Hanora Maeve Xanthus and the Titian's curse

I rushed to the infirmary with Grover trailing after me. I couldn’t believe how everything seemed to always go wrong for us. First Annabeth falls off a cliff, then Bianca joins the hunters, we almost crashed the sun, Annabeth is in even worse trouble, and now Hanora is vomiting up blood at four in the morning. I can’t catch a break.

I threw the doors open to find a disheveled Nico di Angelo hovering on the other side of the door pacing. He stopped pacing when he saw me, “Oh good Percy you’re here!”

He grabbed my arm and yanked me further into the building.

“I don’t know what happened we had been talking about her book; it was an Italian mystery book about this girl that-”

“Focus Nico, what happened to her?” I snapped

He stuttered in his steps but kept pulling me through the maze of rooms. “Okay well her eyes got weird and glowy for a second, then her hair started sparkling like glitter fell on her…then- then-”

“Then what?!”

“-then the bleeding started.” His eyes were downcast as we finally got to the right room. 

Two blonde Apollo kids were bent over the bed, Chiron was on the other side in wheelchair form. But the most startling was the person in the bed. Hanora sat up but her head was bent into a bucket. Her long strawberry blonde hair spilled out around it like a curtain, but Nico was right, mixed in her blonde strands was what almost looked like thin silver tinsel. Her sleeves were pulled up, the edges of them stained red, though the one Apollo kid started to poke at the burn on her arm.

“She’ll probably smack you if you do that,” I warned, making everyone else in the room jump away. I guess I startled them.

“Percy, you’re here.” Chiron said as Hanora wretched some more of her dinner into the bucket.

One of the Apollo kids turned to me, “these burns they might have something to do-”

“-They don’t leave them be please,” I cut in sternly as I moved closer to the bed.

That shut him up, Chiron shooed the two away from the bed to let me get in closer. They both begrudgingly left the room leaving Grover and Nico in the doorway watching us nervously.

I sat on the bed next to her and pulled her hair back away from her face.

“Careful Sea, you are in the splash zone now,” Hanora choked out.

“I think I’ll live,” I said, taking in how pale her face was. A bit of red trickled from the corner of her mouth, but she had stopped vomiting. “Aside from the whole bucket thing, how are you feeling, Specs?” 

She shrugged, “my arms hurt like I’ve been skipping leg day but other than that it's really just the nonstop blood vomit. It’s like that scene from the exorcists in here.”

I pulled one of her arms to me and inspected it, when I turned it over it seemed to glitter for a second but just as fast it was gone. The burns themselves did look a bit agitated but aside from that they looked about the same as the last time I had seen them.

“Are your burns bothering you?” I asked, she only shrugged, meaning yes, they were bothering her a lot. I looked up to Grover,” He G-man can you go get some warm water please.”

He looked startled but nodded quickly and dragged a concerned Nico with him.

“I’m fine Pesciolino, for some reason your oh so godly presence is keeping the bile down.” She winked at me to punctuate her joke, but the color was starting to return to her face.

“I figured as much,” Chiron added thoughtfully, effectively startling me away from Hanora’s space. I had forgotten that he was there at all.

“What do you mean Chiron?” I asked.

He rolled up next to us and motioned me to stand. I reluctantly did and almost immediately Hanora dropped her head back into the bucket. I jumped back up to her pulling her hair back again, and then as if by magic it stopped.

“Just as I feared my girl, those powers of yours seem to be acting up again.”

“Lovely,” she groaned, looking between the two of us. “Does that mean this has something to do with Annabeth too or is Percy just secretly dying?”

“Did you see the vision of Annabeth too?” I asked 

“I mean bits and pieces when I was in and out of consciousness but, what did you see?”

