The Lost Heroine (Heroes of Olympus/Kane Chronicles crossover) [2016]

Chapter 5: Annabeth

ZIA OPENED THE DOOR TO HER ROOM AND MOVED TOWARD HER CLOSET. She flung open the door, revealing a wide assortment of white clothing. She turned to me. "Choose something that you like."

I picked a white shirt and drawstring pants. Zia left the room while I changed my clothes. I didn't want to take off my necklace, so I left it on. Then I turned to a mirror on the wall. My blonde hair curled around my shoulders. My gray eyes seemed to analyze my own reflection.

Zia knocked on the door. "Annabeth, you done?"

"Yeah," I replied. She entered the room and looked at me. "You look good," she commented.

"Thanks." I glanced down at my outfit.

"What are those?" she asked, pointing at my beads. I held them up. "I don't know. I'm pretty sure they stand for something."

"Years, maybe?" Zia suggested. "If so, you would have to be... wherever you got them, for a long time. Nine years."

"Maybe," I agreed. "That might be right."

"How old do you think you are?" Zia wondered.

I thought for a moment. "Seventeen," I decided. "Almost eighteen."

"That looks about right," Zia admitted. "I'm fifteen. Carter's also fifteen, and so is Walt. Sadie's thirteen. We work with initiates from all over the world, and train them to be magicians."

"Magicians," I repeated. "I'm guessing you're not talking about the kind that wave little black sticks and do card tricks?"

Zia laughed. "No. Magicians channel magic from different... power sources, you could say. They could use amulets, like Walt's. Or they could use these." She reached out in front of her and closed her eyes. A moment later, her hand vanished. I yelped in surprise. Almost instantly, her hand came back into view, clasped around the handle of a cloth bag.

"Okay, how did you do that?" I asked.

My face must have been pretty funny, because she laughed. "The Duat is another level of reality, the magic level. It takes away the cover that protects the minds of normal people. The Duat is how the gods see things. Sometimes, magicians can lower their vision into the Duat and see things as they truly are. Sometimes magicians can also store things in the Duat, the way I did just now. This is my magicians' kit."

She took out what looked like a wooden boomerang. "This is a wand."

I raised my eyebrows. "That's a boomerang."

She laughed. "It does look like a boomerang. It's mostly used for a distraction. The real deal... is this."

She drew a golden stick carved with what looked like a ladybug at the end, which looked way too big to fit in the bag, out of the bag.

"This is a magicians' staff. It's one of the things that you can use to channel the magic. I'm an elemental magician, a fire elementalist to be exact." She fingered a necklace around her neck, a gold beetle.

"What's that?" I asked.

"A symbol of Khepri, the divine beetle. He's one of the aspects of Ra, the sun god. I used to host him, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Why is there a beetle god?"

"I don't know," Zia said, shrugging. "You ready to meet the initiates?"

"I guess." I lift one shoulder. "Do I get a magicians' kit?"

"If you're not blood of the pharaohs," Zia said hesitantly, "then it might be dangerous."

"I've done plenty of dangerous stuff," I bragged. "Even though I don't remember what."

Zia smiled. "I like your attitude. Sure, I'll get you one after breakfast."

"Okay." I follow her down the stairs of the house and into a large room with a tall gold statue of a bird-headed guy at the front. There were smaller statues around the edges.

In the center of the room was a large banquet table with about twenty kids eating at it. I recognized Amos, Carter, and Walt at one end of the table. On one wall of the room was a huge tank with... a white crocodile? It must be albino.

As I watched, several of the kids tossed a few strips of bacon to the albino crocodile, who snapped the bacon up all at once. There were two empty seats. It was only then that I noticed that one of the people sitting at the table was a baboon.

"A baboon?" I whispered to Zia.

Zia nodded. "His name is Khufu."

"You guys have some strange pets," I noticed.

"Yeah. The crocodile is Philip of Macedonia."

"Okay," I said, bemused.

At that moment, Amos noticed us. "Zia! Annabeth! Come sit down!"

Zia sat on one side of Carter. I was reluctant to take the seat on his other side, because I knew it was meant for Sadie, but Amos gestured for me to take the seat, so I slid my legs under the table and sat down. Several people glanced at me uncertainly.

"Where's Sadie?" a little kid who looked about ten and wore a penguin shirt asked.

Amos sighed. "Sadie is missing."

Surprised gasps were heard around the table. "Do you know where she is?" a girl with blonde hair asked.

"As of right now, no, Jaz," Amos answered. Carter stared at his plate, the food untouched. I felt bad for him. I felt like I knew what it felt like to have someone I cared about go missing.

As Amos explained the situation to the initiates, I tried to think of something to say to Carter. Finally, I said, " Hey, Carter. I feel like someone I've cared about has disappeared before, and I don't remember who, but I remember what it feels like. I'm sorry Sadie's missing, and I'll try my best to help you find her."

"Thanks, Annabeth," Carter said. "I just thought of something. The beads, the other gods... I just remembered. Who do you remember from your life, before you came here?"

I thought. "A boy who can control water," I remembered. "A bunch of other kids. A girl who could summon jewels. A boy who could catch on fire. A girl who could make you do what she said, just by speaking to you. A boy who could summon skeletons. A boy who could fly. We all had powers, strange powers, that had to do with our parents. We fought monsters together. There was a ship, a flying ship. We were on it together. And..." The memories faded. "I don't remember any more."

Carter took a deep breath. "You've told me all I needed to know."

"What do you mean?"

"One of the kids you talked about," he said slowly. "The guy who can control water. Is his name Percy Jackson?"

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