Chapters 21-24, Piper and Leo Summary

Piper thinks about her father, who played many different roles but has never taken the part of a Cherokee. She thinks that she is like him, trying to hide who she really is and pretending to be something else. She worries she will betray her friends. She dreams of the giant on the mountain again, who tells her that her father is not coping well and won't last much longer. He says the quest is destined to fail and that her friends will die anyway, so she may as well betray them to save her father. She tries to defy him, so he says he will show her how easily she can be brought down. She wakes up to find that the dragon is spinning out of control and they are all falling.

Jason grabs...