Chapitre 19: 18
He didn't fall far before a couple of strong arms captured him, and delayed his fall enough so he landed on the ground without so much as a bruise.
Billy's flashlight illuminated the passage they had come through, revealing dust and smoke rising from it, and that it was now completely barred. It was also 3 meters off the ground, and they could have seriously hurt themselves if Billy hadn't warned them beforehand.
The light shone around the room they were in, revealing decayed timbers that obviously used to be stairs but had rotted away and collapsed eons ago. The floor was simple sandstone, the ceiling was two stories tall. The room itself was devoid of any cracks or other signs of instability that had plagued the shrine of Mithras.
One corner held some ancient pottery, some wooden crates that appeared intact but could be crumbling to dust, and some wicker boxes bound with leather straps.
The only exit was on the far wall, and appeared to be a dark tunnel of some kind that the flashlight couldn't penetrate at this distance. A small brick trench cut through the room, allowing free-flowing water to move from left to right across the room.
"Harry," Billy declared after he finished his scan on the room.
"Yes, Billy?" Harry asked, looking at the Satyr, finding that the Satyr in question was staring down at him.
"I told you so," he declared.
Harry blinked, needing a moment to remember, then nodded shyly. "Sorry, Billy."
The Satyr shook his fist mock-angrily, then sighed theatrically, causing a few solitary smiles on the faces of the group. "Well, nothing we can do about it now other than explore that tunnel over there," he added, pointing to the tunnel. "I'm just glad we all came through in one piece."
Louis nodded, looking up at the passageway. "If you hadn't looked first, we'd have gone splat," the son of Apollo said.
"Lucky you had that flashlight," one of the guys added.
Billy smiled tightly. "Experience, kids. Experience. And you don't want to know more. Trust me."
"Note to self," Louis said. "Put trust in the words of the Satyr who's gotten countless demigods to camp."
Billy laughed. "Unless you're addled and can't count higher than two, 'countless' is stretching it, Louis."
They all smiled again, appreciating the Satyr trying to make light of the situation.
"I just want to know how you knew when you jump," Louis said, turning to the three youngest. "You came flying from that dust cloud right as we were ready. If you'd jumped sooner, we'd have missed. If you'd jumped later, you all might not have made it, you were cutting it really close. Especially you, Harry."
The two girls looked at Harry. "I was angry at you for pushing me," Annabeth said, "But thanks, Harry."
Silena nodded in agreement, and followed her thanks up with a hug. Annabeth, deciding that she liked hugs too, joined.
"I just… felt like it," Harry explained, hugging his two friends. "Something told me to wait, and I just… knew… when you were ready, that's when I pushed Annabeth and Silena. I waited until I knew I could jump."
"In other words, you lucked into it," Louis said, shaking his head. "It's a good thing you did, because we took longer than I liked to get to the ground and ready to catch anyone. And after I caught Annabeth, we took a tumble so it took a few seconds for me to get up again while Billy was catching Silena. I had this nasty premonition of you breaking an ankle or something."
Harry smiled tightly. "I'm just glad we all made it. Without Billy and his flashlight and foresight to check, it'd be bad."
They all nodded, and in turn voiced their appreciating to the Satyr. Billy blushed, and waved it off as doing his duty.
Harry knelt next to the free-flowing stream, dipped one finger into it, and tasted it. It tasted fresh and clean. "This water is cool and drinkable," he announced while dipping his hands into it. "If anyone's thirsty, here's your chance." He cupped a mouthful of water from the stream and drank.
"How do you know?" Annabeth wondered, kneeling down next to him and inspecting the water. The others joined them, but nobody drank.
"Miss Zoë decided that, since I like drinking from open water, then she'd made sure I knew how to determine if it is contaminated or not," Harry explained. "Normally, you'd want to boil it to make sure, but this water tastes like it came straight out of bottle."
"Good enough for me," Silena said, grinning, and cupping her own share. The others nodded, and drank as well, Billy forgoing his hands and simply dropping to his belly and drinking straight from the stream.
Annabeth looked unsure, but finally decided that it was better to drink and need some medicine later than to not drink and die of thirst. Who knew how long it would be before they had a chance to drink again?
They all drank greedily, none of them realizing how thirsty they were until now.
After hydrating, Harry filled up his empty water bottles while the rest explored the room – not that there was much to explore. The ceramic vases were empty. There were some brown… things… that may, at one point, have been fruits or plants left in tribute.
The crates had half-worn-off lettering on them, reading Hermes Express. Harry grinned, his grandfather delivered all kinds of useful items, and he wondered if these crates still held anything. Opening the crates revealed empty bubblewrap packaging material; whatever had been in the crates had been removed ages ago. They all groaned with disappointment.
Cautiously, they approached the arch over the darkened hallway that was their only exit. Athena's owl blazed above it, before vanishing.
"Well, we know where to go," Louis said.
"Yup," Billy replied.
They fell silent. Nobody moved.
"Don't all rush in at the same time," Billy joked. Nobody laughed.
After a few more seconds, Harry sighed. "You're all so very brave," he said, shooting them all a teasing grin. "Let this nine-year-old show how it's done." Whistling, he stepped out. Billy groaned, and joined him at the front, since he had the only flashlight.
The passage was straight and smooth, and Billy's flashlight illuminated it clearly. Still, they went slow and checked for traps.
