Chapter 11: I Mastermind A Midnight Prison Break
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Tantalus called for a feast of fried Stymphalian bird in honour of Clarisse's inaugural victory. Percy, Tyson, and I were stuck in the kitchen below the pavilion scrubbing the never-ending piles of silverware with boiling lava, but I doubted I would have enjoyed the food even if we'd been allowed to attend. I kept smelling the putrid stench of their droppings.
Percy related his dream about Grover again, in full detail this time, which was even weirder than the condensed version he'd told me before the race.
'He's passing as a lady Cyclops,' I repeated. 'And Polyphemus wants to marry him.'
'Yes,' Percy said, looking so deadly serious, I decided it had to be true. I couldn't imagine making up a story like that without cracking up. 'He said he's in the Sea of Monsters. That's where Polyphemus has been luring all the satyrs who went searching for Pan.'
'With ancient nature magic.' I hardly dared to believe it. 'If he's really found it, and if we could retrieve it—'
'Hold on, you act like this … whatever-it-is Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save the camp. What is it?'
I was surprised that he hadn't worked it out. 'I'll give you a hint. What do you get when you skin a ram?'
'Messy?'
Sometimes I swear he acted dumb just to annoy me. 'A fleece,' I said. 'The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to have golden wool—'
'The Golden Fleece.' He caught on at last. 'Are you serious?'
I nodded. And then I remembered something else. 'Percy, remember the Grey Sisters? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told him how to find the Golden Fleece.' I narrowed my eyes. 'You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?'
'Yeah,' he said. I was about to sigh with relief when he continued, 'That old movie with the clay skeletons.'
Gods help me, he was hopeless sometimes. I told him the story—in particular the parts Columbia Pictures had left out: two children of Zeus had ridden Chrysomallos out of Greece to escape being sacrificed to monsters, and later skinned the magical ram as an offering to the gods. The golden ram had been so powerful, its fleece could work the strongest nature magic in the world, curing plague, eliminating pollution.
'It could cure Thalia's tree,' Percy said.
'And it would totally strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood,' I agreed. The only problem, though, was that it was missing, and had been for centuries. No hero had ever found it. Until, as Percy pointed out now, Grover.
Which brought me back to the reason why I'd been so sceptical in the first place. It was the biggest coincidence in the world: at the same time that Grover sent Percy a plea to be rescued from a place where the Golden Fleece was hidden—that no one had found for centuries—Thalia's tree was poisoned and camp besieged by monsters. It was so well set up, it felt like a neat strategy. And we certainly knew someone who was a master of manipulation on that level.
My eyes were drawn unconsciously to my bronze dagger, which I'd laid aside while washing up.
'What if it's a trap?' I felt torn between the hope of saving camp and the possibility that it was all a clever strategy of Kronos to lure Percy out. I thought of Chiron, cautioning against impulsive action, making me swear a binding oath to protect Percy.
'What choice do we have? Are you going to help me rescue Grover or not?'
There was a thick splash next to us. Tyson was sailing cups around in the lava tub, unperturbed by the heat of the molten liquid, or our serious conversation.
I lowered my voice. 'Percy, we'll have to fight a Cyclops,' I reminded him. 'Polyphemus, the worst of the Cyclopes.' Worse still, to get there, we'd have to travel over the sea. I remembered Ethel talking about his nautical voyages. 'There's only one place his island could be. The Sea of Monsters.'
'Where's that?'
I raised my eyebrows. Percy had just said Grover was in the Sea of Monsters. I thought that meant he'd know about it, but apparently not. 'The Sea of Monsters,' I said. 'The same sea Odysseus sailed through, and Jason, and Aeneas and all the others.'
'You mean the Mediterranean?'
'No. Well, yes ... but no.'
'Another straight answer,' he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. 'Thanks.'
'Look, Percy, the Sea of Monsters is the sea all heroes sail through on their adventures.' I wondered if he'd ever really grasped the concept of archetypes and the Western migration that I'd tried to explain to him so many times. 'It used to be in the Mediterranean, yes. But like everything else, it shifts locations as the West's centre of power shifts.'
I let him work it out slowly. With Percy, telling him things straight often meant he just forgot them minutes later. He had a better memory for stuff he actually reasoned out himself.
Thanks to Ethel, I had an approximate location for the shifted Sea of Monsters. Unfortunately, that didn't narrow things down much. The Bermuda Triangle wasn't exactly a precise location. I was worried enough about sea travel—children of Athena didn't have a great track record in Poseidon's domain—without factoring in monster-infested waters.
Percy was more optimistic about it. 'Hey, I'm the son of the sea god,' he said. 'This is my home turf. How hard can it be?'
