Chapter 27 - So You Want to Build a Greek Warship?
The week felt much the same as last week. I spent my weekdays pretending I was a normal teenage girl. Anytime I saw a monster I'd ask for a hall pass, handle it as quickly and quietly as I could, and go back to class like nothing had happened. I kept a spare outfit in my locker in case the monster dust was too much - no need to have to explain to my teachers why I left for the bathroom and came back covered in dirt. In the afternoons I'd work on homework with my mortal friends, then I'd spend my evenings talking to Rachel and preparing for the quest. I had already read two of the books Chiron had given me, but there were several more. I would take notes on the differences between the Greek and Roman gods and monsters to ask Jason about. I'd spend time researching engines, ship building, aerospace engineering, and anything else I thought might help Leo build the Argo II. I would quiz myself on all the first aid that Will Solace had taught me. And before bed each night I'd write a couple of pages of my memories of Percy - hoping that somewhere in that journal would be something to spark his memory.
By Friday, I felt like I was well prepared for another weekend at camp. I had something I needed to do first, though. When Blackjack came for me I handed him an apple and then held up some sugar cubes. Percy said he loved those almost as much as donuts.
"Hey buddy. I need you to take me somewhere first, ok? I need to get to Sally Jackson's place."
When we touched down outside Percy's apartment I felt a twinge of guilt. It had been almost a month since I was here for that Christmas visit. I had promised to keep her updated on the search, but in truth, there weren't any updates. We were building the ship, we were preparing as best we could, but no one had seen Percy anywhere. Tyson and Mrs. O'Leary had arrived in California and begun to search but they hadn't had any luck. Nico wasn't answering my calls. Thalia was, but she had no news either. Grover was keeping an eye out when he could, but he was out trying to inform the nature spirits about Gaea. I could barely stand having no news at all of Percy. He had to be somewhere. I couldn't bear the thought that he would be somewhere, possibly in danger, for six months. That was far too long.
I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
"Annabeth!" I was quickly pulled into a hug by Percy's mom. I have to say, no matter how nervous I was to tell her I had no real news, her hugs always felt really nice. She pulled away from me and studied me.
"Is your shoulder healed? I guess I should have asked before I hugged you."
I smiled at her. "I'm doing a lot better, Mrs. Jackson. I can use my arm just fine now. But -" I took a deep breath. "I… I still don't have any news." I kept my eyes locked on the floor. I didn't want to see her disappointment. She rested a hand on my good shoulder.
"Annabeth." She said it gently. "It's ok. You're doing everything you can."
"What if…" I took a shaky breath as the words Will Solace had told me came back to me. "What if it's not enough?"
Gently, she pulled me into another hug. I guess neither of us had an answer for that. I truly didn't know how either of us would live if Percy never came back.
We ended up spending about an hour together, during which time Percy's mom insisted on feeding me. I told her about my time in California, all the places I had searched for her son. We didn't really accomplish anything, but it felt nice to talk to someone about Percy. At camp, a lot of people tried not to bring him up. That almost hurt worse. Grover, Rachel, and Thalia were hard to reach and I could only talk to them for a few minutes at a time via Iris message. It was nice to have someone I could talk to for a full hour, uninterrupted. Paul came home and I gave him a quick update and a hug before I left with Blackjack. It was time to go back to camp.
When I arrived at Bunker 9 I could tell right away that something was wrong. It was too quiet.
"Leo?" I called.
"Back here." Came the voice. I walked back, expecting Leo to be trapped under some kind of machine again. Instead I found him sitting on a workbench with his head in his hands, clearly upset.
"Hey! Hey, what's wrong?" I asked him, surprised. I had never seen Leo look like he wanted to cry.
"It's just…. I don't know what I'm doing. I thought I had a good design for the oars, but after all the work this week, when we tested them out, they didn't move in sync. In fact -" He gestured to a pile of wood that had all been broken. "They kinda all rammed into each other and broke."
I sat down on the bench with him. "Ok. So this is the first set-back since we started, right?"
Leo gave me a guilty glance but nodded. Maybe there had been other setbacks but he hadn't told me. I decided to ignore that for now.
"Leo, one set back in over a month? That's nothing for demigods. Heck, if Percy and I had one set back a DAY on a quest it was considered an easy day. For a month? That's unheard of."
Leo gave me a watery grin, so I kept going. "You've got this Leo. You've got a great team. I know it's a lot of pressure. I'll help with that, in any way I can. But you got this." I hoped it reassured him. I clapped him on the back and told him, "But for now, show me what you did for the oars. Maybe you and I can think of a new design, ok?"
