The Shadow Archer Twins

I had rushed over to the Big House as soon as Chiron had asked for me at the Cabin 6 door. Even though Malcolm didn’t want me involved, I felt happy that Tox had forced his hand, because I wanted to help with this, even if Malcolm wanted me out of the way and safe. I didn’t want to be safe. I wanted the camp to be safe above all else, and I was going to prove that to him.

When I got to the Big House, everyone was already there. All of Ares, Athena, and Apollo’s cabins, along with two Hecate kids, a kid from Hephaestus, and now me. I wondered what we all would be doing, because this was an odd collection of campers. If we were an attack squadron, we would be almost all offense, but something told me this wasn’t a war council. Mainly the fact that we weren’t all sitting around the ping-pong table in the rec room.

After a couple minutes of waiting, and all of the Ares kids complaining impatiently, Tox walked in with Malcolm at his heels, struggling to keep up. Tox oozed confidence like I had never seen before, almost creating an aura of self-assurance of success that floated around him, outlining his shape.

“All right, all right, quiet down and gather round, guys! We have a plan to show you!” He shouted over everyone's separate conversations.

They quickly explained the plan to make the lower ranked officers in the Roman camp start to push against Octavian’s persistence to fight by holding a private meeting for the officers. They also explained what Malcolm had told me about Katie distracting Octavian while the officers’ meeting occurred. After they were done, Tox started to direct everyone to the jobs that he had called them in for.

“All right, so here’s how it’s going to work. The Hephaestus cabin has graciously built us two tents where the two separate meetings are going to be held. Ares cabin, you guys will be providing security for the officers’ meeting. These guys are highly trained, just like you guys are. So if any one of those officers so much as scratches their chin in a way you don’t like, send ‘em to Asphodel early. We are taking no chances here, guys. But don’t go all blood-hungry on me. Wait until you see a real movement of danger from the Romans. Apollo, we are with Ares as well. The Hephaestus cabin has made the tents out of a cloth that can be seen through with special goggles that they are giving to all of us. We’ll take the Romans out from distance with arrows if they try to make a move. We can also provide overwatch so that the Romans don’t try a sneak attack on the camp while the meeting is going on. If that happens, the Ares cabin will knock all of the officers out and help defend the camp.”

From where the Ares cabin was standing came a chorus of ‘Oorah!’s and ‘Oh, yes!’s. The Apollo cabin just nodded eagerly, whispering and looking excited to try on the cool goggles. Tox smiled briefly, and then continued.

“Next up is the Athena Cabin. You guys are going to do most of the talking, seeing as you’re the best with words and strategy. Get on their side; make the officers feel as if you know what they’re going through, and that you just want to help then, and avoid bloodshed. Convince them that we are not their enemies. Convince them that they have an obligation to return to Camp for a future meeting to draft a peace treaty. Aphrodite cabin, you’ll be in there as well, using charmspeak to persuade the officers to not tell Octavian, and to persuade them to accept the idea of a peace treaty.”

Malcolm grunted acceptance for his cabin, as they had guessed their role already. The Aphrodite kids chimed in with their comprehension of the plan, and Tox continued his roll call,

“Next, Lou Ellen, and Paige, from Hecate.” Paige was a relatively new camper, but she was one of the strongest magicians we had from Hecate’s cabin, only being bested by Lou Ellen herself, who was the head counselor.

“I need you two to cast sound-proofing spells over the two tents. Nobody except the ones inside should be able to hear the conversation in the tent. This is to prevent Octavian from listening for anything in the tent next door, if he gets suspicious.”

Lou Ellen and Paige both agreed with grins. They looked at each other with eagerness, like this job would be so easy for them that they couldn’t wait to get started.

“Izzy from Hermes?” Tox asked, not seeing me.

“Here,” I said, in a somewhat small voice. Then, in a louder, more confident tone I said, “I’m here. How can I help?”

“I am going to need you inside the officers’ meeting. You need to watch the expressions of the officers’ faces, looking for any sign that one of them might tell Octavian what we were trying to do. You’ll also are going to need to give Chiron a report of what happened afterwards.”

He gave me a look like, ‘Just do this for me, okay? I’m trying to get you involved here.’ I understood what he meant, and I said,

“Sure thing, Tox. Sounds easy.”

“And last but certainly not least,” Tox continued, “Jake Mason, from Hephaestus. I need you and your cabin to whip up an earpiece communication system so that we can all coordinate this thing. I want nothing going wrong. Trust me, we would much rather have just declared war on the Romans than be seen killing their officers while holding a meeting on our home turf under a flag of peace because something went wrong.”

Jake said something about getting right on with that task, and Tox offered one final statement.
“This has to go perfect, people. We can start off a new relationship with Camp Jupiter if we pull this off correctly. We’ll deal with Octavian’s obvious rejection of the peace idea later. But we need to lay down these foundations for a peace treaty. Let’s do this!”

Everyone cheered and then ran out of the Big House, running to their respective positions.

Notes