Hanora Maeve Xanthus and the Titian's curse

At the edge of the dump, we found a tow truck so old it might've been thrown away itself. But the engine started, and it had a full tank of gas, so we decided to borrow it.

 Thalia drove. She didn't seem as stunned as the rest of us.

 "The skeletons are still out there," she reminded us. "We need to keep moving."

 She navigated us through the desert, under clear blue skies, the sand so bright it hurt to look at. Zoë sat up front with Thalia. Grover, Percy, and I sat in the pickup bed, leaning against the tow wench. The air was cool and dry, but the nice weather just seemed like an insult after losing Bianca.

My arms started to itch so bad it almost felt like they were getting burned all over again, I rubbed slow circles into them to at least try to lessen the pain as I stared off into the distance. I told Nico that quests are never kind to demigods, that your life is never guaranteed but part of me really hoped that we’d all come back in one piece. Prophecy be damned. I mean that creepy purple mist that spewed out of the titaness Phoebe seemed to think that there was a child who was hidden from fate somewhere, and boy did we need them right about now, because these prophecies that Delphi has been turning out based on her early access subscription to the fates was garbage. I was about to start petitioning for a rewrite.

What was I going to tell Nico? ‘Hey well we tried our best, oh she died a hero, she was a real cool girl?’ Yeah, cause that was going to go over well. I had been in his shoes, the only sibling left standing. They were heroes, true roman warriors, don’t worry child they will be rewarded in the underworld as the heroes they were in life. For anyone wondering, no, those consolations do absolutely nothing for your grief fueled rage, speaking from experience.

I was still spiraling when Percy cut through the silence.

"It should've been me," he said. "I should've gone into the giant."

I nearly vomited at the thought.

 "Don't say that!" Grover panicked. "It's bad enough Annabeth is gone, and now Bianca. Do you think I could stand it if…"He sniffled. "Do you think anybody else would be my best friend?"

 "Ah, Grover…"

 He wiped under his eyes with an oily cloth that left his face grimy, like he had on war paint. "I'm… I'm okay."

“Sea, if you ever say something that stupid again, I’m going to knock you into next Tuesday,” I warned glaring at him.

Grover was too emotionally and probably physically fragile from all of that weirdness in New Mexico, and Percy was beginning his own descent into a spiral of self-blame. Percy was trying to pull himself back together after eyeing Grover on his other side, but he still looked like a kicked puppy. I pulled his head into my shoulder and wrapped my arm around his shoulders with my fingers rubbing circles into his scalp. With my other hand I yanked Grover closer in on Percy’s other side effectively creating a Percy-sandwich group hug. We had to pull it together, Annabeth was still in trouble, Artemis was holding the sky, terrible undead jerks were after us, Luke was gaining more support against us, we had titan’s planning our demise, and now we had a second prophecy to worry about. Unfortunately, we had no time to mourn.

I hoped Thalia was having an easier time of keeping Zoë from jumping off the ledge than I was having with the boys. Being the adult was not what I signed up for.

The tow truck ran out of gas at the edge of a river canyon. That was just as well, because the road was dead ended.

 Thalia got out and slammed the door. Immediately, one of the tires blew. "Great. What now?"

 I scanned the horizon. There wasn't much to see. Desert in all directions, occasional clumps of barren mountains plopped here and there. The canyon was the only thing interesting. The river itself wasn't very big, maybe fifty yards across, green water with a few rapids, but it carved a huge scar out of the desert. The rock cliffs dropped away below us.

 "There's a path," Grover said. "We could get to the river."

 I tried to see what he was talking about and finally noticed a tiny ledge winding down the cliff face.

"That's a goat path," Percy said.

 "So?" he asked.

 "Do the rest of us look like goats to you?" I quipped.

 "We can make it," Grover said. "I think."

 I thought about that. I'd done cliffs before, they were pretty easy for me, but Percy had nearly fallen off the cliff side several times last summer when we had climbed up to a very hungry Cyclops’s lair. Then I looked over at Thalia and saw how pale she'd gotten, which was a little weird, but I didn’t have time to think about her reaction. 

 "No," Percy said. "I, uh, think we should go farther upstream."

 Grover said, "But—"

 "Come on," he said. "A walk won't hurt us."

