THIRTY, the bride of polyphemus
❀ ✿ ❀ ✿
WHEN ASTER THOUGHT ABOUT the supposed "monster island" (as Percy constantly referred to it as) that housed one of the deadliest monsters in Greek mythology, in the middle of the Sea of Monsters, she assumed it would look a lot scarier than it did. She expected more craggy rocks and bones scattered on the beach like some sort of tourist trap straight out of a horror movie.
The cyclops' island was nothing like that. Sure, it had a rope bridge across a chasm, which was not a good sign—but that was more Indiana Jones than anything monstrous. Besides that small detail, the place looked like a Caribbean postcard. It had green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches.
As they sailed toward the shore, Aster breathed in the sweet air. "The Fleece," she said. She could sense its power seeping into the land. The plants sang with life and prosperity—something only the Fleece could bring about.
Percy nodded as he continued steering the boat. Aster's heart filled with hope; with that kind of power, the Fleece could heal anything, even Thalia's poisoned tree.
"If we take it away, will the island die?" he asked.
Annabeth shook her head. "It'll fade. Go back to what it would normally be, whatever that is."
"So if it was dead before, I guess it'll be dead after," Aster said.
Percy glared at her, and she returned it with a bright smile.
Aster felt a bit guilty about ruining this paradise, especially with how all the plants thrived in it, but they had no choice. Thalia's memory would die without it, and the camp... Aster didn't even want to think of what would happen to Camp Half-Blood without it. The sacrifices they had made thus far—Tyson—made it so they had to trudge forward. When Aster saw Percy's crestfallen expression, she suspected the loss of Tyson had started hitting him really hard—especially with the reminder that they would be facing a cyclops.
In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge—the size of hippos. Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was a massive oak tree, something gold glittering in its branches.
Aster shook her head, looking around for signs of danger. "Something's wrong."
"This is too easy," Percy agreed. "We could just hike up there and take it?"
Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "There's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon or..."
That was when a deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves.
Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air.
A second later the sheep all moved away, back to their regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.
Aster, Percy, and Annabeth exchanged looks and shuddered.
"They're like piranhas," Aster said. "White, fluffy piranhas."
Percy looked like he was in shock. "Piranhas with wool. How will we–"
"Guys!" Annabeth gasped, grabbing Aster's arm. "Look!"
She pointed down the beach, to just below the sheep meadow, where a small boat had been run aground—the other lifeboat from the C.S.S. Birmingham. That meant someone from that crew had to be on this island somewhere, but the fact that they couldn't see her...
They all decided there was no way they could get past the man-eating sheep. Annabeth wanted to sneak up the path invisible and grab the Fleece, but in the end Aster and Percy convinced her that something would go wrong. The sheep would smell her; another guardian would appear; something. And if that happened, they'd be too far away to help.
Aster then suggested that she do her tree teleportation, but Percy managed to talk her out of it as well, saying that the same things could happen, or that the Fleece might not be able to be transported in that way. He put up a good argument, but that meant they were left with no options.
Their first job was to find Grover and whoever had come ashore in that lifeboat—assuming they'd gotten past the sheep. Aster knew that, rationally, it had to be either Tyson or Clarisse, considering the rest of the crew was already dead, but Aster didn't want to say anything to get Percy's hopes up.
They moored the Queen Anne's Revenge on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good two hundred feet. Percy figured the ship was less likely to be seen there, and Annabeth agreed after some quick calculations that Aster didn't know were relevant.
The cliffs looked climbable, barely—about as difficult as the lava wall back at camp. At least it was free of sheep. Percy muttered something about carnivorous mountain goats, and Aster prayed that those didn't exist along with the monster sheep.
They rowed a lifeboat to the edge of the rocks and made their way up, very slowly. Annabeth went first because she was the best climber, then Aster, then Percy—which he was not happy about.
Luckily, they only came close to dying six or seven times, which Aster thought was pretty good. Once, Percy lost his grip and was dangling by one hand from a ledge fifty feet above the rocky surf. Aster managed to order a vine to help him get back on the wall, which he greatly appreciated and kept climbing. A minute later Annabeth hit a slippery patch of moss and her foot slipped. Fortunately, she found something else to put it against. Unfortunately, that something was Aster's face.
"Sorry, Aster, " she murmured.
"S'okay," Aster grunted. "Better than death I suppose."
After what felt like hours of climbing, when Aster's fingers felt like molten lead and her arm muscles were shaking from exhaustion, they hauled themselves over the top of the cliff and collapsed.
