chapter thirty-two
─── why do family members keep trying to kill me?
𝕴n situations where you're on your enemies boat and need to think about stealing his plans, you have to remain calm and mature. That's why Luke and I were holding a rock, paper, scissors contest to see which one of us would investigate. I won, but Tyson shook his head.
"Nobody go!" Tyson voted. "Please?"
His wide eyes were imploring us, and Luke and I reluctantly agreed that maybe it would be more fun for all three of us to get killed simultaneously.
We stopped at our cabin long enough to gather our stuff. We figured whatever happened, we would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo. I made sure Riptide was in my pocket and the vitamins and thermos from Hermes were at the top of my bag. I didn't want Tyson to carry everything, but he insisted, and Luke told me not to worry about it. Tyson could carry three full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as I could carry a backpack.
We sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Luke scouted ahead, being more subtle than me or Tyson due to his annoying (his words) and cool (my words) Hermes powers. We hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people we saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.
As we came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Luke hissed, "Hide!" and shoved us into a supply closet.
I heard a couple of guys coming down the hall.
"You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said.
The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome."
Luke wrapped an arm around my shoulders, keeping me in position as I felt my feet slip. Grasping onto him, I tried not to make a sound, though my leg twisted at an awkward angle.
"I hear they got two more coming," the familiar voice said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man—no contest!"
The voices faded down the corridor.
"That was Chris Rodriguez!" Luke murmured, shaking his head. "Another member from Eleven. Brilliant."
I sort of recalled Chris from the summer before. He was one of those undetermined campers who got stuck in the Hermes cabin because his Olympian dad or mom never claimed him. Now that I thought about it, I realized I hadn't seen Chris at camp this summer.
I didn't need to ask what he was doing here, knowing he most likely had the same mindset as Luke. We kept going along the corridor, heading further towards the cold presence near the main suit. Hopefully that would be where we found Puck.
"Andi." Luke grabbed my hand, before nodding to the glass wall beside us. "Look."
The glass wall looked down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the Promenade—a mall full of shops— but that's not what had caught Luke's attention.
A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants like the ones who'd attacked me with dodge balls, two hellhounds, and a few even stranger creatures—humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs.
"Scythian Dracaenae," Luke murmured. "Dragon women."
The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armor who was hacking on a straw dummy. A lump formed in my throat when I realized the dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. As we watched, the guy in armour stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled.
"I taught them that." Luke's words were soft, as he sighed. "The sooner we find Puck, the sooner we can be off this godforsaken ship,"
At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When we were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside."
"You can hear that far?" I asked.
Tyson closed his eye like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a higher pitch approximation of Puck. "—the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."
Before I could react, Tyson's voice changed again, becoming deeper and gruffer, like the other guy we'd heard talking to Puck outside the cafeteria. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?"
Tyson laughed Puck's laugh and my heart clenched. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw."
"This is creepy. How do you do that?" I asked, but Luke barely seemed surprised, though his face had paled and he was drumming his fingers again.
Tyson opened his eye and looked puzzled. "Just listening."
"Keep going," I said. "What else are they saying?"
Tyson closed his eye again.
He hissed in the gruff man's voice: "Quiet!" Then Puck's voice, whispering: "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Tyson said in the gruff voice. "Right outside."
Too late, I realized what was happening.
I just had time to say, "Run!" when the doors of the stateroom burst open and there was Puck, flanked by two hairy giants armed with javelins, their bronze tips aimed right at our chests.
"Well," Puck said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my two favourite demigods. Come right in."
The stateroom was beautiful, and it was horrible. The beautiful part: Huge windows curved along the back wall, looking out over the stern of the ship. Green sea and blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon. A Persian rug covered the floor. Two plush sofas occupied the middle of the room, with a canopied bed in one corner and a mahogany dining table in the other. The table was loaded with food—pizza boxes, bottles of soda, and a stack of roast beef sandwiches on a silver platter.
The horrible part: On a velvet dais at the back of the room lay a ten-foot-long golden casket. A sarcophagus, engraved with Ancient Greek scenes of cities in flames and heroes dying grisly deaths. Despite the sunlight streaming through the windows, the casket made the whole room feel cold.
"Well," Puck said, spreading his arms proudly. "A little nicer than Eleven, huh Luke?"
Puck had changed since I last saw him. Instead of the scrawny boy that I had thought from my friend, he'd had a growth spurt and was now taller than me. He'd swapped his orange camp shirt for a dark shirt and cargo trousers. Puck looked like he was attempting to seem older than he actually was, and perhaps more intimidating to the rest of his crew.
But all I could see was the young boy who had laughed at me attempting to fight Luke with his sister.
