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Piper took her friend’s hands. They were trembling badly. She remembered her first day at Camp<br />
Half-Blood, when Annabeth had given her a tour. Annabeth had been shaken up about Percy’s<br />
disappearance and, though Piper was pretty disoriented and scared herself, comforting Annabeth had<br />
made her feel needed, like she might actually have a place among these crazy-powerful demigods.<br />
Annabeth Chase was the bravest person she knew. If even she needed a shoulder to cry on once in<br />
a while … well, Piper was glad to offer hers.<br />
‘Hey,’ she said gently. ‘Don’t try to shut out the feelings. You won’t be able to. Just let them wash<br />
over you and drain out again. You’re scared.’<br />
‘Gods, yes, I’m scared.’<br />
‘You’re angry.’<br />
‘At Percy for frightening me,’ she said. ‘At my mom for sending me on that horrible quest in Rome.<br />
At … well, pretty much everybody. Gaia. The giants. The gods for being jerks.’<br />
‘At me?’ Piper asked.<br />
Annabeth managed a shaky laugh. ‘Yes, for being so annoyingly calm.’<br />
‘It’s all a lie.’<br />
‘And for being a good friend.’<br />
‘Ha!’<br />
‘And for having your head on straight about guys and relationships and –’<br />
‘I’m sorry. Have you met me?’<br />
Annabeth punched her arm, but there was no force to it. ‘I’m stupid, sitting here talking about my<br />
feelings when we have a quest to finish.’<br />
‘The chained god’s heartbeat can wait.’ Piper tried for a smile, but her own fears welled up inside<br />
her – for Jason and her friends on the Argo II, for herself, if she wasn’t able to do what Aphrodite had<br />
advised. In the end, you will only have the power for one word. It must be the right word, or you<br />
will lose everything.<br />
‘Whatever happens,’ she told Annabeth, ‘I’m your friend. Just … remember that, okay?’<br />
Especially if I’m not around to remind you, Piper thought.<br />
Annabeth started to say something. Suddenly a roaring sound came from the ruins. One of the stonelined<br />
pits, which Piper had mistaken for wells, spewed out a three-storey geyser of flames and shut<br />
off just as quickly.<br />
‘What the heck?’ Piper asked.<br />
Annabeth sighed. ‘I don’t know, but I have a feeling it’s something we should check out.’<br />
Three pits lay side by side like finger holes on a recorder. Each one was perfectly round, two feet in<br />
diameter, tiled around the rim with limestone; each one plunged straight into darkness. Every few<br />
seconds, seemingly at random, one of the three pits shot a column of fire into the sky. Each time, the<br />
colour and intensity of the flames were different.<br />
‘They weren’t doing this before.’ Annabeth walked a wide arc around the pits. She still looked<br />
shaky and pale, but her mind was now obviously engaged in the problem at hand. ‘There doesn’t seem<br />
to be any pattern. The timing, the colour, the height of the fire … I don’t get it.’
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