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ARIANA MEETS RHEA

Ariana and Apollo stumbled through the glade, shouting Megs name. Ariana knew it was pointless, but yelling felt good.

She looked for signs of broken branches or trampled ground. Surely two tank-size ants would leave a trail they could follow.

But neither of them were Artemis, the goddess of the hunt.

Apollo retrieved Meg's swords from the mud. Instantly, they changed into gold rings - so small, so easily lost.

Apollo may have cried (but for the purpose of his ego, Ariana would assure anybody who asked that he definitely did not).

He tried to break his ridiculous combat ukulele, but the Celestial bronze instrument defied his attempts.

Finally, he yanked off the A string, threaded it through Meg's rings and fied them around his
neck.

"Meg, I will find you." Apollo muttered.

Ariana whispered. "Apollo...."

The girl knew what he was thinking. The abduction was his fault.

By playing music and saving himself, he had broken his oath on the River Styx. Instead of punishing him directly, Zeus or the Fates or all the gods together had visited their wrath upon Meg McCaffrey.

"It's not your fault."

Ariana was so nauseous that she could barely walk. Someone seemed to be inflating a balloon inside her brain.

Yet with the help of Apollo she managed to stumble to the rim of Pete's geyser.

"Pete!" Apollo shouted. "Show yourself, you cowardly telemarketer!"

Water shot skyward with a sound like the blast of an organ's lowest pipe. In the swirling steam, the palikos appeared, his mud-grey face hardening with anger.

"You call me a TELEMARKETER?" he demanded. "We run a full-service PR firm."

Ariana doubled over and vomited in his crater, which she thought an appropriate response.

"Stop that." Pete complained.

"We need to find Meg." Ariana wiped her mouth with a shaky hand. "What would the myrmekes do with her?"

"I don't know."

"Tell us or I will not complete your customer-service survey." Apollo demanded.

Pete gasped. "That's terrible! Your feedback is important!" He floated down to Ariana's side. "Oh, dear... your head doesn't look good. You've got a big gash on your scalp, and there's blood. That must be why you're not thinking clearly."

"I don't care!" Ariana yelled, which only made the pounding in her head worse. "Where is the myrmekes' nest?"

Pete wrung his steamy hands. "Well, that's what we were talking about earlier. That's where Paulie went. The nest is the only entrance."

"To what?"

"To the Grove of Dodona!"

Ariana's stomach solidified into a pack of ice, which was unfair, because she needed one for hee head. "The ant nest ... is the way to the grove?"

The Shadow Summoner | Book Three - PJO Universe Where stories live. Discover now