Daughter of Wine

Leo

I haven't felt this jumpy since I was surrounded by a pack of wolves on Pikes Peak. When I get to the limestone cliff in the forest, I turn to the group and smile nervously. I spot Calli, who gives me an overly enthusiastic thumbs up. Surprisingly, her support makes me feel a million times better. "Here we go." 

I will my hand to catch fire, and set it against the door. 

My cabinmates gasp. 

"Leo!" Nyssa cries." You're a fire user!" 

"Yeah, thanks." I tell her. "I know."

Jake Mason, who is out of his body cast but still on crutches, says "Holy Hephaestus. That means... it's so rare that..."

The massive stone door swings open, and everyone's mouth drops. My flaming hand seems insignificant now. Even Piper and Jason look stunned, and they've seen enough amazing things lately. 

Only Chiron doesn't look surprised. The centaur knits his bushy eyebrows and strokes his beard, as if the group is about to walk through a minefield. 

That makes me nervous all over again, but I can't change my mind now. My instincts tell me I'm meant to share this place, at least with the Hephaestus cabin, and I can't hide it from Chiron and my three friends. 

"Welcome to Bunker Nine." I announce as confidently as I can. "C'mon in."

The group is silent as they tour the facility. Everything is just as I left it. Giant machines, worktables, old maps and schematics. Only one thing has changed. Festus's head is sitting on the central table, still battered and scorched from his final crash in Omaha. 

I go over to it, a bitter taste in my mouth, and stroke the dragon's forehead. "I'm sorry, Festus. But I won't forget you."

Calli puts a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Hephaestus brought it here for you?"

I nod and place my hand on top of hers. 

"But you can't repair him." Jason guesses. 

"No way." I agree. "But the head is going to be reused. Festus will be going with us."

Piper comes over and frowns. "What do you mean?"

Before I can answer, Nyssa cries out. "Guys, look at this!"

She's standing at one of the worktables, flipping through a sketchbook filled with diagrams for hundreds of different machines and weapons. 

"I've never seen anything like these," Nyssa says. "There are more amazing ideas in here than in Daedalus's workshop. It would take a century just to prototype them all." 

"Who built this place?" Jake Mason asks. "And why?"

Chiron stays silent, but I focus on the wall map I'd seen during my first visit. Calli follows my gaze. It shows a map of Camp Half-Blood with a line of triremes in the Sound, catapults mounted in the hills around the valley, and spots marked for traps, trenches, and ambush sites.

"It's a wartime command center." Calli realizes, walking closer to the map. "The camp was attacked once, wasn't it?"

"In the Titan War?" Piper guesses. 

Nyssa shakes her head. "No. Besides, that map looks really old. The date... does that say 1864?"

We all turn to Chiron. 

The centaur's tail swishes fretfully. "This camp has been attacked many times." He admits. "That map is from the last Civil War." 

"Civil War..." Calli thinks hard. "You mean the American Civil War, like a hundred and fifty years ago? Union versus Confederates? Slavery? Harriet Tubman? All of that stuff?"