As I treaded the water in the Bay of Sirens, surrounded by barbed wire and naval mines while Grover's reed pipes pierced my ear drums, I decided I would never be returning to the Sea of Monsters, not even for a restorative aroma massage at C.C.'s resort.

I extended my senses into the water around me and quickly realized I wasn't alone. All around me, demigods and monsters alike had succumbed to the song of the Sirens. I had a pretty big lead on most of them given my water abilities. The majority had either just barely reached the bay or were caught in the ocean between the island and the ship. I knew I had to help them quickly or risk the chance of them drowning, but the more pressing concern at the moment was the people ahead of me.

Namely, Tyson and Luke.

It was no surprise Tyson had swam this far into the water already. He was just as strong a swimmer as me, if not better. It was Luke who I hadn't expected to make it so close to the Sirens, but it made sense. He'd been awake, steering the ship past the island while the rest of us had been sleeping. He would've been the first to hear the song. But where were his bodyguards?

In his stupor, he had somehow evaded all of the hazards in the water and nearly reached land. All the Sirens needed to do was take a few steps forward into the water and they'd be able to snatch him up for a midnight snack.

Now though, Luke was coming back to his senses. In the light from the moon, I could see him stand up in the shallows and stumble backward. It didn't look like he had Backbiter on him, and for a moment I thought he was a goner. But it seemed the Sirens were unable to attack. They'd stopped singing, and had their clawed hands pressed to their ears as they shrieked in misery. Poor Grover. I didn't think his music was that bad.

Tyson turned in the water confusedly, trying to figure out what had happened. We made eye contact, and I tried to call out to him, but my voice fizzled out over the wailing of the Sirens and the drone of the ship's loudspeaker. I pointed downwards, and he seemed to get the message.

We both submerged, and the cacophony on the surface muffled into a low din. I kicked up the currents to carry me over to him, dodging nets and barbed wire along the way.

'Brother, what's happening?' Tyson's voice sounded in my head.

'The Sirens lured us out here, but Grover's song is keeping them from attacking. How are your injuries?'

'All better,' Tyson said. 'Good as new.'

'Good,' I replied, relieved that the wounds Tyson had garnered on my behalf hadn't pained him for too long. 'I'm going to help Luke. Try to get some of the others back to the ship safely.'

Tyson nodded. 'Okay, I will.'

'And watch out for traps,' I warned him.

He swam away in the direction of the ship, and I resurfaced to take stock of the situation. One of the Sirens had apparently gotten over the racket and was now circling over Luke's head, taking experimental swipes at him. I rushed across the bay as fast as the water could carry me, hoping I could get there before it got a good hit in. Without a weapon, Luke didn't stand much of a chance.

But the tainted waters of the Sea of Monsters made it difficult. Something about it dampened my powers, preventing me from moving as fast as I normally could. I watched Luke duck under a talon that would've given him a matching scar on the other side of his face. In anger and desperation, he splashed water up at the creature. I didn't think it would do anything other than make it mad, but as soon as the water hit its belly, the Siren hissed in pain and retreated.

The water, I realized. They couldn't go in the water. That's why they hunted by enticing sailors to swim to shore. They couldn't eat unless their meal came to dry land first.

"Luke!" I called, having finally gotten close enough for him to hear me over the cacophony around us.

He spun and immediately looked relieved. "Percy! I… I don't know what happened," he said in bewilderment. "One minute, this island came into view, and the next…"

I looked at him sheepishly. "Sorry, I forgot to warn you. We passed this place on the way in, but I made sure to go far around. After everything that happened yesterday, it completely escaped my mind."

"So this is the Bay of Sirens," he said, narrowing his eyes at the creatures on the beach before swiveling his gaze to the ship, where the reed pipes were still jamming out over the loudspeaker. "Guess we can call it even with Grover now."

"We should get back to the ship," I suggested.

Luke nodded in agreement, and I reached out to pull him through the water with me, but something above us caught his attention. His eyes widened.

"Look out!" he yelled, shoving me backwards just as a rock the size of a basketball slammed into the shallow water between us.

I shot my gaze upwards to see that most of the Sirens had gotten over the noise and were now targeting us with an aerial bombardment. Dozens of them were emerging from the island's woods with heavy rocks clutched in their talons.

"Hold your breath!" I yelled, grabbing Luke and yanking him down into the surf. He didn't resist as I dragged us through the shallows, rocks plummeting into the water around us.

