The Child of Hecate: The Arising Oracle

Chapter Seven: Giant Birds Carrying Us To Roman Camps To Get Us Killed

PERCY

Oh, holy cheeseburger.

Annabeth and Clarisse glared daggers at each other as Chiron worried over Nico's barely heaving body, watching Will Solace heal him. I was feeling mortified that the board meeting had gotten so out of hand. Then something clicked in my mind.

As Nico stirred while he nibbled some ambrosia, he looked at Will Solace, who was his boyfriend, like, What just happened? And no, I don't forgive you for touching me while healing me. 

"I'm good!" he announced, standing up, stretching.

I noticed the silver pocketknife that used to be embedded in Nico, and how there was something black, small, engraved at the ultra-thin bottom side. And as I moved closer, my senses became sharper. I had only experienced this once: when I was so close to Thanatos, the form of Death in Alaska with Hazel and Frank. When Death itself was there.

And Hazel and Frank. Camp Jupiter, the demigod camp for Roman demigods and legacies. And as I crouched to read the small lettering. 

SPQR

Of course. The Romans. No contacts. But as I leaned closer, with everybody staring at me, it also said: 

BORE PAIN AND ESSENCE OF DEATH

"Everyone!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, feeling like they were filling with cold icy water. A shiver of fear ran down my spine as everybody turned to look at me. Panic filled my voice. "Where's Akari and Helen?"

And Clarisse was like, "I'm a flying bird, in a flying world..." (To the tune of Barbie girl, in a Barbie world... la la la) Okay, she didn't actually do that. I really wished she did, because I would've paid her real drachmas (the currency of the whack-a-mole Greek apocalyptic world) to see that. What she actually said, frowning, was, "There is a flying big bird five metres in the air carrying a looking-dead Akari and Helen in a hammock cloth. Is that bad?"

"Yes!" Annabeth yelled angrily, doing this cool somersault flip high jump thing that left her hanging on the hammock blanket edge. I did the same, just because I was amazing and could do gymnastics. Nico ran, too, despite Chiron's cry out, "You just healed!" and tumbled into the hammock, crashing on top of Akari. Ouch.

I shook Akari. Akari did not wake up. Annabeth was trying Helen.

"Please don't tell me they're in a death coma like I was back in Rome," muttered Nico.

Annabeth said, not hearing Nico's dark comment, "They look like they are dead, but they aren't. They're in some sort of... death coma."

"Oh, gods of Olympus," I said, cursing so badly in Ancient Greek after that that I will definitely NOT translate it, much less put it in this book. Also, Annabeth threatens to wash out my mouth with lye soap. And when Annabeth threatens to do something, she will do it, and also go psychotically scary and multiply that thing a hundred times.

"What?" Nico asked. "Spit it out."

"You were in a death coma in Rome. And that was because of the pomegranate seeds. What did this to them? I think I know," I said.

"It looks like I sure don't," Annabeth muttered. "I agree with Nico. Spit it out and stop being so dramatic, and hurry before the bird takes us where it's going!"

"Bore pain and essence of death. That was written on the pocket knife. Death is Thanatos, and pain of death means a lot of pain," I explained. (Annabeth is saying I explained slowly and goofily like I was dense, which she thought I was. Ha, ha, Wise Girl. I'll get you back for that.)

"Well, how do we wake them?" Nico muttered, his face looking even more dark than usual. I hate it when he does that. Honestly, he's the son of Hades, and when he gets a look of darkness on his face, you have an urge to believe exactly what he's believing, and the situation feels like it hopeless.

"I... don't know." Annabeth looked so frustrated I thought about resisting the urge to say, You can do it. Just break the calculus sum into negative numbers, then add the positive onto it by doubling the triple number.

And just then, I saw the  of entrance Camp Jupiter about a kilometre ahead. Caldecott Tunnel. 

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