"I can't believe that we had to deal with ghosts," Louis said, "That scared the hell out of me."
"Ghosts are cool," Harry deflected. "And they were funny. Watching Annabeth bat them around verbally was hilarious."
Annabeth laughed. "It felt like getting into a battle of wits with unarmed men," she chortled. "Funny, but unsportsmanlike."
Silena and the guys laughed. Billy and Louis muttered under their breath.
"Come on," Jack – or was it Jim? – said to the two oldest members of their party. "It was pretty funny, you had to admit."
"Especially when that one ghost tried to attack us and went straight through Harry," the other guy added. "The look Annabeth gave him when she told him to shut up and sit down was brilliant."
Annabeth seemed to puff up her chest. "It was pretty good, wasn't it?" she asked.
Harry laughed. "I didn't know ghosts could look that embarrassed," he replied.
A sickly sweet smell hit them, and conversation dropped off for a few moments.
"What now?" Louis asked. "More ghosts?"
Annabeth frowned, and put one ear to the wall. "Hush for a moment," she told them all, and listened intently. They all hushed at the look of concentration on her face.
"There are voices," she whispered, as if afraid they might be overheard. "Whispers. I can't make them out."
Harry, who had been the first to copy her, nodded. The others followed suit, and for a few minutes, they all stood, in silence, listening to the strange sounds coming from the wall of the tunnel.
"Like a million tiny voices," Billy said. "They're coming closer, too."
"Make a run for it?" Louis suggested. "Back where we came from, or straight on 'till morning?"
Harry pointed ahead. Billy pointed back. Billy gave a pointed look to Harry. Harry gave an innocent smile to Billy. Annabeth, rolling her eyes, pointed ahead. Silena, grinning, silently pointed ahead too. The guys, laughing silently, joined them.
Louis sighed silently, shared a look with Billy, and pointed onwards, too. The Satyr pouted, shrugged, nodded, and stopped pointing back, and pointed forwards instead.
They all shared a laugh. A silent one. Then they set a strong pace and started walking forward at a fast gait. The youngest members were practically running to keep up with the older members' long, strong, strides, but they were in excellent shape and kept up.
The voices seemed to gather, and were now coming audibly from around them without a need to put their ears to the wall.
Annabeth let out a squeak, then slapped her hands against her mouth. They all stopped and stared at the daughter of Athena.
She pointed at the walls, now covered in cobwebs. "Spiderwebs," she whispered. "My mother… arachnophobia," she stuttered out the words. Most of them nodded. Silena looked confused for a moment, then accepted the friend's phobia.
Harry just nodded, and threw an arm around her shoulders. "Spiders are harmless," he replied. "Leave them alone and they'll leave you alone."
Annabeth shook her head. "Because of what happened with Arachne, spiders hate my mother, and they hate her children. They'll come after me, bite me, spin their webs on me. They seek me out."
Harry tightened his arm. "Then we'll be here to help drive them off," he answered calmly. "I rather like spiders, so I'm not afraid of them."
Annabeth looked embarrassed that she needed the reassurance, but buried in his shoulder regardless.
"Come on," Billy said. "No sense going back, there's no way out that way. Let's push on."
They all nodded, even if Annabeth's nod looked a bit weak.
As they walked on, the webs became thicker, slowly filling the tunnel until they were forced into single-file, before the one at the front had to stop and start clearing them out before they hit their faces and got tangled in their hair.
Harry didn't mind, but everyone else seemed to, so he enjoyed himself with wiping away the silver curtains that were 'blocking' the tunnel. Billy, who was right behind him, only had to take care of the webs on top as those were outside of Harry's easy reach. Luckily for the others, Billy was the tallest of them so they all could pass through without further issues after Harry and Billy finished.
Finally, they reached the end of the long passageway, and found a door that had been filled up to Billy's waist with old lumber; as if someone had taken the time to barricade the opening.
The party shared a look, that couldn't be good. Everywhere they'd come, they'd found signs of previous travelers, the skeletons in the shrine of Mithras, the empty crates in the room beyond, the broken staircase, and now this barricade.
A lot of people had tried to travel these same passages. Why?
They had, by some unvoiced agreement, decided to keep the barricade intact. Whoever had built it had done so for a reason, and it may come in handy. So, they crawled over the barricade, managing to do so without getting too many splinters. The wood was old and fragile and splintered easily, so this was no easy feat.
They emerged into a room the size of a basketball court; the floor was done with ancient Roman mosaics, and the remains of torn tapestries still hung from the walls. Two unlit torches sat in sconces on either side of the door, both covered in cobwebs.
Suddenly, their eyes were drawn to the other side of the room, where Athena's owl burned brightly over another doorway.
Unfortunately, crossing this room would not be easy, as the chamber was bisected by a deep chasm that was 15 meters across, with the only safe passage seemingly being two beams that crossed it. They were too far apart to be used by both feet, and too narrow to use as balance-beams for the nearly adults.
As they studied the strange wooden beams crossing the chasm, the noise coming from the corridor behind them intensified, and Annabeth let out another terrified squeak when spiders started to appear.
Not very large ones, but well-fed, and midnight black. Harry eagerly stepped forward and threw a look into the rest of the corridor, being able to see thanks to Billy bravely shining his torch down the corridor from back where he was standing.
"Ooh, it's an entire army," Harry announced.