I tried to keep as close to the bottom of the bay as possible as I navigated us through the wire nets and traps, but I couldn't go too deep or the pressure might hurt Luke. There was also the small problem that Luke needed air to breathe, which meant we'd eventually have to resurface, thereby inviting another precision airstrike down onto our heads. Another rock crashed down behind us, white bubbles running up its side to float to the surface.

Bubbles. Air.

That was it. I concentrated on the surrounding waters, feeling every bubble and pocket of air, and began to coalesce them together into a helmet-sized orb around Luke's head. He inhaled sharply, bringing a much needed breath of oxygen into his lungs.

"Thanks," he gasped as he tried to steady his breathing.

"Don't mention it."

A hundred feet ahead of us, yet another rock splashed into the water. I almost laughed at how off the mark it was. It seemed like they'd lost track of us completely and were now just bombing the waters randomly. But then my blood went cold when I realized what was below that sinking rock.

I cursed and grabbed Luke again, dragging us away as fast as possible. My heightened senses allowed me to hear a tiny clink as the rock scraped against metal, and then the naval mine exploded, sending a shockwave rolling through the bay.

I screamed in pain as it passed over me, my hands rushing up to grasp the sides of my head. It felt like someone had swung a baseball bat into both of my ears. Luke was in a similar position, hunched over in the water, face contorted and hands clutching at his head. The force of the explosion had caused the bubble of air to burst, and I found I couldn't focus enough to make another one.

It was all I could do to just keep swimming. Grabbing Luke's shirt, I kicked upwards, my ears ringing. Our heads broke through the surface, and I felt like I'd just entered a war zone. Sirens soared overhead, dropping their payloads down on the helpless soldiers caught in the bay below. Off in the distance, another naval mine exploded, kicking up a wall of sea mist that swallowed up a couple of the flying monsters, pulling them down into the water. I saw Tyson grab a couple demigods and haul them away from the blast.

Luke said something to me, but I couldn't hear him. I couldn't hear much of anything actually. Not the ocean, not the Sirens, not ever Grover's reed pipes. The ringing in my skull was too loud. He spoke again and pointed to the ship, and I got his message.

We made a mad dash to safety, veering off course occasionally to dodge the falling rocks and Sirens brave enough to dive at us with their talons. I could feel debris brushing past my legs, and at one point a line of barbed wire cut a gash into my calf, but we kept swimming. I wanted to get out of this bay as quickly as possible.

By the time we finally reached the threshold between the bay and the ocean, a defensive perimeter had been set up. Archers fired at the flocking Sirens from a row of lifeboats, knocking many of them right out of the sky and into the sea. Rescuers tossed life preservers out to those who were still in the water. I saw Tyson swim up to one of the lifeboats and hoist a disheveled Adri up onto it. Thankfully, she didn't seem to be hurt, just shaken up. I spotted the bear twins in the same boat and hurriedly brought Luke over to them.

Agrius stooped down to grab Luke's arms and hoist him up. I shared a look with Tyson, who was still treading water at the rim of the boat with me, and we submerged ourselves once again.

'Only a few were in the bay. Got all of them,' Tyson said. My hearing may have been shot, but at least I could still understand him underwater. I sighed in relief and thanked him before resurfacing, pulling myself up onto the lifeboat and collapsing in exhaustion. Tyson followed suit.

A couple of demigods began rowing us back towards the ship, giving me time to catch my breath and gaze up at the stars. The Sirens had sounded their retreat, unable to progress any further than the edge of their bay against the withering storm of arrows.

Adri, being the diligent practitioner that she was, began checking Luke over for injuries despite just being pulled out of the water herself. Luke told her something and pointed at me. Adri said something back and he nodded.

Good. That meant his hearing was intact. Luke's ears weren't as sensitive as mine underwater, and the air bubble I'd placed around his head just seconds before the explosion probably dampened the shockwave. It might've been loud for him, but at least it hadn't damaged his ears.

When she was satisfied that Luke was okay, Adri moved on to me. She knelt down and examined the gash on my leg, which had mostly closed up by now. She made eye contact and tried to ask me something, but I couldn't make out what. There was a tension in her expression that made her look troubled. Haunted. I couldn't help but notice the slight shaking in her hands. I wondered what she had seen in the Siren song.