Easy for him to say. But I guess he had a point. If I were with an actual son of Poseidon, it would mitigate things.
'We'll have to talk to Tantalus, get approval for a quest,' I said, realising the next snag in our plan. 'He'll say no.'
'Not if we tell him tonight at the campfire in front of everybody,' Percy said. 'The whole camp will hear. They'll pressure him. He won't be able to refuse.'
My appraisal of Percy's strategic ability went up again. That was him—one minute he'd seem impossibly dumb, the next he'd display a stroke of brilliance.
We got back to dishes. Fortunately, oblivious to our conversation, Tyson had made it through all the cups. I wanted to finish quickly now. I needed to raid Chiron's library for a book on the Odyssey.
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The mood at the campfires hadn't improved much from the first night. It was particularly dismal today, with half the campers back in the infirmary recovering from the attack of the Stymphalian birds. I didn't think Tantalus's feast had succeeded in raising anyone's spirits, except perhaps the Ares cabin, who were all delighted at getting out of chores for a whole month.
Tantalus was still chasing after food as we sang along in monotones. I felt rather vindictively vilified every time I saw his marshmallows leap away from him. Had I thought his punishment cruel? I now decided it was perfectly justified for such an awful man.
Percy got up before Tantalus could make the closing announcements. I got to my feet next to him, backing him up as he presented our idea to travel to the Sea of Monsters, rescue Grover, and bring back the Fleece.
'The power of the Golden Fleece is legendary,' I said. 'It heals sickness, it reinforces natural magic. Chiron said that there was only one source of magic that could possibly help Thalia—her pine tree, I mean. He had to be referring to this. The Fleece can save the camp. I'm certain of it.'
'Nonsense.' Tantalus's hateful eyes bore into me. I could tell he didn't like me bringing up Chiron. 'We don't need saving.'
Half the campers' jaws dropped. The other half glared at Tantalus. With the bird attack fresh in everyone's memory, no one could buy what he'd just said.
'Besides, the Sea of Monsters? That's hardly an exact location. You wouldn't even know where to look.' Tantalus looked triumphant, like he'd crafted the perfect counterargument, and I had to admit he had. I'd made the same point to Percy myself, earlier.
But Percy said, 'Yes, I would.'
I gaped at him. 'You would?'
'Thirty, thirty-one, seventy-five, twelve,' Percy recited. I recognised the numbers—they were the exact list the Grey Sisters had given him.
'Ooo-kay, thank you for sharing those meaningless numbers,' Tantalus said with a snort.
Percy met his eyes steadily. 'They're sailing co-ordinates. Latitude and longitude. I, uh, learned about it in social studies.'
My heart leapt. He was right! I could've kissed him. It made absolute sense—thirty degrees and seventy-five degrees west would put us somewhere off Florida, which was the approximate location of the Bermuda Triangle. With the exact co-ordinates, we could even programme it into a GPS.
'We need a quest!' I said firmly.
Tantalus held up his hands, but everyone began to chant, 'We need a quest,' drowning out any objection he could raise.
'Fine!' he said at last. 'You brats want me to assign a quest?'
The YES was deafening. The campfire flames, sensing our mood, roared higher than I'd seen them all week.
Tantalus gave in. 'Very well. I shall authorise a champion to undertake this perilous journey, to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. Or die trying.'
I exchanged a triumphant look with Percy. We'd done it—gotten Tantalus to assign the quest, even worked out the exact location we needed. We might even be able to set off as soon as the next morning.
'I will allow our champion to consult the Oracle, and choose two companions for the journey. And I think the choice of champions is obvious.'
I was about to step forward and claim the quest when Tantalus called out, 'You shall lead this quest … Clarisse!'
'What? No!' I said, but I was drowned out by the cheering and stamping of the Ares cabin.
'I accept the quest!' Clarisse shouted.
'Wait! Grover is my friend!' Percy jumped in. 'The dream came to me.'
'Sit down! You had your chance last summer!' Sherman Yang jeered.
Clarisse thumped her chest. 'I accept the quest,' she said again, glaring defiantly at us. 'I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, will save the camp!'
'Annabeth's more qualified!' Malcolm said. 'And she and Percy saved everyone from the Stymphalian birds.'
'If it's not Percy, it should be Annabeth,' Anita agreed.
Mark Harrison threw a handful of marshmallows at us.
'They're just attention hogs!' Drew Tanaka from Aphrodite chimed in. 'It should be Clarisse!' Next to her, Silena's eyes darted between me and Clarisse, looking pained. She stayed silent, twisting her silver charm bracelet nervously.
