The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus, #5)(49)

The weathered slope was covered with dead grass, rocks and stunted olive trees. Below, ruins stretched out for maybe a quarter of a mile: limestone blocks, a few broken walls and some tiled holes in the ground like wells.

Piper thought about her dad’s most famous movie, King of Sparta, and how the Spartans were portrayed as invincible supermen. She found it sad that their legacy had been reduced to a field of rubble and a small modern town with an olive-oil museum.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead. ‘You’d think if there was a thirty-foot-tall giant around we’d see him.’

Annabeth stared at the distant shape of the Argo II floating above downtown Sparta. She fingered the red coral pendant on her necklace – a gift from Percy when they started dating.

‘You’re thinking about Percy,’ Piper guessed.

Annabeth nodded.

Since she’d come back from Tartarus, Annabeth had told Piper a lot of scary things that had happened down there. At the top of her list: Percy controlling a tide of poison and suffocating the goddess Akhlys.

‘He seems to be adjusting,’ Piper said. ‘He’s smiling more often. You know he cares about you more than ever.’

Annabeth sat, her face suddenly pale. ‘I don’t know why it’s hitting me so hard all of a sudden. I can’t quite get that memory out of my head … how Percy looked when he was standing at the edge of Chaos.’

Maybe Piper was just picking up on Annabeth’s uneasiness, but she started to feel agitated as well.

She thought about what Jason had said last night: Part of me wanted to close my eyes and stop fighting.

She had tried her best to reassure him, but still she worried. Like that Cherokee hunter who changed into a serpent, all demigods had their share of bad spirits inside. Fatal flaws. Some crises brought them out. Some lines shouldn’t be crossed.

If that was true for Jason, how could it not be true for Percy? The guy had literally been through hell and back. Even when he wasn’t trying, he made the toilets explode. What would Percy be like if he wanted to act scary?

‘Give him time.’ She sat next to Annabeth. ‘The guy is crazy about you. You’ve been through so much together.’

‘I know …’ Annabeth’s grey eyes reflected the green of the olive trees. ‘It’s just … Bob the Titan, he warned me there would be more sacrifices ahead. I want to believe we can have a normal life someday … But I allowed myself to hope for that last summer, after the Titan War. Then Percy disappeared for months. Then we fell into that pit …’ A tear traced its way down her cheek. ‘Piper, if you’d seen the face of the god Tartarus, all swirling darkness, devouring monsters and vaporizing them – I’ve never felt so helpless. I try not to think about it …’

Piper took her friend’s hands. They were trembling badly. She remembered her first day at Camp Half-Blood, when Annabeth had given her a tour. Annabeth had been shaken up about Percy’s disappearance and, though Piper was pretty disoriented and scared herself, comforting Annabeth had made her feel needed, like she might actually have a place among these crazy-powerful demigods.

Annabeth Chase was the bravest person she knew. If even she needed a shoulder to cry on once in a while … well, Piper was glad to offer hers.

‘Hey,’ she said gently. ‘Don’t try to shut out the feelings. You won’t be able to. Just let them wash over you and drain out again. You’re scared.’

‘Gods, yes, I’m scared.’

‘You’re angry.’

‘At Percy for frightening me,’ she said. ‘At my mom for sending me on that horrible quest in Rome. At … well, pretty much everybody. Gaia. The giants. The gods for being jerks.’

‘At me?’ Piper asked.

Annabeth managed a shaky laugh. ‘Yes, for being so annoyingly calm.’

‘It’s all a lie.’

‘And for being a good friend.’

‘Ha!’

‘And for having your head on straight about guys and relationships and –’

‘I’m sorry. Have you met me?’

Annabeth punched her arm, but there was no force to it. ‘I’m stupid, sitting here talking about my feelings when we have a quest to finish.’

‘The chained god’s heartbeat can wait.’ Piper tried for a smile, but her own fears welled up inside her – for Jason and her friends on the Argo II, for herself, if she wasn’t able to do what Aphrodite had advised. In the end, you will only have the power for one word. It must be the right word, or you will lose everything.

‘Whatever happens,’ she told Annabeth, ‘I’m your friend. Just … remember that, okay?’

Especially if I’m not around to remind you, Piper thought.

Annabeth started to say something. Suddenly a roaring sound came from the ruins. One of the stone-lined pits, which Piper had mistaken for wells, spewed out a three-storey geyser of flames and shut off just as quickly.

‘What the heck?’ Piper asked.

Annabeth sighed. ‘I don’t know, but I have a feeling it’s something we should check out.’

Three pits lay side by side like finger holes on a recorder. Each one was perfectly round, two feet in diameter, tiled around the rim with limestone; each one plunged straight into darkness. Every few seconds, seemingly at random, one of the three pits shot a column of fire into the sky. Each time, the colour and intensity of the flames were different.