‘Well,’ Luke said, spreading his arms proudly. ‘A little nicer than Cabin Eleven, huh?’
He’d changed since last summer. Instead of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he wore a button-down shirt, khaki trousers and leather loafers. His sandy hair, which used to be so unruly, was now clipped short. He looked like an evil male model, showing off what the fashionable college-age villain was wearing to Harvard this year.
He still had the scar under his eye – a jagged white line from his battle with a dragon. And propped against the sofa was his magical sword, Backbiter, glinting strangely with its half steel, half Celestial bronze blade that could kill both mortals and monsters.
‘Sit,’ he told us. He waved his hand and three dining chairs scooted themselves into the centre of the room.
None of us sat.
Luke’s large friends were still pointing their javelins at us. They looked like twins, but they weren’t human. They stood about two and a half metres tall, for one thing, and wore only blue jeans, probably because their enormous chests were already shag-carpeted with thick brown fur. They had claws for fingernails, feet like paws. Their noses were snoutlike, and their teeth were all pointed canines.
‘Where are my manners?’ Luke said smoothly. ‘These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.’
I said nothing. Despite the javelins pointed at me, it wasn’t the bear twins who scared me.
I’d imagined meeting Luke again many times since he’d tried to kill me last summer. I’d pictured myself boldly standing up to him, challenging him to a duel. But now that we were face to face, I could barely stop my hands from shaking.
‘You don’t know Agrius and Oreius’s story?’ Luke asked. ‘Their mother … well, it’s sad, really. Aphrodite ordered the young woman to fall in love. She refused and ran to Artemis for help. Artemis let her become one of her maiden huntresses, but Aphrodite got her revenge. She bewitched the young woman into falling in love with a bear. When Artemis found out, she abandoned the girl in disgust. Typical of the gods, wouldn’t you say? They fight with one another and the poor humans get caught in the middle. The girl’s twin sons here, Agrius and Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They like half-bloods well enough, though…’
‘For lunch,’ Agrius growled. His gruff voice was the one I’d heard talking with Luke earlier.
‘Hehe! Hehe!’ His brother Oreius laughed, licking his fur-lined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Luke and Agrius both stared at him.
‘Shut up, you idiot!’ Agrius growled. ‘Go punish yourself!’
Oreius whimpered. He trudged over to the corner of the room, slumped onto a stool, and banged his forehead against the dining table, making the silver plates rattle.
Luke acted like this was perfectly normal behaviour. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and propped his feet up on the coffee table. ‘Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How’s your mom? How’s school?’
‘You poisoned Thalia’s tree.’
Luke sighed. ‘Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?’
‘How could you?’ Annabeth sounded so angry I thought she’d explode. ‘Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonour her –’
‘I didn’t dishonour her!’ Luke snapped. ‘The gods dishonoured her, Annabeth! If Thalia were alive, she’d be on my side.’
‘Liar!’
‘If you knew what was coming, you’d understand –’
‘I understand you want to destroy the camp!’ she yelled. ‘You’re a monster!’
Luke shook his head. ‘The gods have blinded you. Can’t you imagine a world without them, Annabeth? What good is that ancient history you study? Three thousand years of baggage! The West is rotten to the core. It has to be destroyed. Join me! We can start the world anew. We could use your intelligence, Annabeth.’
‘Because you have none of your own!’
His eyes narrowed. ‘I know you, Annabeth. You deserve better than tagging along on some hopeless quest to save the camp. Half-Blood Hill will be overrun by monsters within the month. The heroes who survive will have no choice but to join us or be hunted to extinction. You really want to be on a losing team … with company like this?’ Luke pointed at Tyson.
‘Hey!’ I said.
‘Travelling with a Cyclops,’ Luke chided. ‘Talk about dishonouring Thalia’s memory! I’m surprised at you, Annabeth. You of all people –’
‘Stop it!’ she shouted.
I didn’t know what Luke was talking about, but Annabeth buried her head in her hands like she was about to cry.
‘Leave her alone,’ I said. ‘And leave Tyson out of this.’
Luke laughed. ‘Oh, yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him.’
I must have looked surprised, because Luke smiled. ‘Yes, Percy, I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates, again … thirty, thirty-one, seventy-five, twelve? You see, I still have friends at camp who keep me posted.’
‘Spies, you mean.’
He shrugged. ‘How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? You think he’s grateful to you? You think Poseidon cares for you any more than he cares for this monster?’
Tyson clenched his fists and made a rumbling sound down in his throat.
Luke just chuckled. ‘The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what’s in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?’
I wanted to get in Luke’s face and tell him off, but as usual, he knew just how to throw me off balance.
Sixteenth birthday?
I mean, I knew Chiron had received a prophecy from the Oracle many years ago. I knew part of it was about me. But, if I reached my sixteenth birthday? I didn’t like the sound of that.
‘I know what I need to know,’ I managed. ‘Like, who my enemies are.’
‘Then you’re a fool.’
Tyson smashed the nearest dining chair to splinters. ‘Percy is not a fool!’
