Chapter 25: We Dig Up Old Weapons From The Attic

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I barely noticed the tears that started to roll down my cheeks.

Thalia.

Malcolm and Grover ran off to get Chiron, but I stayed where I was, kneeling on the ground by her prone figure. She was almost exactly as I remembered her: skinny like Percy with black hair that stuck out in every direction, too. Even her clothes were the same—black t-shirt and jeans, with the thick leather jacket she'd once wrapped around me on a night when the temperature had gotten abnormally chilly for summer. Her jeans even had the slashes from when a feral warthog had clawed her leg.

Her face and skin were so pale, I was afraid it might be her corpse I was staring at. I had the sudden, panicked thought: what if by reviving the tree, we had inadvertently expelled Thalia's spirit and killed her for real?

Then Thalia stirred ever so slightly and I thought instead of the nymph Leuke. I should have remembered her sooner—the dryad Odysseus had rescued from a poplar tree. Did it mean that Thalia was a dryad, then? She didn't look like she'd acquired the features of one, though.

I became vaguely aware of a crowd gathering around me, whispering and pointing, but I didn't move until the sight of Chiron approaching with Percy on his back jerked me to action. I ran to him. If anyone could make sense of this, it would be Chiron.

'It … she …' I tried to explain what had happened, but words failed me. 'She … just suddenly there …'

Chiron touched my shoulder gently. Percy swung off his back and raced over to Thalia, ignoring Chiron's warning cry. He stared straight into Thalia's face but there was no recognition in his eyes. Of course not. He'd never met her.

Neither had the rest of the campers, but they were all silent and wary, evidently sensing that this wasn't normal.

'She needs nectar and ambrosia,' Percy said, looking around expectantly. The healers from Apollo exchanged looks, as if they knew this was no ordinary medical case. 'Come on!' Percy urged. 'What's wrong with you people?' He put his arm around Thalia and lifted her head and torso. 'Let's get her to the Big House!'

Thalia shuddered and coughed. Her eyes flew open and she stared at Percy. In a raspy voice, she said, 'Who …?'

A tingle went down my spine as Percy and Thalia locked eyes and I saw for the first time in real life just how similar they really looked.

'I'm Percy. You're safe now,' he said.

Thalia shook her head. 'Strangest dream … dying …'

My throat choked up. What had she experienced all these years? Had she felt the poison coursing through her when Luke had injected it? Or was she simply remembering the day six years ago, when she had been dying on the hill before Zeus transformed her?

'No, you're okay,' Percy said soothingly. 'What's your name?'

Thalia sat up a little straighter. She pulled away from Percy. Her bright blue eyes flashed as she took in the crowd of campers staring at her. It seemed to give her strength. Her chin jutted out defiantly as she announced, 'I am Thalia. Daughter of Zeus.'

A sob rose up in my throat and with it, my paralysis broke. I ran to Thalia and threw my arms around her. 'I can't believe it—the Fleece really did … oh, Thalia!'

Thalia stiffened. There was a jolt through my arms, as though I'd touched a live wire. From the way Percy jumped back, I guessed he'd been shocked, too. He looked at me in confusion.

'What—'

Thalia backed up against the trunk of the tree as though she meant to melt back inside it. She raised her hands defensively. Her eyes were wild like a cornered animal's. Too late, I realised how startling it must be for her, to be thrown six years into the future. Although she looked more or less the same to me—maybe a little older, but then Thalia had looked much older than twelve to begin with—I had probably changed markedly in the intervening time.

'It's me, Annabeth,' I said. Thalia's eyes widened in disbelief. I tried to explain. 'It's—you've been … uh …' How did you explain to someone that they had been a tree for the last six years?

Fortunately, Grover came up then. Satyrs age half as quickly as humans, so he was more recognisable.

'Grover,' Thalia said uncertainly.

'You remember!' Grover said.

'You do look … older.' She looked back at me. 'And … you're really Annabeth? But why are you …' She frowned like she was still picturing me as a seven-year-old.

'It's been six years,' I said gently.

'Where's Luke?' she demanded.

There was dead silence. Even the gathered campers, who had been whispering among themselves ('THE Thalia—daughter of ZEUS—the one who made her stand on this hill!') stopped abruptly. Everyone suddenly found something else to look at besides Thalia.