He nodded, determinedly. "Yeah. Yeah. You're right." He looked at me. "Any chance you won't tell anyone about this? I sent them all back to the forges to work on the bronze plating."
I grinned at him. "Lips are sealed, promise." He seemed to relax. Then he showed me the blueprints. It took the rest of the night, but using what we could find on Daedalus's laptop, we were able to come up with a new plan for the oars that we were pretty sure would work. Well, at least 28% sure. And for demigods who have never built a boat, well, that's pretty sure.
I woke up the next morning and ate breakfast with my siblings. Maya had a new black eye. She had apparently had a prank go wrong, but no one would tell me what it was. She and the Stoll brothers both grinned at each other when I asked. After breakfast I sought out someone I had missed last week. Milo. I covered his eyes while he was still at the Hermes table.
"Guess who?" I whispered.
"Annabeth!" He screamed and threw his arms around me. I loved this kid. I ruffled my hand through his hair.
"How are you doing, Milo?" I asked him, more seriously.
He grinned at me. "Really good. Guess what? I got claimed on Wednesday."
"Really? Let me guess…. Athena?" He shook his head with a blush. "Apollo, since you like to shoot?" He grinned and shook his head. I already knew the answer, he was clearly still sitting at the Hermes table, but he seemed to love this guessing game. "Hm…. Dionysis?" He laughed.
"NO! Hermes! Can you believe it?" I could believe it. This kid was the spitting image of Luke, and it felt like a dagger twisting in my heart when he grinned at me.
"No way!" I said instead. "That's so cool. Are you enjoying it?"
"Yeah! Travis is teaching me how to pick pocket."
"Guess I'll have to be careful around you then, huh?"
He looked very serious now. "No. You are my friend. I will never steal from you."
I smiled at him and gave him a huge hug. Then I turned to Livy.
"Livy? Want to take a walk?"
She gave me a relieved smile and got up. I could tell she wasn't feeling comfortable around her cabin mates and wanted to talk in private. We got to the green and I sat down by Hestia's fire. I patted the log next to me. Livy sat, but wouldn't meet my eyes.
"You haven't been claimed yet." I said it softly, but I could tell from her expression I hit the nail on the head.
"No." She sniffed.
"Livy. It's ok. You aren't 13 yet. That's the deadline." She shrugged, miserably. "When's your birthday?"
"February 14th." She said sullenly.
"Valentine's Day?" She nodded. "That's not too far. You'll probably be claimed on your birthday." She nodded, but I could tell it hadn't helped.
"Are your cabin mates giving you trouble?"
"No. I just… Jess has been claimed, and now we don't talk much. Milo has been claimed, and now he just wants to hang out with the Stolls. I mean, I get it. It's the first time he's had a real -" She choked up.
I saw so much of my younger self in this girl. Luke and I had grown apart after we got to camp, after he had real siblings. It had hurt. He had been the closest thing to a brother, and he had grown so bitter after Thalia died, that even when he was with me he wasn't the same. I had held on to each moment he spent with me, even if it was different. My new siblings had treated me like a baby. And really, I had been. I was so young, younger even than Milo. But I still remember wanting Thalia to hold me after my nightmares, not Chiron. I remember wanting Luke to sit next to me at the campfire and not understanding why he wouldn't. I had all these new people around me to be my family, but they had left as soon as school started. It had all hurt. I wrapped an arm around Livy.
"It's ok. That you're feeling this way. I get it. I don't know how to fix it, but I get it." She nodded and let some more tears fall. "It's…" I tried to think of the words for it. "A new chapter. It doesn't erase what has happened before, but it's new for all of you. You will all need to figure out your roles. And sometimes, that can hurt as you grow into it."
She nodded again and sniffed. "I just… I wanted to find a family here. But I guess I still don't feel like I have." She pulled away from me.
"I get it." I assured her. "For what it's worth, I'm still your friend, ok? You can tell me whatever. Whenever you need to talk, I'm here. You can even Iris message me at school. I'll make sure Chiron knows you have my permission to call too. He can always give you a drachma for it."
She nodded and smiled at me. "Thanks. I'd…. I'd like that, I think."
I gave her another hug. "I'm not leaving, Livy. I promise."
She sobbed and held onto me.
When Livy felt good enough to go back to her cabin mates, I decided it was time to get back to work with Leo. I walked to the bunker and found him hard at work on the oars.
"Annabeth!" He called out excitedly. "I figured it out! They need to retract!" I grinned at his obvious excitement.
"Nice! So, how do we do that?"
"I have no idea!" He grinned at me again. "Care to help?"
I nodded and jumped right in. We researched options on Daeadalus's laptop until we had a couple ideas that might work. Then we got to work building tiny models of the possibilities to see which one was best. We spent all morning working on the oars. After lunch I found Piper in Percy's cabin.
