Daughter of the Sea

Of course, no one wanted to volunteer to carry the dead girl back up to the attic. I myself was completely uninterested in going near the corpse.

Zoë started gathering the other Hunters together as Grover and Thalia were elected to take the Oracle back to the Big House. Chiron trotted over to us.

“Miss Nightshade, your presence will be required at a meeting in the Big House to discuss this prophecy.”

Zoë gave Chiron a nod in response. “I’ll be bringing a couple of my Hunters along with me, if that’s alright.”

Chiron frowned, but didn’t object. He trotted away to round up the various cabin leaders. With a start, I realized I was no longer included in that group. It felt weird.

Zoë gestured for us to follow her, and she led us back to our cabin. I dumped my capture the flag gear on my bunk, and sat down with a sigh. Camille sat down on her bunk, bouncing her leg anxiously.

“How are you feeling, Percy? That Zeus kid got you good with her lightning.”

I shrugged. “I feel fine. I mean, it hurt, but I’ll live. I think she was holding back, thank the Gods.”

Camille nodded. “Glad you’re alright.” She took a breath. “So… guess Zoë’s got a quest, huh?”

I nodded. “Looks like it.”

“Who do you think she’ll be bringing with her?”

I shrugged. “Probably Phoebe, she’s been a Hunter for forever, right?”

Camille nodded. “She’s been a Hunter longer than any of the rest of us. It would make sense to bring her.”

I was about to respond, but Zoë walked up to the two of us, Phoebe a few steps behind her. “Percy,” she said.

“Um, hey,” I said. “What’s up?”

“I would like you to accompany Phoebe and I to this meeting.”

“Oh,” I said. “Why?”

“You have quest experience, yes?”

I nodded. “I’ve been on a couple quests, yeah.”

“So you’re coming with us. Bring your bow.”

I wasn’t sure why Zoë wanted me to bring my bow with me. Surely she wasn’t expecting this meeting to devolve into fighting, right? But I brought it anyway.

---

The meeting was held in the rec room, with all of us sitting around the ping pong table. I was sitting to Zoë’s left, across from Silena, who gave me a smile and a wave. She was still wearing her armor from capture the flag, with her helmet sitting on the table in front of her. I hesitantly waved back, and she giggled at me. Sitting next to her was Charles Beckendorf, who I’m pretty sure had a crush on Silena. Silena was dating Clarisse, though, so I wasn’t sure if it would amount to much of anything. Speaking of Clarisse, she still wasn’t here, of course, and nor were any other Ares kids, since they’d all, amazingly, sustained injuries during the game. The Stoll brothers were also sitting on that side of the table, with one of them (Connor?) tossing a ping pong ball up into the air and catching it. ADHD was a wonderful thing. Thalia and Grover had sat down at one end of the table, and were quietly discussing something together. Chiron — in wheelchair — and Mr. D sat at the other end.

Mr. D waved his hand and summoned a bunch of snacks — cheese-wiz, Ritz crackers, wine — which prompted Chiron to remind Mr. D that no one here could actually drink any, and it was promptly replaced with Diet Coke. That seemed to be the cue to start the meeting.

Zoë started things off. “This is pointless,” she said.

“Cheese-wiz!” Grover exclaimed, scooping up some cracked and ping pong balls and spraying them with the liquid cheese.

“There is no time to discuss,” Zoë continued, not to be interrupted by the goat boy. “Our goddess needs us. The Hunters must leave immediately.”

“And go where?” Chiron asked.

“West,” I said. “You all heard the prophecy, right?”

“Yes!” Zoë said in response. “We can take five Hunters and go west.”

Thalia snorted. “You’re missing something, as usual. It also said that we’d need both campers and Hunters. You need our help.”

“No!” Zoë said angrily. “We do not need thy help.”

“Your,” Thalia hissed. “Nobody has said thy since, like, Shakespeare, Zoë. Get with the times!”

Zoë rolled her eyes. She knew that; it was just habit for her to speak like this. “Your help. We do not need your help.” She glared at Thalia.

