{Kiara}
Kiara wasn't happy to be woken up again, but seeing Piper's face made it worth waking up.
"Go talk to Hercules without me," Kiara groaned, slamming her pillow on her face, half to hide the heat in her cheeks.
"You seriously don't want to meet the most famous of demigods?" Piper asked.
"I thought that was Percy," Kiara said, lifting her pillow a bit. "I already met him."
Piper laughed and Kiara smiled. She loved hearing Piper laugh. She wanted to make the daughter of Aphrodite smile more, but she wasn't good with jokes.
"Fine," Piper said, and Kiara guessed she was smiling by the way she spoke, "I'm leaving. You can miss out on meeting Hercules."
Kiara could tell Piper was taking her time on leaving Kiara's cabin. Kiara debated in her mind if she should join Piper and the others, or continue sleeping. She guessed she wouldn't be able to sleep after this anyway, so she sat up in her bed.
"Ugh, fine. Let me get dressed first, though."
Piper grinned victoriously. "I'll be outside."
Kiara quickly discarded her pajamas and put on dark shorts, and a t-shirt she'd "borrowed" from Hazel. She put a brush through her dark hair and rushed outside, stumbling into Piper. Thankfully, the daughter of Aphrodite was light on her feet, so they didn't fall down. That would've been really embarrassing.
"Sorry," Kiara said. She was one hundred percent sure her face was as red as a tomato. She averted her gaze from Piper's. "I didn't think you would actually wait for me."
"Why wouldn't I wait for you?" Piper asked as they went up to the deck. "I'm your friend."
Great, Kiara thought. Friendzoned yet again.
"Won't Hercules be on our side?" Hazel was asking hopefully. "I mean... he's one of us, right?"
Jason grunted. "He was a son of Zeus, but when he died, he became a god. You can never be sure with gods."
"Great," Percy said. "Eight of us against Hercules."
"And a satyr!" Hedge added. "We can take him."
"I've got a better idea," Annabeth said. "We send ambassadors ashore. A small group—one or two at most. Try to talk with him."
"I'll go," Jason said. "He's a son of Zeus. I'm the son of Jupiter. Maybe he'll be friendly to me."
"Or maybe he'll hate you," Percy suggested. "Half brothers don't always get along."
Jason scowled. "Thank you, Mr. Optimism."
"It's worth a shot," Annabeth said. "At least Jason and Hercules have something in common. And we need our best diplomat. Somebody who's good with words."
All eyes turned to Piper.
Kiara could see how reluctant Piper was. But when her gaze slid to Jason, she seemed to relax a bit. Kiara couldn't help but feel jealous.
"Fine," Piper said. "Just let me change my clothes."
Once Leo had anchored the Argo II between the pillars, Jason summoned the wind to carry him and Piper ashore.
Kiara thought Jason looked ridiculous when he flew. She wasn't saying that because she disliked and was jealous of Jason, the guy actually looked weird and displaced in the sky.
Annabeth approached her. They hadn't talked since that tea party with Venus/Aphrodite. Kiara wondered why Annabeth suddenly wanted to be physically close to her. Kiara also noticed the daughter of Athena had a nervous energy to her. Annabeth was one of the few people who acted like they weren't scared or unnerved of Kiara.
"About what happened back in Fort Sumter," Annabeth started. "I'm sorry."
"About what?" Kiara asked, turning to face Annabeth.
Annabeth was very pretty. Her gray eyes gleamed with intelligence, her tan skin looked like bronze under the sun, and her blonde curls looked like gold. Silver, bronze and gold. But she wasn't Kiara's type. Besides, even if Kiara had a crush on her, Annabeth had a boyfriend.
"I gave everyone orders to do something, but I..." She paused. She looked like she was weighing between two options.
"Forgot about me?" Kiara guessed. She turned her gaze to the beach in front of them. "Don't sweat it, I'm used to that happening."
"No, Kiara, I'm really sorry," Annabeth said. She really did sound apologetic. "I shouldn't have forgotten you were there. I know everyone does that to you, but they shouldn't, and I wasn't better than them." She looked down. "Nico is a lot like you, you know?"
Kiara faced her. "Annabeth, I don't care if you forgot I was there. I really don't. You don't have to stress over that. We got out of there alive, and that's what matters. Not my crewmates ignoring me."
She pushed herself away from the railing she was leaning on, and made her way across to the other side of the deck. She looked out to the sea. On the other side from Hercules's island, mountains rose from the ground like giant spikes.
