The Titan's Curse

sky.

EIGHTEEN

A FRIEND SAYS GOOD-BYE
    We landed at Crissy Field after nightfall.
    As soon as Dr. Chase stepped out of his Sopwith Camel, Annabeth ran to him and gave him a huge hug. “Dad! You flew . . . you shot . . . oh my gods! That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen!”
    Her father blushed. “Well, not bad for a middle-aged mortal, I suppose.”
    “But the celestial bronze bullets! How did you get those?”
    “Ah, well. You did leave quite a few half-blood weapons in your room in Virginia, the last time you . . . left.”
    Annabeth looked down, embarrassed. I noticed Dr. Chase was very careful not to say ran away .
    “I decided to try melting some down to make bullet casings,” he continued. “Just a little experiment.”
    He said it like it was no big deal, but he had a gleam in his eye. I could understand all of a sudden why Athena, Goddess of Crafts and Wisdom, had taken a liking to him. He was an excellent mad scientist at heart.
    “Dad . . .” Annabeth faltered.
    “Annabeth, Percy,” Thalia interrupted. Her voice was urgent. She and Artemis were kneeling at Zoë’s side, binding the huntress’s wounds.
    Annabeth and I ran over to help, but there wasn’t much we could do. We had no ambrosia or nectar. No regular medicine would help. It was dark, but I could see that Zoë didn’t look good. She was shivering, and the faint glow that usually hung around her was fading.
    “Can’t you heal her with magic?” I asked Artemis. “I mean . . . you’re a goddess.”
    Artemis looked troubled. “Life is a fragile thing, Percy. If the Fates will the string to be cut, there is little I can do. But I can try.”
    She tried to set her hand on Zoë’s side, but Zoë gripped her wrist. She looked into the goddess’s eyes, and some kind of understanding passed between them.
    “Have I . . . served thee well?” Zoë whispered.
    “With great honor,” Artemis said softly. “The finest of my attendants.”
    Zoë’s face relaxed. “Rest. At last.”
    “I can try to heal the poison, my brave one.”
    But in that moment, I knew it wasn’t just the poison that was killing her. It was her father’s final blow. Zoë had known all along that the Oracle’s prophecy was about her: she would die by a parent’s hand. And yet she’d taken the quest anyway. She had chosen to save me, and Atlas’s fury had broken her inside.
    She saw Thalia, and took her hand.
    “I am sorry we argued,” Zoë said. “We could have been sisters.”
    “It’s my fault,” Thalia said, blinking hard. “You were right about Luke, about heroes, men—everything.”
    “Perhaps not all men,” Zoë murmured. She smiled weakly at me. “Do you still have the sword, Percy?”
    I couldn’t speak, but I brought out Riptide and put the pen in her hand. She grasped it contentedly. “You spoke the truth, Percy Jackson. You are nothing like . . . like Hercules. I am honored that you carry this sword.”
    A shudder ran through her body.
    “Zoë—” I said.
    “Stars,” she whispered. “I can see the stars again, my lady.”
    A tear trickled down Artemis’s cheek. “Yes, my brave one. They are beautiful tonight.”
    “Stars,” Zoë repeated. Her eyes fixed on the night sky. And she did not move again.
    Thalia lowered her head. Annabeth gulped down a sob, and her father put his hands on her shoulders. I watched as Artemis cupped her hand above Zoë’s mouth and spoke a few words in Ancient Greek. A silvery wisp of smoke exhaled from Zoë’s lips and was caught in the hand of the goddess. Zoë’s body shimmered and disappeared.
    Artemis stood, said a kind of blessing, breathed into her cupped hand and released the silver dust to the sky. It flew up, sparkling, and vanished.
    For a moment I didn’t see anything different. Then Annabeth gasped. Looking up in the sky, I saw that the stars were brighter now. They made a pattern I had never noticed before—a gleaming constellation that looked a lot like a girl’s figure—a girl with a bow, running across the sky.
    “Let the world honor you, my Huntress,” Artemis said. “Live forever in the stars.”
    It wasn’t easy saying our good-byes. The thunder and lightning were still boiling over Mount Tamalpais in the north. Artemis was so upset she flickered with silver light. This made me nervous, because if she suddenly lost control and appeared in her fully divine form, we would disintegrate by looking at her.
    “I must go to Olympus immediately,” Artemis said.