I relaxed for the first time since Mars came to visit. I sat behind Leo enjoying the quiet, of course, the voices in my head were still there but they weren't as loud.
"We're going to have to put down soon," Leo told them. "Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea's not following us. I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that."
"Oh, Medea definitely isn't following us." I told them about how I killed Medea. Surprisingly they didn't look at me any differently. "Oh, I can also teleport and trust me when I say it isn't as fun as it sounds."
"Coach Hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. The question is—where are we going?" Piper asked before focusing back on me, "You can teleport?"
I nodded smiling.
"The Bay Area," Leo guessed. I remembered Medea mentioning Piper's dad. "Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?"
Piper didn't respond for a long time, what was Piper hiding?
"Piper's dad," Jason put in. "Something's happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some kind of trap."
Piper let out a shaky breath. "Look, Medea said you would all die in the Bay Area. And besides ... even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First, we need to find Aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. Boreas said Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."
Leo grunted. "So how do we find Aeolus?"
Jason leaned forward. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed ahead of them, but Lila didn't see anything except clouds and the lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.
"What?" Leo asked. "That ... whatever it is," Jason said. "In the air."
Leo glanced back. He looked just as confused as me was.
"Right," Leo said. "Could you be more specific on the 'whatever-it-is' part?"
"Like a vapour trail," Jason said. "Except it's glowing. Really faint, but it's definitely there. We've been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it."
"Jason, I don't mean to be rude but have you gone insane? Have you hit your head one too many times?" I asked staring out in front of me looking for the invisible vapour trail.
Leo shook his head. "Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?"
"Well, it's a magic trail in the wind," Jason said. "Aeolus is the wind god. I think he knows we've got prisoners for him. He's telling us where to fly."
"Or it's another trap," Piper said. I nodded. Even if it was pessimistic things going wrong seemed to be a running theme.
Her tone worried me. She didn't just sound cautious, she sounded broken with despair like we'd already sealed our fate and like it was her fault. I knew Piper was hiding something but I was also hiding things.
"Pipes, you all right?" Leo asked.
"Don't call me that."
"Okay, fine. You don't like any of the names I make up for you. But if your dad's in trouble and we can help—"
"You can't," she said, her voice getting shakier. "Look, I'm tired. If you don't mind ..."
She leaned back against Jason and closed her eyes.
So... Piper wasn't in a chatty mood.
We flew in silence for a while. "I'm gonna have a nap, teleporting really took a lot out of me." I leaned back into Piper and shut my eyes.
When I woke up we were spiralling through the dark in a free fall, still on the dragon's back, but Festus's hide was cold. His ruby eyes were dim.
"Not again!" Leo yelled. "You can't fall again!"
"Why can't I just have a nap?" I screamed. I was having a dream but I couldn't remember what it was about, I couldn't remember what any of my dreams were about except for the one with the she-wolf or Mars. The others just weren't Important.
"Jason!" Leo screamed. "Take the girls and fly out of here!"
"What?"
"We need to lighten the load! I might be able to reboot Festus, but he's carrying too much weight!"
"What about you?" Piper cried. "If you can't reboot him—"
"I'll be fine," Leo yelled. "Just follow me to the ground. Go!"
Jason grabbed me and Piper around the waist. We all unbuckled our harnesses, and in a flash, we were gone—shooting into the air.
We landed in someone's garden just in time to see Festus get shot down. "LEO!" I screamed as the dragon spiralled out of the sky, Festus slammed into the ground scattering into pieces across the grass.
Leo was lying in the snow, covered in mud and grease. When he woke up he spat a clump of frozen grass out of his mouth.
"Where—"
"Lie still." Piper had tears in her eyes. "You rolled pretty hard when—when Festus—"
"Where is he?" Leo tried to sit up but I held him down.
"Stay still." I said but Leo just ignored my and sat up.
"Seriously, Leo," Jason said. "You could be hurt. You shouldn't—"
Leo pushed himself to his feet. Then he saw the wreckage. Festus must have dropped the big canary cages as he came over the fence because they'd rolled in different directions and landed on their sides, perfectly undamaged.
"You can't go," Leo pleaded. "You're the best thing I ever fixed."
The dragon's head whirred its gears as if it were purring. Lila crouched down and wrapped her arm around Leo's shoulder.
"It's not fair," he said.
The dragon clicked. Long creak. Two short clicks. Creak. Creak. "Is it just me that hears the morse code?" I muttered and Leo glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and nodded.
"Yeah," Leo said. "I understand. I will. I promise."
The dragon's eyes went dark. Festus was gone.
Leo cried. We were all silent until finally, Jason said, "I'm so sorry, man. What did you promise Festus?"
Leo sniffled. He opened the dragon's head panel. Trying to see what he could do to save our metal friend.