She repeated her question, and I pointed to my ear and shook my head. "I can't hear you," I told her, but even my own voice was overpowered by the ringing, so I had no idea if my speech was even coherent. Frowning, she took hold of my chin, turning my head to the side. Her eyes widened, which didn't exactly make me feel better. Hesitantly, I brought a hand up to my ear. It came away red.

Well, that wasn't good.

Adri visibly sighed and made a gesture that said, 'You're coming with me,' before standing up to check on the next person.

Twenty minutes later, after our lifeboat had reached the ship, I found myself lying on one of the beds in the infirmary, and let me tell you, I was getting pretty sick of being there. At this point in the quest, it felt like I'd spent more time in this room than I did in my own cabin, whether it be from visiting Tyson or trying to assist Adri when she was overworked.

At some point, I felt the thrum of the engines and knew we were moving again. Absently, I wondered if Grover was still playing his pipes to counteract the song of the Sirens or if we'd escaped their range. I stared up at the white ceiling, the smell of saltwater permeating the air due to all of the patients who'd just been plucked from the sea. That horrible ringing still clogged my ears. Persisting, penetrating, and loud.

Trying to distract myself from the awful din, I glanced around the room and saw Adri wrapping Chris's arm in a sling, looking none too pleased at seeing him back there so soon after his wound from the Python. It looked like he'd gotten nailed on the shoulder by one of the rocks we'd been bombarded with. There were others strewn about the beds in the room, some monsters and some human, all with varying degrees of bruises and lacerations from the barbed wire and rocks.

A few minutes later, Adri strode over to my cot with one of those tools doctors use to check your ears, the kind with the built-in flashlight. She examined both of my ears and, without saying anything (not that I would've heard if she had), disappeared around the corner.

After a moment, she returned carrying something folded-up underneath her arm. She brought it over to my cot and hefted it up, allowing gravity to unravel it before spreading it over me. The Golden Fleece. It pressed down on me like the world's most comfortable weighted blanket, filling me with a pleasant warmth. The soreness in my muscles brought on by our encounter with Polyphemus faded, and even the piercing ringing in my ears seemed to drop a few decibels. I silently thanked Kronos for allowing her to keep the Fleece in the infirmary for the night.

Adri walked over to a drawer and produced a pen and notepad from it. She scrawled something down and turned to show me. Her handwriting was what you'd expect of a doctor, but at least she'd written it in Ancient Greek so my dyslexia didn't bug out.

'Ruptured eardrums. Usually heals in a few weeks, faster with the Fleece. Normally I'd say avoid swimming, but in your case it might actually help.'

I groaned. Weeks? Weeks before this annoying whine would go away and I'd be able to hear again? I could already feel myself starting to go crazy. But as I reread the last part of the note, I remembered Tyson's injuries had been pretty severe, and he had healed within less than a day. Perhaps it wouldn't be as bad as I thought. I nodded and thanked her.

Setting the notepad down on the table next to my cot, Adri smiled and took her leave to tend to her other patients, though I wasn't alone for very long. In clopped Grover, his eyes searching the room until they landed on me. Relief instantly flooded his features. 'Percy!' his lips seemed to say.

His reed pipes were still in his hands as he raced over. I could tell he was about to fire off questions at a million miles an hour, so I quickly informed him of my temporary hearing loss and pointed at the notepad. He glanced at it for a moment before picking up the pen.

What he wrote made me bust out laughing. 'Some battle of the bands, huh?'

"I think we have ourselves a winner," I told him, hoping my words sounded correct. I shot him an inquisitive look. "The controls for the loudspeaker are in the nav room. How did you even get there without falling under the Sirens' spell?"

Grover returned the pen to the notepad.

Apparently, he'd already been playing his pipes for Blackjack and the other pegasi when we'd entered the hearing range of the Siren's song. The pegasi had so thoroughly enjoyed his rendition of "So Yesterday" that they strongly urged him to perform where more people could hear, like on the complete opposite end of the ship.

And so he strode down the main deck with his pipes, switching it up a bit and playing 'Toxic', and was quite surprised when the people he passed began jumping overboard.

'I thought people here just didn't appreciate Britney as much', he wrote. 'So I paused a moment to switch back to Hilary, and that's when I heard it. The Siren song. It was a really close thing. I almost dropped my pipes. But I realized they were trying to upstage me and started playing as loudly as I could to drown them out. It worked all the way up to the nav room. Luke was already gone, but I managed to get the loudspeaker working. When did you lose your hearing? Did you at least hear my cover?'