Chiron stepped forward. 'I am sure that there is a lot that Thalia will have to catch up on,' he said. 'But perhaps the peak of Half-Blood Hill is not the place for it.' He extended his hand to help her up, but Thalia pushed herself to her feet without assistance.

'I can walk,' she said. 'Where are we going?' Although the question seemed directed at Chiron, she looked at me. Her gaze was a bit warmer when she met my eyes, but still sharp and wary.

'To the Big House,' Chiron said. 'Camp headquarters. You can rest there while we arrange living quarters for you in your, ah, cabin.' He rubbed his scraggly beard thoughtfully. Obviously Thalia was going to be in the heretofore uninhabited cabin one. I wondered if anyone had even seen the inside of it before.

The other campers parted to allow him to lead Thalia past. Nearly all of them seemed star-struck. The whispers started up again. 'She's a legend!' I heard Silena Beauregard murmur to Katie Gardner.

'Campers,' Chiron reminded them, 'as there is no emergency, those of you not on guard duty should return to your cabins.'

I started to follow, but then I remembered I was on guard duty. I cursed under my breath.

'Percy.' I caught his arm. 'Will you—'

He started to nod, but Clarisse stepped up. She was the only one dressed in armour, and she actually looked a little crestfallen at not having a threat to defend against. I wondered if she slept in her battle gear.

'I'll cover you,' she said, giving me a little shove. 'Go.'

Surprised but grateful, I ran after Chiron and Thalia.

We gathered in the infirmary, which was empty again now that there were no longer constant attacks on camp. Chiron frowned at Percy, Grover, and me as though considering sending us back to our cabins, too. I stepped up to Thalia and slipped my hand in hers. She didn't shock me this time, so I gave her a reassuring squeeze. Chiron sighed and addressed her.

'Thalia, what do you know of Camp Half-Blood?'

'Well, it's—it was—I mean, this is where Grover was bringing us, right?' She glanced at Grover, who nodded. 'A safe place for demigods? That's all true?'

'Yes,' Chiron said.

'And it's really been … six years.'

We all nodded.

'How …?'

'You were a tree,' Percy blurted out. 'Zeus—your dad—turned you into a tree to save you. Um, that's the story anyway.'

Thalia held up her hands and stared at them, as though not quite believing she had them. 'A tree,' she repeated softly.

'Yeah.'

'And Luke—he's not—the monsters didn't—?' Her voice cracked. My heart seemed to weigh ten extra pounds. Luke had been her best friend. How could I tell her what he'd done?

'Luke—' Percy started to say, but Chiron spoke over him.

'What can you remember, Thalia?'

Thalia didn't answer straight away. She went extremely still, as though she'd grown roots and planted herself to the infirmary floor. Or maybe I just thought that because I'd seen it actually happen before.

When she finally spoke, her voice was a whisper. 'After the Fury struck me, I thought … I don't know. There were dreams. I … can't remember much.' She closed her eyes. 'I think …' Her hands drifted to her stomach, forming a circle like she was remembering a wound there. 'I was stabbed?'

'The puncture hole,' Percy said. 'You were poisoned—as a tree, I mean. It was Luke—he injected your trunk with elder python venom from Tartarus. It almost killed you—er, your tree.'

Thalia's face went white. 'What did you say?'

'Percy, maybe—' Grover said.

'Luke poisoned you.'

Chiron stepped between Percy and Thalia. 'Percy, I think—'

Thalia's eyes blazed with anger. 'Get out,' she hissed. 'All of you, just—GET OUT!'

'Thalia,' I said, 'I know it's a lot to take in—'

'Go! Leave me alone!' she screamed. She sat back on one of the infirmary beds and covered her face with her hands.

'Percy, Annabeth, Grover, you'd better go,' Chiron said.

'But—' I protested, not wanting to leave Thalia.

Chiron gripped our shoulders firmly and steered us to the door. 'You can come back later in the morning,' he said in a tone there was no arguing with. He closed the door behind us. I heard muffled sobs from Thalia and a sizzle that sounded suspiciously like an electrical socket being fried.

'She's pretty … intense,' Percy said.

I turned on him, furious. 'You insensitive, kelp-headed jerk! What did you have to go telling her about Luke for?'

