The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

six

Ariana slept like a Medusa victim - which is to say, like a rock.

She hadn't crashed in a safe, comfortable bed since ... well, she couldn't even remember. Despite her insane day and the million thoughts running through her head, her body took over and said: You will sleep now.

She had dreams, of course. She always had dreams, but they passed like blurred images from the window of a train.

A girl with blonde hair and stormy grey eyes was running towards her, a panicked yet relieved look on her face.

"Ari!" She exclaimed, holding out her arms.

Ariana narrowed her eyes, her brows furrowed. Why did the girl look so familiar yet she couldn't place a name to the face.

"Who-" Ari began to say. "Who are you?"

The look on the girls face turned even sadder (if that was even possible.) Ariana thought she was about to cry.

"Stay put!" Her face was beginning to dissolve. "It'll be easier for Tyson to find you both! You and Percy stay where you are!"

Then she was gone.

The scene shifted. Ariana stood on the Field of Mars, looking up at the Berkeley Hills. Golden grass rippled, and a face appeared in the landscape - a sleeping woman, her features formed from shadows and folds in the terrain. Her eyes remained closed, but her voice spoke in Ariana's mind:

So this is the demigod who destroyed my son Kronos. You don't look like much, Ariana Parker, but you're valuable to me. Come north.
Meet Alcyoneus. Juno can play her little games with Greeks and Romans, but in the end, you will be my pawn. You will be the key to the gods' defeat.

Ariana vision turned dark. She stood in a theatre-sized version of the camp's headquarters - a principia with walls of ice and freezing mist hanging in the air.

The floor was littered with skeletons in Roman armour and Imperial gold weapons encrusted with frost. In the back of the room sat an enormous shadowy figure.

His skin glinted with gold and silver, as if he were an automaton like Reyna's dogs. Behind him stood a collection of ruined emblems, tattered banners and a large golden eagle on a staff of iron.

The giant's voice boomed in the vast chamber. "This will be fun, child of Pluto. It's been aeons since I broke a demigod of your calibre. I await you atop the ice."

Ariana woke, shivering. For a moment she didn't know where she was. Then ahe remembered: Camp Jupiter, the Fifth Cohort barracks. She lay in her bunk, staring at the ceiling and trying to control her racing heartbeat.

A golden giant was waiting to break her. Wonderful. But what unnerved her more was that sleeping woman's face in the hills. You will be my pawn.

Ariana didn't play chess, but she was pretty sure that being a pawn was bad. They died a lot.
Even the friendlier parts of her dream were disturbing. A girl she didn't know was looking for her and Percy.

She made a mental note to ask him later when they were alone.

Ariana sat up in her bunk. Her roommates were rushing around, getting dressed and brushing their teeth. Dakota was wrapping himself in a long piece of red-speckled cloth - a toga. One of the Lares was giving him pointers on where to tuck and fold.

"Breakfast time?" Percy asked hopefully. He casted Ariana look which she return. Their bunks were opposite one another.

Frank's head popped up from the bunk below. He had bags under his eyes like he hadn't slept well. "A quick breakfast. Then we've got the senate meeting."