chapter twenty-one
─── we got mail!!
𝔗he news painted it as a crazy kidnapper fired a shotgun at a police car. He accidentally hit a gas main that had then ruptured causing an explosion. It was complete bullshit, but they were feeding me so I just nodded to everything they said.
This crazy kidnapper (a.k.a. Ares) was the same man who had abducted me and three other adolescents in New York and brought us across country on a ten-day odyssey of terror.
Poor Andromeda Jackson wasn't an international criminal after all. She'd caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from her captor (and afterward, witnesses would even swear they had seen the leather-clad man on the bus—again, bullshit). The crazy man had caused the explosion in the St. Louis Arch. After all, no teenager could've done that. A concerned waitress in Denver had seen the man threatening his abductees outside her diner, gotten a friend to take a photo, and notified the police. Finally, brave Andromeda Jackson had stolen a gun from her captor in Los Angeles and battled him shotgun-to-rifle on the beach. Police had arrived just in time. But in the spectacular explosion, five police cars had been destroyed and the captor had fled. No fatalities had occurred. Andromeda Jackson and her three friends were safely in police custody.
Complete bullshit.
The reporters fed us this whole story. We just nodded and acted tearful and exhausted (which wasn't that hard), and played victimized children for the cameras.
"All I want," I said, choking back my tears, as Luke patted my hand, "is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew...somehow...we would be okay. And I know he'll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store. Here's the phone number."
The police and reporters were so moved that they passed around the hat and raised money for four tickets on the next plane to New York. I knew there was no choice but to fly. I hoped Zeus would cut me some slack, considering the circumstances. But it was still hard to force myself on board the flight.
Take off was a nightmare. Every spot of turbulence was scarier than a Greek monster. I didn't unclench my hands from Luke's until we touched down safely at La Guardia. The local press was waiting for us outside security, but we managed to evade them thanks to Annabeth, who lured them away in her invisible Yankees cap, shouting, "They're over by the frozen yogurt! Come on!" then re-joined us at baggage claim.
We split up at the taxi stand. I told Luke, Annabeth and Grover to get back to Half-Blood Hill and let Chiron know what had happened. They protested, Luke had said no chance and he was coming with me, and it was hard to persuade the other two younger ones to go back after all we'd been through, but I knew I had to do this last part of the quest by myself (with the supervision of Luke to make sure I didn't do anything stupid). If things went wrong, if the gods didn't believe us...I wanted Annabeth and Grover to survive to tell Chiron the truth.
Luke and I hopped in a taxi and headed into Manhattan.
Thirty minutes later, we walked into the lobby of the Empire State Building. The both of us must have looked like zombies, with tattered clothes and bruised faces. I hadn't slept in at least twenty-four hours and Luke just looked generally done with life.
I went up to the guard at the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor."
He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. I wasn't much into fantasy, but the book must've been good, because the guard took a while to look up. "No such floor, kiddo."
"We need an audience with Zeus." Luke replied.
He gave me a vacant smile. "Sorry?"
"You heard me."
I was about to decide this guy was just a regular mortal, and I'd better run for it before he called the straitjacket patrol, when he said, "No appointment, no audience, kid. Lord Zeus doesn't see anyone unannounced."
"Oh, I think he'll make an exception." I slipped off my backpack and unzipped the top.
The guard looked inside at the metal cylinder, not getting what it was for a few seconds. Then his face went pale. "That isn't..."
"Yes, it is," I promised. "You want me take it out and—"
"No! No!" He scrambled out of his seat, fumbled around his desk for a key card, then handed it to me. "Insert this in the security slot. Make sure nobody else is in the elevator with you."
I did as he told me. As soon as the elevator doors closed, I slipped the key into the slot. The card disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red one that said 600. I pressed it and waited, growing annoyed with the elevator music.
"You need this back," I told Luke quietly, untying the necklace from around my neck and handing it back to him, with Annabeth's ring attached to it.
"Keep it, for luck remember," Luke tried to push it back to me but I shook my head.
"You gave me a kiss, that's more than enough luck for me," He laughed softly, red flushing his cheeks as he put the necklace back on and the doors slid open.
I stepped out and almost had a heart attack.
We were standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air. Below me was Manhattan, from the height of an airplane. In front of me, white marble steps wound up the spine of a cloud, into the sky. My eyes followed the stairway to its end, where my brain just could not accept what I saw.