'What was I supposed to do, lie? She asked about it—she asked about him, too.'

'You didn't have to blurt it out like that! Did you even think how she'd feel? Luke was our friend!'

Percy's face turned red. 'Yeah, great friend he turned out to be, trying to kill you all!'

'Stop it, you guys.' Grover tugged at our arms. 'Chiron's going to come out and give us hell if you keep this up. Let's go, come on. We can talk about it—calmly—outside.'

I pulled away from him. 'Don't bother, Grover,' I said, still glaring at Percy. 'There's nothing to discuss.'

'She was going to find out anyway,' Percy yelled after me as I marched off.

I went back to the hill to relieve Clarisse from guard duty. 'I owe you one,' I promised. Clarisse nodded tersely and left me to it.

Beckendorf came to relieve me a few hours later, when most of the camp was getting up for breakfast (if they had even gone back to sleep at all). I went straight to the Big House to find Thalia. She was alone in the infirmary, scowling as she picked at the blankets on her bed with her chewed-up fingernails. It didn't look as though she'd been sleeping.

She looked up when I opened the door.

'Is it okay if I come in?'

Thalia shrugged and shifted on the bed to make room for me. I sat tentatively beside her.

'Are you okay? I'm sorry about what Percy said about Luke …'

'It's fine,' Thalia said. 'I—I actually … well, like I said, I had dreams. I remembered more of them. I think … what I saw in them … it matched with stuff from … before. And I spoke with Chiron.' She didn't elaborate on this. Her eyes looked dark and heavy. 'Anyway, I'm sorry I threw you out.'

'It's okay. I know it must be so strange for you.'

Thalia nodded. 'When I managed to sort everything out, stuff did kind of fall into place. I'm not sure how to explain it. It's like, I know I was a tree and I even have vague memories about that, but there aren't really words for it. I even think I remember you growing up, but it's all kind of fuzzy.'

'I visited you a lot. Your tree, I mean. Maybe that's it.'

'Maybe. Still, it's weird. You're, what, twelve now?'

'Thirteen.'

There was a bitter note to Thalia's laugh. 'Older than I am—was.'

'You were—you are—loads braver though,' I said. 'I wanted to be like you.'

'You wanted to be a tree?'

'You know what I mean.'

Our eyes met and we started to laugh. I couldn't help thinking how much she was like Percy, with her dry sense of humour. It struck me that if you didn't count the years she'd spent as a tree, I'd actually known Percy for longer, now.

I probably shouldn't have gotten so mad at him.

'I met the camp director,' Thalia said.

'Mr D?' I was surprised. I'd never seen him appear before ten o'clock in the morning.

'Yeah. Apparently we're related.'

This was the truth, I realised. Of course, everyone in Greek mythology was related in some sense, so much so that we mostly just stopped counting beyond half-siblings. But being the daughter of Zeus meant that Thalia actually was Mr D's half-sister.

I made a face. 'I'm not sure that's anything to get excited about.'

'He didn't seem too thrilled by the prospect either,' Thalia said.

'He's like that to all the campers. If he manages to get your name right, it's a miracle. You should see the way he acts towards Percy.'

'Right. So, uh, where do we get breakfast in this place? And Chiron said something about a tour …?'

'Come on,' I said. 'I'll take you.'

The dining pavilion grew very quiet when Thalia and I entered. It was a bit like when Percy had arrived last year, with everyone gawking at his Minotaur horn and speculating about his parentage and his powers. Except with Thalia, everyone knew she was a kid of the Big Three—the biggest of them all, in fact—and in the few short hours since she'd appeared on the hill, her story seemed to have done the rounds. Anyone who hadn't known the tale definitely would have heard it from a senior camper by now.

'Why are they all staring?' Thalia muttered. 'So I'm the new kid. Get over it already.'

'It's not that,' I said. 'You're kind of a big deal. What you did six years ago—fighting the monsters so Luke—' I hesitated, seeing her face shutter off at his name, but forged ahead, 'and Grover and me could get to safety … it's one of the camp legends. Your tree made a magical barrier that protected the whole camp. The hill is even named after you.'

'You named a hill Thalia?'

'No—Half-Blood Hill.' I led her up to the very first stone table, that had always stood empty. 'This is your table—cabin one.'

