The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo #3)(35)

On the tailgate of a nearby truck, the movers were taking their lunch break, casually eating off china plates that had no doubt been in the McLeans’ kitchen not long before.

Mr McLean looked up at Piper. He seemed unconcerned by her knife and blowpipe. ‘Going out?’

‘Just for a while.’ Piper kissed her father on the cheek. ‘I’ll be back tonight. Don’t let them take the sleeping bags, okay? You and I can camp out on the terrace. It’ll be fun.’

‘All right.’ He patted her arm absently. ‘Good luck … studying?’

‘Yep,’ Piper said. ‘Studying.’

You have to love the Mist. You can stroll out of your house heavily armed, in the company of a satyr, a demigod and a flabby former Olympian, and, thanks to the Mist’s perception-bending magic, your mortal father assumes you’re going to a study group. That’s right, Dad. We need to go over some maths problems that involve the trajectory of blowpipe darts against moving targets.

Piper led us across the street to the nearest neighbour’s house – a Frankenstein’s mansion of Tuscan tiles, modern windows and Victorian gables that screamed, I have too much money and not enough taste! HELP!

In the wraparound driveway, a heavy-set man in athleisure-wear was just getting out of his white Cadillac Escalade.

‘Mr Bedrossian!’ Piper called.

The man jumped, facing Piper with a look of terror. Despite his workout shirt, his ill-advised yoga pants, and his flashy running shoes, he looked like he’d been more leisurely than athletic. He was neither sweaty nor out of breath. His thinning hair made a perfect brushstroke of black grease across his scalp. When he frowned, his features gravitated towards the centre of his face as if circling the twin black holes of his nostrils.

‘P-Piper,’ he stammered. ‘What do you –?’

‘I would love to borrow the Escalade, thank you!’ Piper beamed.

‘Uh, actually, this isn’t –’

‘This isn’t a problem?’ Piper supplied. ‘And you’d be delighted to lend it to me for the day? Fantastic!’

Bedrossian’s face convulsed. He forced out the words, ‘Yes. Of course.’

‘Keys, please?’

Mr Bedrossian tossed her the fob, then ran into his house as fast as his tight-fitting yoga pants would allow.

Meg whistled under her breath. ‘That was cool.’

‘What was that?’ Grover asked.

‘That,’ I said, ‘was charmspeaking.’ I reappraised Piper McLean, not sure if I should be impressed or if I should run after Mr Bedrossian in a panic. ‘A rare gift among Aphrodite’s children. Do you borrow Mr Bedrossian’s car a lot?’

Piper shrugged. ‘He’s been an awful neighbour. He also has a dozen other cars. Believe me, we’re not causing him any hardship. Besides, I usually bring back what I borrow. Usually. Shall we go? Apollo, you can drive.’

‘But –’

She smiled that sweetly scary I-could-make-you-do-it smile.

‘I’ll drive,’ I said.

We took the scenic coastal road south in the Bedrossian-mobile. Since the Escalade was only slightly smaller than Hephaestus’s fire-breathing hydra tank, I had to be careful to avoid sideswiping motorcycles, mailboxes, small children on tricycles and other annoying obstacles.

‘Are we going to pick up Jason?’ I asked.

Next to me in the passenger’s seat, Piper loaded a dart into her blowpipe. ‘No need. Besides, he’s in school.’

‘You’re not.’

‘I’m moving, remember? As of next Monday, I’m enrolled at Tahlequah High.’ She raised her blowpipe like a champagne glass. ‘Go, Tigers.’

Her words sounded strangely unironic. Again, I wondered how she could be so resigned to her fate, so ready to let Caligula expel her and her father from the life they had built here. But, since she had a loaded weapon in her hand, I didn’t challenge her.

Meg’s head popped up between our seats. ‘We won’t need your ex-boyfriend?’

I swerved and almost ran over someone’s grandmother.

‘Meg!’ I chided. ‘Sit back and buckle up, please. Grover –’ I glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw the satyr chewing on a strip of grey fabric. ‘Grover, stop eating your seat belt. You’re setting a bad example.’

He spat out the strap. ‘Sorry.’

Piper ruffled Meg’s hair, then playfully pushed her into the back seat. ‘To answer your question, no. We’ll be fine without Jason. I can show you the way into the maze. It was my dream, after all. This entrance is the one the emperor uses, so it should be the straightest shot to the centre, where he’s keeping your Sibyl.’

‘And when you went inside before,’ I said, ‘what happened?’

Piper shrugged. ‘The usual Labyrinth stuff – traps, changing corridors. Also some strange creatures. Guards. Hard to describe. And fire. Lots of that.’

I remembered my vision of Herophile, raising her chained arms in the room of lava, apologizing to someone who wasn’t me.

‘You didn’t actually find the Oracle?’ I asked.

Piper was silent for half a block, gazing at flashes of ocean vista between houses. ‘I didn’t. But there was a short time when we got separated, Jason and me. Now … I’m wondering if he told me everything that happened to him. I’m pretty sure he didn’t.’