Piper accompanied Annabeth as she strolled with her mother through the palace gardens: an idyllic expanse of perfectly manicured ornamental citrus and olive trees and grape vines growing on trellises, all bordered by lily plants, Queen Hera's favorite flowers. In a few weeks, these gardens would be perfumed by lilies and lemon blossoms and at the height of summer, you could pick fresh olives, grapes, and oranges from the branches. Some of the trees and vines formed shady bowers where a passerby could sit and get out of the sun. Standing among the flowers were statues of famous lovers: Paris and Helen, Daphne and the God of the Sun, and Achilles and Patroclus. A closer inspection showed that these couples were not as blissful as they might appear. Paris carried Helen off in his arms; Helen appeared to be fearful and trying to resist him. Daphne fled from the God of the Sun; the tips of her fingers showed that she was beginning to turn into a laurel tree. Patroclus clutched his side, where Hector's spear had stabbed him; Achilles cradled his dying companion in his arms.
"Patír hasn't spoken to me since the banquet," Annabeth told Queen Athena as they perused the statue of Achilles and Patroclus, a new addition to the collection.
"Your father is a proud man," Queen Athena replied, "He doesn't like to admit when he's wrong."
"Must be a family trait," Annabeth gave a wry smile, acknowledging that she was very much her father's daughter.
"...but he'll get over it. You did a brave thing, Annabeth, speaking up for that slave. A wise ruler defends the innocent and sees that justice is done. You have learned well."
Queen Athena admired the look of agony on Patroclus's face and Achilles's anguished expression.
"This is exquisite work, do you who the artist is?"
"I believe it's by Rachel of Delphi."
Piper had heard of Rachel of a Delphi. She belonged to a noble oikos from Phocis and had been dedicated since childhood to the temple of the God of the Sun in Delphi, where she served as priestess. The God of the Sun was the patron of the arts and of medicine so his devotees were often singers, musicians, painters, sculptors, and healers. It was said that the god had given her the gift of prophecy. Following the death of the great Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, last year, everyone believed that Rachel would be named her successor.
A thin slave with a cinnamon complexion and a shaved head and inky fingers, Queen Athena's personal secretary, approached.
"My Lady," his deep voice called in a guttural Egyptian accent, "Your lord husband wishes to discuss the orders of business for the next meeting of the council."
"I come, Gamal," Queen Athena replied, following the slave back inside the palace.
Free from her mother's supervision, Annabeth picked up the hem of her chiton and ran towards the tallest of the orange trees. She put a dainty foot clad in a delicate leather sandal on the lowest branch of the tree and began to climb.
"What are you doing?" Piper demanded.
"Climb up here and see for yourself," Annabeth giggled.
Piper pulled up the skirt of her own chiton and lifted herself up to join her friend. From their perch, they could see a field where a group of young men were exercising naked, their muscles glistening with olive oil.
A/N Ancient Greeks exercised and participated in athletic competitions, naked. The word "gymnasium", a place where you exercise, comes from the Ancient Greek word for naked and translates to "place for being naked." The fact that all of the athletes were naked was part of the reason why women were banned from the Olympic Games. The Ancient Greeks had the opposite view of nudity than the one we have today: today, images of nude or semi nude women are fairly common and we're less comfortable with male nudity but back then, the naked male body was considered the height of beauty while women, considered flawed versions of men, were expected to cover themselves up.
Piper blushed.
"We shouldn't be looking at this."
"Percy is warming up for Luke's funeral games later today. I thought I'd look in and see if I'm getting my money's worth."

