Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
23
23
Mr. D stifled a yawn. "You have a point?"
"Yeah," I growled. "Just because you were sent here as a punishment doesn't mean you
have to be a lazy jerk! This is your civilization, too. Maybe you could try helping out a little!"
For a second, there was no sound except the crackle of the fire. The light reflected in Mr. D's
eyes, giving him a sinister look. He opened his mouth to say something—probably a curse that
would blast me to smithereens—when Nico burst into the room, followed by Grover.
"SO COOL!" Nico yelled, holding his hands out to Chiron. "You're… you're a centaur!"
Chiron managed a nervous smile. "Yes, Mr. di Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer to stay
in human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters."
"And, whoa!" He looked at Mr. D. "You're the wine dude? No way!"
Mr. D turned his eyes away from me and gave Nico a look of loathing. "The wine dude?"
"Dionysus, right? Oh, wow! I've got your figurine."
"My figurine."
"In my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you've only got like five
hundred attack points and everybody thinks you're the lamest god card, I totally think your powers
are sweet!"
"Ah." Mr. D seemed truly perplexed, which probably saved my life. "Well, that's… gratifying."
"Percy," Chiron said quickly, "you and Thalia go down to the cabins. Inform the campers we'll
be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening."
"Capture the flag?" I asked. "But we don't have enough—"
"It is a tradition," Chiron said. "A friendly match, whenever the Hunters visit."
"Yeah," Thalia muttered. "I bet it's real friendly."
Chiron jerked his head toward Mr. D, who was still frowning as Nico talked about how many
defense points all the gods had in his game. "Run along now," Chiron told us.
"Oh, right," Thalia said. "Come on, Percy."
She hauled me out of the Big House before Dionysus could remember that he wanted to kill
me.
"You've already got Ares on your bad side," Thalia reminded me as we trudged toward the
cabins. "You need another immortal enemy?"
She was right. My first summer as a camper, I'd gotten in a fight with Ares, and now he and
all his children wanted to kill me. I didn't need to make Dionysus mad, too.
"Sorry," I said. "I couldn't help it. It's just so unfair."
She stopped by the armory and looked out across the valley, toward the top of Half-Blood
Hill. Her pine tree was still there, the Golden Fleece glittering in its lowest branch. The tree's magic
still protected the borders of camp, but it no longer used Thalia's spirit for power.
"Percy, everything is unfair," Thalia muttered. "Sometimes I wish…"
She didn't finish, but her tone was so sad I felt sorry for her. With her ragged black hair and
her black punk clothes, an old wool overcoat wrapped around her, she looked like some kind of
huge raven, completely out of place in the white landscape.
"We'll get Annabeth back," I promised. "I just don't know how yet."
"First I found out that Luke is lost," she said. "Now Annabeth—"
"Don't think like that."
"You're right." She straightened up. "We'll find a way."
Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops. One of them was
arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl
looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second.
"I'll break that up," Thalia said. "You circulate around the cabins. Tell everybody about
capture the flag tomorrow."
"All right. You should be team captain."
"No, no," she said. "You've been at camp longer. You do it."
"We can, uh… co-captain or something."
She looked about as comfortable with that as I felt, but she nodded.
As she headed for the court, I said, "Hey, Thalia."
"Yeah?"