Kiara turned around to go below deck, and she saw that Annabeth was staring at her. The raven haired girl didn't say anything and averted her gaze. She just took the stairs down to her room, shutting the door close behind her.
She threw herself on her bed. She felt empty and confused. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. She wanted to rescue Nico as fast as she could, and she wanted everything to go back to normal. What even was normal?
There was a knock on her door and Kiara yelled, "Leave me alone!"
She heard the creak sound of her door opening.
"I said leave me alone," she said and rolled over so she could see the person who'd come in.
To her absolute surprise, it was Frank.
He was holding a plate full of Kiara's preferred fruits. She guessed that Frank had asked Hazel about that.
"I brought you some food," he said nervously. "I noticed you have been eating less and less every time." He looked down at the plate he was carrying. "I asked Hazel what you liked to eat. So, um, here you go."
He handed the plate to Kiara. The daughter of Pluto took it. "Thanks, Frank." That was the first time she'd directly talked to the boy.
"No problem."
There was an awkward silence between them.
"I'll just go," Frank said and left Kiara's room, closing the door behind him.
Kiara looked down at the ceramic plate in her hands. Pomegranate seeds, oranges and clementines. She smiled to herself, then remembered that night with the ghosts and her smile faded. She hadn't seen the ghosts since then, but she couldn't shake away the feeling she'd gotten: she had felt overwhelmed, overpowered.
She popped one of the clementines in her mouth and stared at the plate. She didn't feel hungry, but she knew her body craved some nutrients. But the more she looked at the plate full of fruits, the more she lost her appetite.
She put the plate on her bed and got up, sitting at her desk. She grabbed a blank paper and a pencil and started drawing. She wasn't as good at sketching as the Athena or Apollo kids, but her drawings were decent.
***
* Achelous *
[Piper]
The Hercules Guide To The Mare Nostrum didn't help much with snakes and mosquitos.
"If this is a magic island," Piper grumbled, "why couldn't it be a nice magic island?"
They tromped up a hill and down into a heavily wooded valley, careful to avoid the black-and-red-striped snakes sunning themselves on the rocks. Mosquitoes swarmed over stagnant ponds in the lowest areas. The trees were mostly stunted olives, cypress, and pines. The chirring of the cicadas and the oppressive heat reminded Piper of the rez in Oklahoma during the summer.
So far they hadn't found any river.
"We could fly," Jason suggested again.
"We might miss something," Piper said. "Besides, I'm not sure I want to drop in on an unfriendly god. What was his name? Etch-a-Sketch?"
"Achelous." Jason was trying to read the guidebook while they walked, so he kept running into trees and stumbling over rocks. "Says here he's a potamus."
"He's a hippopotamus?"
"No. Potamus. A river god. According to this, he's the spirit of some river in Greece."
"Since we're not in Greece, let's assume he's moved," Piper said. "Doesn't bode well for how useful that book is going to be. Anything else?"
"Says Hercules fought him one time," Jason offered.
"Hercules fought ninety-nine percent of everything in Ancient Greece."
"Yeah. Let's see. Pillars of Hercules..." Jason flipped a page. "Says here this island has no hotels, no restaurants, no transportation. Attractions: Hercules and two pillars. Huh, this is interesting. Supposedly the dollar sign—you know, the S with the two lines through it?—that came from the Spanish coat of arms, which showed the Pillars of Hercules with a banner curling between them."
Great, Piper thought. Jason finally gets along with Annabeth, and her brainiac tendencies start rubbing off on him. "Anything helpful?" she asked.
"Wait. Here's a tiny reference to Achelous: This river god fought Hercules for the hand of the beautiful Deianira. During the struggle, Hercules broke off one of the river god's horns, which became the first cornucopia."
"Corn of what?"
"It's that Thanksgiving decoration," Jason said. "The horn with all the goodies spilling out? We have some in the mess hall at Camp Jupiter. I didn't know the original one was actually some guy's horn."
"And we're supposed to take his other one," Piper said. "I'm guessing that won't be so easy. Who was Deianira?"
"Hercules married her," Jason said. "I think... doesn't say here. But I think something bad happened to her."
Piper remembered what Hercules had told them: his first family dead, his second wife dead after being tricked into poisoning him. She was liking this challenge less and less.
They trudged across a ridge between two hills, trying to stay in the shade; but Piper was already soaked with perspiration. The mosquitoes left welts on her ankles, arms, and neck, so she probably looked like a smallpox victim.
