"you could be the king, but watch the queen conquer"
-
Rosalyn Carter is the daughter of Aphrodite and the last thing Percy expected to find at Camp Half-Blood.
But he wouldn't want to fight deadly battles with anyone else.
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The next afternoon, seven days before the solstice, their train rolled into Denver. None of them had eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. They hadn't been able to take a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and it was obvious for everyone but Rosalyn, who had her mother to thank for that small victory.
"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."
Percy's face turned confused as he asked, "We can't use phones, right?"
"We don't need a phone," Rosalyn replied simply.
The group wandered through downtown for about half an hour, looking for anything they could use to make the call to Camp Half-Blood. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis.
Finally Rosalyn spotted an empty do-it-yourself car wash and nodded towards it. The girls veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping an eye out for patrol cars.
"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked as Grover took out the spray gun.
"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"
"Don't look at me," she sighed. "The dining car wiped me out."
Rosie handed over a quarter from her pocket, taking a step back as Grover fed the coins in. She saw the confusion still present on Percy's face and groaned.
He was entirely unprepared to be on a quest.
"We're Iris-Messaging," Rosie explained. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."
"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"
Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. He gave Percy a shut up look, saying, "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."
Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors. Annabeth held her palm out to Percy. "Drachma, please."
Once he handed it over, she raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."
The blonde girl threw the drachma into the rainbow, and it disappeared in a golden shimmer. "Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then strawberry fields appeared through the mist with the Long Island Sound in the distance. They seemed to be on the porch of the Big House.
Standing with his back to the message at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.
