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on the last word, rachel collapsed, but her helpers were waiting to catch her. they carried her away from the hearth and laid her in the corner to rest.
"is that normal?" piper asked. then she realized she'd spoken into the silence, and everyone was looking at her. "i mean... does she spew green smoke a lot?"
"gods, you're dense!" drew sneered. "she just issued a prophecy— jason and phoebe's prophecy to save hera! why don't you just—"
"drew," annabeth snapped. "piper asked a fair question. something about that prophecy definitely isn't normal. if breaking hera's cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of death ... why would we free her? it might be a trap, or—or maybe hera will turn on her rescuers. she's never been kind to heroes."
phoebe sat. this was the first quest she would ever go on without the company of her twin brother.
jason rose. "i don't have much choice. hera took my memory. i need it back. besides, we can't just not help the queen of the heavens if she's in trouble."
a girl from hephaestus cabin stood up— nyssa, the one with the red bandanna. "maybe. but you should listen to annabeth. hera can be vengeful. she threw her own son—our dad—down a mountain just because he was ugly."
"real ugly," snickered someone from aphrodite.
"like your personality," phoebe hissed.
"shut up!" nyssa growled at the aphrodite kid, sending a small appreciative smile to phoebe. "anyways, we've also got to think —why beware the earth? and what's the giants' revenge? what are we dealing with here that's powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?"
no one answered, but piper noticed annabeth, phoebe and chiron having a silent exchange. piper thought it went something like:
annabeth: the giants' revenge ... no, it can't be.
chiron: don't speak of it here. don't scare them.
phoebe: you're kidding me! we can't be that unlucky. and can't you see? they're scared already!
chiron: later, children. if you told them everything, they would be too terrified to proceed.
piper knew it was crazy to think she could read their expressions so well—three people she barely knew. but she was absolutely positive she understood them, and it scared the jujubes out of her.
annabeth took a deep breath. "it's jason's quest," she announced, "so it's his choice. obviously, he's the child of lightning and phoebe's the only daughter of the sea, so they must be the first two on this quest. usually, it's three to a quest but this one calls for four."
someone from the hermes cabin yelled, "well, you, obviously, phoebe and annabeth. you two have got the most experience."
"no, travis," annabeth said. "first off, i'm not helping hera. every time i've tried, she's deceived me, or it's come back to bite me later. forget it. no way. secondly, i'm leaving first thing in the morning to find percy ."
