They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and colour that for a moment even Luke was stunned. I couldn’t tell whether they had come to celebrate or attack.
Apparently both. As Luke was raising his sword to rally his troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool.
His warriors scattered. I couldn’t blame them. Facing the hooves of a rearing stallion is scary enough, but when it’s a centaur, armed with a bow and whooping it up in a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior would retreat.
‘Come get some!’ yelled one of the party ponies.
They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke’s warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall.
Chiron galloped towards Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back.
I tried to get up, but my wounded leg still felt like it was on fire.
Luke was crawling out of the pool.
‘Attack, you fools!’ he ordered his troops. Somewhere down below deck, a large alarm bell thrummed.
I knew any second we would be swamped by Luke’s reinforcements. Already, his warriors were getting over their surprise, coming at the centaurs with swords and spears drawn.
Tyson slapped half a dozen of them aside, knocking them over the guardrail into Miami Bay. But more warriors were coming up the stairs.
‘Withdraw, brethren!’ Chiron said.
‘You won’t get away with this, horse man!’ Luke shouted. He raised his sword, but got smacked in the face with another boxing glove arrow, and sat down hard in a deckchair.
A palomino centaur hoisted me onto his back. ‘Dude, get your big friend!’
‘Tyson!’ I yelled. ‘Come on!’
Tyson dropped the two warriors he was about to tie into a knot and jogged after us. He jumped on the centaur’s back.
‘Dude!’ the centaur groaned, almost buckling under Tyson’s weight. ‘Do the words “low-carb diet” mean anything to you?’
Luke’s warriors were organizing themselves into a phalanx. But by the time they were ready to advance, the centaurs had galloped to the edge of the deck and fearlessly jumped the guardrail, as if it were a steeplechase and not ten storeys above the ground. I was sure we were going to die. We plummeted towards the docks, but the centaurs hit the tarmac with hardly a jolt and galloped off, whooping and yelling taunts at the Princess Andromeda as we raced into the streets of downtown Miami.
I have no idea what the Miamians thought as we galloped by.
Streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. It felt as if space were compacting – as if each centaur step took us miles and miles. In no time, we’d left the city behind. We raced through marshy fields of high grass and ponds and stunted trees.
Finally, we found ourselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers, tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito netting. We were in a centaur camp.
‘Dude!’ said a party pony as he unloaded his gear. ‘Did you see that bear guy? He was all like, “Whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!” ’
The centaur with the googly-eye glasses laughed. ‘That was awesome! Head slam!’
The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces.
Chiron sighed. He set Annabeth and Grover down on a picnic blanket next to me. ‘I really wish my cousins wouldn’t slam their heads together. They don’t have the brain cells to spare.’
‘Chiron,’ I said, still stunned by the fact that he was here. ‘You saved us.’
He gave me a dry smile. ‘Well now, I couldn’t very well let you die, especially since you’ve cleared my name.’
‘But how did you know where we were?’ Annabeth asked.
‘Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami.’
‘Gee, thanks,’ Grover mumbled.
‘No, no,’ Chiron said. ‘I didn’t mean … Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy’s Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans.’
I looked over at the campfire, where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun. I hoped they knew what they were getting into.
‘So what now?’ I asked Chiron. ‘We just let Luke sail away? He’s got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway.’
Chiron knelt, carefully folding his front legs underneath him. He opened the medicine pouch on his belt and started to treat my wounds. ‘I’m afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn’t have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won.’
‘But we got the Fleece!’ Annabeth said. ‘Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now.’
Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy. ‘You are all true heroes. And as soon as we get Percy fixed up, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you.’
‘You’re coming, too?’ I asked.
‘Oh yes, Percy. I’ll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin’s music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr D. There’s the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see … I’m curious about the Fleece.’
I didn’t know exactly what he meant, but it made me worried about what Luke had said: I was going to let you take the Fleece … once I was done with it.
Had he just been lying? I’d learned with Kronos there was usually a plan within a plan. The titan lord wasn’t called the Crooked One for nothing. He had ways of getting people to do what he wanted without them ever realizing his true intentions.
Over by the campfire, Tyson let loose with his paintball gun. A blue projectile splattered against one of the centaurs, hurling him backwards into the lake. The centaur came up grinning, covered in swamp muck and blue paint, and gave Tyson two thumbs up.
‘Annabeth,’ Chiron said, ‘perhaps you and Grover would go supervise Tyson and my cousins before they, ah, teach each other too many bad habits?’
Annabeth met his eyes. Some kind of understanding passed between them.
‘Sure, Chiron,’ Annabeth said. ‘Come on, goat boy.’
‘But I don’t like paintball.’
‘Yes, you do.’ She hoisted Grover to his hooves and led him off towards the campfire.
