THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

eleven

"So if we—I mean you—find the statue...what would we do with it? Could we even move it?"

"I'm not sure," Annabeth admitted. "But if we could save it somehow, it could unite the two camps. It could heal my mother of this hatred she's got, tearing her two aspects apart. And maybe...maybe the statue has some sort of power that could help us against the giants."

I stared in awe at Annabeth. She had just taken on a huge responsibility alone. 

"This could change everything," Piper said. "It could end thousands of years of hostility. It might be the key to defeating Gaea. But if we can't help you..."

She didn't finish, but the question seemed to hang in the air: Was saving the statue even possible?

Annabeth squared her shoulders. I knew she must be terrified inside, but she did a good job hiding it.

"I have to succeed," Annabeth said simply. "The risk is worth it."

Hazel twirled her hair pensively. "I don't like the idea of you risking your life alone, but you're right. We saw what recovering the golden eagle standard did for the Roman legion. If this statue is the most powerful symbol of Athena ever created—"

"It could kick some serious booty," Leo offered.

Hazel frowned. "That wasn't the way I'd put it, but yes."

"Except..." Percy took Annabeth's hand again. "No child of Athena has ever found it. Annabeth, what's down there? What's guarding it? If it's got to do with spiders—?"

"Won through pain from a woven jail," Frank recalled. "Woven, like webs?"

Annabeth's face turned as white as printer paper. I suspected that Annabeth knew what awaited her...or at least that she had a very good idea. She was trying to hold down a wave of panic and terror.

"We'll deal with that when we get to Rome," Piper suggested, putting a little charmspeak in her voice to soothe ournerves. "It's going to work out. Annabeth is going to kick some serious booty, too. You'll see."

"Yeah," Percy said. "I learned a long time ago: Never bet against Annabeth."

Annabeth looked at them both gratefully.

Judging from their half-eaten breakfasts, the others still felt uneasy; but Leo managed to shake them out of it. He pushed a button, and a loud blast of steam exploded from Festus's mouth, making everyone jump.

"Well!" he said. "Good pep rally, but there's still a ton of things to fix on this ship before we get to the Mediterranean. Please report to Supreme Commander Leo for your superfun list of chores!"

Jasper and I took charge of cleaning the lower deck, which had been thrown into chaos during the monster attack.

Reorganizing sickbay and battening down the storage area took them most of the day, but I didn't mind. For one thing, I got to spend time with Jasper. Which meant I had endless time for making fun of the boy and trying to figure out his little crush. For another, last night's explosions had given me a healthy respect for Greek fire. I didn't want any loose vials of that stuff rolling through the corridors in the middle of the night. 

As we were fixing up the stables, I thought about the night Annabeth and Percy had spent down here accidentally. I felt a pang of jealousy because I didn't have anyone to spend time with down here like they did. Aphrodite made sure to point that out. 

I swept the hay into piles. Jasper fixed a broken door on one of the stables. The glass floor hatch glowed from the ocean below—a green expanse of light and shadow that seemed to go down forever. As I watched Jasper work, I admired how easily he did each task, whether it was fixing a door or oiling saddles. It wasn't just his strong arms and his skillful hands, though I liked those just fine, but the way he acted so upbeat and confident.