S T A R W A R S
C H A P T E R S I X
( mission: charleston )
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AURORA WAS TRYING to cheer Hazel up, regaling her with Jason's greatest Air Head moments, when Frank stumbled down the hall and burst into her cabin.
"Where's Leo?" he gasped. "Take off! Take off!"
Both girls shot to their feet.
"Where's Percy?" Aurora demanded. "And the goat?"
Frank grabbed his knees, trying to breathe. His clothes were stiff and damp, like they'd been washed in pure starch. "On deck. They're fine. We're being followed!"
Aurora groaned. "Of course we are." She pushed past him and took the stairs three at a time, Hazel right behind her and Frank trailing, still gasping for air. Percy and Hedge lay on the deck, looking exhausted. Hedge was missing his shoes. He grinned at the sky, muttering, "Awesome. Awesome." Percy was covered with nicks and scratches, like he'd jumped through a window. He didn't say anything, but he grasped Aurora's hand weakly, as if to say, Be right with you, as soon as the world stops spinning.
Leo, Piper, Jason, Annabeth, and Sarah, who'd been eating in the mess hall, came rushing up the stairs.
"What? What?" Leo cried, holding a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. "Can't a guy even take a lunch break? What's wrong?"
"Followed!" Frank yelled again.
"Followed by what?" Jason asked.
"I don't know!" Frank panted. "Whales? Sea monsters? Maybe Kate and Porky!"
Aurora met Annabeth's gaze and saw that the blonde was struggling with keeping herself from strangling Frank. If Aurora didn't know Frank for as long as she had, she would be in the same boat as Annabeth.
"That makes absolutely no sense!" Annabeth steamed. "Leo, you'd better get us out of here."
Leo put his sandwich between his teeth, pirate style, and ran for the helm.
Soon the Argo II was rising into the sky. Annabeth manned the aft crossbow. Considering she wasn't shooting at anything, nothing was following them. No whales or otherwise, but Percy, Frank, and Hedge didn't start to recover until the Atlanta skyline was a hazy smudge in the distance.
"Charleston," Percy said, hobbling around the deck like an old man. He still sounded pretty shaken up. "Set course for Charleston."
"Charleston?" Aurora froze at the name, her eyes meeting Jason. They couldn't mean Charleston Charleston? Right? "What exactly did you find in Atlanta?"
Frank unzipped his backpack and started bringing out souvenirs. "Some peach preserves. A couple of tee shirts. A snow globe. And, um, these not-really-Chinese handcuffs."
Annabeth looked like she was forcing herself to stay calm. "How about you start from the top—of the story, not the backpack."
They gathered on the quarterdeck so Leo could hear the conversation as he navigated. Percy and Frank took turns relating what had happened at the Georgia Aquarium, with Coach Hedge interjecting from time to time: "That was awesome!" or "Then I kicked her in the head!"
At least the coach seemed to have forgotten about Sarah and Annabeth falling asleep in the stable the night before. But judging from Percy's story, they all had worse problems to worry about than Hedge potentially grounding them.
When Percy explained about the captive sea creatures in the aquarium, she understood why he seemed upset.
"That's terrible," she said. "We need to help them."
"We will," Percy promised. "In time. But I have to figure out how. I wish. . ." He shook his head. "Never mind. First we have to deal with this bounty on our heads."
Coach Hedge had lost interest in the conversation—probably because it was no longer about him—and wandered toward the bow of the ship, practicing his roundhouse kicks and complimenting himself on his technique.
Aurora bit her lip. "A bounty on our heads. . . as if we didn't attract enough monsters already."
"Do we get WANTED posters?" Leo asked. "And do they have our bounties, like, broken down on a price list?"
Hazel wrinkled her nose. "What are you talking about?"
"Just curious how much I'm going for these days," Leo said. "I mean, I can understand not being as pricey as Percy or Jason, maybe. . . but am I worth, like, two Franks, or three Franks?"
"Hey!" Frank complained.
"Knock it off," Sarah ordered. "At least we know our next step is to go to Charleston, to find this map."
Piper leaned against the control panel. She'd done her braid with white feathers today, which looked good with her dark brown hair. Aurora wondered how she found the time. Aurora had barely been able to tie her hair into a messy pair of Dutch braids that morning.
