Annabeth Chase and the Titan's Curse

Chapter 11 - I am bait

Holding the sky was hard. After awhile, I became insensitive to the pain, my mind being completely focused on holding it. I could still feel my body, slowly breaking under the weight of the sky, but I wasn't conscious of anything else. It was like my whole world consisted only of that job and the agony I was in.

My body felt like it was on fire, every particle of me on fire. My skin was covered in rashes and my bones felt like liquid. My muscles felt like they were crumbling like a stone tower and my joints were breaking apart. If this was what it felt like to be old, I never wanted to grow up.

I tried to think of other things, like architecture, Percy's face, waves crashing on shore, anything to take my mind off the pain but I couldn't. The agony was too great. Every time I tried to conjure Percy's sea-green eyes into my mind, they would morph into an image of Greek fire that tore down my back and exploded in my body. I would trapped in the agony of my own flesh. 

I had no idea how long I was stuck under the sky, the agony blurring everything else. The only thing I was aware of was how the weight seemed to increase and how my body gradually weakened below it. I was losing the fight, but there was nothing I could do but hold on and pray to whatever gods were listening that Percy would save me.

The whole time I was holding the sky I'd been alone, so it shocked me when a voice suddenly boomed out; "How is our mortal guest?"

I couldn't see who the speaker was as I couldn't move my head but I could guess who it would be. Atlas, the Titan who was meant to be holding the sky but decided to have a holiday.

Luke suddenly appeared beside me, a concerned look on his face. I would have given him a piece of my mind hadn't I lost the ability to speak. As the weight slowly crushed my body, it seemed to prevent me from doing anything. I didn't think I could even move my facial expression to anything but the exhaustion it was frozen on.

"She's fading," Luke reported, watching me closely. "We must hurry."

I wanted to slap him so hard. Like he cared about me. He was the one who put me in this situation.

There was movement off to my left, but I couldn't move my head to see what was happening. My legs were trembling as the sky slowly started to slip from my grip. Any longer and the last of my strength would give out and I would be crushed to death.

"You heard the boy," Atlas said, although I still couldn't see him. "Decide!"

"How dare you torture a maiden like this!" A familiar female voice cried. It was the same voice I'd heard in my dream and relief shot through my fire-filled body. Artemis, the goddess herself, was here to save me.

"She will die soon," Luke warned. "You can save her."

It was like my mind finally kicked in. If Artemis took the weight of the sky, she would be trapped. And she had to be at the important meeting on the winter solstice. She could be the deciding vote in the upcoming war with Kronos. I couldn't let her take the sky.

Unfortunately, I wasn't in any position to stop her. The best I could do was make a weak groan of protest, although I doubted anyone heard me.

"Free my hands," Artemis ordered.

What, was she a captive? I couldn't believe that Artemis, goddess of the hunt, had been captured. Although I suppose that if she hadn't been, she would be attacking Luke and Atlas by now.

I heard the sound of breaking chains, then more rattling as Artemis appeared by my side. Her silvery-yellow eyes were bright with anger as she looked at me, like she blamed herself for the way I'd been treated. Yet despite how powerful and strong she appeared, she also looked terrible, her hair mussed, her silver clothes ripped and her body bruised and bloodied. Then again, I probably looked worse.

I could do nothing as she took the sky onto her own shoulders. I collapsed immediately, like the weight was the only thing keeping me up. I could sense Artemis struggling above me, but I still couldn't move as I lay shivering at her feet.

Atlas laughed. "You are as predictable as you were easy to beat, Artemis."

"You surprised me," she gasped back. "It will not happen again."

I could feel myself starting to lose consciousness as my body, finally free of that crushing weight, began to shut down to heal itself. I pushed whatever strength I had left to hear what was happening.

"Indeed it will not," Atlas was saying. "Now you are out of the way for good! I knew you could not resist helping a young maiden. That is, after all, your specialty, my dear."

"You know nothing of mercy, you swine," the goddess groaned.

"On that, we can agree. Luke, you may kill the girl now."

"No!" Artemis yelled.

I guess that I should have felt scared about that, or at least concerned. But I felt nothing but the agony deep set in my body and my gradually fading consciousness.

"She - she may yet be useful," Luke said hesitatingly. "Further bait."

"Bah! You truly believe that?" Atlas sneered.

"Yet, General. They will come for her. I'm sure."

If I could have felt anything, that would have made me mad. That's all I was to him now. Bait. He didn't care for me at all.

"Then the dracaenae can guard her," Atlas decided. "Assuming she does not die from her injuries, you may keep her alive until the winter solstice. After that, if our sacrifice goes as planned, her life will be meaningless. The lives of all mortals will be meaningless."

I didn't have time to reflect on that. I felt Luke carefully pick me up in his arms, carrying me as easily now as he did when I was seven. I tried to struggle, but I was so weak I could barely lift a finger, instead hanging limply and useless. Even worse, the moment he moved me, agony shot through my body, so sharp that it wiped out what control I had on my mind and sent me spiraling into unconsciousness.