A/N 😏😉😳😂🤣

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

From what Piper could see, Prince Percy was indeed an impressive physical specimen. He wrestled with Prince Jason, who looked like Heracles reincarnated with his bronze skin and golden hair shinning in the sun and his well muscled frame.
"Seaweed Brain !" Annabeth shouted at her betrothed.
Startled, Percy lost his balance, making it easier for Jason to pin him to the ground. The look on his face when his back landed in the dirt made the two girls bellow with laugher.
"What was that?" Jason asked, extending a hand to help his friend back onto his feet.
"Must have been a couple of nymphs," Percy replied with a smirk.
"I think we should go investigate."
Percy and Jason climbed into the tree and searched among the branches to find them. Annabeth jumped down from the bough on which she stood, the skirt of her chiton flying up, before they could catch her. Piper descended more carefully by using the limbs of the tree like a ladder. Jason's hand touched her foot and tried to grab hold of it. Piper pulled her foot away and dismounted, leaving Jason with only her sandal.
The two girls dashed back to the palace, stopping to catch their breath on the portico.  Piper noticed that one of her feet was bare.
"By the gods!" She shouted, "I have to go back, they have my other sandal."
"No!" Annabeth cut in, "Wait for him to return it. He'll search the entire palace for the girl who it belongs to and think about her the entire time."
Piper saw the diamond like glint in Annabeth's grey eyes which signaled that a scheme was being hatched.
"What are you playing at?"
"I have a mind to get Prince Jason to marry you."
"He has to marry a princess his parents chose for him. What makes you think he'll marry me?"
"You're the daughter of a queen and besides, you're worth two of most princesses I know.  I'm sure we could get your mother's support; you are her favorite child. Cyprus is an ally of Athens and it would suit my parents to marry a Cypriot into the Macedonian royal family."
For a girl who had grown up with Greek politics as her bedtime stories and court intrigue among her childhood past times, Piper was amazed that Annabeth could be so naive.
Annabeth took Piper's hands in her own. Her hands were long fingered and strong and surprisingly rough and calloused for a Princess.
"Do you wish to marry him?"
"Oh course, how could I not."
If they had been just a simple boy and girl, Annabeth's match making scheme could work. But Jason was the greatest prince in Greece while Piper was just the daughter of a minor lord from an island in the middle of nowhere. The future queen of Macedonia had to be of a more exalted lineage.
"I will speak to Jason tonight."

Annabeth was among the women who prepared Prince Luke's body for the funeral. The corpse had been cleaned and embalmed after Luke's death and sealed inside a simple wooden coffin for transport from Anatolia back to Greece. It's rough black woolen shroud was removed and the women anointed it with sacred oils. Queen May placed an obol on her son's lips to pay Charon, the ferryman of the dead, for his soul's passage to the underworld. Princess Thalia put a wreath of golden oak leaves on his brow, along with a kiss.

As the chief mourners, Queen May and Princess Thalia lead the funeral procession. They were dressed in black chitons and himations trimmed with gold and wreaths of oak leaves.

Annabeth and the other women joined them in chanting dirges, tearing at their clothes, and beating their breasts as Luke's body was carried out on the bier to where a pyre had been built. The bier was placed in front of the pyre.
"Dark Lord and Dread Queen," the mourners prayed as they poured libations of dark red wine, "Receive this libation for the shade of Luke, son of Hermes."
The bier was carried over to the pyre and the mourners tossed lit torches onto it. Annabeth, with her black chiton and himation blowing in the wind and tears streaming down her cheeks, tossed the last torch.

Luke's ashes would be gathered up an placed in his family tomb in Tegea and a stele would be erected in his memory. Annabeth had described the stele to Piper: the stone carver had created an image of Luke in full armor bidding goodbye to his wife, Thalia.

On the base were caved the words "Λυκ Αρκαδίας (Luke of Arcadia)." 
As the flames of the pyre overtook the body, Queen May wailed the loudest of any of the mourners and pulled at her hair so roughly that she could have ripped it all out, like the petals of a flower.
"My boy, my boy," she moaned like a damned soul in Tartarus, "It's all her fault. She killed him."
Queen Hera stood up in the gallery where she sat.
"Queen May is troubled by grief," she explained, "Which is unsurprising, after she has lost such an exemplary son. Perhaps all this has been too much for her."
One of Queen May's attendants rushed over to her mistress.
"My Lady," she attempted to sooth the distraught mother, "Come rest, you exerted yourself too much already."
Piper pitied the poor woman. The Arcadian queen's psyche had always been troubled, even before the untimely death of her only child. She was known to suffer from fits of madness which featured seizures and incoherent mumbling. During the war, she was plagued by nightmares about her son's death, which unfortunately came true.
Her attendants lead her back to the palace.
"I'm thirsty," she gasped, "Damn you all, bring me some water."

