by Rick Riordan
‘Miss me?’ Leo laughed.
Piper was suddenly furious. ‘Where were you? How are you guys alive?’
‘Long story,’ he said. A picnic basket bobbed to the surface next to him. ‘Want a brownie?’
Once they got on board and changed into dry clothes (poor Frank had to borrow a pair of too-small jeans from Jason) the crew all gathered on the quarterdeck for a celebratory breakfast – except for Coach Hedge, who grumbled that the atmosphere was getting too cuddly for his tastes and went below to hammer out some dents in the hull. While Leo fussed over his helm controls, Hazel and Frank related the story of the fish-centaurs and their training camp.
‘Incredible,’ Jason said. ‘These are really good brownies.’
‘That’s your only comment?’ Piper demanded.
He looked surprised. ‘What? I heard the story. Fish-centaurs. Merpeople. Letter of intro to the Tiber River god. Got it. But these brownies –’
‘I know,’ Frank said, his mouth full. ‘Try them with Esther’s peach preserves.’
‘That,’ Hazel said, ‘is incredibly disgusting.’
‘Pass me the jar, man,’ Jason said.
Hazel and Piper exchanged a look of total exasperation. Boys.
Percy, for his part, wanted to hear every detail about the aquatic camp. He kept coming back to one point: ‘They didn’t want to meet me?’
‘It wasn’t that,’ Hazel said. ‘Just … undersea politics, I guess. The merpeople are territorial. The good news is they’re taking care of that aquarium in Atlanta. And they’ll help protect the Argo II as we cross the Atlantic.’
Percy nodded absently. ‘But they didn’t want to meet me?’
Annabeth swatted his arm. ‘Come on, Seaweed Brain! We’ve got other things to worry about.’
‘She’s right,’ Hazel said. ‘After today, Nico has less than two days. The fish-centaurs said we have to rescue him. He’s essential to the quest somehow.’
She looked around defensively, as if waiting for someone to argue. No one did. Piper tried to imagine what Nico di Angelo was feeling, stuck in a jar with only two pomegranate seeds left to sustain him and no idea whether he would be rescued. It made Piper anxious to reach Rome, even though she had a horrible feeling she was sailing towards her own sort of prison – a dark room filled with water.
‘Nico must have information about the Doors of Death,’ Piper said. ‘We’ll save him, Hazel. We can make it in time. Right, Leo?’
‘What?’ Leo tore his eyes away from the controls. ‘Oh, yeah. We should reach the Mediterranean tomorrow morning. Then spend the rest of that day sailing to Rome, or flying, if I can get the stabilizer fixed by then …’
Jason suddenly looked as though his brownie with peach preserves didn’t taste so good. ‘Which will put us in Rome on the last possible day for Nico. Twenty-four hours to find him – at most.’
Percy crossed his legs. ‘And that’s only part of the problem. There’s the Mark of Athena, too.’
Annabeth didn’t seem happy with the change of topic. She rested her hand on her backpack, which, since they’d left Charleston, she always seemed to have with her.
She opened the bag and brought out a thin bronze disc the diameter of a doughnut. ‘This is the map that I found at Fort Sumter. It’s …’
She stopped abruptly, staring at the smooth bronze surface. ‘It’s blank!’
Percy took it and examined both sides. ‘It wasn’t like this earlier?’
‘No! I was looking at it in my cabin and …’ Annabeth muttered under her breath. ‘It must be like the Mark of Athena. I can only see it when I’m alone. It won’t show itself to other demigods.’
Frank scooted back like the disc might explode. He had an orange-juice moustache and a brownie-crumb beard that made Piper want to hand him a napkin.
‘What did it have on it?’ Frank asked nervously. ‘And what is the Mark of Athena? I still don’t get it.’
Annabeth took the disc from Percy. She turned it in the sunlight, but it remained blank. ‘The map was hard to read, but it showed a spot on the Tiber River in Rome. I think that’s where my quest starts … the path I’ve got to take to follow the Mark.’
‘Maybe that’s where you meet the river god Tiberinus,’ Piper said. ‘But what is the Mark?’
‘The coin,’ Annabeth murmured.
Percy frowned. ‘What coin?’
