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16. Her Highness
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Lorna was afraid they would lose their target. The ventus moved like ... well, like the wind.
"Speed up!" she urged.
"Dude," Leo said, "if I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."
"Slow down!" Piper yelped.
The storm spirit dove into the grid of downtown streets. Festus tried to follow, but his wingspan was way too wide. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before Leo pulled up.
"Get above the buildings," Jason suggested. "We'll track him from there."
"You want to drive this thing?" Leo grumbled, but he did what Jason asked.
After a few minutes, Lorna spotted the storm spirit again, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose—blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve. over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve.
"Oh great," Piper said. "There're two."
She was right. A second ventus blasted around the corner of the Renaissance Hotel and linked up with the first. They wove together in a chaotic dance, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and diving back down toward the street.
"Those guys do not need any more caffeine," Leo said.
"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Piper said. "Nobody's going to question a couple more evil winds."
"More than a couple," Jason said. "Look."
The dragon circled over a wide avenue next to a lake-side park. Storm spirits were converging—at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big public art installation.
"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked. "I wanna throw something at him."
"I want to throw something at you." Lorna said.
Lorna focused on the art installation. Two five-story monoliths rose from either end of a long granite reflecting pool. The monoliths seemed to be built of video screens, flashing the combined image of a giant face that spewed water into the pool. As Lorna watched, the image on the screens changed to a woman's face with her eyes closed.
"Leo ..." Lorna said nervously.
"I see her," Leo said. "I don't like her, but I see her."
Then the screens went dark. The venti swirled together into a single funnel cloud and skittered across the fountain, kicking up a waterspout almost as high as the monoliths. They got to its center, popped off a drain cover, and disappeared underground.
"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asked. "How are we supposed to follow them?"
"Maybe we shouldn't," Leo said. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"
Lorna felt the same way, but they had to follow. It was their only way forward. They had to find Hera, and they now had only two days until the solstice.
"Put us down in that park," Jason suggested. "We'll check it out on foot."
Festus landed in an open area between the lake and the skyline. The signs said Grant Park, and Lorna imagined it would've been a nice place in the summer; but now it was a field of ice, snow, and salted walkways. The dragon's hot metal feet hissed as they touched down. Festus flapped his wings unhappily and shot fire into the sky, but there was no one around to notice. The wind coming off the lake was bitter cold. Anyone with sense would be inside. Lorna's eyes stung so badly, she could barely see.
They dismounted, and Festus the dragon stomped his feet. One of his ruby eyes flickered, so it looked like he was blinking.
"Is that normal?" Jason asked.
Leo pulled a rubber mallet from his tool bag. He whacked the dragon's bad eye, and the light went back to normal.
"Holy- Ow. That's animal abuse." Lorna said.
"Festus can't hang around here, though, in the middle of the park. They'll arrest him for loitering. Maybe if I had a dog whistle ..."
"I doubt they can arrest a fire breathing machine." Lorna said.
Leo rummaged in his tool belt, but came up with nothing.
"Too specialized?" he guessed. "Okay, give me a safety whistle. They got that in lots of machine shops."
This time, Leo pulled out a big plastic orange whistle. "Coach Hedge would be jealous! Okay, Festus, listen."
Leo blew the whistle. The shrill sound probably rolled all the way across Lake Michigan. "You hear that, come find me, okay? Until then, you fly wherever you want. Just try not to barbecue any pedestrians."
The dragon snorted—hopefully in agreement. Then he spread his wings and launched into the air.
Piper took one step and winced. "Ah!"
"Your ankle?" Lorna felt bad she'd forgotten about her injury back in the Cyclops factory. "That nectar we gave you might be wearing off."
"It's fine." She shivered. She took a few more steps with only a slight limp, but Lorna could tell Piper was trying not to grimace.
"Let's get out of the wind," Jason suggested. "Down a drain?"
Lorna shuddered. "Sounds cozy."
They wrapped themselves up as best they could and headed toward the fountain.