"Don't sound so impressed with the army of spiders, Potter!" Annabeth squealed.
Harry threw her a grin. "They're just spiders," he teased her, causing her to pale and take a step back. Which, coincidentally, nearly made her spill into the chasm if Louis hadn't grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Thanks, Louis. I am really, really, scared of spiders," the blonde gratefully thanked her savior.
"Harry, stop teasing her," Billy ordered, making the boy pout. "We need to stop that army, who knows how venomous they are?"
Harry pouted deeper. They were just spiders, he didn't get why everyone was getting so upset. When he saw the first spider crawl across the barricade, and ignore him, he watched it intently. It made a beeline straight for Annabeth, who screamed again, right before Louis stomped it flat. The second and third spider crossed together and did the same thing, before meeting a similar fate.
Fine, it seemed these spiders really did have it in for Annabeth. Harry looked at the approaching army. "Please stop doing that," he told them. "I don't want to hurt you."
It seemed that he didn't possess spider-speak the way he possessed snake-speak, as they kept coming.
Suddenly, music drifted from the room and into the hallway, freezing the spiders in their track. Harry looked over his shoulder, wondering where it was coming from.
Billy had pulled out a pan-flute, and was playing a beautifully haunting melody on it that Harry was sure he would be able to remember for the rest of his life. The music seemed to hang in the air, and seep into the ground and the walls and his very bones. Entranced, he listened.
"Nobody," Billy said, stopping only a moment before resuming play, "do," more music, "something," he finished sarcastically, before playing more music.
The interruptions broke the spell, and Harry blinked. The spiders were stopped, but he didn't know how long Billy could keep this up. Already, sweat was beading on his forehead.
Harry sighed, and looked at the two torches. He grabbed one, used Hestia's gift to ignite it, and thrust it at the cobwebs.
The webs caught immediately, and the fire roared through the corridor like a rampaging herd of elephants, burning spiders by the thousands. Harry stood, and watched, a look of sadness on his face.
Billy dropped his flute. "Finally," he said, panting. "Whoever had them under control, they were powerful. It took everything I had to freeze them."
Harry stepped back from where the barricade had now caught fire. "I don't think that got all of them," he said. "So maybe someone should find us a way to the other side."
Billy shone his flashlight down the chasm. "I don't see a bottom. That doesn't bode well."
"The kids can probably use these as a balance-beam," Louis said, from where he was studying the crossbeams. "But for us, they're too narrow."
"They have those strange metal eye hooks along the inside, though," one of the guys pointed out. They all gathered and studied the strange contraption. There were indeed metal eye hooks set into the beams, facing each other, at about 30 centimeter intervals. How unusual.
"Those can't support a deck," Silena said. "So it doesn't look like this used to be a bridge or something."
"It's a loom," Annabeth suddenly said.
"A loom?" Louis asked, studying the strange contraption.
Harry grinned. "We have to weave a bridge!" he shouted, practically throwing his backpack off, and holding it out. "Good thing I brought all that string. We need to weave a bridge, not a ladder, but same thing, right?"
"You have the devil's own luck," Billy declared, staring at the boy. "How did you know to bring the string?"
"Son of the Goddess of Fortune," he reminded the satyr. "Mom says it's my 'probability senses'. If I want or need to succeed at something, I can 'feel' the correct way to go, despite the odds. I don't know where we're going, but my instincts urge me to do the correct things to get there."
"Like how you got onto Olympus," Annabeth said, as if things suddenly made sense.
Harry nodded. "It has downsides, though. I balance my own fortune, so for all good things I get, bad things must happen."
"Like getting attacked by ghosts or chased by spiders," Billy said, throwing a look at the passage they had come from. There were still some fires burning, but they were slowly petering out. "If we're going to do this, we need to do it now. I don't know how much longer we have."
"Right," Annabeth said, grinning, and taking Harry's backpack full of string. "Don't mind if I do."
She hesitated for a moment, as if debating internally what exactly would be the right plan to follow, and whether this plan would work at all. Then, she grabbed the string from the backpack and got to work. Her hands moving fast and with determination, she started weaving a cat's cradle pattern from eye hook to eye hook, doubling, then tripling, then quadrupling the line to make sure that it would hold even the heaviest members of their party.
Her eyes shone with purpose, and it seemed that she was no longer thinking, just doing, her entire body filled with confidence, looping string, tying off lines, slowly extending her weave across the chasm.
"Right," Louis said, seeing the little blonde moving forward. "Who's next?"
"I'll go last," Harry said, throwing an expert eye at the spluttering barricade. "That fire isn't going to last much longer, and I'm the one who has no problems with spiders so I'll go last and do my best to move them back."
Louis and Billy seemed to not like this plan, not at all. Harry innocently asked who would go last in his place, considering the spiders were about to come through again.
Sighing, both Billy and Louis agreed. Silena would follow Annabeth, then the two guys, then Louis, then Billy, and finally, Harry would go last. The boy didn't mind, spiders never bothered him, not since there were so many of them in his cupboard.
There were times that his surreal childhood had prepared him well. He'd never thank his aunt and uncle, but he'd make good use of whatever skills it had given him. He couldn't imagine how scared Annabeth must be right now, stricken with severe arachnophobia.
There were a lot of spiders, after all.