So, I told them about my dream, during that time Grover and Nico came back in with the water. I continued explaining as I switched out Hanora’s vomit bucket for the smaller container full of warm water. A thing I had learned since finding out about the burns on Hanora’s arms was that warm water eased some of the pain when she had a flare up, and being the son of Poseidon meant I had a pretty good handle on controlling water. So, like the water benders in that show Hanora had me watching (Avatar the last air Bender), I controlled the water to cover her burns. She finally seemed to relax with the color almost completely returning to her face.

"A cave ceiling collapsed on her?" Grover asked.

"Yeah. What the heck does that mean?"

 Grover shook his head. "I don't know. But after what Zoë dreamed—"

 "Whoa. What do you mean? Zoë had a dream like that?"

 "I… I don't know, exactly. About three in the morning, she came to the Big House and demanded to talk to Chiron. She looked really panicked."

 "Wait, how do you know this?"

 Grover blushed. "I was sort of camped outside the Artemis cabin."

 "What for?"

 "Just to be, you know, near them."

 "You're a stalker with hooves."

 "I am not! Anyway, I followed her to the Big House and hid in a bush and watched the whole thing. She got real upset when Argus wouldn't let her in. It was kind of a dangerous scene.”

I looked to Chiron who shook his head at the both of us. “Perhaps now that Hanora is stable again, I should take my leave.” He headed for the door but not before saying something to Hanora in Ancient Greek. My ancient Greek still needed some work, but from what I could understand it had something to do with a dangerous power and to be careful. As soon as he stepped out Nico hopped up on the other side of the bed and curled into Hanora’s side.

“Don’t worry Ko, you did good for your first day of demi-goding. Survived a crazy monster, got to camp, and kept your new friend from choking on her own blood.”  She leaned over and nuzzled the top of his head since both of her arms were still in my hands.

"What did she say?" I asked turning back to Grover.

 Grover grimaced. "Well, she starts talking really old-fashioned when she gets upset, so it was kind of hard to understand. But something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the Hunters. And then she called Argus a boil-brained lout… I think that's a bad thing. And then he called her—"

 "Whoa, wait. How could Artemis be in trouble?"

Hanora looked up from Nico taking in the information now that her pain had subsided. “No wonder Zoë was so freaked out about letting Artemis go alone.”

Grover hopped onto the end of the bed rubbing the back of his neck, "I… well, finally Chiron came out in his pajamas and his horse tail in curlers and—"

 "He wears curlers in his tail?" I asked

 Grover covered his mouth, which made Hanora and Nico laugh.

 "Sorry," I said. "Go on."

 "Well, Zoë said she needed permission to leave camp immediately. Chiron refused. He reminded Zoë that the Hunters were supposed to stay here until they received orders from Artemis. And she said…"

Grover gulped. "She said 'How are we to get orders from Artemis if Artemis is lost?'"

 "What do you mean lost? Like she needs directions?"

 "No. I think she meant gone. Taken. Kidnapped."

 " Kidnapped?" I tried to get my mind around that idea. "How would you kidnap an immortal goddess? Is that even possible?"

 "Well, yeah. I mean, it happened to Persephone."

 "But she was like the goddess of flowers."

 Grover looked offended. "Springtime."

“Honestly Percy don't disrespect the nature goddesses in front of Grover, he’ll get very testy.” Hanora said not even trying to hide her smirk.

 "Whatever,” I conceded,” isn’t Artemis a lot more powerful than that. Who could kidnap her? And why?"

 Grover shook his head miserably. "I don't know. Kronos?"

 "He can't be that powerful already. Can he?"

 The last time we'd seen Kronos; he'd been in tiny pieces. Well… we hadn't actually seen him. Thousands of years ago, after the big Titan—God war, the gods had sliced him to bits with his own scythe and scattered his remains in Tartarus, which is like the gods' bottomless recycling bin for their enemies. Two summers ago, Kronos had tricked us to the very edge of the pit and almost pulled us in. Then last summer, on board Luke's demon cruise ship, we'd seen a golden coffin, where Luke claimed he was summoning the Titan Lord out of the abyss, bit by bit, every time someone new joined their cause.