It was huge. A massive building, that looked like a Greek temple, but with a city surrounding it. Everything was gleaming, complete with cobbled streets, large fountains and the like. There were people everywhere, chattering all around us.
"Welcome to the New York conference centre." Luke chuckled, leading me into the cityscape. "It's packed for the solstice."
"Woah."
"You should see what Olympus is like. I've only ever been told, but gods, it sounds amazing." Luke nodded, as we walked through the streets, that glimmered white, silver and gold. We followed the winding structure up, past a theatre and pegasi stables, until we reached the main building.
Steps led up to a central courtyard. Past that, the main conference/throne room.
Room really isn't the right word. Massive columns rose to a domed ceiling, which was gilded with moving constellations. Twelve thrones were arranged in an inverted U, just like the cabins at Camp Half-Blood. An enormous fire crackled in the central hearth pit. The thrones were empty except for two at the end: the head throne on the right, and the one to its immediate left. I didn't have to be told who the two gods were that were sitting there, waiting for us to approach.
"I'll be here. Good luck," Luke whispered, sending me as reassuring look as I walked toward them, my legs trembling.
The gods were speaking amongst themselves, but I struggled to look up at them, fear coursing through my body. It was clear to tell that they were brothers, both having similar dark bears and hair. But whereas the one in the centre had a lighter tone to it, and stormy grey eyes, the other's was darker with eyes similar to my own.
The gods stopped speaking as I came forward, but there was tension in the air, as if they'd just finished an argument.
I approached the fisherman's throne and knelt at his feet. "Father." I dared not look up. My heart was racing. I could feel the energy emanating from the two gods. If I said the wrong thing, I had no doubt they could blast me into dust which wasn't what I really wanted.
To my left, Zeus spoke. "Should you not address the master of this house first?"
I kept my head down, and waited.
"Peace, brother," Poseidon finally said. His voice stirred my oldest memories: that warm glow I remembered as a baby, the sensation of this god's hand on my forehead, "The girl defers to her father. This is only right."
"You still claim her then?" Zeus questioned, his tone holding no edge. "You claim this child even after everything?"
"I have admitted my wrongdoing, and my guilt in the part," Poseidon said. "Now I would hear her speak."
Wrongdoing. A lump welled up in my throat. Was that all I was? A wrongdoing? The result of a god's mistake?
"I suppose it is only fair, in the effort of justice, for it to be so." Zeus nodded. "I will listen. It will be interesting to hear what she, and our brother, have to say."
"Andromeda," Poseidon said. "Look at me."
I did, and I wasn't sure what I saw in his face. There was no clear sign of love or approval. Nothing to encourage me. It was like looking at the ocean: some days, you could tell what mood it was in. Most days, though, it was unreadable.
I got the feeling Poseidon really didn't know what to think of me. He didn't know whether he was happy to have me as a daughter or not. In a strange way, I was glad that Poseidon was so distant. If he'd tried to apologize, or told me he loved me, or even smiled, it would've felt fake. Like a human dad, making some lame excuse for not being around. I could live with that.
After all, I wasn't sure about him yet, either.
"Address Lord Zeus, girl," Poseidon told me. "Tell him your story."
So I told Zeus everything, just as it had happened. I took out the metal cylinder, which began sparking in the Sky God's presence, and laid it at his feet.
There was a long silence, broken only by the crackle of the hearth fire.
Zeus opened his palm. The lightning bolt flew into it. As he closed his fist, the metallic points flared with electricity, until he was holding what looked more like the classic thunderbolt, a twenty-foot javelin of arcing, hissing energy that made the hairs on my scalp rise.
"The girl tells the truth." Zeus nodded. "But this business with Ares is most concerning...most concerning indeed."
"He is proud and impulsive," Poseidon said. "It runs in the family but I agree, this is most unlike him."
"Lord?" I asked.
They both said, "Yes?"
"Ares didn't act alone. Someone else—something else— came up with the idea."
I described my dreams, and the feeling I'd had on the beach, that momentary breath of evil that had seemed to stop the world, and made Ares back off from killing me.
"In the dreams," I said, "the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld. Ares hinted that he'd been having dreams, too. I think he was being used, just as I was, to start a war."