'Chiron said something about that. It's for my dad?'

I nodded. 'Each Olympian has a cabin. We're all sorted by our parents, so some of them are honorary—or were, until, well …'

'Until I showed up,' Thalia finished.

'Yes. It was the same for Percy.' I indicated Poseidon's table, which was next to hers. 'He's a son of Poseidon. He wasn't supposed to—well, the Big Three aren't supposed to have demigod children, not any more.' Too late, I remembered that Thalia probably wouldn't know any of this either. It was something I'd learned after coming to camp. She didn't react to it, though. Maybe Chiron had explained it to her.

Percy came up from the central brazier, holding his half-filled plate. 'Hi,' he said cautiously.

'You're the boy from last night,' Thalia said, looking him up and down. 'Percy.'

'Um, yeah. Hey, about what I said—'

Thalia shook her head. 'Forget about it. I don't want to talk about it.'

'Er, okay.' Percy glanced at table one. The nymphs had apparently been briefed about Thalia's arrival, because they'd left a platter with fresh fruit, bread, and cheese on it. 'We have to sit at our tables, but it looks like we're sort of neighbours,' he said. The two tables were close enough that if they sat on the adjacent benches, it would almost be as though they were eating together.

I showed Thalia to the burning brazier in the centre of the pavilion where we made our food offerings to our parents. Her face was unreadable as she tossed in two apples and a chunk of cheese.

'Zeus,' she said. I didn't know what she was thinking. Did she feel grateful to her dad for saving her life? Or was she angry that he'd stolen six years of her life from her?

I remembered what I'd told Percy during our quest, that Thalia, like him, wouldn't turn against Olympus even if she got mad sometimes. It had all been hypothetical then, of course. Now that Thalia was actually here, I had to wonder. Would she be on our side? Or could Kronos manipulate her like he had Luke?

I ate breakfast as fast as I could so that I could get back to Thalia. She and Percy were sitting sidewise on their benches so that they were almost side by side. They looked like they could have been siblings, with their matching black hair and wiry builds. They had been joined by one of the camp dryads, a pretty young girl with light green skin and mossy hair. She introduced herself as Juniper, and asked Thalia the question that had occurred to me when she first appeared: 'You came out of a tree. Are you a dryad, too?'

'No,' Thalia said. 'At least, I don't think so. I mean, I feel the same as always. You know—mortal. Though I think I'm probably older.' She looked at me. 'I definitely hope so, anyway. It's weird enough to think of you as the same age as me, let alone older.'

Percy's eyebrows furrowed as he did the math. 'You should be eighteen, right?'

'Nearly nineteen,' Thalia said. 'My birthday's in December.'

He gave me a significant look and the realisation hit me then.

A half-blood of the eldest gods; shall reach sixteen against all odds.

Did this mean that Thalia was the child of the prophecy all along, just as Chiron had believed years ago?

I shivered as I remembered something else from my dreams: Kronos telling Luke, 'We will no longer need Percy Jackson. He is an unreliable weapon—he must be replaced.'

And Luke had asked about a girl. 'You won't let her die,' he had said. 'That was the bargain.' I'd thought he'd meant me, but what if this had been the plan all along—the great gamble he'd taken? What if he'd poisoned the tree to begin with so that they had a chance to bring Thalia back to life?

Thalia looked between me and Percy curiously. 'What?' she said. 'Why do you guys look like that?'

'Nothing,' Percy said. 'It's just really weird.'

'Tell me about it.' She polished off the last of her breakfast. Juniper cleared the plates away. At the head table, Chiron called for attention.

'We welcome a new camper among us today. Many of you will already know the story of Thalia's pine tree, especially given Clarisse's quest to save it this year. Happily, the Golden Fleece has done more than revive the tree's life and magic—it has also given one of our own back to us: Thalia, daughter of Zeus!'

Everyone clapped. Thalia's cheeks went pink.

'I have also other happy news. We will restart our capture the flag schedule this Friday evening.' He paused until the cheers at this announcement died down. 'Yes, I see you are all excited. You have a few days to make your alliances and plan your strategy. Athena currently holds the laurels, but I am sure they will have some strong challengers to face.'

'What's capture the flag?' Thalia asked.

