Daughter of the Sea
Chapter Thirty-One: We Say Goodbye to Camp (Read on AO3)
Everything was normal until that afternoon.
We had just finished lunch and I was making my way to the sword-fighting arena when the sound of the conch made my blood run cold. Three short, loud sounds. That only meant one thing—war council.
I raced as fast as I could to the Big House, thankful I already had my battle armor on, not stopping until I had crashed into the rec room. Judging by the red faces and heavy breathing of the other counselors, they had done the same. Chiron stood at the head of the ping-pong table, his face steely. Next to him stood Annabeth, who looked like a mess. I could tell she was trying to put on a brave face, but she was wringing her Yankees cap like she did when she was anxious and her cell phone was open on the table in front of her. I had learned quickly that demigods weren’t supposed to use technology, but sometimes it was necessary. Annabeth was one of the only kids at camp with a phone, and I had a sinking feeling I knew who had called her.
“Thank you for coming so quickly.” Chiron began, his tail swishing. “There has been a…development.” He turned to Annabeth, a sight I had seen many times this summer, and the blonde girl knew what to do. I don’t know when it had happened, but I realized in that moment how much of a leader she had become for us. The other campers may have looked to Percy, but the counselors looked to Annabeth.
“Percy left me a message.” She said simply, and all the air left the room. “It was…vague, but one thing was clear—it’s time.”
For a few seconds, no one spoke. And then everyone started talking at once.
”What did he say?” Travis demanded.
“Time? Like, for real?” Jake Mason yelped.
I shared an uneasy look with Cady, whose face was hard and would’ve been impossible to read for anyone else. I looked around the room—every counselor was present, even Silena, except for Clarisse. I got a sinking feeling.
“Heroes!” Chiron shouted, stomping his hooves. The room went silent. “We must act quickly. Annabeth,” he turned to the daughter of Athena. “Please continue.”
“Percy said to meet him at the base of the Empire State Building as soon as we can…” she took a shaky breath and shot a nervous glance to Chiron. He nodded. “All of us.”
“The whole camp?” Micheal questioned.
“And leave us defenseless?” Connor countered.
”We’re gathering at Olympus?” Katie spoke over them.
“I know it seems unwise!” Annabeth shouted, quieting the chaos. “I don’t fully understand, either. But…I trust Percy. We trust Percy, don’t we?” She looked to me, which I didn’t really notice until every other head turned towards me, too. I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“Of course.” My voice sounded more confident than I felt. “If Percy has a plan, it’s one I’ll follow.” I took a shaky breath. “To the end.”
The counselors straightened up and gripped their weapons. Their eyes shone with new determination. I could only stand their gaze for a few moments before turning back to Annabeth. “Lead the way, Wise Girl.”
Annabeth cracked a smile, but her eyes were sad. “Mobilize your cabins. Prepare for anything. Everyone, and I mean everyone over ten, is leaving in thirty minutes, max.” There was a moment of tense silence while she made eye contact with each of us. “Understood?”
There were nods and murmurs of agreement.
“Good.”
She turned to Chiron.
“Now is the time to summon your courage.” He spoke. “For your parents. For Olympus. For Camp Half Blood. You are ready, heroes.” He gave us a sad smile. “May the fates go with you.” He spoke a blessing over us in Ancient Greek. “Now go!”
His sudden shift in tone jolted me out of my fear and spurred me into action. The counselors began scrambling out of the room, talking excitedly as they went. I caught Cady’s arm as she tried to rush by.
“If I don’t see you before—“
”Stop talking.” She cut me off before pulling me into a hug. “I’ll be with the archers, with Michael.” She pulled away as the words tumbled out of her mouth. “Will is taking the medics.” I tried to ignore the tears brimming in her eyes. I tried to ignore how badly she was trying to force them away.
I found myself nodding as I tried to quickly process everything she had said.
She was going with the archers—not the medics. She was incredibly talented with a bow, one of the best in the Apollo cabin. I knew that. But she was a better medic. She had been given unique gifts by her father, and the fact that Chiron had chosen to put her with the fighters made my stomach drop. The reasoning was clear—we needed all the help we could get. We needed fighters—not healers.
“That’s good.” I said firmly. I saw something in Cady’s eyes set.
“It’ll be okay.” I didn’t need to ask how she knew I was so worried. “We’ll win this.”
I attempted a smile. “We have to.”
We held each other’s gaze for a moment that stretched beyond time before I pulled her into another hug, quick and intense. Who knew what was about to happen? Who knew what we would face, how long we would be fighting?
Who knew if we would ever see each other again?
“Cady, whatever happens, I just wanna say…” the words caught in my throat, but I forced them out. “Thank you for being my friend.”
I heard as she stifled a sob against my chest. She took a breath like she wanted to say something, but then stopped herself. She didn’t speak again until she pulled away, and when she did, her face was determined. Her cheeks were wet, but her eyes were dry.
“I’ll see you on the other side.”
“Either in this life or the next.”
I knew we shouldn’t, with everyone hurrying around us and the conch sounding outside and everything so tense, but we laughed. Just for a moment, but it was enough.
“Gotta reach Elysium somehow.” Cady said with a shrug. I laughed again, so I wouldn’t cry.
“Cadence!” Micheal Yew’s voice carried over the chaos of the room. I barely caught as she rolled her eyes at the sound.
“Hold fast, Angie.” Cady said with finality. “You’re ready for this. Step out of the shadow.”
