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"Yes, sorry," the goddess said "To irls I doubt you’ll be seeing Hera much Your little quest has hardly ods are rather indisposed, as you know, torn between their Roman and Greek sides Soaze on Annabeth "I suppose you’ve told your friends about your falling-out with your mother?"

Heat rose to Annabeth’s cheeks Hazel and Piper looked at her curiously

"Falling-out?" Hazel asked

"An argu!" the goddess said "Well, I don’t know about that Athena was the oddesses The patron of Athens, after all When the Romans took over…oh, they adopted Athena after a fashion She becaoddess of crafts and cleverness But the Roods ere more to their taste, more reliably Roman--like Bellona--"

"Reyna’s oddess agreed "I had a lovely talk with Reyna a while back, right here in the park And the Romans had Mars, of course And later, there was Mithras--not even properly Greek or Roionnaires were crazy about his cult I always found him crass and terribly nouveau dieu, personally At any rate, the Romans quite sidelined poor Athena They took away ave the Romans for that insult Neither did Athena"

Annabeth’s ears buzzed

"The Mark of Athena," she said "It leads to a statue, doesn’t it? It leads to…to the statue"

Aphrodite sh, your siblings, the children of Athena, have been searching for centuries None has succeeded in recovering the statue In thealive the Greek feud with the Romans Every civil war…so ely by Athena’s children"

"That’s…" Annabeth wanted to say impossible, but she remembered Athena’s bitter words in Grand Central Station, the burning hatred in her eyes

"Romantic?" Aphrodite offered "Yes, I supposed it is"

"But…" Annabeth tried to clear the fog from her brain "The Mark of Athena, how does it work? Is it a series of clues, or a trail set by Athena--"

"Hmm" Aphrodite looked politely bored "I couldn’t say I don’t believe Athena created the Mark consciously If she knehere her statue was, she’d siuess the Mark is more like a spiritual trail of bread crumbs It’s a connection between the statue and the children of the goddess The statue wants to be found, you see, but it can only be freed by the most worthy"

"And for thousands of years," Annabeth said, "no one has ed"

"Hold on," Piper said "What statue are we talking about?"

The goddess laughed "Oh, I’m sure Annabeth can fill you in At any rate, the clue you need is close by: a map of sorts, left by the children of Athena in 1861--a remembrance that will start you on your path, once you reach Rome But as you said, Annabeth Chase, no one has ever succeeded in following the Mark of Athena to its end There you will face your worst fear--the fear of every child of Athena And even if you survive, hoill you use your reward? For war or for peace?"

Annabeth was glad for the tablecloth, because under the table, her legs were tre "This map," she said, "where is it?"

"Guys!" Hazel pointed to the sky

Circling above the pal rapidly, was a flying chariot pulled by pegasi Apparently Leo’s diversion with Buford the end table hadn’t worked--at least not for long

Aphrodite spread butter on a muffin as if she had all the time in the world "Oh, the map is at Fort Sumter, of course" She pointed her butter knife toward the island across the harbor "It looks like the Roet back to your ship in a hurry if I were you Would you care for soo?"

Chapter 19

They didn’t make it to the ship

Halfway across the dock, three giant eagles descended in front of thelittering gold arles fleay, and the Roman in the middle, as scrawnier than the others, raised his visor

"Surrender to Rome!" Octavian shrieked

Hazel drew her cavalry sword and grumbled, "Fat chance, Octavian"

Annabeth cursed under her breath By hiur wouldn’t have bothered her, but the two other guys looked like seasoned warriors--a lot bigger and stronger than Annabeth wanted to deal with, especially since Piper and she were arers

Piper raised her hands in a placating gesture "Octavian, what happened at camp was a setup We can explain"

"Can’t hear you!" Octavian yelled "Wax in our ears--standard procedure when battling evil sirens Now, thron your weapons and turn around slowly so I can bind your hands"