Chapter 31

"As the w- war be- between the two king- doms came to a c- close the qu- quee-" Percy cursed slightly under his breath as he looked down at the book. This whole thing hadn't been going great, but at least he had been able to come up with all the words so far.

"Queen," Annabeth said softly next to him, which just made Percy curse again. He knew that word. He had read it dozens of times. In frustration he tossed the book onto the bed, reaching up to rub his face. How could he be this stupid?

"Hey," Annabeth said softly next to him, bumping his shoulder a bit with her own "It's not a big deal- it's a hard word."

"One I've read a dozen times," Percy replied, shaking his head "And yet I'm too stupid to recognize the damn word."

"You're not stupid Percy," Annabeth replied, sighing as she reached over to take his hand, squeezing it a bit "You just have trouble reading. Letters move around- you can't make sense of them. I have the same issues."

"You don't have trouble reading the word queen," Percy muttered. If Annabeth hadn't been able to so accurately describe what it was like for him when he tried to read he wouldn't have believed her. He would have thought that maybe she was just making it up so he didn't think he was as stupid as he suspected he was.

"Because I worked hard to get better at reading- that doesn't mean it's not hard for me to do it, but I can," Annabeth squeezed his hand again "I know it's hard, but you just need practice. I can't just read for you all the time."

"But your voice is so nice to listen to when you're reading," Percy replied, smiling a bit as he looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. It wasn't that he thought it would work, but it was true and he did like to catch her off guard sometimes. Annabeth was really clever, she knew a lot, so sometimes it was good to say something she wasn't expecting.

To his pleasure, Percy saw Annabeth smile a bit at that "Thank you. But you still need to do your own reading. You're getting better at it, you just need practice."

"Can't I just make you my official reader or something?"

"Please, I want a more exciting life than just reading shit for you all the time," Annabeth replied, laughing a bit at that, before smiling at him "Besides, what about when you need to read things in public or something?"

"Fine-" Percy replied, sighing, though he rolled his eyes as well "Can we at least take a break though? My brain is starting to hurt-"

"Fine, but just for a minute or two," Annabeth said, smiling a bit as she shifted on the bed so she was facing him rather than sitting next to him like she had been before "If you don't get done with the chapter before I leave you're going to have to do it on your own."

"Yeah, alright- I swear I just need a couple minutes for my eyes to start focusing right," Percy assured her, smiling as he shifted slightly so he was looking over at her as well "Just a few minutes of not staring at a book."

"Fair enough," Annabeth assured, smiling at him for a moment, though it morphed into a smirk "So, how was your latest outing with the princess?"

The question surprised Percy, as really he had sort of been trying to avoid Piper in the conversation however possible. Mostly he had just been avoiding anything that had to do with the princess when he was around Annabeth, not wanting to make it awkward after everything. It seemed that the way Annabeth avoided it being awkward though was by teasing him about it.

"Fine," Percy rolled his eyes a bit at that, before shrugging as he thought about it "She's nice- I like spending time with her. And I like that the king actually lets me out of the castle sometimes now- even if the reason is just because he wants to make Piper happy."

"And has she also been enjoying your time together?" Annabeth sounded a bit more serious now, though he could still see the smirk playing on her lips a bit as she spoke.

"Yeah, I think so," Percy said, nodding, still feeling a bit awkward about this whole thing "I mean- she said she likes to spend time with me, and if nothing else we're friends at least."

"Well, it's good to know that you have at least some charm," Annabeth teased, the smirk fully returning as she did so.

"I'm starting to think that I want to go back to reading now-"

"That's all it took?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him "Good to know I finally found a way to get you to focus back on what we're supposed to be doing."

"Yeah yeah," Percy rolled his eyes again "Come on- let's just focus-"

There was a knock at the door, cutting him off from continuing. Looking up with surprise, Percy glanced at Annabeth, before shrugging and pushing himself up to go over and open the door. On the other side stood Piper, as if summoned by their conversation. Hazel was with her, and both of them looked more serious than Percy had ever seen them. "Piper, what can I do for you?"

"I need to talk to you," She glanced behind him, undoubtedly noticing Annabeth also in the room. Before he could object she continued "It's important, no it can't wait."

Percy sighed, but nodded, moving aside to let her in, before turning back to Annabeth "I'm sorry, we'll have to finish this later, or work on it for a little bit longer tomorrow or something."

"That's alright," Annabeth assured, having stood up at some point and was now moving towards the door. She nodded to Piper "My lady-" before starting towards the door.

"You can stay," Piper offered, looking over at Annabeth as the girl nodded to her "Hopefully this won't take long."

Percy looked at her in confusion for a moment, before looking at Annabeth, who looked just as confused as he was. For a moment he watched her as she considered her options, before she nodded and took a step back, indicating she'd stay in the room.

Piper and Hazel entered, before Piper turned back to the door "Jason, it is likely best if you join us as well."

Both Percy and Annabeth looked at Jason in surprise, who was in turn looking at Piper, then a glance at Percy, before entering the room and closing the door behind him.

