The Lost Hero Part 26

"And here," the princess said, "is the finest a.s.sortment of magical mixtures anywhere."

The counter was crammed with bubbling beakers and smoking vials on tripods. Lining the display shelves were crystal flasks-some shaped like swans or honey bear dispensers. The liquids inside were every color, from glowing white to polka-dotted. And the smells-ugh! Some were pleasant, like fresh-baked cookies or roses, but they were mixed with the scents of burning tires, skunk spray, and gym lockers.

The princess pointed to a bloodred vial-a simple test tube with a cork stopper. "This one will heal any disease."

"Even cancer?" Leo asked. "Leprosy? Hangnails?"

"Any disease, sweet boy. And this vial"-she pointed to a swan-shaped container with blue liquid inside-"will kill you very painfully."

"Awesome," Jason said. His voice sounded dazed and sleepy.

"Jason," Piper said. "We've got a job to do. Remember?" She tried to put power into her words, to snap him out of his trance with charmspeak, but her voice sounded shaky even to her. This princess woman scared her too much, made her confidence crumble, just the way she'd felt back in the Aphrodite cabin with Drew.

"Job to do," Jason muttered. "Sure. But shopping first, okay?"

The princess beamed at him. "Then we have potions for resisting fire-"

"Got that covered," Leo said.

"Indeed?" The princess studied Leo's face more closely. "You don't appear to be wearing my trademark sunscreen ...but no matter. We also have potions that cause blindness, insanity, sleep, or-"

"Wait." Piper was still staring at the red vial. "Could that potion cure lost memory?"

The princess narrowed her eyes. "Possibly. Yes. Quite possibly. Why, my dear? Have you forgotten something important?"

Piper tried to keep her expression neutral, but if that vial could cure Jason's memory ...

Do I really want that? she wondered.

If Jason found out who he was, he might not even be her friend. Hera had taken away his memories for a reason. She'd told him it was the only way he'd survive at Camp Half-Blood. What if Jason found out that he was their enemy, or something? He might come out of his amnesia and decide he hated Piper. He might have a girlfriend wherever he came from.

It doesn't matter, she decided, which kind of surprised her.

Jason always looked so anguished when he tried to remember things. Piper hated seeing him that way. She wanted to help him because she cared about him, even if that meant losing him. And maybe it would make this trip through Her Craziness's department store worthwhile.

"How much?" Piper asked.

The princess got a faraway look in her eyes. "Well, now ... The price is always tricky. I love helping people. Honestly, I do. And I always keep my bargains, but sometimes people try to cheat me." Her gaze drifted to Jason. "Once, for instance, I met a handsome young man who wanted a treasure from my father's kingdom. We made a bargain, and I promised to help him steal it."

"From your own dad?" Jason still looked half in a trance, but the idea seemed to bother him.

"Oh, don't worry," the princess said. "I demanded a high price. The young man had to take me away with him. He was quite good-looking, das.h.i.+ng, strong ..." She looked at Piper. "I'm sure, my dear, you understand how one might be attracted to such a hero, and want to help him."

Piper tried to control her emotions, but she probably blushed. She got the creepiest feeling the princess could read her thoughts.

She also found the princess's story disturbingly familiar. Pieces of old myths she'd read with her dad started coming together, but this woman couldn't be the one she was thinking of.

"At any rate," Her Highness continued, "my hero had to do many impossible tasks, and I'm not bragging when I say he couldn't have done them without me. I betrayed my own family to win the hero his prize. And still he cheated me of my payment."

"Cheated?" Jason frowned, as if trying to remember something important.

"That's messed up," Leo said.

Her Highness patted his cheek affectionately. "I'm sure you don't need to worry, Leo. You seem honest. You would always pay a fair price, wouldn't you?"

Leo nodded. "What were we buying again? I'll take two."

Piper broke in: "So, the vial, Your Highness-how much?"

The princess a.s.sessed Piper's clothes, her face, her posture, as if putting a price tag on one slightly used demiG.o.d.