Kronos could influence people with dreams and trick them, but I didn't see how he could physically overcome Artemis if he was still like a pile of evil bark mulch.

 "I don't know," Grover said. "I think somebody would know if Kronos had re-formed. The gods would be more nervous. But still, it's weird, you having a nightmare the same night as Zoë, and Hanora getting sick, It's almost like—"

 "They're connected," I said.

 I thought about Zoë's nightmare, which she'd had only a few hours after mine.

 "I've got to talk to Zoë," I said.

 "Um, before you do…" Grover took something out of his coat pocket. It was a three-fold display like a travel brochure. "You remember what you said—about how it was weird the Hunters just happened to show up at Westover Hall? I think they might've been scouting us."

 "Scouting us? What do you mean?"

 He gave me the brochure. It was about the Hunters of Artemis. The front read, A WISE CHOICE FOR YOUR FUTURE! Inside were pictures of young maidens doing hunter stuff, chasing monsters, shooting bows. There were captions like: HEALTH BENEFITS: IMMORTALITY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU! and A BOY-FREE TOMORROW!

Hanora read it over my shoulder and made a gagging noise.

 "I found that in Annabeth's backpack," Grover said.

 I stared at him. "I don't understand."

 "Well, it seems to me… maybe Annabeth was thinking about joining."

“I call bs,” Hanora cut in, “Annabeth wouldn’t do that. That brochure could have been thrown in by the hunters when they collected our things from the school.”

She sounded so sure, and I wanted to believe her, but I was still worried anyway. 

Grover left to go get breakfast, but I decided to hang with Hanora for a little while longer. Nico had passed out curled into her side a while ago, and since I had finally released her hands from their ‘watery prison’ as she called them, she absentmindedly threaded her fingers through his hair. Her head was leaning into my shoulder as we talked quietly so as to not disturb him.

“So, what was Chiron talking about before he practically ran away from us?” I whispered.

“I- well,” she sighed, “Not knowing who my mother is has made whatever this thing is a whole lot harder to figure out. I’ve asked Ciron about- well about these abilities that have suddenly started to appear.” She waved her free hand a bit for emphasis.

“Does the ‘threads’ or whatever you said yesterday have to do with that too?”

She nodded, “I’m still learning how to use it all and what my limits are, but a large part of it is the threads.” She paused,” at least I think it is.”

For once I did not need to ask any other follow up questions, she just let loose all on her own. She explained how the threads are different colors and shapes, but so far only people she was close with had threads for her to see. She could grab them and see scenes tied to what that person was seeing or something important to their current situation. For some reason she could only see them with her glasses off, but she seemed to think it was more about her vision needing to be a bit blurry to block enough out to see the threads better. The threads alerted her to any danger her friends were in and could lead her to their location, which she had used to find me a couple of times already. She made it very clear that my blue thread (of course it is blue Percy, how could it be any other color?)

She had apparently discussed some of that with Annabeth, the two of them had tried to piece together what these powers could do but also how they could relate to Hanora’s mom.

“Well, if they are threads could your mom be one of the fates?”

She made the most disgusted face,” gods I hope not. That would make things even more complicated. And which one would it even be?!” She whisper-yelled.

I shrugged,” I don’t know but your powers might be why dr. Thorn’s masters are looking for you. Not that I understand how they would know about your powers if you only told Annabeth and Chiron about it.”

She got really quiet for a moment. “You did only tell the two of them before, right?”

She shifted to look me in the eye, she hesitated before taking a large breath.

“Luke knows.”

“Luke what!-”

“Shhhhh, quiet,” She covered my mouth with her free hand and jerked her head toward a sleeping Nico. “If you wake him, I’m going to smack you.”

I raised my hands up in surrender, she relaxed a bit but was still pinning me in place with a glare. “Yes, Luke knows…some of it at least, not the stuff I told you aside from being able to tell when you are in danger.”

My hands lowered, “then what does he know?”