I didn’t have to ask her what she meant.
“We’re gonna be okay.” My voice was desperate, more like a question than a statement. She smiled at me.
“Yeah, we are.”
And with one last squeeze of my hand, she disappeared out of the rec room doors.
We were all assembled on Half Blood Hill in thirty minutes exactly, loading up into the three white vans that would take us into the city. Annabeth and some of her siblings were directing campers, shouting seat assignments and making sure everyone had everything they would need. I was watching a fight break out between a child of Athena and a child of Apollo who was adamant she needed two extra bows with her, when a voice behind me made me jump. Spinning around, I saw the young, expectant face of a little girl with curly, strawberry hair and freckles dotted along her cheeks. I smiled at her, and the tense, terrified expression she wore softened.
“Hey, Marigold. What’s up?” I bent down so that I was at eye-level with her. I knew she was eleven, but she felt younger. Or maybe I felt older.
“I can’t find Andrew. Or Emily. Or Katie.” I recognized the names of her siblings. “Can you help me?”
I tried to keep my face steady, being careful to not show her how much she was breaking my heart.
“Of course.” I took her by the hand, the one that wasn’t clutching a small dagger with vines swirling around the hilt, and walked over to the son of Athena who was still yelling at the Apollo kid. He hardly batted an eye when I took the clipboard out of his hand to check the seating assignments.
“Here, bus three, with the rest of the Demeter kids.” I smiled down at her and ruffled her hair a bit. “Do you want me to take you there?”
She nodded, barely meeting my eyes.
“Mari! There you are!” Katie shouted as we neared the van, scooping the small kid up in her arms. I made it a point to ignore the tears in her eyes. “Haven’t even left camp yet and you’re already scaring me half to death.”
“It’s okay, Katie.” Marigold said in a soothing voice.
“Were you scared?” Katie asked as she cupped the small girl's face in her hands.
“A little, but then I found Angie. And I knew I’d be okay.”
I felt my stomach drop as Katie smiled up at me. Percy was so good in these situations, so good at being a leader. I was counting down the minutes until we were all reunited and he could take up that position again.
A single choice shall end his days…
Who would they all look to when Percy was gone? Me? I felt my hands start to shake, and was thankful when I heard Annabeth’s voice call out across the hill.
“All demigods to your vans! This is your final call! To the vans!”
The daughter of Athena spoke with authority, finality, the gravitas of a military commander. And yet, no one moved. Her voice rang out over the silence, as if the words magically froze everyone in place. The younger campers squirmed and held onto their siblings. The older campers looked over the fields, the woods, the circle of cabins, the lake, the big house, with a somber longing. A nostalgia for something they hadn’t yet lost, but knew they were about to. Some held hands. Some leaned their heads onto their friends, siblings, significant other’s shoulders. Silent tears fell down hardened faces.
And then a small voice began to sing.
It was Lyric, Cady’s little brother. He was young, but not too young to come fight with us. Just barely twelve, if I remembered correctly. He had been at Camp Half Blood since he was five, and this life was the only one he had ever known.
He was clutching Cady’s leg as if he never wanted to let go. The melody floated over the hill like a golden thread, filling all of our minds and hearts with a sense of peace and purpose. The words were old, the melody ancient, and yet I understood every word—the heritage from my father translating the Ancient Greek as it wove its way through the grass, danced with the flowers. One by one, the other children of Apollo began to sing along, and even some older campers who knew the song from years around the campfire. It was a song of bravery, of heroes and valor and fighting for one’s home. It was a song of courage, a blessing. It was a prayer for safety. A prayer to return home.
The song ended, and the only sound was the breeze blowing through Thalia’s branches.
“It is time.” Chiron’s steady voice broke our trance. We all loaded into the vans in silence, double-checking our armor and weapons as we went. I played with the shells of the necklace my father gave me, fiddled with the solitary camp bead on its thick cord. I was riding in the van with Annabeth and her siblings, and we all watched out the windows as we crossed the threshold of camp. I saw the trees and houses and berry patches blur by, my head jumbled with everything we were about to do, everything we had done. I stole a glance at Annabeth, but she was so focused I didn’t dare interrupt her thoughts. Especially not now.
I found myself, surprisingly, praying. To Hestia and Apollo, two gods I felt always looked out for me, but mostly to my father. I knew he was busy fighting his own war below the surface, but something about having a connection to him made me feel stronger, more at peace. Even if that connection was only one-sided.
We were almost to the Queens-Midtown tunnel when Annabeth’s phone rang. There was a collective gasp, and she flipped it open faster than I’d ever seen anyone answer a call. I knew who it was before she spoke—there was only one person who would be calling Annabeth at a time like this.
"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! We've been worried sick!" My heart clenched at my brother’s name. He really did it, just like my dreams told me—he survived the Styx.
I heard his muffled voice on the other end, crackling with the reception and his puberty, but I couldn’t make out the words.
"We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. But, Percy, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—"
More muffled words, quick and sure, and then the line went quiet. Annabeth stared at the phone in her hands.
“He hung up on me.” Her voice was a mix of shock and anger.
I couldn't help but let out a laugh. For a terrifying second, I thought she was going to lunge at me. And then her face broke into a wide grin and she doubled over. Her siblings followed, and soon the whole van dissolved into giggles.
“I only know one person who would be stupid enough to hang up on Annabeth Chase.” Malcolm finally got out between fits of laughter.
“And that’s Percy Jackson.” I finished for him.