"Would you give anything for it, my dear?" the princess asked. "I sense that you would."

The words washed over Piper as powerfully as a good surfing wave. The force of the suggestion nearly lifted her offher feet. She wanted to pay any price. She wanted to say yes.

Then her stomach twisted. Piper realized she was being charmspoken. She'd sensed something like it before, when Drew spoke at the campfire, but this was a thousand times more potent. No wonder her friends were dazed. Was this was what people felt when Piper used charmspeak? A feeling of guilt settled over her.

She summoned all her willpower. "No, I won't pay any price. But a fair price, maybe. After that, we need to leave. Right, guys?"

Just for a moment, her words seemed to have some effect. The boys looked confused.

"Leave?" Jason said.

"You mean ... after shopping?" Leo asked.

Piper wanted to scream, but the princess tilted her head, examining Piper with newfound respect.

"Impressive," the princess said. "Not many people could resist my suggestions. Are you a child of Aphrodite, my dear? Ah, yes-I should have seen it. No matter. Perhaps we should shop a while longer before you decide what to buy, eh?"

"But the vial-"

"Now, boys." She turned to Jason and Leo. Her voice was so much more powerful than Piper's, so full of confidence, Piper didn't stand a chance. "Would you like to see more?"

"Sure," Jason said.

"Okay," Leo said.

"Excellent," the princess said. "You'll need all the help you can get if you're to make it to the Bay Area."

Piper's hand moved to her dagger. She thought about her dream of the mountaintop-the scene Enceladus had shown her, a place she knew, where she was supposed to betray her friends in two days.

"The Bay Area?" Piper said. "Why the Bay Area?"

The princess smiled. "Well, that's where they'll die, isn't it?"

Then she led them toward the escalators, Jason and Leo still looking excited to shop.

PIPER CORNERED THE PRINCESS as Jason and Leo went off to check out the living fur coats.

"You want them shopping for their deaths?" Piper demanded.

"Mmm." The princess blew dust off a display case of swords. "I'm a seer, my dear. I know your little secret. But we don't want to dwell on that, do we? The boys are having such fun."

Leo laughed as he tried on a hat that seemed to be made from enchanted racc.o.o.n fur. Its ringed tail twitched, and its little legs wiggled frantically as Leo walked. Jason was ogling the men's sportswear. Boys interested in shopping for clothes? A definite sign they were under an evil spell.

Piper glared at the princess. "Who are you?"

"I told you, my dear. I'm the Princess of Colchis."

"Where's Colchis?"

The princess's expression turned a little sad. "Where was Colchis, you mean. My father ruled the far sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea, as far to the east as a Greek s.h.i.+p could sail in those days. But Colchis is no more-lost eons ago."

"Eons?" Piper asked. The princess looked no more than fifty, but a bad feeling started settling over Piper-something King Boreas had mentioned back in Quebec. "How old are you?"

The princess laughed. "A lady should avoid asking or answering that question. Let's just say the, ah, immigration process to enter your country took quite a while. My patron finally brought me through. She made all this possible." The princess swept her hand around the department store.

Piper's mouth tasted like metal. "Your patron ..."

"Oh, yes. She doesn't bring just anyone through, mind you-only those who have special talents, such as me. And really, she insists on so little-a store entrance that must be underground so she can, ah, monitor my clientele; and a favor now and then. In exchange for a new life? Really, it was the best bargain I'd made in centuries."

Run, Piper thought. We have to get out of here.

But before she could even turn her thoughts into words, Jason called, "Hey, check it out!"

From a rack labeled distressed clothing, he held up a purple T-s.h.i.+rt like the one he'd worn on the school field trip-except this s.h.i.+rt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers.

Jason frowned. "Why does this look so familiar?"

"Jason, it's like yours," Piper said. "Now we really have to leave." But she wasn't sure he could even hear her anymore through the princess's enchantment.

"Nonsense," the princess said. "The boys aren't done, are they? And yes, my dear. Those s.h.i.+rts are very popular-tradeins from previous customers. It suits you."

Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion-acid, maybe?-and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

"Your Highness," Piper said, trying to control her nerves. "Why don't you tell the boys how you betrayed your family? I'm sure they'd like to hear that story."

Her words didn't have any effect on the princess, but the boys turned, suddenly interested.

"More story?" Leo asked.

"I like more story!" Jason agreed.

The princess flashed Piper an irritated look. "Oh, one will do strange things for love, Piper. You should know that. I fell for that young hero, in fact, because your mother Aphrodite had me under a spell. If it wasn't for her-but I can't hold a grudge against a G.o.ddess, can I?"

The princess's tone made her meaning clear: I can take it out on you.

"But that hero took you with him when he fled Colchis," Piper remembered. "Didn't he, Your Highness? He married you just as he promised."

The look in the princess's eyes made Piper want to apologize, but she didn't back down.

"At first," Her Highness admitted, "it seemed he would keep his word. But even after I helped him steal my father's treasure, he still needed my help. As we fled, my brother's fleet came after us. His wars.h.i.+ps overtook us. He would have destroyed us, but I convinced my brother to come aboard our s.h.i.+p first and talk under a flag of truce. He trusted me."

"And you killed your own brother," Piper said, the horrible story all coming back to her, along with a name-an infamous name that began with the letter M.

"What?" Jason stirred. For a moment he looked almost like himself. "Killed your own-"

"No," the princess snapped. "Those stories are lies. It was my new husband and his men who killed my brother, though they couldn't have done it without my deception. They threw his body into the sea, and the pursuing fleet had to stop and search for it so they could give my brother a proper burial. This gave us time to get away. All this, I did for my husband. And he forgot our bargain. He betrayed me in the end."

Jason still looked uncomfortable. "What did he do?"

The princess held the sliced-up toga against Jason's chest, as if measuring him for an a.s.sa.s.sination. "Don't you know the story, my boy? You of all people should. You were named for him."

"Jason," Piper said. "The original Jason. But then you're -you should be dead!"

The princess smiled. "As I said, a new life in a new country. Certainly I made mistakes. I turned my back on my own people. I was called a traitor, a thief, a liar, a murderess. But I acted out of love." She turned to the boys and gave them a pitiful look, batting her eyelashes. Piper could feel the sorcery was.h.i.+ng over them, taking control more firmly than ever.

"Wouldn't you do the same for someone you loved, my dears?"

"Oh, sure," Jason said.

"Okay," Leo said.

"Guys!" Piper ground her teeth in frustration. "Don't you see who she is? Don't you-"

"Let's continue, shall we?" the princess said breezily. "I believe you wanted to talk about a price for the storm spirits-and your satyr."

Leo got distracted on the second floor with the appliances.

"No way," he said. "Is that an armored forge?"

Before Piper could stop him, he hopped off the escalator and ran over to a big oval oven that looked like a barbecue on steroids.

When they caught up with him, the princess said, "You have good taste. This is the H-2000, designed by Hephaestus himself. Hot enough to melt Celestial bronze or Imperial gold."

Jason flinched as if he recognized that term. "Imperial gold?"

The princess nodded. "Yes, my dear. Like that weapon so cleverly concealed in your pocket. To be properly forged, Imperial gold had to be consecrated in the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill in Rome. Quite a powerful and rare metal, but like the Roman emperors, quite volatile. Be sure never to break that blade..." She smiled pleasantly. "Rome was after my time, of course, but I do hear stories. And now over here-this golden throne is one of my finest luxury items.

Hephaestus made it as a punishment for his mother, Hera. Sit in it and you'll be immediately trapped."

Leo apparently took this as an order. He began walking toward it in a trance.

"Leo, don't!" Piper warned.

He blinked. "How much for both?"

"Oh, the seat I could let you have for five great deeds. The forge, seven years of servitude. And for only a bit of your strength-" She led Leo into the appliance section, giving him prices on various items.