The Adventure That Lies Ahead | PJO x HP

CHAPTER 65

Isa woke up feeling like she was still on fire. Her skin stung. Her throat felt as dry as sand.

Isa saw a blue sky and trees above her. She heard a fountain gurgling and smelled juniper and cedar and a bunch of other sweet-scented plants. She heard waves, too, gently lapping on a rocky shore. Isa wondered if she were dead, but she knew better. She'd been to the Land of the Dead, and there was no blue sky.

Isa tried to sit up. Her muscles felt like they were melting.

"Stay still," a girl's voice said. "You're too weak to rise."

She laid a cool cloth across Isa's forehead. A bronze spoon hovered over her and liquid was dribbled into her mouth. The drink soothed her throat and left a warm chocolatey aftertaste. Nectar of the gods. Then the girl's face appeared above Isa.

She had almond eyes and caramel-color hair, braided over one shoulder. She was... fifteen? Sixteen? It was hard to tell. She had one of those faces that just seemed timeless. She began singing, and Isa's pain dissolved. She was working magic. Isa could feel the girl's music sinking into her skin, healing and repairing her burns.

"Who?" Isa croaked.

"Shhh," she said. "Rest and heal. No harm will come to you here. I am Calypso."

The next time Isa woke she was in a cave, but as far as caves go she'd been in a lot worse. The ceiling glittered with different-color crystal formations⎼white and purple and green, like she was inside one of those cut geodes you see in souvenir shops. Isa was lying on a comfortable bed with feather pillows and white cotton sheets. The cave was divided into sections by white silk curtains. Against one wall stood a large loom and a harp. Against the other wall were shelves neatly stacked with jars of fruit preserves. Dried herbs hung from the ceiling: rosemary, thyme, and a bunch of other stuff.

There was a fireplace built into the cave wall, and a pot bubbling over the flames. It smelled great, like beef stew.

Isa sat up, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her head. She looked at her arms, sure that they would be hideously scarred, but they seemed fine. A little pinker than usual, but not bad. Isa was wearing a white cotton T-shirt and cotton drawstring pants that weren't hers. Her feet were bare. Isa looked down at her left hand and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that her periwinkle dolphin ring was still there where it always appeared. And with a moment of panic, she wondered where her wand went. Compared to her sword, it will always come back to her but she hasn't done the same to her wand. Her hand flew into her pocket and let out a sigh of relief when she felt that it was still inside.

Then she felt the Stygian-ice dog whistle was back in her pocket, too. Somehow it had followed her. And that didn't exactly reassure Isa.

Then she remembered Percy. 'What happened to him?' Isa wondered.

With difficulty, she stood. The stone floor was freezing under her feet. Isa turned and found herself staring into a polished bronze mirror.

"Holy Poseidon," Isa muttered. She looked as if she'd lost ten kilos she couldn't afford to lose. Her hair was a rat's nest. It was singed at the edges like Hephaestus's beard. If Isa saw her face on somebody walking down a highway intersection asking for money, she would've locked the car doors.

Then behind her in the mirror, she saw another bed with an unconscious boy lying there.

"Percy," Isa said, quietly. Then she rushed over and started shaking him. "Percy, wake up."

Percy groaned but opened his eyes. He squinted, adjusting to everything.

Her brother's eyes widened in alarm before relaxing when he noticed it was his sister. "You scared me."