"Sit," he told us. He waved his hand and three dining chairs scooted themselves into the centre of the room. None of us sat.
Puck's large friends were still pointing their javelins at us. They looked like twins, but they weren't human. They stood about eight feet 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?" Puck said smoothly. "These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them."
I didn't know what to do or say. I'd imagined how we were going to convince him to come back, but none of the words seemed right at that moment.
"You don't know Agrius and Oreius's story?" Puck began. "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," Luke cut off, his arms crossed over his chest. Despite his voice being soft and quite, I could hear the bite in his words. "The girl had twin sons with the bear, Agrius and Oreius."
"Very good," Luke sneered at Puck's words, his scar crinkling. "They hate Olympus but they like half-bloods well enough..."
"For lunch," Agrius growled. His gruff voice was the one I'd heard talking with Puck earlier.
"Hehe! Hehe!" His brother Oreius laughed, licking his fur-lined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until all of us 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.
Puck acted like this was perfectly normal behavior. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and propped his feet up on the coffee table. "Well, Romy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How's your mom? How's school?"
"It's Andromeda to you, Puck," I smiled at his in response. "and thanks for letting me have a nice school year, that was super sweet of you. Of course, I see you've been busy poisoning Thalia's tree in my absence."
Puck sighed. "Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?"
"So what?" Luke's eyes flashed, disappointment clear in his features. Puck faltered, and even I took a step back at the quiet rage. Luke was the most intimidating out of everyone that I knew and fought, and that was coming from someone who was dating him. It was also clear to see why he had been Kronos' first choice, because Puck looked like a puppy compared to Luke's rage. "You desecrated my friend's grave. She sacrificed herself to save camp, the very camp that protected you!"
"The gods have blinded you. They killed Thalia!" Puck called back, trying to get into Luke's face, though he was still far too short. I admired his courage, not many would go up against Luke like that. "Can't you imagine a world without them? 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. You're one of the best swordsman that this era has seen. We can use that!"
Luke said nothing.
"I know you, Luke. 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?" Puck pointed at Tyson, and I knew that one part of Luke would consider the offer. This had been his plan first. But then his eyes caught mine, and I was reminded why he wouldn't.
He had me.
"Traveling with a Cyclops ," Puck chided. "Talk about dishonoring Thalia's memory! I'm surprised at you, Luke. You of all people—"
"Stop it!" I saw Luke finally break, his anger coming to head.
"Leave it." I growled, stepping up to be my boyfriend's side, positioning myself in front of him. I didn't need him kill anyone.
Puck laughed. "Oh, yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him." I raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Andromeda, I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates, again...30, 31, 75, 12? You see, I still have friends at camp who keep me posted."
"Spies."
He shrugged. "How many insults from your father can you stand, Andromeda? 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.
Puck just chuckled. "The gods are so using you, Andromeda. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your twentieth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?"
I gave nothing away.
"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. "Andromeda is not a fool!"
Before I could stop him, he charged Puck. His fists came down toward Puck'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," Puck said. "Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match for your strength. Maybe I should let them—"
Luke and I both reached for our swords.
"You wouldn't dare, Puck," Luke called, shaking his head.
"You don't know me, Luke!" Puck growled. "Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. He grows stronger." Puck pointed at sarcophagus.
There was a pause.
"So, here's the million dollar question. What's in the box?" I asked, before raising my eyebrow and Luke turned to me.
"Andi," Luke trailed off and I got the message. Kronos.
"He is re-forming," Puck ignored us. "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!" I murmured.
Puck sneered. "Your father was eaten by his father. 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."
Luke just shook his head. I wondered if he'd known that this was the plan, and if he would have ever told me.
"Join us and you'll be rewarded. We have powerful friends, sponsors rich enough to buy this cruise ship and much more. Andromeda, your mother will never have to work again. You can buy her a mansion. You can have power, fame—whatever you want. Luke, you can get your mother help!"
"Don't talk about my mother," Luke growled.
Puck sighed. 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," Puck said, "I'm afraid we have some stowaways."
"Yes, sir," they said dreamily.
Puck 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," Puck 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 Oreius's javelin poking me in the back, I thought about what Puck 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 thirty feet backward 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!"
I resisted the urge to laugh.
One of the security guards drew his nightstick, but Luke knocked the wind out of him with a well-placed kick. The other guard ran for the nearest alarm box.
"Stop him!" Luke yelled, but it was too late. Just before I banged him on head with a deck chair, 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?" Luke shouted and I rolled my eyes.
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. Luke 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 toward the ocean to the sound of our screams.
∘☽༓☾∘
Hiya,
Luke and Andi are just done with life, Puck and everything else, but I can't really blame them. Oh well.
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx