The Age Of Heroes

Chapter 3: Help From Friends

Percy reached for the newspaper clipping and took it from my hand. There was silence as he read it over slowly, and then he put one hand on my shoulder. "Nico..." He sounded hesitant, like he didn't know what to say. I didn't really blame him. I didn't know what to say, either. Finally, he said, "You're going to go, aren't you?"

It was Thursday. That meant the service for my mother was only three days away. I nodded. "Yeah." I was going to go – how could I not? I mean, sure I couldn't remember my mom at all, and it wasn't like anyone there would know who I was. But part of me felt like I had to go – I owed it to myself as much as I owed it to her. I'd spent a lot of my life being mad at her over leaving us or giving us up or whatever had happened, but I wasn't mad anymore. I just wanted to know the truth. Something in me said it was the right thing to do.

"Are you going to tell Chiron?" Percy asked, but I was sure he already knew the answer to that, too.

"No." I wasn't sure he'd let me go if I told him – in fact, I was pretty sure he wouldn't, given how dangerous it was for half-bloods outside the camp and how critical these next few months were. But I didn't care what he thought, or whether it might be dangerous or stupid. I'd made up my mind – I was going, and Chiron wasn't going to stop me. Besides, all he knew was that Hermes had given me something. He didn't know what it was, and he didn't need to know, either.

"Okay," Percy said, and something about his voice made me turn around and look at him. He was clutching the obituary in one hand and he had a determined look on his face. "Well, we could take a cab into the city and catch a train, but it's probably easier to just ask Blackjack – "

"Wait – we?"

He looked down at me. "Yeah, I'm coming with you." He paused, biting his lip. "That's... that's okay, right?" He squeezed my shoulder. "Unless you want to go alone."

I still felt weirdly blank on the inside, but the fact that Percy wanted to come made me feel a little warmer all the same. I smiled up at him, and nodded. "Yeah. It's okay."

He handed the newspaper back to me. "Okay, first thing's first. I'll talk to Blackjack. I'm sure I can get him and a buddy to give us a ride down there. I think it's a pretty long train ride and besides, it's probably safer to take the pegasi."

"Yeah." He was right – too many things could happen to us on a train ride that we weren't supposed to be taking. We could both take care of ourselves just fine, but why risk it? We were going to be in enough trouble as it was when we got back. It was better to play it safe. And it was also convenient that my boyfriend could talk to horses – because that included pegasi, and they were a pretty good form of private transportation for half-bloods. Even if they had never seemed to like me much.

I frowned down at the paper in my hand again. "It doesn't say the address, though. I guess we'll have to look it up."

Percy nodded. "We could ask Annabeth – " He paused when he saw the look on my face – the one that said I didn't think that was a really good idea. The more people that knew about this, the better our chances of getting caught before we could leave. I mean, Annabeth was okay and all, but I didn't know if I really trusted her with something like this. She could be kind of a goody two-shoes sometimes, and usually at the wrong times. But it was clear that Percy trusted her. "Look," he said, "we don't have to tell her what it's for, okay? And even if we did, she wouldn't tell."

I wasn't so sure, but I figured I was going to have to trust him on this one. "I guess so."

"Okay." Percy glanced at his watch. "They're going to miss us if we don't get to javelin practice," he said, but he sounded like he didn't really want to go. He looked back up at me. "We'll talk about this later, okay?"

"Okay." I stuffed the paper back into my pocket and we walked back to camp together.

The rest of the day passed pretty normally – well, as normally as a day can when you started it out by getting into a fight with one of the meanest bullies in camp. The Ares kids seemed to be around every corner, ready to stick out a foot to trip me or shove me in the dirt or anything else they could think of to humiliate me. I knew I couldn't fight back, though, because that would just make things worse. And I didn't want to get in trouble with Chiron – just because he hadn't punished me for the fight this morning didn't mean he wouldn't punish me if I suddenly decided to take on the whole cabin of demented losers. I didn't want to risk it. In the end it wasn't as hard to ignore them as I'd thought, but that was probably because my mind was on the piece of newsprint in my pocket.

After dinner Percy and I skipped the campfire sing-along (yeah, they were still having those, something about keeping morale up even though I didn't see how that really helped) and went back to his cabin to talk.

"Who do you think sent it?" he asked as soon as he'd shut the door.

I pulled the envelope out of my pocket and set it on his bed before I sat down beside it. "I don't know." I'd been thinking about it all day, but I was still at a loss. "I mean, I don't think it was my dad..." We didn't exactly get along. Besides, if he'd wanted me to know who my mother was, he'd had plenty of chances to tell me. Honestly, I was pretty sure he hadn't cared about her at all – and that just made me hate him all that much more.

