Chapter 9: Percy

The truth of the matter was that if they had not been in the worst possible situation: namely smack dab in the middle of Tartarus, which on the best of days would have been considered enemy territory; moving extremely slowly due to their multiple injuries; and headed to the only exit available to them, only to shut and lock it from this side, effectively trapping them in here forever: If it weren't for all of that, the apparent ease of their passage through here would make Percy extremely anxious and anticipating a deadly trap. As it was, the fact that they'd encountered precious few monsters, and was able to hide from those they did come across, did little to alleviate the tension.

They had passed the Brass Fortress, skirted around the Delta of Despair on the outskirts of the Dark Lands, and passed the Shrine to Hermes all without entering combat once. Of course they had been expecting it to be a trap, so this lack of activity merely served to confirm their suspicions.

They were about half way across the Central Wasteland when a sudden noise caused both Percy and Annabeth to jump, with Annabeth putting her fist into her mouth immediately afterwards to stop herself from screaming as she'd landed on her injured foot. Once his heart slowed and the blood didn't roar quite so loudly in his ears, Percy could hear that the sound that had startled him was in fact a voice, one that he could have sworn that he'd heard once before. "…my Uncle Amos, my Chief Lector and former Eye of Set," the voice was saying, but no matter which direction he turned, Percy couldn't make out where the voice was coming from, "The joker over here is my sister, Sadie Kane, Scribe of Brooklyn House and former Eye of Isis. This here is my girlfriend, Zia Rashid, Scribe of the First Nome and former eye of Khepri-Ra. And this is my sister's boyfriend, Walt Stone, Lieutenant of Brooklyn House and Eye of Anubis. And we, we are the House of Life."

Percy almost felt as if he was going out of his mind. This voice was so familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd heard it from before. Then there was the mention of Brooklyn, Percy was certain that place was significant. Then the strange names of Isis, Ra and Anubis: though he felt he was having an aneurism at the mention of them, Percy felt as though he experienced this strangeness before. However, while Annabeth also seemed to hear the voice and was having similar difficulty locating them, she didn't seem to experience the same recognition.

"The House of Life?" Percy's heart nearly jumped out of his chest as he heard this voice, which he most certainly recognized: it was Chiron! Percy's first thought was that some Cyclopes who'd allied themselves with the enemy were trying to play some sort of trick on them, as he knew from experience that they can mimic voices, and that there would be no way that Chiron would be down here, especially as there could be an attack on the camp at any time now. He immediately put that thought out of his head though, as if it was a Cyclops trick then they'd either be calling out for help or would be offering their aid, not carrying out some random conversation. As he listened Chiron continued, both curious and confused, "I've heard a bit about them during my study of ancient cultures, but I was under the impression that the Per Ankh were destroyed when Egypt fell to the Romans."

Suddenly he heard Annabeth gasp then say, "Percy, your arm!"

Percy followed her gaze, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. The voices he'd been trying to locate were, in fact coming out of his arm! In fact, the brand that he'd received upon becoming praetor of Camp Jupiter had somehow become a sort of viewing monitor, complete with HD-quality audio and video! And if that weren't strange enough, standing directly between Chiron and his once-fellow praetor Reyna was a huge mass of people dressed up as Egyptians, with some kid dressed up as a Pharaoh standing at their head. As he stared at this kid, he realized that he knew him, then the once forgotten memories surfaced and everything clicked: it was Carter!

Looking down at his other hand, Percy remembered how they had worked together to defeat the giant crocodile that had entered Camp Half-Blood and eaten some of the pegasi, then Carter painted the hieroglyph on his hand and promised to come to his aid the moment Percy called his name. Percy had thought of telling Annabeth about that encounter, but it was late by the time he'd gotten back and he'd seriously needed a bath, so he decided that he'd tell her during their date the next day. Of course, that was when Hera decided to draft him into her cultural exchange program!

As Annabeth looked into Percy's face, she asked him quietly, "Percy, you know that boy?"

"Yeah, it's Car…" Percy started to say before he'd caught himself. Carter had warned him that the magic would only work the one time, and the last thing Percy wanted to do was summon him down into this extremely dangerous place! Percy cleared his throat and began again, "Yeah, I know him. Remember when I went after that big croc that broke into the camp?"

Annabeth nodded, "That was the day before you disappeared."

"Well, that kid helped me to take care of it," Percy explained, "Turns out it was just a baby crocodile that was magically enlarged by this Egyptian necklace."

