BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

58.

"I'm surprised you woke up," Piper said.

"It's not my fault!" Eden protested. "When a giant fucking horn—"

It boomed again. It sounded like it was coming from several hundred yards away — from another vessel. So it wasn't another joke from Fire Boy then. Huh.

They rushed to get dressed. By the time they got up on deck, the others had already gathered — all hastily dressed except for Coach Hedge, who had pulled the night watch.

Frank's Vancouver Winter Olympics shirt was inside out. Percy wore pajama pants and a bronze breastplate, which was an interesting fashion statement. Eden's statements were way better. Hazel's hair was all blown to one side, as though she'd walked through a cyclone; and Fire Boy had accidentally set himself on fire. His T-shirt was in charred tatters. His arms were smoking. And, god, she loved him.

About a hundred yards to port, a massive cruise ship glided past. Tourists waved at them from fifteen or sixteen rows of balconies. Some smiled and took pictures. None of them looked surprised to see an Ancient Greek trireme. Maybe the Mist made it look like a fishing boat, or perhaps the cruisers thought the Argo II was a tourist attraction.

The cruise ship blew its horn again, and the Argo II had a shaking fit. Eden had flashbacks to the Princess Andromeda, and she cursed her thoughts.

Coach Hedge plugged his ears. "Do they have to be so loud?"

"They're just saying hi," Frank speculated.

"WHAT?" Hedge yelled back.

The ship edged past them, heading out to sea. The tourists kept waving. If they found it strange that the Argo II was populated by half-asleep kids in armor and pajamas and a man with goat legs, they didn't let on.

"Bye!" Leo called, raising his smoking hand. Eden snorted at him, dousing him with water.

"Can I man the ballistae?" Hedge asked.

"No," Leo said through a forced smile. Hopefully he wasn't cold from the water. Then again, he was literally fire. He didn't get cold.

Hazel rubbed her eyes and looked across the glittering green water. "Where are — oh . . . Wow."

Eden followed her gaze. Without the cruise ship blocking their view, she saw a mountain jutting from the sea less than half a mile to the north. She had seen impressive cliffs before, but this was a massive fist of blinding white rock thrust into the sky. On one side, the limestone cliffs were almost completely sheer, dropping into the sea over a thousand feet below, as near as Eden could figure. On the other side, the mountain sloped in tiers, covered in green forest, so that the whole thing reminded her of a colossal sphinx, worn down over the millennia, with a massive white head and chest, and a green cloak over its back. She almost shuddered when remembering that stupid sphinx in the Labyrinth. Fucking Annabeth for being too prideful and wanting harder questions.

"The Rock of Gibraltar," Trivia Sweat said in awe. "At the tip of Spain. And over there—" She pointed south, to a more distant stretch of red and ochre hills. "That must be Africa. We're at the mouth of the Mediterranean."

Wow. Sweatier now. How surprising.

Despite the wide stretch of sea in front of them, Eden felt like she was standing at an impassable barrier. Once in the Mediterranean — the Mare Nostrum — they would be in the ancient lands. If the legends were true, their quest would become ten times more dangerous.

"What now?" Piper asked. "Do we just sail in?"

"Why not?" Leo said. "It's a big shipping channel. Boats go in and out all the time."