I grimaced, remembering the shrill metallic sound that blasted from the ship and rolled over the bay, though I tried not to let it show. It was the only thing that saved us from getting torn apart by the Sirens, after all.

"Yeah, man, I heard it. That was some quick thinking. Thank you. You really saved us—"

I cut myself off there. I'd almost said "saved us all". Because… that's exactly what he did. He didn't just prevent Luke and I from getting eaten; he'd stopped Kronos's entire army from swimming to their deaths. I had no doubt there would be some on Olympus who would've considered Grover's act of heroism high treason.

Now that our empathy link was severed, he could've just as easily played the pipes by himself and waited until everyone on the ship had been devoured before continuing on his way. If he could figure out how to work the nav controls (which wasn't that hard, but maybe I was a little biased), he could've sailed right up to Camp Half-blood with the Golden Fleece and Kronos's sarcophagus aboard. Zeus certainly would have been ecstatic. Grover would've gone down in history as the satyr that wiped out an army, saved the camp, and defeated the titan king all by himself. But he chose to save us.

I wondered if the thought even crossed his mind.

Grover smiled. 'Guess we're even now,' he wrote, echoing Luke's thoughts from earlier.

"Yeah, definitely," I said.

There was an uncomfortable pause in our conversation as Grover stared down at the notepad, his smile fading. I think it was beginning to dawn on him exactly what he'd done. My thoughts turned back to the argument we'd had earlier, and I knew his head was at the same place. He brought the pen to the notepad a couple times, began writing something, and then scribbled it out. Finally, he jotted something down and handed it to me.

'Luke wanted me to give you his thanks for pulling him out of the water. He also wanted to know if there were any more surprises ahead you forgot to tell him about.'

I felt the color rise to my cheeks. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "No," I said. "No more surprises."

Grover nodded and gave me a quick fist bump before taking his leave.

I tried my best to fall asleep, but it was pretty difficult at first. I tossed and turned for a couple hours, trying to ignore the ringing in my ears and failing miserably. But as the Fleece worked its magic, the noise became much more bearable and I was finally able to get some shut eye.

Awaken.

My eyes shot open upon hearing the rasping voice in my head. I was still in the infirmary. Dawn light filtered in through the windows as I sat up on my bed, the Golden Fleece sliding from my chest and folding in on itself.

It is time. Bring me the Fleece.

I glanced down at the magical artifact in my lap and rose from the bed. Best not to keep the titan king waiting.

Immediately, I had my feet padding towards the doors of the infirmary and out to the main deck, the Fleece thrown over my shoulder. There were a few early risers up and about, some taking jogs around the outskirts of the deck and others blearily stumbling towards the cafeteria for their morning coffee. I was about halfway back to the elevator when I realized the ringing in my ears from last night was nearly gone, and I was able to catch some snippets of conversation from people I passed, though they sounded muffled, like they were talking through a pillow.

Once again, I was left marveling at the sheer power of the Golden Fleece. Able to heal in half a night what would've taken weeks.

I rode the elevator up to the VIP floor and entered the room with Kronos's sarcophagus. The ship must've been set to autopilot, because I found Luke kneeling before the dais. He was speaking to Kronos, but I couldn't quite make out what he was saying. Kronos's voice, however, was loud and clear and angry. His tone reminded me of when I'd been reprimanded shortly after attempting to stop Luke from poisoning the tree.

'I don't want excuses or apologies. I want you to be better. We nearly lost everything we've worked for due to your inattentiveness. If it weren't for that miserable satyr, you and the rest of my army would by lining the insides of the Sirens' stomachs, and my sarcophagus would soon be discovered and cast right back down to Tartarus. I've already given you a second chance after you fumbled the master bolt heist. And now this? Do not let yourself slip up a third time, or I will find a more competent leader to fill your shoes.'

Luke's face was pale. His eyes, which had been reverently fixed upon the ground, looked upwards in shock.

"But, my lord — I didn't know about—"

'I said "no excuses"!' the titan king's voice thundered. Luke flinched and bowed his head in deference. I thought back to the argument we'd had on our way to poison Thalia's tree, the strange way he'd been acting, and how I'd realized the reason he'd been so opposed to this quest was because he feared he would fail again. It had been a close call last night. It must've rattled him. 'You are dismissed.'

