PIPER
The thought of the campfire at the camp terrified Piper. It reminded her of the huge purple blaze in her dreams and of her father tied to a pole.
What lay ahead was almost as bad: a singing party. The steps of the amphitheater were carved into the hillside, surrounding a stone-lined fire pit. About fifty or sixty young people had taken their places in the rows, grouped under different banners.
Piper spotted Jason in the front row, sitting with Annabeth. Leo was not far behind, in a group of strongly built pensioners, under a gray banner with a hammer. Earlana was more difficult to find. She was in a group of young people under a red banner stamped with a boar's head. Standing in front of the fire, half a dozen pensioners equipped with guitars and funny old-fashioned harps -- lyres, perhaps ? -- were skipping back and forth, leading a song about armor pieces and how their grandmother dressed for war. All the other demigods were singing along, laughing with them, miming by gesture the different parts of the armor. It was probably one of the strangest moments Piper has ever experienced in her life: one of those campfire songs that would have shamed them in the daytime, but in the dark, with everyone joining in, and you're just a hair's breadth away from being funny. As the energy of the group climbed, the flames increased in intensity and their color changed from red, to orange, to gold.
The song ended with a thunderous applause. Then a guy on a horse came trotting by. At least, in the flickering light Piper thought it was a guy on a horse... before she realized it was a centaur ! The lower half of his body was a white stallion, and the upper half a middle-aged man with curly hair and a trimmed beard. He was brandishing a javelin with marshmallows skewered on it.
"Well done !" he exclaimed. "And welcome to our newest members ! I'm Chiron, the colony's activities director, and I'm very happy that you all made it here alive, with almost all your arms and legs. In a moment, I promise, we'll be roasting marshmallows, but first..."
"What about Capture-the-Flag ?" shouted someone.
Grunts ran through the ranks of a group of armored teens, including Earlana.
"Yes," said the centaur. "I know the Ares can't wait to get back to the woods to play our usual games."
"And kill people !" one of them echoed.
"However," Chiron continued, "until the dragon is under control, that is impossible. Cabin Nine, any news on that front ?"
He turned to Leo's group. The latter winked at Piper as he fired an imaginary shot with his finger. The girl sitting next to him stood up, obviously uncomfortable. She was wearing an army jacket that looked very similar to Leo's and a red bandanna tied over her hair.
"We're working on it," she says.
A new wave of grunts.
"Really, Nyssa ?" asked an Ares.
"Yeah," said the girl, "really."
Nyssa sat back down in a chorus of complaints and shouts, which made the fire crackle chaotically. Chiron tapped his hoof against the stones of the pit -- bang, bang, bang, bang -- and the boarders fell silent.
"We must be patient," he said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing business to discuss."
"Percy ?" someone asked.
The fire dimmed again, but Piper didn't need to look at the flames to see the concern of the assembly.
Chiron gestured toward Annabeth, who took a deep breath and stood up.
"I haven't found Percy," she announced. Her voice choked slightly as she uttered his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We have teams deployed everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Huntresses of Artemis -- everyone is looking for him. We'll find him. Chiron wants to talk to us about something else. A new quest."
"It's about the Great Prophecy, isn't it ?" a girl asked in a loud voice.
All heads turned. The voice came from a group at the back of the amphitheater, sitting under a pink banner adorned with a dove. These residents had been chatting amongst themselves without paying attention to the rest until their leader, Drew, stood up.
Everyone looked surprised. Apparently it was not her habit to address the Campfire Assembly.
"Drew ?" chimed in Annabeth. "What do you mean ?"
"Well, écoute !" Drew waved her hands as if the truth was obvious. "Olympus is closed. Percy is gone. Hera sends you a vision and you come back with four new demigods in one day. I mean, weird stuff is happening. The Great Prophecy has begun, right ?"
"What's this Great Prophecy she's talking about ?" slipped Piper in Rachel's ear -- before she realized that all eyes were on Rachel.