 I glanced between him and Thalia; she seemed to be grateful for the diversion. I wondered what could have freaked her out so much about the trail, tight spaces? Treacherously steep? Heights? Well, probably not heights I mean her father is the lord of the skies, being afraid of heights would be hilariously ironic.

 We followed the river about half a mile before coming to an easier slope that led down to the water. On the shore was a canoe rental operation that was closed for the season, but Percy left a stack of golden drachmas on the counter and a note saying IOU two canoes.

 "We need to go upstream," Zoë said. It was the first time I'd heard her speak since the junkyard, and I was worried about how bad she sounded, like somebody with the flu. "The rapids are too swift."

 "Leave that to me," Percy said. We put the canoes in the water.

 Thalia pulled him aside as we were getting the oars. They had a rushed whispered conversation before Percy seemed to begrudgingly agree to something. Zoë and I fixed up our canoe by the time they walked back over to us. Thalia turned and helped Grover get their canoe into the water. Percy made his move to jump into the canoe with Zoë leaving me the odd man out. Which was typical. Before I could ask which one I should hop in Zoë practically dragged me to Her’s, apparently, she did not love the idea of being left alone with a boy. Not that I was going to argue about sticking closer to Percy, just don’t tell him I said that.

 As soon as we got in the river, I looked over the edge of the boat and found a couple of naiads staring at me.

 They looked like regular teenage girls, the kind you'd see in any mall, except for the fact that they were underwater.

 They made a bubbling sound that may have been giggling as they made eye contact with Percy. I had the sudden urge to smack them in the foreheads with my oars, but I restrained myself. Percy moved his arm around like he was speaking to them even though his mouth wasn’t even moving. 

 Before he could finish whatever, he was doing, the naiads each chose a canoe and began pushing us up the river. We started so fast Grover fell into his canoe with his hooves sticking up in the air.

 "I hate naiads," Zoë grumbled.

 A stream of water squirted up from the back of the boat and hit Zoë in the face.

 "She-devils!" Zoë went for her bow.

 "Whoa," Percy said. "They're just playing."

 "Cursed water spirits. They've never forgiven me."

 "Forgiven you for what?"

 She slung her bow back over her shoulder. "It was a long time ago. Never mind."

 We sped up the river, the cliffs looming up on either side of us. I was sitting at the back of the canoe with Zoë upfront and Percy in between us. I felt like He was reeving up to say something, it reminded me of our time on the Queen Ann’s revenge last summer. So I pointedly kept my eyes on the horizon and let Percy do what he does best, annoy people until they give up their deep dark secrets.

 "What happened to Bianca wasn't your fault," he told her. "It was my fault. I let her go."

He flinched like he was expecting her to blow up at him, but instead her shoulders slumped. "No, Percy. I pushed her into going on the quest. I was too anxious. She was a powerful half-blood. She had a kind heart, as well. I… I thought she would be the next lieutenant."

 "But you're the lieutenant."

 She gripped the strap of her quiver. She looked more tired than I'd ever seen her. "Nothing can last forever, Percy. Over two thousand years I have led the Hunt, and my wisdom has not improved. Now Artemis herself is in danger."

 "Look, you can't blame yourself for that."

 "If I had insisted on going with her—"

 "You think you could've fought something powerful enough to kidnap Artemis? There's nothing you could have done."

 Zoë didn't answer.

 The cliffs along the river were getting taller. Long shadows fell across the water, making it a lot colder, even though the day was bright.

 He absentmindedly took Riptide out of his pocket. Zoë looked at the pen, and her expression was pained. I realized what he was going to ask, and oh boy was I ready for a lore drop.

 "You made this," Percy said.

 "Who told thee?"

 "I had a dream about it."

 She studied him and sighed. "It was a gift. And a mistake."

 "Who was the hero?" he asked.

Gods, I know I had called him relentless before, but at that moment he was really just proving my point. He was a dog with a bone, and for once he wasn’t focused on me so I could actually appreciate his skill in that regard. 

 Zoë shook her head. "Do not make me say his name. I swore never to speak it again."

 "You act like I should know him."

 "I am sure you do, hero. Don't all you boys want to be just like him?"