"Something my dad told me," Leo said. "Everything can be reused."
The dragon had disintegrated. His limbs were scattered across the lawn. His tail hung on the fence. The main section of his body had ploughed a trench twenty feet wide and fifty feet long across the mansion's yard before breaking apart.
"No," Leo sobbed. He ran to the dragon's head and stroked its snout. The dragon's eyes flickered weakly. Oil leaked out of his ear. I pulled my little friend into a tight hug.
"Your dad talked to you?" Jason asked. "When was this?"
Leo didn't answer. He worked at the dragon's neck hinges until the head was detached. He looked up at the starry sky and said, "Take him back to the bunker, Dad. Please, until I can reuse him. I've never asked you for anything."
The wind picked up, and the dragon's head floated out of Leo's arms like it weighed nothing. It flew into the sky and disappeared.
Piper looked at him in amazement. "He answered you?"
"Not now." I snapped. Leo had just lost someone he really cared about and Piper and Jason weren't taking it seriously. Festus may have been made out of metal but Leo loved him.
"I had a dream," Leo managed. "Tell you later."
I looked up at the huge heavily guarded mansion. Why was a house so heavily guarded? What were they hiding?
"Where are we?" he asked. "I mean, what city?"
"Omaha." I answered at the same time as Piper.
"I saw a billboard as we flew in. But I don't know what this mansion is. We came in right behind you, but as you were landing, Leo, I swear it looked like—I don't know—" Leo cut Piper off.
"Lasers," He picked up a piece of dragon wreckage and threw it toward the top of the fence. Immediately a turret popped up from the brick wall and a beam of pure heat incinerated the bronze plating to ashes.
Jason whistled. "Some defence system. How are we even alive?"
"Festus," Leo said miserably. Lila glared at Jason and smacked the back of his head. "He took the fire. The lasers sliced him to bits as he came in so they didn't focus on you. I led him into a death trap."
"You couldn't have known," Piper said. "He saved our lives again."
"But what now?" Jason said. "The main gates are locked, and I'm guessing I can't fly us out of here without getting shot down."
I laughed and looked up at the mansion. "Come on kids, I'll teach you one of my special skills."
___
Normal people did not set traps for their visitors. First, it was the motion-activated trapdoor on the sidewalk, then the lasers on the steps, then the nerve gas dispenser on the porch railing, the pressure-sensitive poison spikes in the welcome mat, and of course the exploding doorbell.
Leo and I deactivated all of them. I could sense the traps instantly, and Leo picked just the right tool out of his belt to disable them.
"You guys amazing," Jason said.
"I know that, captain sparkles."
Leo scowled as he examined the front door lock. "Yeah, amazing," he said. "Can't fix a dragon right, but I'm amazing."
"Hey, that wasn't your—"
"The front door's already unlocked," Leo announced.
Creepy.
Piper stared at the door in disbelief. "It is? All those traps, and the door's unlocked?"
Leo turned the knob. The door swung open easily. He stepped inside without hesitation. I stepped in after him looking around for any more explosives or lasers.
The only illumination came from the yardlights outside. A faint glow peeked through the breaks in the thick velvet curtains. The windows rose about ten feet tall. Spaced between them along the walls were life-size metal statues. A massive chandelier glinted overhead. Along the back wall stood a row of closed doors.
"Where's the light switch?" Jason's voice echoed alarmingly through the room.
"Don't see one," Leo said.
"Fire?" Piper suggested.
Leo held out his hand, but nothing happened. "It's not working."
"Your fire is out? Why?" Piper asked.
"Maybe youre tired." I offered trying to be helpful then I remembered Leo had a nap before we fell.
"Well, if I knew that—"
"Okay, okay," Piper said. "What do we do—explore?"
Leo shook his head. "After all those traps outside? Bad idea."
"Yeah and what if we meet whoever owns this place? What do we do then?" I crossed my arms. Everything was tense. One wrong word and one of them would snap.
"Leo's right," he said. "We're not separating again—not like in Detroit."
"Oh, thank you for reminding me of the Cyclopes." Piper's voice quavered. "I needed that."
"Yeah, good job, JJ." Jason and I both playfully glared at each other, we were the only two who probably wouldn't bite the other's head off. So I settled on teasing the boy for the rest of the evening.
"It's a few hours until dawn," Jason guessed. "Too cold to wait outside. Let's bring the cages in and make camp in this room. Wait for daylight; then we can decide what to do."
Nobody offered a better idea, so we rolled in the cages with Coach Hedge and the storm spirits and then settled in.
Leo didn't seem in the mood to make more tacos. Besides, we had no fire, so we settled for cold rations.
I searched through her backpack and found that my siblings had packed me Oreos and a big bag of Doritos. I grinned to myself. My siblings really were the best.