She gestured vaguely at herself,” he knows this bit. He knows that when you guys are well- pretty injured, that I feel it. Or I guess take some of the burden of the injury off your shoulders? I am not too certain how it works, but considering what we saw happened to AB and what happened to me directly after. Then I guess it is connected to that somehow.” She shrugged before looking off into the distance.

That made me think of every time I had been injured since coming to camp. All of the cuts and bruises from sparing, the fights I got into on our quests, the scorpion.

“Wait so when Luke summoned the pit scorpion, you felt that?”

“Kind of, it was early on in my discovery, but I did feel it while I was carrying you to camp. Chiron thinks that physical contact is an easier way for me to take some of your injuries or fatigue away, but doing so drains me. Which is probably why I passed out after getting you to help.”

“Hmmm,” I started,” So Luke knows that you would help Annabeth survive whatever trick he pulled? I guess that’s why they want you so bad, because you can strengthen your chosen people to power through battles I guess.”

“Maybe, but I feel like there is something else. I just haven’t figured it out yet.” She paused for a moment lost in thought again. Her fingers were tapping unconsciously on my leg in a set pattern I didn’t recognize. “Maybe you should go get something to eat or just you know go get some fresh air.”

“Yeah, sure because I’m going to leave you here when the last time, we were more than a foot apart you started spewing blood again.”

She rolled her eyes at me,” I think I’ve settled now. I just had to get used to it. And besides Nico is here so he’ll be ready to go get you if I have a problem.” 

“I don’t know-”

Her green eyes bored into mine causing any argument I had to die in my throat. “Percy, there are more important things to do right now. We need to get AB back by any means necessary.” She winked at me,” So go do your thing. Just try not to get into too much trouble without me.” 

***

Leaving Hanora was not easy, but she was insistent. ‘Go do your thing’ was a weird thing to say, but then again, she had always seen the world a little differently than the rest of us. She clearly had an idea of something I could do to help Annabeth, but what could I do with no…then it occurred to me: no one would be in the Big House. There was someone else… something else I could ask for guidance.

 My blood was humming in my ears as I ran into the house and took the stairs. I'd only done this once before, and I still had nightmares about it. I opened the trap door and stepped into the attic. The room was dark and dusty and cluttered with junk, just like I remembered. There were shields with monster bites out of them, and swords bent in the shapes of daemon heads, and a bunch of taxidermy, like a stuffed harpy and a bright orange python.

 Over by the window, sitting on a three-legged stool, was the shriveled-up mummy of an old lady in a tie-dyed hippie dress. The Oracle.

 I made myself walk toward her. I waited for green mist to billow from the mummy's mouth, like it had before, but nothing happened.

 "Hi," I said. "Uh, what's up?"

 I winced at how stupid that sounded. Not much could be "up" when you're dead and stuck in the attic. But I knew the spirit of the Oracle was in there somewhere. I could feel a cold presence in the room, like a coiled sleeping snake.

 "I have a question," I said a little louder. "I need to know about Annabeth. How can I save her?"

 No answer. The sun slanted through the dirty attic window, lighting the dust motes dancing in the air.

 I waited longer.

 Then I got angry. I was being stonewalled by a corpse.

 "All right," I said. "Fine. I'll figure it out myself."

 I turned and bumped into a big table full of souvenirs. It seemed more cluttered than the last time I was here. Heroes stored all kinds of stuff in the attic: quest trophies they no longer wanted to keep in their cabins, or stuff that held painful memories. I knew Luke had stored a dragon claw somewhere up here—the one that had scarred his face. There was a broken sword hilt labeled: This broke and Leroy got killed. 1999. Then I noticed a pink silk scarf with a label attached to it. I picked up the tag and tried to read it:

 SCARF OF THE GODDESS APHRODITE

 RECOVERED AT WATERLAND, DENVER, CO.,

 BY ANNABETH CHASE AND PERCY JACKSON

 I stared at the scarf. I'd totally forgotten about it. Two years ago, Annabeth had ripped this scarf out of my hands and said something like, Oh, no. No love magic for you!