"So ?" insisted Drew. "You're the Oracle. Did she start it or not ?"
Rachel's eyes were frightening, in the glow of the flames. Piper was afraid she would grab her and become the peacock goddess's vector again, but Rachel stepped forward with a firm step and addressed the entire assembly.
"Yes," she said. "The Great Prophecy has begun."
Immediately, pandemonium broke out.
Piper met Jason's eyes. Are you okay ? he mouthed silently to her. She nodded and forced a smile, but quickly looked away. It was too painful to see him without being with him. Her eyes met Earlana's, who was frowning, looking worried for her.
When the voices finally quieted, Rachel took another step and more than fifty demigods stepped aside as if one redheaded mortal was more impressive than all of them combined.
"For those of you who haven't heard it," Rachel explained, "the Great Prophecy was my first prediction. It came to me in August. Here it is:
Eight half-bloods will obey their fate,
Under fire or storm the world must fall."
Jason and Earlana leapt to their feet. They looked mad, as if they had just been tasered.
Even Rachel looked surprised.
"J-Jason? E-Earlana? What the...?"
"Ut cum spiritu postrema sacramentum dejuremus," they intoned. "Et hostes ornamenta addent ad ianuam necem."
A heavy silence fell over the assembly. Piper saw from their faces that several of the pensioners were struggling to translate their words. She knew it was Latin, but she couldn't understand why the man she hoped would become her boyfriend was chanting like an old-time Catholic priest with her best friend.
"You just... finished the prophecy," Rachel stammered.
"'Oath shall be kept in a last breath,
Enemies shall come armed before the Gates of Death.' How did you...?"
"I know those verses." Jason carried his hands to the temples with a grimace.
"I don't know how, but I know this prophecy," Earlana announced at the same time.
"And in Latin, no less," Drew tossed in, referring to the Latina. "Beautiful and clever."
A few chuckles came from the Aphrodite ranks. Gods, what a bunch of losers, Piper thought. Without knowing why, Piper felt a twinge of pain when she saw Drew looking at her best friend as if she were little more than her next trophy. The atmosphere remained tense as reflected in the twitching of the green, nervous flames.
Earlana sat down, among the Ares, and some of them looked at her impressed while the Aphrodite devoured her with their eyes. Jason sat down embarrassed, and Annabeth put her hand on his shoulder and murmured reassuring words. Piper felt a twinge of jealousy. I should be the one there comforting her... no... him, she thought.
Rachel Dare still looked shocked. She consulted Chiron with her eyes, but the centaur remained silent, his face grave as if he were watching a play that could not be interrupted: a tragedy that would end with the death of many protagonists on stage.
"Well," said Rachel, striving to regain her composure. "So that's what the Great Prophecy is all about. We hope it doesn't come true for a few years, but I'm afraid it's already begun. And like Drew said, there are some weird things going on. The eight demigods, whoever they are, are not yet together. I feel like some of them are here tonight. And some are not."
The boarders stirred and stared nervously at each other, until a sleepy voice called out:
"I'm here ! Uh...were you taking roll call ?"
"Go back to sleep, Clovis !" someone shouted, and several of them laughed.
"Anyway," Rachel continued, "we don't know what the Great Prophecy means. We don't know what challenge the demigods will face, but since the first Great Prophecy foretold the return of the Titans, we can assume that the second one predicts something at least as bad."
"If not worse," Chiron murmured.
If he thought he was making his comment on his own, he was wrong: everyone heard him, and the flames of the campfire immediately turned purple, just like in Piper's dream.
"We know one thing for sure," Rachel continued, "and that is that the first phase has begun. We are facing an emergency situation, and we need a quest to resolve it. Hera, the Queen of the Gods, has been kidnapped."
Silence of amazement. Then all the demigods began to speak at once.
Chiron stomped his hoof, but Rachel had to wait a few minutes to regain their attention.