Thalia rolled her eyes.

“I believe the prophecy says you do need our help,” Chiron said calmly. “Campers and Hunters have to cooperate.”

“Or do they?” Mr. D mused. “‘One will leave;’ ‘One may perish;’ sounds rather nasty, doesn’t it? What if you fail because you try to work together?”

“Mr. D, what side are you on?” Chiron said with a sigh.

Mr. D raised his eyebrows. “I’m just trying to be helpful.”

“That wasn’t particularly helpful,” Thalia muttered under her breath.

“We’re supposed to work together,” Silena said. “That’s what the prophecy said. We shouldn’t fight against it.”

Zoë nodded in acknowledgement of Silena’s point. “The love child has a point.”

“I have a name,” Silena said.

“Sorry,” Zoë replied.

“We mustn’t delay,” Chiron said. “Today is Sunday. The Winter solstice is this Friday.”

“Oh joy,” Mr. D muttered. “Another dull meeting. Whoop-dee-doo.”

“Artemis must be present at the meeting!” Zoë said passionately. “She has been one of the most vocal about fighting Kronos and his minions. If she is absent, the gods will decide nothing, and we will lose another year of war preparations!”

Mr. D frowned. “Are you suggesting the gods have trouble working together, Miss Nightshade?”

“Yes, Lord Dionysus,” Zoë said.

“Just checking,” Mr. D replied calmly. “You are, of course, correct. Carry on.”

“I must agree with Zoë,” Chiron said. “Artemis’ presence at the meeting is critical. You will have less than a week to find her. Additionally, we would like for you to locate the monster she was hunting. Now, we must decide who to go on this quest.”

“Three and two,” I spoke up for the first time this whole meeting. Everyone turned to look at me. I tried to hide my cringe at all the attention suddenly being on me. “We need five. Three Hunters, two Campers. Three plus two is five. Even I can’t mess up that math.”

Zoë gave Thalia an appraising look, and Thalia raised an eyebrow at her.

“Well,” Thalia said. “It does make sense, and it sounds fair.”

Zoë sighed. “I would rather take all the Hunters. There is strength in numbers.”

“The prophecy says five,” I said at the same time as Chiron said, “You will be retracing Artemis’ tracks. You’ll need to move quickly. I’m sure Artemis tracked the monster’s scent, whatever it is, as she went west. The prophecy made it clear, ‘The bane of Olympus shows the trail.’ What would Artemis say? ‘Too many Hunters spoil the scent.’ A small group is best.”

Zoë picked up a ping pong paddle and studied it. I figured she wanted to avoid making eye contact with anyone. “This monster — this ‘bane of Olympus’ — I have hunted by Lady Artemis’ side for millennia. I have no idea what it could be. Do you have any thoughts, Phoebe?”

Phoebe straightened up. “I have some ideas, but none make much sense. Typhon, for example. Or Keto. But both are… well, Typhon has been imprisoned since he first failed to destroy Olympus. As for Keto, she has slumbered since even before that, and, were she to stir, Lord Poseidon would absolutely raise the alarm.

Everybody turned to look at Dionysus, who had started looking through a wine magazine. He looked up when the room went silent. “Well, don’t look at me! I’m a young god! Even Zoë here is older than I am. Besides, old monsters don’t make for good party discussion.” He went back to his magazine, his point made.

“Chiron,” Silena said, “you have any ideas?”

Chiron pursed his lips and folded his hands over his fake lap. “I imagine there’s not many I can think of that Phoebe hasn’t. Typhon and Keto of course would be candidates, but they’d be very noticeable. I fear this monster, whatever it is, may be more elusive, perhaps more powerful.”

“That’s some serious danger you’re facing,” one of the Stolls — the one who’d been tossing a ping pong ball — said. “It sounds like, two out of five of you are likely to die.”

“‘One will leave them in the land without rain,’” Beckendorf recited. “If I were you, I’d stay out of the desert.”

That made sense.

“‘The Titan’s Curse, one must withstand,’” Silena said. “I wonder what that could mean.”

