Chapter 21: Percy Goes For A Dangerous Swim

For the fourth night in a row, I had trouble sleeping. Percy's absence was a thorn in my side, preventing me from nodding off no matter how tired I was. I tried to return to the diary, but I couldn't focus. I must have read the same two pages ten times without a single word registering in my brain. All the diary did was remind me that Luke had disappeared from camp the same way three years ago—vanishing into the woods.

I couldn't shut off the nagging voice in my head that taunted: Nobody stays. Everybody you love leaves you in the end.

Faint light was coming up on the horizon by the time I fell into a thin, troubled sleep.

I dreamt I was at the canoe lake, sitting on the docks while I watched Percy paddle about on the water's surface. He looked over his shoulder, throwing me that lopsided grin with the single dimple that made my heart do a cartwheel.

'I bet you ten drachmas I can pull it off,' he said.

'Uh-huh.'

Percy got to his feet carefully. With the perfect sea legs of a son of Poseidon—or lake legs in this case, I guess—he inched backwards to the edge of the canoe, tipping the opposite end out of the water. He obviously meant to flip it onto the dock to make an exit ramp, but I could see what he hadn't: a few naiads gathered in his blind spot, ready to send the canoe flipping backwards over him once he got close.

SPLASH!

The naiads scattered, giggling madly. Percy hit the water with a surprised yell. He was tangled in some kind of safety cord, which was weird because our canoes didn't have safety cords.

He floundered like a drowning person, which was even more weird since Percy could swim perfectly well (and breathe underwater, for that matter).

I put my hands over my mouth and yelled, 'The cord! Remember your lifeline, dummy!'

Percy stopped struggling. He found the cord, a thin green and grey line that looped around his waist, and tossed the other end to me. I caught it and pulled.

The line was unexpectedly heavy, like reeling in twenty-pound catch on a fishing rod. Percy drifted towards me on his back, his body strangely still. I yanked harder on the cord, my heart racing.

'Hold on, Seaweed Brain,' I told him. 'You're not getting away from me that easily.'

His head bobbed up by my feet, that annoying grin back on his face, like he'd been having me on this whole time. The safety cord disappeared. Sunlight reflected off the pale green lake water, creating shadow lines over Percy's back.

'You are such an idiot sometimes.' Shaking my head, I reached over the edge of the dock. 'Come on, take my hand.'

The moment our palms touched, the sunbursts on the lake seemed to explode along my skin. The glow was so bright, my vision went white. The dock vanished. I flew towards a swirling cloud with the strangest feeling that I had done this before. I couldn't see Percy, but his fingers were still tight around mine, his grip so strong he was crushing my hand ... but I wouldn't have let go for anything.

My vision cleared and I saw him standing by the bank of a river. The waters were dark and malevolent, churning under a cavernous, obsidian sky. In front of him marched an army. They were like the zombie servants Clarisse could summon with the power of Ares, except these weren't just the losing side of a single battle. This was more like the reincarnation of every conquering army in the history of time. Phalanxes of Spartan hoplites. Leagues of Roman cavalry. Union soldiers with gleaming bayonets.

And in the centre, a team of demon horses with black fire for hair pulled a chariot bearing a twenty-foot-tall man. His flowing cape howled around his shoulders, like a million tortured faces were straining to escape from it. On his head sat a towering helmet that vibrated with black rage—the one and only helm of darkness.

There was no way Percy could take on even a tenth of this army. He wasn't even wearing armour. Yet he stepped forward with reckless boldness, seemingly unaffected by the waves of fear oozing from Hades's helm of darkness. The river behind him erupted in an avalanche of fury.

'No, Percy!'

Of course, he didn't hear me. He raised his sword and charged headlong into the army's front line.

He shouldn't have stood a chance. Not against that many, not against the Lord of the Dead himself. They should have spat him out dead.

Yet amazingly, he whirled through the skeleton army like a hurricane, moving so fast I could barely make him out. He slashed through Redcoat zombies and undead Huns like he was Achilles himself.

And then he was facing down Hades with a ferocity that chilled me to the bone. Was it just me, or did even the hellfire of Hades's eyes flicker with a hint of fear?

