Chapter Text
CHRISSIE
"Where is he?" Annabeth asked the three teens with her knife drawn. I followed suit, clenching my hands around my dual-sided twin daggers.
“Where’s who?” The blond guy asked. I frowned as Annabeth turned to the other two. “What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?”
The dark-haired guy cleared his throat. “He got taken by some... tornado things.”
“Venti,” Blondie said. “Storm spirits.”
Annabeth arched an eyebrow. “You mean anemoi thuellai? That’s the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"
When Blondie was about halfway through their story, Butch came over. He stood there, arms crossed, and I could see the elfish-looking guy eyeing the rainbow tattoo on his biceps. I turned back to Blondie, who now had a name, and when he finished talking, I'd decided to personally strangle Hera. Annabeth seemed to match my anger.
“No, no, no! She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I’d find the answer.”
“Annabeth,” Butch grunted. “Check it out.” He pointed at Jason’s feet.
"No," I growled.
“The guy with one shoe,” Butch insisted. “He’s the answer.”
“No, Butch,” Annabeth agreed with me. “He can’t be. I was tricked.” She glared at the sky.
“What do you want from me?” she screamed.
“What have you done with him?" I added, stomping my foot and accidentally cracking the earth.
The skywalk shuddered - not my doing this time - and the horses whinnied urgently.
“Annabeth,” said Butch, “we gotta leave. Let’s get these three to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back.”
We both fumed for a moment. “Fine.” She fixed Jason with a resentful look. “We’ll settle this later.”
She turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.
Piper shook her head. “What’s her problem? What’s going on?”
“Seriously,” Leo agreed.
“We have to get you out of here,” Butch said. “I’ll explain on the way.”
“I’m not going anywhere with her.” Jason gestured toward my best friend. “She looks like she wants to kill me.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Don't judge Annabeth," I muttered before following her.
Butch and the three new demigods followed us after a moment or two, as I was trying to calm down Astra - my pegasus - and Porkpie.
The new kids stood in the back of the chariot while Butch handled the reins and Annabeth adjusted Daedalus' shield. We rose over the Grand Canyon and headed east, icy wind ripping straight through my camo jacket. Behind us, more storm clouds were gathering.
The chariot lurched and bumped. The short guy, Leo, seemed to enjoy it, though. “This is so cool!” He spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth. “Where are we going?”
“A safe place,” I said. “The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood.”
“Half-Blood?” Piper immediately looked to be on guard. “Is that some kind of bad joke?”
“She means we’re demigods,” Jason said. “Half god, half mortal.”
I looked back.
“You seem to know a lot, Jason. But, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Chrissie is a daughter of Poseidon, god of the sea and earthquakes. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess.”
Leo choked. “Your mom is a rainbow goddess?”
“Got a problem with that?” Butch said.
“No, no,” Leo said. “Rainbows. Very macho.”
“Butch is our best equestrian,” Annabeth said. "Aside from Poseidon's offspring, Iris' kids get along the best with the pegasi.”
“Rainbows, ponies,” Leo muttered.
“I’m gonna toss you off this chariot,” Butch warned.
“Demigods,” Piper said. “You mean you think you’re... you think we’re-”
Lightning flashed. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, “Left wheel’s on fire!”
I glanced over. Sure enough, the wheel was burning, white flames lapping up the side of the chariot. Percy would've been real handy right now - give him a water bottle and he could put it out. Sadly, where he got the water part of Poseidon's powers, I just got the natural disaster part, and I couldn't really solve this one with an earthquake.
The wind roared. I glanced behind us and saw dark shapes forming in the clouds, more storm spirits spiraling toward the chariot - horse form.
Piper started to say, “Why are they-”
“Anemoi come in different shapes,” Annabeth said. “Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. Hold on. This is going to get rough.”
Butch flicked the reins. The pegasi put on a burst of speed, and the chariot blurred. Adrenaline rushed through my veins, and when I opened my eyes, I was home.
The cold gray ocean stretched out to the left. Snow-covered fields, roads, and forests spread to the right. Directly below us was a green valley, like an island of springtime, rimmed with snowy hills on three sides and water to the north. Before I could reminisce, though, the wheels came off and the chariot dropped out of the sky.
We tried to maintain control. The pegasi labored to hold the chariot in a flight pattern, but they were exhausted from their burst of speed, and bearing the chariot and the weight of six people was just too much.
“The lake!” I yelled. “Aim for the lake!”
I wish Percy was here, I thought.
And then - BOOM.
