Soul of Olympus

4

ARIADNE DIDN'T LISTEN TO A THING ANNABETH HAD SAID.

Instead of following Annabeth for a tour around the camp, she chose to wander. She went to the docks, stables in which she pet a couple horses, the woods that she didn't dare enter, and finally the actual cabins. She saw Annabeth giving Piper a tour of the cabins. "

We started with the twelve Olympian gods," Annabeth explained as Ariadne came in. "Male gods on the left, female on the right. Then last year, we added a whole bunch of new cabins for the other gods who didn't have thrones on Olympus—Hecate, Hades, Iris—"

"What are the two big ones on the end?" Ariadne asked. 

Piper and Annabeth realized Ariadne had come up behind them. Annabeth frowned at the question but continued.

 "Zeus and Hera. King and queen of the gods." 

Piper headed that way, so Annabeth and Ariadne followed, though Annabeth didn't act very excited. The Zeus cabin reminded them of a bank. It was white marble with big columns out front and polished bronze doors emblazoned with lightning bolts. Hera's cabin was smaller but done in the same style, except the doors were carved with peacock feather designs, shimmering in different colors. Unlike the other cabins, which were all noisy and open and full of activity, the Zeus and Hera cabins looked closed and silent. 

"Are they empty?" Piper asked.

 Annabeth nodded. "Zeus went a long time without having any children. Well, mostly. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, the eldest brothers among the gods —they're called the Big Three. Their kids are really powerful, really dangerous. For the last seventy years or so, they tried to avoid having demigod children."

"Tried to avoid it?"

"Sometimes they ... um, cheated. I've got a friend, Thalia Grace, who's the daughter of Zeus. But she gave up camp life and became a Hunter of Artemis. My boyfriend, Percy, he's a son of Poseidon. And there's a kid who shows up sometimes, Nico—son of Hades. Except for them, there are no demigod children of the Big Three gods.At least, not that we know of."  

"And Hera?" 

Ariadne looked at the peacock-decorated doors. The cabin bothered her, though she wasn't sure why. 

"Goddess of marriage." Annabeth's tone was carefully controlled, like she was trying to avoid cursing. "She doesn't have kids with anyone but Zeus. So, yeah, no demigods. The cabin's just honorary."

"You don't like her," Piper noticed. 

"We have a long history," Annabeth admitted. "I thought we'd made peace, but when Percy disappeared ... I got this weird dream vision from her."  

"Telling you to come get us," Piper and Ariadne said at the same time.

 "But you thought Percy would be there." Piper continued.

"It's probably better I don't talk about it," Annabeth said. "I've got nothing good to say about Hera right now." 

Piper looked down at the base of the doors. "So who goes in here?" 

 "No one. The cabin is just honorary, like I said. No one goes in."

"Someone does."

 Ariadne pointed at a footprint on the dusty threshold. On instinct, Piper pushed the doors and they swung open easily. Annabeth stepped back. 

"Um, Piper, I don't think we should—"

"We're supposed to do dangerous stuff, right?" 

With that Piper walked inside. Hera's cabin was not someplace you would want to live. It was as cold as a freezer, with a circle of white columns around a central statue of the goddess, ten feet tall, seated on a throne in flowing golden robes. Piper had always thought of Greek statues as white with blank eyes, but this one was brightly painted so it looked almost human—except huge. Hera's piercing eyes seemed to follow Piper. Ariadne felt like the statue was judging her. At the goddess's feet, a fire burned in a bronze brazier. Piper and Ariadne wondered who tended it if the cabin was always empty. A stone hawk sat on Hera's shoulder, and in her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower. The goddess's hair was done in black plaits.