"A map," Piper said. "But a map to what?"
"The Mark of Athena." Percy met Aurora's gaze, their conversation from the night before coming back to her. They turned to see Annabeth and Sarah stiffening. "Whatever that is," he continued. "We know it leads to something important in Rome, something that might heal the rift between the Romans and Greeks."
"The giants' bane," Hazel added.
Percy nodded. "And in my dream, the twin giants said something about a statue."
"Um. . ." Frank rolled his not-exactly-Chinese handcuffs between his fingers. "According to Phorcys, we'd have to be insane to try and find it. But what is it?"
Everyone looked at Annabeth. Her eyes stormed with thoughts about what the statue could be, and Aurora hoped she figured it out and could assure Aurora that she was thinking the right thing. Jason was also studying Annabeth. He knew exactly what she was thinking and the three of them didn't like it anymore than the next person.
"I—I'm close to an answer," Annabeth said. "I'll know more if we find this map. Jason, the way you reacted to the name Charleston. . . have you been there before?"
Jason glanced uneasily at Piper, and then he turned to Aurora.
"Yeah," he admitted. "Reyna, Ari, and I did a quest there about a year ago. We were salvaging Imperial gold weapons from the C.S.S. Hunley."
"The what?" Piper asked.
"Whoa!" Leo said. "That's the first successful military submarine. From the Civil War. I always wanted to see that."
"It was designed by Roman demigods," Aurora said, crossing her arms. She hated thinking back on that quest. "It held a secret stash of Imperial gold torpedoes—until we rescued them and brought them back to Camp Jupiter."
Hazel crossed her arms. "So the Romans fought on the Confederate side? As a girl whose grandmother was a slave, can I just say. . . not cool?"
Jason put his hands in front of him, palms up. "I personally was not alive then. And it wasn't all Greeks on one side and all Romans on the other. But, yes. Not cool. Sometimes demigods make bad choices." He looked sheepishly at Hazel. "Like sometimes we're too suspicious. And we speak without thinking."
Hazel stared at him. Slowly it seemed to dawn on her that he was apologizing.
Jason elbowed Leo.
"Ow!" Leo yelped. "I mean, yeah. . . bad choices. Like not trusting people's brothers who, you know, might need saving. Hypothetically speaking."
Hazel pursed her lips. "Fine. Back to Charleston. Are you saying we should check that submarine?"
Aurora shrugged. "Well. . . I can think of two places in Charleston we might search. The museum where they keep the Hunley—that's one of them. It had a lot of relics from the Civil War. A map could be hidden in one. Jason and I know the layout. One of us could lead a team inside."
"I'll go," Leo said. "That sounds cool."
Jason nodded. "I'll lead the team. Ari knows the other spot pretty well." Aurora rolled her eyes when she heard the way his voice sharpened. He was still sour about her not telling him anything. He turned to Frank, who was trying to pull his fingers out of the Chinese handcuffs. "You should come too, Frank. We might need you."
Frank looked surprised. "Why? Not like I was much good at that aquarium."
"You did fine," Percy assured him. "It took all three of us to break that glass."
"Besides, you're a child of Mars," Jason said. "The ghosts of defeated causes are bound to serve you. And the museum in Charleston has plenty of Confederate ghosts. We'll need you to keep them in line."
Frank gulped. Aurora remembered Percy's comment about Frank turning into a giant goldfish, and she resisted the urge to smile. She would never be able to look at the big guy again without seeing him as a koi.
"Okay." Frank relented. "Sure." He frowned at his fingers, trying to pull them out of the trap. "Uh, how do you—?"
Leo chuckled. "Man, you've never seen those before? There's a simple trick to getting out."
Frank tugged again with no luck. Even Hazel was trying not to laugh.
Frank grimaced with concentration. Suddenly, he disappeared. On the deck where he'd been standing, a green iguana crouched next to an empty set of Chinese handcuffs.
"Well done, Frank Zhang," Leo said dryly, reminding Aurora of some of the lares back at camp. "That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas."
