¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

015.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter fifteen

━━ ELISA STOOD IN the middle of the junkyard, holding onto Bianca's arm. She wasn't sure what the hell had just happened, but she was surrounded by junk and the town of Gila Claw looked like it had never existed. The ones who had eaten in the restaurant with her looked just as confused, but Percy looked annoyed, his eyebrows knitted together.

               "What the hell happened to you?" she asked Percy.

               The boy stood off the dusty ground, wiping off his pants. "I talked to Aphrodite," he said. "And Ares," he added.

               The daughter of Dionysus raised her eyebrows. "Got into a fight again? Thalia told me 'bout what happened between you and him."

               "No," said Percy. "We didn't get into a fight."

               "What did she want with you?" Bianca asked.

               "Oh, uh, not sure," said Percy, shrugging. "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. She said not to pick anything up."

               Zoë narrowed her eyes. "The Goddess of Love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."

               "For once I agree with Zoë," said Thalia. "You can't trust Aphrodite."

               Percy swallowed, keeping a strong distance between him and Elisa. "So," he said, "how do we get out of here?"

               "That way," said Zoë. "That is west."

               Elisa looked in the direction the Hunter was pointing. "And you know this how?"

               Zoë rolled her eyes. "Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west."

               She pointed in the opposite direction of Ursa Major and then pointed back to it. Elisa couldn't tell how she knew which one was Ursa Major with so many other stars littering the sky.

               "Oh, yeah," said Elisa. "Which one was that again? Ursa Major?"

               "The bear one," said Percy. "I think."

               Zoë scowled. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

               The son of Poseidon shook his head. "You act like it was real."

               "Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!"

               They had reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statures, smashed chariots, tons of Celestial bronze weapons, but there was more modern stuff as well: cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

               "Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff ... Some of it looks like real gold."

               "It is," Thalia said grimly. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."

               "Junk?" Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels. It was broken on one side, as if it had been split by an axe. "You call this junk?"

               "If you're a god with anything at your disposal, then yeah," said Elisa bitterly.

               He bit off a point and began to chew. "It's delicious!"