the_blood_of_olympus_-_rick_riordan

lvii
Piper
PIPER WISHED SHE COULD CHARM HERSELF TO SLEEP.
It may have worked on Gaia, but for the last two nights she’d hardly slept a wink.
The days were fine. She loved being back with her friends Lacy and Mitchell and all the other
Aphrodite kids. Even her bratty second-in-command, Drew Tanaka, seemed relieved, probably
because Piper could run things and give Drew more time for gossip and in-cabin beauty treatments.
Piper kept busy helping Reyna and Annabeth coordinate between the Greeks and Romans. To
Piper’s surprise, the other two girls valued her skills as a go-between to smooth over any conflicts.
There weren’t many, but Piper did manage to return some Roman helmets that mysteriously made their
way into the camp store. She also kept a fight from breaking out between the children of Mars and the
children of Ares over the best way to kill a hydra.
On the morning the Romans were scheduled to leave, Piper was sitting on the pier at the canoe
lake, trying to placate the naiads. Some of the lake spirits thought the Roman guys were so hot that
they, too, wanted to leave for Camp Jupiter. They were demanding a giant portable fish tank for the
journey west. Piper had just concluded negotiations when Reyna found her.
The praetor sat next to her on the dock. ‘Hard work?’
Piper blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. ‘Naiads can be challenging. I think we have a deal. If
they still want to go at the end of the summer, we’ll work out the details then. But naiads, uh, tend to
forget things in about five seconds.’
Reyna traced her fingertips across the water. ‘Sometimes I wish I could forget things that quickly.’
Piper studied the praetor’s face. Reyna was one demigod who hadn’t seemed to change during the
war with the giants … at least not on the outside. She still had the same strong, unstoppable gaze, the
same regal, beautiful face. She wore her armour and purple cloak as easily as most people would
wear shorts and a T-shirt.
Piper couldn’t understand how anyone could take so much pain, shoulder so much responsibility,
without breaking. She wondered if Reyna ever had anyone to confide in.
‘You did so much,’ Piper said. ‘For both camps. Without you, none of it would’ve been possible.’
‘All of us played a part.’
‘Sure. But you … I just wish you got more credit.’
Reyna laughed gently. ‘Thank you, Piper. But I don’t want attention. You understand what that’s
like, don’t you?’
Piper did. They were so different, but she understood not wanting to attract attention. Piper had
wished for that her whole life, with her dad’s fame, the paparazzi, the photos and scandal stories in