I gave Zoë a nervous look. She looked pointedly at Chiron, but said nothing. I had a feeling I knew exactly what ‘The Titan’s Curse’ was.

“‘One may fall to her parent’s hand,’” Grover said through a mouthful of cracked, cheese, and plastic. “That’s crazy. I mean, whose parent would kill them?”

I exchanged a grimace with Thalia as a heavy silence settled over the table. I figured she and I were thinking along the same lines. The great prophecy. The one that predicted a child of one of the big three — Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades — would, upon turning sixteen, bring about the fall of Olympus, or save it. It had led to those three making an oath to no longer have children. Of course, Thalia and I had been born anyway. Thalia was getting close to sixteen. I was also close to turning sixteen, but… I figured that I would be safe, since I was now eternally fourteen. I wasn’t sure if that was entirely reassuring to me, but I held onto that fact.

Would either of our dads kill us just to avoid the risk? It was possible.

“There will most likely be deaths,” Chiron said. “We can be certain of that.”

“Oh, goody!” Dionysus exclaimed.

Everyone turned to look at him again.

He glanced up from his wine magazine again. “Oh, uh, Pinot Noir is making a comeback, don’t mind me.”

I continued looking at him bemusedly as he went back to reading his magazine.

“Percy is right,” Silena said to break the silence. “Two campers, three Hunters.”

“Yes,” Zoë said thoughtfully. “That does seem to be the best option.”

Silena nodded. I hadn’t predicted the two of them getting along, considering Aphrodite was the goddess of love and all. “So, Hunters first.”

“I’ll go,” Zoë said. “I’ll bring Phoebe as well. She’s our best tracker. Percy will be coming too, since she has quest experience. I also believe she will want to come to rescue her friend, Annabeth.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I wanna save Annabeth.”

“That’s decided then,” Chiron said. “And now, onto the campers for this quest.”

“Me!” Grover said, standing up so fast he bumped the table and sent some cheese-covered ping pong balls to the ground. Gross. “Anything to help Artemis!”

Zoë wrinkled her nose. “I think not. You are not even a half-blood.”

“But he is a camper,” Thalia said, crossing her arms. “And he has his satyr senses and his woodland magic. Can you play a tracking song yet, Grover?”

“Of course I can!” Grover said.

Zoë shifted in her seat. “Then you’re coming, goat boy. Second camper?”

No one spoke up for a bit.

Thalia let out a sigh. “I’ll do it,” she said.

“Really?” I said.

Thalia shrugged. “Unless anyone else wants-”

“I can go,” Silena said, standing up and picking up her helmet, tucking it under her arm.

“You wish to help Artemis?” Zoë said. “Your mother’s rival?”

Silena gave Zoë a determined look. “I’m more than just a pretty face. I’m one of the best fighters here who doesn’t have broken limbs.”

“So, Thalia, daughter of Zeus, who seems completely reluctant to go,” I said. “Or Silena, daughter of Aphrodite, Artemis’ rival, who actually wants to go.”

The two girls stood, facing each other.

“Duel to decide?” Thalia asked.

“No,” Zoë said. “We do not need mindless violence to solve this.”

“So which one goes?” I asked.

Phoebe grunted as she stood up. “Unless Zoë wants to make a decision, a duel will solve this fine.”

“But-” Zoë said, before cutting herself off and growling. “Fine. The two of you will spar. Winner joins us on our quest.”

---

We moved to the sword arena for the duel. Silena, of course, was still in her armor, but Thalia had to put hers back on. Some of the other campers and Hunters had joined us to watch. Piper had taken off her shiny new armor, but her hair was still in the gorgeous braid it had been magicked into earlier. She caught me staring at her, and I blushed and looked away.

Chiron pulled me aside as Thalia and Silena squared off.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I do not want Thalia to go on this quest with you,” he said quietly.

“Why not?” I asked. “We can handle it.”

“The way the two of you handled it by the creek earlier?”

I frowned. He had a point. “Then why didn’t you say so at the meeting?”

