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BOOK TWO.
CHAPTER SIX.
❝ WHY DO YOU HATE US!? ❞
THEY SNUCK through the corridors, following the ships's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly.
As they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved them into a supply closet.
Aria 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 was awesome."
Annabeth and Aria locked eyes, their features contorting into one of shock.
"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.
"No way that was fucking Chris Rodriguez?" Aria exclaimed.
"What's another half-blood doing here?" Percy whispered.
They kept going down the corridor. Aria didn't need a ship map to tell her she was getting close to Luke. She could already sense something cold and unpleasant--the presence of evil.
"Wait," Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look."
She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multi-storey canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the promenade - a map full of shops - but that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention.
A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen laistrygonian giants like the ones who had apparently attacked Percy with dodgeballs, two hellhounds and-
"Scythian Dracaenae," Aria 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 Aria's throat when she realised the dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. As they watched, the guy in armour stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled.
"I would pay good money to see Luke get that treatment," Aria said, scowling at the scene before her.
Percy grabbed one of the loops on her shorts and pulled her away. "Let's not get too violent here, Silvers."
At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When they were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside."
"You can hear that far?" Percy asked.
Tyson closed his eyes like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a husky approximation of Luke's. "--the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."
Then, Tyson's voice changed again, becoming deeper and gruffer, like the other guy they had heard talk to Luke outside the cafeteria. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?"
Tyson echoed Luke's laugh. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw."
Annabeth shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! It's creepy."
"It's alright, Tyson," Aria encouraged. "Keep going."
"What else are they saying?" Percy asked.
Tyson closed his eye again and hissed in the gruff man's voice: "Quiet!" Then Luke's voice, whispering: "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Tyson said in the gruff voice. "Right outside."
Oh dear.
"Run!" Percy said, but the doors of the stateroom burst open.
There was Luke, flanked by two hairy giants armed with javelins, their bronze tips aimed right at their chests.
"Well," Luke said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my wonderful family. 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: a velvet dais at the back of the room lay a three-metre-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," Luke said, spreading him arms proudly. "A little nicer than cabin eleven, huh?"
Aria glanced at the ostentatious display with a raised eyebrow and quipped, "Sure, if you're into the whole 'dark and ominous' interior decorating trend. I prefer a cabin that doesn't double as a horror movie set."
The son of Hermes had changed since last summer. Instead of bermuda shorts and a t shirt, he wore a button down shirt, khaki trousers and leather loafers. His black hair was now clipped short, and he now looked like a rich private school boy.
"Sit," he said to them. He waved his hand and four dining chairs scooted themselves into the centre of the room.
None of them sat.
Luke's large friends were still pointing their javelins. They looked like twins, but they weren't human. They stood about two and a half metres 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 snout-like, and their teeth were all pointed canines.
"Where are my manners?" Luke said smoothly. "These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them."
Aria had spent countless nights plotting different ways of how she could murder the boy standing in front of her, but now that he was really there, just a hand grab away, she couldn't even bring herself to speak.
Luke continued. "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 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..."
"For lunch," Agrius growled.
"Hehe! Hehe!" his brother Oreius laughed, licking his fur lined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Luke and Agrius both 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.
"What in the Harry Potter?" Aria mumbled to herself.
Luke acted like this was totally normal behaviour. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and propped his feet up on the coffee table. "Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How's your mom? How's school?"
"You poisoned Thalia's tree."
Luke sighed. "Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?"
"How could you?" Annabeth said angrily. "Thalia saved your life!"
"Thalia is definitely rolling in her tree grave right now," Aria added in, probably extremely unhelpfully.
Annabeth continued, her anger rising with each intake of air. "Our lives! How could you dishonour her--"
"I didn't dishonour her!" Luke snapped. "The gods dishonoured her, Annabeth. 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 shouted. "You're a monster!"
Luke shook his head. "The gods have blinded you. Can't you imagine a world without them, Annabeth? 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 intelligence, Annabeth."
"Because you clearly have none of your own!"
Luke turned to Aria. "Aria. Little Aria Silvers. Sam's best friend."
Aria scowled. "Don't talk about Sam to me."
Luke made a tsk sound with his mouth. "Sam tells me you're destined to do great things. I always thought he was just saying that to be kind but...here we are. Go you."
"If you bring up Sam one more time, I swear to the gods Luke, I will make your death as painful as I can."
Luke laughed, as if amused by the prospect of Aria killing him.
"I know you both," he said. "You guys 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?" Luke pointed at Tyson.
"Hey!" Percy protested.