Before I could stop him, he charged Luke. His fists came down towards Luke’s head – a double overhead blow that would’ve knocked a hole in titanium – but the bear twins intercepted. They each caught one of Tyson’s arms and stopped him cold. They pushed him back and Tyson stumbled. He fell to the carpet so hard the deck shook.
‘Too bad, Cyclops,’ Luke said. ‘Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match for your strength. Maybe I should let them –’
‘Luke,’ I cut in. ‘Listen to me. Your father sent us.’
His face turned the colour of pepperoni. ‘Don’t – even – mention him.’
‘He told us to take this boat. I thought it was just for a ride, but he sent us here to find you. He told me he won’t give up on you, no matter how angry you are.’
‘Angry?’ Luke roared. ‘Give up on me? He abandoned me, Percy! I want Olympus destroyed! Every throne crushed to rubble! You tell Hermes it’s going to happen, too. Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. He grows stronger.’ Luke pointed to the gold sarcophagus.
The box creeped me out, but I was determined not to show it. ‘So?’ I demanded. ‘What’s so special…’
Then it hit me, what might be inside the sarcophagus. The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees. ‘Whoa, you don’t mean –’
‘He is re-forming,’ Luke said. ‘Little by little, we’re calling his life force out of the pit. With every recruit who pledges our cause, another small piece appears –’
‘That’s disgusting!’ Annabeth said.
Luke sneered at her. ‘Your mother was born from Zeus’s split skull, Annabeth. I wouldn’t talk. Soon there will be enough of the titan lord so that we can make him whole again. We will piece together a new body for him, a work worthy of the forges of Hephaestus.’
‘You’re insane,’ Annabeth said.
‘Joi
n us and you’ll be rewarded. We have powerful friends, sponsors rich enough to buy this cruise ship and much more. Percy, your mother will never have to work again. You can buy her a mansion. You can have power, fame – whatever you want. Annabeth, you can realize your dream of being an architect. You can build a monument to last a thousand years. A temple to the lords of the next age!’
‘Go to Tartarus,’ she said.
Luke sighed. ‘A shame.’
He picked up something that looked like a TV remote and pressed a red button. Within seconds the door of the stateroom opened and two uniformed crew members came in, armed with nightsticks. They had the same glassy-eyed look as the other mortals I’d seen, but I had a feeling this wouldn’t make them any less dangerous in a fight.
‘Ah, good, security,’ Luke said. ‘I’m afraid we have some stowaways.’
‘Yes, sir,’ they said dreamily.
Luke turned to Oreius. ‘It’s time to feed the Aethiopian drakon. Take these fools below and show them how it’s done.’
Oreius grinned stupidly. ‘Hehe! Hehe!’
‘Let me go, too,’ Agrius grumbled. ‘My brother is worthless. That Cyclops –’
‘Is no threat,’ Luke said. He glanced back at the golden casket, as if something were troubling him. ‘Agrius, stay here. We have important matters to discuss.’
‘But –’
‘Oreius, don’t fail me. Stay in the hold to make sure the drakon is properly fed.’
Oreius prodded us with his javelin and herded us out of the stateroom, followed by the two human security guards.
As I walked down the corridor with Orieus’s javelin poking me in the back, I thought about what Luke had said – that the bear twins together were a match for Tyson’s strength. But maybe separately…
We exited the corridor amidships and walked across an open deck lined with lifeboats. I knew the ship well enough to realize this would be our last look at sunlight. Once we got to the other side, we’d take the elevator down into the hold, and that would be it.
I looked at Tyson and said, ‘Now.’
Thank the gods, he understood. He turned and smacked Oreius ten metres backwards into the swimming pool, right into the middle of the zombie tourist family.
‘Ah!’ the kids yelled in unison. ‘We are not having a blast in the pool!’
One of the security guards drew his nightstick, but Annabeth knocked the wind out of him with a well-placed kick. The other guard ran for the nearest alarm box.
‘Stop him!’ Annabeth yelled, but it was too late.
Just before I banged him on the head with a deckchair, he hit the alarm.
Red lights flashed. Sirens wailed.
‘Lifeboat!’ I yelled.
We ran for the nearest one.
By the time we got the cover off, monsters and more security men were swarming the deck, pushing aside tourists and waiters with trays of tropical drinks. A guy in Greek armour drew his sword and charged, but slipped in a puddle of piña colada. Laistrygonian archers assembled on the deck above us, notching arrows in their enormous bows.
‘How do you launch this thing?’ screamed Annabeth.
A hellhound leaped at me, but Tyson slammed it aside with a fire extinguisher.
‘Get in!’ I yelled. I uncapped Riptide and slashed the first volley of arrows out of the air. Any second we would be overwhelmed.
The lifeboat was hanging over the side of the ship, high above the water. Annabeth and Tyson were having no luck with the release pulley.
I jumped in beside them.
‘Hold on!’ I yelled, and I cut the ropes.
A shower of arrows whistled over our heads as we free-fell towards the ocean.
