In Which Oaths Are Sworn

When Annabeth found me, I was sitting on the beach again; not doing much, just chucking rocks into the Sound and watching them float to the bottom.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain." I jumped when she put her hand on my shoulder; I hadn't even heard her coming up behind me.

"Hey." I didn't look at her. "How's Rachel?"

She hesitated for a second. "Still talking to Chiron. She seemed really shaken up." Annabeth sat down cross-legged beside me. "What happened, Percy?"

I shook my head. "You don't want to know, Annabeth. Trust me."

"Please." She scoffed. "You've been down here for hours, Percy. Anything that makes you upset is something I want to know about. Now spill it, or I'll make you talk."

"You can try." It was a pretty lame attempt to lighten up, on my part. I looked down at the sand. "Luke is going to kill me."

Annabeth got really quiet and I could almost hear the wheels turning in her brain. "Percy, how long will it take before you realize that this Luke is not—?"

"Annabeth." I cut her off. "That's what Rachel saw. She saw me chained up and him with a knife. She saw—"

"I don't believe it." Annabeth didn't let me finish. "There's no way he'd do this again, Percy. He's a different person; all of the poison Kronos put in his mind is gone. Lethe's stream washed it clean!"

"Did it?" I demanded. "Maybe you were wrong, Annabeth. Maybe it's not because he took a dive in the Styx. Maybe the reason he remembers stuff is because he's still Kronos' puppet."

She could have read me the riot act for eavesdropping on her conversation with Luke the week before, but she didn't. I guess she figured that this wasn't the right time for it.

"Then you think he's a tool." Annabeth's voice was flat. "That Kronos is lurking somewhere in Tartarus, and he's pulling Luke's strings just like before."

"I don't know, Annabeth. I can't rule it out."

"Then...what will you do?"

That was the question of the day; I chucked another handful of rocks.

"I know what a god would do." I looked at her sideways. "Hades didn't want to send Nico and Bianca to the Camp when they were kids because he was afraid Zeus would kill them. That's how gods take care of their problems; they just eliminate the threat."

"That's your master plan?" Annabeth snapped. "To kill Luke?"

I knew what that would mean for the two of us; Annabeth would never forgive me, especially because Luke hadn't really done anything yet. The gods would justify it and it wouldn't put a stain on my record with them, but I'd lose Annabeth. And sane or not, that wasn't something I was ready to risk.

"We're both sons of Poseidon this time." I reminded her. "The only ones at the Camp. So I'll help him train and maybe...it's a long shot, but maybe I can keep him from turning again, Annabeth. It's the only way."

Annabeth looked at me for a few seconds. "Was there a prophecy, or did Rachel just...see something?" I knew it still bugged her that Rachel had visions about me.

"Just a vision."

"Then it could be a trick. What if someone's manipulating the Oracle? I've never known the spirit of Delphi to give a prophecy through pure vision, have you?" She sounded pretty hopeful and I thought she was stretching it, but I decided to play along.

"Maybe, Annabeth." I got up. "I should talk to Grover. And Luke. Where are they?"

"Grover's with Mr. D." Annabeth stood up too and wiped the sand off of her shorts. "They're sending an Iris-message to the gods. Rachel wants to talk to Apollo about her visions."

I winced. "Um...could you ask her to keep the one about me and Luke...confidential?"

"Percy." Annabeth shook her head. "They have a right to know."

"I know that!" I swallowed. "I just want a chance to work with him first, Annabeth. I don't want Poseidon or Zeus to get up-in-arms about it yet. I'll tell them when the time is right. I don't think Rachel's prediction will come true, if it does, for a long time."

"What makes you so sure?" Annabeth was definitely suspicious.

Nothing. "Just a feeling I've got."

"I don't trust Rachel's visions that much." Annabeth sighed. "But I trust you. I'll keep your secrets, you idiot, but I don't like it."

"Then you'll like this even less." I stepped a little closer to her. "If something does happen to me, Annabeth, I still want you to keep that secret."

"Percy—!"

"Hear me out." I grabbed her shoulders and I could tell that really got her attention. "Give Luke a chance to either prove himself innocent, or get out. I know the gods have no trouble hunting down a half-blood, but Luke was always a whiz at staying out of sight."

"Percy."

I put my hand over her mouth. "Look, if he does kill me, he'll suffer enough. He'll never achieve Elysium or the Islands of the Blest. Hades will get him, and he might as well have a break before that."

She pulled my hand off her mouth. "Percy. You're asking me to let someone get away with your murder."

"If Luke's really changed, then we don't have anything to worry about." I reminded her, and I knew she was stuck. That was logic, something Annabeth couldn't deny. Either she believed what she said, that Luke was innocent and making this promise would be nothing; or she thought he was still a puppet of Kronos, and she'd have to stand aside while someone—me, or even Chiron—killed him.

