Piper gripped her dagger.

Fire, she thought. Thanks for reminding me, you witch.

She scanned the deck. How to make fire? A box of Greek fire vials was secured by the forward ballista, but that was too far away. Even if she made it without getting frozen, Greek fire would burn everything, including the ship and all her friends. There had to be another way. Her eyes strayed to the prow.

Oh.

Festus the figurehead could blow some serious flames. Unfortunately, Leo had switched him off. Piper had no idea how to reactivate him. She would never have time to figure out the right controls at the ship's console. She had vague memories of Leo tinkering around inside the dragon's bronze skull, mumbling about a control disk, but even if Piper could make it to the prow she would have no idea what she was doing.

Still, some instinct told her Festus was her best chance, if only she could figure out how to convince her captors to let her get close enough ...

'Well!' Khione interrupted her thoughts. 'I fear our time together is at a close. Zethes, if you would '

'Wait!' Piper said.

A simple command, and it worked. The Boreads and Khione frowned at her, waiting.

Piper was fairly sure she could control the brothers with charmspeak, but Khione was a problem. Charmspeak worked poorly if the person wasn't attracted to you. It worked poorly on a powerful being like a G.o.d. And it worked poorly when your victim knew about charmspeak and was actively on guard against it. All of the above applied to Khione.

What would Annabeth do?

Delay, Piper thought. When in doubt, talk some more.

'You're afraid of my friends,' she said. 'So why not just kill them?'

Khione laughed. 'You are not a G.o.d, or you would understand. Death is so short, so ... unsatisfying. Your puny mortal souls flit off to the Underworld, and what happens then? The best I can hope for is that you go to the Fields of Punishment or Asphodel, but you demiG.o.ds are insufferably n.o.ble. More likely you will go to Elysium or get reborn in a new life. Why would I want to reward your friends that way? Why ... when I can punish them eternally?'

'And me?' Piper hated to ask. 'Why am I still alive and unfrozen?'

Khione glanced at her brothers with annoyance. 'Zethes has claimed you, for one thing.'

'I kiss magnificently,' Zethes promised. 'You will see, beautiful one.'

The idea made Piper's stomach churn.

'But that is not the only reason,' Khione said. 'It is because I hate you, Piper. Deeply and truly. Without you, Jason would have stayed with me in Quebec.'

'Delusional, much?'

Khione's eyes turned as hard as the diamonds in her circlet. 'You are a meddler, the daughter of a useless G.o.ddess. What can you do alone? Nothing. Of all the seven demiG.o.ds, you have no purpose, no power. I wish you to stay on this ship, adrift and helpless, while Gaia rises and the world ends. And just to be sure you are well out of the way ...'

She gestured to Zethes, who plucked something from the air a frozen sphere the size of a softball, covered in icy spikes.

'A bomb,' Zethes explained, 'especially for you, my love.'

'Bombs!' Cal laughed. 'A good day! Bombs and m.u.f.fins!'

'Uh ...' Piper lowered her dagger, which seemed even more useless than usual. 'Flowers would've been fine.'

'Oh, it will not kill the pretty girl.' Zethes frowned. 'Well ... I am fairly sure of this. But when the fragile container cracks, in ... ah, roughly not very long ... it will unleash the full force of the northern winds. This ship will be blown very far off course. Very, very far.'

'Indeed.' Khione's voice p.r.i.c.kled with false sympathy. 'We will take your friends for our statue collection, then unleash the winds and bid you goodbye! You can watch the end of the world from ... well, the end of the world! Perhaps you can charmspeak the fish, and feed yourself with your silly cornucopia. You can pace the deck of this empty ship and watch our victory in the blade of your dagger. When Gaia has arisen and the world you knew is dead, then Zethes can come back and retrieve you for his bride. What will you do to stop us, Piper? A hero? Ha! You are a joke.'

Her words stung like sleet, mostly because Piper had had the same thoughts herself. What could she do? How could she save her friends with what she had?

She came close to snapping flying at her enemies in a rage and getting herself killed.

She looked at Khione's smug expression and she realized the G.o.ddess was hoping for that. She wanted Piper to break. She wanted entertainment.

Piper's spine turned to steel. She remembered the girls who used to make fun of her at the Wilderness School. She remembered Drew, the cruel head counsellor she had replaced in Aphrodite's cabin; and Medea, who had charmed Jason and Leo in Chicago; and Jessica, her dad's old a.s.sistant, who had always treated her like a useless brat. All her life, Piper had been looked down upon, told she was useless.

It has never been true, another voice whispered a voice that sounded like her mother's. Each of them berated you because they feared you and envied you. So does Khione. Use that!

Piper didn't feel like it, but she managed a laugh. She tried it again, and the laughter came more easily. Soon she was doubled over, giggling and snorting.

Calais joined in, until Zethes elbowed him.

Khione's smile wavered. 'What? What is so funny? I have doomed you!'

'Doomed me!' Piper laughed again. 'Oh, G.o.ds ... sorry.' She took a shaky breath and tried to stop giggling. 'Oh, boy ... okay. You really think I'm powerless? You really think I'm useless? G.o.ds of Olympus, your brain must have freezer burn. You don't know my secret, do you?'

Khione's eyes narrowed.

'You have no secret,' she said. 'You are lying.'

'Okay, whatever,' Piper said. 'Yeah, go ahead and take my friends. Leave me here ... useless.' She snorted. 'Yeah. Gaia will be really pleased with you.'

Snow swirled around the G.o.ddess. Zethes and Calais glanced at each other nervously.