“I did not feel it was appropriate.”

“So you’re letting this whole duel play out?”

He sighed. “Percy-” he was interrupted by a cheer from the crowd as Silena successfully dodged a bolt of lightning from Thalia.

“Would you have chosen Thalia over me, maybe?”

Chiron shrugged. “Once upon a time, yes. Thalia is very sure of herself. Very confident. Once upon a time, I wouldn’t have said the same about you.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said.

“Not anymore,” he said hurriedly. “Since your transformation, you have, ah, grown in confidence.”

“Well, yeah,” I said. “That’s normal for trans people, isn’t it?”

“Excluding the magical transformation, yes.” He paused, watching Silena charge and Thalia, sword drawn. Thalia parried the strike, her eyes stormy. “I would have volunteered for this quest myself, were it not for the last line.”

“That’s another reason not to bring Thalia then, isn’t it?” I said. “That would apply to me too, even, except for the little detail that I’m not turning sixteen any time soon. Thalia is. On Saturday, actually. Zeus… he might not want to take the risk.”

Chiron had a troubled look on his face at that. Thalia slammed Silena with her shield, sending Silena stumbling a few steps, but she went right back in on the attack.

“You may be right, Percy. Silena would, of course, not have such a problem.”

We stopped talking for a bit, and instead watched the battle. Thalia and Silena had stopped attacking, and were now circling each other.

“You know what The Titan’s Curse is, don’t you?” I said.

Chiron nodded. “You suspect. I saw the look you gave Zoë.”

I nodded. “The sky. Atlas’ curse.”

Chiron nodded. “You are correct. Atlas’ burden is a curse that, uniquely, can only be forced onto a Titan. Anyone else must take the burden willingly. It is an ancient curse. I… I am worried about any of you taking on the curse. It is not something a mortal can survive for very long.”

“Annabeth took it,” I said. “Luke did too. I don’t know why; Zoë seems to think they want Artemis to take the curse from Annabeth.”

There was a roar from the crowd. I looked to find Thalia, disarmed, the point of Silena’s sword under her chin.

“The winner is Silena Beauregard!” Phoebe exclaimed. Thalia swore and kicked at the floor, but still shook Silena’s hand anyway. Looked like Silena was coming with us.

“Iris Message your mom, Percy,” Chiron said. “She’ll want to know you’re going on another quest.” He handed me a gold drachma.

---

I was standing in the Poseidon cabin. It hadn’t changed much from the last time I’d been to camp.  My Minotaur horn was still hanging on the wall near my old bunk. The biggest difference was the addition of a saltwater spring in the middle of the room. There was enough light that the spray made a rainbow. I thumbed the drachma in my hand, debating tossing it in and calling my mom. On the one hand, I didn’t want her to worry. On the other hand, she deserved to know. The second point outweighed the first, and I tossed the coin into the spray.

“Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow. Show me Sally Jackson in Manhattan.”

The mist shimmered, and I was confronted with an unexpected sight. My mom was sitting at the kitchen table in her little apartment with some… woman. They were laughing hysterically. There was a stack of textbooks between them. The unknown woman was around my mom’s age, thirty-something. She had shoulder length salt-and-pepper hair. She looked like an actress, like she was on several TV shows.

I was too stunned to say anything, and, fortunately, my mom and this woman were too busy laughing to notice my Iris Message.

The woman said, “Sally, you’re insane. You want anymore wine?”

“Oh, I better not,” my mom said. “You go ahead if you’d like.”

“Actually, I need to use the bathroom. Darn meds make me need to pee a lot. May I?”

“It’s down the hall,” my mom said, giggling.

The woman smiled and got up, heading towards the bathroom.

“Mom!’ I said.

She jumped, nearly knocking over her textbooks. She noticed my message floating in front of her.

“Percy!” she said. “Oh, sweetheart, what’s up? You called just yesterday, did something happen?”

“Um, what are you doing?” I said.

She blinked. “Oh! Um, homework.” She blushed. My mom blushed. Then she noticed the look on my face. “Oh, that was Jasmine - uh, Ms. Blofis. She’s in my writing seminar.”

“Ms. Blowfish?”

“Blofis,” my mom corrected me. “She’ll be back in a minute. So, what’s up?”

I told her about mine and Zoë’s dreams, and about the quest I was going on.

My mom pursed her lips. “I expected this. The quest, that is. I had a feeling… anyway, you take care of yourself. Don’t do anything stupid, Percy.”

“I won’t,” I said.

“Good.”

The toilet flushed down the hall. My mom sighed. “I have to go now, Percy. Good luck with your quest.”

“Th-thanks, mom,” I said.

“I love you, honey.”

“I love you too.”

The call disconnected, and I was left with the image of this Jasmine Blowfish woman smiling at my mom as she walked back into the kitchen.

---

That night, I had another dream about Annabeth.

I was back in that same cave, and Annabeth was still holding up the sky.

She didn’t look good. She seemed exhausted. She was kneeling against the ground, her back holding the weight of what looked to be several tons of boulders. She was covered in sweat. Her legs were trembling. I knew that she wouldn’t last much longer.

“How is our mortal guest,” a deep voice boomed, echoing through the cavern. It was not Kronos. Kronos’ voice was raspy, and felt like a knife scraping over rocks. This voice was deeper, louder. It made my bones vibrate, even in a dream.

Luke emerged from the darkness. He hurried over to Annabeth, and knelt next to her. She was too exhausted to even glare at him. He looked back towards the unseen man. “She’s fading fast. We must hurry.”

The deep voice laughed from the darkness. Then a hand, attached to a muscular arm, shoved someone forward into the light. Artemis. Her hands and feet were bound in celestial bronze chains.

I gasped. Her silvery dress was in tatters. She was bruised and cut in several places, bleeding golden ichor.

“You heard the boy,” the man shouted. “The choice is yours if she lives or dies.”

Artemis glared over her shoulder into the darkness. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t just will the chains away, but they were probably enchanted or something. She looked at Annabeth, and let out a strangled gasp.

“How dare you torture a maiden in such a way!”

“She’ll die soon,” Luke said in a neutral tone. “You can save her, Lady Artemis.”

Annabeth let out a weak gurgling sound, as if to protest. My heart fluttered. There was still hope for her. I wanted to run towards her, but I couldn’t move in the dream.

“Free my hands,” Artemis said.

Luke drew his sword, Backbiter, and sliced through the chains binding Artemis’ hands. Artemis ran over to Annabeth, kneeling next to her. She braced her shoulder against the mass of boulders, and Annabeth collapsed to the ground, her eyes rolling up into her head as she passed out from exhaustion. Artemis staggered, but she held the rocks steady.

The man in the shadows laughed. “You are as predictable as you were easy to catch, huntress.”

“You surprised me,” Artemis said with a strained voice. “It will not happen again.”

“Indeed,” the man said. “Now you are out of the way for good. I knew you could not resist helping a young maiden like her. That is your specialty, after all.”

Artemis groaned. “You know nothing about mercy, swine.”

“We can agree on that front,” the man said. “Luke, you may kill the girl now.”

I tried to shout, NO! but no sound came out.

Artemis shouted it for me.

Luke hesitated. “She may still be useful, My Lord,” he said. “Further bait.”

“Bait?” the man said. “Really? I doubt that.”

“Yes General. The son of Poseidon cares for her.”

Daughter!

“Daughter of Poseidon,” Artemis said. “She is one of my Hunters now.”

The General was silent for a bit. “Then let her live. After the solstice, it won’t matter anyway. What’s a few days, really?”

Luke scooped Annabeth off the ground, carrying her off into the darkness.

“Your plan will never succeed,” Artemis growled. “You’ll never find the monster you seek.”

“On the contrary! Your darling Hunters are already starting their quest to save you. They will play right into my hands! Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a long journey to make. We must greet you Hunters. Make sure their quest is challenging!”

The man laughed, loud enough to shake the cavern. I was convinced it would collapse.

I woke up with a start.