'Oh, just you wait,' Percy said. 'It's fantastic.' He grinned at me. 'Allies as usual?'

'Of course. And Thalia will be on our team, too.'

I gave Thalia the tour of the valley after breakfast. We started at the cabins, where I explained our living arrangements and showed her cabin one. It was the biggest of all, an ostentatious building of white marble with solid columns framing a set of bronze doors that shimmered with the imprint of lightning bolts. I'd never even glimpsed the inside of it before.

The first thing I thought when we stepped through the doors was that this wasn't a place to live. The room was circular with a high, domed ceiling covered in mosaic tiles. They were painted light blue and white and their colours changed occasionally to grey with golden flashes like lightning that drew attention to the central feature of the cabin: a twenty-foot statue of Zeus. The status held a shield in one hand. The other was raised high above his head, wielding a massive lightning bolt as though he meant to send it crashing down on us intruders.

There was no furniture whatsoever in the room. It was like whoever had built the place had never intended for anyone to inhabit it. The place was more like a shrine, with more status embedded in alcoves in the circular walls: eagles on marble pedestals, bull heads glaring menacingly, bronze braziers that were currently unlit. Most of them were dusty from years of neglect. Some had cobwebs across their corners, which made me shiver although no spiders scuttled out.

Thalia grimaced. 'Nice bedroom,' she said dryly.

'We'll get you a bedroll from the camp store,' I said.

The Stoll brothers were hanging about the store as usual, and they just about fell over their feet in their eagerness to equip Thalia. Before long, we'd set her up with not only a bedroll and blankets, but a backpack full of general supplies—toiletries, towels, and a stack of camp t-shirts. Thalia wrinkled her nose at the orange colour, but didn't complain.

'Thanks,' I told them. 'Also, is Hermes still with us for capture the flag this Friday?'

'You bet,' Travis said. He grinned at Thalia. 'You joining us, too?'

'Sure,' Thalia said.

That reminded me that we should get Thalia fitted out for weapons as well. After taking her round the other camp stations, I ended our tour at the armoury. Thalia looked around appreciatively at our stores of celestial bronze weapons.

'This is great,' she said, running her fingers down a spear. 'Reminds me of our hideouts. More well-stocked, though.'

She scanned the room as though looking for something in particular. 'Do you know what happened to Aegis?'

'Your shield,' I remembered. 'Well …' I looked around the room. The armoury had a lot of old demigod weapons, stuff that had been passed down over the years after their previous owners had died, but I didn't recall ever seeing Aegis showed up. And I would have noticed. It was pretty distinctive.

Luke must have taken care of everything Thalia had left behind. Had he kept them with him? I didn't know where he could have hidden them all this while—definitely not in the crowded Hermes cabin. Then I thought of another place where demigod relics might end up.

'We could try the attic,' I said. 'In the Big House.'

I wasn't keen on visiting the attic, where the mummified Oracle resided, but I led Thalia up the four flights of stairs nonetheless. The old hero trophies were all there, collecting dust on the shelves. I immediately spotted the pink scarf of Aphrodite that I'd recovered last year, draped over a broken sword hilt. It bore a tag now that said:

SCARF OF THE GODDESS APHRODITE

Recovered at Waterland, Denver, Co.,

by Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson

Thalia picked up a pickle jar containing a head with glowing eyes like burning candles. 'AMPHISBAENA TAIL-END HEAD,' she read. 'Severed in Phoenix, Arizona. Avoid eye contact under full moon. That's disgusting. What is this stuff?'

'Trophies,' I said, taking the jar from her. The amphisbaena's eyes were oddly hypnotising. I had to drag my gaze away from it. On the bottom of the tag, below the lines Thalia had read, someone had written in urgent capital letters, RIP MADDY. NB: MONSTER REATTACHES IF CUT IN HALF. I set it back on the shelf. 'Spoils of war. Heroes have been stashing things here since ... well, I don't know when it started.'

We picked through the junk on a cluttered table. There was a cracked shield lying on top of a bunch of random monster parts—bones and claws and what I thought might be a giant bird beak—but it wasn't Aegis. The surface was burnished silver and bore only a faintly etched circle in the centre, split down the middle by the crack. I was about to set it back down over the monster parts when one of them caught my eye: a large golden dragon's claw, with a wickedly sharp point. I put the shield aside and picked up the claw.

