Chapter Ten: The Trip

Annabeth's POV

"We leave now. Hope you can climb," he said.

"Climb?" Annabeth squeaked.

If Annabeth was going climbing with some mysterious soldier of Chaos, she could only assume the worst. This wasn't going to be your regular climb up the lava wall at Camp- she could feel it.

"Indeed, climb, daughter of Athena," the figure replied, a steel edge to his voice. He turned around so his back was to her, walking away in the opposite direction.

The soldier was already halfway down the hill, and his friends had disappeared, nowhere to be found. It was like she was... Alone. Coming to her senses, Annabeth called after him. "Wait!"

The soldier slowed his brisk pace to a power walk, but nevertheless kept going. Some companion he was, Annabeth thought. She jogged to catch up to him.

"Where are we going, anyway?" she asked him. "How are we going to contact the primordial of the sky?"

"Mount Everest," he answered, without acknowledging her.

At the sound of the mountain, Annabeth stopped in her tracks. Mount Everest? Of all the mountains out there, they had to climb Everest? Annabeth swallowed hard, testing the mountain's name on her lips, "Mount Everest...?"

"All twenty-nine thousand thirty-five feet of it, yes," he replied, then: "Could you hurry up? Time is ticking; I have a mere forty-eight hours to find Ouranos, rescue Artemis, and be back at your miserable camp for the remainder of the war," he snapped at her.

Okay... Annabeth bit back some harsh insults, deciding to ignore the insults against Camp Half-Blood- her home, her family. It was the safest thing to do. Besides, Annabeth didn't want to get on his bad side; he looked like the kind of guy who murdered babies if they so much as smiled in his direction.

Annabeth tried again. "Why did you name your daughter Artemis?"

She still couldn't believe a female fell inlove with him. Who, in Zeus's name, would be attracted to a guy like him? Him of all people? They even had sex, resulting in his daughter, Artemis. He behaved like Annabeth's step-mom in many ways- gentle at times, but a huge bitch at others.

If anything, his pace grew faster yet. "That's none of your business, spawn of Athena," he snarled the words like some kind of animal.

His family was off limits then. Great. Annabeth strode in time with him: left foot, right foot, left. Her easy breaths soon grew labored and she struggled to keep up.

"If you can't answer that," Annabeth decided, catching his eyes for a split second, "then tell me your name."

"No."

"Well, I don't want to call you You all day," she countered.

"Even if I could, I wouldn't." He didn't sound like an animal now; he was an animal. It creeped Annabeth out, but she pressed on, determined to get him to crack.

"Please?" she tried.

"I can'tbecause my Lord Chaos has ordered me not," he spoke the words slow, like he was speaking to a six-year-old. That was an insult to Annabeth's intelligence.

"I'm sure you can break a few rules."

The soldier sneered, breaking easily into a full sprint, perhaps to blow some steam. Annabeth followed suit.

"You stupid girl!" he retorted. "Unlike you, I valuemy life. My Lord Chaos presented it to me- I owe him my life. I will be loyal to him until the end, fulfilling my duty as assassin."

The words hit Annabeth like a steel wall. She grounded her jaw, about to reply, but the soldier beat her to it. He muttered something under his breath, and a gentle sphere of ebony energy bloomed in his hand. He threw it out, like he was throwing a simple baseball.

Instead of falling to the ground, the energy froze in the air and expanded into an eight foot tall oval. The oval sucked its energies to its middle, transporting them to the other end, wherever that was.

Annabeth drew back in surprise.

"Stay here, daughter of Athena," the soldier ordered. "If I feel your presence in the portal, you will be obliterated without a second thought. Understand?" For the first time, he caught her eyes straight on.

Who was he to tell Annabeth what to do? She was the daughter of the Wisdom goddess, Athena herself! Annabeth was never told off; she was usually the one people looked up to.

Nevertheless, Annabeth nodded seriously.

"Good," he said, his tone lightening just a fraction. "Go back to your camp and ready yourself for battle. Do not tell anyone what happened here. You do not tell Chiron; you do not tell Dionysus; you do not tell your friends."

Annabeth nodded once more.

The soldier studied her face for something, backtracking to the portal. What for, Annabeth didn't know. He glared at her some more, took one more step, and disappeared into the portal with a flash of bright light.

Once he was gone, Annabeth's curiosity won her over. She eagerly stepped forward. How this portal functioned, she could only help but wonder. There was one way to find out. Annabeth reluctantly put a finger in the portal. Then her whole hand.

The energies racing to the center buzzed around her hand and, to her surprise, her limb was suddenly sucked in by an unknown force.

Annabeth struggled to contain her screams of horror. She grunted, trying her hardest to pull her hand out of the torture device. Alas, it was too strong for her. Annabeth's shoulders were sucked in and, suddenly, she was overwhelmed.

At first she would she was in Elysium. The weightless feeling gave Annabeth a sense of sanity, and the breeze made Annabeth feel like she was at the beach of Camp Half-Blood. She reluctantly opened her eyes to blurs of colors whizzing past her at a thousand miles per hour. Dizzy and confused, she couldn't even distinguish a single color before in left her mind.

Annabeth suddenly felt a cold pain on her back. Her eyesight, tinged with the thousand colors of the portal, faded away. Her quick breaths froze in the air, and snowflakes tickled her cheeks. It took her a moment for her to realize she had fallen in the snow.

"Why I even told you to stay behind, I wouldn't ever know," the soldier sighed, holding up a black mountaineering suit and boots. "Put this on."

As Annabeth gratefully put on the warm clothing, she looked over at the soldier, who was staring up at the peak of Everest. "What about you?"

"What about me?" he asked.

Annabeth gestured at his assassin's clothes. "You have only that on; you'll freeze."

"I'm an assassin of Chaos," he replied. "The weather won't kill me."

"Well," she said, "let's climb."