Something—someone—shook me hard.

'Annabeth, wake up!'

I didn't want to leave my dream. I had to see what would happen to Percy. But the scene was already fading.

I swung out in frustration—

'Ahh!'

Malcolm leapt back, out of the way of my flailing arm. I blinked, trying to shake the dizzy, disorientating sensation. It was like when you fall from a great height and leave your stomach in the clouds.

Somehow, I'd grabbed my dagger in my sleep. My fingers were so tightly wrapped around the hilt, my knuckles had turned painfully white.

Malcolm cleared his throat. Slowly, I forced my fingers to unclench. 'Sorry. Am I late for breakfast?'

'Actually, you missed breakfast. We let you sleep because ...' Malcolm scratched behind his ear. 'Well, it looked like you were up until dawn again.'

'Oh.' It was slightly embarrassing to realise how attuned my siblings were to my sleeping patterns.

Malcolm's lips twitched. 'Yeah, well, I wouldn't have woken you, but Chiron's outside. He says you need to come.'

Chiron was waiting by Hestia's hearth. He took in my dishevelled hair and rumpled clothes, but didn't comment on them. 'Grover IM-ed Juniper,' he said. 'You should hear this.'

Chiron let me climb on his back so we could hurry out to the woods. We found Juniper perched on a rock near Zephyros Creek, looking decidedly less weepy as she beamed at a rainbow image of Grover hovering over the stream.

'Annabeth!' Grover said.

'Hey Goat Boy. Where have you been?'

Grover chewed on his lower lip. 'Um, asleep—long story. But the good news is, Percy woke me up. The bad news, though—we've got Morpheus on the loose in Manhattan.'

A lot about what he said was super wrong, but my brain could only focus on one little detail: 'Percy? You saw him?'

'Yeah, he called me on the empathy link. He and Nico were in Central Park. They needed me to open a door for them with my pipes.'

'He's okay, then.' I hadn't realised how hard it had been to breathe until the weight lifted off my chest.

'Uh, I hope so.' Grover tossed a tin can from hand to hand. 'The thing is, he was going to ...' He chewed off the tab.

'What? Spit it out, Goat Boy!'

He did—literally. 'The door he asked me to open, it was—'

Chiron frowned. 'Central Park, you said? And a door that opens to your pan-pipes—to music. This wouldn't be the Door of Orpheus, by any chance?'

Grover winced. The rest of his tin can disappeared with a crunch. The weight that had risen off my chest came crashing back down. 'You're kidding, right?'

Grover shook his head miserably. 'Percy's gone to the Underworld.'

I tried to concentrate on the rest of the Grover's tale—he'd run into Morpheus two months ago. The god of dreams had been scouting Central Park for a battle. (Something about this struck a chord, but my frazzled mind couldn't piece together why.) Kronos was planning a 'main event' in Manhattan. Grover was going to rally the nature spirits to defend the city. It was all important information, but my brain kept wandering to the thought of Percy descending alone into the Underworld. Well, with Nico di Angelo, but that wasn't much comfort.

Grover finished his story and looked at me. 'I know you're worried about Percy.'

'I'm not—' The automatic protest died halfway out of my throat. Grover was giving me an insufferably knowing look. I didn't know if he was doing his annoying satyr emotion-sensing thing (did it even work over Iris-message?) but I guess there was no point denying that I was worried about that infuriating Seaweed Brain.

The Underworld. Gods, what had he been thinking? 'He'd better not die or I'll kill him.'

Glover bleated nervously. 'Yeah, well, he'll be fine. It's Percy. He keeps turning up okay, right? Didn't he crash his own funeral last year?'

A watery laugh escaped me. 'Yeah. Yeah, that's right.'

'Anyway, I gotta go. Juniper, I promise I'll be back soon, okay?'

We left Grover and Juniper to say goodbye in private. I went back to my cabin to straighten up before inspection, but when I got there, I noticed a blinking light next to my bunk. Silena had returned my cell phone. It sat on my bedside table with an alert scrolling across the screen.