According to the plaque, it was called Crown Fountain. All the water had emptied out except for a few patches that were starting to freeze. It didn't seem right to Lorna that the fountain would have water in it in the winter anyway. Then again, those big monitors had flashed the face of their mysterious enemy Dirt Woman. Nothing about this place was right. They stepped to the center of the pool. No spirits tried to stop them. The giant monitor walls stayed dark. The drain hole was easily big enough for a person, and a maintenance ladder led down into the gloom. Jason went first. Lorna went next. As she climbed, she braced himself for horrible sewer smells, but it wasn't that bad. The ladder dropped into a brickwork tunnel running north to south. The air was warm and dry, with only a trickle of water on the floor. Piper and Leo climbed down after him.
"Are all sewers this nice?" Piper wondered.
"No," Leo said. "Trust me."
Jason frowned. "How do you know—"
"Hey, man, I ran away six times. I've slept in some weird places, okay? Now, which way do we go?"
Jason tilted his head then pointed south. "That way."
"How can you be sure?" Lorna asked.
"There's a draft blowing south," Jason said. "Maybe the venti went with the flow."
It wasn't much of a lead, but nobody offered anything better. Unfortunately, as soon as they started walking, Piper stumbled. Jason had to catch her.
"Stupid ankle," she cursed.
"Let's rest," Jason decided. "We could all use it. We've been going nonstop for over a day. Leo, can you pull any food from that tool belt besides breath mints?"
"Thought you'd never ask. Chef Leo is on it!"
Piper, Jason and Lorna sat on a brick ledge while Leo shuffled through his pack. Lorna was glad to rest. She was still tired and dizzy, and hungry, too. She touched the ring on her finger and hoped it wouldn't glow. Jason sighed and ruffled his hair.
"It wasn't your fault," Lorna said.
He looked at her blankly. "What?"
"Getting jumped by the Cyclopes," she said. "It wasn't your fault."
He looked down at the coin in his palm. "I was stupid. I left Piper alone and walked into a trap. I should've known..."
He didn't finish.
"Hey." Piper nudged his arm. "Cut yourself some slack. Just because you're the son of Zeus doesn't mean you're a one-man army."
A few feet away, Leo lit a small cooking fire. He hummed as he pulled supplies out of his pack and his tool belt. Lorna stood up and scouted the area, she felt that Jason and Piper needed to have a talk. Secretly, she wished that Jason and Piper would reconcile but not to the point where they. . . get back together.
Over at the fire, Leo stirred some sizzling bell peppers and meat in a pan. "Yeah, baby! Almost there."
"And bingo!" Leo announced. He came over with four plates stacked on his arms like a waiter. Lorna had no idea where he'd gotten all the food, or how she'd put it together so fast, but it looked amazing: pepper and beef tacos with chips and salsa.
"Leo," Piper said in amazement. "How did you—?"
"Chef Leo's Taco Garage is fixing you up!" he said proudly. "And by the way, it's tofu, not beef, beauty queen, so don't freak. Just dig in!"
Lorna wasn't sure about tofu, but the tacos tasted as good as they smelled. While they ate, Leo tried to lighten the mood and joke around.
Lorna took a glance at her ring again.
"You keep looking at it." Jason said.
"Oh. It's just, Percy has a similar sword and I guess you could say that they are twin swords. When one of us is in danger, it glows. I wish I took on Tyson's advice and installed a GPS or the morse code messenger."
"Tyson?"
"My half brother. A Cyclops. A good one." Lorna rushed out. "He doesn't eat demigods. He eats peanut butter."
Jason chuckled and encouraged her to get some sleep. Without another word, Lorna curled up and put her head in his lap.
When Lorna woke up, they broke camp and started down the tunnel. It twisted and turned and seemed to go on forever. Lorna wasn't sure what to expect at the end—a dungeon, a mad scientist's lab, or maybe a sewer reservoir where all Porta Potty sludge ends up, forming an evil toilet face large enough to swallow the world. Instead, they found polished steel elevator doors, each one engraved with a cursive letter M. Next to the elevator was a directory, like for a department store.
"M for Macy's?" Piper guessed. "I think they have one in downtown Chicago."