Beckendorf stood and crossed his arms. 'I think it should be Percy.'
'No, Annabeth!' insisted Malcolm.
'Clarisse!' several Ares kids yelled back in unison.
I was really mad. There were scores of reasons why I was qualified for the quest. I'd wanted to lead one since I was seven, and I'd trained harder than anyone else for it. I was the longest standing camper at Camp Half-Blood. I'd successfully completed the quest for Zeus's lightning bolt with Percy and Grover last year—like Percy said, if we were rescuing Grover, it should be the two of us. And I was Thalia's best friend … her sole remaining friend.
There shouldn't have been a debate over my right to lead.
Tantalus shut us all up, and launched into a completely unrelated story. I finally found out what crime he had committed to land himself in the Fields of Punishment: he had cooked his own children and served them to the gods in a stew. He told us the tale with no hint of regret or repentance. It was clear that he would be only too glad to put us through the same fate.
I shivered, wondering once again how someone like him had any right to take Chiron's place.
Even Clarisse looked revolted. She squirmed when he sent her on to the Oracle, like she regretted gaining his favour.
'Let me remind everyone,' Tantalus said, his eyes glittering maliciously, 'no one leaves this camp without my permission. Anyone who tries … well, if they survive the attempt, they will be expelled forever, but it won't come to that. The harpies will be enforcing curfew from now on, and they are always hungry.!'
And as though he hadn't just threatened to have us eaten (or possibly served up in a stew, I wasn't sure which) if we misbehaved, he bade us good night and waved us off to bed.
All the other campers went straight to their cabins, but I took a detour around to the Big House, hoping to catch Clarisse. I waited on the back porch until she emerged, looking a little shaken—not that I could blame her, given how the Oracle could be.
'Clarisse,' I said.
'What do you want, Chase?'
'You can take two companions on the quest.'
'And I suppose you want me to pick you and Jackson?'
'Well, we know where to go. And Percy's good with water. We could help—'
'Thanks, but no thanks,' Clarisse said darkly. 'This is my chance to shine. You're just out to steal my glory.'
'I'm not,' I promised. 'I just want to save the camp, just like you.'
'Yeah, right. Save the sweet-talk. You've never believed I could be as dedicated to the camp as you. This is my quest, and you can butt out.' She slammed her shoulder into me hard and stalked off down the lawn.
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I hoped I might dream that night of something that would help me convince Clarisse to let me join the quest, but I found myself hiding among a pile of crates, behind a large metal sheet. In my hands, I clutched a rusty old hammer. I could hear footsteps approaching and I trembled in fear.
Maybe, maybe the footsteps would pass me by, I thought desperately. Maybe the monsters wouldn't find me. But I knew they would. They always did.
The sheet of corrugated tin shifted. I lashed out with the hammer, not wanting to give the monster time to attack. He was faster than me, though. My hammer swung through the air and a strong hand gripped my wrist tightly, sending the hammer flying out of my hand.
The monster was a teenage boy with wild blue eyes and a shock of sandy hair.
I was dreaming of the night I'd met Luke—and Thalia.
There she was, standing behind a terrifying image of Medusa—her shield, Aegis. I hadn't thought of it in years. What had happened to it after we got to camp?
Luke held me tightly and promised me they weren't monsters. 'We fight them, too,' he said earnestly.
Thalia's shield shrunk with a snap, becoming a silver bracelet around her left wrist. She came to stand side by side with Luke. Her spiky black hair was a sharp contrast to Luke's wavy locks, but her eyes had the same, hunted look. The look of someone who'd been chased by monsters too many times.
'You're like me?' I said.
'Yeah. We're … well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster-fighters,' Luke said. 'Where's your family?'
I crossed my arms, trying to look brave and defiant, but my voice came out sounding forlorn. 'My family hates me. They don't want me. I ran away.'
I saw understanding in Thalia and Luke's eyes, and hope flared in my chest. Could it really be that I'd found others like me?
And then Luke offered to let me join them, giving me his knife—the bronze dagger I'd carried ever since—as a token of trust.
'You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?'
The knife felt warm in my hand as he handed it over. It was the first time I'd seen celestial bronze, and its soft glow fascinated me. It seemed to seal our pact with its gentle light.
Thalia took my hand and we left the construction site. Luke led the way, taking us through winding back alleys and overgrown yards, out into wild country.
'Our nearest hideout is on the James River,' he said. 'We have supplies and stuff there.'
As the night wore on, I started struggling to keep up.
'Are you tired, Annabeth?' Thalia asked.
'No,' I said, although I was stifling a yawn. I was a little afraid that if I flagged, they might realise what a chore it was to have me tagging along, slowing them down.
