Chapter 13 When You Get Bad News, Make a Bad Plan
When You Get Bad News, Make a Bad Plan
I entered the kitchen with determined demigod swagger.
“Harpsichord! Zuzu!” I pointed to each of them. They glanced over with confused expressions and then resumed unloading the dirty dish cart.
I blinked. “Wow, I didn’t think you’d actually let me get away with those nicknames.”
Harper batted his eyelashes. “Oh, no. If you call me that again, I’ll charmspeak you into crowing on the roof of the Big House every morning.”
Zuri chewed her lip thoughtfully. “You know…I don’t hate mine.”
“You all got off easy in the nickname department,” Benny said, walking in behind me. “I’m Benny-ficent. Sounds like an iron supplement for old people.”
I clucked my tongue. “No, you’re Bennificent. Like magnificent.”
Benny shifted his stance and smiled. “Oh. Well, that’s not so bad, then.”
I smiled too and pulled on my hazmat suit.
“I’m glad you’re in a good mood,” Harper said. “And still alive.”
“Yeah,” Zuri agreed. “We weren’t sure what would happen after the Ares cabin came in dead last. I’m guessing it didn’t go well looking for Grant?”
Harper frowned at me. “You went without us? I thought—”
“I know, I know.” I held up my hands. “I was wrong not to wait for you. But from now on, I’ll do better.
Because, believe it or not, I’m just now accepting the fact that despite being a demigod, I can’t do everything myself, and deep down I’m just a stubborn mortal kid who’s disappointed her mom a thousand times but still craves her love. ”
Zuri blinked at me. “That’s a lot to unpack in one sentence.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” I tugged on my lava-proof gloves. “My point is—we’ll find Grant together. Um…assuming that offer is still on the table?”
The other three exchanged looks.
“We promised,” Zuri said, “if nobody found Grant by tonight, we’d help you look.”
“And we will,” Harper agreed.
“Bennificent!” said Benny.
I punched the air. “The Wild Omada is on the case!”
“Why did you choose that nickname anyway?” Benny asked, picking up a stack of greasy plates.
“Omada is the Greek word for team,” I said. “And I think Wild speaks for itself.”
Harper’s eyes lit up. “I actually love that. It makes us sound tough and mysterious. Like—”
“Like Shane?” Zuri asked with an innocent blink.
I smirked. Harper blushed.
“Anyway,” he said. “If we have a code name for us, we should have a code name for the Wild Zone—you know, for when we’re around other campers.”
“How about the Kitchen?” Zuri suggested. “The Wild Zone is always cooking up all kinds of horrors, and we’re spending time in an actual kitchen.” She shrugged. “Might as well lean in.”
“Clever,” Benny said.
I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “The Wild Omada’s headed to the Kitchen! Oh, and if we get hurt, Benny has magic spaghetti squares! They make you feel invincible!”
Harper and Zuri gave him curious looks.
“Ambrosia,” Benny explained. “The Stoll brothers gave me some.”
“So that’s why Katie is acting perky,” Zuri guessed. “You fed her magic spaghetti squares?”
“No,” Benny said defensively. “I mean, it was only one piece. For healing.” He pointed to the sink. “Let’s do dishes.”
“I’ll help!” I said. “The sooner we get done, the sooner we can leave!” I dumped an entire stack of plates into the lava, speckling the front of my coveralls with molten dots.
“Katie!” Benny’s eyes bugged out. “Be careful!”
I tapped my temple. “I’m just working smarter, not harder, Bennificent. Let the dishes soak!”
I started scrubbing and removing plates from the lava, whistling “To My Boyfriend” by Fin.K.L while the others watched me with concern, probably wondering if they needed to stage an ambrosia intervention.
I was still feeling optimistic, though. The first few plates turned out all right, but the longer I took to remove them, the more they crumbled from the extreme heat. Soon I was fishing chunks of china out of the sink.
“Oops,” I said with a nervous laugh. “Well, that’s fewer dishes we have to do tomorrow!”
A voice from the doorway said, “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard anyone laugh during KP.”
All four of us turned. Standing at the bottom of the ramp was Beckendorf, my buddy from the forge. His face was grim, like he’d just broken a perfectly good hammer. “I’m glad you’re in a good mood, because I’m afraid I have some news that isn’t so good.”
“What’s going on?” Harper asked.
Instead of answering, Beckendorf strode toward me and rested his hands on my shoulders. “Katie, I don’t want you to freak out.”
I glanced nervously at the others. “Then maybe open with a different sentence.”
“One of the satyr referees didn’t return from the baton race,” he said.
My heart dropped into my stomach. The way he’d singled me out, I already knew who it was, but I asked anyway. “Silas?”
Beckendorf nodded. “He was your protector, right?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but my throat was dry and scratchy. My ambrosia-enhanced optimism evaporated.