Everybody busted out laughing. Frank turned back to human, picked up the handcuffs, and shoved them into his backpack. He managed an embarrassed smile.
"Anyway," Frank said, clearly anxious to change the subject. "The museum is one place to search. But, uh, Jason, you said there were two?"
Jason sent Aurora a look, his smile fading. Aurora rolled her eyes once more and crossed her arms, scoffing. He couldn't still be mad about this, could he?
"Yeah," he said. "The other place is called the Battery—it's a park right by the harbor. The last time I was there. . . with Reyna and Aurora. . ." He glanced at Piper, then rushed on. "We saw something in the park. A ghost or some sort of spirit, like a Southern belle from the Civil War, glowing and floating along. We tried to approach it, but it disappeared whenever we got close. Then Reyna and Aurora had this feeling—they said they should try it alone. Like maybe it would only talk to a girl. They went up to the spirit by themselves, and sure enough, it spoke to them."
Everyone waited.
"What did it say?" Annabeth asked.
"Well, Reyna and Aurora wouldn't tell me," Jason admitted, sounding miffed. "But it must have been important. They seemed. . . shaken up. Maybe they got a prophecy or some bad news. Reyna never acted the same way around me after that. And Aurora still won't tell me what it said to her."
Aurora grit her teeth, annoyed. "Because it's none of your business, Sparky. What that belle said to us is between me, the ghost, and Reyna. Plus, the ghost told us not to talk about it with anyone other than each other. And I'm not about to go disrespecting the wishes of the dead. That's a little low."
Jason huffed but dropped it. Aurora wanted to whack him. He was beginning to annoy her more than usual. Maybe the hits to his head were making him act like an idiot. Had he lost a few brain cells when he was hit in the head?
"A girls' adventure, then," Annabeth said. "Piper, Aurora, and Hazel can come with me."
The three nodded, though Hazel looked nervous. No doubt her time in the Underworld had given her enough ghost experiences for two lifetimes. Piper's eyes flashed defiantly, like anything Reyna could do, she could do. Aurora applauded her for that.
Aurora realized that if seven of them went on these two quests, it would leave Percy and Sarah alone on the ship with Coach Hedge, which was maybe not a situation a caring girlfriend should put him in. Nor was she eager to let Percy out of her sight again—not after what had happened on Hubbard Glacier and in Atlanta. On the other hand, Percy looked so troubled by his experience with those imprisoned sea creatures, she thought maybe he could rest. She met his eyes, asking him a silent question. He nodded as if to say, Yeah. It'll be fine.
"So that's settled." Aurora turned to Leo, who was studying his console, listening to Festus creak and click over the intercom. "Leo, how long until we reach Charleston?"
"Good question," he muttered. "Festus just detected a large group of eagles behind us—long-range radar, still not in sight."
Piper leaned over the console. "Are you sure they're Roman?"
Leo rolled his eyes. "No, Pipes. It could be a random group of giant eagles flying in perfect formation. Of course they're Roman! I suppose we could turn the ship around and fight—"
"Which would be a very bad idea," Jason said, "and remove any doubt that we're enemies of Rome."
"Or I've got another idea," Leo said. "If we went straight to Charleston, we could be there in a few hours. But the eagles would overtake us, and things would get complicated. Instead, we could send out a decoy to trick the eagles. We take the ship on a detour, go the long way to Charleston, and get there tomorrow morning—"
Hazel started to protest, but Leo raised his hand. "I know, I know. Nico's in trouble and we have to hurry."
"It's June twenty-seventh," Hazel said. "After today, four more days. Then he dies."
"I know! But this might throw the Romans off our trail. We still should have enough time to reach Rome."
Hazel scowled. "When you say should have enough. . ."
Leo shrugged. "How do you feel about barely enough?"
Hazel put her face in her hands for a count of three. "Sounds about typical for us."
Annabeth decided to take that as a green light. "Okay, Leo. What kind of decoy are we talking about?"
"I'm so glad you asked!" He punched a few buttons on the console, rotated the turntable, and repeatedly pressed the A button on his Wii controller really, really fast. He called into the intercom, "Buford? Report for duty, please."
Frank took a step back. "There's somebody else on the ship? Who is Buford?"
A puff of steam shot from the stairwell, and a table climbed onto the deck as if it were living.
Aurora jumped in surprise. The table—Buford—was a three-legged table with a mahogany top. Its bronze base had several drawers, spinning gears, and a set of steam vents. Buford was toting a bag like a mail sack tied to one of his legs. He clattered to the helm and made a sound like a train whistle.
"This is Buford," Leo announced.
"You name your furniture?" Frank asked.
Aurora sent the boy a smirk. "Frank, you don't?"
Frank rolled his eyes and Leo snorted. "Man, you just wish you had furniture this cool. Buford, are you ready for Operation End Table?"
Buford spewed steam. He stepped to the railing. His mahogany top split into four pie slices, which elongated into wooden blades. The blades spun, and Buford took off.
"A helicopter table," Percy muttered. "Gotta admit, that's cool. What's in the bag?"
"Dirty laundry," Leo said. "I hope you don't mind, Frank."
Frank choked. "What?"
"It'll throw the eagles off our scent."
"Those were my only extra pants!"
Leo shrugged. "I asked Buford to get them laundered and folded while he's out. Hopefully he will." He rubbed his hands and grinned. "Well! I call that a good days work. I'm gonna calculate our detour route now. See you all at dinner!"
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That night, Aurora didn't get much sleep. Her dreams were filled with memories of the last time she'd been to Charleston. That 'ghost' she'd spoken to with Reyna had told her many things that she wasn't very happy about. . . but there was one thing the ghost had gotten right. Which, now that Aurora thought about it, made sense.
When she woke up, Leo had docked the ship at a pier in Charleston Harbor, right next to the seawall. Along the shore was a historical district with tall mansions, palm trees, and wrought-iron fences. Antique cannons pointed at the water.
Aurora got dressed quickly in a pair of shorts and a tank top, putting her hair in twin dutch braids with golden ribbons woven through them. When she was done, she stopped by the dining hall and grabbed a bagel before joining the others on the deck. Jason, Leo, and Frank had already left for the museum, but Annabeth, Sarah, Piper, and Hazel were waiting for her with Percy.
Piper, Hazel, and Annabeth were all ready to go, but first Aurora turned to Percy, who was leaning on the starboard rail, gazing over the bay.
She took his hand. "What are you going to do while we're gone?"
"Jump into the harbor," he said casually, like another kid might say, I'm going to get a snack. "I want to try communicating with the local Nereids. Maybe they can give me some advice about how to free those captives in Atlanta. Besides, I think the sea might be good for me. Being in that aquarium made me feel. . . unclean."
His hair was dark and tangled as usual, but Aurora thought about the streak of gray that she shared with him and Annabeth. When the three of them were fourteen, they'd taken turns (unwillingly) holding the weight of the sky. The strain left them all with some gray hair. Now that Aurora thought about it, the gray hair was beginning to fade, but they were still there. Still reminding them of the pain they had to go through for their loved ones.
Aurora kissed him. "Good luck, Kelp Head. Just come back to me, okay?"
"I will," he promised. "You do the same."
Aurora nodded and gave his hand a squeeze before turning to Piper, Hazel, and Annabeth. "Okay, ladies. Let's find the ghost of the Battery."
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Afterward, Aurora wished she'd jumped into the harbor with Percy. She even would've preferred a museum full of ghosts.
Not that she minded hanging out with Annabeth, Piper, and Hazel. At first, they had a pretty good time walking along the Battery. According to the signs, the seaside park was called White Point Gardens. The ocean breeze swept away the muggy heat of the summer afternoon, and it was pleasantly cool under the shade of the palmetto trees. Lining the road were old Civil War cannons and bronze statues of historical figures, which made Aurora shudder a bit. She remembered seeing these statues before the last time she was in Charleston. Still as creepy as the first time she'd seen them.
Charleston Harbor glittered in the sun. To the north and south, strips of land stretched out like arms enclosing the bay, and sitting in the mouth of the harbor, about a mile out, was an island with a stone fort. Aurora had a vague memory of that fort being important in the Civil War, but she didn't spend much time thinking about it.