She was irritated with Jason for having mentioned Hera, but she knew she shouldn't blame him. Maybe she was just irritated with him in general. Ever since Camp Jupiter, she'd been carrying around a lot of worry and resentment. And maybe doubts.
She wondered what Hercules had wanted to tell her about the sons of Zeus. They couldn't be trusted? They were under too much pressure? Piper tried to imagine Jason becoming a god when he died, standing on some beach guarding the gates to an ocean long after Piper and everyone else he knew in his mortal life were dead.
She wondered if Hercules had ever been as positive as Jason—more upbeat, confident, quick to comfort. It was hard to picture.
As they hiked down into the next valley, Piper wondered what was happening back on the Argo II. She was tempted to send an Iris-message, but Hercules had warned them not to contact their friends.
She hoped Annabeth could guess what was going on and didn't try to send another party ashore. Piper wasn't sure what Hercules would do if he were bothered further. She imagined Coach Hedge getting impatient and aiming a ballista at the man in purple, or eidolons possessing the crew and forcing them to commit suicide-by-Hercules.
Piper shuddered. She didn't know what time it was, but the sun was already starting to sink. How had the day passed so quickly? She would have welcomed sundown for the cooler temperatures, except it was also their deadline. A cool night breeze wouldn't mean much if they were dead. Besides, tomorrow was July 1, the Kalends of July. If their information was correct, it would be Nico di Angelo's last day of life, and the day Rome was destroyed.
"Stop," Jason said.
Piper wasn't sure what was wrong. Then she realized she could hear running water up ahead. They crept through the trees and found themselves on the bank of a river. It was maybe forty feet wide but only a few inches deep, a silver sheet of water racing over a smooth bed of stones. A few yards downstream, the rapids plunged into a dark blue swimming hole.
Something about the river bothered her. The cicadas in the trees had gone quiet. No birds were chirping. It was as if the water was giving a lecture and would only allow its own voice.
But the more Piper listened, the more inviting the river seemed. She wanted to take a drink. Maybe she should take off her shoes. Her feet could really use a soak. And that swimming hole... it would be so nice to jump in with Jason and relax in the shade of the trees, floating in the nice cool water. So romantic.
Piper shook herself. These thoughts weren't hers. Something was wrong. It almost felt like the river was charmspeaking.
Jason sat on a rock and started taking off his shoes. He grinned at the swimming hole like he couldn't wait to get in.
"Cut it out!" Piper yelled at the river.
Jason looked startled. "Cut what out?"
"Not you," Piper said. "Him."
She felt silly pointing at the water, but she was certain it was working some sort of magic, swaying their feelings. Just when she thought she had lost it and Jason would tell her so, the river spoke: Forgive me. Singing is one of the few pleasures I have left.
A figure emerged from the swimming hole as if rising on an elevator.
Piper's shoulders tensed. It was the creature she'd seen in her knife blade, the bull with the human face. His skin was as blue as the water. His hooves levitated on the river's surface. At the top of his bovine neck was the head of a man with short curly black hair, a beard done in ringlets Ancient Greek style, deep, mournful eyes behind bifocal glasses, and a mouth that seemed set in a permanent pout. Sprouting from the left side of his head was a single bull's horn—a curved black-and-white one like warriors might turn into drinking cups. The imbalance made his head tilt to the left, so that he looked like he was trying to get water out of his ear.
"Hello," he said sadly. "Come to kill me, I suppose."
Jason put his shoes back on and stood slowly. "Um, well—"
"No!" Piper intervened. "I'm sorry. This is embarrassing. We didn't want to bother you, but Hercules sent us."
"Hercules!" The bull-man sighed. His hooves pawed the water as if ready to charge. "To me, he'll always be Heracles. That's his Greek name, you know: the glory of Hera."
"Funny name," Jason said. "Since he hates her."
"Indeed," the bull-man said. "Perhaps that's why he didn't protest when the Romans renamed him Hercules. Of course, that's the name most people know him by... his brand, if you will. Hercules is nothing if not image-conscious." The bull-man spoke with bitterness but familiarity, as if Hercules was an old friend who had lost his way.
"You're Achelous?" Piper asked.
The bull-man bent his front legs and lowered his head in a bow, which Piper found both sweet and a little sad. "At your service. River god extraordinaire. Once the spirit of the mightiest river in Greece. Now sentenced to dwell here, on the opposite side of the island from my old enemy. Oh, the gods are cruel! But whether they put us so close together to punish me or Hercules, I have never been sure."