"Yes, my lord," he said meekly. Then he rose from his knees and moved to stand next to me at the side of the room, frowning at me as he did so. I looked down, unable to meet his eyes.

'Perseus Jackson, come forth and place the Fleece on my sarcophagus.'

I obeyed. Golden light radiated from the sarcophagus as I ascended the steps of the dais, the Golden Fleece cradled in my arms. I laid it gently over the cold metal lid, and the glow increased in intensity, shimmering off the ceiling and walls. A deep laughter boomed from somewhere below, so powerful it shook the hull of the ship.

'How sweet a sensation this is, after so many millennia of anguish.'

Pain. Ichor. Screaming and howling. My mind flashed back to the nightmares of Tartarus the titan king had implanted in my dreams after I'd disobeyed him. After all those centuries of torture, I couldn't imagine the immense relief he must've now been feeling.

'All things considered, you've done well, my little heroes.'

Ha! The Fleece could even heal the titan king's mood, so it seemed.

'Let us retrieve our injured soldiers, and then we will proceed to your camp as planned. Though, don't feel the need to rush. I think I will enjoy this feeling for some time, first.'

"Yes, my lord," we said in unison.

'Leave me.'

Luke held the door for me as we vacated the room. He had purple bags under his eyes from being awake all night in the navigation room, and I couldn't imagine our little galavant into the Bay of Sirens did much to reinvigorate him.

"How's your hearing?" he asked once we were in the hall. I almost missed it, but now that we were talking face to face, it was a bit easier to understand him.

"Good," I said. "The Fleece helped."

Luke cracked a smile.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing. You're just talking kind of loud."

"Oh," I said, and dropped my voice, making me unsure of whether Luke could still hear me or not. "So do you think the Fleece will help heal Kronos?"

Luke pursed his lips in thought. "Hard to say. I don't know exactly how his resurrection will work. He said he has some ideas, but he hasn't told me what they were. We definitely need more followers before all of the pieces are in place, so maybe the Fleece will just help solidify the pieces we have. Make it easier to focus his presence, if that makes sense."

It didn't really, but I doubted Luke really understood what needed to be done either, so I let the subject drop. Luke yawned and headed for his cabin. "You're turn for nav duty. Wake me up when we get to C.C.'s island. Or if anything goes wrong before then."

He was halfway through the door when I called out to him again. He paused and turned back to me.

"Sorry you got chewed out because of me. I should've warned you about the island."

Luke stared at me for a moment, and I thought he might've been mad, but he just shrugged.

"Hey, mistakes happen. Just try not to make them too often, especially with so many lives on the line."

I nodded.

He frowned, then, a troubled look taking over his face. "What did you see, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Huh?" I asked, not certain what he was referring to.

"It's said that the Siren song is so powerful it creates visions for the sailors it lures in. Something they desperately desire. What I saw… it was like a crazy dream. Did you see something too?"

My mind wandered back to the dream I had just before I awoke in the Bay of Sirens. Only I guess it wasn't a dream at all.

"Yeah… I was back at my cabin in Montauk with my mom. We were on vacation. You, Grover, Annabeth, and Tyson were all there too. And…"

I trailed off, still not understanding why Poseidon had been there. I thought it had just been my stupid brain deciding I wasn't allowed to have a nice dream and thereby injecting some drama to remedy that. But here I was finding out that the Sirens looked into my mind, figured out what I wanted, and then chose to show me him.

It didn't make any sense.

"And?" Luke asked.

I didn't want to bring my father up. Not while we were standing in front of the titan king's door.

"And… well, that's it, really."

Luke laughed bitterly. "A beach day, huh? Sounds a bit more cheery than mine."

"What did you see?"

He pursed his lips, eyes gazing through me like they were locked onto something far away. "I saw Olympus in flames," he said. "Kronos stood victorious in the Hall of the Gods. We were kneeling before him — you, me, Thalia, and Annabeth too — and he was rewarding us with whatever we wanted. Around us the gods were slain, and their temples and palaces burned down." Luke swallowed, and his eyes refocused on me. "All but one of them. Kronos had spared my father. Left him to me. Hermes was completely at my mercy."

I stared at him. "What did you do?"

He held my gaze for a moment before looking away. "Nothing. I was approaching him with Backbiter in my hands when I woke up. But if I'd had just a few more seconds…"

"Would you have killed him?"

"Of course! I wouldn't have hesitated," he said, just a bit too quickly.