She told them about the incident on the Grand Canyon bridge, and Gleeson's sacrifice during the storm spirits' attack. This was just the beginning, the spirits warned, as they seemed to serve a powerful mistress intent on exterminating the demigods.
She then talked about what had happened in Hera's cabin. Piper tried to remain calm, even when she noticed that Drew, in the back row, was pretending to faint with facial expressions that drew laughter from her friends. Rachel finished by recounting the vision of Jason and Earlana in the living room of the Big House. The message was so similar to the one Piper had received, it chilled her. The only difference was that the goddess had warned Piper not to betray her. If you submit to her will, their king will rise again and we will all be doomed. So Hera knew about the giant's threat ! But then, why hadn't she informed Jason or Rae of the danger and unmasked Piper, who was going to play the undercover agent ?
"Jason... Earlana," Rachel said. "Uh...do you remember your last name ?"
Both kids looked embarrassed, then shook their heads.
"Just Jason and just Earlana, then. Clearly, Hera herself has given you a quest."
Rachel paused, as if to give the blonde and the Latina time to rebel against their fate. All eyes were on them ; the tension was so great that Piper thought she would have flinched. Yet they seemed brave and determined. Earlana smiled, Jason clenched his jaw. Jason nodded, and together, after sharing a glance they said:
"I accept."
"You must save Hera to prevent a terrible catastrophe," Rachel continued, "which would be the return of a certain king. For reasons that still elude us, this must be accomplished before the winter solstice, which is only four days away."
"That is the day of the Council of the Gods," Annabeth explained. "If the gods are not already aware of Hera's disappearance, they will not be able to fail to notice her absence on that day. They'll probably argue, accusing each other of kidnapping her. That's usually how they react."
"The winter solstice," Chiron interjected, "also marks the height of darkness. The gods gather on this day, as mortals have always done, for there is strength in numbers. On the day of the solstice, black magic is powerful. A very old magic, which existed even before the gods. It's a day when things...stir."
From the way he said the word, stirring seemed like a most abominable crime, not something one might blame on an overly fidgety toddler.
"Okay," Annabeth glared at the centaur. "Thank you for this moment of pure optimism. Anyway, I agree with Rachel. Jason and Earlana have been assigned to lead this quest, so..."
"Why haven't they been claimed ?" shouted one of the Ares. "If they are so important..."
"They have been claimed," announced Chiron. "Long ago. Jason, Earlana, give them a demonstration."
Jason didn't seem to understand at first. He stepped forward, looking worried, but Piper couldn't help but look at him: his blond hair shone in the light of the flames, and his features looked regal, like a Roman statue. He glanced at his classmate, who had also stood up, and at the girl, who nodded and mimed the gesture of tossing a coin in the air.
Jason dipped his hand into his pocket. His gold coin flew into the air, and when he caught it, he was holding a javelin: a golden staff a good two meters long, ending in a spear point.
The other demigods hiccupped in amazement. Rachel and Annabeth stepped back to distance themselves from the point, sharp as an ice pick.
"That wasn't..." Annabeth hesitated. "I thought you had a sword."
"Uh, I think it fell on its tails," Jason said. "It's the same coin, but in its long-range weapon form."
"I want the same one, man !" yelled one of the Ares.
"It's something else than the Maimer, Clarisse's electric spear !" added one of his brothers.
"Electric..." muttered Jason as if it gave him ideas. "Back off."
Annabeth and Rachel didn't have to be told twice. Jason swung his javelin and thunder ripped through the sky. Piper got shivers down her spine. The lightning arced to the tip of the golden javelin and ricocheted back toward the pensioners, only to be deflected by Earlana who suddenly had a shield in her hands. The lightning finally went into the campfire with the force of an artillery shell.
When the smoke cleared and Piper's ears stopped ringing, the residents were all frozen in shock, dazzled and covered in ash. They stared at the fire. Flames rained down. A flaming log had stuck in the ground, a few inches from Clovis, who hadn't even stirred in his sleep.