After the funeral, Piper joined the other dancers to prepare for their performance during the games. She went into the wings of the amphitheater and put on her costume: a one-shouldered yellow peplos and skirt which were embroidered with golden spangles.

The athletes who were going to compete in the games sat on benches outside of the wings. Piper peeked out from behind the curtains to see Annabeth and Princess Estelle coming to wish Percy luck.
"I bet ten drachmas on you for the chariot races," Annabeth told him, "Don't let me down, Seaweed Brain."
"And I bet five obols," Princess Estelle added, feeling grown up because she was allowed to wager on the games.
"Then do I get good luck kisses?" Percy replied.
Estelle gave him a peck on the cheek. Annabeth snaked her arms around Percy's waist, pulled her close, and took the breath from his mouth, leaving him gasping.
"She's hot for you," Prince Eros cheered after the two princesses had left, "five drachmas says that she'll open her legs before a date is even set for the wedding."
"I'd prefer you didn't speak about my betrothed that way," Percy grumbled, taking an aggressive step towards Eros.
"Save it for the games," Jason cut in, stepping in between the two men.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Piper watching them from behind the curtains.
"Lady Piper," he bowed to her.
"Good luck today, My Lord," Piper replied, blushing for having been caught.
"Thank you. Did you happen to lose a sandal today? Someone left this behind behind in the gardens."
He produced the sandal from underneath a bench. It had been made in the Egyptian style: soles woven from wicker, braided leather thongs, and slightly upturned toes.

"I've been looking for that since this morning."
She took the sandal from him, relieved to have it back.
"I had a feeling it belonged to you. Percy knew that one of the girls who had hidden in the tree must have been Annabeth. He asked her if she was missing a sandal and she said no. You and Annabeth are inseparable, so we safely assumed that you were the other girl."
"C'mon Grace," Percy interrupted, "It's time for you to eat my dust in the foot race."
"Excuse me, Lady Piper," Jason bowed again, "Glory calls."

The first contest of the games was a foot race.

Prince Will of Delphi took the laurel crown for fastest runner. He was built for running: tall and long-legged with lithe, strong muscles. His long, honey-colored hair was pulled back into a braid and his large blue eyes twinkled with pride at having won. He had a delicate face, as beautiful as a girl's, with a catlike grin.
Prince Nico had been disinterested in the games. Instead, he sat on the steps leading up to the gallery and played dice with Prince Lukeides.

He started paying attention when Prince Will took the field. Prince Will was courting him as his eromenos. The relationship began when Prince Will presented Prince Nico with a red fighting rooster.

A/N Ancient Greek homosexual relationships typically consisted of an erastes, a young man in his early twenties, and an eromenos, an adolescent boy. This was meant to be a coming of age practice since the erastes acted as a mentor as well as a lover for the eromenos. In theory, these relationships ended when the erastes married and the eromenos reached maturity but it was still perfectly acceptable for married men to take male lovers.

Nico cheered the loudest when the laurel wreath was placed on his erastes's head.
Piper wondered what Princess Thalia thought of this since they had both come to court as suitors for her hand.
The foot races were followed by the wrestling matches. After watching him train that morning, Piper predicted that Jason was likely to be the victor. He went up against Prince Eros in the final match which ended with Jason getting him into a chokehold and flipping him over.

"I wanted to be the one to teach that loudmouth a lesson," Percy called to him as he returned to the benches, after receiving the laurel wreath. Jason's oiled muscles glistened like new bronze in the sun and his golden blond hair was tussled in the wind. Gods, Piper thought, He's breathtaking.
Prince Eros took the laurel for discus and javelin throwing.