"I was hoping…" she began. I nodded.
"I was hoping you'd be here too. But today, we have a new lesson, ok?"
"Uh…" She followed me out. We walked to the sword arena. I picked up a practice sword and showed it to her.
"I'm going to run at you with this sword. You have to stop me before I hit you. Got it?"
Piper paled. "You can run pretty fast."
I laughed. "Not as fast as a lot of monsters. Don't you think you might need that?"
Piper grimaced but nodded. I jogged toward her at a medium pace. Piper called out "Stop!" but nothing happened. "Stop!" She yelled again. I slowed for a moment, but that was it. I was within striking distance when she called again "STOP!" This time I froze, my sword an inch from her chest. I grinned at her.
"Nice! Let's try it again, be quicker, ok?" I turned and ran to the other end of the field.
"How come I feel like this is payback for the boxers?" She called out after me.
"Think of it as a sort of weapons practice. Only in this case, your voice is the weapon."
She gritted her teeth and nodded. I ran at her again. This time she got me when I was a full three feet away from her. I broke off the attack and returned to the start.
The third time she was distracted, I could tell. I smacked her with the flat of the blade as I ran past her.
"Hey!" She called after me.
I looked at her with my eyebrows raised. "What? You thought I wouldn't really hit, didn't you? Otherwise you would have stopped me. You've got to master this Piper. You've got to."
She glared at me, but nodded, determined. I ran again, but this time, I only got a few feet before her order stopped me. We tried it again, with me running from different directions each time, and at different speeds. Each time the order poured over me stronger, keeping me stuck for longer. By the time our hour was up, Piper was drenched in sweat despite the cool air and I was sure that if a monster came at Piper, she'd be able to stop it, at least long enough to pull a blade. I patted her on the back.
"That was amazing." I told her. She grinned at me, clearly pleased with the praise.
"Next time -" I informed her. "You'll have a blade too."
She groaned and walked off to her cabin to shower.
I was heading back to the cabins as well, when I noticed Will Solace coming up to me with a grin.
"Good news!" He called out. "Ares cabin was wrestling and we've got a few light sprains. You get to come work on your splints."
I grinned and headed off with him. I splinted every Ares camper, even Jess, even if they weren't hurt. Will insisted I should try with different people in order to get a good feel for it. Will was a good teacher. He let me try it myself, while he offered guidance when he could. After we were done I took him to the pegasus stables for a surprise.
"The Chariot!" He yelled with excitement. "You fixed it!"
I grinned at him. "Technically, Leo and Nyssa fixed it. In exchange I helped them both with some homework."
Will ran his hands along the rim of the chariot. "It looks brand new!"
It wasn't a repayment of all WIll had done for me, but it still felt nice that we were at least even for this one event.
"Now, want to go practice some weapons?" I asked him.
Will turned to me and nodded, eyes alight. "Yeah. Yeah, thanks Annabeth."
We got to the practice arena and I handed Will a knife in a similar size to mine. "Ok. Knife fighting today. Could be a good addition to your bow, something to use when you are in a close range. We'll start with just some basic thrusts and blocks, ok?"
Will looked scared but gripped the knife and nodded. We spent an hour together and Will did ok with the knife. He didn't seem to have a natural talent for it, but he was smart and determined, which I appreciated. When our time was up he gripped me on the shoulder.
"Thanks, Annabeth. I'll keep practicing during the week."
"It'll get easier." I promised him.
He smiled and we headed to dinner. As we went, Will quizzed me on signs of poisoning and what could help remedy the different poisons. Not exactly an appetizing conversation.
After dinner I was working in my cabin, trying to come up with a better model for the oars. The one we had would work, but it would cause a lot of strain on the engine. There had to be a way to make them more aerodynamic so the strain was less. I was deep in thought when I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I turned. Jason. He held up a book of Roman military history and tactics.
I shook my head. He looked stunned but I gestured for him to sit down. He took one of the desk chairs that swiveled and looked at me.
"Jason. Do you remember anyone from your old life?"
He looked guarded, but nodded. "Bits and pieces. Names."
"Do you remember any of the leaders?"
His face paled. There was some kind of a history there. I didn't know what it was. He nodded, barely.
"Tell me about leadership in New Rome." I told him. "Who do we need to convince that we are on a peace mission? What tactics can we use to convince them? Their histories, their lives. Anything that I might need to know to help make sure this goes smoothly."
Jason nodded, but I could tell he was still not comfortable with the subject.
"Ok. So there's a Senate, which is like 10 people, then there are the praetors. Typically, there are two of them….."