Chiron finished bandaging my leg. ‘Percy, I had a talk with Annabeth on the way here. A talk about the prophecy.’
Uh-oh, I thought.
‘It wasn’t her fault,’ I said. ‘I made her tell me.’
His eyes flickered with irritation. I was sure he was going to chew me out, but then his look turned to weariness. ‘I suppose I could not expect to keep it secret forever.’
‘So am I the one in the prophecy?’
Chiron tucked his bandages back into his pouch. ‘I wish I knew, Percy. You’re not yet sixteen. For now we must simply train you as best we can, and leave the future to the Fates.’
The Fates. I hadn’t thought about those old ladies in a long time, but as soon as Chiron mentioned them, something clicked.
‘That’s what it meant,’ I said.
Chiron frowned. ‘That’s what what meant?’
‘Last summer. The omen from the Fates, when I saw them snip somebody’s life string. I thought it meant I was going to die right away, but it’s worse than that. It’s got something to do wi
th your prophecy. The death they foretold – it’s going to happen when I’m sixteen.’
Chiron’s tail whisked nervously in the grass. ‘My boy, you can’t be sure of that. We don’t even know if the prophecy is about you.’
‘But there isn’t any other half-blood child of the Big Three!’
‘That we know of.’
‘And Kronos is rising. He’s going to destroy Mount Olympus!’
‘He will try,’ Chiron agreed. ‘And Western Civilization along with it, if we don’t stop him. But we will stop him. You will not be alone in that fight.’
I knew he was trying to make me feel better, but I remembered what Annabeth had told me. It would come down to one hero. One decision that would save or destroy the West. And I felt sure the Fates had been giving me some kind of warning about that. Something terrible was going to happen, either to me or to somebody I was close to.
‘I’m just a kid, Chiron,’ I said miserably. ‘What good is one lousy hero against something like Kronos?’
Chiron managed a smile. ‘ “What good is one lousy hero?’ Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain said something like that to me once, just before he single-handedly changed the course of your Civil War.’
He pulled an arrow from his quiver and turned the razor-sharp tip so it glinted in the firelight. ‘Celestial bronze, Percy. An immortal weapon. What would happen if you shot this at a human?’
‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘It would pass right through.’
‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Humans don’t exist on the same level as the immortals. They can’t even be hurt by our weapons. But you, Percy – you are part god, part human. You live in both worlds. You can be harmed by both, and you can affect both. That’s what makes heroes so special. You carry the hopes of humanity into the realm of the eternal. Monsters never die. They are reborn from the chaos and barbarism that is always bubbling underneath civilization, the very stuff that makes Kronos stronger. They must be defeated again and again, kept at bay. Heroes embody that struggle. You fight the battles humanity must win, every generation, in order to stay human. Do you understand?’
‘I … I don’t know.’
‘You must try, Percy. Because whether or not you are the child of the prophecy, Kronos thinks you might be. And, after today, he will finally despair of turning you to his side. That is the only reason he hasn’t killed you yet, you know. As soon as he’s sure he can’t use you, he will destroy you.’
‘You talk like you know him.’
Chiron pursed his lips. ‘I do know him.’
I stared at him. I sometimes forgot just how old Chiron was. ‘Is that why Mr D blamed you when the tree was poisoned? Why you said some people don’t trust you?’
‘Indeed.’
‘But Chiron … I mean, come on! Why would they think you’d ever betray the camp for Kronos?’
Chiron’s eyes were deep brown, full of thousands of years of sadness. ‘Percy, remember your training. Remember your study of mythology. What is my connection to the titan lord?’
I tried to think, but I’d always got my mythology mixed up. Even now, when it was so real, so important to my own life, I had trouble keeping all the names and facts straight. I shook my head. ‘You, uh, owe Kronos a favour or something? He spared your life?’
‘Percy,’ Chiron said, his voice impossibly soft. ‘The titan Kronos is my father.’
19 The Chariot Race Ends with a Bang
We arrived in Long Island just after Clarisse, thanks to the centaurs’ travel powers. I rode on Chiron’s back, but we didn’t talk much, especially not about Kronos. I knew it had been difficult for Chiron to tell me. I didn’t want to push him with more questions. I mean, I’ve met plenty of embarrassing parents, but Kronos, the evil titan lord who wanted to destroy Western Civilization? Not the kind of dad you invited to school for career day.
When we got to camp, the centaurs were anxious to meet Dionysus. They’d heard he threw some really wild parties, but they were disappointed. The wine god was in no mood to celebrate as the whole camp gathered at the top of Half-Blood Hill.
