¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

021.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter twenty-one

━━ COMPARED TO MOUNT Olympus, Manhattan was quiet. Something Elisa never expected for the most densely populated area of New York City. Percy explained to her that it wasn't uncommon for the days upcoming Christmas that the streets would turn deadly hushed. Maybe they were all with their families.

               Argus, the hundred-eyed security chief, picked up Elisa, Percy, Grover, and Annabeth at the Empire State Building and ferried them back to camp through a light snowstorm. The Long Island Expressway was almost deserted, it looked like nothing compared to the time Elisa flew over it with Percy on the back of Blackjack.

               Trudging up Half-Blood Hill to a tall pine tree where a golden fleece was glittering brightly. Elisa stared at Thalia's pine tree with a growing frown. At the moment, for once, there was nothing to be upset about, but yet, she felt troubled. Maybe she should, perhaps that was the proper response to everything that had transpired over the days.

               Perhaps she felt upset when Thalia wasn't standing at the base of the tree where her life force had once been preserved. It was silly and irrational to expect the daughter of Zeus to be around. Thalia was on some new, grand adventure with Artemis as the new lieutenant of the Hunt.

               Chiron greeted them at the Big House with hot chocolate and toasted cheese sandwiches. Grover went off with his satyr friends to spread the word about what had happened in New Mexico. Within an hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was.

               Chiron stopped Elisa outside the headquarters. He held a golden drachma in his hand. "Your father told me there was someone you needed to call," he said.

               Elisa blinked up at the centaur. "What?" she asked dimly.

               The teacher grabbed her wrist, placed the drachma on her palm, and closed her fingers around it. "Follow me," the centaur said. "My office will give you privacy to call him."

               The daughter of Dionysus shared an apprehensive look with Percy and Annabeth. She followed after Chiron and to a room lined with bronze walls. The square room had a record player and a full-screen TV; a computer and a boom box sat on an oak desk. There were small knickknacks placed around, giving the room a homely look to it.

               Chiron grabbed a clear prism off one of the shelves, placing it on a stack of papers in the middle of the desk. The glass prism refracted the moonlight coming from the closest window. The rainbow glittered lustrously, dancing across the desk. The centaur moved to stand behind the desk, clasping his hands in front of him.

               "The drachma, please," he said.

               Elisa held up the drachma with confusion. "What's this for?" she asked.

               "I'm sure Grover explained to you that telephones were dangerous for half-bloods," said the centaur. Elisa nodded along. "Well, this" —he seized the ancient coin out of her hands— "is how we make calls instead."

               Chiron flipped the coin into the rainbow, saying, "'O Iris, accept my offering." He looked to Elisa. "Callum Belshaw, Albuquerque, New Mexico."

               The rainbow shimmered and the floating image of Callum appeared before Chiron and Elisa. Callum was in the bakery, that much Elisa knew, because the son of Aphrodite had on a plain shirt and pants covered in flour. He had a coffee mug in his hands as he sat on a stool behind a dirty counter. It seemed like he had let his hair grow out but had braided it to keep it out of his way.