The Moon and the Stars || Heroes of Olympus

Chapter 37

The four of us headed out on deck and admired the view.

We had landed near the summit of a forested hill. A complex of white buildings, like a museum or a university, nestled in a grove of pines to the left. Below them spread the city of Atlanta - a cluster of brown and silver downtown skyscrapers two miles away, rising from what looked like an endless flat sprawl of highways, railroad tracks, houses, and green swathes of forest.

"Ah, lovely spot." Coach Hedge inhaled the morning air. "Good choice, Valdez."

Leo shrugged. "I just picked a tall hill. That's a presidential library or something over there. At least that's what Festus says."

"I don't know about that!" Hedge barked. "But do you realize what happened on this hill? Frank Zhang, you should know!"

Frank flinched. Even after the events of the morning, he still wasn't used to Coach Hedge's aggressive nature. "I should?"

"A son of Ares stood here!" Hedge cried indignantly.

"I'm Roman....so Mars, actually."

"Whatever! Famous spot in the American Civil War!"

"I'm Canadian, actually."

"Whatever! General Sherman, Union leader. He stood on this hill watching the city of Atlanta burn. Cut a path of destruction all the way from here to the sea. Burning, looting, pillaging - now there was a demigod!"

Understandably, Frank inched away from the satyr. "Uh, okay."

"Anyway," Percy said, "let's try not to burn down the city this time."

The coach looked disappointed. "All right. But where to?"

Percy pointed toward downtown. "When in doubt, start in the middle."

-Ω-

Catching a ride there was easier than we thought. We headed to the presidential library - which turned out to be the Carter Centre - and asked the staff if they could call a taxi or give us directions to the nearest bus stop. I thought I saw a familiar head of dark curls, but they were gone before I could be sure. Percy could have summoned Blackjack, but he was reluctant to ask the pegasus for help so soon after our last disaster. Frank didn't want to polymorph into anything. And besides, it was be nice to pretend to be a normal person for once.

One of the librarians, whose name was Esther, insisted on driving us personally. She was so nice about it, Percy whispered that she must be a monster in disguise; but Hedge pulled him aside and assured him that Esther smelled like a normal human.

"With a hint of potpourri," he said. "Cloves. Rose petals. Tasty!"

We piled into Esther's big black Cadillac and drove toward downtown. Esther was so tiny, she could barely see over the steering wheel; but that didn't seem to bother her. She muscled her car through traffic while regaling us with stories about the crazy families of Atlanta - the old plantation owners, the founders of Coca-Cola, the sports stars, and the CNN news people.

"Uh, so, Esther," Percy said, "here's a hard question for you. Salt water in Atlanta. What's the first thing that comes to mind?"

The old lady chuckled. "Oh, sugar. That's easy. Whale sharks!"

We exchanged a look.

"Whale sharks?" Frank asked nervously. "You have those in Atlanta?"

"At the aquarium, sugar," Esther said. "Very famous! Right downtown. Is that where you wanted to go?"