𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
chapter thirty. ☄︎. *. ⋆
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
AS FAR AS I KNEW, Percy didn't tell Annabeth what he saw when he chased me down.
When I'd calmed down well enough, Percy willed the currents to push us back to the ship. He didn't let go of me until we were back on the deck and I had a blanket wrapped around myself. I was shivering and cold, but most of all, gods, I was embarrassed. My least favorite campmate had seen me at my lowest. Not only did Percy witness my sobs and cries, but he held me while they racked my body with shudders. If it had been anyone else, it could have been perceived as a touching moment, but it was between me and Percy so it was just flat-out awkward.
Anyways, we arrived at the Polyphemus the Cyclops's island soon after the incident with the Sirens. Now, I'll tell you the truth here: I was in no mental shape to face this monster. I'd just almost drowned myself over a stupid song. Not to mention the physical toll fighting Percy had taken on me; my arms felt like lead and my legs were burning with exhaustion when I climbed the ladder to the deck. There was no doubt in my mind that Polyphemus could take me out with a flick of his hand.
But the Fleece helped. The moment we were in range of its power, I felt strength return to my limbs. I was still mentally scarred, but my corporal health was much better within moments.
In the meadow at the base of the island's ravine, several dozen sheep milled around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge—probably the size of hippos. With a start, I recognized them from my first dream about Grover. At the top of the hill was the tree I had seen Grover at; sure enough, shimmering in its branches was the Golden Fleece.
"This is too easy," Percy said, and I had to agree with him. "We just walk right up there and take it?"
"There's supposed to be a guardian," Annabeth said. She narrowed her eyes. "A dragon, or som—"
She faltered. A deer pranced out of the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the doe. Grass and tufts of fur flew in the air. A moment later, the sheep dispersed, leaving a pile of clean white bones where the deer had been.
Annabeth, Percy and I gaped at it. I swallowed and said, "Now I get why Grover's vegan."
"They're like piranhas," Annabeth said.
"Piranhas with wool," Percy agreed. "How do we—"
"Hold it," I said. "We're not the only ones who made it here." I nodded to the beach beyond the sheep meadow, where a small boat had been run aground. It was the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham.
We decided there was no way we could get past the man-eating sheep. Annabeth wanted to sneak up the path invisibly and grab the Fleece, but in the end Percy and I convinced her that something would go wrong. The sheep would smell her. Another guardian would appear. Something. And if that happened, we would be too far away to help.
Besides, our first job was to find Grover and whoever had come ashore in that lifeboat—assuming they'd gotten past the sheep. I knew exactly what Percy was thinking, even though he didn't say it out loud; he was hoping Tyson had survived the explosion. I didn't blame him. I missed the big guy, too.
We moored the Queen Anne's Revenge on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good two hundred feet. We figured the ship was less likely to be seen there. The cliffs looked climbable, barely—about as difficult as the lava wall back at camp. At least it was free of sheep. I hoped that Polyphemus did not also keep carnivorous mountain goats.
We rowed a lifeboat to the edge of the rocks and made our way up, very slowly. Annabeth went first because she was the better climber. Then I was next, and Percy went last so he could will the water to catch one of us if we fell.
We only came close to dying six or seven times, which I thought was pretty good. Once, Percy lost his grip and found himself dangling by one hand from a ledge fifty feet above the rocky surf. But he found another handhold and kept climbing. A minute later Annabeth hit a slippery patch of moss and her foot slid. Fortunately, she found something else to put it against. Unfortunately, that something was my face.
"Sorry," she murmured.
"S'fine," I said, my voice muffled by the sole of her tennis shoe.
Finally, when I just about felt like giving up and falling down to my death, we reached the top. My muscles were crying. My arms burned with exhaustion. I almost passed out on the spot, but a loud growl from beneath us just about scared me out of my skin.
I peered over the edge of the cliff. The ledge we were sitting on was much narrower than we had realized. It dropped off on the opposite side, and that's where the growl had come from—right below us.
"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 and Percy crept to the edge. I nocked one of the unpredictable trick arrows in my bow, in preparation of needing a quick distraction, but Polyphemus seemed pretty interested in what was right in front of him. When I moved to the edge to get a glance at it, I saw Polyphemus next to a wedding-dress-clad Grover. Clarisse was tied up and hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water, which I couldn't imagine was very good for her hair.
"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?"
Next to Percy, Annabeth muttered, "Shut up. She has to shut up."
Polyphemus glowered. "What 'Grover'?"
"The satyr!" Clarisse yelled.
"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 in my dream. Partly because his rancid smell was now up close and personal. Partly because he was dressed in his wedding outfit—a crude kilt and shoulder-wrap, stitched together from baby-blue tuxedoes, as if the 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!"
I wanted to wring Clarisse's neck, but it was too late. All I could do was watch as Polyphemus turned and ripped off Grover's wedding veil-revealing his curly hair, his scruffy adolescent beard, 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 have a good recipe! 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. My heart hammered against my ribs. I figured if any of us charged, we would die before we could even reach Grover. But I couldn't let the monster kill him. I wondered how destructive this trick arrow I'd nocked could be...
"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!"
"You're still getting married?" Grover asked. I was just as confused as him. "To who?"
Polyphemus looked toward the boiling pot.
Clarisse made a strangled sound. "Oh, no! You cannot be serious! I'm not—"
Before Percy or Annabeth or I could do anything, Polyphemus plucked Clarisse 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!" And he rolled a large boulder in front of the opening.
When Polyphemus strolled off down the mountain, I sat up and turned to Percy and Annabeth. "We're doomed."
"Not doomed," Percy said. "All we have to do is get that rock out of the way, then defeat Polyphemus."
"So, yeah," I said, "we're doomed."