Harry looked at the weave, and Annabeth crowed as she got to the other side, Silena already halfway there and the first of the guys just setting out. The fire of the barricade spluttered, and Harry fed it some more, using his Hestia-given skills. The fire leaped up, preventing spiders from crawling in over the walls.
"Guys, hurry up," Harry announced. "I don't know how much longer I can keep the fire up. The fuel's almost gone, and even I need fuel to keep a fire going."
The guy on the bridge cursed and tried to increase his pace, the second guy setting out quicker than normal. Already, Louis and Billy were crowding the near side of the woven bridge.
Harry pushed the remaining wood together into piles and created three smaller fires instead of one large one in an attempt to lengthen its burn time.
"Harry!"
Harry looked, and saw that Billy had started his crossing. Quickly, he followed the satyr, and entered the improvised rope bridge, grabbing his backpack along the way.
The fires had already died down and spiders rushed in across the walls and ceiling of the passage. The vanguard reached the bridge when Harry was only halfway across, and he noticed them approaching.
When he felt the tell-tale tickling of eight little spidery legs touching his skin, he shook the little arachnid off. He looked over his shoulder, and realized it was the just the first of many, and that he shouldn't stop and try to block the bridge as had been his initial plan.
He rushed forward instead, and threw himself off the bridge and onto solid ground. Immediately, he turned around and started blocking spiders from crossing. Billy's pan-flute came to the rescue again, and the spiders froze. Immediately, the satyr looked like he was struggling.
"Harry!" Annabeth shouted, from somewhere behind Louis. "Burn it!"
"But they're just spiders!" Harry protested. "I already feel bad enough about burning them before!"
"Just burn them!" Louis shouted.
Harry sighed, and reached for the weave with his Hestia-given skills. The string ignited, immediately catching the crossbeams as if they had been drenched in petroleum.
The fire whooshed across, and for a moment the weave looked like fiery owls. Harry looked sad. More dead spiders.
Billy's flashlight pointed to the other side, now the far side, of the chasm. The sea of black spiders reached the edge of the chasm, and didn't seem to realize that it could climb walls and just come across the ceiling. Instead, the torrent of spiders just sat at the edge, before dispersing and retreating down their original access corridor.
"Well that sucked," Louis complained.
"They were just spiders," Harry said, somewhat testily. "They looked creepy, but they weren't going to hurt anybody."
"They were going to hurt me," Annabeth said, snappishly. "And I hope you'd rather burn some spiders rather than see them hurt me."
Harry nodded. "Of course I would," he answered. "But for all we knew, they weren't going to."
"I do know," Annabeth said with conviction. "Spiders hate children of Athena."
Harry wasn't sure, but he kept quiet to keep the peace.
They walked through the tunnel without issues, keeping together. They didn't have far to go, as the tunnel suddenly widened after a dozen meters or so, turning into a cathedral-like chamber.
They were all gaping; the magnificent room was as majestic as any on Mount Olympus. Bronze braziers burned with magical fire along its circumference. In between the braziers hung the most gorgeous tapestries any of them had ever seen.
The stone floor was webbed with fissures, like a cracked sheet of ice, while at the same time the ceiling was so high up that even Billy's flashlight failed to reveal it.
Column-like strands of silk hung from the darkened ceiling like pillars of white marble, seemingly anchoring the walls and the floors like cables of a suspension bride.
And yet, what drew their attention the most was the huge statue standing in the middle of this shrine, for that was the only thing this room could be. Twelve meters tall it was, with luminous ivory skin and dress of gold, yet covered in webs.
It was a giant statue of Athena, one hand holding up a smaller statue of Nike, Goddess of Victory. At that height, Nike's statue looked small, yet it was likely as tall as a fully grown adult.
"The Athena Parthenos," Annabeth whispered. "It's been missing for 2000 years, ever since the Romans took over Athens."
They all stopped, processed that, and looked at Harry.
The boy shrugged with a smile. "Looks like we know why we're here." He grinned, and studied the statue some more. It had a kindly look to it, a look he hadn't ever seen on Miss Athena's face. And yet, it looked very much like her, as if the artist had been granted access to the goddess and had studied her in great detail.
"It looks very closely like her," Harry said. "Whoever made it must've seen Miss Athena at some point."
Annabeth just nodded, still gaping at the giant statue, as if she couldn't believe she was actually seeing it.
Harry smiled at the sight of seeing his friend this flabbergasted, and looked at the rest of the room instead. The tapestries that hung between the braziers were achingly beautiful. One showed a pastoral scene that looked like it could be a window, it was that three dimensional. Another tapestry showed a scene from the Giant Wars of ancient Greece, and depicted the gods fighting giants. A third held a landscape that could only be the Underworld. Harry wondered if Mister Hades would've liked to have that one.
Next was a skyline of modern Rome, a sight they had just seen themselves.
"These are incredible," Harry said, turning back to study the pastoral scene some more.
"Thank you," a voice spoke from the darkness of the concealed ceiling above. The voice sounded like an angry buzz in multiple tones, undeniably female, yet also undeniably not human.
Something moved in the webs that clung above the Parthenos, something black and large.
"I was not expecting you," the voice then said, and Harry had the impression that it was no longer talking to him. A scent followed it, sickly sweet, like the smell in the corridors. "I set up my tests so only the cleverest child of Athena could ever reach this place alive. I was not expecting one to actually be clever enough to overcome her own hubris and bring backup. Indeed, you must be her cleverest child of all, a child knowing the value of teamwork. Unfortunately for you, this will make your death – all of your deaths – so much more painful to my old enemy."
