The Shadow Archer Twins

I walked out of Cabin 7 feeling refreshed and renewed. I had just gone through the rebirth of my relationship with my sister. We had become new people at camp, and therefore had needed a new start to being siblings. It felt good to hug my sister again, a luxury that I had not had since we were little, and didn’t bicker as much.

But, my time for feeling happy about being close with my sister would have to wait until this whole plan had come to completion, because even though we had a ‘plan’, we had a lot of planning left to do. This whole thing would have to be organized perfectly, and that wouldn’t happen by itself. It was time to find Malcolm and have Chiron call a camp meeting.

I walked across the courtyard to Cabin 11, the July heat beating relentlessly down on my neck. The camp borders protected against bad weather, but apparently not against global warming, because it could have only been hotter in Hades than it was right now. By the time that I got to the Athena cabin door, the back of my shirt was starting to get sticky. I was just about to knock when Malcolm opened the door, looking directly through me and at the door to my cabin with a determined look on his face. He was about to walk straight into me when his eyes noticed me, and he stopped abruptly.

“Hey,” He said, in an embarrassed tone, “I was just headed to, uh, um—”

“Apologize to my sister?” I asked bluntly.

“Yeah,” He said, his face getting red. I didn’t know if it was from the heat or from embarrassment, but I’ll guess a mixture of both. “About that—” He started to continue, but I cut him off.

“You missed your chance, kid. You needed to act sooner, because she’s already put it behind her. And besides, we don’t have time. Have you pitched the idea to Chiron yet?”

“Yep, and he wants to talk with us about it,” He said, looking suspiciously relieved that he wouldn’t have to go apologize to Katie now.

“Don’t look too disappointed that you won’t be able to apologize to her,” I said sarcastically. And then, putting more seriousness into my voice, I finished with, “Because if this thing goes wrong in any way for her, it’ll be Hades you’ll be saying sorry to next.”

He looked at me and gulped with nervousness. I don’t know why, but I have that effect on people sometimes. They see my black hair and dark blue eyes, and they think I’m some scary guy. So, I use that to my advantage.

“So, Malcolm, let’s get this plan organized, eh?” I said, trying to get him to move, “Because we have a lot of stuff to do before tomorrow. That is when you’ve scheduled the meeting, right?”

“Yeah,” Malcolm said, trying to hide a hint of nervousness, “I told Octavian who to bring and that he would be attending a special meeting. He seemed to like that idea, which I told you he would.”

We both moved out of the doorway at the same time and started walking over to the Big House. Chiron was waiting for us in centaur form, casting a large, friendly shadow.

“Boys!” He greeted, with a smile on his face, “It’s nice to see you working so hard on this plan. It’s much better than the one I had had in mind. By the way, forgive me for being so aggressive with that, Malcolm. I must admit to having some rather unpleasant dreams of late. It seems that Gaea is trying her hardest to stir a full form for Kronos to rise again, and I think that she was trying to persuade me to attack the Romans at the same time. This was why I was so aggressive, Malcolm.”

Malcolm faced paled, “Do you think she’ll succeed with Kronos, Chiron?”

“Gods, no, my boy. When Kronos was destroyed last year, his essence was scattered so thinly that even a fully awake Gaea would have to spend years to bring him back, and she is asleep—for now.”

I don’t know why, but I felt impatient. I was thinking about how nervous Katie had looked about doing this, and I felt as if Chiron and Malcolm were both taking the plan, and Katie, too lightly.

“Could we get back to the plan?” I asked firmly.

“Oh, right,” Chiron said, “So, how can I help you guys? I approve of the plan and your motion to move forward with it, so all I can do is help you set it up. Who and what do you need?”

I took charge at that point, responding to Chiron’s eagerness. “I need all the Athena kids, any Aphrodite kids who are good with charmspeak, all the Ares campers, two Hecate kids, one Hephaestus kid, Katie, and Izzy from the Hermes cabin.”

“Why do you need her?” Malcolm asked with indignation. I swore to all the gods, if it was the last thing I did, I was going to make him less ignorant and help him see the big picture in every plan. I didn’t want his girlfriend to be in danger, but I needed her for another reason.

“She is going to watch the meeting from a bi-partisan point of view. She’ll give the final report on how things went, because I trust her to give an honest answer.”

Malcolm looked at me with indignation again at the word ‘trust’, and opened his mouth to complain, but I stared him down and he closed his mouth.

“Done,” Chiron said, “When do you need them?”

“As soon as possible. I also need a table, and a pad of paper to outline the plan. I’ll bring those supplies to the Big House, and we can meet in there.”

Malcolm looked at me with a little smirk, and said, “One thing you learn after being here for a while, kid, is that all war councils are traditionally held at the rec room ping-pong table.”

“Who said we were going to war?” I asked, “And, who said that this meeting would be anywhere close to traditional?”

Malcolm shut up after that. I had outsmarted him. And he was the Athena kid.

Notes

This chapter is back down to a shorter size. I have eight more chapters planned until I need to take a break, so don't worry, more stuff's a-comin'