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PIPER

Blackjack snickered and rolled his eyes in the open stable. Piper couldn't speak Pegasus, but it sounded like he didn't like being confined. Or he was worried about Percy. Or probably both.

The others had all gone down to their bunks with rope and chains like it was a weird circus act, or an even weirder HBO movie.

Piper had worked with Pegasus at Camp. Aphrodite children were naturally suited for the job because they could soothe the animals with charm speak. Her predecessor Sienna Beauregard had done it before her.

Jason hadn't wanted her down there by herself. He told her the stable had too many things that could fly off and hit her, but she was afraid Blackjack might panic again. And she couldn't exactly drag an 400 pound Pegasus up to her cabin.

"Easy Blackjack," Piper stood in front of the open stable he had chosen and ran her fingers through his sleek mane. She had seen tons of Pegasus, but he was one of the most beautiful. His coat was like a night absent of stars, sleek and black, and his folded wings rose and fell with the breaths he took.

"Easy," she put Charmspeak into her words, slowing her touch like a horse massage. Blackjack's snorts softened and he nuzzled her hand with his nose.

Below her feet the glass hatch bomber door showed the dark waters of the Mediterranean . An occasional long silver Sturgeon or other sea creature that Piper couldn't name would zoom by the boat like a blink.

When the Celestial Bronze girders had been lowered the entire Argos sounded like one giant out of tune tuning fork. It had been right when Piper and Jason were trying to walk Blackjack down four flights of stairs to the stables, which had been hard enough on a stairwell not designed for a Pegasus' girth. But after the groaning started Blackjack went nuts and tried to fly, smashing into the roof with his wings and head.

Piper had to use all her Charmspeak and Jason threw his shirt over Blackjack's head. It was an old trick Piper had seen her grandfather use on the Reservation. It kept horses calm because they couldn't see anything dangerous in front of them.

That had all been about 30 minutes ago. According to Leo's timetable they should reach the Greek coastline in an hour. A phenomenal speed for anyone to reach Greece from so far away. Piper had no idea what the tourists and Greek authorities would see instead of a Trimenian Warship blazing through the water like a jet plane. She tried not to think about it, because she had enough fear and terror in her already.

The ship groaned and made sounds in some places like the joints were going to buckle. But the Argos held. But it wasn't a pleasant ride. Even sitting still Piper felt like she was moving. She had dragged three plastic gallon bottles of water, the kind that went into a water cooler at an office, and had padded the top with two sacks of horse feed. She lashed herself to the top of it by the rope like a seatbelt. It wasn't the most comfortable seat, and she had actually spotted an old lawn chair in the corner. But once they had gotten underway she didn't want to try and walk around to retrieve it.

The stable had a glass bomber door that Leo built for the Pegasus to fly in and out off. But he also built a large barn door sized door on rollers on the very right side of the stable. It took up almost the entire right side of the wooden wall. Leo said he'd built it for 'Emergency mass exodus situations.' In case all of them, plus any Pegasi were chased by monsters down to the bottom level of the ship and needed to get off en mass( Leo's explanation had been metwith numerous Noah's Ark jokes.) Up until Rome these doors had been covered by piles of weapons and sacks of Pegasus food (which tasted like ice cream sprinkles and candy sugar.)

But now the door stood wide open, the head and shoulders of the giant statue Athena Parthos half inside the ship; and the rest of her hanging out in the wind wrapped in a dozen feet of yellow caution tape and one orange flag with a skull and cross bone design.

There were also a few extra bright yellow bungee cables Piper and Jason connected to Athena's neck and arms to keep her stabilized during all the bumping around. Athena wore a stern, almost omnipresent expression, like she wasn't happy about being lashed to horse stables.

Piper petted Blackjack's muzzle, and his warm breath blew out his nostrils onto her hand. She had a thick multi colored braided horse blanket on her lap in case she needed to cover Blackjack's eyes again. It was the same one Annabeth and Percy had used the night they spend the night down here. At least that's what Frank had said.

Piper fingered the fabric, and it made her eyes mist over. But not from the dust. Less than a week ago Percy and Annabeth had been down here, breaking curfew to be together. Now they were being led off to be sacrificed by Gaea in Greece. The statue of Athena Annabeth had fought and worked so hard to retrieve was safely on the ship. It seemed to glow with the power of the goddess, Piper could feel it. But, she wished she couldn't, because it had been Annabeth's quest to retrieve her; and now the Athena Parthos was safely onboard the Argos, but Annabeth was not.

