We stood on deck, alone except for Leo, who was still manning the helm. The guy must have been shattered, but he refused to go to sleep.
"I don't want any more Shrimpzilla surprises," he insisted.
I wasn't sure how Annabeth would take the news. Her reaction was even more troubling than I anticipated: she didn't seem surprised.
She peered into the fog. "Eliana, you have to promise me something. Don't tell the others about this dream."
"Don't what? Annabeth—"
"What you saw was about the Mark of Athena," she said. "It won't help the others to know. It'll only make them worry, and it'll make it harder for me to go off on my own."
"Annabeth, you can't be serious. That thing in the dark, the big chamber with the crumbling floor—"
"I know." Her face looked unnaturally pale, and I suspected it wasn't just the fog. "But I have to do this alone."
"You know what's in that cavern," I guessed. "Does it have to do with spiders?"
"Yes," she said in a small voice.
"Then how can you even...?" I made myself stop. "Look, Annabeth." I said taking a deep breath. "Your fear of spiders is like my fear of snakes. I know how it feels and I don't want you to face this alone."
"I must."
Once Annabeth had made up her mind, arguing with her wouldn't do any good. I stared into the fog. I hated feeling blind. We hadn't been attacked since we'd touched the water but it still felt unsettling.
Suddenly Percy burst through the door and up onto the deck. It was four in the morning but I guess Jason had woken him up for his shift but he seemed really freaked out.
"Stop." Percy said quickly. "We have to stop."
"Why?" Annabeth asked.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Leo, stop!" he yelled.
Too late. The other boat appeared out of the fog and rammed them head-on. In that split second, I registered random details: another trireme; black sails painted with a gorgon's head; hulking warriors, not quite human, crowded at the front of the boat in Greek armor, swords and spears ready; and a bronze ram at water level, slamming against the hull of the Argo II.
Annabeth and I were almost thrown overboard.
Festus blew fire, sending a dozen very surprised warriors screaming and diving into the sea, but more swarmed aboard the Argo II. Grappling lines wrapped around the rails and the mast, digging iron claws into the hull's planks.
By the time I had recovered my wits, the enemy was everywhere. I couldn't see well through the fog and the dark, but the invaders seemed to be humanlike dolphins, or dolphinlike humans. Some had gray snouts. Others held their swords in stunted flippers. Some waddled on legs partially fused together, while others had flippers for feet, which reminded me of clown shoes.
Leo sounded the alarm bell. He made a dash for the nearest ballista but went down under a pile of chattering dolphin warriors.
Annabeth and Percy stood back-to-back, as they'd done many times before, their weapons drawn. I stood alone with my weapon drawn.
I raised my bow ready to fight, but we were hopelessly outnumbered. Several dozen warriors lowered their spears and made a ring around them, wisely keeping out of striking distance of Percy's sword. The dolphin-men opened their snouts and made whistling, popping noises. I had never considered just how vicious dolphin teeth looked.
At least the warriors didn't seem interested in killing them immediately. They kept me, Percy and Annabeth contained while more of their comrades flooded belowdecks and secured the hull. I could hear them breaking down the cabin doors, scuffling with my friends. Even if the other demigods hadn't been fast asleep, they wouldn't have stood a chance against so many.
Leo was dragged across the deck, half-conscious and groaning, and dumped on a pile of ropes. Below, the sounds of fighting tapered off. Either the others had been subdued or...or I refused to think about it.
On one side of the ring of spears, the dolphin warriors parted to let someone through. He appeared to be fully human, but from the way the dolphins fell back before him, he was clearly the leader. He was dressed in Greek combat armor—sandals, kilt, and greaves, a breastplate decorated with elaborate sea monster designs—and everything he wore was gold. Even his sword, a Greek blade like Percy's, was gold instead of bronze.
The golden boy, I thought, remembering my dream. They'll have to get past the golden boy.
