Alternatively

The Sea King's Son (iv.)

"Wake up!"

"My lesson isn't for another hour," the princess groaned, pulling her covers to her chin.

"You have bigger problems," Silena hissed. "The citizens are revolting."

She shot up. "What do you mean?"

The sky was gray and her balcony was closed off, but she could hear the crowds through the glass. They jeered and roared, louder than the ocean outside of the palace wall.

"Octavian riled them up and turned them against the monarchs, he said you angered Poseidon and that's why our kingdom has been in a state of peril," she rambled, holding a robe out to the princess. "We don't have much time, they're coming for you too!"

Too? "They have my mother?"

"And Chiron and the Hunters, Thalia created a diversion so I could get you."

Annabeth grabbed the dagger from her vanity drawer and whirled to face her handmaiden. "It's true, you know. I did make Poseidon upset, he tried to kill me to set an example. He's mad our country doesn't pay him tribute and I lived and that's why this is happening."

"Why are you-"

"Don't get in this mess because of me," she insisted. "Tell them-"

Her chamber doors rattled, something heavy slamming into them in rapid succession. Men yelled and it was just too damn early for anyone to be doing anything, much less planning a revolt.

"Annabeth, we have to go!"

"Tell them you tried getting me, but I overpowered you. I'll escape through the tunnels and you won't be blamed."

She scowled, pretty face already marred by a streak of red sliced down her cheek. "All the servants know about all the passageways, and many of them have turned against the crown. We have to hide."

Annabeth nodded, hurrying to the fireplace and searching the mantle for the button. The doors shuddered and cracked and her fingers brushed the lump in the wood.

"Besides, if you thought I would leave you, then you just wouldn't have known me as well as you thought."

Just as the back panel of the hearth grinded open, the doors splintered inwards and guards came pouring in. There were too many and Annabeth feared if she turned the blade on one, Silena would be dead in seconds. She willingly dropped the dagger, but she continued to kick and swing as they dragged the girls out. She landed some solid punches, twisting out of her captor's grasp just to be whapped in the back of the head with a gauntlet.

                                                                                             - -

"-you, lied to you, kept the truth from you!"

She'd know that voice anywhere.

"I've consulted with the gods yet again," Octavian bellowed. "They spoke through only the entrails of the purest animal, and they say dishonor must be paid in blood!"

Annabeth was slumped on her knees, the blurry lines below her sharpening into wooden planks. They were on the pier, the one that stretched far into the bay and ended in a splintered wreck. Her hands were bound by rope behind her back and her arms stung underneath the numbness. Gigantic waves churned around them and somehow, she couldn't find it in herself to thank the twig for prolonging their ultimate destruction. He stood a few feet in front of her, preaching to a massive crowd on the beach. They weren't a mob, that would be too harsh. They were, however, desperate and scared. The months had only confirmed an underlying fear that had been passed from the generations before. His Highness the Extremist was a mere catalyst. When you put the fear of the gods in a body of people, the church becomes an army.