The Mark of Athena

Unless you look around the room, Annabeth thought, her confidence growing.

She glared at the ghost who had just spoken. He had a raven badge on his toga—the same symbol as on the floor at her feet.

“You are just a raven,” she scolded. “That is the lowest rank. Be silent and let me speak to your pater.”

The ghost cringed. “Mercy! Mercy!”

At the front of the room, the pater trembled—either from rage or fear, Annabeth wasn’t sure which. His pope hat tilted sideways on his head like a gas gauge dropping toward empty. “Truly, you know much, big mother. Your wisdom is great, but that is all the more reason why you cannot leave. The weaver warned us you would come.”

“The weaver…” Annabeth realized with a sinking feeling what the pater was talking about: the thing in the dark from Percy’s dream, the guardian of the shrine. This was one time she wished she didn’t know the answer, but she tried to maintain her calm. “The weaver fears me. She doesn’t want me to follow the Mark of Athena. But you will let me pass.”

“You must choose an ordeal!” the pater insisted. “Fire or dagger! Survive one, and then, perhaps!”

Annabeth looked down at the bones of her siblings. The failures of your predecessors will guide you.

They’d all chosen one or the other: fire or dagger. Maybe they’d thought they could beat the ordeal. But they had all died. Annabeth needed a third choice.

She stared at the altar statue, which was glowing brighter by the second. She could feel its heat across the room. Her instinct was to focus on the dagger or the torch, but instead she concentrated on the statue’s base. She wondered why its legs were stuck in stone. Then it occurred to her: maybe the little statue of Mithras wasn’t stuck in the rock. Maybe he was emerging from the rock.

“Neither torch nor dagger,” Annabeth said firmly. “There is a third test, which I will pass.”

“A third test?” the pater demanded.

“Mithras was born from rock,” Annabeth said, hoping she was right. “He emerged fully grown from the stone, holding his dagger and torch.”

The screaming and wailing told her she had guessed correctly.

“The big mother knows all!” a ghost cried. “That is our most closely guarded secret!”

Then maybe you shouldn’t put a statue of it on your altar, Annabeth thought. But she was thankful for stupid male ghosts. If they’d let women warriors into their cult, they might have learned some common sense.

Annabeth gestured dramatically to the wall she’d come from. “I was born from stone, just as Mithras was! Therefore, I have already passed your ordeal!”

“Bah!” the pater spat. “You came from a hole in the wall! That’s not the same thing.”

Okay. So apparently the pater wasn’t a complete moron, but Annabeth remained confident. She glanced at the ceiling, and another idea came to her—all the details clicking together.

“I have control over the very stones.” She raised her arms. “I will prove my power is greater than Mithras. With a single strike, I will bring down this chamber.”

The ghosts wailed and trembled and looked at the ceiling, but Annabeth knew they didn’t see what she saw. These ghosts were warriors, not engineers. The children of Athena had many skills, and not just in combat. Annabeth had studied architecture for years. She knew this ancient chamber was on the verge of collapse. She recognized what the stress fractures in the ceiling meant, all emanating from a single point—the top of the stone arch just above her. The capstone was about to crumble, and when that happened, assuming she could time it correctly…

“Impossible!” the pater shouted. “The weaver has paid us much tribute to destroy any children of Athena who would dare enter our shrine. We have never let her down. We cannot let you pass.”

“Then you fear my power!” Annabeth said. “You admit that I could destroy your sacred chamber!”

The pater scowled. He straightened his hat uneasily. Annabeth knew she’d put him in an impossible position. He couldn’t back down without looking cowardly.

“Do your worst, child of Athena,” he decided. “No one can bring down the cavern of Mithras, especially with one strike. Especially not a girl!”

Annabeth hefted her dagger. The ceiling was low. She could reach the capstone easily, but she’d have to make her one strike count.

The doorway behind her was blocked, but in theory, if the room started to collapse, those bricks should weaken and crumble. She should be able to bust her way through before the entire ceiling came down—assuming, of course, that there was something behind the brick wall, not just solid earth; and assuming that Annabeth was quick enough and strong enough and lucky enough. Otherwise, she was about to be a demigod pancake.

“Well, boys,” she said. “Looks like you chose the wrong war god.”

She struck the capstone. The Celestial bronze blade shattered it like a sugar cube. For a moment, nothing happened.

“Ha!” the pater gloated. “You see? Athena has no power here!”

The room shook. A fissure ran across the length of the ceiling and the far end of the cavern collapsed, burying the altar and the pater. More cracks widened. Bricks fell from the arches. Ghosts