'Sister,' Zethes said, 'if she really has some secret '

'Pizza?' Cal speculated. 'Hockey?'

' then we must know,' Zethes continued.

Khione obviously didn't buy it. Piper tried to keep a straight face, but she made her eyes dance with mischief and humour.

Go ahead, she dared. Call my bluff.

'What secret?' Khione demanded. 'Reveal it to us!'

Piper shrugged. 'Suit yourself.' She pointed casually towards the prow. 'Follow me, ice people.'

XLIV.

PIPER.

SHE PUSHED BETWEEN THE BOREADS, which was like walking through a meat freezer. The air around them was so cold it burned her face. She felt like she was breathing pure snow.

Piper tried not to look down at Jason's frozen body as she pa.s.sed. She tried not to think about her friends below, or Leo shot into the sky to a place of no return. She definitely tried not to think about the Boreads and the snow G.o.ddess, who were following her.

She fixed her eyes on the figurehead.

The ship rocked under her feet. A single gust of summer air made it through the chill, and Piper breathed it in, taking it as a good omen. It was still summer out there. Khione and her brothers did not belong here.

Piper knew she couldn't win a straight fight against Khione and two winged guys with swords. She wasn't as clever as Annabeth, or as good at problem solving as Leo. But she did have power. And she intended to use it.

Last night, during her talk with Hazel, Piper had realized that the secret of charmspeak was a lot like using the Mist. In the past, Piper had had a lot of trouble making her charms work, because she always ordered her enemies do what she wanted. She would yell Don't kill us when the monster's fondest wish was to kill them. She would put all her power into her voice and hope it was enough to overwhelm her enemy's will.

Sometimes it worked, but it was exhausting and unreliable. Aphrodite wasn't about head-on confrontation. Aphrodite was about subtlety and guile and charm. Piper decided she shouldn't focus on making people do what she wanted. She needed to push them to do the things they wanted.

A great theory, if she could make it work ...

She stopped at the foremast and faced Khione. 'Wow, I just realized why you hate us so much,' she said, filling her voice with pity. 'We humiliated you pretty badly in Sonoma.'

Khione's eyes glinted like iced espresso. She shot an uneasy look at her brothers.

Piper laughed. 'Oh, you didn't tell them!' she guessed. 'I don't blame you. You had a giant king on your side, plus an army of wolves and Earthborn, and you still couldn't beat us.'

'Silence!' the G.o.ddess hissed.

The air turned misty. Piper felt frost gathering on her eyebrows and freezing her ear ca.n.a.ls, but she feigned a smile.

'Whatever.' She winked at Zethes. 'But it was pretty funny.'

'The beautiful girl must be lying,' Zethes said. 'Khione was not beaten at the Wolf House. She said it was a ... ah, what is the term? A tactical retreat.'

'Treats?' Cal asked. 'Treats are good.'

Piper pushed the big guy's chest playfully. 'No, Cal. He means that your sister ran away.'

'I did not!' Khione shrieked.

'What did Hera call you?' Piper mused. 'Right a D-list G.o.ddess!'

She burst out laughing again, and her amus.e.m.e.nt was so genuine that Zethes and Cal started laughing, too.

'That is tres bon!' Zethes said. 'A D-list G.o.ddess. Ha!'

'Ha!' Cal said. 'Sister ran away! Ha!'

Khione's white dress began to steam. Ice formed over Zethes's and Cal's mouths, plugging them up.

'Show us this secret of yours, Piper McLean,' Khione growled. 'Then pray I leave you on this ship intact. If you are toying with us, I will show you the horrors of frostbite. I doubt Zethes will still want you if you have no fingers or toes ... perhaps no nose or ears.'

Zethes and Cal spat the ice plugs out of their mouths.

'The pretty girl would look less pretty without a nose,' Zethes admitted.

Piper had seen pictures of frostbite victims. The threat terrified her, but she didn't let it show.

'Come on, then.' She led the way to the prow, humming one of her dad's favourite songs 'Summertime'.

When she got to the figurehead, she put her hand on Festus's neck. His bronze scales were cold. There was no hum of machinery. His ruby eyes were dull and dark.

'You remember our dragon?' Piper asked.

Khione scoffed. 'This cannot be your secret. The dragon is broken. Its fire is gone.'

'Well, yes ...' Piper stroked the dragon's snout.

She didn't have Leo's power to make gears turn or circuits spark. She couldn't sense anything about the workings of a machine. All she could do was speak her heart and tell the dragon what he most wanted to hear. 'But Festus is more than a machine. He's a living creature.'

'Ridiculous,' the G.o.ddess spat. 'Zethes, Cal gather the frozen demiG.o.ds from below. Then we shall break open the sphere of winds.'

'You could do that, boys,' Piper agreed. 'But then you wouldn't see Khione humiliated. I know you'd like that.'

The Boreads hesitated.

'Hockey?' Cal asked.

'Almost as good,' Piper promised. 'You fought at the side of Jason and the Argonauts, didn't you? On a ship like this, the first Argo.'

'Yes,' Zethes agreed. 'The Argo. Much like this, but we did not have a dragon.'

'Don't listen to her!' Khione snapped.

Piper felt ice forming on her lips.

'You could shut me up,' she said quickly. 'But you want to know my secret power how I will destroy you, and Gaia, and the giants.'

Hatred seethed in Khione's eyes, but she withheld her frost.

'You have no power,' she insisted.

'Spoken like a D-list G.o.ddess,' Piper said. 'One who never gets taken seriously, who always wants more power.'