The Fight Against Night (Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles)

Chapter 13 Carter

Ο Διακυρίττεσθαι  Άντεξελαύνω Νύξ

Carter

I open my eyes and I see ice covering all of the walls. Throughout the entire room that appears to be a dungeon, kids and mythical creatures are chained up. Those who have been here the longest have grown deathly skinny and are covered in filth. It looks like a scene out of a movie you would see on TV about war prisoners. Has I look around I start to recognize some people. Annabeth, Jason, and Grover. I can only assume we were all kidnapped by the suffocating black fog. I even see a few of my trainees from the First Nome. The list of people here that I know alone would be long and I barely know anyone from the Greek and Roman camps. Aside from my crewmates I only know Will, and not even that well.

"What is going on?" I asked with a scratchy voice.

"We are all being slowly killed off. That's what," said a boy from across the room. He was very thin, had pale skin, and black shaggy hair. It was obvious that he had been here the longest. "We will all probably be dead by the end of month."

"Nico! You don't know that! There is probably a rescue team looking for us as we speak," Will says annoyed. Well I guess we found out were Nico is. In an ice cold dungeon, slowly starving to death with hundreds of others.

"And by the time they find us Zethes would have already killed us all. That is if they aren't captured first. The first team sent to find us is already halfway here," he said motioning at Annabeth, Jason, Grover, and I. The other three were still out cold.

"Hey! The only reason we got caught was because we were trying to find you! You lead us straight into a trap!" I yelled. I am having none of his crap.

"I didn't lead you anywhere," He shot back. Most of the other prisoners ignored our argument like it was a normal thing that happened. I am not surprised. I've only known Nico for a few minutes and I can tell he finds any reason he can to start an argument. "You lead yourselves into this."

"Nico, please. Enough," Will sighs.

"No! I'm just so fed up with this! Why can't we just ever catch a break for once in our lives? It is one catastrophe after another. First the Titans, then the Giants, and now this!" Nico shouts. I don't know what he means by Titans and Giants, but I can understand what he is getting at. There is always something going wrong and we are expected to fix it or die trying.

"I know. I know. That is just how the lives of Demigods work. As long as there is a world to protect we have to protect it. Yeah it's tough, but that doesn't mean we should just give up," Will states.

"I have been in here for months watching Zethes take people at random. Let's face it they are all dead because he definitely isn't taking them to have a cup of tea. At this point I would rather die than be stuck here for any longer!" Nico says. Will's eyes fill with tears, but before he can say anything the door is being unlocked and a very strange man, who I can only assume is Zethes, walks into the room. A cruel smirk covers his face. The room is filled with silence and many of my fellow prisoners cower into the wall. Zethes walks across the room looking at us all.

"You already took someone today. At this rate you will run out of prisoners," Nico snaps. Zethes stops in front of Nico and promptly kicks him in the gut.

"I will do as I wish," he says snidely, scowling at Nico. "Now tell me, where did you hide the book?" Book? What book? It obviously was a part of Nyx's giant plan, but why?

"Go to Tartarus," Nico says through clenched teeth. A sly smile spreads across Zethes face.

"Unchain him," Zethes says pointing at Will. Zethes' guards enter the room and grab Will dragging him away while he kicks at them trying to break free. Nico's face fills with pain.

"No! Please!" Nico pleads, his eyes filling with tears. He pulls against his chains trying to break free.

Zethes' smile widens as he turns away from Nico and heads toward the door to leave. When he gets to the door he turns around and says, "Oh, and Carter, right?" He looks at me. The whole time Nico is screaming and cursing at him. "Boreas will speak to you soon. It turns out His Highness has plans for you." He then slams the door behind himself. From behind the door I can hear Will screaming for Nico. There is a giant crash and then his screams stop. By now Annabeth, Jason and Grover have woken up. Their eyes are filled with tears as they watch Nico scream.

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It has felt like hours since Will was taken. Nico finally stopped screaming because he lost his voice, but they still haunt me. He now cowers against the wall weeping. If I thought he looked defeated earlier then he was definitely dead on the inside now. I have filled the other three in on what happened while they were out cold, but they are too stunned to say much.

We all sit in silence until the door clangs open again. A guard enters this time and walks over to me. He unchains me and roughly pulls me to my feet. My eyes fill with black spots from the sudden movement.

"His Highness will speak with you now," he says, as if I wanted to speak to whoever His Highness was. Has we leave the room Annabeth gives me a worried look before the door is slammed shut behind me. The guard leads me down many winding hallways and I am quickly disorientated. After what feels like ages we finally reach a set of huge ice doors. We enter what I can only assume is the throne room. Throughout the room are ice statues of warriors and mystical creatures, and in the front of the room sitting in an ice throne is an old man. He nods and the Guard leaves.

"So you are the one she speaks of. The old host of Horus." The old man stares down at me. 

"What do you want and what did you do to Will?" I snap.

"Well, well isn't someone in a hurry," he taunts. "The boy is not of your concern, and it turns out Nyx's forces grabbed some of the wrong people when they attacked your ship. The goat-boy and girl are useless to me. I need you to draw in your sister and Miss Levesque for me. Once you have them I can bring you all to me."

"And why would I help you?" I questioned.

"Because if you don't I'll turn all of your little friends in the dungeon into lovely ice statues," he says, motioning to all of the statues in the room.

"Why do you even want them?" I asked, though I knew I wouldn't get an answer.

"You will know soon enough. And make sure you don't let the others aboard that ship follow you here. I don't need any more headaches." The old man waved his hand at me. Everything disappeared and I was outside in the middle of a city.  The street signs were all in French. In the sky above me I can see the Argo II.

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Finally found time to write this chapter for you guys. I hope you enjoyed it.

Your question is:

In Trials of Apollo, what is Harley trying to make through out the book?