"Or Monocle Motors still?" Leo said. "Guys, read the directory. It's messed up."
Parking, Kennels, Main Entrance: Sewer Level
Furnishings and Café M: 1
Women's Fashion and Magical Appliances: 2
Men's Wear and Weaponry: 3
Cosmetics, Potions, Poisons & Sundries: 4
"Kennels for what?" Piper said. "And what kind of department store has its entrance in a sewer?"
"Or sells poisons," Leo said. "Man, what does 'sundries' even mean? Is that like underwear?"
Jason took a deep breath. "When in doubt, start at the top. "
Lorna gave him a quizzical look. "Never heard that one before."
The doors slid open on the fourth floor, and the scent of perfume wafted into the elevator. Jason stepped out first, sword ready.
"Guys," he said. "You've got to see this."
Lorna joined him and caught her breath. "This is not Macy's."
The department store looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope. The entire ceiling was a stained glass mosaic with astrological signs around a giant sun. The daylight streaming through it washed everything in a thousand different colors. The upper floors made a ring of balconies around a huge central atrium, so they could see all the way down to the ground floor. Gold railings glittered so brightly, they were hard to look at. Aside from the stained glass ceiling and the elevator, Lorna couldn't see any other windows or doors, but two sets of glass escalators ran between the levels. The carpeting was a riot of oriental patterns and colors, and the racks of merchandise were just as bizarre. There was too much to take it at once, but Lorna saw normal stuff like shirt racks and shoe trees mixed in with armored manikins, beds of nails, and fur coats that seemed to be moving.
Leo stepped to the railing and looked down. "Check it out."
In the middle of the atrium a fountain sprayed water twenty feet into the air, changing color from red to yellow to blue. The pool glittered with gold coins, and on either side of the fountain stood a gilded cage—like an oversize canary cage. Inside one, a miniature hurricane swirled, and lightning flashed. Somebody had imprisoned the storm spirits, and the cage shuddered as they tried to get out. In the other, frozen like a statue, was a short, buff satyr, holding a tree-branch club.
"Coach Hedge!" Piper said. "We've got to get down there. "
A voice said, "May I help you find something?"
All four of them jumped back.
A woman had just appeared in front of them. She wore an elegant black dress with diamond jewelry, and she looked like a retired fashion model—maybe fifty years old. Her long dark hair swept over one shoulder, and her face was gorgeous in that surreal supermodel way—thin and haughty and cold, not quite human. With their long red-painted nails, her fingers looked more like talons.
She smiled. "I'm so happy to see new customers. How may I help you?"
"Um," Jason started, "is this your store?"
The woman nodded. "I found it abandoned, you know. I understand so many stores are, these days. I decided it would make the perfect place. I love collecting tasteful objects, helping people, and offering quality goods at a reasonable price. So this seemed a good ... how do you say ... first acquisition in this country."
She spoke with a pleasing accent, but Lorna couldn't guess where from.
"So you're new to America?" she asked.
"I am ... new," the woman agreed. "I am the Princess of Colchis. My friends call me Your Highness. Now, what are you looking for?"
The minute the woman said that, Lorna knew that something was up. Your Highness? Who calls anyone that? It's the 21st Century.
Lorna poked Jason in the ribs. "Jason ..."
"Um, right. Actually, Your Highness ..." He pointed to the gilded cage on the first floor. "That's our friend down there, Gleeson Hedge. The satyr. Could we ... have him back, please?"
"Of course!" the princess agreed immediately. "I would love to show you my inventory. First, may I know your names?"
Lorna started to say, "Jason, I wouldn't—"
"This is Lorna ," he said. "Piper. Leo. I'm Jason."
The princess fixed her eyes on Jason and, just for a moment,her face literally glowed, blazing with so much anger, Lorna could see her skull beneath her skin. Then the moment passed, and Her Highness looked like a normal elegant woman again, with a cordial smile and a soothing voice.
"Jason. What an interesting name," she said, her eyes as cold as the Chicago wind. "I think we'll have to make a special deal for you. Come, children. Let's go shopping."