Indigo Eyes

Chapter 19

"Right," Tantalus announced as the teams began to assemble for the chariot races. "You all know the rules. A quarter-mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed. Dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill anybody!" Tantalus smiled at them like we were all naughty children. "Any killing will result in harsh punishment. No s'mores at the campfire for a week! Now ready your chariots!"

Beckendorf led the Hephaestus team onto the track. They had a sweet ride made of bronze and iron – even the horses, which were magical automatons like the Colchis bulls. The Ares chariot was blood-red and pulled by two grisly horse skeletons. Clarisse climbed aboard with a batch of javelins, spiked balls, caltrops and a bunch of other nasty toys. Apollo's chariot was trim and graceful and completely gold, pulled by two beautiful palominos. Their fighter was armed with a bow, though he had promised not to shoot regular pointed arrows at the opposing drivers. Hermes's chariot was green and kind of old-looking, as if it hadn't been out of the garage in years. It didn't look like anything special, but it was manned by the Stoll brothers, a fact that worried most people but not Cressida. She knew exactly what kind of tricks they had because she'd been nicking them left and right.

That left three chariots.

One driven by Annabeth, one driven by Percy and the other by Cressida.

Considering she was working by herself, Percy was amazed by the creation she'd built. No one knew that Beckendorf helped her a little bit, feeling a little bad that she was doing this alone. Mostly he would just check up on her every now and again and make sure her math was on point, her angles were right and that the chariot would actually stay together once it got on the track. So far all she needed help with was her axle. Her chariot was dark purple, so dark it almost looked black in certain lights. And no one seemed to contradict the fact that she had two leopards pulling her chariot as opposed to horses, the leopards with fur that was coloured purple, the animals sacred to her father and were gifts for the race.

Annabeth kept muttering how ridiculous it was, especially since the chariots were built for horses to pull. At least until Percy came up to her, trying to tell her about a dream he had about Grover. At first, she thought he was trying to distract her but he kept insisting and Annabeth relented to letting him talk but only after the race.

Cressida was first to her mark as she wrapped her reigns around her left hand, her staff in the other hand and no one could quite see what she had in the little baskets at her feet. And she was lucky enough to have both Annabeth and Percy on either side of her, only fuelling her anger as she stared at Tantalus, waiting for the starting mark.

And when the starting signal dropped, the chariots roared to life as hooves thundered against the dirt, at least until after they cut down the vines Cressida grew to block their way, the girl laughing wickedly as she tore down the track.

Once they got past the wall of grapevines, almost immediately there was a loud nasty crack! The Hermes chariot had rammed into the Apollo chariot and no one would be able to tell if it was accidental or not as the chariot flipped over, the riders being thrown free as the chariot was dragged diagonally across the track.

The Stoll brothers laughed at the good fortune but were quickly shut up when the Apollo horses crashed into their chariot which promptly flipped as well.

Two down, five left.

And Cressida was way out in front, Annabeth behind her as Ares, Percy and Hephaestus vied for last place.

At least until the pigeons swarmed.

Thousands of them began dive-bombing spectators in the stands, attacking other chariots. The Ares cabin threw a camouflage net over them, Clarisse still trying to catch up to Cressida who was throwing Greek fire bombs up at the birds trying to attack her. And from somewhere behind him, Percy could hear the Stoll brothers complain that that's where their toys went to. She thieved the sons of the god of thieves.

Beckendorf was mobbed. His fighter tried to bat the birds away but he couldn't see anything. The chariot veered off course and ploughed through the strawberry fields, the mechanical horses steaming.

The birds were slashing at any bit of exposed flesh, driving everyone into a panic. Now that the birds were closer, it was clear they weren't normal pigeons. Their eyes were beady and evil-looking. Their beaks were made of bronze, and, judging from the yelps of the campers, they must've been razor sharp. "Stymphalian birds!" Annabeth yelled. She slowed down and pulled her chariot alongside Percy's. "They'll strip everyone to bones if we don't drive them away!"

Cressida had stopped her chariot, cuts all over her face and her staff in thyrsus form as she slammed it on the ground and vines rose from the earth.

At best, the waving vines disoriented them and at best, they killed some of them. The kids of Demeter even came to help, stretching the tree branches up to scramble the birds. But where Cressida had stopped to fight, Clarisse thundered on to the finish line before she turned to notice how serious the bird problem was.

"You're running? The fight is here, cowards!" the daughter of Ares spat as they saw where Percy, Annabeth and Tyson were riding Percy's chariot towards the Big House, away from the battle as Cressida ran to remove the harness from her leopards as they clawed, roared and even ate the birds that tried to attack them.

"You know what to do," she said to them and the two cats roared as they went after the birds hovering close to the ground, one of them even climbing a tree before leaping through the air, clawing down and biting the birds they could reach.

When Percy, Annabeth and Tyson came back, Percy was toting a boombox that started to blare Dean Martin songs, the birds going even more crazy as the Demeter children retracted their vines and branches.

"NOW!" Annabeth shouted. "Archers!"

With clear targets, Apollo's archers had flawless aim. Most of them could nock five or six arrows at once. Within minutes, the ground was littered with dead bronze-beaked pigeons, and the survivors were a distant trail of smoke on the horizon.

The camp was saved, but the wreckage wasn't pretty. Most of the chariots had been completely destroyed. Almost everyone was wounded, bleeding from multiple bird pecks. The kids from Aphrodite's cabin were screaming because their hairdos had been ruined and their clothes pooped on.

"Bravo!" Tantalus said, but he wasn't looking at Percy or Annabeth or even Tyson. "We have our first winner!" He walked to the finish line and awarded the golden laurels for the race to a stunned-looking Clarisse. Then he turned and smiled at Percy. "And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race."

Percy looked to Cressida who was holding her arm that was bleeding profusely, her cheek and forehead also bearing scratches, but as her purple eyes met his sea green eyes, he knew she wasn't going to defend him. Not anymore.