The camp had been through a hard two weeks. The arts and crafts cabin had burned to the ground from an attack by a Draco Aionius (which as near as I could figure was Latin for ‘really-big-lizard-with-breath-that-blows-stuff-up’). The Big House’s rooms were overflowing with wounded. The kids in the Apollo cabin, who were the best healers, had been working overtime performing first aid. Everybody looked weary and battered as we crowded around Thalia’s tree.
The moment Clarisse draped the Golden Fleece over the lowest bough, the moonlight seemed to brighten, turning from grey to liquid silver. A cool breeze rustled in the branches and rippled through the grass, all the way into the valley. Everything came into sharper focus – the glow of the fireflies down in the woods, the smell of the strawberry fields, the sound of the waves on the beach.
Gradually, the needles on the pine tree started turning from brown to green.
Everybody cheered. It was happening slowly, but there could be no doubt – the Fleece’s magic was seeping into the tree, filling it with new power and expelling the poison.
Chiron ordered a twenty-four/seven guard duty on the hilltop, at least until he could find an appropriate monster to protect the Fleece. He said he’d place an ad in Olympus Weekly right away.
In the meantime, Clarisse was carried on her cabin mates’ shoulders down to the amphitheatre, where she was honoured with a laurel wreath and a lot of celebrating around the campfire.
Nobody gave Annabeth or me a second look. It was as. if we’d never left. In a way, I guess that was the best thank-you anyone could give us, because if they admitted we’d snuck out of camp to do the quest, they’d have to expel us. And, really, I didn’t want any more attention. It felt good to be just one of the campers for once.
Later that night, as we were roasting marshmallows and listening to the Stoll brothers tell us a ghost story about an evil king who was eaten alive by demonic breakfast pastries, Clarisse shoved me from behind and whispered in my ear, ‘Just because you were cool one time, Jackson, don’t think you’re off the hook with Ares. I’m still waiting for the right opportunity to pulverize you.’
I gave her a grudging smile.
‘What?’ she demanded.
‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘Just good to be home.’
The next morning, after the party ponies headed back to Florida, Chiron made a surprise announcement: the chariot races would go ahead as scheduled. We’d all figured they were history now that Tantalus was gone, but completing them did feel like the right thing to do, especially now that Chiron was back and the camp was safe.
Tyson wasn’t too keen on the idea of getting back in a chariot after our first experience, but he was happy to let me team up with Annabeth. I would drive, Annabeth would defend, and Tyson would act as our pit crew. While I worked with the horses, Tyson fixed up Athena’s chariot and added a whole bunch of special modifications.
We spent the next two days training like crazy. Annabeth and I agreed that if we won, the prize of no chores for the rest of the month would be split between our two cabins. Since Athena had more campers, they would get most of the time off, which was fine by me. I didn’t care about the prize. I just wanted to win.
The night before the race, I stayed late at the stables. I was talking to our horses, giving them one final brushing, when somebody right behind me said, ‘Fine animals, horses. Wish I’d thought of them.’
A middle-aged guy in a postal carrier outfit was leaning against the stable door. He was slim, with curly black hair under his white pith helmet, and he had a mailbag slung over his shoulder.
‘Hermes?’ I stammered.
‘Hello, Percy. Didn’t recognize me without my jogging clothes?’
‘Uh…’ I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to kneel or buy stamps from him or what. Then it occurred to me why he must be here. ‘Oh, listen, Lord Hermes, about Luke…’
The god arched his eyebrows. r />
‘Uh, we saw him, all right,’ I said, ‘but –’
‘You weren’t able to talk sense into him?’
‘Well, we kind of tried to kill each other in a duel to the death.’
‘I see. You tried the diplomatic approach.’
‘I’m really sorry. I mean, you gave us those awesome gifts and everything. And I know you wanted Luke to come back. But … he’s turned bad. Really bad. He said he feels like you abandoned him.’
I waited for Hermes to get angry. I figured he’d turn me into a hamster or something, and I did not want to spend any more time as a rodent.
Instead, he just sighed. ‘Do you ever feel your father abandoned you, Percy?’
Oh, man.
I wanted to say, ‘Only a few hundred times a day.’ I hadn’t spoken to Poseidon since last summer. I’d never even been to his underwater palace. And then there was the whole thing with Tyson – no warning, no explanation. Just boom, you have a brother. You’d think that deserved a little heads-up phone call or something.
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I realized I did want recognition for the quest I’d completed, but not from the other campers. I wanted my dad to say something. To notice me.
Hermes readjusted the mailbag on his shoulder. ‘Percy, the hardest part about being a god is that you must often act indirectly, especially when it comes to your own children. If we were to intervene every time our children had a problem … well, that would only create more problems and more resentment. But I believe if you give it some thought, you will see that Poseidon has been paying attention to you. He has answered your prayers. I can only hope that some day, Luke may realize the same about me. Whether you feel like you succeeded or not, you reminded Luke who he was. You spoke to him.’