"I swear I'll give him time." Annabeth whispered.

"Swear on the Styx."

She did. It felt like a huge weight came off my shoulders.

"Okay." I let her go. "Find Grover. Fill him in. I'll go talk to Luke."

"He's on the hill."

I leaned down to kiss her, then bolted before she could change her mind about this.

I felt like I was fighting a battle inside myself the whole way up to Half-Blood Hill. Part of me wanted to trust Luke. But the other part—instinct—was running screaming the other way. The truth was, I'd spent about four years with Luke as my enemy. Accepting him as a trustworthy friend this time—and as my brother—was getting harder every minute.

It wasn't hard to find Luke; he was sitting by Thalia's pine tree, the one where Zeus encased her a long time ago. Luke kept looking at it and I wondered if he remembered that whole thing—him and Annabeth and Thalia running to the Camp chased by monsters, Thalia giving her life for them.

"Dragons." He said the second he saw me. "I hate dragons."

Peleus lifted his head and snorted smoke like he didn't appreciate Luke's company much, either.

"That makes sense." I sat down beside Luke. "Last time...before Lethe's stream, you had a scar on your face. You got it from a dragon."

That didn't really seem to surprise him. "Is that the real Golden Fleece? The one from that movie, Jason and the Argonauts?"

"Yeah."

Luke shook his head. "I still can't believe all those insane stories are real." He got quiet for a minute. "That tree...I've seen it in my dreams, too."

"Zeus created it." I told him. "Well...sort of. He turned his half-blood daughter into a pine tree to preserve her life. When we put the Fleece on the tree—it was dying, because...um..." You poisoned it. "Somebody poisoned it. Anyway, it worked its magic a little too well. Thalia was healed."

Luke's eyes widened. "It's that powerful?"

"It saved a couple lives on our quest to retrieve it. Annabeth's especially."

"Whoa." Luke shook his head. "So that's why the dragon's here? To protect the Fleece?"

"I guess." I looked down over the valley. "No one's tried to steal it since we got it, but when Kronos was around, we were never sure."

"What would you do with it if you didn't need it anymore?"

"Probably take it back to Polyphemus." I shrugged.

"The Cyclops." Luke glanced at me sideways. "Our half-brother, right?"

I swallowed. "Yeah. Him."

Luke knit his brows. "What was up with that red-headed girl, Percy? She gave me the creeps."

"Rachel is the Oracle, Luke. She's inhabited by the spirit of Delphi. Remember what I told you about heroes getting quests?" He nodded. "Well, we—I mean, they—the heroes get their prophecies from Rachel."

"So..." Luke looked nervous. "Does she have a prophecy for me?"

"No, it was just a vision. And it was about me."

"Something bad?"

"I don't know. It could be." I shrugged. "Stuff like prophecies and visions...they aren't always what they seem. When I was a camper, I'd get quests and I'd think I had everything figured out, but in the end I'd get the rug pulled out from under me." I saw the way he was looking at me, so I added, "Which isn't always a bad thing. A lot of the time, prophecies are pretty gloomy. First time I got one, I thought I wouldn't be able to save my mom from the Underworld. Which...I didn't. Hades let her go. But she saved herself from Smelly Gabe, my jerk stepdad."

"I can't wait for my first quest." Luke closed his eyes. "It's probably stupid, but I want to prove myself. I want to prove to my dad that I can be a hero. I can save Olympus, if I have to. I'll make him proud."

"I can help you." I told him. "We're the only two sons of Poseidon right now. The Big Three still don't mingle with the mortals very often, even though they threw the pact out after I turned sixteen. So I can train you one on one."

"You'd do that?" I could tell he was surprised. I wondered if anyone had ever offered to give him some serious attention or if they just wrote him off as trouble.

Right now, I didn't know which one he was—a hero, or a murderer-in-training. But I felt like I was going to play a part, and if I wanted to sway things the right way, we had to start right now.

"Forget about what Rachel said. She can tell you're a reincarnated soul, but that doesn't mean anything. You've got an advantage most demigods don't have: there's a whole other life you lived that you can pull experience from. Think of that as a privilege, and use it that way." I smiled at him. "That's your first lesson."

When he grinned, it made my skin feel cold, the same kind of cold as when I was around Kronos years ago; I wasn't stupid. I knew ambition and I knew pride, and Luke Backlund teetered on the edge of both.

"I'll be a hero." He said. "I swear by the gods, I will."

I didn't have the heart to tell him that the gods took oaths like that pretty seriously, and if Rachel's vision came true, Luke would have every force on Olympus after him now—and not just our dad.

"The gods must be crazy, letting things play out like this." I muttered. But I guess we have no choice. We have to ride the waves and just hope everything works out.

"They probably are a little crazy. And we're their kids." Luke winked at me. "What does that say about us?"

FIN.


Look for the sequel, "The Fallen's Oath", to be published soon!