"You're Arachne," Annabeth whispered with a voice filled with dread. Harry saw her clinging to Louis, as if wanting to hide behind the taller demigod. "The weaver who was turned into a spider."
The figure dropped from the webs above like only a spider could, a single thick thread of silk supporting her weight as she lowered herself to the ground, behind a curtain of cobwebs. "Cursed by your mother!" she said, furiously. "Scorned by all and turned into a hideous monster for being the better weaver!"
"But you lost," Annabeth protested, as if the urge to set the record straight overrode her urge to hide behind Louis and remain quiet.
"Lies!" Arachne snarled. "Lies, told by your mother! Look at my work! See for yourself!"
"That's true," Harry said, interjecting into the conversation. "What happened to you was a travesty, Miss Arachne," he added, facing the shadowy spider-creature as if she were a regular human.
The shadow of Arachne seemed to stare at him. "Thank you," she admitted.
"But Harry!" Annabeth shouted, angrily. "My mom won!"
Harry looked sad and reluctant, as if he didn't want to be the one to answer. Finally, he drew a breath. "Hestia told me the full story, Annabeth," he said, gently. "Miss Arachne had acquired tremendous skill in weaving, a fact nobody can deny. She ventured to challenge Miss Athena. Miss Athena wove a tapestry depicting the gods in their majesty, while Miss Arachne wove one showing their… ah… adult pastimes."
Annabeth and Silena blushed, while the older demigods just chuckled. "Hestia said that Miss Athena became enraged, either at the fact that Miss Arachne won the contest, or because of the subject matter. Or both. In either case, Miss Athena became enraged, and tore the tapestry to shreds."
Annabeth nodded. "And then Mom cursed her."
Harry shook his head. "No. Humiliated, Miss Arachne hung herself in despair and humiliation. Miss Athena, out of guilt and pity, loosened the rope, and transformed it into a cobweb, and turned Miss Arachne into a spider so she could keep weaving."
Annabeth looked mutinous. Harry turned to Arachne's shadow, which clearly showed confusion at the demigod defending her. "Hestia said that Miss Athena would never admit to a mistake, or say she was sorry," he told the spider-like woman. "In any case, she tried to undo what she did, but didn't take the result into account, I reckon."
Arachne growled. "I'm a monster, it's a curse. Why she did it doesn't matter."
"It's rather over the top," he said with a nod. "I mean, the only thing you did was challenge a god. Artie told me it's not a good idea to ever challenge gods, and I think she's right. I mean, even if you do win, they'll cheat and just claim otherwise."
"Harry!" Annabeth pouted.
"Look at the tapestries," Harry said.
The daughter of Athena studied them, and admitted to herself that maybe, just maybe, Harry's version of the events was the right one. She didn't want to admit to that, however, as that would be declaring her mother at fault.
Then she blinked, and realized… that was the problem exactly. Not wanting to admit defeat, not wanting to admit fault. Hubris. Athena's major problem.
"It doesn't matter," Arachne snapped, "you're all about to die." She jumped from her curtain of webbing, heading straight for Annabeth.
She had the body of a giant black widow, with a red hourglass mark on her lower abdomen and a pair of spinnerets. Each of her eight legs were lined with curved barbs that looked the size of daggers.
Harry immediately emerged Hestia's Lasso, and threw its loop. With Arachne still in the air, the godly weapon captured all eight legs, bound them tightly, and pulled the giant arachnid to the ground. For a moment, she rolled and struggled, before blinking and looking surprised at basically being hogtied.
Harry approached her gently. She might, once, have been a beautiful woman. Now mandibles as black as pitch dotted her cheeks. Her eyes were large and lidless, colored pure black, with two smaller eyes sticking out of her temples.
"I'm really sorry, Miss Arachne, but I can't let you hurt Annabeth," he told her, softly.
"Just kill her," Annabeth said, viciously, glaring at their captured enemy. Said enemy wasted no effort in glaring back, her mandibles making vicious ripping sounds.
"No," Harry decided. "No, she's been caught. She can't hurt us. What's captured by Hestia's Lasso remains captured until I release it."
"But she's a monster!" Annabeth screamed.
"She's a human, turned into a spider by godly power," Harry answered. "She's a person, Annabeth. And right now, she's a person who can't hurt us." He looked at Arachne. "What really happened at that contest?" he asked.
Arachne seemed to sag. "Just as you said, demigod. I created a work showing the gods' romantic dalliances. It was rather unflattering, I suppose I should have known better."
"Harry?" Annabeth asked, confused at the straightforward answer from their enemy. She had expected more resistance.
"What is bound by the Lasso of Truth must answer with the truth," Harry replied. "Miss Arachne just cleared herself. Well, of anything other than having hubris at challenging a god, and being a bit shortsighted regarding her subject matter, anyway."
"Maybe," Annabeth muttered, not happy about it.
"How much would you charge for one of those tapestries?" Harry suddenly asked. "I love that Greek landscape one, and I'd like to buy it."
Everyone, including Arachne, dropped silent and stared at him while he patiently for an answer.
"You want to buy one?" Annabeth screeched.
