The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

sixteen

Ariana tried to get up again but this time Grover yanked her down.

"Ariana." Annabeth warned. "Your going to drain yourself even more."

"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated.

Percy rolled again as Luke's sword slashed the deckchair in half, metal pipes and all. He clawed towards the swimming pool, trying hard not to black out.

Percy would never make it. Luke knew it, too. He advanced slowly, smiling. The edge of his sword was tinged with red.

"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy." He looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was holding Annabeth and Grover by the necks. Tyson stood in front of Ariana, protecting her. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appétit."

"He-he! He-he!" The bear-man lifted her friends and bared his teeth.

That's when all Hades broke loose.

Whish!

A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius's mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he crumpled to the deck.

"Brother!" Agrius wailed. He let the pegasus's reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.

For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies dissolve into smoke.

Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell.

"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.

Ariana's mind had trouble processing everything she saw. Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives were almost nothing like him.

There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses.

Some wore brightly coloured T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER.

Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number I.

Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and-straw attachments on either side.

They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and colour that for a moment even Luke was stunned. Ariana 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. Ariana 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.