Annabeth and Piper questioned the slaves and gathered up bits of court gossip to try and piece together what had happened to Queen May.
The accepted story was that Queen May had died from an overdose of hellebore which her careless slaves gave her by accident.
"She only brought one slave with her to court," Annabeth informed Piper as she was seated at her loom, "A Phoenician girl named Dione, the only one who knew the proper amount of hellebore to give her. The rest of her attendants were slaves belonging to King Zeus and Queen Hera, who were assigned to wait up on her.""I heard that Dione was absent when Queen May was given the hellebore," Piper added as she used Annabeth's silver tipped ivory spindle and distaff to spin wool into into thread for weaving, "She was missing for a of couple hours that evening and the rest of Queen May's attendants had to guess on how much medicine to give her."
The slaves who had waited upon Queen May were now in prison, awaiting their executions by hanging. A worse sentence had been given out to the negligent Dione: death by public stoning.
"It's being said: the reason why Dione was missing was she had been dallying with a lover and now, they've run off together."
Dione had not been seen at the palace since the morning that Queen May's dead body was found. Thessaloniki and the surrounding countryside were instructed to look out for a runaway slave girl of about nineteen or twenty: slight and small breasted with pale skin, dark hair, and grey-blue eyes.Percy had invited Jason, Annabeth, and Piper to come with him to visit a cave near the Agia Triada beach. The cave was sacred to the God of the Seas, House Jackson's patron god, and Percy planned to make a sacrifice to thank the god for his safe return home. He poured a libation of wine and sang a hymn describing the god's magnificent palace made from coral and his gardens filled with shady bowers and caves to hide in.
Outside of the cave were tidal pools left behind when the hide had gone out. Climbing up and over the rocks, they explored each of the tidal pools, finding fist sized snails and hermit crabs with purple or pink shells, red or orange star fish ranging from little squirming things no bigger than a drachma, to solid, bulky creatures roughly a foot in length, and bright green or blue urchins and anemones.
Annabeth and Percy mostly left Piper and Jason alone together during excursions like this. Piper imagined that Annabeth had made Percy an ally in her marriage plot. Did Jason know about it? If he did, what did he think of it?
YOU ARE READING
The Owl Princess
FantasyBased on The Swan Princess/Swan Lake Princess Annabeth of Athens has been betrothed to Prince Percy of Crete practically since she was born. The two spent their childhoods butting heads but after a period of separation, they reunite and discover tha...