"Just take one, she can't stop you now anyway," Louis said.
Harry looked disappointedly at the son of Apollo. "An artist deserves to be paid for their work," he replied. "If I stole it, and hung it up, all it would do is remind me I stole it."
"You're just trying to lure me into a false sense of security," Arachne snapped. "I won't fall for your lies, demigod!"
Harry sighed, then reached out and looped the cord of the lasso around his wrist. "I am bound by the same magic now. I can't lie. I want to buy that tapestry."
Arachne stared at him with all four of her eyes. For a moment, Harry found it disconcerting, before asking himself why she only had four eyes and not eight.
"Prove it," Arachne said. "Prove you can't lie. What's the one thing that scares you most, the one thing you never want to let others know?"
Harry felt the magic of the Lasso compel him. He fought it, pleaded with it, struggled against it, but in the end, said, "That everyone will abandon me and I will be alone again, in the darkness."
Arachne seemed stunned that Harry had, indeed, been forced to answer. The demigods and their satyr companion, meanwhile, realized that it explained so much about Harry.
Silena had him in a hug before he knew what had happened. "I won't ever abandon you, Harry," she promised. Annabeth, despite clearly being in terror due to her arachnophobia, joined her and hugged Harry from the other side.
"Me neither, Harry. But if you ever drag me into a spider's lair again, I will still be extremely upset with you!"
"It won't be us who leaves you, either, Harry," the guys said, practically in stereo. Louis grinned, and winked at the boy, while Billy stood there, not knowing what to say.
"This is all very touching," Arachne said, still trussed-up on the floor. "But can we get back to where one of you actually values my work?"
Harry grinned. "Sorry, Miss Arachne. But yes, I want to buy that tapestry."
"And the Athena Parthenos," Annabeth said. "Obviously, we want to return that."
"Never! I will never return it!" the spider-like woman screamed.
"Never?" Harry asked. "There's nothing you want that would let you give up the statue?"
Arachne stared at him. "Of course there are things I want, but 'never' is a better response," she replied. "And I didn't want to say that! Curse this stupid Lasso for making me tell the truth!"
Annabeth turned her head away so Arachne wouldn't see her struggling against laughter.
"You know, I'm sure that there are a lot of people out there who would pay you a lot of money for your work," Harry said. "You should see how much they spend on paintings!" He pointed to the pastoral tapestry. "And those are way better than paintings! That one looks like it's a window onto reality!"
"It's been a long time since anyone honestly appreciated my work," Arachne replied, actually sounding touched. "Not since that one's mother turned me into a monster."
"We could set up an intermediary," Louis said. "Lots of reclusive artists do that. They do all the PR work and the selling and stuff, and get a percentage of the sell price."
"We should also look into breaking the spell," Harry said. "Spells like this are meant to be broken, I reckon. Like bad laws, those are meant to be broken, too." His thoughts drifted towards Zeus' spell on his mother.
"You… think you can cure me?" Arachne asked, sounding so blatantly hopeful that it tugged on everyone's heartstrings.
"Curses are meant to be broken, or at least, worked around," Harry replied. "We'd just have to find out what the trigger is that Miss Athena used."
He stood up, still holding the Lasso with one hand, while the rope was still wrapped around his other wrist. "But before we go into that," he said, turning to Annabeth. "Can you hold this for a moment?" he asked, holding out the handle of the Lasso. "I will want it back, so be careful."
Annabeth, looking confused, took the handle of the Lasso while Harry unwrapped his wrist. "I'll be back in a few moments." He stepped confidently to the nearest brazier, and waved his hand at it.
The fire spluttered for a moment, just long enough to get him worried, before turning green, and his senses reported that this was a new fire that had just been added to the network and that yes, he could travel back to it if he left.
He left.
"Did he just… abandon us?" Billy asked.
Annabeth stared at the Lasso's handle in her hands, the rest of it tying up her mother's ancient enemy. It would be so easy to grab her dagger…
"Go ahead, girl. I can can see you thinking it," Arachne said. "Kill me." The demigods froze and stared at Annabeth.
Finally, the daughter of Athena sighed. "I gave Harry my word. He'd never trust me again."
"He's not like the others," Arachne ventured, carefully. "Wanting to buy my tapestry instead of killing me and claiming it as a spoil? Defending me? He's an odd one."
Annabeth was silent, not knowing how to reply.
Silena answered instead. "Harry has the Lady Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and the Home, as his guardian. He wants to be just like her, and I think she would definitely approve of this."
Before Arachne could form a reply, the fire flared green, and Harry stepped out of it. "Thanks, Annabeth," he told the daughter of Athena, before sitting down next to Arachne, close enough that she could probably bite him if she stretched and rolled a bit.
Harry opened a purse that he was carrying, displaying the drachmas inside. "Would this buy the tapestry?" he asked.
"You're obviously serious," the captured spider-woman answered. She looked at the gold. "That's more than I've managed to scrape together in quite a while. If you want it, it's yours."
Harry grinned, closing up the purse, and putting it within easy reach of her. "Thanks! That's awesome!"
"That only leaves the statue," Annabeth reminded him. "We need to bring it back, because I don't think my mother will be happy with all of this."
"Too bad," Arachne snickered.
"Before we go on," Billy said, turning to Harry. "You could do that any time? Just turn a fire green and walk through?"