"Ugh," Percy said.
"Gods," Aster exclaimed.
"Ouch," moaned Annabeth.
"Garrr! " bellowed another voice.
If it was physically possible, Aster would have leapt into the air and hid, but looking around, she couldn't see who'd spoken.
Aster clamped a hand over Percy's mouth before he could scream as Annabeth pointed in front of them, eyes wide with fear.
The ledge they were sitting on was narrower than Aster had realized. It dropped off on the opposite side, and that's where the voice was coming from—right below them. Aster tried not to shake, but it didn't exactly work.
"You're a feisty one!" the deep voice bellowed.
"Challenge me!" Clarisse's voice, no doubt about it. "Give me back my sword and I'll fight you!"
The monster roared with laughter.
Annabeth, Aster, and Percy crept to the edge so they could get a better look. They were right above the entrance of the cyclops's cave. Below them stood Polyphemus and Grover, still in his wedding dress. Clarisse was tied up, hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water. Percy's eyes searched the room, no doubt looking for Tyson, but there was no sign of him; Aster's heart hurt for him.
"Hmm," Polyphemus pondered. "Eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?"
He turned to Grover, who backed up and almost tripped over his completed bridal train. "Oh, um, I'm not hungry right now, dear. Perhaps–"
"Did you say bride?" Clarisse demanded. "Who—Grover?"
"Oh gods," Aster muttered under her breath. "Shut it, Clarisse. Shut up."
Polyphemus glowered. "What 'Grover'?"
"The satyr!" Clarisse yelled.
Annabeth put her head in her hands, shaking it gently. Aster's teeth grinded together. How could she be so stupid to tell a cyclops that his bride was actually his prey, who also happened to be their friend.
"Oh!" Grover yelped. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"
Polyphemus's eyelids narrowed over his baleful milky eye, as if he were trying to see Clarisse more clearly.
The cyclops was an even more horrible sight than he had been when he appeared in Aster's dream. Partly because his rancid smell was now up close and personal, and partly because he was dressed in his wedding outfit—a crude kilt and shoulder-wrap, stitched together from baby-blue tuxedos, as if he'd skinned an entire wedding party.
"What satyr?" asked Polyphemus. "Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?"
"No, you big idiot!" bellowed Clarisse. "That satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress!"
Oh no.
Aster wanted to strangle the daughter of Ares, and one look at Percy and she knew he wanted to pummel her too. But it was too late. All they could do was watch as Polyphemus turned and ripped off Grover's wedding veil—revealing his curly hair, his scruffy adolescent beard, and his tiny horns.
Polyphemus breathed heavily, trying to contain his anger. "I don't see very well," he growled. "Not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in eye. But YOU'RE—NO—LADY—CYCLOPS!"
The cyclops grabbed Grover's dress and tore it away. Underneath, the old Grover reappeared in his jeans and T-shirt. He yelped and ducked as the monster swiped over his head.
"Stop!" Grover pleaded. "Don't eat me raw! I–I have a good recipe!"
Percy reached into his pocket for his sword, and a knife was already waiting in Aster's hand when Annabeth hissed, "Wait!"
Polyphemus was hesitating, a boulder in his hand, ready to smash his would-be bride.
"Recipe?" he asked Grover.
"Oh y–yes! You don't want to eat me raw. You'll get E-coli and botulism and all sorts of horrible things. I'll taste much better grilled over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangos right now, down there in the woods. I'll just wait here."
The monster pondered this. Aster's heart hammered against her ribs. She tried to get a good angle to throw a knife at the Cyclops, but his skin was so thick she doubted anything she threw from this distance would do any significant damage—besides making him angry. She knew they'd die if Percy charged with his sword. But the option of letting the monster kill Grover was not going to happen.
"Grilled satyr with mango chutney," Polyphemus mused. He looked back at Clarisse, still hanging over the pot of boiling water. "You a satyr, too?"
"No, you overgrown pile of dung!" she yelled. "I'm a girl! The daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can rip your arms off!"
"Rip my arms off," Polyphemus repeated.
"And stuff them down your throat!"
"You got spunk."
"Let me down!"
Polyphemus snatched up Grover as if he were a wayward puppy. "Have to graze sheep now. Wedding postponed until tonight. Then we'll eat satyr for the main course!"
"But... you're still getting married?" Grover sounded hurt. "Who's the bride?"
Polyphemus looked toward the boiling pot.
