Home|| Leo Valdez

23

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"Shall we start with the potions?" The princess asked.

"Cool," Jason said.

Alex agreed immediately. 

"Guys," Piper interrupted, "we're here to get the storm spirits and Coach Hedge. If this-princess-is really our friend-"

"Oh, I'm better than a friend, my dear," Her Highness said. "I'm a saleswoman." Her diamonds sparkled, and her eyes glittered like a snake's-cold and dark. "Don't worry. We'll work our way down to the first floor, eh?"

Leo nodded eagerly. "Sure, yeah! That sounds okay. Right, Piper?"

The rest of the trip was very foggy. Alex remembered seeing a room full of potions of various uses. She didn't even hesitate to agree with whatever the princess said, just like Leo and Jason. 

Occasionally though Alex had conflicted feelings whenever the princess said something disturbing. 

 "Once, for instance, I met a handsome young man who wanted a treasure from my father's kingdom. We made a bargain, and I promised to help him steal it."

"From your own dad?" Jason asked, the idea seemed to bother him too. 

"Oh, don't worry,"

That was all the confirmation Alex needed, she went back to her glazed eyes and half awake smile. 

"No, I won't pay any price. But a fair price, maybe. After that, we need to leave. Right, guys?" Piper's words found Alex and she seemed to agree with her friend. 

"Leave?" Alex asked.

"You mean... after shopping?" Leo asked.

The rest of the conversation was muffled again, till the princess said. 

"Now, boys.. and Alex." She turned to Jason, Alex and Leo. Her voice was so much more powerful than Piper's, it was as if it was controlling Alex. She tried to remember the familiar feeling. When had someone forced her to do something with words?

She couldn't think more about it because the princess started talking again. 

"Would you like to see more?"

"Sure," Jason said.

"Yes, please" Alex said. 

"Okay," Leo said.

Then they began shopping or rather window shopping, only looking through the merchandise. 

Jason called, "Hey, check it out!"

From a rack labelled distressed clothing, he held up a purple T-shirt like the one he'd worn on the school field trip-except this shirt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers.

Jason frowned. "Why does this look so familiar?"

"Jason, it's like yours," Piper said. "Now we really have to leave." 

"Nonsense," the princess said. "They aren't done, are they? And yes, my dear. Those shirts are very popular-trade ins from previous customers. It suits you."

Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion-acid, maybe?-and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

"Your Highness," Piper said "Why don't you tell them how you betrayed your family? I'm sure they'd like to hear that story."

"More story?" Leo asked.

"I like more story!" Jason agreed.

Alex frowned, she realised there was something familiar about the princess. 

The princess flashed Piper an irritated look. "Oh, one will do strange things for love, Piper. You should know that. I fell for that young hero, in fact, because your mother Aphrodite had me under a spell. If it wasn't for her-but I can't hold a grudge against a goddess, can I?"

"But that hero took you with him when he fled Colchis," Piper remembered. "Didn't he, Your Highness? He married you just as he promised." 

Alex's mind cleared more and more as Piper talked. 

"At first," Her Highness admitted, "it seemed he would keep his word. But even after I helped him steal my father's treasure, he still needed my help. As we fled, my brother's fleet came after us. His warships overtook us. He would have destroyed us, but I convinced my brother to come aboard our ship first and talk under a flag of truce. He trusted me." 

Alex's mind felt conflicted again. 

"And you killed your own brother," Piper said, the horrible story all coming back to Alex, along with a name-an infamous name that began with the letter M

What?" Jason stirred. For a moment he looked almost like himself. "Killed your own-"

"No," the princess snapped. "Those stories are lies. It was my new husband and his men who killed my brother, though they couldn't have done it without my deception. They threw his body into the sea, and the pursuing fleet had to stop and search for it so they could give my brother a proper burial. This gave us time to get away. All this, I did for my husband. And he forgot our bargain. He betrayed me in the end."

The princess held the sliced-up toga against Jason's chest. "Don't you know the story, my boy? You of all people should. You were named for him."

"Jason," Piper said. "The original Jason. But then you're -you should be dead!"

Alex's mind cleared a bit more.

The princess smiled. "As I said, a new life in a new country. Certainly I made mistakes. I turned my back on my own people. I was called a traitor, a thief, a liar, a murderess. But I acted out of love." She turned to the boys and gave them a pitiful look, batting her eyelashes.

"Wouldn't you do the same for someone you loved, my dears?" Alex found herself nodding.

"Oh, sure," Jason said.

"Okay," Leo said.

"Guys!" Piper ground her teeth in frustration. "Don't you see who she is? Alex, you- Don't you-"

"Let's continue, shall we?" the princess said breezily. "I believe you wanted to talk about a price for the storm spirits-and your satyr"