CHAPTER 5 – ANNABETH ENDS UP ON THE ROOF

"Alright," the familiar voice said, "now show yourselves, monster!"

"Clarisse?" Annabeth choked. "It's us! None of us are monsters in disguise!"

Clarisse lowered her electric spear, repaired from the time I broke it during my first ever Capture the Flag contest. Coils of blue electricity tingled up and down in a warning sign.

"Sure about that?"

"Ask me any question," Annabeth said irritably. Clarisse pursed her lips in thought for a second. I had never actually seen Clarisse think before – now it was comparable to that of a gorilla.

"Give me four facts about the Hoover Dam."

"Over two hundred metres tall," I said instantly.

"Largest construction project in the United States," Grover sighed.

"Built in the 1930s," Thalia added.

"Containing five million cubic acres of water," Annabeth finished without remembering to breathe. I whistled. Sometimes having an annoying friend like Annabeth had its advantages.

Clarisse raised her eyebrows.

"I'll take your word for it," she said, sheathing her spear. "Sorry about that – monsters have been getting into camp by disguising themselves as half-bloods, so we've had to double security."

"Where's Chiron?" I burst out.

"Calling out the centaurs for war," Clarisse replied. "Centaurs and humans have never been good with each other so Chiron's trying to convince them to join our side and be useful instead of getting wasted."

I remembered the Party Ponies two years ago in Miami. Now they were just odd.

"Mr D's taken over completely," Clarisse continued. "He's actually bothering about us now – that's what war's doing to people."

Annabeth nodded wisely, and had the same knowing look that I had seen in her mother's eye last year. And then I remembered her words – the words that had freaked me out like nothing else had ever.

And should you begin to waver in your loyalties…

And then she had fixed me with that stare that haunted me. I shivered as the spring breeze blew. Annabeth was looking at me while speaking to Clarisse, fixing that same icy stare upon me now.

"Yeah – that's what war's doing. We all need to stick together – and talk to each other. In times like this, each day could be the last time you would ever see somebody. Each day could be your last. Our families – they will be the ones that are targeted. We can't afford to lose them without saying goodbye."

I turned my face away from her. Although she was talking to Clarisse, I could tell that she was talking directly to me. I stormed off to cabin number three.

As soon as I got in, I inhaled. I had not smelt the fresh salty smell of the cabin for only three months, yet it felt like aeons.

I was still thinking about what Annabeth had said. Damn it. No wonder her mom was the goddess of wisdom – it showed. I fished around in my pocket, and pulled out a drachma. I looked at it, turning it over and over in my hands. My last golden drachma. Who should I call on?

There was my mom. I hadn't even stopped to say goodbye to her. It was like two years ago – I had just run away without even saying goodbye or telling her where I'd be going. I thought it would be obvious but –

I could try to find Nico di Angelo. But I had no idea where the kid was. And even then, he wouldn't want to speak to me. I still felt guilty about him, and I had no idea whose side he was on. I just hoped that Luke had not caught up with him, because then there would be no hope.

I could try my dad. But he was likely to be busy – but we still hadn't talked in ages. He was still proud of me, right? He barely ever spoke. I wondered how he had been doing with the Princess Andromeda. And he had the older spirits of the ocean to battle. That had to be time-consuming. I certainly would never have battled Nereus, Santa's evil twin, even for the answer to the meaning of life.

Then I decided. It had to be one of the stupidest, craziest ideas I had had in my entire life. And heck, I'd had a lot of them.

I called Tyson.

"PERCY!" Tyson still hadn't learnt to keep his voice down when he saw me. I suppose they don't teach you that at underwater forges. "HOW ARE YOU?"

"Fine thanks." I grimaced. "How are you?"

"I'M MAKING EVEN MORE SWORDS NOW!" Tyson's grin split his face. "BOSS SAYS I CAN COME TO VISIT YOU ANY TIME I LIKE!"

"That's – great."

Tyson's expression became oddly sympathetic, which does not look good on a Cyclops.

"Percy," he said solemnly, "is there something wrong?"

I would have replied angrily that was a dumb question. But this was Tyson, and I could keep a lid on it with him.

"Mom and Blowfish are getting married and having a baby together."

"YOUR MOM'S MARRYING A FISHY?" Tyson yelped.

I smiled. "Not quite, big guy. It just feels so sudden though."

"WHEN IS THE WEDDING?"

"No idea. I left before I asked them that."

Tyson looked very serious, another bad look to try out on a Cyclops. Come to think of it, not many expressions look good on a Cyclops.

"That was a bad thing to do."

"I know it was," I said angrily. "But it's all too soon."

Tyson pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"Why don't you talk with your mom?"

"I can't face it."

Tyson shrugged.

"You'll have to do it some time."

"Tyson, I-"

It was too late. Tyson had already hung up on me. I thought about his last words for a few minutes. You'll have to do it some time. Should I or shouldn't I?

I was on the brink of deciding when I heard several screams from outside. I burst out of the Poseidon cabin and saw something pretty strange.

The entire population of the Athena cabin was climbing up onto their roof fearfully, looking over their shoulders every other second. Annabeth was frozen in the middle of the space surrounded by cabins, paralysed in fright.

Spiders.

And not the teeny-weeny creepy-crawly ones either. Humungous ones, from those the size of dinner plates to giant spiders the size of Thalia's pine tree.

I acted impulsively. I couldn't let Annabeth just stand there in terror – she was petrified of spiders. I scooped her off the ground and handed her up to her brothers and sisters, who were sitting, quaking, on the Athena cabin roof. She was still too scared to thank me.

I uncapped Riptide, and waved it, unsure, at the advancing spiders. They did not seem to be approaching with the intent to destroy – it was almost as if they came in peace.

"Percy," Chiron's gentle voice came from behind me, "you won't be needing that."

Still doubtful, I lowered Riptide and backed away into the crowd of campers that had gathered behind me. Chiron cantered up to the halted army of spiders. I was expecting them to strike as quickly as possible. They didn't.

"We come in peace," a soft, yet with faint scratches, female voice intoned from the back. "You may lower your weapons."

I gasped.

The queen of these spiders advanced over her troops. She was as tall as Thalia's pine tree and even wider because of her legs. A torso, two arms and a head sprouted out from the spider's back. Her face was breathtaking – the face of a fifteen-year-old girl.

"My name is Arachne," she bowed humbly, "and I bring you an enemy."

She let her lieutenant, another spider, bring forth a tall youth who was around twenty years old. His sandy hair had grown unkempt and a beard was beginning to emerge. A huge scar spread down his face.

Luke.