Harry nodded. So did Annabeth, who had traveled with him before.
The satyr sighed. "So, explain to me – why haven't you gotten us out of here? You could have started a fire with any wood you found, then gotten us out. Why haven't you?"
Harry looked surprised, opened his mouth, and thought for a few very long moments. "I… eh… didn't think of it?" he replied, honestly.
Annabeth giggled. So did Silena. The guys and Louis chuckled, a chuckle that turned into full blown laughter. Billy sighed, and shook his head, before looking up at the darkened ceiling as if entreating the gods as to why he was the one stuck with these people.
"Truthfully, I didn't think of Harry's abilities either," Annabeth admitted. The other demigods nodded in agreement. They'd all been swept up in their adventure, and forgotten Harry could have traveled them out at any time.
"You are the most amusing victims I've ever gotten," Arachne said, sounding amused. "However, that still does not mean I am ready to give up my prize."
"Not even for a promise to find a way to turn you back, and the setup of a middleman to sell your tapestries?" Harry asked.
"You could be tricking me," Arachne answered. "And then I'd have nothing, abandoned here, alone with my children, in the darkness."
Later, Harry wouldn't be able to explain why he did what he did. It wasn't his instincts or his probability senses, it wasn't a stray thought or anything like it.
Instead, her words resonated uncomfortably with his own doubts and fears, and Harry leaned down and gave the spider-woman a hug.
The others screamed when they saw him get close enough for her to do serious damage, despite being restrained by the Lasso.
Instead, Arachne's four eyes grew exceedingly big, her mouth opened in surprise, and she stared in confusion at the demigod who continued to hug her.
A tingle spread through her body, and something shifted. Harry, startled, leapt back.
Arachne looked… smaller… somehow. And also…
"Miss Arachne, your eyes," Harry said, pointing.
Arachne blinked. "What about my eyes?" she asked, her voice sounding different. It was still buzzing, but there was a humanity to it that had been missing before.
Harry stared at her temples. "You only have two eyes now."
"And your legs aren't as long," Silena said, inching closer despite obviously not being a fan of huge spider-people.
"Hey, yeah," Louis acknowledged. "And the black widow mark on your abdomen isn't as bright red anymore."
"What..." Arachne asked, as if struggling to understand what everyone was telling her. "I feel somewhat different, too."
Harry grinned. "Maybe it was the hug that did it," he said, smiling, and leaned in to hug her again.
"Wait-" Annabeth protested.
Harry was already hugging their adversary, and a soft golden glow seemed to permeate Arachne's skin. He held on, even when he felt things shift. Gasps came from the onlookers, and Harry became aware that they were stepping closer.
It took less than a minute, before he realized he was hugging a human woman, dressed in an ancient greek dress that seemed to fit her rather well; it was also clear that yes, human Arachne was a rather attractive woman after all.
"I'm… cured..." Arachne said, still on her back, two human arms and two human legs tied together by the Lasso of Truth. "How…?"
Harry let go and sat back. "It sounds like Miss Athena spelled you into a spider so you could keep weaving, but that nobody would honor you or like you for it, or something like that."
"That sounds like something my mother would do," Annabeth muttered, clearly still stunned by what just happened. "Maybe to teach you humility or respect for the gods."
Arachne pouted. "I'm not sure that part worked," she answered, still bound by the Lasso and therefore forced to tell the truth. "But one thing's sure, I'm extremely grateful to all of you. And especially you," she added, looking at Harry. "I will not forget." She looked at Annabeth. "Take the statue, please. Present it to your mother, and tell her…" she trailed off, as if thinking her response through with the help of the Lasso. "Tell her that I will keep my children away from hers, and that, while I respect her power and position as a goddess, I wish she had chosen a different way of teaching it to me."
Annabeth looked amused, and opened her mouth to reply, when spiders skittered out of the webs on the walls, on the statue, on the ceiling, and started making their way out of the room. The daughter of Athena watched them go, and didn't feel the utter terror she usually felt.
"Hey, my arachnophobia's gone," she announced.
Arachne looked amused. "Can someone untie me now, please? I won't hurt any of you."
Annabeth tried to get the Lasso to untie, but it seemed to be stubborn and uncooperative. The feeling she got was that, while it didn't mind her holding it, it didn't want to cooperate with her for anything else.
"I… Harry?" she asked, holding the handle of the weapon out. It was never a good idea to upset a weapon that seemed to be able to think for itself.
Harry grinned, took the handle, and with a simple flick had it release Arachne, before coiling back up in the boy's hand. "You are brilliant," he told the mythical weapon, and smiled at being rewarded with a purring sensation, before turning it back into a ring.
Arachne stood up, and wobbled, nearly falling over. "It has been so long since I balanced on two legs," she said, before turning to Harry. "Take my tapestries here. They're not my greatest work, those were destroyed by Athena, but they are all I have at the moment."
Harry looked stunned, and the weaver laughed softly at the look on his face. Leaning down, she picked up the purse of gold, and handed it back to him. "It wouldn't do for me to ask for payment from the one who saved me."
"Ah..." Harry stammered, causing laughter from the others. "Thanks, Miss Arachne."
She grinned at him. "My savior gets to call me just 'Arachne', Harry," she teased him, before looking at Louis. "Is that offer of a middleman still good? And can I know your names, by the way? I heard Harry's name, and a few others, but I don't know who's who."
