Ethereal

X

Alessandra

THE WHOLE CAMPFIRE IDEA FREAKED ALESSANDRA OUT. It made her think of that huge purple bonfire in her dreams and the thought of never knowing luring over her head.

What she got instead was even more terrifying in her opinion, a sing-along. The amphitheater steps were carved into the side of a hill, facing a stone-lined fire pit. Fifty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners.

Alessandra spotted Jason in the front next to Annabeth. She sent them both a wave. Leo was nearby, sitting with a bunch of burly-looking campers under a steel gray banner emblazoned with a hammer. He winked at her, and she waved at him with a small smile. Standing in front of the fire, half a dozen campers with guitars and strange, old-fashioned harps–lyres?–were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armor, something about how their grandma got dressed for war. Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armor and joking around. It was quite possibly the weirdest thing Alessandra had ever seen–one of the campfire songs that would've been completely embarrassing in daylight; but in the dark, with everybody participating, it was kind of corny and fun. As the energy level got higher, the flames did too, turning from red to orange to gold.

Piper nudged Alessandra with her shoulder and shared a smile with the other girl just as the song ended, joining in quietly with the rowdy applause. They watched as a guy on a horse trotted up. At least in the flickering light, Alessandra thought it was a guy on a horse. Then he got closer, and she realized it was a centaur–his bottom half a white stallion, his top half a middle-aged guy with curly hair and a trimmed beard. He brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I am happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first–"

"What about capture the flag?" Somebody yelled. Grumbling broke out among some kids in armor, sitting under a red banner with the emblem of a boar's head.

Alessandra glanced at Piper and mouthed, capture the flag? Piper shrugged, and they both faced Chiron again.

"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."

"And kill people!" One of them shouted.

"What the hell?" Alessandra whispered. She thought they weren't allowed to kill each other. Is this legal?

"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report to that?"

He turned to Leo's group. Leo wiggled his fingers at Alessandra and Piper with a toothy grin. Both girls smiled back. The girl next to him stood uncomfortably. She wore an army jacket a lot like Leo's, with her hair covered in a red bandana. "We're working on it."

More grumbling.

"How, Nyssa?" An Ares kid demanded.

"Really hard." The girl replied.

Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to splutter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones–bang, bang, bang–and the campers fell silent.

"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Percy?" Someone asked. The fire dimmed even further, but Alessandra didn't need the mood flames to sense the crowd's anxiety.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.

"I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis–everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."