Mostly she breathed in the sea air and thought about Percy. Gods forbid she ever had to break up with him. She'd never be able to visit the sea again without remembering her broken heart. She was surprised by how attached she'd gotten after only knowing the boy for so long, but it was hard not to when it came to Percy. He was hard not to like. Aurora was relieved when they turned away from the seawall and explored the inland side of the gardens.
The park wasn't crowded. Aurora imagined that most of the locals had gone on summer vacation, or were holed up at home taking a siesta. They strolled along South Battery Street, which was lined with four-story Colonial mansions. The brick walls were blanketed with ivy. The facades had soaring white columns like Roman temples. The front gardens were bursting with rosebushes, honeysuckles, and flowering bougainvillea. It looked like Demeter had set the timer on all the plants to grow several decades ago, then forgotten to come back and check on them.
"Kind of reminds me of New Rome," Hazel said. "All the big mansions and the gardens. The columns and arches."
Aurora nodded. She remembered reading how the American South had often compared itself to Rome back before the Civil War. In the old days their society had been all about impressive architecture, honor, and codes of chivalry. And on the evil side, it had also been about slavery. Rome had slaves, some Southerners had argued, so why shouldn't we?
Aurora shivered. She loved the architecture here. The houses and the gardens were very beautiful, very Roman. It reminded her of where she grew up and Camp Jupiter, which she missed truly. But she wondered why beautiful things had to be wrapped up with evil history. Or was it the other way around? Maybe the evil history made it necessary to build beautiful things, to mask the darker aspects.
She shook her head. Jason often told her not to get so philosophical. A side effect of being a child of Apollo. She often tried to talk with Jason about these things, even Reyna, and they'd usually tell her that she was thinking too far into it. She wondered how Percy would react if she tried talking with him about this stuff.
Annabeth and Aurora talked about their thoughts as they walked through the town, the other girls remaining quiet.
Piper kept looking around like she expected an ambush. She had said she'd seen this park in the blade of her knife, but she wouldn't elaborate. Aurora wondered if what Piper saw in her knife was similar to what Aurora dreamed about. She didn't want to see the "ghost" again after her last conversation with her, but she had to in order to go through with the quest. Hopefully this trip wouldn't end with two people trying to kill each other like the last one had.
Hazel also seemed preoccupied. Maybe she was taking in their surroundings, or maybe she was worrying about her brother. In less than four days, unless they found him and freed him, Nico would be dead.
Aurora felt the deadline weighing on her, too. She'd spent time with Nico when he would visit camp to see Hazel. He was a nice kid, even if he gave her the jeebies just by being around. She guessed it had something to do with being a child of the sun god and him being the child of the god of the Underworld, which was associated with darkness. However, he didn't deserve to die even if she had mixed feelings about him. No one did.
When she looked over to Annabeth, she saw that the blonde was stuck in her thoughts, barely paying attention. A flicker of light caught Aurora's gaze and she stopped, causing the other girls to do so.
"There." Piper pointed across the harbor. A hundred yards out, a shimmering white figure floated on the water. At first, Aurora thought it might be a buoy or a small boat reflecting the sunlight, but it was definitely glowing, and it was moving more smoothly than a boat, making a straight line toward them. As it got closer, Aurora could tell it was the figure of a woman. A certain woman Aurora had mixed feelings about.
"The ghost," Annabeth said.
"That's not a ghost," Hazel said. "No kind of spirit glows that brightly."
Aurora took her word for it. She couldn't imagine being Hazel, dying at such a young age and coming back from the Underworld, knowing more about the dead than the living. Her father was the god of the sun and other life-like things. She didn't vibe with the Underworld.
As if in a trance, Piper walked across the street toward the edge of the seawall, narrowly avoiding a horse-drawn carriage.
"Piper!" Aurora called.
"We'd better follow her," Hazel said.
By the time Annabeth, Hazel, and Aurora caught up to her, the ghostly apparition was only a few yards away.
Piper glared at it like the sight offended her.
"It is her," she grumbled.
Aurora felt her discomfort and anger. Looking at the "ghost", it was hard to make out any features since it glowed too brightly. Then the apparition floated up the seawall and stopped in front of them. The glow faded.
