CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: ONE LEGGED BOY
They did not "talk later".
In fact, Connor never saw Ellie the next day.
After she had gone into the woods, Connor had been attacked by Kayla and Austin, until they finally managed dragged him away from chasing after her, and into the infirmary to stitch up his scalp. With turned out to be a horrible choice.
He voiced his concern to Chiron at breakfast, but no one seemed to worry until she missed Sherman's boot camp.
The Harmonia cabin was empty, and she was nowhere to be seen.
It took him a few moments to realize that she was missing. Missing missing.
He begged Chiron to let him look. The centaur refused to loose yet another camper, and then ordered a satyr to watch him in case he bolted for it. He was forced to focus on the stupid three-legged death race. Since Ellie had been his partner, he was now stuck with Paolo.
Despite half of the camp hearing their argument last night, most of them threw Connor sympathetic glances. Their relationship had been so perfect that it had become idolized. It was off-putting for them to argue. He didn't care, he needed to find her and apologize.
So after he and Paolo brought back one golden apple, he was about to burst with worry. He couldn't have her missing after such a big fight! He had never heard her so angry with him. He supposed she had had a point.
But then Paolo managed to get his leg sawed off. Connor screamed like a little girl, trying to get away from the one-legged boy, but they were tied together, so Paolo was just dragged along.
"Oh my gods!" He shrieked. He sprinted as fast as he could, grabbing the boys arm.
Paolo was between a shock state and a screaming fit. Connor dragged them out of the Labyrinth, his face was tinted green.
"Help!" He screamed. "Ew, oh gods! Will!"
Paolo the one-legged man was no help. All he did was scream and leave a trail of blood.
Luckily, Will found them. As soon as they were disconnected, Connor threw up in the closest bushes.
He stumbled into the Hermes cabin. He had been met with joking and laughter from Julia and Alice from their bunks. He glared at them hard enough that the girls shut up quickly, switching to hushed whispered. He was exhausted, angry, and worried.
Who wouldn't be worried? His girlfriend was missing, and the last thing that they had done was get in a huge fight.
He didn't fall asleep that night, and he didn't attend any lessons the next day. He contained himself to his bed, withering away with worry.
Sherman knocked on the door of the cabin after the boot camp had ended. He was still coated in sweat, and he wore a scary scar on his forehead that had been sliced open two nights ago.
"They think they know what happened," Sherman said. He walked in without warning, shutting the door behind him. He held two pieces of bread, throwing one to Connor.
Connor quickly shrugged on a beanie to hide his mangled scalp. He grabbed the piece of bread. He hadn't ate in a day, he was starving. He took a greedy bite, turning to Sherman.
"What?" He mumbled, mouth full of slightly stale bread. "What happened?"
It took him a few moments to remember that Sherman's girlfriend, Miranda, and his best friend, Ellie, had also been taken. They were in the same boat.
"Something to with the Oracle." He shrugged. "Super confusing. Anyway, Lester and Meg left to go find them this morning."
"And you didn't go with them?" Connor asked, despite his heart beating erratically. At least there was a chance that Ellie was alright and would be saved. Making up with her would be a completely different story, but he just wanted to make sure she was still alive.
"Nah. I had to run camp. Plus, the Lester dude pisses me off." He paused, rubbing his neck. "And Meg scares me."
Connor laughed, despite knowing he was scared of her too.
"Want to train?" Sherman offered his arm. "Theres not much left to do other then wait."
Connor took his outstretched arm. "I bet you twenty drachma I can beat you in swordplay."
"You're on, Stoll!"
✩✩✩
At first, she thought she was dead.
Her vision was pure white, straining her eyes as she tried to focus on anything around her. Her head pounded vigorously, causing patterns to swim across her vision. Her legs like like led, she didn't think she could move them even if she tried.
She blinked harshly, trying to bring herself back to the present. It smelled like a fire, although she wasn't sure where it was coming from.
She finally made out the outline of the clouds above her, and the bright sun overhead warmed her cheeks.
She brought her arm to her face, rubbing her eyes harshly. She let out a groan, sitting up slightly. Every part of her felt like it was on fire, and she whimpered in pain as she struggled to regain her bearings.
Beside her came a soft voice, "Where am I?"
Austin was awake.
Apollo crawled to his side, now weeping with relief, and kissed his face. "My beautiful son!"
Austin blinked at Apollo in confusion. Or at least, Ellie thought it was Austin. They were still blobs of color, her vision faded in and out.
"Ah, right...Apollo." He tried to move. "What the—? Why am I wrapped in smelly bandages? Could you free me, maybe?"
Apollo laughed hysterically, and began clawing at his bindings but made no progress. He then retrieved the point and spent several minutes sawing Austin free.