I knew the story she was referring to; it was one taught often along with the ‘hero’s’ many other deeds. My eldest brother, Emeric, had been obsessed with all heroes of old but Heracles or where we were from, he had been referred to as Hercules, was his favorite. I didn’t see the appeal other than feeling a bit bad about the whole Hera situation, I was never a very big fan of her and that distaste has only grown since. I have found that with my increasingly vast knowledge of all Greco-Roman myths that I detested most of the people in them more and more.

 Zoë’s voice echoed my own bitterness, but Her’s was a sound so full of pain. It reminded me of Luke when we used to talk about the gods, I had to shake the thought from my head.

 "Your mother was a water goddess?" He asked.

 "Yes, Pleione. She had five daughters. My sisters and I. The Hesperides."

 "Those were the girls who lived in a garden at the edge of the West. With the golden apple tree and a dragon guarding it."

 "Yes," Zoë said wistfully. "Ladon."

 "But weren't there only four sisters?"

 "There are now. I was exiled. Forgotten. Blotted out as if I never existed."

 "Why?"

 Zoë pointed to his pen. "Because I betrayed my family and helped a hero. You won't find that in the legend either. He never spoke of me. After his direct assault on Ladon failed, I gave him the idea of how to steal the apples, how to trick my father, but he took all the credit."

 "But—"

The canoe was slowing down.

 I looked ahead, and I saw why. This was as far as the naiads could take us. The river was blocked. A dam the size of a football stadium stood in our path.

 "Hoover Dam," Thalia said. "It's huge."

 We stood at the river's edge, looking up at a curve of concrete that loomed between the cliffs. People were walking along the top of the dam. They were so tiny they looked like fleas.

 The naiads had left with a lot of grumbling, but it was obvious they hated this dam blocking up their nice river. Our canoes floated back downstream, swirling in the wake from the dam's discharge vents.

 "Seven hundred feet tall," Percy said. "Built in the 1930s."

 "Five million cubic acres of water," Thalia said.

 Graver sighed. "Largest construction project in the United States."

“About 1,244 feet tall to be exact,” I added.

 Zoë stared at us. "How do you know all that?"

 "Annabeth," Percy said. "She liked architecture."

 "She was nuts about monuments," Thalia said.

 "Spouted facts all the time." Grover sniffled. "So annoying."

 "I wish she were here, gods she’d be losing her mind right now," I said.

 The others nodded. Zoë was still looking at us strangely, but I didn't care. It seemed like cruel fate that we'd come to Hoover Dam, one of Annabeth's personal favorites, and she wasn't here to see it.

 "We should go up there," Percy said. "For her sake. Just to say we've been."

 "You are mad," Zoë decided. "But that's where the road is." She pointed to a huge parking garage next to the top of the dam. "And so, sightseeing it is."

 We had to walk for almost an hour before we found a path that led up to the road. It came up on the east side of the river. Then we straggled back toward the dam. It was cold and windy on top. On one side, a big lake spread out, ringed by barren desert mountains. On the other side, the dam dropped away like the world's most dangerous skateboard ramp, down to the river seven hundred feet below, and water that churned from the dam's vents.

 Thalia walked in the middle of the road, far away from the edges. Grover kept sniffing the wind and looking nervous. He didn't say anything, but I knew he smelled monsters.

 "How close are they?" Percy asked from the other side of him.

 He shook his head. "Maybe not close. The wind on the dam, the desert all around us… the scent can probably carry for miles. But it's coming from several directions. I don't like that."

“Keep on guard then, we don’t want to be caught by surprise… again,” I warned. The both of them nodded in understanding, an edge of paranoia in their eyes. 

 It was already Wednesday, only two days until winter solstice, and we still had a long way to go. Personally, I did not like our odds.

 "There's a snack bar in the visitor center," Thalia said.

 "You've been here before?" Percy asked.

 "Once. To see the guardians. "She pointed to the far end of the dam. Carved into the side of the cliff was a little plaza with two big bronze statues. They looked kind of like Oscar statues with wings.

 "They were dedicated to Zeus when the dam was built," Thalia said. "A gift from Athena."

 Tourists were clustered all around them. They seemed to be looking at the statues' feet.

 "What are they doing?" he asked.

 "Rubbing the toes," Thalia said. "They think it's good luck."

 "Why?" We both asked, I couldn’t help the confused judgment from leaking into my voice.

 She shook her head. "Mortals get crazy ideas. They don't know the statues are sacred to Zeus, but they know there's something special about them."