Clarisse made a strangled sound. "Oh, no! You can't be serious. I'm not–"
Before any of them could even move, Polyphemus plucked her off the rope like she was a ripe apple, and tossed her and Grover deep into the cave. "Make yourself comfortable! I come back at sundown for big event!"
Then the cyclops whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep—smaller than the man-eaters—flooded out of the cave and past their master. As they went to pasture, Polyphemus patted some on the back and called them by name—Beltbuster, Tammany, Lockhart, etc.
"What kind of monster names his sheep?" Aster murmured.
"Apparently the really old, almost blind ones," Percy replied, and she scowled at him.
When the last sheep had waddled out, Polyphemus rolled a boulder in front of the doorway as easily as someone would close a refrigerator door, shutting off the sound of Clarisse and Grover screaming inside.
"Mangos," Polyphemus grumbled to himself. "What are mangos?"
He strolled off down the mountain in his baby-blue groom's outfit, leaving them alone with a pot of boiling water and a six-ton boulder.
Aster, Percy, and Annabeth tried to move the boulder for what seemed like hours, but it was no good; the boulder wouldn't move. They yelled into the cracks, tapped on the rock, did everything they could think of to get a signal to Grover, but if he heard any of them, they couldn't tell.
Even if by some miracle any of them managed to kill Polyphemus, it wouldn't do any good. Grover and Clarisse would die inside that sealed cave. The only way to move the rock was to have the cyclops do it.
At one point, in total frustration, Percy stabbed Riptide against the boulder. Sparks flew, but nothing else happened. A large rock was not the kind of enemy you can fight with a magic sword.
They all felt defeated. Annabeth, Aster, and Percy sat on the ridge in despair and watched the distant baby-blue shape of the Cyclops as he moved among his flocks. He had wisely divided his regular animals from his man-eating sheep, putting each group on either side of the huge crevice that divided the island. The only way across was the rope bridge, and the planks were much too far apart for sheep hooves.
Polyphemus crossed said bridge and visited the carnivorous flock on the far side. Unfortunately, they didn't eat him. In fact, they didn't seem to bother him at all. He fed them chunks of mystery meat from a great wicker basket, which made Aster want to puke thinking about what it was—and almost made her into the vegetarian Katie wished all of their siblings to be.
"Trickery," Annabeth decided after a long while of silence.
"What?" Aster said.
"We can't beat him by force, so we'll have to use trickery."
"Okay," Percy said carefully. "What trick?'
"I haven't figured that part out yet."
"Great."
"Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside," Aster said.
"At sunset," Percy said. "Which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner. I'm not sure which is grosser."
"I could get inside," Annabeth said, "invisibly."
"What about me? And Aster?"
"The sheep," she mused, giving them one of those sly looks that made Aster wary but usually came with a brilliant plan. "How much do you like sheep?"
That was how Aster and Percy ended up clutching the wool on the underside of their respective sheep, clinging to the animals for dear life.
"Just don't let go!" Annabeth said, standing invisibly somewhere off to their right. That was easy for her to say. She wasn't hanging upside down from the belly of a sheep.
After a little while, Aster got the hang of it. It reminded her of sitting under the tables of her dad's shop when she was little. The sheep didn't care. Even the cyclops's smallest sheep were big enough to support her weight, and they had thick wool. Aster just twirled the stuff into handles for her hands, hooked her feet against the sheep's thigh bones, and presto—she transformed into the sheep version of a baby wallaby, riding around against the animal's chest, trying to keep the wool out of her mouth and her nose.
The only bad part of it was the smell; it smelled like a winter sweater that'd been dragged through the mud and left in the laundry hamper for a week.
The sun was going down.
No sooner were they in position than the cyclops roared, "Oy! Goaties! Sheepies!"
The flock dutifully began trudging back up the slopes toward the cave.
"This is it!" Annabeth whispered. "I'll be close by. Don't worry."
The sheep taxi started plodding up the hill. After a hundred yards, Aster's hands and feet started to hurt from holding on. She gripped the sheep's wool more tightly, and the animal made a grumbling sound. She didn't blame it. Aster wouldn't want anybody rock climbing in her hair either. But if she didn't hold on tightly, she was sure she'd fall off right in front of the monster, and that wouldn't be the best place to be.
"Hasenpfeffer!" the Cyclops said, patting one of the sheep in front of her, containing Percy. "Widget—eh there, Widget!"