Piper hadn't been there when Annabeth had managed to somehow make contact with them. But Hazel had been standing by Nico and told her about it. She said she hadn't been able to really see Annabeth the way he had. Hazel had described it like it had been like a grainy reception on a rabbit eared black and white television. Whatever Annabeth had done to communicate to Nico had only worked fully on him.

But Piper had heard about her friend screaming for Percy; before the image dissipated. It was a sound she couldn't get out of her head. Her friends were dying, and they may not be able to reach them in time.

Piper wanted to pull out her blade, to look and see if she could see them. But she had tried numerous times in the last 4 days to do so. But nothing had happened. Not even taunting horrible images of death she had been shown before. Tartarus was too far away to even show those kinds of images.

Footfalls sounded behind her making her turn around so fast she almost got whiplash. Her dagger was in her hand, and she almost fell off the barrel.

A pair of hands grabbed her shoulders to steady her. Jason's familiar blue eyes stared at her in concern. "You okay?"

"How did you get down here?" Piper squirmed more in her makeshift seatbelt to see him better.

"I was worried about you down here alone," Jason said by way of answer.

Piper wasn't weak. She hated the presumption that just because her mom was Aphrodite she was a dainty bell who's best defense was swooning. But with Jason she didn't read it that way. He had been her partner in so many dangerous situations, they watched each other's backs.

"Are we almost there?" Piper asked, even though she didn't know if Jason knew either. He had been below deck just like her.

"That's why I came down here to find you," Jason undid her knots and helped her down. "Hedge came down beating on our doors with his cudgel. Almost went ballistic when he couldn't find you. He was convinced you'd been kidnapped by evil sea creatures."

"We better get above then before he does something we'll regret." Piper gave Blackjack one last reassuring pat on the nose. The Pegasus gave a series of snorts that Piper wished she knew how to translate. "Don't worry, we'll bring them back." she offered this instead.

Jason took her hand, and together they made their way up the stairs. When they came out onto the deck this time, they both gaped. Not because they were about to be hurled against the rails like demigod Piñatas.

Because of what they saw in front of them.

The Greek coastline was only a mile away. The fog and the storm had cleared, and the water was now a brilliant turquoise. The sun was warm on Piper's skin and gleamed dazzling off of a sprawling mass of white stone buildings, some topped with brick red shingles. A few crosses from churches stood out over some of the buildings.

The ship pulled neared a port where over a dozen white fishing schooners were moored to docks that stuck out like arms from the coastline.

Piper thought Rome was beautiful. But this was another kind of beauty. It wasn't fancy; all the buildings were simple in design. But it was this that gave the place it's splendor. It was like the buildings were a part of the land themselves. Greece had declared bankruptcy a few years ago, but no one had told the landscape that. It still stood proudly like it was worth a million dollars.

Both Leo and Coach Hedge looked water logged from the waves, but neither seemed hurt. Leo was at the tiller and the Wii Controller, steadying the ship and talking to Festus as they dropped their anchor. And Hedge was leaning over the port rail breathing in the air in giant puffs.

It was as close as Leo was wanting to get to the coastline. And Piper knew why. Who knew how many monsters were lurking in that mass of a city waiting for them.

"We made it," Frank stood against the rail like a gaping little kid. Beside him, Hazel was doing the same. Her hair was poofed out like a halo from the humidity.

If this had been any other day Piper would keep gaping at the landscape. She could spend days wandering the little streets that wound in between the buildings even from this distance. But just looking at the architecture, the flawless designs of the entire city, she could only thing of how Annabeth would have loved this place.

But how she was now being dragged through those same streets to be slaughtered. It tainted the beauty of this ancient land.

"Come on guys," Piper unsheathed her dagger. It looked like such a tiny thing admits all the buildings and cliffs. Like she was holding a toothpick to break apart a mountain. "We need to get ashore. We don't have a lot of time-" Her voice seemed to be swallowed up by the vastness of the coastline, and she swore she could already see the monsters in the dark holes of some of the building's windows watching them.