 "When you were here last, did they talk to you or anything?" Percy asked.

 Thalia's expression darkened. I could tell that she'd come here before hoping for exactly that—some kind of sign from her dad. Some connection.  "No. They don't do anything. They're just big metal statues."

That was a big thing with being children of the gods, they were terrible deadbeats. You could go your whole life not getting even the smallest hint that your parent even knew you existed, let alone if they cared at all. I mean many of us don’t even get claimed (Like yours truly), so her being ignored last time she was here was not surprising, but it was still a little sad regardless.

 "Let us find the dam snack bar," Zoë announced. "We should eat while we can."

 Grover cracked a smile. "The dam snack bar?"

 Zoë blinked. "Yes. What is funny?"

 "Nothing," Grover said, trying to keep a straight face. "I could use some dam French fries."

 Even Thalia smiled at that. "And I need to use the dam restroom."

 Maybe it was the fact that we were so tired and strung out emotionally, but Percy and I started cracking up, and Thalia and Grover joined in, while Zoë just looked at us. "I do not understand."

 "I want to use the dam water fountain," Grover said.

“I- I want to look in the dam gift shop,” I said through a fit of giggles.

 "And…" Thalia tried to catch her breath. "I want to buy a dam T-shirt."

 Percy busted up, and we probably would've kept laughing all day, but then I heard a voice: Help.

 The smile melted off my face. I wondered if the voice was just in my head, but Grover and Percy had stopped laughing too. Grover was looking around, confused. "Did I just hear a cow?"

 "A dam cow?" Thalia laughed.

 "No," Grover said. "I'm serious."

 Zoë listened. "I hear nothing."

“No? I mean maybe it was just the wind?” I said trying to convince myself as much as the others, especially since I hadn’t heard a cow at all.

 Thalia was looking at Percy. "Percy, are you okay?"

 "Yeah," he said. "You guys go ahead. I'll be right in."

 "What's wrong?" Grover asked.

 "Nothing," he said. "I… I just need a minute. To think."

 We hesitated, but he looked so upset that he was almost pale, so we all started heading into the visitor center without him. 

As soon as the doors closed, I turned on my heels and went back outside to the edge of the dam where Percy had run off to. If I had to spill all of my secrets whenever he batted those baby greens at me then I dam well deserved answers of my own when he decided to be all weird.

I jogged over to the north edge of the dam and stalked up behind Percy who was looking over the edge into the water below.

 "What are you doing here?" Percy whisper-yelled off the edge.

 Danger

 The voice from below said urgently.

 "How did you get here?"  He asked. 

I popped up next to him causing him to jump like a frightened cat. Below us a cow swam in a circle and butted their head against the side of the dam. But aside from the whole swimming cow thing the craziest part was that the bottom half of the creature was a serpent's tail.

 Hurry, we must flee from this place!

 “Percy, why am I looking at a talking aquatic cow?”

He blinked at me, “Bessie isn’t talking…well other than her moos.”

I looked between the two of them, “Bessie? You know what never mind, did you seriously not just hear her yelling at us to flee?”

He shook his head a little bewildered,” No well I guessed she wanted me to leave but it was weird I saved her a while ago back in New York, but I couldn’t understand her like the other sea creatures I had met.”

I leaned on the railing and threw my head into my hands. “Great, now I have cow translator to add to this weird ass list of abilities. What's next? Can I shape shift? Teleport? Gods, I am getting too old for this.”

“I mean you have the whole thread thing and like healing but also taking pain or is it giving strength? But they are all kind of tied together, right? For me most of my things are water related besides the talking to horses bit, so maybe this is your horse thing. Who created cows?”

I shook my head.” I don’t know Percy, Apollo created them but unfortunately cows are a sacred animal of Hera,” I paused to fake gag.” But I’m not sure that means anything since Ember was chatting with me the whole flight to DC.”

His eyes nearly popped out of his skull,” you can understand horses too?!”

“I guess, but it's new because I most definitely could not do that before. Sea, I’m getting tired of this. All of these disjointed abilities and constant mortal peril coupled with prophecy on top of prophecy. I think we need a vacation.”

He nodded as we both looked down at his seafaring friend Bessie.

 She looked at us with her sad brown eyes. They are coming, be careful my lady, they want a child of power.

Then she did a flip and disappeared into the water.