Piper was on edge during this part of the games because it was right before her performance. 
Her big solo as Danaë was in the beginning. A dancer playing the king of the Gods spied her as she frolicked with her handmaidens. Piper gracefully turned towards him and their eyes met. She unpinned her peplos and twirled it about while writhing sensuously to the music. Her scarf dance represented Danaë being ravished by the King of the Gods in the form of a shower of gold and conceiving Perseus.
She looked over at where Jason sat on the benches. He had a somewhat embarrassed look on his face and covered his lap with a cloak to hide exactly how much he was enjoying watching Piper dance. 
Piper blushed and reveled in her new found power. She felt like a goddess who accepted love and adoration as her due instead of shrinking from it. Her mother's words came back to her: "Think of it as a weapon, Piper, and learn to wield it."
The dance ended with Piper standing on the tips of her toes, twirling, then leaning back as far as she could.  She held this pose for several moments as the crowd cheered before the next part of the dance began. Walking back to the wings, Piper gave a coy smiled to Jason. 
She did not know who this seductive, confident girl was but she liked being her.

Annabeth had told Piper the story behind  the tapestry she was weaving: A creature called the Minotaur, the cursed offspring of a sinful queen and a sacred bull, was said to inhabit the caves of Crete: a dark, eery, and otherworldly landscape where you hear the dripping of growing stalactites and see forms and faces in the shadows. The strange and frightening sounds one sometimes heard in these caves were said to be the screams of the Minotaur's victims. Religious rites used to take place in these caves, where the ancient Cretans chanted, danced, and did acrobatics in hopes of placating the beast, who was said to enjoy music and gymnastics. A remnant of these rites was bull leaping, a sport where young men did leaps and flips over aurochs bulls, massive, ill tempered beasts which can reach up to six feet in height and three thousand pounds in weight, with nearly three foot long horns.
This sport was the ultimate test of Cretan manhood and a champion bull leaper had trained Percy since he was a boy. From his trainer, Percy had learned a trick of running towards the bull, grabbing it by the horns, and flipping himself over.

He used this trick to win the laurel. After the bull leaping came the long awaited chariot race. Annabeth stood up in her seat and shouted encouragements to Percy and his team of horses.

Her investment of ten drachmas proved to be a profitable one: she ended the day with twenty. Princess Estelle's five obols returned to her two-fold.

Athenaíí and Aphrodisia brought trays of loukoumades to the winners of the games. Their ambrosial smell beckoned Piper forward and she took one for herself.

Aphrodisia flirted with the guard, Mantu. She fluttered her eyes at him and barely held back giggles. Athenaíí told Piper that she was embarrassed on her friend's behalf.
"Come on, Athenaíí," Piper asked the slave, "Hasn't anyone ever caught your eye?"
"From what I've seen of men," Athenaíí sneered, "I'd rather follow the moon goddess's hunt the rest of my life."
Prince Eros' servant Zephyrus had been after Athenaíí for years, mostly because she was the one person at court he could not charm into bed.
Aphrodisia could play the silly, love-struck girl and Athenaíí could swear to follow the moon goddess's hunt because they had managed avoid King Zeus's notice.  Zeus liked his women to be beautiful and light-hearted: Athenaíí was a tiny, insignificant little thing with features that were too heavy and sullen for beauty. She resembled Annabeth, if a life of slavery and resentment had robbed her of her strength and regal allure. Her barbed tongue, described as being as shift and as sharp as a Spartan's blade, often kept people away. Piper suspected that she used it to protect herself from being hurt. Zeus also liked his women to be voluptuous and womanly: Aphrodisia was built like an underfed boy and Piper imagined that she would still be a little girl at fifty. They were the lucky ones, free from being made into objects for the King's lust and able to keep their innocence and integrity. But kings and princes had the prerogative of taking whatever they wanted, no matter who it hurt.

Piper returned to her chambers through the garden. She passed one of Queen Hera's attendants, who was carrying a basket of hellebore flowers.

The sap of the poisonous hellebore plant was given in small doses as a medicine for manic episodes. Queen May was known to take it whenever she had outbursts like the one she had that afternoon. Queen Hera had promised to look after her dear friend while she was ill. She probably sent the slave to gather hellebores for Queen May's medicine.

