“Stop it,” Beckendorf said. He was a big guy with a bigger voice. He didn’t talk much, but when he did, people tended to listen. “Let’s start with the Hunters. Which three of you will go?”
Zoë stood. “I shall go, of course, and I will take Phoebe. She is our best tracker.”
“The big girl who likes to hit people on the head?” Travis Stoll asked cautiously.
Zoë nodded.
“The one who put the arrows in my helmet?” Connor added.
“Yes,” Zoë snapped. “Why?”
“Oh, nothing,” Travis said. “Just that we have a T-shirt for her from the camp store.” He held up a big silver T-shirt that said ARTEMIS THE MOON GODDESS, FALL HUNTING TOUR 2002, with a huge list of national parks and stuff underneath. “It’s a collector’s item. She was admiring it. You want to give it to her?”
I knew the Stolls were up to something. They always were. But I guess Zoë didn’t know them as well as I did. She just sighed and took the T-shirt. “As I was saying, I will take Phoebe. And I wish Bianca to go.”
Bianca looked stunned. “Me? But . . . I’m so new. I wouldn’t be any good.”
“You will do fine,” Zoë insisted. “There is no better way to prove thyself.”
Bianca closed her mouth. I felt kind of sorry for her. I remembered my first quest when I was twelve. I had felt totally unprepared. A little honored, maybe, but a lot resentful and plenty scared. I figured the same things were running around in Bianca’s head right now.
“And for campers?” Chiron asked. His eyes met mine, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Me!” Grover stood up so fast he bumped the Ping-Pong table. He brushed cracker crumbs and Ping-Pong ball scraps off his lap. “Anything to help Artemis!”
Zoë wrinkled her nose. “I think not, satyr. You are not even a half-blood.”
“But he is a camper,” Thalia said. “And he’s got a satyr’s senses and woodland magic. Can you play a tracker’s song yet, Grover?”
“Absolutely!”
Zoë wavered. I didn’t know what a tracker’s song was, but apparently Zoë thought it was a good thing.
“Very well,” Zoë said. “And the second camper?”
“I’ll go.” Thalia stood and looked around, daring anyone to question her.
Now, okay, maybe my math skills weren’t the best, but it suddenly occurred to me that we’d reached the number five, and I wasn’t in the group. “Whoa, wait a sec,” I said. “I want to go too.”
Thalia said nothing. Chiron was still studying me, his eyes sad.
“Oh,” Grover said, suddenly aware of the problem. “Whoa, yeah, I forgot! Percy has to go. I didn’t mean . . . I’ll stay. Percy should go in my place.”
“He cannot,” Zoë said. “He is a boy. I won’t have Hunters traveling with a boy.”
“You traveled here with me,” I reminded her.
“That was a short-term emergency, and it was ordered by the goddess. I will not go across country and fight many dangers in the company of a boy.”
“What about Grover?” I demanded.
Zoë shook her head. “He does not count. He’s a satyr. He is not technically a boy.”
“Hey!” Grover protested.
“I have to go,” I said. “I need to be on this quest.”
“Why?” Zoë asked. “Because of thy friend Annabeth?”
I felt myself blushing. I hated that everyone was looking at me. “No! I mean, partly. I just feel like I’m supposed to go!”
Nobody rose to my defense. Mr. D looked bored, still reading his magazine. Silena, the Stoll brothers, and Beckendorf were staring at the table. Bianca gave me a look of pity.
“No,” Zoë said flatly. “I insist upon this. I will take a satyr if I must, but not a male hero.”
Chiron sighed. “The quest is for Artemis. The Hunters should be allowed to approve their companions.”
My ears were ringing as I sat down. I knew Grover and some of the others were looking at me sympathetically, but I couldn’t meet their eyes. I just sat there as Chiron concluded the council.
“So be it,” he said. “Thalia and Grover will accompany Zoë, Bianca, and Phoebe. You shall leave at first light. And may the gods”—he glanced at Dionysus—“present company included, we hope—be with you.”
I didn’t show up for dinner that night, which was a mistake, because Chiron and Grover came looking for me.
“Percy, I’m so sorry!” Grover said, sitting next to me on the bunk. “I didn’t know they’d—that you’d—Honest!”
He started to sniffle, and I figured if I didn’t cheer him up he’d either start bawling or chewing up my mattress. He tends to eat household objects whenever he gets upset.
“It’s okay,” I lied. “Really. It’s fine.”
Grover’s lower lip trembled. “I wasn’t even thinking . . . I was so focused on helping Artemis. But I promise, I’ll look everywhere for Annabeth. If I can find her, I will.”
I nodded and tried to ignore the big crater that was opening in my chest.
“Grover,” Chiron said, “perhaps you’d let me have a word with Percy?”
“Sure,” he sniffled.
Chiron waited.
“Oh,” Grover said. “You mean alone. Sure, Chiron.” He looked at me miserably. “See? Nobody needs a goat.”
He trotted out the door, blowing his nose on his sleeve.
Chiron sighed and knelt on his horse legs. “Percy, I don’t pretend to understand prophecies.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Well, maybe that’s because they don’t make any sense.”
Chiron gazed at the saltwater spring gurgling in the corner of the room. “Thalia would not have been my first choice to go on this quest. She’s too impetuous. She acts without thinking. She is too sure of herself.”
“Would you have chosen me?”
“Frankly, no,” he said. “You and Thalia are much alike.”
“Thanks a lot.”
He smiled. “The difference is that you are less sure of yourself than Thalia. That could be good or bad. But one thing I can say: both of you together would be a dangerous thing.”
“We could handle it.”
“The way you handled it at the creek tonight?”
I didn’t answer. He’d nailed me.
“Perhaps it is for the best,” Chiron mused. “You can go home to your mother for the holidays. If we need you, we can call.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe.”
I pulled Riptide out of my pocket and set it on my nightstand. It didn’t seem that I’d be using it for anything but writing Christmas cards.
When he saw the pen, Chiron grimaced. “It’s no wonder Zoë doesn’t want you along, I suppose. Not while you’re carrying that particular weapon.”
I didn’t understand what he meant. Then I remembered something he’d told me a long time ago, when he first gave me the magic sword: It has a long and tragic history, which we need not go into.
I wanted to ask him about that, but then he pulled a golden drachma from his saddlebag and tossed it to me. “Call your mother, Percy. Let her know you’re coming home in the morning. And, ah, for what it’s worth . . . I almost volunteered for this quest myself. I would have gone, if not for the last line.”
“One shall perish by a parent’s hand. Yeah.”
I didn’t need to ask. I knew Chiron’s dad was Kronos, the evil Titan Lord himself. The line would make perfect sense if Chiron went on the quest. Kronos didn’t care for anyone, including his own children.
“Chiron,” I said. “You know what this Titan’s curse is, don’t you?”
His face darkened. He made a claw over his heart and pushed outward—an ancient gesture for warding off evil. “Let us hope the prophecy does not mean what I think. Now, good night, Percy. And your time will come. I’m convinced of that. There’s no need to rush.”