Annabeth dug into her pocket and brought out a silver drachma. ‘I’ve been carrying this ever since I saw my mom at Grand Central. It’s an Athenian coin.’
She passed it around. While each demigod looked at it, Piper had a ridiculous memory of show-and-tell in elementary school.
‘An owl,’ Leo noted. ‘Well, that makes sense. I guess the branch is an olive branch? But what’s this inscription, AE – Area Of Effect?’
‘It’s alpha, theta, epsilon,’ Annabeth said. ‘In Greek it stands for of the Athenians … or you could read it as the children of Athena. It’s sort of the Athenian motto.’
‘Like SPQR for the Romans,’ Piper guessed.
Annabeth nodded. ‘Anyway, the Mark of Athena is an owl, just like that one. It appears in fiery red. I’ve seen it in my dreams. Then twice at Fort Sumter.’
She described what had happened at the fort – the voice of Gaia, the spiders in the garrison, the Mark burning them away. Piper could tell it wasn’t easy for her to talk about.
Percy took Annabeth’s hand. ‘I should have been there for you.’
‘But that’s the point,’ Annabeth said. ‘No one can be there for me. When I get to Rome, I’ll have to strike out on my own. Otherwise, the Mark won’t appear. I’ll have to follow it to … to the source.’
Frank took the coin from Leo. He stared at the owl. ‘The giants’ bane stands gold and pale, Won with pain from a woven jail.’ He looked up at Annabeth. ‘What is it … this thing at the source?’
Before Annabeth could answer, Jason spoke up.
‘A statue,’ he said. ‘A statue of Athena. At least … that’s my guess.’
Piper frowned. ‘You said you didn’t know.’
‘I don’t. But the more I think about it … there’s only one artefact that could fit the legend.’ He turned to Annabeth. ‘I’m sorry. I should have told you everything I’ve heard, much earlier. But, honestly, I was scared. If this legend is true –’
‘I know,’ Annabeth said. ‘I figured it out, Jason. I don’t blame you. But if we manage to save the statue, Greek and Romans together … Don’t you see? It could heal the rift.’
‘Hold on.’ Percy made a time-out gesture. ‘What statue?’
Annabeth took back the silver coin and slipped it into her pocket. ‘The Athena Parthenos,’ she said. ‘The most famous Greek statue of all time. It was forty feet tall, covered in ivory and gold. It stood in the middle of the Parthenon in Athens.’
The ship went silent, except for the waves lapping against the hull.
‘Okay, I’ll bite,’ Leo said at last. ‘What happened to it?’
‘It disappeared,’ Annabeth said.
Leo frowned. ‘How does a forty-foot-tall statue in the middle of the Parthenon just disappear?’
‘That’s a good question,’ Annabeth said. ‘It’s one of the biggest mysteries in history. Some people thought the statue was melted down for its gold or destroyed by invaders. Athens was sacked a number of times. Some thought the statue was carried off –’
‘By Romans,’ Jason finished. ‘At least, that’s one theory, and it fits the legend I heard at Camp Jupiter. To break the Greeks’ spirit, the Romans carted off the Athena Parthenos when they took over the city of Athens. They hid it in an underground shrine in Rome. The Roman demigods swore it would never see the light of day. They literally stole Athena, so she could no longer be the symbol of Greek military power. She became Minerva, a much tamer goddess.’
‘And the children of Athena have been searching for the statue ever since,’ Annabeth said. ‘Most don’t know about the legend,
but in each generation a few are chosen by the goddess. They’re given a coin like mine. They follow the Mark of Athena … a kind of magical trail that links them to the statue … hoping to find the resting place of the Athena Parthenos and get the statue back.’
Piper watched the two of them – Annabeth and Jason – with quiet amazement. They spoke like a team, without any hostility or blame. The two of them had never really trusted each other. Piper was close enough to both of them to know that. But now … if they could discuss such a huge problem so calmly – the ultimate source of Greek/Roman hatred – maybe there was hope for the two camps, after all.
Percy seemed be having similar thoughts, judging from his surprised expression. ‘So if we – I mean you – find the statue … what would we do with it? Could we even move it?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Annabeth admitted. ‘But, if we could save it somehow, it could unite the two camps. It could heal my mother of this hatred she’s got, tearing her two aspects apart. And maybe … maybe the statue has some sort of power that could help us against the giants.’
