Chapter 61
"We need to call this whole thing off."
The words came out as soon as the door was closed behind her, and she knew for sure that Percy was the only one that would be able to hear her "Call off the challenge. Luke will mock you for it, but if you say it was just the heat of the moment and offer to continue with the duel should he wish, honor and the eyes of the court will force him to accept your withdrawal. It's an honorable option, and many of the lords will probably respect you for acknowledging the mistake and that you were still willing to go through with it if needed."
"Woah- hey- what are you talking about?" Percy asked, and Annabeth could see the confusion clear on his face "I don't want to call it off."
"You have to," Annabeth took a deep breath "You are making a mistake. We're playing right into Luke's hands-"
"Annabeth," Percy cut off, moving over to put his hands on her shoulders and looking her in the eye "I know your brain is going a million miles a minute, but take a deep breath and explain what's going on."
Annabeth took another deep breath, looking at Percy for a long moment, the pressure of his hands on her shoulders helping to ground her thoughts and let her get them more in order before she spoke again.
"I went to see Luke. I needed to know what was going on, there was something that he was planning and I knew it, I just didn't know what it was," Annabeth started to explain when her brain finally managed to calm down enough to think straight "He has some grand plan about taking down the entire kingdom, getting all of the lords against each other, and you stepping down helps with that. You can't risk it Percy."
"Annabeth, if he's plotting against the kingdom then we don't have to fight at all," Percy's voice sounded almost relieved. "We can just go to my father and get Luke locked up."
"It's just my word against his, Percy. Who do you think your father is going to believe?" Annabeth shook her head "If you step down the lords will fight over power and the kingdom will become chaos just like Luke wants. It's to big of a risk."
"I'm not going to lose," Percy replied with such certainty in his voice that it made Annabeth want to believe him. To just accept his confidence and move on with that, but the logical part of her brain wouldn't go along with that plan no matter how nice it would be.
"You can't know that for sure, Percy," Annabeth insisted, sighing as she thought about it "And if you don't…"
"If I don't, I can still warn my father about him before disappearing," Percy pointed out as he looked over at her, surprisingly calm in face of what was happening "The king is a smart man, I'm sure he'll figure out who the right person to take over for him would be. He has years to figure all of this out, I'm sure he'll be able to."
"He wants to become the king's advisor, to play a part in making sure that the king doesn't figure it out, or makes a bad choice." Even as she said it though, Annabeth had to admit that a lot of what Percy's logic made sense and she wa starting to calm down quite a bit now "He wants revenge for what happened to Thalia, and it seems like he's willing to do pretty much anything to get it."
"Either way, I will talk to Poseidon, warn him about Luke," Percy assured, giving her a small smile and squeezing her shoulders a bit "And you can always talk to your dad as well. He has the king's ear. It'll get figured out, even if I do lose."
Annabeth still felt like she should continue to try and argue, that it was still a risk, but she also knew Percy did have good points. And she didn't really want to protest. She wanted to be convinced that this could work even if Percy did leave. So instead she slowly nodded, though the response didn't come out as confident as she would like when she said "Alright."
For a moment Percy looked over at her, before pulling her towards him to hug her tightly. Annabeth didn't protest, moving close to him, and at least for a moment letting Percy's optimism overpower her logic. God she wished she could be as sure as Percy seemed to be.
It was a few moments before they finally broke apart, Percy moving to tuck some of her hair that had fallen lose behind her ear, causing Annabeth to smile a bit "It'll be alright."
"Alright," Annabeth replied again, her voice more confident now as she said it "Thank you Percy."
"Of course, I'm here to get your brain to calm down whenever you need it," Percy smiled at her, his voice teasing for a moment as he reached up to tap her forehead. Then a look of hesitation crossed his face, and a moment later he softly asked "What did happen with Thalia? Sorry, I know you don't like to talk about it, but if Luke's willing to take down an entire kingdom for it, it seems important."
Annabeth sighed. She had told him bits and pieces over the years. How she'd run away just after the twins were born, how she'd met Luke and Thalia and they'd looked after her. That they'd run into Grover for awhile, someone Annabeth had already known, and that eventually Thalia died, but not much more than that. There hadn't seemed to be a reason to go into details, and to his credit Percy had never pressed. Honestly an explanation was probably overdue.
Taking Percy's hand Annabeth made her way over to the edge of the bed to sit down, trying to figure out how to even start "Obviously it was pretty late in our time together. We'd gotten lost in the woods, and had been wandering around in circles for about three days when we finally ran into Grover. He was out gathering herbs for his father and he told us he could show us to a nearby fishing village where they were staying for the night to gather certain plants that grow closer to the sea rather than near town."
Percy nodded a bit, "I know where you're talking about. They took me along a couple times when mom thought it would be good to put some space between me and Gabe."
"When we got to town his dad even let us spend the night with them, letting us sleep on the floor of their room and giving us dinner," A small smile crept on to her face as she added "Luke asked why he wasn't worried about us stealing from him, and Mr. Underwood said that they didn't have anything worth taking that we couldn't go out into the woods and get ourselves if we wanted it."
"Sounds like Mr. Underwood," Percy agreed again, squeezing Annabeth's hand a bit to reassure her as he waited.