What really made me nervous was the guy's helmet. His visor was a full face mask fashioned like a gorgon's head—curved tusks, horrible features pinched into a snarl, and golden snake hair curling around the face.
"Who are you?" Percy demanded. "What do you want?"
The golden warrior chuckled. With a flick of his blade, faster than Percy could follow, he smacked Riptide out of Percy's hand and sent it flying into the sea.
I let an arrow fly but he blocked it easily and then knocked my own bow out of my hand.
He might as well have thrown my lungs into the sea, because suddenly I couldn't breathe. I'd never been disarmed so easily.
"Hello, brother." The golden warrior's voice was rich and velvety, with an exotic accent—Middle Eastern. "Always happy to rob a fellow son of Poseidon. I am Chrysaor, the Golden Sword. As for what I want..." He turned his metal mask toward Annabeth. "Well, that's easy. I want everything you have."
Chrysaor walked back and forth, inspecting them like prized cattle. A dozen of his dolphin-man warriors stayed in a ring around them, spears leveled at my chest, while dozens more ransacked the ship, banging and crashing around belowdecks. One carried a box of ambrosia up the stairs. Another carried an armful of ballista bolts and a crate of Greek fire.
"Careful with that!" Annabeth warned. "It'll blow up both our ships."
"Ha!" Chrysaor said. "We know all about Greek fire, girl. Don't worry. We've been looting and pillaging ships on the Mare Nostrum for eons."
"Your accent sounds familiar," Percy said. "Have we met?"
"I haven't had the pleasure." Chrysaor's golden gorgon mask snarled at him, though it was impossible to tell what his real expression might be underneath. "But I've heard all about you, Percy Jackson. Oh, yes, the young man who saved Olympus. And his faithful sidekick, Annabeth Chase." He cocked his head at me. "Though this one is new. You must be the one Gaea talked about. The girl who can see the future."
I scowled at him.
"I'm nobody's sidekick," Annabeth growled. "And, Percy, his accent sounds familiar because he sounds like his mother. We killed her in New Jersey."
Percy frowned. "I'm pretty sure that accent isn't New Jersey. Who's his—? Oh."
"Medusa is your mom?" he asked. "Dude, that sucks for you."
Judging from the sound in Chrysaor's throat, he was now snarling under the mask, too.
"You are as arrogant as the first Perseus," Chrysaor said. "But, yes, Percy Jackson. Poseidon was my father. Medusa was my mother. After Medusa was changed into a monster by that so-called goddess of wisdom..." The golden mask turned on Annabeth. "That would be your mother, I believe...Medusa's two children were trapped inside her, unable to be born. When the original Perseus cut off Medusa's head—"
"Two children sprang out," I remembered. "Pegasus and you."
Percy blinked. "So your brother is a winged horse. But you're also my half brother, which means all the flying horses in the world are my...You know what? Let's forget it."
"But if you're Medusa's kid," he said, "why haven't I ever heard of you?"
Chrysaor sighed in exasperation. "When your brother is Pegasus, you get used to being forgotten. Oh, look, a winged horse! Does anyone care about me? No!" He raised the tip of his blade to Percy's eyes. "But don't underestimate me. My name means the Golden Sword for a reason."
"Imperial gold?" Percy guessed.
"Bah! Enchanted gold, yes. Later on, the Romans called it Imperial gold, but I was the first to ever wield such a blade. I should have been the most famous hero of all time! Since the legend-tellers decided to ignore me, I became a villain instead. I resolved to put my heritage to use. As the son of Medusa, I would inspire terror. As the son of Poseidon, I would rule the seas!"
"You became a pirate," Annabeth summed up.
Chrysaor spread his arms, which was fine with Percy since it got the sword point away from his eyes.
"The best pirate," Chrysaor said. "I've sailed these waters for centuries, waylaying any demigods foolish enough to explore the Mare Nostrum. This is my territory now. And all you have is mine."