I felt eyes on me and then a chill ran down my spine. I looked down the dam road to the east and I saw two men walking slowly toward us. They wore gray camouflage outfits that flickered over skeletal bodies.

 They passed through a group of kids and pushed them aside. A kid yelled, "Hey!" One of the warriors turned, his face changing momentarily into a skull.

 "Ah!" the kid yelled, and his whole group backed away.

I grabbed Percy’s arm, “I think we should listen to Bessie.”

He looked at me confused, clearly, he had not seen our skeletal pursuers yet.

“We should get the Hades out of dodge.”

 I ran for the visitor center dragging Percy behind me who was busy staring at the men behind us.

 I was almost to the stairs when I heard tires squeal. On the west side of the dam, a black van swerved to a stop in the middle of the road, nearly plowing into some old people.

 The van doors opened, and more skeleton warriors piled out. We were surrounded.

 I bolted down the stairs and through the museum entrance. The security guard at the metal detector yelled, "Hey, kid!" But I didn't stop and neither did Percy.

 We ran through the exhibits and ducked behind a tour group. We looked for our friends, but I couldn't see them anywhere. Where was the dam snack bar?

 "Stop! "The metal-detector guy yelled.

I saw a side hallway and ducked in, sliding behind a trolley full of cleaning supplies. I listened to the sound of stomping feet and then that of the clattering that was unmistakable the sound of the camo clad jerks. They echoed down the hall and then disappeared.

“That was a close one, we really need to go get the oth-” I turned to the very empty space next to me and my brain came to a screeching halt. I peeked out of my hiding place to see two sets of elevators, both of which were heading down.

That idiot turned the wrong way! The only thing down there were the dam’s turbines and electrical machinery. It was like he never listened to Annabeth’s ramblings at all! Oh, he was going to get a good reaming when I was through with him, but I couldn’t get to him. Not alone anyway. Our pursuers were after Percy’s sent specifically so that meant the others were still peacefully enjoying the snack bar while Percy was down below having his Scooby doo chase sequence moment.

Unfortunately, my best course of action was to find the others and then we would all go to track him down. I just had to have faith in Percy’s ability to accidentally survive the most heinous of situations on his own.

Reluctantly I popped my glasses on top of my head and followed Thalia and Grover’s threads, ignoring Percy’s which was doing a particularly erratic jig to get my attention. Which was not a great sign about his chance of surviving.

 ***

 The cafe was packed with kids enjoying the best part of the tour—the dam lunch. Thalia, Zoë, and Grover were just sitting down with their food.

“Danger,” I gasped, “Percy, big skellies not very friendly, downstairs, so- so stupid.”  

“Percy what!?” Grover yelled standing up.

“But we just got our burritos!" Thalia said.

 Zoë stood up, muttering an Ancient Greek curse. "She's right! Look."

 The cafe windows wrapped all the way around the observation floor, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the skeletal army that had come to kill us.

 I counted two on the east side of the dam road, blocking the way to Arizona. Three more on the west side, guarding Nevada.  All of them were armed with batons and pistols.

I caught a quick glimpse of Percy’s blue thread now hovering by the staircase. Good That meant he was close, but also bad because he would definitely be adding more skellies to the party.

“Anyone have any brilliant ideas?” I asked 

No one spoke up, but thankfully in the time it took us to assess our undead problem our very alive companion came bounding up the staircase thankfully in one piece. He almost barreled right into me.

“We need to run.” He gasped out.

“Yeah, we kind of got that, but it's pretty hard to run when we are surrounded.” I said helping him stand up.

 Just then three skeletal warriors who'd probably been chasing Percy in the turbine room now appeared on the stairs. They saw us from across the cafeteria and clattered their teeth.

 "Elevator!" Grover said. We bolted that direction, but the doors opened with a pleasant ding, and three more warriors stepped out. Every warrior was accounted for, minus the one Bianca had blasted to flames in New Mexico. We were completely and utterly surrounded.

 Then Grover had a brilliant, totally Grover-like idea, which meant it was bat shit insane.

 "Burrito fight!" he yelled and flung his Guacamole Grande at the nearest skeleton.