'We're probably not going to make it all the way to the James River tonight anyway,' Luke said. I got the feeling he knew the tiredness I was trying to hide. 'Why don't we stop and make camp?'
'I can keep going!' I insisted.
'Nah, this is a good place. We can make up a fire in the woods and Thalia and I can trade off on guard duty. I'll take the first watch so you girls can get some rest.'
Thalia fell asleep almost immediately by the crackling campfire we set up, but I tried to prop my drooping eyelids open. Luke looked at me kindly.
'You can sleep, Annabeth,' he said. 'I won't let anything happen to either of you.'
'You—won't?' The words came out with a big yawn.
'We're a family now, remember?' The firelight danced across his face, distorting his features. Then the dream shifted and I was looking at an older Luke, with the dragon claw scar he'd gotten three years ago on his quest and eyes that were hard and cold. Dim golden light still flickered over his face, but not from a fire. He was staring at a golden sarcophagus with pictures etched into its side: heroes being crushed under large fists and struck down with bolts from the sky.
'Family,' he murmured softly. He closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, I saw a pained, longing look in them. 'Hang on, Thalia. If this works, we could be a family again.' He touched the sarcophagus lightly. 'You promise, right?' He cocked his head like he was listening for a response.
'Yes …' a voice hissed softly.
Luke got up and left. I approached the sarcophagus, half curious, half disturbed by the images on the side. I could hear a faint whisper coming from inside it, but I couldn't make out the words. It drew me closer as though I was in a trance.
I lifted the lid and found myself enveloped in darkness.
'Help, Thalia!' It was Luke's voice. And then it warped into Thalia's screams, and then, bizarrely, my own, crying, 'Help me, Luke!' The voices echoed around me. In the background, low rumbling laughter rang out. It made me shiver. I knew that laughter. It was the Cyclops from Brooklyn, mimicking each of us in turn.
'Annabeth, help!' Percy's voice.
It's a trap. Don't fall for it, I told myself.
It was a moment before I realised I wasn't staring into darkness any more, but the dim interior of cabin six. I had woken up. And I could still hear Percy yelling for help.
I jumped out of bed and snatched up my knife from my nightstand. Outside, the muggy day had given way to a cool, clear night. Percy's shouts travelled distinctly across from the direction of the beach: 'Monsters attacking—come quick! Annabeth!'
I sprinted across the fields without a second thought. An enormous figure came barrelling out of the shadows and nearly bowled me over. I sidestepped and saw that it was Tyson.
My blood ran cold. How could I have forgotten that there was a Cyclops at camp, probably every bit as capable at mimicking voices as the one that haunted my dreams?
I brandished my knife in defence. But Tyson just looked at it in bewilderment and pointed towards the beach.
'Percy needs help,' he said.
I didn't bother answering. Seeing as he hadn't been luring me out to attack me after all, I sheathed my knife and continued running, calling out to Percy. Tyson followed behind me, bellowing Percy's name, too.
Percy's cries for help faded as I got close, which worried me, but when I reached the beach, I found him standing at the edge of Long Island Sound, staring silently out to sea. There was not a monster in sight.
Percy turned when I ran up. He had a thermos flask in one hand and a little pop-cap bottle, the kind for pills, in the other. He looked concerned, but not surprised to see me.
'What's going on? I heard you calling for help!' I said.
Tyson appeared, panting hard, at the top of the beach. 'Me, too! Heard you yell, "Bad things are attacking!"'
Percy said, 'I didn't call you guys. I'm fine.'
'But then who … what …'
He glanced to his left, where there were three canary-yellow duffel bags lying in the sand, all stuffed to the brim. 'Just listen—we don't have much time. Hermes left all this stuff. He wants us to go after the Fleece.'
'Hermes?' I said incredulously. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't the god of thieves.
'Yeah, I was—well, I snuck out, and he just showed up on the beach and told me a whole story—er, actually that part's probably not important. He gave me this flask of winds—'
Tyson burped helpfully.
'Er, not that sort of wind. At least I hope not.'
I hoped so, too. Tyson's breath smelled sour, like he'd been eating sauerkraut all day.
'And I got this bottle of vitamins, and I don't know exactly how they're meant to help on the quest, but he said they would.' He passed me the bottle.
The label was in Greek. Hermultivites! All the essentials you need to feel yourself again. Now in chewable monster shapes!
I shrugged, mystified, and handed it back. I couldn't imagine how vitamins would be of use either.
'Anyway, he thought we could save …' Percy faltered a little and averted his eyes. 'More than just Grover,' he finished.