"Persephone?" Percy suggested. "I mean, she doesn't seem to dislike you so much."

I shrugged. I'd never met her myself, but Percy had. She'd helped him – she'd given him an out so that when he'd died, he couldn't be kept in the Underworld. I guess I really owed her for that. I supposed it was possible that she could have sent me the clipping. But would she do that if she didn't have anything to gain from it? I didn't even know if she'd had anything to gain by helping Percy to get me out of the Underworld, and part of me was still waiting for the other shoe to drop on that. Most gods didn't do anything unless they could get something in return.

And what if this was some kind of trap? "What if it wasn't someone on our side?" I asked, frowning. "I mean... what if it's one of our enemies? What if she's not even my mother?" I had to at least entertain the possibility that this was all a set-up, that the woman in the obituary just happened to have the same last name and that someone was trying to manipulate me. But could I really take that chance? What if she was my mom?

Percy seemed to be thinking pretty much the same thing. "But you still want to go and check it out."

"Yeah." I swallowed. "Just in case." Something in me just couldn't walk away from this, even if it could be a trap.

"So then I guess it doesn't matter either way," Percy said quietly, pushing the envelope aside so he could sit beside me. "We're going, and we'll just have to be prepared for anything."

"Yeah..."

Just then, a knock sounded at the cabin door, followed by Annabeth's voice. "Percy? Is it okay to come in?"

Percy gave me a rueful grin – Annabeth had been pretty careful about checking whether we were decent after she'd practically interrupted us while we were... you know, busy more than once without realizing it.

Percy angled his head toward the door and called back, "Yeah! It's fine, come in."

The door opened and then shut behind Annabeth, who was wearing a denim jacket over her orange Camp Half-Blood shirt. Her New York Yankees cap was threaded through one of the beltloops on her jeans and she had the laptop that had once belonged to Daedelus tucked under one arm. She glanced at the two of us sitting side-by-side, but seemed to figure out pretty quickly that we'd just been talking.

"I didn't see you at the campfire," she said, coming over and sitting on the empty bed across from Percy's. Despite the fact that Percy didn't share the cabin with anyone else (except for his half-brother Tyson, but that was only sometimes), there was still a row of neatly-made beds along the wall. It seemed kind of dumb when I thought about it, especially with how cramped it could get in the Hermes cabin. But I guessed there wasn't anywhere in cabin eleven to put more beds, and the pact between the Big Three gods to not sire any more children (which obviously hadn't gone as planned, anyway) hadn't been until after World War II. That was still pretty recent, to some ways of thinking.

Of course, that made me think about Anna di Angelo and when she would have been born, and that led to wondering when I might have been born, and suddenly I was really glad when Annabeth started talking again and kept me from thinking about it any more.

"How's your face, Nico?" she asked, peering at me to see for herself. "I didn't get to tell you before, but Clarisse shouldn't have said that stuff."

I shrugged, acting noncommittal, but it was kind of nice to know that Annabeth didn't think I'd been out of line. "I'm okay."

She nodded, her eyes slipping past my face to the bedspread. "What's that?" she asked, and reached for the envelope still sitting on the bed. I made a panicked dive for it and managed to snatch it up a second before her fingers touched it.

"Nothing!" I said tightly, and stuffed it into my pocket with a crinkling sound. "Just some mail. My mail," I added. I didn't really want to be rude, but I wanted to her to get the hint. It wasn't any of her business.

"... Oh," she said, blinking as she looked at the spot on the bed where the envelope had been like it had vanished into thin air. "Okay. I wasn't trying to steal it."

Percy shot me a look, and I sighed. "I know – sorry. I've been kinda jumpy today. You understand."

Annabeth's lips thinned into an unhappy line, and she nodded. "You shouldn't let those Ares kids get to you like that. Clarisse was out of line, but you know she's like that."

And here was the lecture again, I thought – the whole, Now, Nico, you're supposed to be mature about these things, and that means you can't go hitting people when you're angry at what they've said to you. It was the same thing Percy had given me, even if he did seem to pretty much have put the whole morning behind us. But I really, really didn't need it from Annabeth, too.

Percy seemed to catch on that I was about to give her a piece of my mind because he said, quickly, "Hey, Annabeth – since you're here, can you check something for us? We need to look up an address."

One golden eyebrow rose. "An address? For what?"

Percy glanced at me first before he turned back to Annabeth. "Nothing, really. But you've got the computer and all." He gestured to the laptop. I wasn't sure how she got internet on that thing, considering the fact that I was pretty sure Camp Half-Blood didn't have a wireless network or anything, but maybe it was special. Maybe Daedelus had installed satellite connectivity or something.