"Connor?" Ellie asked weakly, her voice cracking slightly. It felt as if it hadn't been used in days. Maybe Connor was around somewhere to help.
"Oh, Ellie!" Apollo cried, moving from his son to the girl who could barely move.
He sawed her free as well. She fell back onto the grass, finally not feeling so constricted. But yet, she still felt like there was something closing in on her.
Austin stumbled around, trying to shake the circulation back into his limbs. He took in the scene—the smoldering forest, the other prisoners. A radiant amber light glowed from the gateway.
"What's going on?" Austin asked. "Also, where is my saxophone?"
Her mind buzzed with questions, but none found its way to her lips. She tried to remember the last thing that had happened before this.
She let out another groan, rubbing her forehead as another wave of pain crashed in her head.
Apollo handed Austin the broken spear. "Free the others. I'll be back."
Austin stared at Apollo incredulously. "You're going in there? Is it safe?"
"I doubt it," he said.
Then he ran toward the Oracle.
Austin turned back to Ellie, helping her to her feet. "Oh, how good it is to see you! When you went missing, we all thought you ran away."
"Ran away?" Ellie asked, eyebrows furrowing as she shook out her tired muscles. "Why would I do that?"
"You know," Austin rubbed his neck awkwardly. "your fight with Connor?"
"What is wrong with you?" She accused, catching attention of some campers retreating to their beds. "That's your idea of a prank? To drown the girl?"
"I wasn't going to hurt her!" He defended.
"Oh, yeah?" Ellie argued, her voice venomous. "That's why you had a fucking net?"
Connor shifted nervously at the tone of her voice. Ellie didn't curse often, and never with that amount of anger. He knew he had screwed up.
"Lighten up a little bit," He tried, smiling weakly.
"Lighten up?" Ellie yelled, eyes narrowing even further. "I cannot believe you! I mean, really, I-"
She stopped herself, sucking in a large breath. Her fists were clenched at her side. She didn't want to say anything she would regret.
"Leave me alone." She seethed. "I'll talk to you later."
She turned and walked into the woods.
Ellie's eyes widened. "Holy shit." She whispered. "I really yelled at him, didn't I?"
Austin nodded slowly, handing her an ax to cut through the remaining unconscious campers. "Yeah, you did."
"I've got to talk to him." Ellie thought out loud. "We've got to get back to camp."
The demigods looked like they had been dipped in a vat of glue and cotton swabs, but otherwise they seemed remarkably undamaged. Ellis Wakefield staggered around with his fists clenched, looking for something to punch. Cecil Markowitz, son of Hermes, sat on the ground trying to clean his sneakers with a deer's thighbone. Austin had produced a canteen of water and was washing the Greek fire off of Kayla's face. Miranda Gardiner, the head counselor of Demeter, knelt by the place where the dryads had sacrificed themselves. She wept silently. Ellie paced the area restlessly, anxious to return to camp.
The five demigods gathered around Apollo.
Miranda looked past him at the grove of Dodona. Her eyes were still puffy from crying, but she had beautiful irises the color of new foliage. "So, the voices I heard from that grove...It's really an oracle? Those trees can give us prophecies?"
Apollo shivered, thinking of the oak trees' limerick. "Perhaps."
"Can I see—?"
"No," he said. "Not until we understand the place better."
"I don't get it," Ellis grumbled. "You're Apollo? Like, the Apollo."
"I'm afraid so. It's a long story."
"Oh, gods..." Kayla scanned the clearing. "I thought I heard Meg's voice earlier. Did I dream that? Was she with you? Is she okay?"
"Meg?" Ellie asked, her demeanor slightly growing happier. "She's here?"
"She's...alive," Apollo managed. "She had to leave."
"What?" Kayla asked. "Why?"
"Nero," Apollo said. "She...she went after Nero."
"Hold up." Austin raised his fingers like goalposts. "When you say Nero..."
Apollo did his best to explain how the mad emperor had captured them. Ellie thought the word "tried" was used loosely. It seemed that story-telling was one of the skills Apollo lost when he fell from Olympus.
"Oh, gods," Apollo said. "The Colossus."
The five demigods shifted uneasily.
"What Colossus?" Kayla asked. "You mean the Colossus of Rhodes?"
"No," he said. "The Colossus Neronis."
Cecil scratched his head. "The Colossus Neurotic?"
Ellis Wakefield snorted. "You're a Colossus Neurotic, Markowitz. Apollo's talking about the big replica of Nero that stood outside the amphitheater in Rome, right?"
"I'm afraid so," Apollo said. "While we're standing here, Nero is going to try to destroy Camp Half-Blood. And the Colossus will be his wrecking crew."
Ellis swallowed. "Nice."
Miranda flinched. "You mean a giant statue is about to stomp on camp? I thought the Colossus was destroyed centuries ago."