Frowning, I picked it up. One new voicemail.

The moment I heard Percy's voice, my heart leapt.

'Annabeth, I need your help. Something bad's gonna happen by tonight—a trap. You guys need to get to the Empire State Building, stat. Get every camper you can round up. I'll meet you there.'

After the first wave of relief passed, I nearly threw the phone across the room in frustration. What in Hades was going on? First he ran off without a word, then he went gallivanting into the Underworld, and all he could do was leave a cryptic message for everyone to assemble at the Empire State Building?

I played the message one more time to check I hadn't missed anything. (Definitely not because I needed to hear his voice again.) He sounded more serious than I'd ever heard him. His instructions were curt and direct, like a general marshalling troops for battle. I thought uneasily of him charging single-handedly into combat in my dream.

What had he done?

OoOoO

It took a while to get everyone organised. For starters, well, have you ever tried to corral fifty ADHD kids on a field trip? Then there was the matter of transport. We didn't have enough pegasi for everyone, and there was only one flying chariot—which the Ares and Apollo cabins were still fighting over. Chiron suggested we use the strawberry delivery vans, but no one besides Argus had a driving licence. In the end, he managed to bribe two of the cleaning harpies into helping out by promising them extra hands for KP when we got back.

We loaded as many supplies as we could into the three vans. This in itself was another headache. Percy had given little to no information about what we'd be doing in Manhattan. I guessed it was the 'main event' Grover had mentioned, but it would have been helpful to know what kind of attack to anticipate. A trap, Percy had said. What was that even supposed to mean?

'We could plan for stealth or full-frontal combat,' Malcolm suggested. 'If half of us go in camouflage gear, and half in armour.'

'Good call.' I scanned Daedalus's laptop for a map of Manhattan. The plan twenty-three folder stared at me. Would we be desperate enough to use it?

I looked at Malcolm. 'You'd better take a look at this, just in case.'

While he went over Daedalus's instructions, I inspected our forces. The Athena, Hermes, and Apollos campers were in black camouflage; I'd told everyone else to put on Greek armour, in case we did need to jump straight into battle.

'Clarisse,' I said, 'you guys can lead if—'

I frowned. Clarisse stood at the bottom of the hill, watching us pile swords and shields into the van. She made no move to help. More alarmingly, she wasn't wearing her armour. With a sickening swoop of my stomach, I realised none of the Ares kids had turned up.

'What are you waiting for?' I demanded. 'We have to leave now.'

Clarisse crossed her arms. 'I told you. Until Ares gets the respect we deserve, none of us is lifting a finger to fight your battles.'

'Our battles?' I ground my teeth. 'Clarisse, this is all of our battle! You know that we need to hold Kronos off.'

She set her jaw stubbornly, turned on her heel, and marched back up the hill.

'Look who's the coward now,' Michael said in a loud voice. Maybe he meant to goad her into reacting, but she disappeared over the crest of the hill without a backward glance.

Katie punched his arm. 'Look what you've done! We can't go into battle without Ares. It'll be a total disaster!'

'It's not my fault she's such a pigheaded—' He called Clarisse a few names Percy had once told me he'd gotten suspended for repeating.

Silena gave him a reproachful look.

Michael sighed. 'Fine, I'll go talk to her.'

But by the time we were finally packed and ready to go, Clarisse showed no sign of relenting. Michael returned to the vans with Chris, both of their hair spiked up like they'd been prodded with an electric rod.

'Didn't go so well?' Connor guessed.

Michael grunted and climbed into the first van. Chris rubbed at the hairs standing up on his arm. 'I'll stay behind, try and reason with her. If I can get her to change her mind ...'

'Yeah, okay.' I was anxious to get moving, Clarisse or no Clarisse. We'd wasted enough time already. At least someone was here to defend the camp. If Percy was mistaken, if this was a ploy to lure us all away ... well, I really hoped he knew what he was doing.

OoOoO

My phone jangled just as we approached the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Twelve heads swung towards me as I dug it out of my pocket to answer the call.

'Hey, you get my message?'

My heart did another crazy cartwheel. 'Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing at all! We were worried sick!'