"You are accusing Hades, or am I wrong?" Zeus asked.
"I am not accusing Hades." I stated quickly. "He's just as much a victim in all of this as the two of you are, uncle."
I winced at the term, but Zeus said nothing, so I assumed that he was not going to smite me.
"This feeling on the beach was different. It was the same thing I felt when I got close to that well. That was the entrance to Tartarus, wasn't it? Something powerful and evil is stirring down there...something even older than the gods."
Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other, which was never good. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. I only caught one word. Father. Poseidon made some kind of suggestion, but Zeus cut him off, shaking his head.
"We will speak of this no more on this for now. We must wait for the others to be here," Zeus replied. "I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal."
He rose and looked at me. His expression softened just a fraction of a degree. "You have done me a service, niece. Few heroes could have accomplished as much."
"I had help, sir," I said. "Luke Castellan, Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase—"
"And they did well too, but I show my thanks to you." Zeus sighed. "I shall speak to the Fates about not having you killed as a product of a broken oath."
"Um...thank you, uncle?"
"Do not presume to fly again though. It is not your domain to meddle in."
Thunder shook the palace. With a blinding flash of lightning, Zeus was gone.
I was alone in the throne room with my father and Luke, who was looking relieved. "Your uncle," Poseidon sighed, "has always had a flair for dramatic exits. I think he would've done well as the god of theatre."
An uncomfortable silence fell over us as I contemplated between asking the question or not. In the end, I went for it.
"Sir-Father" I stumbled across my words, "what was in that pit?"
Poseidon regarded me. "Have you not guessed?"
"Kronos," I said. "The king of the Titans?"
Even in the throne room of Olympus, far away from Tartarus, the name Kronos darkened the room, made the hearth fire seem not quite so warm on my back.
Poseidon gripped his trident. "In the First War, Andromeda, Zeus cut our father Kronos into a thousand pieces, just as Kronos had done to his own father, Ouranos. Zeus cast Kronos's remains into the darkest pit of Tartarus. The Titan army was scattered, their mountain fortress on Etna destroyed, their monstrous allies driven to the farthest corners of the earth. And yet Titans cannot die, any more than we gods can. Whatever is left of Kronos is still alive in some hideous way, still conscious in his eternal pain, still hungering for power."
"He's healing," I said. "He's coming back, isn't he?"
Poseidon shook his head. "From time to time, over the eons, Kronos has stirred. He enters men's nightmares and breathes evil thoughts. He wakens restless monsters from the depths. But to suggest he could rise from the pit is another thing."
"That's what he intends, Dad. That's what he said."
Poseidon was silent for a long time.
"You have completed your quest, child. That is all you need to do."
"But—" I stopped myself. Arguing would do no good, not now anyway. "As...as you wish, Dad"
A faint smile played on his lips at the scowl on my own. "Obedience does not come naturally to you, does it?"
"No..." Luke coughed from behind me, sending me a pointed look. "Sir."
"I must take some blame for that, I suppose. The sea does not like to be restrained." He rose to his full height and took up his trident, coming to a stop in front of me. "You must go, child. But first, know that your mother has returned."
I stared at him, completely stunned. "Mum?"
"You will find her at home. Hades sent her when you recovered his helm." I didn't know that had even been a possibility.
My heart was pounding. I couldn't believe it. "Oh..."
Poseidon's eyes took on a little sadness. "When you return home, Andromeda, you must make an important choice. You will find a package waiting in your room."
"A package?"
"You will understand when you see it. No one can choose your path, Andromeda. You must decide."
I nodded, though I didn't know what he meant.
"Your mother is a queen among women," Poseidon said wistfully. "I had not met such a mortal woman in a thousand years. Still...I am sorry you were born, child. I have brought you a hero's fate, and a hero's fate is never happy. It is never anything but tragic."
"Cheerful. Thanks," I replied, causing the god to laugh at my words. "I should go."
I was five steps away when he called, "Andromeda."
I turned.
There was a different light in his eyes, a fiery kind of pride. "You did well, Andromeda. Do not misunderstand me. Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true daughter of the Sea God."
"Thanks dad, and please don't call me Andromeda," He raised an eyebrow. "They only shout that at me when I'm in trouble or they don't like me or they're trying to kill me. Mum calls me Dree."
"Very well, Dree," He sent me a grin, before I retreated to Luke's side, sighing in relief.