Prince Luke's funeral ended with a feast in his honor, where the meat from  all the animals sacrificed to ensure his soul's passage to the underworld were served up as tasty joints, steaks, and kabobs. More wine was poured and used to toast the fallen hero.
Piper asked after poor Queen May. Her attendants had made sure she was returned safely to her chambers and was put to bed. She was now sleeping peacefully.
It was a lovely evening, balmy and clear with a star-filled sky. After a long and eventful day, Piper decided that a stroll in the garden and going to bed early would be pleasanter than sitting in the crowded and overheated megaron and staying up all night. She spread out her himation on the ground underneath the largest orange tree, where she and Annabeth had hidden earlier that day, and sat down. Her eyes were wet and heavy, making her vision blurry and it difficult for her to keep her lids open. Yawning, she let her back fall against the trunk of the orange tree.
"Lady Piper," a low voice called, waking her up from her doze.
She looked up to see Prince Jason standing over her. He was still wearing the crown of laurel leaves he had won in the wrestling competition.
"My Lord," she replied, groggily, "Congratulations on your victory today."
"Thank you."
Piper stood up and attempted to readjust her himation.
"Here, allow me."
Prince Jason wrapped the himation around her shoulders.
"It's a gorgeous evening. One can feel the approach of summer."
"It'll be warm enough to swim in the bay soon."
"Oh, I cannot wait for that. One of the things I miss about my father's home in Cyprus is that I could swim in our bay all year long."
"I've never been to Cyprus. Is it beautiful?"
"I think the bay near our home is the most breathtaking place I've ever seen. There are pink granite cliffs and caves surrounding it and the water is always aqua blue. At low tide, there are little pools left in the rocks. My father and I would go and see what kind of creatures had been left behind by the tide: starfish, hermit crabs, periwinkles, clams, muscles, and oysters; one time we even found an octopus. My father wanted to serve it up for dinner but I begged him to release it back into the sea."
"There are some nice tide pools here in Thessaloniki. I used to explore them with Percy and Annabeth when I was younger."
"I would love to see them."
"Have you seen Mount Olympus yet?"
"No, not yet."
"My father was usually off fighting or feasting with his hetairoi or was occupied by his women but when he had the time for me, we would go hunting in the foothills of Mount Olympus. The mountain itself is so tall that it's cap is covered in snow all year round. I used to dream of climbing to the top and meeting the Gods but I never got the chance to. Percy and I have been meaning to visit the sanctuary at Dion and make an offering to the King of the Gods to give thanks for our safe return. You and Annabeth should join us and we'll make a day trip of it."
"I would love to. I'll speak to Annabeth later," Piper yawned.
"You sound tired, Lady Piper. Allow me to escort you back to your chambers."
At the entrance to the gynaeceum, they hovered for a moment. Piper wondered if he was going to kiss her. So decided to be bold and make the first move.
"I'm looking forward to visiting Dion," she whispered to him before giving him a peck on the cheek, "Good night, My Lord."
"Please, call me Jason," he replied.
"Only if you call me Piper instead of Lady Piper."
"Goodnight Piper."
"Goodnight Jason."

Annabeth woke Piper during the first few hours of the next day by roughly shaking her. Piper had buried herself in the sheep fleeces and goose down stuffed cushions of the bed they shared.
"Ugggh," she groaned.
Annabeth pulled the woven woolen coverlet off of her. Sitting up, Piper saw that her friend's face was pale and her eyes were wide and shocked.
"Queen May is dead," she explained.
"Wwwuh," was all that Piper could manage in response.
"Her slaves put her to bed. Before they retired for the night, they went in to check on her and they noticed that her chest wasn't moving and they couldn't feel any breath or a heartbeat. Her body was cold and smelt of hellebore. They said that she must have taken too much of her medicine. Queen Hera is furious. She ordered that the slaves be put be put to death for their carelessness. One of them was Maia, King Zeus's latest favorite."
Piper recalled the sly Egyptian beauty. Most of King Zeus's other women were taken against their will or were unable to say no but Maia was the only one who had stood as a rival to Queen Hera.
"Do you think she was deliberately poisoned?"
"Queen May might have been a bit touched in the head, but she was perfectly harmless. I can't imagine her having any enemies. I'm so exhausted, I'll get to the bottom of this in the morning after I've had a good night's sleep."
"Sounds like a fine plan."
Piper pulled back the sheets and coverlet of the bed and moved over so that Annabeth could get in with her.