The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1)(25)

Chiron put his hand on her forehead and grimaced. “Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?”

“I wish I knew,” she said. “As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera’s cabin. I went inside. Annabeth and Piper came in while I was there. We talked, and then—I just blanked out. Annabeth said I spoke in a different voice.”

“A prophecy?” Chiron asked.

“No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This was like long distance, a power trying to speak through me.”

Annabeth ran in with a leather pouch. She knelt next to Piper. “Chiron, what happened back there—I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve heard Rachel’s prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper’s shoulders and told her—”

“To free her from a prison?” Jason guessed.

Annabeth stared at him. “How did you know that?”

Chiron made a three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil.

“Jason, tell them. Annabeth, the medicine bag, please.”

Chiron trickled drops from a medicine vial into Piper’s mouth while Jason explained what had happened when the room froze—the dark misty woman who had claimed to be Jason’s patron.

When he was done, no one spoke, which made him more anxious.

“So does this happen often?” he asked. “Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?”

“Your patron,” Annabeth said. “Not your godly parent?”

“No, she said patron. She also said my dad had given her my life.”

Annabeth frowned. “I’ve never of heard anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk—he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind?”

“I don’t think so,” Jason said. “If she were my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She’s imprisoned. She’s worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising from the earth on the solstice—”

Annabeth turned to Chiron. “Not Kronos. Please tell me it’s not that.”

The centaur looked miserable. He held Piper’s wrist, checking her pulse.

At last he said, “It is not Kronos. That threat is ended. But …”

“But what?” Annabeth asked.

Chiron closed the medicine bag. “Piper needs rest. We should discuss this later.”

“Or now,” Jason said. “Sir, Mr. Chiron, you told me the greatest threat was coming. The last chapter. You can’t possibly mean something worse than an army of Titans, right?”

“Oh,” Rachel said in a small voice. “Oh, dear. The woman was Hera. Of course. Her cabin, her voice. She showed herself to Jason at the same moment.”

“Hera?” Annabeth’s snarl was even fiercer than Seymour’s. “She took you over? She did this to Piper?”

“I think Rachel’s right,” Jason said. “The woman did seem like a goddess. And she wore this—this goatskin cloak. That’s a symbol of Juno, isn’t it?”

“It is?” Annabeth scowled. “I’ve never heard that.”

Chiron nodded reluctantly. “Of Juno, Hera’s Roman aspect, in her most warlike state. The goatskin cloak was a symbol of the Roman soldier.”

“So Hera is imprisoned?” Rachel asked. “Who could do that to the queen of the gods?”

Annabeth crossed her arms. “Well, whoever they are, maybe we should thank them. If they can shut up Hera—”

“Annabeth,” Chiron warned, “she is still one of the Olympians. In many ways, she is the glue that holds the gods’ family together. If she truly has been imprisoned and is in danger of destruction, this could shake the foundations of the world. It could unravel the stability of Olympus, which is never great even in the best of times. And if Hera has asked Jason for help—”

“Fine,” Annabeth grumbled. “Well, we know Titans can capture a god, right? Atlas captured Artemis a few years ago. And in the old stories, the gods captured each other in traps all the time. But something worse than a Titan … ?”

Jason looked at the leopard’s head. Seymour was smacking his lips like the goddess had tasted much better than a Snausage. “Hera said she’d been trying to break through her prison bonds for a month.”

“Which is how long Olympus has been closed,” Annabeth said. “So the gods must know something bad is going on.”

“But why use her energy to send me here?” Jason asked. “She wiped my memory, plopped me into the Wilderness School field trip, and sent you a dream vision to come pick me up. Why am I so important? Why not just send up an emergency flare to the other gods—let them know where she is so they bust her out?”

“The gods need heroes to do their will down here on earth,” Rachel said. “That’s right, isn’t it? Their fates are always intertwined with demigods.”

“That’s true,” Annabeth said, “but Jason’s got a point. Why him? Why take his memory?”

“And Piper’s involved somehow,” Rachel said. “Hera sent her the same message—Free me. And, Annabeth, this must have something to do with Percy’s disappearing.”