'I'll fill you in later,' he said briskly. No apology, no reassurances, all business. 'Where are you?'

I gave him our location, but kept pressing. 'Percy, what are you planning? We've left camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—'

I could almost see him running his hands through his hair, his expression grim. 'Trust me. I'll see you there.'

The line went dead. Either he'd hung up, or I'd lost reception as we plunged into the tunnel. As soon as I lowered the phone, I was peppered with questions.

'What did he say?'

'Is there an invasion?'

'What's he been doing?'

I held up my hands. 'He'll explain when we get there. Right now, we just need to get to the Empire State Building, pronto.'

Argus glanced at me in the rear view mirror—well, a few of his eyes did, anyway. The next moment, he squeezed us into a faster-moving lane, cutting off a red pick-up truck. The driver blared his horn. I heard more annoyed blasts as the harpies driving our other two vans followed suit.

Even with their aggressive driving, it took a while to weave through midtown traffic. Percy flagged us down at the Empire State Building.

'Dude, what happened to him?' Travis said.

He looked like he'd just emerged from a hurricane. His hair was windswept, his t-shirt and jeans practically ripped to shreds. Yet he didn't seem to be physically injured at all. His dark skin even glowed in the late afternoon sun, like he'd spent the day tanning at a spa rather than mutilating Underworld zombies. Mrs O'Leary sat on her heels at his feet, her tail thumping cracks into the sidewalk.

Percy studied me strangely as I hopped out of the van. First he stared as though he'd never seen me before, then his eyes narrowed into an expression of intense focus, like I was a particularly tricky puzzle he was trying to solve.

'What is it?' I asked.

He blinked. 'What is what?'

'You're looking at me funny.'

He ran his hand over the back of his head. 'It's, uh, nothing.'

He turned to the rest of the campers filing out of the vans. Chiron wheeled out last of all. I didn't know if Percy meant for him to come, too, but I guess it would be easier for Chiron to return to camp than for us to summon him later.

Percy raised his voice. 'Thanks for coming, everybody.' He gestured towards the entrance to the Empire State Building—the gateway to Olympus. 'Chiron, after you.'

I knew before Chiron declined that he wouldn't join us. He was bound by the rules of the immortals. Without express permission, he could not visit the home of the gods, war or no war.

Technically, we weren't supposed to just waltz up to Olympus either, but I guess as half-bloods, we had more leeway under the circumstances.

Percy looked aghast at Chiron's refusal to go in. 'But you're our leader!'

'I am your trainer,' Chiron said gently. He tapped his chin and considered what help he could give—reinforcements, allies ... but his stance was firm.

Percy was our leader. He'd called us here. He had the information, the plans. And I had to admit, even with his tattered clothes and unkempt hair, there was something commanding about his appearance.

He laid out his plan quickly: he'd learnt of a trap meant to happen by tonight, and we had to get to Olympus and convince Zeus to defend the city. For starters, anyway. I had a sinking suspicion that we were going to end up the defence force. After all, he couldn't have called us all here just to chat with the King of Heaven.

We'd definitely need the gods' help, though. Without Clarisse and her Ares warriors, there were only forty of us left to make up Percy's army.

I took a deep breath and followed Percy in.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

A/N: Percy's attempted canoe move was inspired by an actual YouTube video—search 'canoeing tricks with Reg Blomfield' and go to 1:00.

Off-topic head-canon from a throwaway swearing reference in the chapter: Percy once got suspended for foul language because he repeated a bunch of things Gabe said to a kid that was bullying someone else. It's one of those I'll write it one day if I have time things. :P

Some exciting news: JustAnotherGlowingUnicorn is working on a translation of the DoW series into Portuguese (thank you so much!) and the first chapter is just out! It's posted on this site and the title is 'Filha da Sabedoria', so if your native language is Portuguese, I encourage you to check it out!

And of course, you lot are wonderful. Thank you Solangelo, Hello, AnnaUnicorn, samuraipanda85, allen r, OverLordRevan, Guest, and MariaClaire for your comments this week! I may not have got back to everyone yet, but I will eventually!