Polyphemus patted the sheep, hard. Aster cringed, knowing Percy would be putting in an effort to stay on. "Putting on some extra mutton there?"
Uh-oh. Aster was glad her hands were close to her earrings.
But Polyphemus just laughed and swatted the sheep's rear end, propelling it and Percy forward. "Go on, fatty! Soon Polyphemus will eat you for breakfast!"
"Einstein!" the cyclops said, patting the sheep Aster was on. "I knew you were growing the coat out. You will make me a nice coat soon, eh?"
He chuckled while the sheep continued walking, and just like that, Aster was in the cave.
The last of the sheep were coming inside now. If Annabeth didn't pull off her distraction soon...
The Cyclops was about to roll the stone back into place, when from somewhere outside Annabeth shouted, "Hello, ugly!"
Polyphemus stiffened. "Who said that?"
"Nobody!" Annabeth yelled.
That got exactly the reaction they'd been hoping for. The monster's face turned red with rage.
"Nobody!" Polyphemus yelled back. "I remember you!"
"You're too stupid to remember anybody," Annabeth taunted. "Much less Nobody."
Aster prayed to the gods that her friend was already moving when she said that, because Polyphemus bellowed furiously, grabbed the nearest boulder (which happened to be his front door) and threw it toward the sound of Annabeth's voice. Aster heard the rock smash into a thousand fragments.
For a terrible moment, there was silence where Aster's pounding heart was the only noise. Then Annabeth shouted, "You haven't learned to throw any better, either!"
Polyphemus howled. "Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!"
"You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf," she taunted. "Come find me!"
Polyphemus barreled down the hill toward her voice.
Now, the "Nobody" thing wouldn't have made much sense to anybody, but Annabeth had explained to them that it was the name Odysseus had used to trick Polyphemus centuries ago, right before he poked the Cyclops's eye out with a large hot stick. Annabeth had figured Polyphemus would still have a grudge about that name, and she was right. In his frenzy to find his old enemy, he forgot about resealing the cave entrance. Apparently, he didn't even stop to consider that Annabeth's voice was female, whereas the first Nobody had been male. On the other hand, he'd wanted to marry Grover, so he couldn't have been all that bright about the whole male/female thing.
Aster just hoped Annabeth could stay alive and keep distracting him long enough for her and Percy to find Grover and Clarisse.
Aster dropped off the sheep, and her eyes caught on Percy. He patted Widget on the head, and apologized.
"Come on, Barnacle Boy!" she whisper-yelled to him. "We don't have all day!"
Percy glared at her. "How many ocean-related nicknames do you have at your disposal?"
"Not important! Just look over there!"
They searched the main room, but there was no sign of Grover or Clarisse. Percy and Aster then pushed through the crowd of sheep and goats toward the back of the cave.
Even though they'd been in a dream together about this place, they got lost pretty easily in the maze of tunnels. Percy and Aster ran down corridors littered with bones, past rooms full of sheepskin rugs and life-size cement sheep that she recognized as the work of Medusa—she'd shuddered at that. There were collections of sheep T-shirts; large tubs of lanolin cream; and wooly coats, socks, and hats with ram's horns. Finally, they found the spinning room, where Grover was huddled in the corner, trying to cut Clarisse's bonds with a pair of safety scissors.
"It's no good," Clarisse said. "This rope is like iron!"
"Just a few more minutes!"
"Grover," she cried, exasperated. "You've been working at it for hours!"
And then they spotted Percy and Aster.
"Percy? Aster?" Clarisse said. "You're supposed to be blown up!"
Aster rolled her eyes. "Good to see you, too. Now hold still while I save your ass, once again."
Clarisse growled while Aster took a knife and sliced off her ropes. She stood stiffly, rubbing her wrists. She glared at them for a moment, then looked at the ground and mumbled, "Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated and tackled Percy with a goat-hug. "You heard me! You came!"
"Yeah, buddy," he said. "Of course I came."
"Where's Annabeth?"
"Outside," Aster said. "But there's no time to talk. We've got to go."
"Clarisse," Percy said then, "Was anyone else on board your lifeboat?"
Clarisse looked surprised. "No. Just me. Everybody else aboard the Birmingham... well, I didn't even know you guys made it out."
Percy's eyes dropped, and Aster wanted to comfort him about the loss of Tyson, but they didn't have time.
"Come on, guys! We have to help–"
An explosion echoed through the cave, followed by a scream that told Aster they might be too late. It was Annabeth crying out in fear.