Louis grinned. "Sure. I'm Louis, son of Apollo, as are my two brothers here, Jack and Jim. Just call them 'guys', it ruins their fun at trying to pretend they're the other guy. The satyr over there is Billy."
Billy grinned and waved, while the guys pouted. Louis went on, "Annabeth is the daughter of Athena who revealed where we needed to go, and Silena is a daughter of Aphrodite. And yes, that offer is definitely still good. I'll pray to my dad, see if he can arrange something."
"Pleasure to meet you all," Arachne said, her disposition a lot better now that she wasn't a raging, foaming-at-the-mouth monster. "I would recommend that you leave, though. The floor and the walls are held together with my weaving. Underneath the floor is a hole straight to Tartarus, and the hate and rage has eaten away at the floor for millennia."
Harry looked down, as did the others, as if only now noticing.
"It isn't that unstable, but I do recommend some haste," Arachne said with a tiny giggle.
"How do we get the tapestries down?" Harry wondered, looking up at where the beautiful weaves had been hung.
Arachne seemed to have kept some of the skills she had as a spider, as she had no issues climbing and navigating the webs. Soon, the tapestries fell to the ground, one by one, making Harry wince.
"Don't worry, they can handle it," Annabeth reassured him. "Just look at the strength of the weave, and it's made from real spider silk."
Harry believed her, after seeing how well she could weave bridge and ladders he would never doubt her word on weaving.
"We should go," Arachne said, descending from what used to be her webs. "The longer I'm human, the more I lose contact with the spiders. They might come back."
The questers looked at her. The former spider-woman blushed faintly. "I think spiders used to creep me out," she confessed, earning a few laughs.
"How do we get that huge statue out of here, though?" Louis wondered. "We can carry the tapestries, but that statue is huge. It would take an army."
Harry moved one of the braziers closer. "I can take it through the fire. If I can touch it, I don't need to physically move it – the fire will move it for me."
Billy and Louis stared at him, hard. "On the promise that you'll ask for help if you can't," Louis stated with authority.
"Ehm… any chance for a lift?" Arachne asked, half-raising her hand. "I'm not sure I can leave here anymore. I'm also quite sure that the mortals built a parking lot on top of all this."
Harry grinned, and waved his hand at the fire. It turned green. "We're going to Camp Half-Blood, where the children of the gods are trained," he explained. "I'm not sure if it would be a good idea for you to suddenly appear there. This fire goes to the hearth in Hestia's temple at the base of the original Mount Olympus in Greece." He offered the full purse again. "You may need some money, though."
Arachne shook her head, and hugged the boy instead. "I still have some resources," she said. "Greece is excellent. If you ever need anything, let me know. I'll be forever in your debt."
Harry broke the hug. "You could be mortal now, though."
Arachne laughed. "Even better. A good mortal life and a good mortal death. I'm tired, after 2000 years." She looked each of them in the eye, giving them all a grateful nod, then stepped through the fire. It flared, and turned back to normal.
"Well, that was..." Silena started, but unable to finish.
"Something else?" Annabeth offered.
Louis nodded. "That was something else, alright. Let's get back to camp. We have to tell this to Chiron."
"Can everyone grab a tapestry, and move through first?" Harry asked. "I'll come last with the statue, and I have the feeling that I won't be able to keep the connection open after I get there."
Louis and Billy gave him the eye again. "Ask for help if you can't, Harry," Billy ordered.
Harry nodded. "I will if I can. If I get in trouble halfway, though, I probably won't be able to let go – and who knows where the statue will end up if I do?"
"I hate it when you make sense," Louis muttered. "Fine. Everyone grab a tapestry, and let's head back."
Harry waved open the connection to Camp Half-blood. A groan went through the floor.
"I don't think Arachne was exaggerating," Annabeth declared, heaving one side of a rolled-up tapestry together with Silena heaving the other. Those tapestries were larger and heavier than anyone would expect.
"Nope, me neither," Louis said. "Everybody through. Harry. Seriously, ask for help if you can't!"
"If I can ask for help, I will," Harry said, watching his friends go through the connection one by one.
Finally, it was just him and the statue. "Here we go, Miss Athena," Harry told the statue. It didn't reply, nor did he expect it to, but it seemed to be glowing slightly, shedding cobwebs now that Arachne was no longer there to maintain them.
He stepped between the brazier and the statue, placed one hand on it, then reached for the green flame with his other. The fire flashed, reached for him, met him halfway, and swallowed him and the statue.
Immediately, he knew he'd made a mistake.
Travel wasn't instantaneous as he had expected, and he felt like he were pulling a bowling ball through a straw. His arm hurt, and he felt his shoulder dislocate almost immediately. Unfortunately, the statue seemed stuck to his open hand so he couldn't release it even if he wanted to.
Somewhere deep in his mind, things hurt in a way he had not yet experienced; a clawing, burning sensation that seemed to draw the very strength from his mind and his muscles.
He screamed, silently, in the green fire. He pulled and pushed and progress felt so agonizingly slow.
Hestia, he thought. Hestia, I need help… please… help…
He was spat out, hand still on the giant statue of Athena, from the fire in the hearth at camp Half-Blood, at the feet of the goddess he had just been praying to.
He opened his mouth.
Then tumbled to the ground. Darkness claimed him.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone