Chapter 4: A prisoner once more
"Drop your weapons, or we will shoot." The feminine voice held no hesitation, telling Entreri that it was not an idle threat. He examined the odds. 30 or so teenage girls, all dressed in hunter's outfits, and every one holding a bow, arrow nocked and pointed at his heart. Not a very good position for starting a fight. For a moment, he considered, trying to break out the ring of hunters, but only for a moment. He had not become who he was by being stupid. He knew that there was no way to break free. He dropped his magnificent blades to the ground. Let his sentient sword obliterate whichever demigod that was foolish enough to pick it up. Charon's Claw did not like being picked up. He only wondered what was gong to happen to him. He did not have long to wonder. "okay, start walking," the girl who seemed to be their leader snapped at him. He took a closer look at her. Besides her bow, which was still in her hand, she had a quiver full of arrows on her back, a wide black bracelet with a strangely bulky part on ton of her left wrist, and a container of some sort strapped to her belt. Her hair was black, and strangely spiky, as if she hoped that her head could impale someone. Simply put, she looked bizarre. She stared right back at him, and when he looked at her eyes, she snorted, and said, "Come with me."
Later, Entreri reflected that the time to try an escape should have been right in the beginning when they had surrounded him. At least then, he wouldn't be locked up again. He had managed to be imprisoned only twice in his life, once in Auckney, and the other time in the prisons of king Dragonsbane. And now here as well. He had been marched here, past cabins arranged in an open rectangle, past an open pavilion, past training courts where young demigods stopped their swordfighting and archery to stare at him. Then he had been led into the cellar of a large wooden house, which the girl called Annabeth had called the big house, where he was locked in a small chamber and left alone as the two girls went up the stairs. He sighed, and began exploring his cell, hoping to find some weakness to exploit in his escape.