"I'm alive," He smiled, as we walked back through the city of the gods.
"I'm proud there were no snarky comments aimed at Zeus," I snorted at the thought, leaning into Luke's side as I felt the weight fall off of his shoulder. "We've done it."
"We did," The muses paused their concert as we walked by. People and satyrs and naiads all turned toward me, their faces filled with respect and gratitude, and as I passed, they knelt, as if I were some kind of hero. I didn't know if I even felt like one.
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Fifteen minutes later, still in a trance, Luke and I were back on the streets of Manhattan. We caught a taxi to my mom's apartment, rang the door-bell, and there she was—my beautiful mother, smelling of peppermint and liquorice, the weariness and worry evaporating from her face as soon as she saw me.
"Dree! Oh, thank goodness. Oh, my baby."
She crushed the air right out of me. We stood in the hallway as she cried and ran her hands through my hair, as I started to cry and hold onto her just as tightly. Luke stepped back, leaning against the wall as my mum pulled away to check me over.
She told me of how Hades had sent her home, to thank me for pleading his case to his brothers. She'd been going out of her mind with worry all day because she hadn't known where I was. Gabe had forced her to go into work, saying she had a month's salary to make up and she'd better get started.
I swallowed back my anger and told her my own story. I tried to make it sound less scary than it had been, but that wasn't easy. I was just getting to the fight with Ares, with Luke chiming in at points, when Gabe's voice interrupted from the living room. "Hey, Sally! That meat loaf done yet or what?"
She closed her eyes. "He isn't going to be happy to see you, Dree. The store got half a million phone calls today from Los Angeles...something about free appliances."
"Oh, yeah. Forgot I said that..."
She managed a weak smile. "Just don't make him angrier, all right? Come on in, both of you."
In the month I'd been gone, the apartment had turned into Gabeland. Garbage was ankle deep on the carpet. The sofa had been reupholstered in beer cans. Dirty socks and underwear hung off the lampshades. Luke rested a hand on my shoulder, as I trembled with anger, taking Riptide from my hand slowly.
Gabe and three of his big goony friends were playing poker at the table.
When Gabe saw me, his cigar dropped out of his mouth. His face got redder than lava. "You got nerve coming here, you little punk. I thought the police—"
"She's not a fugitive after all," my mom interjected. "Isn't that wonderful, Gabe?"
Gabe looked back and forth between us. He didn't seem to think my homecoming was so wonderful.
"Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally," he growled. "Get me the phone. I'll call the cops."
"Gabe, no!"
He raised his eyebrows. "Did you just say 'no'? You think I'm gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against her for ruining my Camaro."
"I wasn't even driving!" I growled in indignation.
He raised his hand, and both of us stopped talking, stepping back and keeping quiet. Luke froze behind me, before stepping closer, his eyes narrowing and a sneer forming on his face. He slipped my pen back into my hand.
Gabe just laughed. "What, punk? You gonna write on me? You touch me, and you are going to jail forever, you understand?"
"Hey, Gabe," his friend Eddie interrupted. "She's just a kid."
Gabe looked at him resentfully and mimicked in a falsetto voice: "Just a kid."
His other friends laughed like idiots.
"I'll be nice to you, punk." Gabe showed me his tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll give you five minutes to get your stuff and clear out. After that, I call the police."
"Gabe!" my mother pleaded.
"She ran away," Gabe told her. "Let her stay gone."
My mother took my arm. "Please, Dree. Come on. We'll go to your room."
I was still trembling with rage as Luke helped my mum pull me away, though it looked like he also wanted to give Gabe a piece of his mind.
My room had been completely filled with Gabe's junk. I here were stacks of used car batteries, a rotting bouquet of sympathy flowers with a card from somebody who'd seen his Barbara Walters interview.
"Gabe is just upset, honey," my mother told me. "I'll talk to him later. I'm sure it will work out."
"Mom, it'll never work out. Not as long as Gabe's here."
She wrung her hands nervously. "I can...I'll take you to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there's another boarding school—"
"Mum."
She lowered her eyes. "I'm trying, Dree. I just...I need some time."
"She can stay at camp, with us," Luke murmured. "We take year round campers and I'm sure Chiron will allow her to come back and visit."