"And was he dressed like a Vegas attraction then too?" Annabeth asked.

"No, actually he was dressed much simpler," Percy answered, "although he did have this strange bent sword with him, I think that he called it something like a ko-fish?"

"You mean a khopesh?" Annabeth corrected, "They were the swords often used by the soldiers who defended the Pharaoh."

Of course! Percy thought to himself, Leave it to my genius girlfriend to know these things! Then again, I remember now that Carter's intelligence and the way he explained things reminded me of her back then. "So do you know about this Per Ankh then?"

Annabeth nodded as she explained, "They were an organization of Magicians, who were said to be founded by their god of learning, Thoth. They were said to be able to channel the power of, and even at times host a god."

Percy was dumbstruck, "Hold on, wait a second! Host…a god!?"

Annabeth nodded as she continued her lecture, "I'm only speaking of what was apparently learned through archaeology. Apparently the Egyptian gods didn't interact with the world the same way the Greek and Roman ones did, they didn't talk directly to people themselves. Instead, the gods spoke through human hosts whenever they wanted to deal directly with them. A man or woman serving as a host for a god would be referred to as the 'Eye' of that god; Eye of Sobek, Eye of Nephthys, and so on."

Percy's head reeled as he considered what Annabeth was telling him. Carter had referred to himself as the former Eye of Horus. What did that mean? That at some point that kid had one of his gods actually inside him? The implications were simply mind boggling! Then again, Carter did do some things that he'd never seen any demigod do. And that giant glowing chicken-man thing he'd seen Carter fight inside of did seem rather god-like. And if that was what he could do when he used to host a god….

Annabeth shook Percy out of it as she called out, "Hey, they're saying something else!"

As Percy looked again, Carter and Chiron were continuing their conversation, and Percy had the bonus privilege of watching the different colors Octavian's face was turning at his being totally ignored. "Before we parted, I painted on his hand The Eye of Horus and asked him to call my name if he was ever in serious trouble," Carter said to Chiron, "If he had, I would hear him through the hieroglyph and would know where he is, and thus would be able to go to him."

"That may be so, but Percy has often been rather self-reliant, and has strong ties of loyalty to his friends," Chiron countered, "I believe that he would sacrifice himself before he would endanger any of his friends to the same fate, which I believe does include you, Carter."

"That's a good point, but I believe that the same point could be made for Annabeth, perhaps doubly so," Carter pointed out, "While he may want to minimize what risk he'd put me under, I know from the tone of his voice when he mentioned her that she means more to him than anything. He'll probably wait until he's in as safe a place as can be found down there, then possibly contact me then to see if I can get her out."

Annabeth still had to be in plenty of pain from her foot, but she still managed to look rather fierce as she looked up into his eye as she said, "Don't. Even. Think about it Perseus Jackson!"

As she said that, Percy felt immediately ashamed; not because he had been thinking about it, but because he never did. While he wouldn't have risked Carter's life by calling him down here, that kid's bag of tricks would've been rather useful back in Rome, especially that ribbon trick of his. While it was totally embarrassing to be snared by it back when he and Carter were fighting each other, he would have preferred looking a little frilly to his and Annabeth falling down here in the first place. And while one skinny kid might not initially make much difference against someone like Arachne, Percy knew how quickly that could change: in a cage match or a tug-of-war, Percy would put money on chicken-man over spider-lady any day of the week.

Annabeth suddenly gasped and whispered, "Percy, down!"

As she pulled him down behind an outcropping of stalactites jutting from the ground, fighting her own screams of pain as she did so, Percy saw what caused her sudden concern: a trio of harpies were headed in their general direction. While they didn't seem to be headed specifically for them, a mere glance out of the corner of their eyes would've allowed them to spot Annabeth and himself while they were standing out in the open, and he could not be sure which side of this war those three were on.

Percy wasn't sure what had caused his SPQR tattoo to suddenly transform into his personal TV Walkman, but now he found himself wishing he knew where the mystical "off" button was as he clamped his hand over his arm to try and stifle the sound. He didn't know whether his muffling trick worked, if the mystical trick had a limited range, or if those harpies were simply so old that their hearing was going, but they soon passed by without so much as turning a head in their direction.

"They're gone!" Percy gasped as he carefully helped Annabeth back up to her good foot.

As she rubs her sore leg, Annabeth's eyes widen as she points at his arm and cries out, "Percy, look!"

