The Lost Hero

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Land of Dreams

JASON , VIVIAN AND THE REDHEAD, WHO INTRODUCED herself to Jason as Rachel, put Piper on the couch while Annabeth rushed down the hall to get a bowl of water and the med kit. Piper was still breathing, but she wouldn't wake up. She seemed to be in some kind of coma.

"We've got to heal her," Jason insisted. "There's a way, right?"

Seeing her so pale, barely breathing, Jason felt a surge of protectiveness. Maybe he didn't really know her. Maybe she wasn't his girlfriend. But they'd survived the Grand Canyon together. They'd come all this way. He'd left her side for a little while, and this had happened.

Chiron put his hand on her forehead and grimaced. "Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?

"I wish I knew," she said. "As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera's cabin. I went inside. Annabeth and Piper came in while I was there. We talked, and then—I just blanked out. Annabeth and Vivian said I spoke in a different voice."

"A prophecy?" Chiron asked.

"No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This was like long distance, a power trying to speak through me."

Annabeth ran in with a bowl full of water and a leather pouch. She knelt next to Piper. Vivian put her hands over the water and water bended it out of the bowl. The water coated her hand as she put the water on Piper's head. Then the water glowed a faint white as it touched Piper's skin. Healing Water. Apollo Blessing. Piper got color back in her face and started to breath normally but was still knocked out.

"Chiron, what happened back there—I've never seen anything like it. I've heard Rachel's prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper's shoulders and told her—"

"To free her from a prison?" Jason guessed

Vivian gasped. All eyes turned on her. "Umm. Today before the field trip I had a dream of a woman in a goatskin cloak, telling me to break her out of a prison before-"

"Before the earth swallows her?" Jason asked again. Vivian nodded.

Annabeth stared at him. "How did you know that?"

Chiron made a three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil.

"Jason, tell them.Annabeth, the medicine bag, please."

Chiron trickled drops from a medicine vial , Nectar, into Piper's mouth while Jason explained what had happened when the room froze—the dark misty woman who had claimed to be Jason's patron

When he was done, no one spoke, which made him more anxious.

"So does this happen often?" he asked. "Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?"

"Your patron," Annabeth said. "Not your godly parent?"

"No, she said Parton. She also said my dad had given her my life."

Annabeth frowned. "I've never heard anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk—he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind?"

"I don't think so," Jason said. "If she were my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She's imprisoned. She's worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising from the earth on the solstice—"

Vivian turned to Chiron. "Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that."

The centaur looked miserable. He held Piper's wrist, checking her pulse.