Aurora gasped. She'd seen the woman before, but that didn't stop her from being breathtakingly beautiful. Her face was hard to describe. Her features seemed to shift from those of one glamorous movie star to another. Her eyes sparkled playfully—sometimes green or blue or amber. Her hair changed from long, straight blonde to dark chocolately curls.
The woman was dressed like how Aurora remembered: a Southern belle. Her gown had a low-cut bodice of pink silk and a three-tiered hoop skirt with white scalloped lace. She wore tall white silk gloves, and held a feathered pink-and-white fan to her chest.
Everything about her seemed calculated to make Aurora feel inadequate: the easy grace with which she wore her dress, the perfect yet understated makeup, the way she radiated feminine charm that no man could possibly resist.
Aurora realized that her jealousy was irrational. The woman was making her feel this way. She'd had this experience before when she's seen the Southern belle the first time she visited Charleston. This woman was one that she could never hate nor love.
"Aphrodite," Annabeth said.
"Venus," Aurora grumbled.
"Venus?" Hazel sounded amazed.
"Mom," Piper said, with no enthusiasm.
"Girls!" The goddess spread her arms like she wanted a group hug.
The demigods did not oblige. Hazel backed into a palmetto tree.
"I'm so glad you're here," Venus said. "War is coming. Bloodshed is inevitable. So there's really only one thing to do."
"Uh. . . and that is?" Annabeth ventured.
"Why, have tea and chat, obviously. Come with me!"
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Venus knew how to do tea.
She led them to the central pavilion in the gardens—a white-pillared gazebo, where a table was set with silverware, china cups, and of course a steaming pot of tea, the fragrance shifting as easily as Venus's appearance—sometimes cinnamon, or jasmine, or mint. There were plates of scones, cookies, and muffins, fresh butter and jam—all of which, Aurora figured, were incredibly fattening; unless, of course, you were the immortal goddess of love.
Venus sat—or held court, rather—in a wicker peacock chair. She poured tea and served cakes without getting a speck on her clothes, her posture always perfect, her smile dazzling.
Aurora hated her more and more the longer they sat.
"Oh, my sweet girls," the goddess said. "I do love Charleston! The weddings I've attended in this gazebo—they bring tears to my eyes. And the elegant balls in the days of the Old South. Ah, they were lovely. Many of these mansions still have statues of me in their gardens, though they called me Venus."
"Which are you?" Annabeth asked. "Venus or Aphrodite?"
The goddess sipped her tea. Her eyes sparkled mischievously. "Annabeth Chase, you've grown into quite a beautiful young lady. You really should do something with your hair, though. Aurora Jacaruso, you've turned into a lovely young lady as I predicted, but we need to do something about your weight. And Hazel Levesque, your clothes—"
"My clothes?" Hazel looked down at her rumpled denim, not self-consciously, but baffled, as if she couldn't imagine what was wrong with them.
Aurora found herself looking down at her stomach, her appetite gone. Her weight? Was she really that fat that the goddess of love would tell her to fix it? Frowning, she studied her stomach and legs, immediately feeling bad about herself. The scones and cakes were no longer interesting. In fact, Aurora felt like throwing up.
"Mother!" Piper said. "You're embarrassing me."
"Well, I don't see why," the goddess said. Aurora wrapped her arms around her waist and shrunk into herself. "Just because you don't appreciate my fashion tips, Piper, doesn't mean the others won't. I could do a quick makeover for Annabeth, Aurora, and Hazel, perhaps silk ball gowns like mine—"
"Mother!"
"Fine," Venus sighed. "To answer your question, Annabeth, I am both Aphrodite and Venus. Unlike many of my fellow Olympians, I changed hardly at all from one age to the other. In fact, I like to think I haven't aged a bit!" Her fingers fluttered around her face appreciatively. "Love is love, after all, whether you're Greek or Roman. This civil war won't affect me as much as it will the others."
Lovely, Aurora thought. While Venus and her children had nothing to worry about, the others had plenty. Apollo was one who changed much throughout the shift from Greek to Roman. He was portrayed much differently in Greek times—much more playful and young and joking and mischievous. In Roman times, he was more strict—focusing on the prophecies and enforcing them. Wartime music that soldiers marched to and poems that told of epic battles. She wondered what her Greek half-siblings were like.
