The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

five

The front door blew open, and Annabeth and Rachel burst in, dragging Piper between them. Piper's head lolled like she was unconscious.

Ariana rushed in behind them.

"What happened?" Jason rushed over. "What's wrong with her?"

"Hera's cabin." Annabeth gasped from running all the way. "Vision. Bad."

Rachel looked up, and Jason saw that she'd been crying.

"I think ..." The redheaded girl gulped. "I think I may have killed her."

"You haven't killed her." Ariana said trying to reassure Rachel.

Jason and Rachel, put Piper on the couch while Annabeth rushed down the hall to get a med kit. Piper was still breathing, but she wouldn't wake up.

She seemed to be in some kind of coma.

"We've got to heal her," Jason insisted. "There's a way, right?"

Chiron put his hand on her forehead and grimaced. "Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?"

"I wish I knew," she said. "As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera's cabin. I went inside. Annabeth, Ariana and Piper came in while I was there. We talked, and then I just blanked out. Annabeth said I spoke in a different voice."

"A prophecy?" Chiron asked.

"No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This was like long distance, a power trying to speak through me.

Annabeth ran in with a leather pouch. She knelt next to Piper.

Ariana said. "Chiron, what happened back there -l've never seen anything like it. I've heard Rachel's prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper's shoulders and told her-"

"To free her from a prison?" Jason guessed.

Annabeth stared at him. "How did you know that?"

Chiron made a three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil.

"Jason, tell them. Annabeth, the medicine bag, please."

Chiron trickled drops from a medicine vial into Piper's mouth while Jason explained what had happened when the room froze-the dark misty woman who had claimed to be Jason's patron.

When he was done, no one spoke.

"So does this happen often?" he asked. "Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?"

"Your patron," Annabeth said. "Not your godly parent?"

"No, she said patron. She also said my dad had given her my life."

Annabeth frowned. "I've never of heard anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk-he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind?"

"I don't think so," Jason said. "If she were my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She's imprisoned. She's worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising from the earth on the solstice-"

Ariana turned to Chiron. Suddenly her heart was pounding, and her hands begun to shake. "Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that."

Her eyes brimmed with tears at the painful memories.

The centaur looked miserable. He held Piper's wrist, checking her pulse.

At last he said, "It is not Kronos. That threat is ended. But.."