A package appeared on my bed, two of them actually. One was small, only an envelope. When I opened it, a dog whistled slipped into my hand along with a note.
to thank my niece for her commitment to telling the truth. cerberus enjoys red, squeaky balls it would seem. your uncle.
I grinned at that, stashing the whistle in my pocket, before looking at the other. It was a battered cardboard box about the right size to fit a basketball. The address on the mailing slip was in my own handwriting:
The Gods,
New York Conference Centre,
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
kind regards, andromeda jackson xoxo
Over the top in black marker, in a man's clear, bold print, was the address of our apartment, and the words: RETURN TO SENDER.
Suddenly I understood what Poseidon had told me on Olympus. A package. A decision.
I looked at my mother. "Mom, do you want Gabe gone?
"Dree, it isn't that simple. I—"
"Is that...?" Luke asked, his eyes going wide. "Andi..."
"Mom, just tell me. That jerk has been hitting you again. Do you want him gone or not?"
She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly. "Yes, Dree. I do. And I'm trying to get up my courage to tell him. But you can't do this for me. You can't solve my problems."
I looked at the box. I could solve her problem. I wanted to slice that package open, plop it on the poker table, and take out what was inside. I could start my very own statue garden, right there in the living room.
That's what a Greek hero would do in the stories, I thought. That's what Gabe deserves.
But a hero's story always ended in tragedy. Poseidon had told me that. Perhaps the childish part of me had died on that quest, the part that had made me sick when I had first killed Medusa, because a month ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to make the decision to keep Gabe alive. Now, let him die.
He could rot in the Underworld.
"I can do it," I told my mom. "One look inside this box, and he'll never bother you again."
"Andi..." Luke murmured, but it wasn't a warning, he had a smirk forming on his face. He knew my plan and he liked the plan.
She glanced at the package, and seemed to understand immediately. "No, Dree," she said, stepping away. "You can't."
"Poseidon called you a queen," I told her. "He said he hadn't met a woman like you in a thousand years."
Her cheeks flushed. "Dree—"
"You deserve better than this, Mom. You should go to college, get your degree. You can write your novel, meet a nice guy maybe, live in a nice house. You don't need to protect me anymore by staying with Gabe. Let me get rid of him."
She wiped a tear off her cheek. "You sound so much like your father," she said. "He offered to stop the tide for me once. He offered to build me a palace at the bottom of the sea. He thought he could solve all my problems with a wave of his hand."
"What's wrong with that?"
Her multi-coloured eyes seemed to search inside me. "I think you know, Dree. I think you're enough like me to understand. If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. I can't let a god take care of me...or my daughter. I have to...find the courage on my own. Your quest has reminded me of that."
We listened to the sound of poker chips and swearing, ESPN from the living room television.
"I'll leave the box," I spat, not happy about not being able to kill the man who had abused and terrified us for years. "If he threatens you..."
She looked pale, but she nodded. "Where will you go, Dree?"
"Back to camp, I suppose," I looked at Luke, who sent me another reassuring smile.
"For the summer...or forever?"
"I guess that depends."
We locked eyes, and I sensed that we had an agreement. We would see how things stood at the end of the summer.
She kissed my forehead. "You'll be a hero, Dree. You'll be the greatest of all."
I took one last look around my bedroom. I had a feeling I'd never see it again. Then I walked with my mother to the front door.
"Leaving so soon, punk?" Gabe called after me. "Good riddance."
I had one last twinge of doubt. How could I turn down the perfect chance to take revenge on him? I was leaving here without saving my mother.
"Hey, Sally," he yelled. "What about that meat loaf, huh?"
A steely look of anger flared in my mother's eyes, and I thought, just maybe, I was leaving her in good hands after all. Her own.
"The meat loaf is coming right up, dear," she told Gabe. "Meat loaf surprise."
She looked at me, and winked, which caused Luke and I to chuckle.
The last thing I saw as the door swung closed was my mother staring at Gabe, as if she were contemplating how he would look as a garden statue.
"You think she's going to be okay?" I asked Luke, who had wrapped his arm around my shoulder and was leading me back out to the street.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure she's going to do great," Luke replied. "I can see where you get your spirit from."
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Hiya,
Two more chapters and then onto Act 2 which is going to be a lot of fun and I'm very excited for it. But, there's one more thing to sort out. Who do you think the person betraying Andi is?
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx