Daughter of Wine

Percy

"Percy!" Tyson comes running across the forum, Ella fluttering behind him with a scroll in her talons. When they reach the fountain I'm sitting on with Frank and Hazel, Ella drops the scroll into my lap.

"Special delivery." She says. "From an aura. A wind spirit. Yes, Ella got a special delivery."

"Good morning, brothers!" Tyson has hay in his hair and peanut butter in his teeth. "The scroll is from Calli and Leo. They are funny and small."

"I know Calli." I remind him. The scroll looks unremarkable, but when I spread it across my lap, a video recording flickers on the parchment. Two kids in Greek armor grin up at us. The first is my friend Calli, with her big, round, pale green eyes, her long wavy hair, and pink cheeks. The other has an impish face, curly black hair, and wild eyes, like he's just had several cups of coffee. They're sitting in a dark room with timber walls like a ship's cabin. Oil lamps swing back and forth on the ceiling.

Hazel stifles a scream.

"What?" Frank asks. "What's wrong?"

Slowly, I realize the curly-haired kid looks familiar, and not just from my dreams. I've seen that face in an old photo.

"Hey!" says the guy in the video.

"Heya Percy!" Calli greets excitedly. She's usually a pretty high-energy person, but this other kid is so wired that they seem normal next to each other.

The kid speaks again. "Greetings from your friends at Camp Half-Blood, et cetera. This is Leo. I'm the..." He turns to Calli. "What's my title? Am I like admiral, or captain, or-"

"Repair boy." Calli offers, turning to him with an affectionate glimmer in her eyes.

"Very funny." He grumbles. He turns back to the parchment screen. "So yeah, I'm, ah, Supreme Commander of the Argo II. Yeah, I like that!"

"Boludo." Calli shakes her head but smiles to herself. "Anyways, we're gonna be sailing toward you in about, I dunno, an hour in this big mother warship. We'd appreciate it if you'd not, like, blow us out of the sky or anything."

"So okay!" Leo claps his hands together. "If you could tell the Romans that. See you soon."

"Yours in demigodishness and all that." Calli waves goodbye.

"Peace out!" Leo finishes, and the parchment turns blank.

"It can't be." Hazel says.

"What?" Frank asks. "You know that guy?"

Hazel looks like she's seen a ghost. I understand why. I remember the photo in Hazel's abandoned house in Seward. The kid on the warship looks exactly like Hazel's old boyfriend.

"It's Sammy Valdez." She says. "But how...how-"

"It can't be." I remind her. "That guy's name is Leo. And it's been seventy-something years. It has to be a..."

I want to say coincidence, but I can't make myself believe that. Over the past few years I've seen a lot of things: destiny, prophecy, magic, monsters, fate. But I haven't yet run across a coincidence.

We're interrupted by horns blowing in the distance. The senators come marching into the forum with Reyna at the lead.

"It's meeting time." I say. "Come on. We've got to warn them about the warship."