I thought about that for a moment. I knew Luke despised Hermes for leaving him alone with his mother, who terrified him with her prophetic visions. It made sense that he would want to strike him down himself. But if he was given the opportunity, would he really do it? Or was he having the same feelings of confusion regarding his father as I was mine?

I bid Luke adieu and promised to send for him if anything happened. After a quick visit to my cabin to raid the fridge, I popped back up to the nav room and took the ship off autopilot. From here, it would be a straight shot to C.C.'s island. Then, we could finally deliver the Fleece to the camp and be done with this rotten quest.

At some point, Grover found his way up into the nav room with me, and hesitantly sat in the chair near the intercom controls. He was quiet for a long time, seemingly content to watch me steer the ship. After I couldn't take the silence any longer, I cleared my throat.

"You know, my hearing is mostly back now. You can talk to me."

I immediately regretted saying that.

"Come back with me to Camp Half-blood," he pleaded.

Sighing, I rested my hands on the handles of the steering wheel. Straight to the point then.

"You know I can't do that Grover."

"Why not?"

"I'm sworn to Kronos," I stated simply.

"Sworn? As in… you don't mean—"

"Yes, as in on the River Styx. It's a formal oath."

"Percy!"

"What?" I asked defensively. "Even if I hadn't made the vow, it's not as if I could just go back to camp. Zeus has already signed my death warrant. He'd never allow a potential prophecy child who holds a grudge against the gods to live. I was all but dead to him the second I ran away from camp."

"Chiron will protect you," Grover argued. "You're his favorite pupil. He'll hide you, keep you safe."

"Chiron will do whatever the gods ask him to do. Besides, there's no way for him to keep me hidden with Mr. D always hovering over his shoulder."

"But… you can't help the titan king. He's evil—"

"You don't know that!" I shouted. "The only reason everyone believes he's evil is because that's what the gods tell us. That's the history they wrote. It's just… propaganda!"

"Percy," he said, his tone levelling. "The gods may be many things, but they're not… propagandists. When have they ever been interested in rewriting history? You've read about the horrible things they've done in the mythology textbooks in Mr. Brunner's class, so clearly they've never felt the need to censor anything."

I rolled my eyes. "Right, because boasting about all the mortals they rape and murder is so much better."

"But do you see my point? If the gods are so unconcerned with their own dark history being told, why would they spread lies about their predecessors?"

How was this not obvious to him? "Uh, maybe to stay in power? To rule through fear? The gods probably want their tales of cruelty spread around, since it discourages people from rising against them. And if they can get everyone to believe that Kronos is worse, that they're the better of two evils, then that just solidifies their position. They're tyrants, Grover. That's what they do."

He was silent for a moment, staring out the observation windows at the sea hundreds of feet below. He mumbled something that I couldn't hear.

"What?"

"I said you've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" he said, speaking louder.

"I have."

I stared forward, absently guiding the ship along. I hated this. I hated fighting with my friends. Why couldn't he see I was doing the right thing? I didn't blame him for not choosing to join me, of course. Working with the gods' enemies was basically a death sentence if they were to find out. It'd be better for him if he just put his head down and continued searching for Pan like he never saw me. I wouldn't have minded if he was just looking out for his own safety. But knowing that he truly believed I was making a mistake? That was the part that stung.

"Look," I said. "I appreciate your concern. I know you're just trying to look out for me."

"That's my job. I'm your protector. I have a duty to guide you. You're my best friend and—"

"Grover," I interrupted him. "Please stop. I've made my decision. It's because of the gods that I came here in the first place, and there's nothing you can do or could've done to change that. Kronos promised to make the world a better place, both for us and for mortals. He's going to fix all of the problems the gods have caused. You'll see."

Grover huffed. "Now that sounds like propaganda to me."

The summer sun was high in the sky and beating down mercilessly on the Princess Andromeda when we finally began to approach C.C.'s island. I asked Grover to pass me the intercom, and I dialed for Luke's room, letting him know we were there. A few minutes later, he entered the room wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt and a pair of khakis. Backbiter was in its sheath around his sword belt.

But I was too busy staring down at the docks to greet him. They looked just the same as they did the last time we visited, with its array of strange vehicles on display like a museum exhibit, but with a special new addition. Moored right there on the end of the dock was the ironclad on which I'd seen Clarisse and Annabeth cast away in my dreams. They were here.