Indigo Eyes

Chapter 62

"Let Artemis go!" Zoë demanded.

Atlas walked closer to the chained goddess. "Perhaps you'd like to take the sky for her, then? Be my guest."

Zoë opened her mouth to speak, but Artemis said, "No! Do not offer, Zoë! I forbid you."

Atlas smirked. He knelt next to Artemis and tried to touch her face, but the goddess bit at him, almost taking off his fingers.

"Hoo-hoo," Atlas chuckled. "You see, daughter? Lady Artemis likes her new job. I think I will have all the Olympians take turns carrying my burden, once Lord Kronos rules again, and this is the centre of our palace. It will teach those weaklings some humility."

Cressida couldn't take her eyes off Atlas which left Percy to try and decode what Annabeth was desperately trying to tell them as she motioned her head towards Luke. And while he stared at her, he noticed that her blonde hair was streaked with grey.

"From holding the sky," Thalia muttered as if on the same wavelength and that's when Cressida turned.

"What?"

"The weight should've killed her," Thalia continued and the gears in Cressida's mind began to turn as she tried to put the puzzle pieces of the prophecy together.

"I don't understand," Percy said. "Why can't Artemis just let go of the sky?"

Atlas laughed. "How little you understand, young one. This is the point where the sky and the earth first met, where Ouranos and Gaia first brought forth their mighty children, the Titans. The sky still yearns to embrace the earth. Someone must hold it at bay, or else it would crush down upon this place, instantly flattening the mountain and everything within a hundred leagues. Once you have taken the burden, there is no escape." Atlas smiled. "Unless someone else takes it from you."

He approached them, studying the three demigods. "So these are the best heroes of the age, eh? Not much of a challenge. Except maybe this one, if she could control all her powers," Atlas remarked as he waved a hand dismissively at Cressida.

"Fight us, and let's see," Percy challenged.

"Have the gods taught you nothing? An immortal does not fight a mere mortal directly. It is beneath our dignity. I will have Luke crush you instead."

"So you're another coward," Percy said.

"Just like the last immortal we met under Kronos' control. Last we checked, Ares lost when he fought us and he's still on the Olympian's side," Cressida added and Atlas' eyes glowed with hatred and with great difficulty, he turned his attention to Thalia.

"As for you, daughter of Zeus, it seems Luke was wrong about you."

"I wasn't wrong," Luke managed. He looked terribly weak, and he spoke every word as if it were painful - not that they cared if he was in pain. "Thalia, you still can join us. Call the Ophiotaurus. It will come to you. Look!" He waved his hand, and next to them, a pool of water appeared: a pond ringed in black marble, big enough for the Ophiotaurus.

And Percy grabbed Cressida's hand, desperate for anything to distract him from thoughts of Bessie as Grover's voice in his head pleaded. If Percy kept thinking about the Ophiotaurus, it would heed his call.

"Thalia, call the Ophiotaurus," Luke persisted. "And you will be more powerful than the gods."

"Luke..." Her voice was full of pain. "What happened to you?"

"Don't you remember all those times we talked? All those times we cursed the gods? Our fathers have done nothing for us. They have no right to rule the world!"

Thalia shook her head. "Free Annabeth. Let her go."

"If you join me," Luke promised, "it can be like old times. The three of us together. Fighting for a better world. Please, Thalia, if you don't agree...' His voice faltered. "It's my last chance. He will use the other way if you don't agree. Please."

No one knew what he meant but it was clear enough to the daughter of theatre that the fear in his voice was genuine and that his life probably depended on Thalia joining his cause.

"Do no, Thalia," Zoë warned. "We must fight him."

Luke waved his hand again, and a fire appeared. A bronze brazier, just like the one at camp. A sacrificial flame.

"Thalia," Percy said. "No."

"Trees, you can't," Cressida added and the golden sarcophagus began to glow. As it did, the images in the Mist began to change, black marble walls rose, the ruins becoming whole as the beautiful but terrible palace made of fear and shadow began to rise around them.

"We will raise Mount Othrys right here," Luke promised, in a voice so strained it was hardly his. "Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Thalia. We are not weak."

He pointed towards the ocean, and Cressida's heart began to beat in her throat. Marching up the side of the mountain, from the beach where the Princess Andromeda was docked, was a great army. Dracaenae and Laestrygonians, monsters and half-bloods, hell hounds, harpies and a number of creatures even Cressida couldn't name. The whole ship must've been emptied, because there were hundreds, many more than they'd seen on board last summer. And they were marching towards them. In a few minutes, they would be here.

"This is only a taste of what is to come," Luke said. "Soon we will be ready to storm Camp Half-Blood. And after that, Olympus itself. All we need is your help."

For a terrible moment, Thalia hesitated. She gazed at Luke, her eyes full of pain, as if the only thing she wanted in the world was to believe him. Then she levelled her spear. "You aren't Luke. I don't know you any more."

"Yes, you do, Thalia," he pleaded. "Please. Don't make me... Don't make him destroy you."

There was no time - if the army got to the top of the hill, they would be overwhelmed.

And Annabeth only nodded at her two friends.

Cressida squeezed Percy's hand as they glanced at each other before looking to Thalia and Zoë and it probably wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to go down fighting with friends like this at her side, friends she never thought she'd have in her wildest dreams.

"Now," Percy said.

And together, they charged.