Don't be a silent reader
Percy's pov
Amara, after taking a few breaths, volunteered to go alone since she had a camleon alien but I convinced her it was too dangerous. Either we all went together, or nobody went. "Nobody!" Tyson voted. "Please?" But in the end, he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails.
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 Amara 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.
Amara transformed into her alien and scouted ahead invisibly. We hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people we saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers. 104 As we came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Amara hissed, "Hide!" and shoved us into a supply closet.
I heard a couple of guys coming down the hall. "You see that Aethiopian dragon in the cargo hold?" one of them said. The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome." Amara squeezed my arm hard. I got a feeling I should know that second guy's voice. "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!" Amara said recognised. "You remember — from Cabin Eleven." 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. "What's another half-blood doing here?" Amara shook her head, clearly troubled.
We kept going down the corridor. I didn't need maps anymore to know I was getting close to Annabeth. I sensed something cold and unpleasant — the presence of evil. "Percy." Amara stopped suddenly. "Look." She stood in front of a glass wall looking 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 Amara'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," Amara whispered. "Dragon women." The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armour 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. Amara helped us step away from the window.
Her face was darkened. "Come on," She told me, "The sooner we find Annabeth the better." 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 husky approximation of Annabeth's. " — the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn." Before I could react, Tyson's voice changed again, becoming higher and gruff, like the other guy we'd heard talking to Annabeth outside the cafeteria. "You think the old horseman is gone for good?"
Tyson laughed Annabeth's laugh which was weird that he laughed like a wicked girl. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw." I shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy." 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 Annabeth'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 Annabeth, flanked by two hairy giants armed with javelins, their bronze tips aimed right at our chests.
Amara's pov
"Well," Annabeth said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my two favourite people, our mortal hero and sea boy. 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. The green sea and blue sky stretched 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," Annabeth said, spreading her arms proudly. "A little nicer than Cabins, huh?" She'd changed since the last summer. Instead of shorts and a T-shirt, she wore a button-down shirt, khaki pants, and black office heels. Her blonde hair, which used to be in a high-up ponytail, was now let down nearly. She looked like an evil female model, showing off what the fashionable college-age villain was wearing to Harvard this year.
And propped against the sofa was his magical sword, Backbiter, glinting strangely with its half-steel, half-Celestial bronze blade that could kill both mortals and monsters. "Sit," she told us. She waved her hand and three dining chairs scooted themselves into the center of the room. None of us sat. Annabeth'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 and feet like paws. Their noses were snoutlike, and their teeth were all pointed canines. "Where are my manners?" She said smoothly. "These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them." I said nothing. Despite the javelins pointed at me, it wasn't the bear twins who scared me.
I'd imagined meeting Annabeth again many times since she'd tried to kill me last summer. Some I defeated her in a duel and some I just talked to her But now that we were face-to-face, I could barely stop my hands from shaking as I thought of what to do. No matter how many times you go through this....you always think twice.
"You don't know Agrius and Oreius's story?" Annabeth asked. "Their mother ... well, it's sad. 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 in disgust. Typical of the gods, wouldn't you say? They fight with one another and the poor humans get caught in the middle. The girl's twin sons here, Agrius and Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They like half-bloods well enough, though.....maybe even mortal"
"For lunch," Agrius growled. His gruff voice was the one I'd heard talking with Luke earlier. "Hehe! Hehe!" His brother Oreius laughed, licking his fur-lined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Annabeth and Agrius both stared at him.
Percy's pov
"Shut up, you idiot!" Agrius growled. "Go punish yourself!" Oreius whimpered. He trudged over to the comer of the room, slumped onto a stool, and banged his forehead against the dining table, making the silver plates rattle. Annabeth acted like this was perfectly normal behaviour. She made herself comfortable on the sofa and propped his feet up on the coffee table. "Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciate it. How's your mom? How's school?"
"You poisoned Thalia's tree," I said as Annabeth sighed. "Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?"
"How could you?" Amara sounded so angry I thought she'd explode. "Thalia saved your life! YOURS AND LUKE'S LIVES! How could you dishonour her — " "I didn't dishonour her!" Annabeth snapped. "The gods dishonoured her, Mortal! If Thalia were alive, she'd be on my side." "Liar!" "If you knew what was coming, you'd understand — " "I understand you want to destroy the camp!" she yelled. "You're a monster!"
Annabeth shook her head. "The gods have blinded you, Amara. 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. We could use your power, Amara. We can convince Luke too to join"
"Because you have none of your own!" His eyes narrowed. "I know you, Amara. 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 want to be on a losing team ... with a company like this?"
Annabeth pointed at Tyson. "Hey!" I said. "Traveling with a Cyclops," Annabeth chided. "Talk about dishonouring Thalia's memory! I'm surprised at you " "Stop it!" Amara shouted. I didn't know what Annabeth was talking to me about, but Amara's eyes were slowly shining with a sad look on her face.
"Leave her alone," I said. "And leave Tyson out of this." Annabeth laughed. "Oh, yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him." I must have looked surprised because she smiled. "Yes, Percy, 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, you mean." She shrugged. "How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? Do 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. Annabeth just chuckled. "The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?"
I wanted to get in Annabeth's face and tell her off, but as usual, she knew just how to throw me off balance. Sixteenth birthday? I mean, I knew Chiron had received a prophecy from the Oracle many years ago. I knew part of it was about me. But, if I reached my sixteenth birthday? I didn't like the sound of that. "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 into splinters. "Percy is not a fool!". Before I could stop him, he charged Annabeth. His fists came down toward her 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," Annabeth said. "Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match for your strength. Maybe I should let them — "
"Luke," Amara cut in. "Listen to me. Your mother sent us." Her face turned the colour of pepperoni. "Don't — even — mention her." "She told us to take this boat. I thought it was just for a ride, but she sent us here to find you. She told me she won't give up on you, no matter how angry you are." "Angry?" Annabeth roared. "Give up on me? He abandoned me, Tennyson! I want Olympus destroyed! Every throne crushed to rubble! You tell Athena it's going to happen, too. Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. He grows stronger." Annabeth pointed to the gold sarcophagus.
The box creeped me out, but I was determined not to show it. "So?" I demanded. "What's so special ..." Then it hit me, What might be inside the sarcophagus? The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees. "Whoa, you don't mean — " "He is re-forming," Annabeth said. "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!" Amara said.
Annabeth sneered at her. " 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." "You're insane," Amara said. "Join us and you'll be rewarded. We have powerful friends, sponsors rich enough to buy this cruise ship and much more. Percy, your mother will never have to work again. You can buy her a mansion. You can have power, fame — whatever you want. Amara, you can live the most luxurious life ever even get your family back from the dead" "Luxurious life? Pass been there done that hated it. Just Go to Tartarus," she said.
Annabeth sighed. "A shame." She 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," Annabeth said, "I'm afraid we have some stowaways." "Yes, sir," they said dreamily. Luke 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," Annabeth said. She glanced back at the golden casket as if something were troubling her. "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 Annabeth 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. Even Amara notices and nods.
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 backwards 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!" One of the security guards drew his nightstick, but Amara knocked the wind out of him with a well-placed kick. The other guard ran for the nearest alarm box. "Stop him!" Amara yelled and Aqua came out of hiding and froze him halfway as he was about to press the button.
But Red lights flashed. Sirens wailed...someone else hit the button. "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 armor drew his sword and charged, but slipped in a puddle of pina colada. Laistrygonian archers assembled on the deck above us, notching arrows in their enormous bows. "How do you launch this thing?" screamed Amara. A hellhound leapt 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. Amara 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.