Once my stomach was full I started to drift off to sleep and had a horrid nightmare.
I stood on a Beach the white sand red with blood. Bodies of children and teenagers lay scattered on the ground the only person standing near me was what looked like a little girl. A massacre had happened here. I started running towards the girl trying to catch her attention. "
Hey!" The girl didn't turn or run she just stood completely still. Once she had reached the girl she realised that something was wrong as the girl turned covered in blood.. "You must save them from their fates." Her voice was raspy, green smoke billowed out of her eyes and mouth.
I woke up sweating then the yelling started.
"Ahhhggggggh!"
"Coach is awake," Leo said, which was kind of unnecessary. Hedge was running around on his furry hindquarters, swinging his club and yelling, "Die!" as he smashed the tea set, whacked the sofas, and charged at the throne.
"Coach!" Jason yelled.
Hedge turned. The satyr was still wearing his orange polo shirt and his coach's whistle, but his horns were clearly visible above his curly hair, and his beefy hindquarters were definitely all goat.
"You're the new kid," Hedge said, lowering his club. "Jason." He looked at Leo, then Piper, who'd apparently also just woken up. Her hair looked like it had become a nest for a friendly hamster.
"It's creepy he knows your name." I whispered to Jason and he just rolled his eyes.
"Ah, you're the other one, Lila? Isn't it?" I nodded a little disturbed by the goat man.
"Valdez, McLean," the coach said. "What's going on? We were at the Grand Canyon. The anemoi thuellai were attacking and—" He zeroed in on the storm spirit cage, and his eyes went back to DEFCON 1. "Die!"
"Whoa, Coach!" Leo stepped in his path, which was pretty brave, even though Hedge was six inches shorter. "It's okay. They're locked up. We just sprang you from the other cage."
"Cage? Cage? What's going on? Just because I'm a satyr doesn't mean I can't have you doing plank push-ups, Valdez!"
Jason cleared his throat. "Coach—Gleeson—um, whatever you want us to call you. You saved us at the Grand Canyon. You were totally brave."
"Of course I was!"
I let Jason explain because if I tried to I'd probably make him angry.
"The extraction team came and took us to Camp Half-Blood. We thought we'd lost you. Then we got word the storm spirits had taken you back to their—um, operator, Medea."
"That witch! Wait—that's impossible. She's mortal. She's dead."
"Wow, nothing gets past you, does it, donkey man?" I muttered earning a glare from everyone.
"Yeah, well," Leo said, "Somehow she got not dead anymore."
Hedge nodded, his eyes narrowing. "So! You were sent on a dangerous quest to rescue me. Excellent!"
"Nope." I said popping the 'P'. Hedge looked at me and narrowed his eyes staring as if he was trying to figure out where he knew me from. "What's your name kid?"
"Li-La." I said, knowing I was definitely going to get myself into trouble.
"Um." Piper got to her feet, holding out her hands so Coach Hedge wouldn't attack her. "Actually, Glee—can I still call you Coach Hedge? Gleeson seems wrong. We're on a quest for something else. We kind of found you by accident."
"Oh." The coach's spirits seemed to deflate, but only for a second. Then his eyes lit up again. "But there are no accidents! Not on quests. This was meant to happen! So, this is the witch's lair, eh? Why is everything gold?"
"Great, you're an optimist."I grumbled then she registered what he had said.
"Gold?" Jason looked around. From the way Leo and Piper caught their breath, he guessed they hadn't noticed yet either.
"This best day of my life!" A bunch of gold stuff stolen from a top security house, now that was some souvenir.
The room was full of gold—the statues, the tea set Hedge had smashed, the chair that was definitely a throne. Even the curtains—which seemed to have opened by themselves at daybreak—appeared to be woven of gold fiber.
"Nice," Leo said. "No wonder they got so much security."
"Let's take it!" I said to Leo knowing he'd be my partner in crime. He grinned and nodded.
"This isn't—" Piper stammered. "This isn't Medea's place, Coach. It's some rich person's mansion in Omaha. We got away from Medea and crash-landed here."
"It's destiny, cupcakes!" Hedge insisted. "I'm meant to protect you. What's the quest?"
Before I could say something inappropriate or rude a door opened at the far end of the room.
A pudgy man in a white bathrobe stepped out with a golden toothbrush in his mouth. He had a white beard and one of those long, old-fashioned sleeping caps. He looked like Ebenezer Scrooge. He froze when he saw us, and the toothbrush fell out of his mouth.
He glanced into the room behind him and called, "Son? Lit, come out here, please. There are strange people in the throne room."
Coach Hedge did the obvious thing. He raised his club and shouted, "Die!"
This guy was going to get us killed.
A/N
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