One of the dolphin warriors dragged Coach Hedge up from below.
"Let me go, you tuna fish!" Hedge bellowed. He tried to kick the warrior, but his hoof clanged off his captor's armor. Judging from the hoof-shaped prints in the dolphin's breastplate and helmet, the coach had already made several attempts.
"Ah, a satyr," Chrysaor mused. "A little old and stringy, but Cyclopes will pay well for a morsel like him. Chain him up."
"I'm nobody's goat meat!" Hedge protested.
"Gag him as well," Chrysaor decided.
"Why you gilded little—" Hedge's insult was cut short when the dolphin put a greasy wad of canvas in his mouth.
Soon the coach was trussed like a rodeo calf and dumped with the other loot—crates of food, extra weapons, even the magical ice chest from the mess hall.
"You can't do this!" Annabeth shouted.
Chrysaor's laughter reverberated inside his gold face mask. I wondered if he was horribly disfigured under there, or if his gaze could petrify people the way his mother's could.
"I can do anything I want," Chrysaor said. "My warriors have been trained to perfection. They are vicious, cutthroat—"
"Dolphins," Percy noted.
Chrysaor shrugged. "Yes. So? They had some bad luck a few millennia ago, kidnapped the wrong person. Some of their crew got turned completely into dolphins. Others went mad. But these...these survived as hybrid creatures. When I found them under the sea and offered them a new life, they became my loyal crew. They fear nothing!"
One of the warriors chattered at him nervously.
"Yes, yes," Chrysaor growled. "They fear one thing, but it hardly matters. He's not here."
Dolphin warriors climbed the stairs, hauling up the rest of his friends. Jason was unconscious. Judging from the new bruises on his face, he'd tried to fight. Hazel and Piper were bound hand and foot. Piper had a gag in her mouth, so apparently the dolphins had discovered she could charmspeak. Jasper had double the amount of ropes on him and plenty of bruises and cuts. He wasn't gagged so at least the dolphins hadn't discovered he could command them to follow his orders. That or it only worked on humans. Frank was the only one missing, though two of the dolphins had bee stings covering their faces.
Could Frank actually turn into a swarm of bees? Percy hoped so. If he was free aboard the ship somewhere, that could be an advantage, assuming Percy could figure out how to communicate with him.
"Excellent!" Chrysaor gloated. He directed his warriors to dump Jason by the crossbows. Then he examined the Jasper like he was a Christmas present, which made me grit my teeth. They then examined the girls as well.
"The boy is no use to me," Chrysaor said. "But we have an understanding with the witch Circe. She will buy the women—either as slaves or trainees, depending on their skill. But not you, lovely Annabeth."
Annabeth recoiled. "You are not taking me anywhere."
I looked down at my wrist. My bow had reappeared as a bracelet on my wrist already.
The golden warrior tutted. "Oh, sadly, Annabeth, you will not be staying with me. I would love that. But you and your friend Percy are spoken for. A certain goddess is paying a high bounty for your capture—alive, if possible, though she didn't say you had to be unharmed."
At that moment, Piper caused the disturbance we needed. She wailed so loudly it could be heard through her gag. Then she fainted against the nearest guard, knocking him over. Hazel got the idea and crumpled to the deck, kicking her legs and thrashing like she was having a fit.
I drew my bow and shot an arrow quickly at Chrysaor's neck, but the golden warrior was unbelievably fast. He dodged and parried as the dolphin warriors backed up, guarding the other captives while giving their captain room to battle. They chattered and squeaked, egging him on, and I got the sinking suspicion the crew was used to this sort of entertainment. They didn't feel their leader was in any sort of danger.
I shot an arrow at the dolphin near Jasper. He'd be more useful in this fight than I would be. I ran toward Jasper and quickly began to try and untie him.
"My ring, Eliana." He told me. I looked at his bound hands and saw at least three rings on his left hand and more on his right. Our conversation went like this:
Me: "You have multiple rings."