For a moment Percy just glanced around at all for the people gathered in the room, before focusing on Piper "What's going on?"

He had no idea what it could or would be that would include all of them. Somewhere in the back of his brain he wondered if he should have asked them all to sit down, but before he could Piper was looking at Hazel, who hesitated for just a second before speaking, her voice soft but firm "I was walking through the back halls of the castle with a friend- Leo, he's the apprentice to one of the blacksmiths-"

"I know him," Percy said, nodding a bit "He helped take measurements for the sword my father had made for me."

Hazel nodded, taking a deep breath before continuing "Some guards stopped us-"

"What did he do?" Jason asked, sighing a bit, as if Leo ending up in trouble with the guards was something he had been expecting for awhile, but had been hoping would never actually happen.

"Nothing," Haze assured, glancing over at him "We were in an area of the castle that he technically wasn't supposed to be in, but other than that he didn't do anything. But while the were questioning why we were- they noticed his tattoo."

"Fuck."

Percy had never heard Jason swear before. His eyes were fixed on Hazel, and it was clear the two of them were thinking something that the rest of them didn't understand. Frowning a bit, Percy asked "What's it matter if he has a tattoo?"

Hazel took a deep breath, glancing at Piper for a moment, before looking back at Percy "It's a druid mark."

Percy's stomach dropped, brain immediately going to the events of the week prior. He didn't know Leo well. From what he knew the boy was even more childish than he himself could be, and he wasn't surprised that the boy had apparently almost burnt down a stable once. Still, none of that meant he deserved to be in jail. If anything it meant the opposite. "What happened?"

"They took him," Hazel said, and as far as Percy could tell she was still focusing more on Jason than him "They looked through his bag and said there was something in it he'd stolen. I was with him the whole time, there was nothing in the bag-"

Jason seemed to debate that for a moment, before nodding a bit. To Percy's slight surprise, since Jason normally wasn't so forward, he looked right at him "We need to do something."

"We know," Piper had spoken up to Percy's relief, as really he wasn't sure what he had been about to say "We want to help him, that's why we came here. We were hoping that Percy could speak to his father. Assure him that Leo didn't do anything wrong."

"I'm not sure how much good it'll do," Percy sighed "I don't have a ton of sway with him, but I'll see what I can do."

A silence fell over them as the truth of what he was saying fully dawned on all of them. There really wasn't much he could do, and if he didn't…

It was Jason that finally asked the question all of them were thinking "And if you can't get him to let Leo go? If he insists they found something in his bag?"

Percy took a deep breath, mind racing to try and figure out his answer before he started talking. After a moment though, he had no choice but to start, trying to make his voice as confident as possible when he spoke "We'll figure that out when or if it comes to it."

To Percy's relief, and surprise, the others nodded in agreement. He wasn't sure if they just didn't know what else to do, or if by some miracle he had convinced them he actually had a clue what he was doing, but he was relieved he didn't have to try and come up with a more indepth answer.

"Thank you Percy," Piper said, giving him a small smile as she nodded again "Leo is a friend of all of ours- Hazel, Jason, and me. We can't just leave him in there-"

"I know," Percy assured, nodding to her in return "And I want him free as much as you do. He doesn't deserve to be in the dungeons over something like this. We'll figure it out."

Piper gave him a small smile for a moment, just looking at him before speaking again "Still, thank you. We'll leave you to think, we should be going anyway. I just wanted to tell you as soon as possible."

"I appreciate it," Percy assured, returning the small smile "Hopefully I will be able to talk to the king tomorrow afternoon, I don't think I'll get the chance before then."

"I will show you out," Jason said, looking over at Piper and Hazel, before going to hold the door for them. A moment later the room was as empty as before, with just Percy and Annabeth left inside.

Sighing, Percy ran a hand through his hair, something he had been holding back the whole conversation "You were oddly quiet."

"I didn't have anything to really add. You were doing a good job of sounding confident and reassuring them all by yourself," Annabeth replied, shrugging a bit before looking up at him "Your father isn't going to listen to you."

"No, he's not," Percy agreed, sighing again and going back to sit on edge of the bed. Of course Annabeth knew that. The others might have thought he had some sort of power, but she knew the truth. He had no power at all. If anything he had even less than he had before he was a prince.

"So what are you going to do?" Annabeth moved over to sit next to him.

"I'm going to try and talk to him," Percy replied, before meeting her eyes "But I think you better start coming up with a back up plan to get Leo out- if you don't mind plotting treason that is."

Annabeth was the smartest person he knew. Though it had only really come out a few times, it was also obvious she was good at strategy. If anyone could figure out a way to help it would be her, but there was no denying that if she did help it would likely be considered treason. That was a lot to ask.

"I'll see what I can come up with," Annabeth assured, giving him a small smile "We'll figure this out."

It was the same thing he had said to Piper. Somehow coming from Annabeth it seemed a lot more reassuring.