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chapter five
( HERA )
Hera's cabin was not someplace Katherine would want to live. It was as cold as a freezer, with a circle of white columns around a central statue of the goddess, ten feet tall, seated on a throne in flowing golden robes.
At the goddess's feet, a fire burned in a bronze brazier. A stone hawk sat on Hera's shoulder, and in her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower. The goddess's hair was done in black plaits. Her face smiled, but the eyes were cold and calculating, as if she were saying: Mother knows best. Now don't cross me or I will have to step on you.
There was nothing else in the cabin—no beds, no furniture, no bathroom, no windows, nothing that anyone could actually use to live. For a goddess of home and marriage, Hera's place didn't reminded at home.
They weren't alone. Behind the statue, at a little altar in the back, stood a figure covered in a black shawl. Only her hands were visible, palms up. She seemed to be chanting something like a spell or a prayer.
Katherine gasped. "Rachel?" She turned. She dropped her shawl, revealing a mane of curly red hair and a freckled face. She looked about seventeen, a totally normal teen in a green blouse and tattered jeans covered with marker doodles. Despite the cold floor, she was barefoot.
"Hey!" She ran to give Katherine and Annabeth a hug. "I'm so sorry! I came as fast as I could."
They talked for a few minutes about Percy and how there was no news, et cetera, until finally Katherine remembered Piper, who was standing there feeling uncomfortable.
"I'm being rude," Katherine apologized. "Rachel, this is Piper, one of the half-bloods we rescued today. Piper, this is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, our oracle."
"Katherine's girlfriend who lives in the cave," Piper guessed. Rachel grinned and giggle. "That's me."
"So you're an oracle?" Piper asked. "You can tell the future?"
"More like the future mugs me from time to time," Rachel said. "I speak prophecies. The oracle's spirit kind of hijacks me every once in a while and speaks important stuff that doesn't make any sense to anybody. But yeah, the prophecies tell the future."
"Oh." Piper shifted from foot to foot. "That's cool." Rachel laughed. "Don't worry. Everybody finds it a little creepy. Even me. But usually I'm harmless."
"You're a demigod?"
"Nope," Rachel said. "Just mortal."
"Then what are you ..." Piper waved her hand around the room.
Rachel's smile faded. She glanced at Katherine, then back at Piper. "Just a hunch. Something about this cabin and Percy's disappearance. They're connected somehow. I've learned to follow my hunches, especially the last month, since the gods went silent."
"Went silent?" Piper asked. Rachel frowned at Kathrine and Annabeth. "You haven't told her yet?"
