Chiron was at the archery range as usual, overseeing the afternoon onslaught of campers. Today he was teaching basics to a bunch of the younger half-bloods. Normally, the targets wobbled around, all but sabotaging any archers but the Apollo campers themselves, but for the newbies, they were stationary, and Natalie swore the bullseyes were a little bigger. Then again, she wouldn't know—she hated archery with a passion. A small dark-haired girl on the far end of the line of little archers was getting frustrated, and Natalie swore the kid was crackling with electricity: a daughter of Zeus.
Since the gods' promise to identify all their demigod children, more and more younger half-bloods had been coming to camp. The camp directors had had to organize Junior Chariot Races and the occasional Junior Capture the Flag for campers under ten years old because they would get trampled by all the older kids in any normal event. It was a great show for the older half-bloods, since the youngest of the "juniors" were often powerful heroes in the making. Nico in particular found it thoroughly entertaining to watch a seven-year-old Ares kid face off with the young twin daughters of Poseidon.
Chiron looked like he'd had about enough of snotty little kids with their five-pound bows, and more than a trace of relief showed on his face when he saw Natalie and Nico walk up. He dismissed the young archers and turned to them. "Anything new?" he asked.
Natalie told him that yes, she'd love to take a group of campers back to the Styx, and how she planned to do it. Nico commented and supplied information every now and then, but was mostly silent, watching mysterious things flit in and out of the fringe of the forest.
"And about the weapons themselves—how many do we need? Will they all be swords?" Natalie paused. "I think we need to decide who we trust with Stygian iron and who would wield it the best, and then make weapons specifically for them."
"Also, Stygian iron works differently for children of Hades than it does for other demigods," Nico put in. "I can use the essence of the monsters killed with this sword as power; Stygian iron for me drains their life and gives the sword and its bearer power. But for you"—he glanced curiously at Natalie—"it behaved like a normal sword. It just turned the skeletons to dust when you used it. I don't know whether that's because you're not of the Underworld, or because we didn't forge the blade correctly in the ceremonial sense." His brow knitted as he remembered something. "When my father gave it to me, he said, 'By the Styx, this weapon is a gift of Hades.'"
As he said the words, Betanima glowed blue for a mere half-second, then returned to its natural color. Nico started and swore. He drew the blade quickly, trying to get it away from him. Natalie caught it, and realized why he'd tossed it away. It was flaming hot, and although it meant no pain to her, she knew it would harm a half-blood of different parentage.
Nico gingerly rubbed his blistered hand. "That must have been what we didn't do. It should behave normally now." Natalie felt the iron return to a normal temperature and handed it back to him. He hesitated before he took it. "That means Natalie's definitely right about forging personal weapons. This Stygian oath should be specific to each bearer, or the iron might be dangerous to some half-bloods."
Chiron nodded gravely. "I will ask tonight at dinner who is willing to accompany you to the Underworld and have a sword forged. It looks like you and your brothers are going to be busy," he told Natalie. "You'll probably have to go too, Nico." Nico nodded.
"Are you going to let everyone who volunteers forge themselves a Stygian iron sword?" Natalie asked, clearly disapproving of this idea.
"I'll restrict it to older campers, and then I suppose you can discriminate further. I trust you two," Chiron said seriously.
They both nodded graciously. Natalie left to assess the stock of iron in the forges, and Nico was left to compose a silent list of people he did not want carting around Stygian weapons. Nothing like this mass-production of sacred weapons had ever been done, and Nico wondered if it wasn't such a good idea. But like he had said to Daniel, this was his home, and he didn't want any campers to get hurt. He was grateful at this point that Natalie had fought with his sword; she wouldn't have retreated, whether or not her attack had had any effect.
But Nico was too tired to focus on anything, so he skipped dinner in favor of a nap. He headed down to his cabin, of which he remained the sole occupant, and for the first time wished he had someone to share it with. It was a low building of black marble with skulls and bones forming the steps. Nico had always thought the architect went a little overboard with the bones, but he didn't care enough to be annoyed. He buried himself in the piles of black blankets on his bed and fell asleep immediately. Perpetually freezing, Nico had stolen blankets from several of the other identical, empty beds in the cabin, and his bed was an untouched pile of a mess. Greek fire dimly lit the black walls and revealed charcoal sketches strewn all over the floor around his bed. Nico had especially vivid, sometimes horrific dreams, and he had gotten into the habit of drawing them when he woke up. Most had been drawn in the middle of the night, but since the green torches burned constantly, the light was dim but reliably constant.
The particular dream he had now was not new; he had never dreamed it, but the scenario itself was familiar. Nico saw himself, much younger and considerably shorter. It must have been right around the time he had been trying to bring Bianca back from the Underworld, because he recognized the now-extinct Labyrinth's tunnels, and the shimmering ghost of King Minos.