 I'd just assumed she'd thrown it away. And yet here it was. She'd kept it all this time? And why had she stashed it in the attic?

 I turned to the mummy. She hadn't moved, but the shadows across her face made it look like she was smiling gruesomely.

 I dropped the scarf and tried not to run toward the exit.

 That night after dinner, I was seriously ready to beat the Hunters at capture the flag. Hanora was still out of commission, but she had told me to ‘bring her some new friends’. Which was her way of saying to put the hunters in the infirmary. I was having a difficult time thinking of a reason not to.

 It was going to be a small game: only thirteen Hunters, including Bianca di Angelo, and about the same number of campers. Zoë Nightshade looked pretty upset. She kept glancing resentfully at Chiron, like she couldn't believe he was making her do this. The other Hunters didn't look too happy, either. Unlike last night, they weren't laughing or joking around. They just huddled together in the dining pavilion, whispering nervously to each other as they strapped on their armor. Some of them even looked like they'd been crying. I guess Zoë had told them about her nightmare.

 On our team, we had Beckendorf and two other Hephaestus guys, a few from the Ares cabin (though it still seemed strange that Clarisse wasn't around), the Stoll brothers and Nico from Hermes cabin, and a few Aphrodite kids. It was weird that the Aphrodite cabin wanted to play. Usually they sat on the sidelines, chatted, and checked their reflections in the river and stuff, but when they heard we were fighting the Hunters, they were raring to go.

 "I'll show them 'love is worthless,'" Silena Beauregard grumbled as she strapped on her armor. "I'll pulverize them!"

 That left Thalia and me.

 "I'll take the offense," Thalia volunteered. "You take defense."

 "Oh." I hesitated, because I'd been about to say the exact same thing, only reversed. "Don't you think with your shield and all, you'd be better at defense?"

 Thalia already had Aegis on her arm, and even our own teammates were giving her a wide berth, trying not to cower before the bronze head of Medusa.

 "Well, I was thinking it would make a better offense," Thalia said. "Besides, you've had more practice at defense."

 I wasn't sure if she was teasing me. I'd had some pretty bad experiences with defense on capture the flag. My first year, Annabeth had put me out as a kind of bait with only Hanora to keep me in one piece, and I'd almost been gored to death with spears and killed by a hellhound (only Hanora and her at the time unknown powers kept me alive.)

 "Yeah, no problem," I lied.

 "Cool." Thalia turned to help some of the Aphrodite kids, who were having trouble suiting up their armor without breaking their nails. Nico di Angelo ran up to me with a big grin on his face.

 "Percy, this is awesome!" His blue-feathered bronze helmet was falling in his eyes, and his breastplate was about six sizes too big. I wondered if there was any way I'd looked that ridiculous when I'd first arrived. Unfortunately, I probably had.

 Nico lifted his sword with effort. "Do we get to kill the other team?"

 "Well… no."

 "But the Hunters are immortal, right?"

 "That's only if they don't fall in battle. Besides—"

 "It would be awesome if we just, like, resurrected as soon as we were killed, so we could keep fighting, and—"

 "Nico, this is serious. Real swords. These can hurt."

 He stared at me, a little disappointed, and I realized that I'd just sounded like my mother. Whoa. Not a good sign.

 I patted Nico on the shoulder. "Hey, it's cool. Just follow the team. Stay out of Zoë's way. We'll have a blast. Plus, we don’t want to have Hanora worrying about us, right?"

His face changed a bit, getting a bit more serious, “Yeah, she is looking a bit better, but the Apollo kids are still concerned.” He shifted a little, “I’m going to try to win for her.”

“Yeah, let's do that.” I said wishing she were out here with us. Maybe then we’d have a chance.

 Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor.

 "Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team—Camp Half-Blood—shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis—red team—shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"

 "Sweet," Nico whispered next to me. "What kind of magic items? Do I get one?"

