Still, she couldn’t look at him without getting a bitter taste in her mouth. In the back of her mind, she had a nagging thought: What if this is a trick and he betrays us? What if we sail into Camp Jupiter, and he says, Hey, Romans! Check out these prisoners and this cool ship I brought you!Īnnabeth doubted that would happen. He acted too perfect-always following the rules, always doing the honorable thing. He’d grown up at Camp Jupiter, so hopefully his familiar face would make the Romans hesitant to blow the ship out of the sky.Īnnabeth tried to hide it, but she still didn’t completely trust the guy. With his wind-ruffled blond hair and his icy blue eyes, he looked ruggedly handsome and in control-just like a son of Jupiter should. Over his jeans and orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, he’d donned a toga and a purple cloak-symbols of his old rank as praetor. Otherwise he looked calm for a guy who was making himself a target. His knuckles were white on the hilt of his golden sword. He stood at the bow on the raised crossbow platform, where the Romans could easily spot him. (Maybe as a joke, though Annabeth could never be sure with Piper.) Her choppy brown hair was braided down the right side with an eagle’s feather. Today she was dressed in tattered jeans, worn-out sneakers, and a white tank top with pink Hello Kitty designs. What if this was a bad idea? What if the Romans panicked and attacked them on sight?įor a child of Aphrodite, Piper tried hard to play down her beauty. The warship descended through the clouds, but Annabeth couldn’t stop second-guessing herself. Even that mysterious chill she’d been feeling since the ship launched had dissipated, at least for now. The last thing they needed as they flew a magical Greek trireme into a potentially hostile Roman camp was a middle-aged satyr in gym clothes waving a club and yelling “Die!”Įverything seemed to be in order. Most important, she pulled aside their war-crazed chaperone, Coach Gleeson Hedge, and encouraged him to take the morning off in his cabin and watch reruns of mixed martial arts championships. She reviewed the plan with the rest of the crew-and the backup plan, and the backup plan for the backup plan. She confirmed that the white “We come in peace” flag was flying from the mast. She’d paced the deck of their flying warship, the Argo II, checking and double-checking the ballistae to make sure they were locked down.
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