Annabeth looked anything but agreeable – in fact, she looked convinced that we were up to something. "Well, yeah..." She opened the laptop and hit the power button. The screen came to life, casting a glow over her features that made her look pale, almost undead. I resolutely pushed that image out of my mind and glanced at Percy, figuring he should do the talking as Annabeth asked, "So... what did you want to look up?"

"An address," Percy repeated, "in Rockville, Maryland. For Roger Baldwin."

Roger Baldwin, I thought. What a boring, plain old name. If he'd married my mother, did that make him my stepfather? I didn't like the sound of that, but then again, when the god of death is your real father, how bad could any stepfather be?

"Roger Baldwin?" Annabeth repeated the name like she was trying to figure out why we cared about this guy. She glanced at the two of us and then started typing, the screen flickering as she pulled up a search engine. After a minute, she leaned back. "Huh. Yeah, I found him." She paused and looked at us expectantly. "So why do you want to know where he lives?"

"Look, Annabeth, can you just give me the address?" I asked. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Maybe we shouldn't have asked her after all, but it was too late for that now.

She frowned, putting her hands on the top of the screen and leaning forward a little. "Not until I know what you're going to do with it."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not asking for top secret information – you just looked him up in the phone book, right? So it's not like you just hacked into the CIA or anything. It's public knowledge."

Percy bit his lip and looked from me to her. "He's got a point." I caught myself just before my lips curled into a smug little smile. Percy was on my side. I mean, I guess there weren't really sides here, but I was glad he was backing me up nonetheless.

Annabeth didn't look happy about that. She glared at Percy for a minute before she huffed out a sigh and said, "Fine. Roger Baldwin, 6016 Roseland Drive, Maryland, 20852."

"Thank you," I said, and even if I didn't really sound all that grateful, I guessed I was.

Annabeth shut the lid of the computer and leaned forward with her arms crossed, scrutinizing the two of us now. "I only told you because it was publicly available. So what are you going to do with the address? You want to write him back?" Now she was looking at my pocket, where I'd stuffed the letter.

"No," I said honestly. I was pretty sure it hadn't been Roger Baldwin who'd sent me the obituary. It was a fair bet that he didn't even know I existed. And I wasn't going to write him and find out – I wanted to see him. And my mother, or at least her body. I felt weird when I thought about it, like shouldn't I have known when she died? Sure, I usually block out the way death feels, but if my mother had died, shouldn't I have noticed it?

Then again, I didn't know when Bianca had died, either. I'd had nightmares, but I hadn't really understood what they meant until that night when Percy had pulled me aside and given me that figurine of Hades and told me that my sister was dead.

Now Annabeth looked even more worried. So much for honesty being the best policy. "You're going to go there," she said suddenly, like she'd solved the puzzle and even if we told her we weren't, she wasn't going to believe it. "You're going to sneak out of camp, and I just helped you! Great!"

"Annabeth!" Percy said, catching her arm as she pushed herself off the bed like she was going to get up and tell on us. I narrowed my eyes – if she was going to tell Chiron then she was going down for aiding and abetting, or something. "Look," Percy went on, "we really appreciate your help. But this is private business," he glanced over at me, "okay?"

Annabeth still wasn't buying it. "Private how?" She put her hands on her hips with the laptop tucked back under one of them. "Do you really expect me to just help you sneak out of camp when –"

"You did last time," Percy said quietly, and something about the way his voice sounded hit me in the stomach like a sledgehammer. He'd told me that Annabeth had helped him when he left camp to get me back, but I had to admit I hadn't really given it much thought. Annabeth had supported him then, though, and all the while she knew he was going down into the Underworld and that he was likely to fail his quest.

Suddenly I felt a lot worse about this whole thing.

Now Annabeth looked torn. "I did," she said finally, "but – "

"It's my mom," I said, interrupting her and wondering if this was the right choice even as the words left my mouth. Both she and Percy turned to look at me; Percy gave me a look like he was trying to make sure I wanted to say this, but I wasn't sure I had an answer for him. I went on anyway. "I... I think she's dead – I mean, I think she just died." I pulled the paper out of my pocket. "This is the obituary. There's a – a service. I just wanted to go. That's all."

Somehow I felt better, not worse, now that I'd told Annabeth. Even if the look on her face said that she probably did feel worse, knowing the truth.

"Oh," was all she said for a minute. "Nico, I... I didn't know. I'm sorry."

I shrugged. "Well, I didn't tell you. But now you do know. Okay?" I paused, but added, "And it's private." I didn't want anyone else to know about it. And I wanted her to understand that.

Annabeth swallowed, and nodded. But then some of the conviction came back into her eyes. "But you guys can't just up and leave – you've got to talk to Chiron, get permission and –"

"Annabeth," I said, "do you really think that Chiron is just going to let me leave for a couple of days after what happened last week?" It really had just been last week, I realized all over again. Every time I thought about it, it seemed like the whole thing had been a million years ago.

