Annabeth Chase and the Titan's Curse

Chapter 17 - Thalia is tempted to betray us

There was silence for a long awkward moment. Thalia's eyes flitted around suspiciously. Luke coughed, looking weaker just from seeing his old friend as he adjusted his grip on his sword. Percy looked stunned at the discovery but I could see him coming to understand it. Atlas merely gloated down on him, as if it was an achievement to know something that Percy didn't. And Artemis merely continued to sweat and struggle under the sky.

Zoë was the first to react. "Let Artemis go," she demanded.

Atlas smirked. "Perhaps you'd like to take the sky for her, then? Be my guest."

Zoë looked ready to accept but Artemis cut her off. "No! Do not offer, Zoë! I forbid you."

Atlas seemed to be enjoying himself as he strolled to crouch besides Artemis. He reached out to touch her face but she snapped at him, nearly biting his fingers.

"Hoo-hoo," Atlas cheered. "You see, daughter? Lady Artemis likes her new job. I think I will have all the Olympians take turns carrying my burden, once Lord Kronos rules again, and this is the centre of our palace. It will teach each those weaklings some humility."

Percy was still staring at me like he couldn't believe I was actually alive. I inclined my head to Luke to tell him that there was something wrong but Percy didn't seem to be paying attention. He was distracted by something about me, maybe my hair? What was he looking at?

Thalia murmured something to him too low for me to make out. Percy frowned.

"I don't understand," he said. "Why can't Artemis just let go of the sky?"

Atlas laughed. He really seemed to enjoy Percy's ignorance. "How little you understand, young one. This is the point where the sky and the earth first met, where Ouranos and Gaia first brought forth their mighty children, the Titans. The sky still yearns to embrace the earth. Someone must hold it at bay, or else it would crush down upon this place, instantly flattening the mountain and everything within a hundred leagues. Once you have taken the burden, there is no escape." He paused to smile deviously. "Unless someone else takes it from you."

I really wished I hadn't fallen for that. I leaned away from Luke as far as I could, but he tugged me back to his side, nearly inpaling me as he did so. Yet as I moved I caught a glimpse of a horrendous sight behind me. Now I really wished I looked.

Down in the waters below the Princess Andromeda was being completely emptied of monsters. Hordes and hordes of all varieties were matching up the mountain sight, preparing to trap my friends here and kill them. We were running out of time fast.

I turned back to see that Atlas had moved closer to Thalia and Percy, a crooked smile on his face. "So these are the best heroes of the age, eh? Not much of a challenge."

"Fight us," Percy demanded, trying to make himself look taller but failing. "And let's see."

"Have the gods taught you nothing? An immortal does not fight a mere mortal directly. It is beneath our dignity. I will have Luke crush you instead."

"So you're another coward," Percy jeered.

Atlas's jaw twitched. I felt sure that he would backhand Percy straight across the face but with difficulty he turned to face Thalia.

"As for you, daughter of Zeus, it seems Luke was wrong about you."

"I wasn't wrong," Luke called in a pleading sort of voice. He turned his attention to the daughter of Zeus. "Thalia, you can still join us. Call the Ophiotaurus. It will come to you. Look!"

He waved his hand and a pool of water suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was a pond ringed with black marble but that wasn't what caught my attention.

Luke had said the Ophiotaurus. So that was the creature that my mother had warned me about, the dangerous one. I remembered reading about that particular creature in the old myths. When sacrificed, it gave the person in control of its intestines unlimited power. Or more specifically, the power to destroy the gods. Once before the Ophiotaurus was sacrificed, but before it's guts could be used, Zeus flew down in eagle form and scooped them up.

It was a powerful weapon although I wasn't particularity inclined to use it if sacrifice and playing with intestines was involved. But how had Percy found it? So much must have changed when I was captured.

Percy looked to be struggling with himself. He kept looking at the pond and away again. He must be fighting with himself to not call the Ophiotaurus, I realised. After a few agonising moments, he made his face go blank and I knew we were safe.

But Luke wasn't going to give up. "Thalia, call the Ophiotaurus. And you will be more powerful than the gods."

"Luke," she whispered, staring at him like she didn't even know him. "What happened to you?"

"Don't you remember all those times we talked?" he persisted. "All those times we cursed the gods? Our fathers have done nothing for us. They have no right to rule the world!"

I realised with a start that this was the first time we three had been together since Thalia was turned into a tree. It was not the reunion that I had hoped if I knew Thalia would be untreeified.

If I was worried that Thalia might actually listen to Luke, that was dispelled as she shook her head. "Free Annabeth. Let her go."

"If you join me," Luke promised, "it can be like the old times. The three of us together. Fighting for a better world. Please, Thalia, if you don't agree . . ." He stuttered and I could hear real fear in his voice when he next spoke. "It's my last chance. He will use the other way if you don't agree. Please."

"Do not, Thalia," Zoë warned immediately. "We must fight them."

Thalia didn't speak as Luke waved his hand again and a fire in a bronze brazier appeared. A sacrificial flame.

"Thalia," Percy said, worry in his voice. "No."

Still Thalia didn't speak, staring down instead at her spear in her hand as if it could give her the answer.

Behind me I could feel the sarcophagus begin to heaten, the glow so powerful I could see it even though it was behind me.

"We will raise Mount Othyrs right here," Luke declared. "Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Thalia. We are not weak."

He removed his sword from my throat to point over his shoulder, at the edge of the cliff. Thalia and Percy and Zoë seemed to see for the first time the massive monster horde that was marching our way and their eyes widened with horror. It was not a pretty sight.

"This is only a taste of what is to come," Luke continued. "Soon we will be ready to storm Camp Half-Blood. And after that, Olympus itself. All we need is your help."

Thalia raised her head and her eyes met mine. I could see her uncertainty and indecision there, mixed with all the years of anger she had against the gods and how they were never in their kids lives. Yet I also saw compassion and I knew that she was thinking of her dad and how he had saved her. He could have let her die, and yet he saved her. Maybe changing her into a tree wasn't the best tactic but it showed that he cared.

She seemed to plead with me for help, advice on what to do. I was shocked. Usually I had been the one coming to her for answers to my problems, to comfort and help me. But now maybe that had changed.

It was fortunate that the answer was an easy one. I shook my head as lightly as I could so that Luke didn't see. Thalia saw though and her face hardened with resolved.

She turned to face Luke, her back straightened and her spear levelled to face the son of Hermes. In that moment, she looked like a true daughter of Zeus.

"You aren't Luke," she said. "I don't know you any more."

"Yes, you do, Thalia," he pleaded, seeing all his plans and hopes crumble around him. "Please don't make me . . . Don't make him destroy you."

This time Percy met my eyes, as if asking me permission to attack. I knew that we had only minutes until that army got here yet there was a high chance that Luke would kill me if my friends attacked. I decided to take that risk.

I nodded again. Percy looked at me one more time before he prepared to attack.

"Now," he said, and my friends charged.