So far, it seemed that the only gods not affected by the Greek-Roman schism were Venus, Nemesis, and Bacchus. Love, revenge, wine. Very helpful.
Hazel nibbled a sugar cookie. "We're not in a war yet, my lady."
"Oh, dear Hazel." Venus folded her fan. "Such optimism, yet you have heartrending days ahead of you. Of course war is coming. Love and war always go together. They are the peaks of human emotion! Evil and good, beauty and ugliness."
She smiled at Aurora as if she knew what Aurora had been thinking earlier about the Old South.
Hazel set down her sugar cookie. She had a few crumbs on her chin, and Aurora liked he fact that Hazel either didn't know or didn't care.
"What do you mean," Hazel asked, "heartrending days?"
The goddess laughed as if Hazel were a cute puppy. "Well, Annabeth could give you some idea. As could Aurora. I once promised to make Annabeth's love life interesting, and didn't I?" Annabeth looked like she wanted to snap the handle off her teacup. "And Aurora, I made you a promise when you visited me the first time—your life, both love and not, will be hard and troubling. It may seem good now, but you have hardships coming your way."
Aurora bit down on her cheek so hard, she tasted blood. Her fingernails dug into her palms as she glared down at her tea, her stomach churning The warning from Venus remained in her mind from the moment she received it. Ever since she was told this, she couldn't stop thinking about that day. The day where she killed her sister was the hardest day of her entire life. And she couldn't stop picturing the arrow in Belle's chest, the lifeless look in her young eyes. The screams of her parents and the pain she felt. And now she was returning to the place where it happened to save the world? Talk about hardships.
"Interesting," Annabeth said, "is a mild way of putting it."
"Well, I can't take credit for all your troubles," the goddess said. "But I do love twists and turns in a love story. Oh, all of you are such excellent stories—I mean, girls. You do me proud!"
"Mother," Piper said, "is there a reason you're here?"
"Hmm? Oh, you mean besides the tea? I often come here. I love the view, the food, the atmosphere—you can just smell the romance and heartbreak in the air, can't you? Centuries of it."
She pointed to a nearby mansion. "Do you see that rooftop balcony? We had a party there the night the American Civil War began. The shelling of Fort Sumter."
"That's it," Annabeth said, as if remembering. "The island in the harbor. That's where the first fighting of the Civil War happened. The Confederates shelled the Union troops and took the fort."
"Oh, such a party!" Venus said. "A string quartet, and all the men in their elegant new officers' uniforms. The women's dresses—you should've seen them! I danced with Ares—or was he Mars? I'm afraid I was a little giddy. An the beautiful bursts of light across the harbor, the roar of the cannons giving the men an excuse to put their arms around their frightened sweethearts!"
Aurora felt sick. Her tea was cold, she hadn't touched a single piece of food, and she felt like she wanted to throw up. "You're talking about the beginning of the bloodiest war in U.S. history. Over six hundred thousand people died—more Americans than in World War One and World War Two combined."
"And the refreshments!" Venus continued. "Ah, they were divine. General Beauregard himself made an appearance. He was such a scoundrel. He was on his second wife, then, but you should have seen the way he looked at Lisbeth Cooper—"
"Mother!" Piper tossed her scone to the pigeons.
"Yes, sorry," the goddess said. "To make the story short, I'm here to help you, girls. I doubt you'll be seeing Hera much. Your little quest has hardly made her welcome in the throne room. And the other gods are rather indisposed, as you know, torn between their Roman and Greek sides. Some more than others." Venus fixed her gaze on Annabeth, making Aurora's stomach churn violently. "I suppose you've told your friends about your falling-out with your mother?"
Annabeth's cheeks turned red. The other three turned to her curiously, though Aurora had a nagging feeling as to where Venus was going.
"Falling-out?" Hazel asked.
"An argument," Annabeth said. "It's nothing."
"Nothing!" the goddess said. "Well, I don't know about that. Athena was the most Greek of all goddesses. The patron of Athens, after all. When the Romans took over . . . oh, they adopted Athena after a fashion. She became Minerva, the goddess of crafts and cleverness. But the Romans had other war gods who were more to their taste, more reliably Roman—like Bellona—"
"Reyna's mom," Piper muttered.