When Percy looked back at his arm, he could not believe what he was seeing. Up until this point, everything suggested that Carter and his fellow magicians were simply there to prevent the Greeks and the Romans from fighting one another; for even though the Egyptians had the advantage in numbers, they had made no move to attack either side. However, now it appeared as though the one Carter had introduced as Walt Stone was now picking a fight with Octavian as he charged forward and grabbed the weasel's shoulder and pilum, and while Percy would have loved to see him get what he was sure the jerk had coming, Percy had no doubt that would immediately start the conflict Carter's arrival had forestalled.

It seemed that Walt's actions were not a part of Carter's plan, as he called out in warning, "Walt!" But Walt was paying him no heed as he said to Octavian in a dangerously low and even voice, "The stench of wrongful death is strong upon you, Octavian! I smell the blood of murder on your hands!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Octavian squeaked fearfully at me, then he turned to Reyna and screeched, "They're attacking! Save me! Kill them now!"

She didn't look as if she was getting ready to leap to his defense, so apparently there was no loss of love between them since Percy last saw her, and the sudden appearance of dead grass under Walt's feet seemed to serve as sufficient warning to those who would've heeded Octavian's call.

Percy would've given every Drachma that he'd possessed to Iris if he could see whatever it was that Walt was seeing. As it was, The growl in the kid's voice spoke volumes as he said, "Don't try to lie to me, mortal! You cannot hide your sinful act from my eyes! I can feel your embarrassment and anger as you lost the war games to the Fifth Cohort and was knocked cold by the graecus. When you came to, you saw Gwendolyn, the Centurion of the Fifth Cohort, standing with her back towards you, her arms raised in jubilant victory. In your fury, you took your pilum and ran her through!"

I knew it! Percy thought in a tone that, if he'd said it out loud, would have been as fierce as Walt's' growl. Now Percy really wished that he was there right now, just so that he could lay Octavian flat himself! As it was, that wretch's pleading and squirming would have to serve as satisfaction enough for now. Percy especially felt a guilty pleasure as Octavian turned white as a sheet when Walt said, "You should count yourself lucky that you were born Roman and are bound by their laws of Death! If you found yourself in my court, I promise you I'd take your wicked heart and feed it to Ammit the Devourer myself!"

Ouch! That sounds harsh! Percy thought with a small smile, and now that Octavian's secret was out Percy was sure that even his staunchest supporters would be more leery around him. Of course Percy was sure that not everyone had arrived yet, and it seemed that Octavian wasn't done trying to convince the others that what Walt has revealed wasn't true, although he sounded too desperate to Percy's ears to be very convincing.

That was the moment that Carter decided to drop his bomb; "Besides, I think that you'll have more to fear from your arriving forces than we would," Carter added, "I may not have Anubis' nose, but I know a silver-tongued devil when I see one. As you reminded me so much of Desjardins, I figured that you would likely be capable of twisting what happens here to your liking, provoking those who have yet still to arrive into following you into battle. That's why I made sure that everyone aligned with your side knew exactly what happened here, not merely your own edited version." He then gestured with his staff to the spot to the spot on the ground where he'd sketched the hieroglyph earlier as he said, "When I saw that all of you Romans bore those strange tattoo-like brands, I'd cast a spell and linked it to them. Anyone who bears a marking like that on their bodies, as well as anyone who is within a few feet radius of them, will be able to both see and hear everything that goes on here, as if that tattoo has become their personal closed-circuit TV and this hieroglyph is a security camera that's linked to it. The spell won't last for more than another hour, but distance has no effect on it. Believe me, your reinforcements saw and heard everything here perfectly."

So that explains why my arm suddenly became a Walkman! Percy thought with astonishment. It also explained why Annabeth could see and hear what was being broadcast but the harpies could not. Percy felt a moment of irritation with Carter for not having explained the trick, and especially the radius of effectiveness sooner, but he did have to give the kid credit for being clever enough to recognize Octavian's "talent" and coming up with a move to counter it. Besides, it wasn't like Carter knew that Percy also had one of those tattoos and could possibly be endangered by the trick, and the fact that the spell affected him clear down here in Tartarus was most impressive. Percy could definitely believe that this kid used to be the host of a god! Still Carter would have to be either extremely brave, stupid, or simply ignorant to link the spell to their brands, as those were placed there by Jupiter Himself! If the Olympians did not recognize that the Egyptian gods were still around and doing their thing, and if Carter's moving his people to try and stop a civil war between the Olympians' own children didn't clue them in, then to work a spell through their brand would certainly do the trick!