After a moment of disorientation, I sent out a call to any available water spirits in the lake. They tossed Annabeth and the new kids onto the shore, and helped Butch and I cut the wrecked harnesses off the pegasi. Fortunately, the horses were okay, but they were pretty stressed, so I occupied myself with calming them.
After the Pegasi were sufficiently de-stressed, I walked toward the shore, where a detail of campers ran up with big bronze leaf blower–looking things and blasted us with hot air; and in about two seconds my clothes were dry.
There were at least twenty campers milling around - the youngest maybe nine, the oldest college age, eighteen or nineteen - and all of them had on the regular orange T-shirts like ours.
A second later the wreckage of the chariot was tossed from the lake and landed nearby with a wet crunch.
“Annabeth! Chrissie!” Will Solace pushed through the crowd. “I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!”
“Will, I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I’ll get it fixed, I promise.”
Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, and Jason. “These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven’t they been claimed already?”
“Claimed?” Leo asked.
Before either of us could explain, Will said, “Any sign of Percy?”
“No,” I admitted, my voice smaller than I'd expected it to be.
The campers muttered, and another girl stepped forward - tall, Asian, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and perfect makeup. Somehow she managed to make jeans and an orange T-shirt look glamorous.
Drew.
She glanced at Leo, fixed her eyes on Jason like he might be worthy of her attention, then curled her lip at Piper as if she were a week-old burrito that had just been pulled out of a dumpster.
“Well,” she said, “I hope they’re worth the trouble.”
Leo snorted. “Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?”
“No kidding,” Jason said. “How about some answers before you start judging us - like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?”
“Jason,” Annabeth said, “I promise we’ll answer your questions. And Drew, all demigods are worth saving. But I’ll admit, the trip didn’t accomplish what I hoped.”
“Hey,” Piper said, “we didn’t ask to be brought here.”
Drew sniffed. “And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?”
Piper stepped forward, probably ready to smack her, but Annabeth said, “Piper, stop.”
Piper did, wisely. Annabeth isn't somebody you want for an enemy.
“We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome,” Annabeth said, with another pointed look at Drew. “We’ll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they’ll be claimed.”
“Would somebody tell me what claimed means?” Piper asked.
Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. I turned around
Floating over Leo’s head was a blazing holographic image - a fiery hammer.
“That,” I said, “is claiming.”
“What’d I do?” Leo backed toward the lake. Then he glanced up and yelped. “Is my hair on fire?” He ducked, but the symbol followed him, bobbing and weaving so it looked like he was trying to write something in flames with his head.
“This can’t be good,” Butch muttered. “The curse-”
“Butch, shut up,” I said. “Leo, you’ve just been claimed-”
“By a god,” Jason interrupted. “That’s the symbol of Vulcan, isn’t it?”
All eyes turned to him.
“Jason,” Annabeth said carefully, “how did you know that?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Vulcan?” Leo demanded. “I don’t even LIKE Star Trek. What are you talking about?”
“Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus,” Annabeth said, “the god of blacksmiths and fire.”
The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like he was afraid it was following him. “The god of what? Who?”
Annabeth turned to Will. “Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin Nine.”
“Sure, Annabeth.”
“What’s Cabin Nine?” Leo asked. “And I’m not a Vulcan!”
“Come on, Mr. Spock, I’ll explain everything.” Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins.
Annabeth turned her attention back to Jason. We both studied him. He seemed nervous, yet strong. His presence reminded me somehow of Annabeth, Chiron, and my own brother - a leader's gaze.
Finally Annabeth said, “Hold out your arm.”
I frowned; on the inside of his right forearm was a tattoo: a dozen straight lines like a bar code, and over that an eagle with the letters SPQR.
“I’ve never seen marks like this,” I said. “Where did you get them?”
Jason shook his head. “I’m getting really tired of saying this, but I don’t know.”
The other campers pushed forward, trying to get a look at Jason’s tattoo. The marks seemed to bother them a lot - almost like a declaration of war.
“They look burned into your skin,” Annabeth noticed.
“They were,” Jason said. Then he winced as if his head was aching. “I mean... I think so. I don’t remember.”
No one said anything as Annabeth and I frowned at each other. I flicked one brow up - our way to say 'your turn for a verdict' - and she pursed her lips and nodded.
“He needs to go straight to Chiron,” Annabeth decided. “Chrissie, you take him. I'll give Piper the tour.”
I nodded and grabbed Jason's arm. "C'mon, Blondie, the Big House is this way."