CLAW OF THE DRAGON LADON

Retrieved by Luke Castellan

from the Garden of the Hesperides

'Luke,' Thalia whispered, reading over my shoulder. 'When …?'

'A few years ago,' I said. 'He got a quest. But he didn't complete it. I think … that might have been when this all started. He wasn't the same after.'

As far as I knew, Luke had never spoken to anyone about what he'd encountered on his quest. He'd returned with his face scarred, having lost his companions and without the golden apple he'd set out to retrieve. It had seemed explanation enough for how angry he had been when he got back. Now I wondered if there had been something more, something in the garden that had changed him.

Thalia frowned. 'The Garden of the Hesperides. I know that legend. It's supposed to sit on the very edge of civilisation.'

'Like the last point where the gods' influence extends to,' I mused. 'You don't think that's where he met Kronos?' I thought of a cliff edge in the Underworld where I'd once been. It fell into the deep chasm that was Tartarus. Standing there a few years ago, Percy, Grover, and I had heard the disembodied voice of Kronos call up from the pit.

There were myths that you could fall into Tartarus from the mortal world, too. Might there be such a precipice somewhere in the United States?

If there was, I'd put money on it being on the West Coast.

'I don't know, Annabeth. I wish …' But she didn't finish her sentence. She took the dragon's claw, shoved it back under the silver shield, and turned resolutely away to the other side of the room.

We kept on looking, picking through more pickled parts, broken weapons, and random souvenirs like car bumpers and garden globes.

'There!' Thalia said suddenly, pouncing on a carved bronze idol. I was confused at first, unsure why she'd singled it out. The statue was hideous, with two ugly faces protruding from a single head. Someone had scrawled across its chest, CHOOSE WISELY OR FOREVER REGRET.

Then Thalia scooped up a mace canister leaning against the grotesque statue's legs and pulled a bracelet off its hand. She spun it in a circle in the air. 'Aegis!'

I nearly had a heart attack as the shield expanded from the bracelet and I found myself facing a twelve-inch protruding bronze mask of Medusa. I stumbled back and tripped over the feet of the Oracle.

'Sorry!' Thalia said. She quickly shrunk Aegis back into bracelet form and leaned over to help me up. 'What's that?' she said, looking at the mummy. The Oracle stared back at her with glassy eyes.

'Don't!' I said, suddenly afraid of what the Oracle might show. I still didn't know what Thalia's return meant for the Great Prophecy, but I'd learned that approaching the Oracle could give you more than you bargained for. 'Don't ask her anything. Just—come on.' I pulled Thalia away.

'What was that?' she asked again when we'd descended the steps from the attic. 'Some kind of zombie guardian?'

'The Oracle of Delphi,' I explained. 'She—she's the speaker of prophecies. When we get a quest, we got to her to get one, but sometimes … well, she delivers other prophecies, too, and they're rarely good.'

Thalia's eyes darkened. 'Prophecies,' she repeated. There was a funny catch in her voice.

'You know about the prophecy?' I wondered if Chiron had told her about it, when they'd talked. It seemed unlikely, but …

'I heard one once,' she said grimly. 'Before I met you. Luke and I—well, let's just say I'm not a fan of prophecies.' There was a finality to her tone that said she wasn't going to discuss it further.

'Right,' I said. 'Well, at least you've got your weapons.'

Thalia nodded. 'What now?'

'Now,' I said, 'we plan for battle.'

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A/N: Okay, show of hands, which of you actually remembered Leuke from chapter two? (Be honest, now!) ;) I know I promised action, and it is coming! But I hope you'll enjoy having Thalia around for a bit. I certainly did!

CupcakeQueen816, I hope you liked Thalia and Annabeth's interaction this chapter! By the time we reach TC that friendship already seems to be very well established, so I figured they must have spent a lot of time together the rest of the summer!

xSkiesOfBlue11, I hope this was satisfying continuation to my evil cliffhanger! ;)

strawberrygirl2000, great to have you back and hope you enjoyed Thalia's reaction to learning what became of Luke!

And thank you all for keeping the reviews coming-I really appreciate the comments and seeing your reactions to the fic! :)