“We’ve got a search party out looking,” Beckendorf said.
“Hopefully he’ll turn up….” He shifted his gaze to include Benny, Harper, and Zuri.
“But now that two members of Camp Half-Blood have gone missing, we need everyone to stay out of the woods until further notice. I wanted to make sure you heard. We’ll let you know as soon as we have more news. ”
Beckendorf turned and headed for the door.
“Wait,” I called after him. “Are you sure Silas didn’t go off on his own? He just got his searcher’s license. He was going to leave to find Pan in a couple of days. Maybe…”
Beckendorf winced in sympathy. “His clothes and travel gear are still at camp. I’m so sorry, Katie.”
“Oh.” I slunk back. “Okay.”
Once Beckendorf was gone, the kitchen filled with heavy silence.
“Katie.” Harper touched my arm, but I shrugged him off. He had this eerie way of reading my emotions, and I didn’t need that right now.
“I’m fine.” I threw back my shoulders. “Now we have even more reason to head to the Wild Zone.” I grabbed two more dirty dishes. “Come on, team! If we finish quick, we can sneak out before curfew!”
I did my best to make it sound like a trip to Disneyland, but nobody else moved. They all wore horrified expressions, like I’d suggested a trip to…well, the Wild Zone.
“Didn’t you hear what Beckendorf said?” Benny slashed the air with his hand. “We can’t go back out there now. Especially not you!”
“Besides,” Harper said, “if there’s a search party in the woods, we’re bound to get caught. I hear the counselor from the Demeter cabin can send out vines all across the forest floor to feel for life-forms.”
I spread my arms wide. “The forest is huge! And these search parties haven’t exactly been good at, you know, finding anyone.” I frowned at Benny. “Also, why especially not me?”
“The two people you traveled to camp with are missing,” he said. “Both of them were taken from the Wild Zone.”
I wrinkled my forehead. “You think something is targeting us in particular? You think I’m next?”
Harper and Benny both nodded.
“At the very least,” Zuri said, “we need to consider the possibility. I’m not saying we don’t go. I think we should.”
“Thank you!” I said.
“But monsters have been known to target specific people.”
The hard edge had sneaked back into her voice, as if she were talking from experience.
I sighed. “Well…good, then! If I get taken, I’ll end up in the same place as Grant and Silas. It’s what I deserve.”
“What? No.” Zuri marveled at me. “Katie, why are you talking like this?”
I dropped onto a stool and started to bury my face in my hands.
“Lava gloves!” Harper warned.
Benny knelt beside me. “What’s going on? You’re acting like it’s your fault Silas is missing.”
I looked up at him. “Because it is.”
Then I shared the conversation I’d had with Silas yesterday.
“He must have searched the Wild Zone during the race,” I said. “If I hadn’t confided in him…”
Zuri held up a hand. “Number one, Silas’s choices aren’t your fault. He’s a satyr. He knows the woods better than any of us.”
“And now he’s gone,” I muttered.
“Number two,” Zuri continued, “you did the right thing telling him. Obviously, he kept our names out of it, but he tried to warn the staff. They didn’t listen.
If Silas was taken, it’s on them. The Wild Zone…
” She shook her head. “That place should not exist in a camp for kids, even for demigods. There’s too much weird stuff going on in there. ”
Benny nodded. “So much weird stuff.”
“Like, weird weird,” Harper agreed.
I wrinkled my forehead and looked at each of them.
“Okay,” I said, “time for you guys to come clean. I told you about the ring Grant and I found in the fissure. I told you about the creature in the trees. What really happened to you all during the hazing? I want details.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Benny stared into the lava. “I didn’t think it was connected to anything…. But I did pass this one tree that had a weird rune carved into the trunk.”
Ice water trickled down the back of my neck. I thought about the sigil on the scroll I’d found under my pillow.
“What did the rune look like?” I tried to keep my voice even.
“Like an eta.” Benny drew it with his finger in the air—a mark nothing like the sigil on my scroll. “It’s a Greek h. The rune of Hermes.”
Harper spread his hands. “So someone from your cabin tagged a tree the old-timey way. Big deal.”
“Except the symbol was glowing,” Benny added. “And when I touched it…”
He rubbed his forearms. I remembered the weird red marks he’d had on his hands when I met him in the field.
“It burned you,” I guessed.
Benny nodded. “One time on the farm, I got bit by a rattlesnake. It felt like that.”
“Ouch,” Harper said. “Okay, that is weird.”
“Could you find this tree again?” Zuri asked.
Benny’s eye twitched. “I’d rather not. But yeah, probably.”
I turned to Harper. “What about you? Anything you’ve left out?”
Harper blushed and lowered his gaze. “I, uh…well, I did pass a kind of…cave? Tunnel entrance? It was a hole in the ground, anyway. I didn’t go close enough to see inside.” He sneaked a guilty glance at us.