Jason lowered his javelin.
"Uh... Excuse me."
"Next time, warn me ! And learn to AIM ! I won't always be around to save your ass." The latina yelled in frustration, kneeling in the ashes, still holding her shield, strangely still intact.
Chiron dusted off some embers caught in his beard. He grimaced as if his worst fears had been confirmed.
"A little over the top, maybe," he said, "but you've made your point, Jason. And I think we know who your father is."
"Jupiter," said Jason. "I mean Zeus, the lord of the sky."
"If anyone is wondering, because I, for one, don't think, I have been clear. I'm the daughter of a War Goddess. There, it's said." mumbled Earlana, but the assembly heard it all the same. For some reason, she did not want to name her divine parent.
Piper couldn't help but smile. Of course... The most powerful god, father of the most illustrious heroes in mythology: who else could Jason have as a father ? As for the Latina, Piper suspected that her fierceness came from the warrior side she had just seen. The Puerto Rican had just gotten up, and her shield was gone. The flames were reflected in her dark eyes, making her look even more dangerous, if that were possible. Her face, under the glow of the campfire, looked as if it had been sculpted by the gods themselves, and the soot stains on her arms, nose, and cheeks made her look even hotter.
Clearly, not all the pensioners were so convinced about Jason. Dozens of them began to ask questions at once, creating such an uproar that Annabeth ended up throwing her arms up in the air.
"Silence !" she shouted. "How can Jason be the son of Zeus ? What about the Pact of the Big Three ? Their pledge not to have children ? How could his existence have remained unknown to us ?"
Chiron didn't answer, but Piper had the intuition that he knew, and that the truth wasn't pretty.
"The important thing," Rachel said, "is that Jason is here now. He has a quest to fulfill, which means he must receive his own prophecy."
She closed her eyes and fainted. Two pensioners appeared at her side and caught her, while a third ran to the edge of the amphitheater to fetch a bronze tripod. They seemed to have been trained for these tasks. They sat Rachel on the stool in front of the ruined hearth. The night was dark, now that the fire was out. When Rachel opened her eyes, they were glowing. Emerald green smoke was coming from her mouth. The voice that came from her lips was raspy and ancient -- a snake's voice, if snakes could talk :
Child of lightning, beware of the earth,
Of the giants' vengeance, the eight will be the fathers,
Child of war is getting closer to blood lust,
Despite the curse she is the one to trust.
The forge and the dove will break the cage,
And will sow death by releasing the rage of Hera.
With the last word, Rachel collapsed, but her helpers were ready to catch her. They pulled her away from the hearth and laid her in the corner.
"Is this normal ?" asked Piper, who suddenly realized that she had broken the silence and that everyone was looking at her. "I mean... Does it happen often that she spits out green smoke ?"
"Gods, you're dense !" Drew sneered. "She just issued a prophecy. Jason, and Earlana's prophecy to save Hera ! Why don't you just-"
"Drew," Annabeth snapped, glaring in the direction of the daughter of Aphrodite. "Piper asked a fair question. Something about that prophecy definitively isn't normal. If breaking Hera's cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of deaths... Why would we free her ? It might be a trap, or... Or maybe Hera will turn on her rescuers. She's never been kind to heroes."
Jason rose from his seat. "We don't have much choice. She took our memories, and we need them back. Right, partner ?" He looked directly at Earlana, who nodded with a small smile. "Besides, we can't not help the Queen of Heavens if she's in trouble."
A girl from Leo's Cabin, the Hephaestus Cabin, stood up, Nyssa, the one with the red bandana.
"Maybe. But you should listen to Annabeth. Hera can be vengeful. She threw her own son, our dad, down a mountain just because he was ugly."
"Real ugly," someone snickered from the Aphrodite Cabin.
"Shut up !" Nyssa growled, glaring at the entirety of Cabin Ten. "Anyway, we've also got to think, why beware the earth ? And what's the giants' revenge ? What are we dealing with here that's powerful enough to kidnap the Queen of Heavens ?"
No one answered. But Piper caught a silent exchange between Annabeth and Chiron. It seemed to go a bit like this.
Annabeth : The giant's revenge... It can't be.
Chiron : Don't speak of it here. Don't scare them.
Annabeth : You're kidding me ! We can't be that unlucky !
Chiron : Later, child. If you told them everything, they would be too terrified to proceed.
Piper knew it was crazy to imagine she could decipher their expressions so precisely, when she hardly knew them at all. Yet she was absolutely certain she understood them, and that scared the hell out of her.
Annabeth took a deep breath, before she turned back to the campers. "It's Jason and Earlana's quest." She announced. "So it's their choice. Obviously, Jason is the child of lightning, and Earlana must be the child of war, since the both of them are linked together. According to tradition, they may choose two companions, anyone."
Someone from the Hermes Cabin shouted. "Well, you, obviously, Annabeth ! You've got the most experience !"
"No, Travis," Annabeth answered. "First off, I'm not helping Hera. Every time I tried, she deceived me, or it came back to bite me later. Forget it. No way. Secondly, I'm leaving first thing in the morning to find Percy."
"It's connected." Piper blurted out, surprising everyone. "You know that's true, don't you ? This whole business, your boyfriend's disappearance, it's all connected."
"How ?" Drew snarled. "If you're so smart, how ?"
Piper tried to formulate an answer, but she couldn't just find the words. Luckily for her, Annabeth saved her.
"You may be right, Piper. If this is connected, I'll find out from the other end, by searching for Percy. As I said, I'm not about to rush off to rescue Hera, even if her disappearance sets the rest of the Olympians fighting again. But there's another reason I can't go. The prophecy says otherwise."
"It says who we pick," Earlana smirked as she made her way towards Jason who was still standing near the fire. "The forge and dove shall break the cage. Am I right, partner ?"
"Exactly." Jason smiled widely at her, before turning to the campers around. "The forge is the symbol of Vul- of Hephaestus."
Under Cabin Nine's banner, Nyssa's shoulder slumped, as if someone just dropped an anvil onto her.
"If you are to beware the earth," she began and she didn't sound enthusiastic, "you should avoid travel overland. You'll need air transport. The flying chariot is broken, and the pegasi, we're using them to search for Percy. But maybe Hephaestus Cabin can help figure something else to help. With Jake incapacitated, I'm senior camper. I can volunteer for this quest."
Then, Leo stood up.
"It's me," he said.
His cabinmates stirred, some trying to pull him back on his seat, others urging him to shut up. But Leo resisted, and remained where he was, looking at the blond and the Latina.
"No. It's me. I know it is. I've got an idea for the transportation problem. Le me try. I can fix this !"
Jason studied him for a moment, before Earlana punched him in the shoulder and muttered some word in his ear. Piper really thought that the two would say no. And then, both of them smiled. Or rather, Jason smiled, and Earlana smirked, that glint in her eyes shining brighter than any star in the sky.
"We started this together, Leo. Seems only right you come along. You find us a ride, and you're in."
"Yes !" Leo pumped his fist in the air.
"It'll be dangerous," Nyssa warned him. "Hardship, monsters, terrible suffering. Possibly none of you will come back alive."
"Oh." Leo, all of the sudden, didn't look that excited. Then he seemed to remember that everyone was watching him. "I mean... Oh, cool ! I love suffering ! Let's do this !"
Annabeth nodded. "Then, guys, you only need to choose the fourth quest member. The dove."
"Oh, absolutely !" Drew was on her feet, in the second, flashing Earlana a blinding smile, that the Latina returned. "The dove is Aphrodite. Everyone knows that. I'm totally yours."