"Yes, indeed," the goddess agreed. "I had a lovely talk with both Reyna and Aurora a while back, right here in the park. And the Romans had Mars, of course. And later, there was Mithras—not even properly Greek or Roman, but the legionnaires were crazy about his cult. I always found him crass and terribly nouveau dieu, personally. At any rate, the Romans quite sidelined poor Athena. They took away most of her military importance. The Greeks never forgave the Romans for that insult. Neither did Athena."
Annabeth looked like she'd been slapped. "The Mark of Athena," she said. "It leads to a statue, doesn't it? It leads to . . . to the statue."
Venus smiled. "You are clever, like your mother. Understand, though, your siblings, the children of Athena, have been searching for centuries. None has succeeded in recovering the statue. In the meantime, they've been keeping alive the Greek feud with the Romans. Every civil war . . . so much bloodshed and heartbreak . . . has been orchestrated largely by Athena's children."
"That's . . ." Annabeth stopped.
"Romantic?" Venus offered. "Yes, I suppose it is."
"Romantic isn't the word I'd use," Aurora mumbled, earning a nod from Piper.
"But . . ." Annabeth frowned. "The Mark of Athena, how does it work? Is it a series of clues, or a trail set by Athena—"
"Hmm." Venus looked politely bored. "I couldn't say. I don't believe Athena created the Mark consciously. If she knew where her statue was, she'd simply tell you where to find it. No . . . I'd guess the Mark is more like a spiritual trail of bread crumbs. It's a connection between the statue and the children of the goddess. The statue wants to be found, you see, but it can only be freed by the most worthy."
"And for thousands of years," Annabeth said, "no one had managed."
"Hold on," Piper said. "What statue are we talking about?"
The goddess laughed. "Oh, I'm sure Annabeth and Aurora can fill you in. At any rate, the clue you need is close by: a map of sorts, left by the children of Athena in 1861—a remembrance that will start you on your path, once you reach Rome. But as you said, Annabeth Chase, no one has ever succeeded in following the Mark of Athena to its end. There you will face your worst fear—the fear of every child of Athena. And even if you survive, how will you use your reward? For war or for peace?"
Annabeth paled significantly. Aurora could see her gripping the tablecloth tightly with trembling fingers. "This map," she said, "where is it?"
"Guys!" Hazel pointed to the sky.
Circling above the palmetto trees were two large eagles. Higher up, descending rapidly, was a flying chariot pulled by pegasi. Apparently Leo's diversion with Buford the end table hadn't worked—at least, not for long.
Venus spread butter on a muffin as if she had all the time in the world. "Oh, the map is at Fort Sumter, of course." She pointed her butter knife toward the island across the harbor. "It looks like the Romans have arrived to cut you off. I'd get back to your ship in a hurry if I were you. Would you care for some tea cakes to go?"
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A U T H O R S N O T E
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This chapter took so long for me to write since I have been so busy with interviews and college-prep lately. That, and I've just not had enough want to continue writing this chapter for a bit until now.
Anyway, a lot went down in this chapter. Venus is a bit of a bitch, if I'm being honest. She called my lovely Aurora fat! And I put that in there because Aurora's not perfect, even if it seems like she is. She has her own issues and insecurities, and her weight is definitely one. Being a Roman legionnaire, she feels she has to look perfect, so being told by the goddess of beauty that she is fat will take a toll on her.
Next chapter has one of my favorite scenes with Percy coming out of the water to save the day! He's going to be pissed about Octavian trying to hurt Aurora . . . so sneak peak at Percy's dark side. I'm actually stoked about writing HoH because there will be so much happening with Aurora and Percy. A lot of character development that I can't wait to incorporate into the story! I can't wait, ugh!
Thank you so much for so many reads! Honestly, I didn't think I would get more than fifty something reads, but I recently checked and saw over 2.2K reads? You guys are amazing! I don't even care about votes! I'm just happy people are reading my stories and enjoying them!
Anyway, try to comment and vote, please!
Love you all!
~ a.h.