10 We Hitch a Ride with Dead Confederates
‘Flask!’ I screamed as we hurtled towards the water.
‘What? Annabeth must’ve thought I’d lost my mind. She was holding on to the boat straps for dear life, her hair flying straight up like a torch.
But Tyson understood. He managed to open my duffel bag and take out Hermes’s magical flask without losing his grip on it or the boat.
Arrows and javelins whistled past us.
I grabbed the Flask and hoped I was doing the right thing. ‘Hang on!’
‘I am hanging on!’ Annabeth yelled.
‘Tighter!’
I hooked my feet under the boat’s inflatable bench, and, as Tyson grabbed Annabeth and me by the backs of our shirts, I gave the Flask cap a quarter turn.
Instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the flask and propelled us sideways, turning our downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing.
The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the flask, like it was glad to be free. As we hit the ocean, we bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then we were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in our faces and nothing but sea ahead.
I heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind us, but we were already out of weapon range. The Princess Andromeda faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone.
As we raced over the sea, Annabeth and I tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. We figured it was important we let somebody know what Luke was doing, and we didn’t know who else to trust.
The wind from the Flask stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight – perfect for an Iris-message – but our connection was still poor. When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show us Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.
We told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the Princess Andromeda and the golden box for Kronos’s remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on our end, I’m not sure how much he heard.
‘Percy,’ Chiron yelled, ‘you have to watch out for –’
His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him – a bunch of voices whooping it up like Comanche warriors.
‘What?’ I yelled.
‘Curse my relatives!’ Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight. ‘Annabeth, you shouldn’t have let Percy leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece –’
‘Yeah, baby!’ somebody behind Chiron yelled. ‘Woo-hoooooo!’
The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made our boat vibrate.
‘– Miami,’ Chiron was yelling. ‘I’ll try to keep watch –’
Our misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone.
An hour later we spotted land – a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coastguard cruiser passed on our starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look. I guess it isn’t every day they see a yellow lifeboat with no engine going a hundred knots an hour, manned by three kids.
‘That’s Virginia Beach!’ Annabeth said as we approached the shoreline. ‘Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far overnight? That’s like –’
‘Five hundred and thirty nautical miles,’ I said.
She stared at me. ‘How did you know that?’
‘I – I’m not sure.’
Annabeth thought for a moment. ‘Percy, what’s our position?’
‘Thirty-six degrees, forty-four minutes north, seventy-six degrees, two minutes west,’ I said immediately. Then I shook my head. ‘Whoa. How did I know that?’
‘Because of your dad,’ Annabeth guessed. ‘When you’re at sea, you have perfect bearings. That is so cool.’
I wasn’t sure about that. I didn’t want to be a human GPS unit. But before I could say anything, Tyson tapped my shoulder. ‘Other boat is coming.’
I looked back. The coastguard vessel was definitely on our tail now. Its lights were flashing and it was gaining speed.
‘We can’t let them catch us,’ I said. ‘The
y’ll ask too many questions.’
‘Keep going into Chesapeake Bay,’ Annabeth said. ‘I know a place we can hide.’
I didn’t ask what she meant, or how she knew the area so well. I risked loosening the Flask cap a little more, and a fresh burst of wind sent us rocketing around the northern tip of Virginia Beach into Chesapeake Bay. The coastguard boat fell further and further behind. We didn’t slow down until the shores of the bay narrowed on either side, and I realized we’d entered the mouth of a river.
I could feel the change from salt water to fresh water. Suddenly I was tired and frazzled, like I was coming down off a sugar high. I didn’t know where I was any more, or which way to steer the boat. It was a good thing Annabeth was directing me.
‘There,’ she said. ‘Past that sandbar.’
We veered into a swampy area choked with marsh grass. I beached the lifeboat at the foot of a giant cypress.
Vine-covered trees loomed above us. Insects chirred in the woods. The air was muggy and hot, and steam curled off the river. Basically, it wasn’t Manhattan, and I didn’t like it.
‘Come on,’ Annabeth said. ‘It’s just down the bank.’
‘What is?’ I asked.
‘Just follow.’ She grabbed a duffel bag. ‘And we’d better cover the boat. We don’t want to draw attention.’
After burying the lifeboat with branches, Tyson and I followed Annabeth along the shore, our feet sinking in red mud. A snake slithered past my shoe and disappeared into the grass.
‘Not a good place,’ Tyson said. He swatted the mosquitoes that were forming a buffet queue on his arm.
After another few minutes, Annabeth said, ‘Here.’
All I saw was a patch of brambles. Then Annabeth moved aside a woven circle of branches, like a door, and I realized I was looking into a camouflaged shelter.
The inside was big enough for three, even with Tyson being the third. The walls were woven from plant material, like a Native American hut, but they looked pretty waterproof. Stacked in the corner was everything you could want for a campout – sleeping bags, blankets, an ice chest and a kerosene lamp. There were demigod provisions, too – bronze javelin tips, a quiver full of arrows, an extra sword and a box of ambrosia. The place smelled musty, like it had been vacant for a long time.