Still, Percy's concern for and irritation with Carter did nothing to lessen the enjoyment of seeing the wild-eyed panic on Octavian's face when he realized that he'd been made, nor the moment of when Reyna ordered that Octavian be arrested. Also, when Octavian tried running and Carter's girlfriend caught him by turning him into a bright pink mummy was especially gratifying. Still, Percy felt that the proof of Octavian's guilt wouldn't be enough to satisfy the Roman's thirst for vengeance, and when Reyna spoke Percy was disappointed that he wasn't "disappointed"; "My gratitude for your revelation notwithstanding, those with me have come to seek justice for what happened with our camp, and it is my duty to lead us to claim it," Reyna explained, "As my people have no claim of vengeance against you Egyptians, and you may have helped to clear up a mystery of what had happened to my loyal Centurion, I hope you'll accept my expression of gratitude and depart here in peace before our attack."

Please take it, Carter! Percy thought desperately, You've done what you could there, and you have my gratitude for trying! But I don't want you or your friends to get hurt trying to do more! It's bad enough that my brother Tyson might get himself killed trying to protect my friends, I don't want you to lose anyone that you care about as well!

If Carter heard Percy's silent plea, which Percy doubted, then neither Carter nor his sister Sadie didn't show it as she said, "Your gratitude is accepted, Madam Praetor, but even if the artifacts that we used to come here weren't in a cooldown period and unable to transport us again for a while, even if your bloody fighting wasn't going to wake up your bloody Terra, we can't just run off and let you people take your anger out on these kids who've done nothing deserve it," Sadie said as she drew a line in the ground in front of her with her staff. Then, in what Percy though was the most impressive demonstration of power yet, she slams her staff into the ground as cries out "Drowah!", which causes a huge wall of light to spring up from the line she drew and spread in both directions, encircling them and the camp, separating them from the Romans before them. "No offence intended, ma'am. I'm sure that you and yours are good people in general, that skinny weasel being the exception. But I know from my brother's account that these Greeks are good people as well, and I can't bear to watch good people fight one another without any good reason!"

"Well said, sis," Carter complimented her, then he turned back to Reyna as he said, "As the Pharaoh of the House of Life, it is my duty to protect the sanctity of all life. Turning a blind eye to a civil war that would effectively end the world as we know it would fly in the face of what we stand for. So I hope you don't take it personally, but if you want to get at the Greeks you'll have to go through us first. This is one line you will not be crossing easily, so I hope you'll consider carefully when you make your decision."

As Reyna turned away to consult with her commanders, Percy figured that she'd at least wait until the full force she'd assembled before ordering an attack, and whether she actually proceeded with said attack would likely depend on what numbers she'd assembled and what weapons they'd brought. From what Percy understood about Roman tactics and of Reyna personally, he figured she'd test the effectiveness of her weapons against Sadie's barrier. If it proved as unbreachable as it appeared, then Reyna would likely order her forces to lay siege to the camp and wait it out. After all, a barrier of that power cannot be maintained forever, and who know if any of Carter's other magicians could re-establish it when it drops.

"What are you thinking, Percy?" Annabeth asked him.

"I'm thinking I should just call Car….the Pharaoh and tell him to take his people home now before they get hurt," admitted Percy.

"But would he even hear you down here?" Annabeth asked.

"I think so," Percy answered her, "his TV spell reached me down here, and as long as the Little Tiber did not wash off his cellphone hieroglyph the way it did the Mark of Achilles, then I do believe that he'd be able to hear me."

"But even so, would he be able to get here, and would he be able to leave if he does?" Annabeth countered.

Percy sighed as he nodded, "I know, that's why I didn't risk it yet. I think our best chance is to see if we can ask the others when we get to the Doors if they can send an Iris message to Camp and ask them to tell him to go home."

"Well, it doesn't look like we have much further to go," Annabeth said as she pointed, "Look."

As Percy followed where she was pointing, he saw them. Standing straight up in the middle of nothing, the huge obsidian doors were anchored to the ground by several chains. They still had to be at least an hour's walk away, but even from this distance they appeared enormous! Percy wasn't all that strong when he wasn't in water, and even if Annabeth wasn't injured, her strength was not that of arm. How were the two of them going to close those things?

Taking a huge breath to steel himself, Percy supported Annabeth's weight as he said, "Well, if we're going to try and prevent the House of Life from being destroyed for good this time, then we have no tome to waste. Let's go!"