𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬'𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 • 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 𝘫𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘰𝘯

Poseidon's Fishy Palace

The main courtyard was filled with warriors—mermen with fishtails from the waist down and human bodies from the waist up, except their skin was blue, which I'd never known before. Some were tending the wounded. Some were sharpening spears and swords. One passed us, swimming in a hurry. His eyes were bright green, like that stuff they put in glow sticks, and his teeth were shark teeth. They don't show you stuff like that in The Little Mermaid. 

Outside the main courtyard stood large fortifications—towers, walls, and anti-siege weapons—but most of these had been smashed to ruins. Others were blazing with a strange green light that I knew well—Greek fire, which can burn even underwater.  

Beyond this, the sea floor stretched into the gloom. I could see battles raging—flashes of energy, explosions, the glint of armies clashing. A regular human would've found it too dark to see. Heck, a regular human would've been crushed by the pressure and frozen by the cold. Even my night vision eyes couldn't make out exactly what was going on. 

At the edge of the palace complex, a temple with a red coral roof exploded, sending fire and debris streaming in slow motion across the farthest gardens. Out of the darkness above, an enormous form appeared—a squid larger than any skyscraper. It was surrounded by a glittering cloud of dust—at least I thought it was dust until I realized it was a swarm of mermen trying to attack the monster. The squid descended on the palace and swatted its tentacles, smashing a whole column of warriors. Then a brilliant arc of blue light shot from the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings. The light hit the giant squid, and the monster dissolved like food colouring in water. 

"Daddy," Tyson said, pointing to where the light had come from. 

Percy gaped. "He did that?"

I suddenly felt more hopeful. Poseidon had unbelievable powers. He was the god of the sea. He could deal with this attack, right? Maybe he'd let me help. 

"Have you been in the fight?" I asked Tyson in awe. "Like bashing heads with your awesome Cyclops strength and stuff?" 

Tyson pouted, and immediately I knew I'd asked a bad question, "I have been . . . Fixing weapons," he mumbled. "Come. Let's go find Daddy." 

The roof of the temple was a big open deck that had been set up as a command centre. A mosaic on the floor showed an exact map of the palace grounds and the surrounding ocean, but the mosaic moved. Coloured stone tiles representing different armies and sea monsters shifted around as the forces changed position. Buildings that collapsed in real life also collapsed in the picture. 

Standing around the mosaic, grimly studying the battle, was a strange assortment of warriors, but none of them looked like Poseidon. I was searching for a big guy with a good tan and a black beard, wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. 

There was nobody like that. One guy was a merman with two fishtails instead of one. His skin was green, his armour studded with pearls. His black hair was tied in a ponytail, and he looked young—though it's hard to tell with non-humans. They could be a thousand years old or three. Standing next to him was an old man with a bushy white beard and grey hair. His battle armour seemed to weigh him down. He had green eyes and smile wrinkles around his eyes, but he wasn't smiling now. He was studying the map and leaning on a large metal staff. To his right stood a beautiful woman in green armour with flowing black hair and strange little horns like crab claws. And there was a dolphin—just a regular dolphin, but it was staring at the map intently. 

"Delphin," the old man said. "Send Palaemon and his legion of sharks to the western front. We have to neutralize those leviathans." 

The dolphin spoke in a chattering voice, but I could connect the dots. I looked in dismay at Tyson, then back at the old man. It didn't seem possible, but . . .