Ellis frowned. "Supposedly, so was the Athena Parthenos. Now it's sitting on top of Half-Blood Hill."
The others' expressions turned grim. When a child of Ares makes a valid point, you know the situation is serious.
"Speaking of Athena..." Austin picked some incendiary fluff off his shoulder. "Won't the statue protect us? I mean, that's what she's there for, right?"
"She will try," Apollo guessed. "But you must understand, the Athena Parthenos draws her power from her followers. The more demigods under her care, the more formidable her magic. And right now—"
"The camp is practically empty," Miranda finished.
"Not only that," Apollo said, "but the Athena Parthenos is roughly forty feet tall. If memory serves, Nero's Colossus was more than twice that."
Ellie crossed her arms, glaring at the group in front of her. "We've got to warn camp, then."
Ellis grunted. "So they're not in the same weight class. It's an uneven match."
Cecil Markowitz stood a little straighter. "Guys...did you feel that?"
Then the ground shook again, ever so slightly. From somewhere in the distance came a rumbling sound like a battleship scraping over a sandbar.
"Please tell me that was thunder," Kayla said.
Ellis cocked his head, listening. "It's a war machine. A big automaton wading ashore about half a klick from here. We need to get to camp right now."
No one argued with Ellis's assessment. To their credit, the demigods rose to the challenge. Despite the fact that they'd been recently bound, doused in flammable substances, and staked like human tiki torches, they closed ranks and faced Apollo with determination in their eyes.
"How do we get out of here?" Austin asked. "The myrmekes' lair?"
"I don't suppose any of you can fly?"
They shook their heads.
"I can cook," Cecil offered.
Ellis smacked him on the shoulder.
"Don't smack him," Ellie defended, smacking Ellis. "Cooking is good."
"I think there's a way," Apollo said. "But I'll need your help."
Austin balled his fists. "Anything you need. We're ready to fight."
"Argeed." Ellie added. "We've got a home to defend."
"Actually...I don't need you to fight. I need you to lay down a beat."
Very important discovery: Children of Hermes cannot rap. At all.
Bless his little heart, Cecil Markowitz tried his best, but he kept throwing off my rhythm section with his spastic clapping and terrible air mic noises. After a few trial runs, Apollo demoted him to dancer. His job would be to shimmy back and forth and wave his hands, which he did with the enthusiasm of a tent-revival preacher. Imagine being so bad that the music god tells you to shut up and dance.
The others managed to keep up. They still looked like half-plucked, highly combustible chickens, but they bopped with the proper amount of soul.
Apollo launched into "Mama". He sang directly into the mouth of the myrmekes' tunnel. The group did not have to wait long. The earth began to rumble beneath their feet. Apollo kept singing. He had warned the group not to stop laying down the righteous beat until the song was over.
Still, Ellie almost lost it when the ground exploded. A giant ant shot straight out of the earth twenty yards away, spraying dirt, grass, and small boulders in all directions. She scuttled forward, mandibles clacking, wings buzzing, dark Teflon eyes focused on Apollo.
Ellie let out a yelp of surprise, bumping into Ellis, throwing off the beat.
"Does no one else see the giant ants?" She managed in a normal voice, eyes wide at the huge creatures. "No one?"
Behind her, two winged soldiers clambered out of the earth. They flanked the queen, their antennae quivering.
Apollo dropped to one knee, spreading my arms as he had before.
"Mama," Apollo said, "we need a ride."
"Mama" grabbed him with her mandibles and tossed him over her head.
Despite Apollo never admitting it, he flailed, screamed, and landed in a way that damaged his sensitive parts. He then shouted to his comrades after he recovered, "Join me! It's perfectly safe!"
They hesitated. The ants did not. The queen tossed Kayla just behind Apollo. The soldier ants followed Mama's lead—snapping up two demigods each and throwing them aboard.
Ellie let out a scream of surprise as she was flung aboard, stuck behind Cecil.
The three myrmekes revved their wings with a noise like radiator fan blades.
"Is this really safe?" Kayla yelled.
"Perfectly! Perhaps even safer than the sun chariot!"
"Didn't the sun chariot almost destroy the world once?"
"Well, twice," Apollo said. "Three times, if you count the day I let Thalia Grace drive, but—"
"Forget I asked!"
Mama launched herself into the sky. The canopy of twisted branches blocked their path, but Mama didn't pay any more attention to them than she had to the ton of solid earth she'd plowed through.
Apollo yelled, "Duck!"
Ellie flattened herself against Mama's armored head as she smashed through the trees, leaving a thousand wooden splinters embedded in her back.
For two or three seconds, she left behind the fear of flying, and was exhilarated.
Then she heard the screaming from Camp Half-Blood.