Although he didn't say Luke's name, I knew that was who he meant. Why else would Hermes, Luke's father, issue a quest to Percy?
The Luke from my dream, whispering, 'family,' tugged at my heart. I was still angry at him for betraying us last year, but if there was a chance, like Hermes seemed to be thinking, that Luke would turn back, if we could convince him to leave Kronos …
My mind was made up in an instant.
'Percy, we have to do the quest.'
'We'll get expelled, you know,' Percy said dubiously. 'Trust me, I'm an expert at getting expelled.'
'So?' He'd been eager enough to go earlier on, when we'd discussed this in the kitchen, and at the campfire. Why was he holding back suddenly? 'If we fail, there won't be any camp to come back to,' I reminded him.
'Yeah, but you promised Chiron—'
I couldn't believe he was fighting so hard against this. It was like the moment it involved saving Luke, he no longer cared. Like he wanted me to choose between protecting him or getting Luke back. But I was sure I could do both.
'I promised I'd keep you from danger,' I told him. 'I can only do that by coming with you!' Besides, with camp as dangerous as the outside world these days, did it make a difference whether we stayed or not? 'Tyson can stay behind and tell them where we've gone.'
'I want to go,' Tyson objected.
'No!' I said immediately. I could just see it—the horror, travelling with a Cyclops. We'd have to have our guard up all the time. It would be just like waiting for the next wave of monsters to attack camp. I turned to Percy for support. 'I mean, Percy, come on. You know that's impossible.'
Percy tapped his foot nervously. The shrieking of the camp harpies sounded in the distance. They were out patrolling. We were going to have to move quickly; they would realise soon enough that we were breaking curfew.
'We can't leave him,' Percy said at last. 'Tantalus will punish him for us being gone.'
I couldn't believe him. How badly could Tantalus hurt Tyson anyway? Not enough to compare to our lugging a monster around that could turn on us any minute, I bet. The trip was going to be dangerous enough. Had Percy forgotten where we were headed?
'Percy, we're going to Polyphemus's island,' I reminded him. He still looked blank. 'Polyphemus is a …' I glanced at Tyson, who was looking anxiously between us. 'S-i-k—' I began, but spelling wasn't my strong suit. Dyslexia—the bane of every demigod. I made a second stab at spelling 'Cyclops', then gave up. 'You know what I mean!'
'Tyson can go if he wants to,' Percy said.
Tyson beamed and clapped his hands like an excited five-year-old. 'Want to!'
'Look, there's no time,' Percy said. 'If we're going, our first step is to get on the ship.' He pointed out to sea, where the faint lights from a cruise ship were winking at us in the distance.
I sighed heavily. Percy had that obstinate look in his eyes, the I'm not going to back down without a fight glare. I'd have to talk to him about it another time. Maybe we could find somewhere to ditch Tyson along the way. At least it would get him away from camp.
'All right. How do we get to that ship?'
'Hermes said my father would help.'
'Well then, Seaweed Brain,' I said testily. 'What are you waiting for?'
Percy edged forward so that he was standing in the surf. The cries of the harpies got louder as he awkwardly asked Poseidon for a ride, all slow and uncertain as if he hadn't just insisted that we were short on time. Fortunately, Poseidon was prompt. Like brushstrokes across the water, three white lines streaked towards us. A shower of sea spray exploded over us as the white heads of three magnificent stallions emerged from the surf, tossing their silver manes proudly.
'Hippocampi!' I gasped. Although we were in a hurry, I couldn't help being distracted by their beauty. Their necks arched gracefully from rainbow-coloured fish bodies, with scales and fins that shimmered prettily in the moonlight. I reached my hand out to one, who nuzzled me affectionately.
The first harpy's head popped up over the sand dunes at the top of the beach. She let out a triumphant yell at the sight of us.
'We'll admire them later,' Percy said quickly. 'Come on!' He tossed me a duffel bag and grabbed one for himself. 'Tyson! Grab a duffel bag!'
We had to yell at Tyson three times and nudge him into action before he stopped gawking at the hippocampi. I was tempted to just leaving him staring on the beach, but Percy refused to go without him.
Four more harpies joined the lead one. Not a minute too soon, we boarded the hippocampi, speeding off as the harpies came tottering down to the beach, wailing at being cheated of their promised snack.
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A/N: Writing this chapter, I realised just how much RR phrased Annabeth's explanation about the Fleece with pure exposition in mind! It wasn't easy to make her lines seem natural in a conversation from her PoV!
Thank you strawberrygirl2000, Inevera010, OverLordRevan, and guest reviewer for your comments last chapter! They always make my day!