Piper stared at Annabeth with awe, just starting to appreciate the huge responsibility her friend had taken on. And Annabeth meant to do it alone.
‘This could change everything,’ Piper said. ‘It could end thousands of years of hostility. It might be the key to defeating Gaia. But if we can’t help you …’
She didn’t finish, but the question seemed to hang in the air: Was saving the statue even possible?
Annabeth squared her shoulders. Piper knew she must be terrified inside, but she did a good job hiding it.
‘I have to succeed,’ Annabeth said simply. ‘The risk is worth it.’
Hazel twirled her hair pensively. ‘I don’t like the idea of you risking your life alone, but you’re right. We saw what recovering the golden eagle standard did for the Roman legion. If this statue is the most powerful symbol of Athena ever created –’
‘It could kick some serious booty,’ Leo offered.
Hazel frowned. ‘That wasn’t the way I’d put it, but yes.’
‘Except …’ Percy took Annabeth’s hand again. ‘No child of Athena has ever found it. Annabeth, what’s down there? What’s guarding it? If it’s got to do with spiders –?’
‘Won through pain from a woven jail,’ Frank recalled. ‘Woven, like webs?’
Annabeth’s face turned as white as printer paper. Piper suspected that Annabeth knew what awaited her … or at least that she had a very good idea. She was trying to hold down a wave of panic and terror.
‘We’ll deal with that when we get to Rome,’ Piper suggested, putting a little charmspeak in her voice to soothe her friend’s nerves. ‘It’s going to work out. Annabeth is going to kick some serious booty, too. You’ll see.’
‘Yeah,’ Percy said. ‘I learned a long time ago: never bet against Annabeth.’
Annabeth looked at them both gratefully.
Judging from their half-eaten breakfasts, the others still felt uneasy, but Leo managed to shake them out of it. He pushed a button, and a loud blast of steam exploded from Festus’s mouth, making everyone jump.
‘Well!’ he said. ‘Good pep rally, but there’s still a ton of things to fix on this ship before we get to the Mediterranean. Please report to Supreme Commander Leo for your superfun list of chores!’
Piper and Jason took charge of cleaning the lower deck, which had been thrown into chaos during the monster attack. Reorganizing sickbay and battening down the storage area took them most of the day, but Piper didn’t mind. For one thing, she got to spend time with Jason. For another, last night’s explosions had given Piper a healthy respect for Greek fire. She didn’t want any loose vials of that stuff rolling through the corridors in the middle of the night.
As they were fixing up the stables, Piper thought about the night Annabeth and Percy had spent down here accidentally. Piper wished that she could talk with Jason all night – just curl up on the stable floor and enjoy being with him. Why didn’t they get to break the rules?
But Jason wasn’t like that. He was hardwired to be a leader and set a good example. Breaking the rules didn’t come naturally to him.
No doubt Reyna admired that about him. Piper did, too … mostly.
The one time she’d convinced him to be a rebel was back at the Wilderness School, when they had sneaked onto the roof at night to watch a meteor shower. That’s where they’d had their first kiss.
Unfortunately, that memory was a trick of the Mist, a magical lie implanted in her head by Hera. Piper and Jason were together now, in real life, but their relationship had been founded on an illusion. If Piper tried to get the real Jason to sneak out at night, would he do it?
She swept the hay into piles. Jason fixed a broken door on one of the stables. The glass floor hatch glowed from the ocean below – a green expanse of light and shadow that seemed to go down forever. Piper kept glancing over, afraid she’d see a monster’s face peeping in, or the water cannibals from her grandfather’s old stories, but all she saw was an occasional school of herring.
As she watched Jason work, she admired how easily he did each task, whether it was fixing a door or oiling saddles. It wasn’t just his strong arms and his skilful hands, though Piper liked those just fine, but the way he acted so upbeat and confident. He did what needed to be done without complaint. He kept his sense of humour, despite the fact that the guy had to be dead on his feet after not having slept the night before. Piper couldn’t blame Reyna for having a crush on him. When it came to work and duty, Jason was Roman to the core.