 I was about to break it to him that he didn't, when Thalia said, "Blue team! Follow me!"

 They cheered and followed. I had to run to catch up, and tripped over somebody's shield, so I didn't look much like a co-captain. More like an idiot.

 We set our flag at the top of Zeus's Fist. It's this cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods that,

if you look at it just the right way, looks like a huge fist sticking out of the ground. If you look at it from any other side, it looks like a pile of enormous deer droppings, but Chiron wouldn't let us call the place

the Poop Pile, especially after it had been named for Zeus, who doesn't have much of a sense of humor. Anyway, it was a good place to set the flag. The top boulder was twenty feet tall and really hard to climb, so the flag was clearly visible, like the rules said it had to be, and it didn't matter that the guards weren't allowed to stand within ten yards of it.

 I set Nico on guard duty with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers, figuring he'd be safely out of the way.

 "We'll send out a decoy to the left," Thalia told the team. "Silena, you lead that."

 "Got it!"

 "Take Laurel and Jason. They're good runners. Make a wide arc around the Hunters, attract as many as you can. I'll take the main raiding party around to the right and catch them by surprise."

 Everybody nodded. It sounded good, and Thalia said it with such confidence you couldn't help but believe it would work.

 Thalia looked at me. "Anything to add, Percy?"

 "Um, yeah. Keep sharp on defense. We've got four guards, two scouts. That's not much for a big forest. I'll be roving. Yell if you need help."

 "And don't leave your post!" Thalia said.

 "Unless you see a golden opportunity," I added.

 Thalia scowled. "Just don't leave your post."

 "Right, unless—"

 "Percy!" She touched my arm and shocked me. I mean, everybody can give static shocks in the winter, but when Thalia does, it hurts. I guess it's because her dad is the god of lightning. She's been known to fry off people's eyebrows.

 "Sorry," Thalia said, though she didn't sound particularly sorry. "Now, is everybody clear?"

 Everybody nodded. We broke into our smaller groups. The horn sounded, and the game began. Silena's group disappeared into the woods on the left. Thalia's group gave it a few seconds, then darted off toward the right.

 I waited for something to happen. I climbed Zeus's Fist and had a good view over the forest. I remembered how the Hunters had stormed out of the woods when they fought the manticore, and I was prepared for something like that—one huge charge that could overwhelm us. But nothing happened.

 I caught a glimpse of Silena and her two scouts. They ran through a clearing, followed by five of the Hunters, leading them deep into the woods and away from Thalia. The plan seemed to be working. Then I spotted another clump of Hunters heading to the right, bows ready. They must've spotted Thalia.

 "What's happening?" Nico demanded, trying to climb up next to me.

 My mind was racing. Thalia would never get through, but the Hunters were divided. With that many on either flank, their center had to be wide open. If I moved fast…

 I looked at Beckendorf. "Can you guys hold the fort?"

 Beckendorf snorted. "Of course."

 "I'm going in.

 The Stoll brothers and Nico cheered as I raced toward the boundary line.

 I was running at top speed, and I felt great. I leaped over the creek into enemy territory. I could see their silver flag up ahead, only one guard, who wasn't even looking in my direction. I heard fighting to my left and right, somewhere in the woods. I had it made.

 The guard turned at the last minute. It was Bianca di Angelo. Her eyes widened as I slammed into her, and she went sprawling in the snow.

 "Sorry!" I yelled. I ripped down the silver silk flag from the tree and took off.

 I was ten yards away before Bianca managed to yell for help. I thought I was home free.

 ZIP. A silvery cord raced across my ankles and fastened to the tree next to me. A trip wire, fired from a bow! Before I could even think about stopping, I went down hard, sprawling in the snow.

 "Percy!" Thalia yelled, off to my left. "What are you doing?"

 Before she reached me, an arrow exploded at her feet and a cloud of yellow smoke billowed around her team. They started coughing and gagging. I could smell the gas from across the woods—the horrible smell of sulfur.