"Yeah," Annabeth took a deep breath, looking down at her hand in Percy's "That night the town got raided. We woke up to shouts and yelling outside. Mr. Underwood immediately moved into action. He told Grover to go out the back and run to the next town as fast as he could to get the guards stationed there. Grover knew short cuts through the woods and would be faster without the rest of us following along. He told Luke and Thalia to take me and hide in the small closet and stay quiet. That he would lock the door behind him and come back when it was over.
"We did what he said, Mr. Underwood going to help the men in the village. Once he was gone, Luke assured the door was locked and we got as close to the back of the closet as we could," Annabeth took a shaky breath, closing her eyes as she thought about it "I don't know how long we stayed there, but it was a long time, and I remember thinking that it must be over but still not daring to move off of Thalia's lap or say anything."
When she paused again, Percy squeezed her hand and softly said "I think I can more or less figure it out the rest."
"No- if you're going to understand you need to know all of it- and it's almost done anyway," Annabeth replied, shaking her head "And I want to tell you. I don't want to hide things from you- it's just- hard."
She had been young when it happened, they all had. Thalia was only twelve, Luke fourteen, and Annabeth eight. Despite how young she was and how long ago it had been, Annabeth still remembered every detail. Still had nightmares. It was still part of her, and not only did Percy deserve to know, she wanted to tell him. It was just hard to talk about, even after all this time. Even to Percy.
"We first heard shuffles in the hallway, then someone started banging on the door, trying to get it open. Thalia and Luke looked at each other and I could tell they were having a silent argument, I assume about what to do. Thalia was faster and a better fighter, but Luke was older and bigger, and super overprotective of both of us- and- well, not a girl so he probably figured the raider would have less interest in him," Annabeth let out a breath, closing her eyes again "Once the door slammed open it all happened really fast. Thalia was slightly closer to the closet door. She shoved me into Luke's lap and jumped up, darting out of the closet. Luke swore, but pulled me to him, hand clamping over my mouth before I could call out for her, which was probably good because I think I tried. I head Thalia saying something, probably mocking the raiders. A moment later they were running out of the room after her.
"I don't know how long after that it was till Mr. Underwood returned. I stayed as close to Luke as possible, and I remembered that he kept his hand over my mouth for a long time after Thalia left, his other arm tightly around me to keep me from going after her." Her voice was as soft as it could be well still being heard. It still stung. A lot. Especially after how Luke had changed, how she had basically lost him after the raid as well.
"They never found her body, but that wasn't surprising. A lot of the bodies were scattered around or thrown into burning buildings." She had to believe Thalia had died that day. It was to horrible to think what would have happened if the raiders had taken her. And Thalia wouldn't have just chosen not to return to them. Thalia had died, that was the only answer that was worth thinking about.
"I'm sorry," Percy replied softly, and Annabeth just squeezed his hand a bit in return to the comment. She didn't say anything for a moment, and Percy didn't push. When she finally did glance over though, she could tell he was confused. It was faint, far from the main feeling he had, but it was there. He didn't ask whatever it was though, so she did it for him.
"What?"
"I just-" He hesitated, still not wanting to push. Despite the weird mental state telling the story had left her in, Annabeth felt a slight warmth at his reluctance to continue. "What does that have to do with now? What happened is terrible, but it was a raid, not the king's doing."
"After what happened I kind of freaked out a bit. I thought it was my fault, that if Luke hadn't had to look after me he could have helped Thalia and they both would have been able to survive. Or that one of the reasons Grover helped us was because he recognized me from town, so without me there they wouldn't have been in the village at all. My logic was that I would put him in danger to and insisted he take me home. He didn't like it, but eventually agreed." Now that they were off the direct topic of Thalia it was easier to talk about, her voice growing more steady.
"The whole way home, Luke kept telling me that it wasn't my fault. That the king was to blame for not protecting the village. That there should have been guards in the village. That if the guards had been quicker about believing Grover or not hesitated in going then they would have gotten there in time. Over and over he just kept saying that it was the king's fault for not protecting the village," Annabeth sighed, shaking her head as she thought about it "He'd always had issues with nobility. His father was killed in some battle fighting for a lord and while he was never close to his dad Luke was still bitter about it. His mom went crazy with grief, and the lord did almost nothing to compensate them for the death. I think Thalia is what really pushed him over the edge, but the hate was always there."
Slowly Percy nodded a bit, and for a long moment Annabeth just watched him, before softly speaking again "The thing is, Perce, Luke does have some points. The lord should have done something to help Luke and his mother after his father's death. The village should have been protected. He's gone to far, and became obsessed after Thalia died, but I don't completely disagree with him. Things need to change."
"I know," Percy replied, nodding and giving her a small smile as he met her eyes "And if I have any say in it, they will. And with you helping me I'm sure those changes will be for the better."
Annabeth just nodded a bit, squeezing his hand in return. She was still worried about the duel. About what would happen if Percy lost. About what Luke had said, that he did actually have a point.
Percy wasn't his father though. Thing would change, and all she could do when it came to the duel was trust Percy. Trust that he knew what he was doing. Trust him. And Annabeth did trust him. More than anyone else.