"Travelling with a cyclops," Luke chided. "Talk about dishonouring Thalia's memory! I'm surprised at you, Annabeth. You of all people--"
"Stop it!" Aria shouted, as Annabeth buried her head in her hands as if she were about to cry.
"Leave them alone," Percy said. "And leave Tyson out of this."
Luke laughed. "Oh yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him."
Percy must have drawn back in surprise as Luke slyly grinned. "Yes, 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," the son of Poseidon argued.
Luke shrugged. "How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? 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.
Luke just chuckled. "The gods are using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your seventeenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?"
If?
"I know what I need to know," Percy said, although he looked a little startled. "Like, who my enemies are."
"Then you're a fool."
Tyson smashed the nearest dining chair to splinters. "Percy is not a fool!"
Before anyone could stop him, he charged Luke. His fists came down towards Luke's head--a double overhead blow that would have 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," Luke said. "Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match for your strength. Maybe I should let them--"
"Luke," Percy cut in. "Listen to me. Your father sent us."
His face turned the colour of pepperoni. "Don't - even - mention him.
"He told us to take this boat," Percy continued, "I thought it was just for a ride, but he sent us here to find you. He told me he won't give up on you, no matter how angry you are."
"Angry?" Luke roared. "Give up on me? He abandoned me, Percy!" I want Olympus destroyed! Every throne crushed to rubble! You tell Hermes it's going to happen, too. Each time a half-blood joins us, the olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. He grows stronger." Luke pointed to the gold sarcophagus.
"You don't need the titan king, you need fucking therapy," Aria retorted, looking Luke straight in the eye.
"What's in the box, Luke?" Percy asked.
Then, it hit everyone in the room like a brick. The temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees. "Please don't tell me--"
"He is re-forming," Luke 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!" Annabeth cried.
"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."
"Do you need to talk to a trusted adult?" Aria asked him.
"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. Annabeth, you can realise your dream of being an architect. You can build a monument to last a thousand years. A temple to the lords of the next age! Aria you can... actually I never really talked to you. You don't have many friends, do you?"
"I don't have many friends in case they turn out to be fucking psychos like you," Aria remarked, narrowing her eyes at the boy.
Luke sighed. "A true shame."
He picked something up that looked like a TV remote and pressed a red button. Within seconds, the door of the stateroom opened and three uniformed crew members came in, armed with nightsticks. They had the same bored expression as the mortals outside, all of them in a hypnotic trance.
"Ah, good, security," Luke 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 not a threat," Luke assured. He looked back at the golden casket, a troubled expression on his face. "Agrius, stay here. We have many things to discuss."
"But-"
"Oreius, don't fail me. Stay in the hold to make sure the drakon is properly fed."
Oreius prodded the four with his javelin and herded them out of the stateroom, follow by the two human security guards.
As Aria walked down the corridor with Orieus's javelin ramming into her back, she thought about what Luke had said - that the bear twins together were a match for Tyson's strength. But maybe separately...
They exited the corridor amidships and walked across an open deck lined with lifeboats. Aria knew the ship well enough to realise this would be their last look at sunlight. Once they got to the other side, they'd take the elevator down into the hold, and that would be it.
Percy for once, caught onto the plan, as he 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!"
Two of the security guards drew their nightsticks. Annabeth kicked the one nearest to her while Aria elbowed another guard on the nose. The other guard ran for the nearest alarm box.
"Stop him!" Annabeth yelled, but it was too late.
Just before Percy could bang him on the head with a deckchair, he hit the alarm.
Red lights flashed. Sirens wailed.
"Lifeboat!" Percy yelled.
They ran for the nearest one.
By the time they 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 pina coloda. Laistrygonian archers assembled on the deck above them, notching arrows in their enormous bows.
"How do you launch this thing?" screamed Annabeth.
"Can't say I've had time to read the manual, Annabeth!" Aria yelled back.
A hellhound leaped at Percy, but Tyson slammed it aside with a fire extinguisher.
"Get in!" the son of Poseidon yelled. He uncapped riptide and slashed the first volley of arrows out of the air. Any second they would be overwhelmed.
The lifeboat was hanging over the side of the ship, high above the water. Annabeth, Aria, and Tyson were having no luck with the release pulley.
Percy jumped in beside them.
"Hold on!" he yelled, and he cut the ropes.
"WHY DO YOU HATE US?!" Aria screamed.
A shower of arrows whistled over their heads as they free-fell towards the ocean.
camp notes
luke needs therapy ❤️
NOT HIM LITERALLY SAYING THAT ARIA HAS NO FRIENDS BYE
didn't know kronos made a mf cruel like that fr 😭🤞🏻
- gracie