"you could be the king, but watch the queen conquer"
-
Rosalyn Carter is the daughter of Aphrodite and the last thing Percy expected to find at Camp Half-Blood.
But he wouldn't want to fight deadly battles with anyone else.
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By dinner time, Rosalyn was released from the infirmary. She still looked like she'd been plowed over by a fiery metal bull, but she was alive and mostly well.
Annabeth had already joined her siblings at the Athena table, but Rosie hung back to wait for Percy. He led Tyson towards her with an uneasy look on his face. The cyclops did not notice Percy's mood, because he beamed widely at the girl.
"Pretty girl," Tyson laughed, clapping at the sight of her.
Rosalyn couldn't help but smile back, saying, "Thank you."
"Bad cow hurt you."
"I'm okay now, big guy," Rosalyn assured him, before raising a brow at Percy. The look said are you ready for this?
With a a heavy sigh, he nodded, and they started forward.
They led Tyson into the middle of the pavilion. Conversations immediately faltered. Heads turned.
"Who invited that?" somebody at the Apollo table murmured. Rosie glared in their direction, but she couldn't figure out who'd spoken.
From the head table a familiar voice drawled, "Well, well, if it isn't Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete."
"Percy Jackson...sir."
Mr. D waved a dismissive hand. Next to him, where Chiron usually sat (or stood, in centaur form), was someone Percy had never seen before—a pale, horribly thin man in a threadbare orange prisoner's jumpsuit. The number over his pocket read 0001.
He had blue shadows under his eyes, dirty fingernails, and badly cut gray hair. He stared at them with a look that was angry and frustrated and hungry all at the same time.
"This boy," Dionysus told him, "you need to watch. Poseidon's child, you know."
"I am Tantalus," the prisoner said, smiling coldly. "On special assignment here until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing any more trouble."
"Trouble?" Percy demanded.
Rosalyn's eyes scanned the campers at the pavilion as she tuned out their squabble. They all watched Percy's new friend with a mix of fear and disgust. Any of them that met Rosalyn's gaze by accident quickly averted their eyes.
Percy crossing his arms snapped her attention back to the current leaders of camp.
"I'll be watching you, Percy Jackson," Tantalus said. "I don't want any problems at my camp."
"Your camp has problems already...sir."
"Oh, go sit down, Johnson," Dionysus sighed. "I believe that table over there is yours—the one where no one else ever wants to sit."
Rosie opened her mouth, but Percy quickly grabbed her by the arm and gently tugged her away. He sighed as his face burned.