Jasper: "The silver one."
Me: "They're all silver."
Jasper: "The plain band."
I slid the plain silver band off his finger and placed it on my own. It turned into a dagger. I used it to cut through his ropes, freeing him. I handed the dagger back to him.
"Keep it. You don't have a close range weapon. You need it more than me." He said summoning his spear from his skull ring. I looked at him hesitantly before nodding and accepting the gift.
"A good try," said the pirate. "But now you'll be chained and transported to Gaea's minions. They are quite eager to spill your blood and wake the goddess."
I looked over and saw him press the tip of his golden sword against Percy's sternum. As well as a dolphin holding a knife to Annabeth's throat.
The Dolphins pointed their weapons toward me and Jasper. We raised out hands in surrender to bide our time for a plan.
"Fine!" Percy shouted, so loudly that he got everyone's attention. "Take us away, if our captain will let you."
Chrysaor turned his golden mask. "What captain? My men searched the ship. There is no one else."
Percy raised his hands dramatically. "The god appears only when he wishes. But he is our leader. He runs our camp for demigods. Doesn't he, Annabeth?"
Annabeth was quick. "Yes!" She nodded enthusiastically. "Mr. D! The great Dionysus!"
A ripple of uneasiness passed through the dolphin-men. One dropped his sword.
"Stand fast!" Chrysaor bellowed. "There is no god on this ship. They are trying to scare you."
"You should be scared!" Percy looked at the pirate crew with sympathy. "Dionysus will be severely cranky with you for having delayed our voyage. He will punish all of us. Didn't you notice the girls falling into the wine god's madness?"
Hazel and Piper had stopped the shaking fits. They were sitting on the deck, staring at Percy, but when he glared at them pointedly, they started hamming it up again, trembling and flopping around like fish. The dolphin-men fell over themselves trying to get away from their captives.
"What is he on about?" Jasper whispered to me so I could only hear.
I shrugged. "Whatever it is it seems to be working."
"Fakes!" Chrysaor roared. "Shut up, Percy Jackson. Your camp director is not here. He was recalled to Olympus. This is common knowledge."
"So you admit Dionysus is our director!" Percy said.
"He was," Chrysaor corrected. "Everyone knows that."
Percy gestured at the golden warrior like he'd just betrayed himself. "You see? We are doomed. If you don't believe me, let's check the ice chest!"
Percy stormed over to the magical cooler. No one tried to stop him. He knocked open the lid and rummaged through the ice. He was rewarded with a silver-and-red can of soda. He brandished it at the dolphin warriors as if spraying them with bug repellent.
"Behold!" Percy shouted. "The god's chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!"
The dolphin-men began to panic. They were on the edge of retreat.
"This has to be the stupidest way to ever win a battle." Jasper muttered appalled at what was happening.
"The god will take your ship," Percy warned. "He will finish your transformation into dolphins, or make you insane, or transform you into insane dolphins! Your only hope is to swim away now, quickly!"
"Ridiculous!" Chrysaor's voice turned shrill. He didn't seem sure where to level his sword—at Percy or his own crew.
"Save yourselves!" Percy warned. "It is too late for us!"
Then he gasped and pointed to the spot where Frank was hiding. "Oh, no! Frank is turning into a crazy dolphin!"
Nothing happened.
"I said," Percy repeated, "Frank is turning into a crazy dolphin!"
Frank stumbled out of nowhere, making a big show of grabbing his throat.
"Oh, no," he said, like he was reading from a teleprompter. "I am turning into a crazy dolphin."
He began to change, his nose elongating into a snout, his skin becoming sleek and gray. He fell to the deck as a dolphin, his tail thumping against the boards.The pirate crew disbanded in terror, chattering and clicking as they dropped their weapons, forgot the captives, ignored Chrysaor's orders, and jumped overboard. In the confusion, Jasper and I moved quickly to cut the bonds on Hazel, Piper, and Coach Hedge.