 "No fair!" Thalia gasped. "Fart arrows are unsportsmanlike!"

 I got up and started running again. Only a few more yards to the creek and I had the game. More arrows whizzed past my ears. A Hunter came out of nowhere and slashed at me with her knife, but I parried and kept running.

 I heard yelling from our side of the creek. Beckendorf and Nico were running toward me. I thought they were coming to welcome me back, but then I saw they were chasing someone—Zoë Nightshade, racing toward me like a cheetah, dodging campers with no trouble. And she had our flag in her hands.

 "No!" I yelled and poured on the speed.

 I was two feet from the water when Zoë bolted across to her own side, slamming into me for good measure. The Hunters cheered as both sides converged on the creek. Chiron appeared out of the woods, looking grim. He had the Stoll brothers on his back, and it looked as if both of them had taken some nasty whacks to the head. Connor Stoll had two arrows sticking out of his helmet like antennae.

 "The Hunters win!" Chiron announced without pleasure. Then he muttered, "For the fifty-sixth time in a row."

 "Perseus Jackson!" Thalia yelled, storming toward me. She smelled like rotten eggs, and she was so mad that blue sparks flickered on her armor. Everybody cringed and backed up because of Aegis. It took all my willpower not to cower.

 "What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?" she bellowed.

 I balled my fists. I'd had enough bad stuff happen to me for one day. I didn't need this. "I got the flag, Thalia!" I shook it in her face. "I saw a chance and I took it!"

 "I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone. If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."

 "You had too many on you!"

 "Oh, so it's my fault?"

 "I didn't say that."

 "Argh!" Thalia pushed me, and a shock went through my body that blew me backward ten feet into the water. Some of the campers gasped. A couple of the Hunters stifled laughs.

 "Sorry!" Thalia said, turning pale. "I didn't mean to—"

 Anger roared in my ears. A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe.

 I stood up. "Yeah," I growled. "I didn't mean to, either."

 Thalia was breathing heavily.

 "Enough!" Chiron ordered.

 But Thalia held out her spear. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?"

 Somehow, it was okay when Annabeth called me that—at least, I'd gotten used to it—but hearing it from Thalia was not cool.

 "Bring it on, Pinecone Face!"

 I raised Riptide, but before I could even defend myself, Thalia yelled, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod, and slammed into my chest.

 I sat down hard. There was a burning smell; I had a feeling it was my clothes.

 "Thalia!" Chiron said. "That is enough!"

 I got to my feet and willed the entire creek to rise. It swirled up, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud.

 "Percy!" Chiron pleaded.

 I was about to hurl it at Thalia when I saw something in the woods. I lost my anger and my concentration all at once. The water splashed back into the creek bed. Thalia was so surprised she turned to see what I was looking at.

 Someone… something was approaching. It was shrouded in a murky green mist, but as it got closer, the campers and Hunters gasped.

 "This is impossible," Chiron said. I'd never heard him sound so nervous. "It… she has never left the attic. Never."

 And yet, the withered mummy that held the Oracle shuffled forward until she stood in the center of the group. Mist curled around our feet, turning the snow a sickly shade of green.

 None of us dared move. Then her voice hissed inside my head. Apparently, everyone could hear it, because several clutched their hands over the ears.

 I am the spirit of Delphi, the voice said. Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.

 The Oracle regarded me with its cold, dead eyes. Then she turned unmistakably toward Zoë Nightshade. Approach, Seeker, and ask.

 Zoë swallowed. "What must I do to help my goddess?"

 The Oracle's mouth opened, and green mist poured out. I saw the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain. The Oracle spoke:

 Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

 One shall be lost in the land without rain,

 The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

 Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

 The Titan's curse must one withstand,

 And one shall perish by a parent's hand.

 Then, as we were watching, the mist swirled and retreated like a great green serpent into the mummy's mouth. The Oracle sat down on a rock and became as still as she'd been in the attic, as if she might sit by this creek for a hundred years.