The ten-year-old Nico in the dream was kneeling in front of a hole, pouring Cokes out. The scene was all too familiar. Minos was encouraging him in his own sick way, provoking Nico's silent anger into action, and the real Nico, invisible and paralyzed in the dream, suddenly got so angry he woke himself up. He had forgotten how very appealing Minos's offers were at the time, and how persuasive the ghost himself was.
Nico had no desire whatsoever to draw the scene that had just dissipated behind his eyelids, but he sat up and grabbed a rough sheet of paper and the stick of charred wood he had picked out of Hestia's fire (with her permission). He slid off the bed and sat among his drawings, on top of some of them, and started to draw. He thanked Hestia yet again for the seemingly infinite stick of charcoal.
His memory of Bianca had been prodded, so Nico sketched out the face of a girl. But after a moment, what he saw was not his sister's face, but Natalie's. He sat back on the hard marble floor, leaning against the side of his bed. He remembered with a smile the events of just this morning, specifically the piggyback ride that had made Nico glad Natalie couldn't see his red face. He realized for the first time fully what she meant to him. Before her, Nico had had friends, but his relationships were few and tenuous. He was a natural outcast, just like the Nemesis kids, but she had seen past that, seen him. Who else had done that so completely?
Abruptly he stood up and crammed his feet in his shoes. Blinking in the afternoon sun, he went up to the pavilion, wondering whether he'd missed dinner. Apparently they were just finishing up. There was the normal loud conversation, but as Nico approached the tables, Chiron called for everyone's attention. Natalie caught Nico's eye from the Hephaestus table and gave him a wonder-what'll-happen look. He sat down at the empty Hades table, a little more conspicuously than he'd like, and pretended to ignore the distrustful looks he was receiving from all sides.
"In light of the recent anonymous attack,"—vague murmuring filled his slight pause—"Mr. D and I have decided that it would be wise to defend ourselves to the best of our abilities against such attacks. Natalie Smith has demonstrated the effective power of Stygian iron against these monsters, so Mr. D and I are sending a quest of sorts to the Underworld to forge more Stygian weapons." There were many comments to be had, but Chiron ignored them for the moment. "Natalie and Nico di Angelo will take campers to the Underworld to forge Stygian iron weapons. Campers over thirteen—no, that does not include thirteen-year-olds," he answered an overeager Athena camper, "—may elect to join them. Nico and Natalie, since they know best what we're dealing with, will choose who will wield the weapons, since they are dangerous and sacred to the Styx.
"If you would like to join them," several overly eager hands shot into the air prematurely, met by some giggles, "one of the Hephaestus campers will forge you a weapon of your choice. Stygian iron," the centaur warned, "is an extremely volatile metal, and not even Nico knows everything about it, so know before you volunteer that this could be a very dangerous experiment." Chiron looked expectantly at Natalie.
She stood up and looked significantly at Nico, so he stood up, too. "If you'd like to help us, come and stand up here," she said, going to stand with Chiron at the fire pit. Nico followed, trying to look like he knew what he was doing.
Natalie's two brothers Jackson and Riley were the first to join them, and she gave them grateful smiles. Nico nodded in thanks. Slowly, more stood up. Nico and Natalie had had no idea how many they'd end up with, but as the numbers grew, they relaxed. To their relief, no Aphrodite or Apollo kids stood up: the vain Aphrodite campers would probably just hurt themselves, and Nico would probably accidentally maim Daniel or any of his siblings. They had a pretty good range of demigods. Almost all of the Ares kids came up, followed by one or two from the Hermes cabin. The children of Demeter weren't much for fighting, so none of them volunteered, but two of the five Nemesis campers did, along with several of Athena's. Peter, one of Morpheus's sons, volunteered; he was by far the best swordfighter in the camp, even though he was only fourteen. The Thanatos triplets were looking resentful, probably because like the Apollo campers, they naturally despised Hades—in their case because Hades had pretty much overshadowed Thanatos' existence forever.
They ended up with twenty-two volunteers: six from Ares, two from Hermes, one from Morpheus, two from Nemesis, four from Athena, one from Hecate, two from Eris, Nico from Hades, and three from Hephaestus, including Natalie. Of those, Nico and Natalie turned down the two daughters of Eris, one of the Hermes kids, and two especially bloodthirsty Ares offspring. Seventeen demigods in need of Stygian iron weapons.
"Alright," Natalie said slowly, after they had finally gotten Eris' uncooperative daughters to leave. "We're going to make three trips down there. Nico, Jackson, Riley and I are going to accompany all three groups, since we're forging the weapons, and Nico knows the area. So that leaves thirteen impending weapons, not including weapons you want to make for yourselves," she looked at Jackson and Riley. "We'll make our own weapons last," she added with a knowing grin, "since we'll take a very long time for our own swords, myself included. So we'll take five down on the first trip, not including us four, five on the second trip, and just three the last time, so we can make our weapons." She took a deep breath, like she'd said the whole thing in one breath. "Any questions?" she asked the campers up front.
"When do we start?" asked Riley.