Piper thought about her mother’s tea party in Charleston. She wondered what the goddess had told Reyna a year ago, and why it had changed the way Reyna treated Jason. Had Aphrodite encouraged or discouraged her to like Jason?
Piper wasn’t sure, but she wished her mom hadn’t appeared in Charleston. Regular mothers were embarrassing enough. Godly glamour moms who invited your friends over for tea and guy talk – that was just mortifying.
Aphrodite had paid so much attention to Annabeth and Hazel that it had made Piper uneasy. When her mom got interested in somebody’s love life, usually that was a bad sign. It meant trouble was coming. Or, as Aphrodite would say, twists and turns.
But, also, Piper was secretly hurt not to have her mother to herself. Aphrodite had barely looked at her. She hadn’t said a word about Jason. She hadn’t bothered explaining her conversation with Reyna at all.
It was almost as if Aphrodite no longer found Piper interesting. Piper had got her guy. Now it was up to her to make things work, and Aphrodite had moved on to newer gossip as easily as she might toss out an old copy of a tabloid magazine.
All of you are such excellent stories, Aphrodite had said. I mean, girls.
Piper hadn’t appreciated that, but part of her had thought: Fine. I don’t want to be a story. I want a nice steady life with a nice steady boyfriend.
If only she knew more about making relationships work. She was supposed to be an expert, being the head counsellor for Aphrodite cabin. Other campers at Camp Half-Blood came to her for advice all the time. Piper had tried to do her best, but with her own boyfriend she was clueless. She was constantly second-guessing herself, reading too much into Jason’s expressions, his moods, his offhand comments. Why did it have to be so hard? Why couldn’t there be a happily-ever-after ride-into-the-sunset feeling all the time?
‘What are you thinking?’ Jason asked.
Piper realized she’d been making a sour face. In the reflection of the glass bay doors, she looked like she’d swallowed a teaspoon of salt.
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘I mean … a lot of things. Kind of all at once.’
Jason laughed. The scar on his lip almost disappeared when he smiled. Considering all the stuff he’d been through, it was amazing that he could be in such a good mood.
‘It’s going to work out,’ he promised. ‘You said so yourself.’
‘Yeah,’ Piper agreed. ‘Except I was just saying that
to make Annabeth feel better.’
Jason shrugged. ‘Still, it’s true. We’re almost to the ancient lands. We’ve left the Romans behind.’
‘And now they’re on their way to Camp Half-Blood to attack our friends.’
Jason hesitated, as if it were hard for him to put a positive spin on that. ‘Chiron will find a way to stall them. The Romans might take weeks to actually find the camp and plan their attack. Besides, Reyna will do what she can to slow things down. She’s still on our side. I know she is.’
‘You trust her.’ Piper’s voice sounded hollow, even to herself.
‘Look, Pipes. I told you, you’ve got nothing to be jealous about.’
‘She’s beautiful. She’s powerful. She’s so … Roman.’
Jason put down his hammer. He took her hand, which sent a tingle up her arm. Piper’s dad had once taken her to the Aquarium of the Pacific and shown her an electric eel. He told her that the eel sent out pulses that shocked and paralyzed its prey. Every time Jason looked at her or touched her hand, Piper felt like that.
‘You’re beautiful and powerful,’ he said. ‘And I don’t want you to be Roman. I want you to be Piper. Besides, we’re a team, you and me.’
She wanted to believe him. They’d been together, really, for months now. Still, she couldn’t get rid of her doubts, any more than Jason could get rid of the SPQR tattoo burned on his forearm.
Above them, the ship’s bell rang for dinner.
Jason smirked. ‘We’d better get up there. We don’t want Coach Hedge tying bells around our necks.’
Piper shuddered. Coach Hedge had threatened to do that after the Percy/Annabeth scandal, so he’d know if anyone sneaked out at night.
‘Yeah,’ she said regretfully, looking at the glass doors below their feet. ‘I guess we need dinner … and a good night’s sleep.’
XXVI
Piper
The next morning Piper woke to a different ship’s horn – a blast so loud it literally shook her out of bed.
She wondered if Leo was pulling another joke. Then the horn boomed again. It sounded like it was coming from several hundred yards away – from another vessel.