Annabeth's mouth worked for a minute. Then she finally said, "Oh. Yeah, well... You do realize it is dangerous," she turned to look at Percy, "for both of you. I mean, I'm assuming you want to go, too?"

Percy nodded.

Annabeth sighed. "And now I'm going to have to cover for you."

I glanced at Percy, feeling very much like we'd just won a game of capture the flag (nevermind that I didn't even know what that actually felt like). "Yeah," I said quietly, starting to grin just a little. It sounded like she was going to do just that, even if she didn't want to. "That would be nice."

Annabeth stood there, looking from me to Percy and back again. "Fine!" she burst out after a moment. "But only because I know how hard this must be for you," she said to me. "And I don't like it. How long are you going to be gone?"

"Just part of Saturday – it should only be a couple of hours. No one'll even miss us," I said.

"Uh-huh." Annabeth still didn't look thrilled, but she looked better than if I'd told her we'd be gone overnight or anything. This really was going to be a quick trip – at least, I hoped so. "I guess... if it's just a couple of hours..."

"We'll have pegasi with us," Percy said helpfully. "Just say we went out for some flying practice if anyone does ask."

Annabeth sighed again. "And what about if something goes wrong? What am I supposed to do then? Have you even thought about that?"

"Well," Percy said, shrugging as casually as he could and nodding toward the computer in her hand, "if something happens, you know where to start."

*

On Saturday morning I met Percy just before dawn behind the Poseidon cabin. I had a backpack with my Stygian iron sword inside it, wrapped in a couple of towels. Sometimes I really envied the way his sword, Anaklusmos, could shrink down to look like a normal pocket-sized pen. My sword didn't exactly come with that feature, but it was a good weapon nonetheless – especially against undead. And it was better if we were both armed. I wasn't exactly expecting Kronos to jump out of 6016 Roseland Drive, but it was always better to be prepared.

I followed him to the stables and we slipped into the hay-scented darkness. There were a couple of stamps and snorts but it sounded like most of the pegasi were still asleep. I didn't blame them. It felt like I had just managed to fall asleep when my watch alarm had gone off and I'd had to tiptoe my way out of the Hermes cabin without waking anyone. It actually hadn't been all that hard. For a bunch of thieves, they all slept like the dead – and I'd know.

Percy went up to a large black pegasus and rubbed him on the nose. "Hey, Blackjack," he said softly. The pegasus perked up and looked at him, then tilted his head like he was talking to Percy mind-to-mind. He probably was.

Percy smiled in the dim light from the breaking dawn as it slanted in through the windows. "Right. Extra oats and sugar cubes for a week, just like I promised." The stallion whickered and stamped, and Percy unlatched the door to his stall and he pranced out. "He says you're small enough that he can carry us both," Percy said. "It's better if only one pegasus is missing for the day." He glanced over at Blackjack again. "And he does not smell funny, so get over it." He grinned a little. "I like the way he smells."

I blinked. Any cracks about my stature and smell aside, all morning sitting back-to-front on a flying horse with Percy? I guessed that really wasn't so bad. Especially after the last time I'd tried to ride a pegasus. I guess they didn't really care for the smell of death – then again, not a lot of creatures did. "Uh... yeah, okay," I agreed.

Percy climbed up onto Blackjack's back and held out his hand to help me up in front of him. I wasn't really great at mounting horses, especially when they have wings, but I managed to get myself up and seated without looking too incredibly stupid. I had to give Percy my backpack though, but that was okay because when he leaned forward I could feel the heat from his chest against my back. It was comforting – really comforting, in fact, considering that I hadn't really gotten to sit this close to him for very long since we'd escaped from the Underworld. Things had either been too hectic around camp, or we'd been very intentionally interrupted whenever anyone felt we'd been alone together too long. Honestly, I knew this thing with us was supposed to be a big deal because of the way we'd begun to assimilate each other's powers, but what was done was done and couldn't people respect that and just give us a little privacy every once in a while? Couldn't they just treat us like adults?

I didn't have much more time to think about that because Percy shifted and said, "Okay, big guy." He patted Blackjack on the neck. "We're going south, like I said. Toward Washington, D.C." Rockville was so close to D.C. that it was practically the same city – it was only a couple of miles northwest of the capital.

Blackjack nosed the door of the stable open and got a few paces beyond it before I felt his muscles bunch beneath my legs. Percy threaded his arms under mine and tangles his fingers in Blackjack's mane just beside mine. Then our mount tensed and leapt into the morning air, winging his way in a circle before turning his nose to the south.