the_blood_of_olympus_-_rick_riordan

pressed the knife tighter against the girl’s throat.
‘You’ve got the wrong impression,’ Reyna said, ‘if you think you can attack me and take me
captive. Where are my friends?’
‘Unharmed, right where you left them,’ the ginger girl promised. ‘Look, it’s three to one and your
hands are tied.’
‘You’re right,’ Reyna growled. ‘Get another six of you in here and it might be a fair fight. I demand
to see your lieutenant, Thalia Grace.’
The ginger girl blinked. Her comrades gripped their knives uneasily.
On the floor, Reyna’s hostage began to shake. Reyna thought she might be having a fit. Then she
realized the girl was laughing.
‘Something funny?’ Reyna asked.
The girl’s voice was a gravelly whisper. ‘Jason told me you were good. He didn’t say how good.’
Reyna focused more carefully on her hostage. The girl looked about sixteen, with choppy black
hair and startling blue eyes. Across her forehead glinted a circlet of silver.
‘You’re Thalia?’
‘And I’d be happy to explain,’ Thalia said, ‘if you’d kindly not cut my throat.’
The Hunters guided her through a maze of corridors. The walls were concrete blocks painted army
green, devoid of windows. The only light came from dim fluorescents spaced every twenty feet. The
passages twisted, turned and doubled back, but the ginger-haired Hunter, Phoebe, took the lead. She
seemed to know where she was going.
Thalia Grace limped along, holding her ribs where Reyna had hit her with the chair. The Hunter
must’ve been in pain, but her eyes sparkled with amusement.
‘Again, my apologies for abducting you.’ Thalia didn’t sound very sorry. ‘This lair is secret. The
Amazons have certain protocols –’
‘The Amazons. You work for them?’
‘With them,’ Thalia corrected. ‘We have a mutual understanding. Sometimes the Amazons send
recruits our way. Sometimes, if we come across girls who don’t wish to be maidens forever, we send
them to the Amazons. The Amazons do not have such vows.’
One of the other Hunters snorted in disgust. ‘Keeping male slaves in collars and orange jumpsuits.
I’d rather keep a pack of dogs any day.’
‘Their males aren’t slaves, Celyn,’ Thalia chided. ‘Merely subservient.’ She glanced at Reyna.
‘The Amazons and Hunters don’t see eye to eye on everything, but since Gaia began to stir we have
been cooperating closely. With Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood at each other’s throats, well …
someone has to deal with all the monsters. Our forces are spread across the entire continent.’
Reyna massaged the rope marks on her wrists. ‘I thought you told Jason you knew nothing of Camp
Jupiter.’
‘That was true then. But those days are over, thanks to Hera’s scheming.’ Thalia’s expression
turned serious. ‘How is my brother?’
‘When I left him in Epirus, he was fine.’ Reyna told her what she knew.