Within seconds, Chrysaor was alone and surrounded. Our only weapons were my bow and new dagger, Jasper's spear, Annabeth's knife and Hedge's hooves, but the murderous looks on our faces evidently convinced the golden warrior he was doomed.
He backed to the edge of the rail.
"This isn't over, Jackson," Chrysaor growled. "I will have my revenge—"
His words were cut short by Frank, who had changed form again. An eight-hundred-pound grizzly bear can definitely break up a conversation. He sideswiped Chrysaor and raked the golden mask off his helmet. Chrysaor screamed, instantly covering his face with his arms and tumbling into the water.
We ran to the rail. Chrysaor had disappeared.
"That was brilliant!" Annabeth kissed Percy.
"It was desperate," Percy corrected. "And we need to get rid of this pirate trireme."
"Burn it?" Annabeth asked.
Percy looked at the Diet Coke in his hand. "No. I've got another idea."
It took us longer than Percy wanted. As we worked, he kept glancing at the sea, waiting for Chrysaor and his pirate dolphins to return, but they didn't.
Leo got back on his feet, thanks to a little nectar. I tended to Jason's wounds, but he wasn't as badly hurt as he looked. Mostly he was just ashamed that he'd gotten overpowered again. I then tended Jasper's wounds.
I placed my hands on his face and the bruises began to fade.
"Ow." Jasper said giving me a cold glare as I touched a tender bruise.
"Quit being such a baby, I thought you were a tough guy." I said as I healed the bruise.
"I am." He muttered.
We returned all our own supplies to the proper places and tidied up from the invasion while Coach Hedge had a field day on the enemy ship, breaking everything he could find with his baseball bat.When he was done, Percy loaded the enemy's weapons back on the pirate ship. Their storeroom was full of treasure, but Percy insisted that we touch none of it.
"I can sense about six million dollars' worth of gold aboard," Hazel said. "Plus diamonds, rubie—"
"Six m-million?" Frank stammered. "Canadian dollars or American?"
"Leave it," Percy said. "It's part of the tribute."
"Tribute?" Hazel asked.
"Oh." I nodded. "Kansas."
Jason grinned. He'd been there too when we'd met the wine god. "Crazy. But I like it."
Finally Percy went aboard the pirate ship and opened the flood valves. He asked Leo to drill a few extra holes in the bottom of the hull with his power tools, and Leo was happy to oblige.
The crew of the Argo II assembled at the rail and cut the grappling lines. Piper brought out her new horn of plenty and, on Percy's direction, willed it to spew Diet Coke, which came out with the strength of a fire hose, dousing the enemy deck. Percy thought it would take hours, but the ship sank remarkably fast, filling with Diet Coke and seawater.
"Dionysus," Percy called, holding up Chrysaor's golden mask. "Or Bacchus—whatever. You made this victory possible, even if you weren't here. Your enemies trembled at your name...or your Diet Coke, or something. So, yeah, thank you."
The words were hard to get out, but Percy managed not to gag. "We give this ship to you as tribute. We hope you like it."
"Six million in gold," Leo muttered. "He'd better like it."
"Shh," Hazel scolded. "Precious metal isn't all that great. Believe me."
Percy threw the golden mask aboard the vessel, which was now sinking even faster, brown fizzy liquid spewing out the trireme's oar slots and bubbling from the cargo hold, turning the sea frothy brown.
Percy summoned a wave, and the enemy ship was swamped. Leo steered the Argo II away as the pirate vessel disappeared underwater.
"Isn't that polluting?" Piper asked.
"I wouldn't worry," Jason told her. "If Bacchus likes it, the ship should vanish."
I didn't know if that would happen, but I felt like we'd done all we could. I had no faith that Dionysus would hear us or care, much less help us in our battle against the twin giants, but we had to try.