible host crying, 'Annnnnd … we're going LIVE to Olympus in one minute!'
As the hidden loudspeakers continued counting down the seconds to air, I realised exactly what the little Greek letter meant. 'Hephaestus!'
'What?'
'I'm so stupid! Eta is "H". He made this trap to catch his wife and Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!'
Easy peasy. Yeah, right. Easy, except for the massive trap set by an irate cuckold god who just so happened to be a genius mechanic.
And then, things got infinitely worse.
I'd been plenty terrified on this journey. The Furies were an old nightmare. Medusa had been horrifying. I'd been devastated when I thought we'd lost Percy. But nothing-nothing-compared to the absolute terror I felt now when a wave of mechanical spiders came flooding out of the sides of the net.
I forgot about Ares's shield, forgot about the cameras waiting to humiliate us on Olympus-TV, forgot everything except the only thing that mattered, which was getting away from the deadliest creatures in the world.
Arachnophobia was the curse of every child of Athena, a legacy passed down ever since the ill-fated weaving contest between our mother and the arrogant Arachne. They tormented us mercilessly, seeking us out wherever possible, never letting go of the ancient grudge.
My brain turned to mush in their presence. They swarmed me, skittering closer on gangly legs, pincers clicking menacingly. I screamed and tried to run, but my legs had turned to jelly with all the spiders trying to climb on them. I covered my face and sobbed.
'Annabeth, help me! Do something!' I heard Percy yell. Somehow he'd gotten both of us into the boat and he was shoving spiders away from it, but he wasn't having much success. They were overwhelming in their numbers. The entire surface of the boat was a thriving colony of them. They would overcome us and I would die here, swallowed by spiders, prey to my worst nightmare.
Percy leaned over me, covering me from them. He pulled a strap across my chest. Something clicked next to me. I screamed again. Or had I even stopped?
WHOOSH.
A colossal wave slammed down on us. The clicking of the spiders stopped. I lowered my trembling hands from my face. The canopy had been torn off completely. Our boat was tossing about in a whirlpool. The spiders sloshed off the sides, making little sizzling noises as they sank. Percy sat next to me, his hands held up like a magician's.
Things started to make sense again-the boat churning on the rising water, Percy keeping us steady and afloat, the currents (wait, why were there currents?) carrying us towards a looming tunnel …
We picked up speed and dived at an angle that felt as steep as a free-fall. I screamed again, but this time it was half from giddy excitement as the boat jerked us left and right. Next to me, Percy was yelling his head off as well. Ironically, we'd ended up holding each other's hands tightly on the Thrill Ride of Love-in front of a live Olympus audience-after all.
Then we shot out into open air, still trundling along at top speed.
'Unfasten your seat belt!' Percy cried.
'Are you crazy?'
'Unless you want to get smashed to death.'
I looked up and saw that we were headed straight towards a chained gate. It should have been gold, but the paint was all chipped off so that it looked like a forbidding steel grate. Two boats lay at its foot, smashed up against it. We were about to become minced thrill-riders.
'We're going to have to jump for it,' Percy said. I saw what he meant. There was no stopping the boat from its charge to doom, but if we sprung from our seats, there was a chance we could clear the gates instead, sans boat.
It was a crazy plan, but completely brilliant, too, given the madness of our situation. Except I realised that he meant to leap right away. I thanked the gods my mind was clear of cobwebs-literally!-now.
'No! When I say go!' If we went before we were close enough, the momentum of the boat would suck us downward.
'What?'
'Simple physics!' I formulated the equation out loud. 'Force times the trajectory angle-'
'Fine, when you say go!'
'-between our current vector and the desired resultant vector, oh gods …' I kept a close eye on the gate, estimating, praying I'd got it right. 'Now!'
We jumped, just before we could get stripped to ribbons flying through the gates. Our trajectory took us sailing over it, high enough to avoid getting speared at the top, but also high enough that we were now free-falling towards the ground with no clear plan for landing.
Someone grabbed my shirt, yanking a bunch of my hair painfully with it. Our flight slowed. Grover, his flying shoes flapping away desperately, was jerking us up, trying to keep us from plummeting to our deaths. The three of us together were too heavy for the shoes.
'We're going down!' Grover panted, his arms straining with the exertion of holding on to us. Percy and I clung to each other as we hit the ground, painfully but fortunately not fatally.
We rolled off in different directions, breathing hard.
'You okay?' Percy asked. He got to his feet first and held a hand out to me. I took it and he pulled me up.
'Yeah,' I said. I was completely drenched, badly bruised, and let's not forget the complete arachnid-induced meltdown I'd had.
Percy looked at me for a long moment and I was sure he was going to say something about the spiders, but he just nodded and dropped my hand.
'Uh, a little help, guys?' Grover pleaded. He'd crash-landed through one of those photo-boards with little holes in them for your heads and was stranded in it at the waist. He looked like he'd traded his goat half for a whale half.
'Sorry, G-man,' Percy said as we tugged Grover out of the board. 'That was rough. But you saved our lives!'
'Yeah, thanks, Grover.'
'Ah, shucks, it was nothing,' Grover said.
We were silent for a moment, and then the sound of a mechanical arm made us turn back to the gates we'd just flown over. Twelve Cupid statues with video-camera heads followed us.
Percy shook his fist at them. 'Show's over! Thank you! Goodnight!'
I'd forgotten about the live show. I buried my face in my hands.
Great, just great, I thought. My humiliation at the hands of Hephaestus's mechanical spiders broadcast all over Olympus. Judging from the grim look on Percy's face, he wasn't too thrilled with the set-up either.
'We need to have a little talk with Ares,' he said.
'Let's go, then,' I said. The sooner we got out of here and back on our real quest, the better.
Chapter 14