~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

A One-Way Trip

   "Your leg." Piper knelt next to her and examined the Bubble Wrap cast. "Oh, Annabeth, what happened?"

   She started to explain. Talking was difficult, but as she went along, her words came more easily. Percy didn't let go of her hand, which also made her feel more confident. When she finished, her friends' faces were slack with amazement.

   "Gods of Olympus," Jason said. "You did all that alone. With a broken ankle."

   "Well... some of it with a broken ankle."

   Percy grinned. "You made Arachne weave her own trap? I knew you were good, but Holy Hera—Annabeth, you did it. Generations of Athena kids tried and failed. You found the Athena Parthenos!"

   Everyone gazed at the statue.

   "What do we do with her?" Frank asked. "She's huge."

   "We'll have to take her with us to Greece," Annabeth said. "The statue is powerful. Something about it will help us stop the giants."

   "The giants' bane stands gold and pale," Hazel quoted. "Won with pain from a woven jail." She looked at Annabeth with admiration. "It was Arachne's jail. You tricked her into weaving it."

   With a lot of pain, Annabeth thought.

   Leo raised his hands. He made a finger picture frame around the Athena Parthenos like he was taking measurements. "Well, it might take some rearranging, but I think we can fit her through the bay doors in the stable. If she sticks out the end, I might have to wrap a flag around her feet or something."

   Annabeth shuddered. She imagined the Athena Parthenos jutting from their trireme with a sign across her pedestal that read: WIDE LOAD.

   Then she thought about the other lines of the prophecy: The twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the keys to endless death.

   "What about you guys?" she asked. "What happened with the giants?"

   Percy told her about rescuing Nico, the appearance of Bacchus, and the fight with the twins in the Colosseum. Nico didn't say much. The poor guy looked like he'd been wandering through a wasteland for six weeks. Percy explained what Nico had found out about the Doors of Death, and how they had to be closed on both sides. Even with sunlight streaming in from above, Percy's news made the cavern seem dark again.

   "So the mortal side is in Epirus," she said. "At least that's somewhere we can reach."

   Nico grimaced. "But the other side is the problem. Tartarus."

   The word seemed to echo through the chamber. The pit behind them exhaled a cold blast of air. That's when Annabeth knew with certainty. The chasm did go straight to the Underworld.

   Percy must have felt it too. He guided her a little farther from the edge. Her arms and legs trailed spider silk like a bridal train. She wished she had her dagger to cut that junk off. She almost asked Percy to do the honors with Riptide, but before she could, he said, "Bacchus mentioned something about my voyage being harder than I expected. Not sure why—"

   The chamber groaned. The Athena Parthenos tilted to one side. Its head caught on one of Arachne's support cables, but the marble foundation under the pedestal was crumbling. Nausea swelled in Annabeth's chest. If the statue fell into the chasm, all her work would be for nothing. Their quest would fail.

   "Secure it!" Annabeth cried.

   Her friends understood immediately.

   "Zhang!" Leo cried. "Get me to the helm, quick! The coach is up there alone."