mastermind - percy jackson

ii. prophecies

"olympus to preserve or raze."

The end of the world began when it turned out that Silena and Cassandra were right.

The conch horn blew, signaling that someone had entered the camp. Silena stood up suddenly and started quickly walking out of the cabin.

"Silena wait!" Cassandra called, pushing herself off the floor, finishing putting the elastic on the end of her braid that Silena had been doing and running after her, Drew following behind them. "Just give me a second to catch up!"

But Silena was in no mood to wait, as she started walking faster and faster toward the dining pavilion where a crowd was starting to gather.

She faintly heard someone—Percy— saying, "The ship blew up. He wasn't destroyed. I don't know where—"

And then Silena pushed her way through the crowd, her hair uncombed and her face short of makeup. Cassandra pushed through after her, but the crowd didn't budge as easily, as they were too busy staring at Silena.

"Where's Charlie?" She demanded, looking around frantically.

"Move!" Cassandra yelled at the crowd and made her way to the front, standing beside Silena.

Percy glanced at Chiron helplessly. Cassandra's eyes widened in understanding.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Silena, my dear, let's talk about this at the Big House—"

"No" She whispered. "No. No."

Silena began to cry, leaning onto Cassandra for support, who was still weak from her curse. Sobs racked her body, breaking Cassandra's heart a little bit more with each one.

"I'm so so sorry, Lena" Cassandra whispered. "So, so sorry."

Clarisse came forward and wrapped an arm around Silena. "Come on, girl" She said gently. "Let's get to the Big House. I'll make you some hot chocolate."

"I'll co—" Cassandra began.

"No" Clarisse interrupted. "You've done enough."

Cassandra sputtered as everyone else turned and wandered off in twos and threes.

Her eyes locked on Drew who had an arm wrapped around a crying Lacy. Her eyes were slightly watery, but Cassandra knew that Drew wouldn't cry. Not while people were around anyway.

"I've got it" Drew mouthed, and steered Lacy off toward Cabin Ten.

When it was just Chiron, Cassandra, Percy, and Annabeth left in the pavilion, Cassandra let out a deep exhale and rubbed her forehead with her hands.

"Uh... you look.... better" Percy said awkwardly, looking at her weirdly.

She shook her head. Even though Kronos had temporarily cured her, she still looked pretty bad. Dark eye bags were prominent under her eyes, and her face was sunken making her look like she had lost a ton of weight. "Don't lie."

Percy looked down at that.

Annabeth wiped away a tear. "I'm glad you're not dead, Seaweed Brain."

"Thanks" Percy replied. "Me too."

Chiron placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure you did everything you could, Percy. Will you tell us what happened?"

Percy explained what happened, including his dream about the Titans on Mount Tam, and his mission on the Princess Andromeda. The most interesting and concerning part, was about there being a spy.

Chiron gazed down the valley, once he had finished. "We must call a war council immediately, to discuss this spy, and other matters."

"Poseidon mentioned another threat" Percy said. "Something even bigger than the Princess Andromeda. I thought it might be that challenge the Titan had mentioned in my dream."