I was sitting in the Big House with Beckendorf, staring hopelessly out the window. Chiron had summoned me and I had a bad feeling what this was about.
"Annabeth? Did you get Beckendorf?" he asked as he came into the room. He seemed in a sorrowful mood when he saw Beckendorf flopped across the folding chair on the other side of the ping pong table. "Ah, I can see you did."
Beckendorf suddenly sat up straight. "Is it time?"
Chiron looked at him with sad, knowing eyes. It occurred to me that Chiron knew something that Beckendorf didn't. Maybe he consulted the Oracle or something, because he was looking at Beckondorf as if it was the last time he was ever going to see him.
"I'm afraid it is. You'll have to leave within the hour to go pick up Percy before the Princess Andromeda gets out of the Long Island Sound." Chiron cantered over and patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sure you'll prove yourself well, Beckendorf."
As soon as Chiron said Percy's name, I perked up. All the memories came rushing to my head. The first day he had come to camp when I nursed him back to health after the minotaur attack, the night we had shared a dance when we were on top Mount Olympus, and most of all, when I kissed him as he went into an exploding volcano. But Seaweed Brain and I were just friends. I had only kissed him because I wasn't sure he was going to make it out alive, I thought to myself. I knew it wasn't true.
"Thanks, Chiron. I'm already packed so I think I'll go say goodbye to Silena. And don't worry. I won't let you down." Beckendorf didn't seem to notice the somber mood in the room. He was bright, happy, and confident. He was finally getting the chance to prove himself.
He practically skipped out the door and started running for the Aphrodite cabin to say farewell to Silena. She and Beckendorf had been dating since last summer and he had been the happiest that summer in all six years I've known him.
Once Beckondorf had left, I approached the worried centaur intending to get answers.
"Chiron, what are you not telling me. You know something about his future, don't you?"
Chiron stood very still and gave no sign that he had heard me. It looked like he was in some kind of flashback or something. It was freaking me out.
"The future is not for me to say, Annabeth. I can only train heroes to the best of my ability, and hope that they will someday take something out of it." He took another long pause. I waited patiently for the answer, but being patient wasn't what I was the best at.
After what seemed a long and awkward silence, Chiron looked down at me. "Yes, I do know something of a disaster that is about to happen. The Oracle gave me a prophecy inferring that a demi-god will perish along with the ship."
The first thought that came to my mind was Percy. He and Beckendorf were embarking on a quest to explode the Princess Andromeda. There were only two of them, meaning that there was a fifty percent chance that Percy would be dead. I didn't want either to die. Percy was my best friend and I couldn't let that happen.
"Chiron! You know that this quest will result in the death of a camper and you won't stop it?!" I was so mad. Chiron was like a father to me and he was letting me down, big time. "How can you do this!"
"It brings me great pain, Annabeth. But I have to let their fates progress as they're supposed to."
I started to run after Beckendorf, but Chiron ordered Argus to stop me. I couldn't get through, but I had to do something. I poked one of Argus' many eyes, and when he flinched from the pain, I seized the moment and flew through the trees that surrounded the Big House. Argus tried to follow me, but I pulled on my Yankee's baseball cap and turned invisible. I picked up a rock and through it way into the woods. Argus heard the sound and thought it was me. He took off into the woods leaving me with a straight path to the cabins.
Running through crowds of demi-gods without letting them know you're there is not an easy path. See, they all have ADHD, meaning if even the slightest thing goes wrong, they get distracted are suddenly obsessed with finding out what it is. I had to be extra careful.
As I neared the Aphrodite cabin one of Silena's half-sister, Allie, was walking out of it. I took off my Yankee's hat and rushed at her, accidentally knocking her down in the process.
"OMG! I just had my hair perfect and now you've ruined it!" she whined in her girly voice.
I ignored her. "Where's Silena?"
Allie glared at me. "She's at the stables saying goodbye to Beckendorf. You shouldn't-"
I never let her finish her sentence because I was running for the stables. I put my cap back on incase Argus had realized I wasn't really in the woods. I closed the distance between the cabins and the stables by taking a shortcut over the top of one of the many hills at camp. But when I staggered over the top of the hill, I saw that I was too late.
Beckendorf was riding on Blackjack already far in the distance, who was quickly pulling away into the sunrise.