Piper's hands clenched tightly, and the girl stepped forward. Everything in her being burned with pure jealousy. "No !"
Drew rolled her eyes, glaring at her. "Oh please, Dumpster girl, back off."
"I had the vision of Hera, not you. I have to go." Piper argued back with certainty in her voice.
"Anyone can have a vision," Drew said, looking at her disdainfully. "You were just at the right place at the right time." She turned to Jason and Earlana. "Look, leading is all fine, I suppose. Fighting too. And people who build things..." The child of Aphrodite turned to Leo, contempt in her eyes. "Well, I suppose someone has to get their hands dirty. But you need charm on your side. I can be very persuasive. I could help. A lot."
The campers murmured that Drew was pretty damn persuasive. Even Chiron scratched his beard, as if to say that Aphrodite's daughter's participation in Earlana and Jason's quest was in fact well-founded.
"Well..." Annabeth began. "Given the words of the prophecy..."
"No !" Piper's own voice sounded the same as Drew, richer and sweeter than honey. "I'm supposed to go."
Then everyone started nodding, muttering that Piper should be the one to go, that her point of view made sense. Drew looked around incredulous. Even some of her own campers were agreeing with Piper.
"Get over it !" Drew snapped at the crowd. "What can Piper do ?"
Piper's confidence left her, and now she was just looking confused and conflicted. Yes, what did she have to offer ? She didn't know how to fight, organize or combine. The only talents she had were getting into trouble and, from time to time, convincing people to do stupid things.
Plus, she was a liar. She needed to be on this quest for reasons that had nothing to do with Jason or Earlana, and if she went, she'd end up betraying everyone present tonight. She heard again the voice of her dream : Obey us and perhaps you'll come out of this alive. How could she make such a choice ? Between helping her father and helping Jason and Earlana ?
"Well," Drew smirked. It looked nothing like the way Earlana smirked, this one was callous, smug. "Guess that settles it."
Suddenly, a collective murmur rose from the stands. They all looked at Piper as if she had just exploded. She wondered why. Then she realized she was surrounded by a red halo.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
She looked up, but saw no glowing symbol like the one that had materialized above Leo. So she lowered her eyes and let out a little yelp.
Her clothes... What on earth was she wearing? Piper despised dresses. She didn't own a single one, and that was no accident. Now, however, she was adorned in a magnificent, ankle-length white gown with a deep V-neckline, more embarrassing you die. Fine gold bracelets adorned her upper arms. A necklace blending amber, coral and gold flowers sparkled on her chest, while her hair...
"Oh my God, what's happening to me ?" she muttered in disbelief.
Annabeth, visibly stunned, pointed to Piper's dagger, now oiled and glittering, which hung at her waist on a braided gold cord. Piper had no desire to draw it. She was afraid of what she would see. But curiosity won out. She drew Katoptris from her scabbard and gazed at her reflection in the polished metal blade. Her hair was perfect: chocolate brown, long, opulent, held back at the side by golden threads so that it cascaded over her shoulder. She was wearing make-up too, better than she'd ever know how to do herself: a subtle palette that gave her a cherry-red mouth and highlighted the different colors of her irises.
She was... she was...
"Beautiful," exclaimed Jason. "Piper, you look... you're a knockout."
From beside him, Earlana couldn't tear her eyes from the girl. "Hermosa, no... no hay ni una palabra para describir tu preciosidad..."
Under any other circumstances, this would have been the most beautiful moment of her life. But now everyone looked at her as if she were a monster. Drew's face expressed horror and revulsion.
"No !" she cried. "It can't be !"
"It's not me," protested Piper. "I... I don't understand."
Chiron, the centaur, folded his front legs and bowed to her, imitated by all the campers. Jason and Earlana followed too.
"Greetings to you, Piper McLean," he declared gravely, as if she was assisting her own funeral. "Daughter of Aphrodite, Queen of Doves, Goddess of Love."