 Now, if you have never been hit by a flying burrito, count yourself lucky. In terms of deadly projectiles, it's right up there with grenades and cannonballs. Grover's lunch hit the skeleton and knocked his skull clean off his shoulders. I'm not sure what the other kids in the cafe saw, but they went crazy and started throwing their burritos and baskets of chips and sodas at each other, shrieking and screaming.

 The skeletons tried to aim their guns, but it was hopeless. Bodies and food and drinks were flying everywhere. In the chaos, Thalia and Percy tackled the other two skeletons on the stairs and sent them flying into the condiment table. And I grabbed another advancing skeleton and swung him into his compatriots coming from the elevator. It was like nailing a perfect strike at the bowling alley, at least I think that's what it would be like based on what I had seen in the movies. Being a year-round camper means you don’t really get out much, and when you do its for things like this. Very deadly quests.

 We all turned and raced downstairs, Guacamole Grandes whizzing past our heads.

 "What now?" Grover asked as we burst outside.

 I didn't have an answer. The warriors on the road were closing in from either direction. We ran across the street to the pavilion with the winged bronze statues, but that just put our backs to the mountain.

 The skeletons moved forward, forming a crescent around us. Their brethren from the cafe were running up to join them. One was still putting its skull back on its shoulders. Another was covered in ketchup and mustard. Two more had burritos lodged in their rib cages. They didn't look happy about it. They drew batons and advanced.

 "Five against eleven," Zoë muttered. "And they cannot die."

“Sounds like winning odds to me,” I quipped as I pulled out my blade.

 "It's been nice adventuring with you guys," Grover said, his voice trembling.

 Something shiny caught the corner of my eye. I glanced behind me at the statue's feet, Percy was already staring at them when I turned. "Whoa," he said. "Their toes really are bright."

 "Percy!" Thalia said. "This isn't the time."

 I followed his gaze to see the two giant bronze guys with tall, bladed wings like letter openers. They were weathered brown except for their toes, which shone like new pennies from all the times people had rubbed them for good luck.

 Good luck. The blessing of Zeus.

 "Thalia," he said. "Pray to your dad."

 She glared at him. "He never answers."

 "Just this once," Percy pleaded. "Ask for help. I think… I think the statues can give us some luck."

 Six skeletons raised their guns. The other five came forward with batons. Fifty feet away. Forty feet.

 "Do it!" He yelled.

 "No!" Thalia said. "He won't answer me."

 "This time is different!"

 "Who says?"

 He hesitated. "Athena, I think."

 Thalia scowled like she was sure he'd gone crazy. And I couldn’t blame her. But Annabeth was in trouble and based on everything I had seen in the past couple of years it was obvious that Athena had a soft spot for her.

 "Try it," Grover pleaded.

 Thalia closed her eyes. Her lips moved in a silent prayer. 

 And nothing happened.

 The skeletons closed in. I raised Aigéan with Percy beside me wielding riptide. Thalia held up her shield. Zoë pushed Grover behind her and aimed an arrow at a skeleton's head.

 A shadow fell over us, I looked down to see that it was the shadow of an enormous wing. The skeletons looked up too late. A flash of bronze, and all five of the baton-wielders were swept aside.

 The other skeletons opened fire. Percy raised his lion coat for protection blocking the both of us, but we didn't need it. The bronze angels stepped in front of us and folded their wings like shields. Bullets pinged off of them like rain off a corrugated roof. Both angels slashed outward, and the skeletons went flying across the road.

 "Man, it feels good to stand up!" the first angel said. His voice sounded tinny and rusty, like he hadn't had a drink since he'd been built.

 "Will ya look at my toes?" the other said. "Holy Zeus, what were those tourists thinking?" They were a stunning feet of mechanical engineering but I shook my head to refocus myself on the current problem. A few of the skeletons were getting up again, reassembling, bony hands groping for their weapons.

 "Trouble!" Percy said.

 "Get us out of here!" Thalia yelled.

 Both angels looked down at her. "Zeus's kid?"  

“Yes!”

 "Could I get a please, Miss Zeus's Kid?" an angel asked.

 "Please!"

 The angels looked at each other and shrugged.

 "Could use a stretch," one decided.

 And the next thing I knew, one of them grabbed Thalia, Percy and me, the other grabbed Zoë and Grover, and we flew straight up, over the dam and the river, the skeleton warriors shrinking to tiny specks below us and the sound of gunfire echoing off the sides of the mountains.