At the end of the day, though, Annabeth Chase was a happy Captain. They had managed to get enough distance between them and the Fort and, to their surprise and fortune, had come across a galleon of the high king. It had been easy prey and they had managed to make good haul. Now they were celebrating this haul and at the same time Will Solaces birthday.
Only Annabeth wasn't attending the party. She sat in her cabin and was trying to figure what could've been stolen from her father for him to put the entire city, which wasn't exactly small, under lockdown. She knew her father had several extremely important treasures within his castle, some of which even belonged to other kingdoms, but none seemed important enough for him to put the entire city under lockdown. She was broken from her thoughts by the creaking of the door.
As soon as she heard the voices arguing in front of the door, she sighed and asked herself why she had let herself be elected captain of the 'Half-Blood'.
"All three of you, come in now." She ordered them, as a slight headache already started to creep up from her temples. "What is it, Thalia, Stolls? Shouldn't you be enjoying the party?"
Thalia crossed her arm. "Well, I would be if those two blundering idiots hadn't eaten all the apple tart. But that's not why we're here." She continued, ignoring the incredulous outcries of protest by the 'two blundering idiots'. "Do you want weird news first, or bad news first?"
Annabeth raises an eyebrow. "Weird news. Isn't it normally good news and bad news?" She pondered, but the Stolls had already launched into their story.
"So,"
"We were in the pub,"
"and we're seeing if we could maybe make some profit,"
"by gambling of course, our own money, we would never take someone else's!"
"Well anyway, we saw this really grumpy looking dude, who looked like he was carrying a few grams of jewellery too much,"
"and friendly as we are we wanted to relieve him of the heavy load,"
"buuuut he caught us aaaaand would you believe it, he actually stole our bag of gold drachmas!"
"Which is weird enough, since we normally do the pickpocketing, but he left this paper card with a message that we should seek the pirate king of pirates and what looks like a coat of arms was stamped on the back."
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "The prince of pirates? That sounds awfully vain, don't you think? I mean, who would just proclaim them self the 'king of pirates?"
Thalia shook her head. "You clearly haven't been a pirate for that long. It is common lore. The pirate king is said to be a being of incredible power. He is able to create storms and calm the sea, to direct currents and control ships with bare thought."
Annabeth sighed. "But that's lore. You said it yourself. I don't think we should take it to seriously."
The Stolls glanced at each other. "Yeah the thing is, it was written in Greek. Ancient."
Annabeth froze. "You think he is a royal?" Thalia asked the Stolls. Connor shrugged his shoulders.
"He might have been. But even if, why should he tell US exactly to seek the Pirate King?" Annabeth asked suspiciously. "I'd say we ignore him for now, I don't think it is of matter right now. What's the bad news?" Annabeth crossed her arm in front of her chest.
Thalia sighed. "I received a message from Lady Artemis. Luke was freed just before his execution, two days ago. He and his followers then went on a killing spree, sixteen are dead and all of them were found with your name crossed out carved into their skin, Annie. Luke is coming for you and I don't think it's because he wants invite you for tea and biscuits."
Annabeth's eyes we're wide open by the time Thalia finished. Her mind was racing, but it was like it was racing in five different routes at the same time. She just couldn't concentrate on what to do. The most sensible part of her was working on taking out Luke whilst staying alive, another was trying to figure out why he would be insanely angry at herself. Last she had known Luke's hatred was directed at the high king himself, as well as most other royals in Olympus. Yet another Parton her mind was still on that mysterious Pirate King.
"Luke is a brilliant pirate. And he knows me, so I guess he would probably suggest me in the sea before my fathers kingdom."
Thalia'a lip twisted. "Which is true right now." She stated.
Annabeth ignored her as she voiced her own thoughts. "We can't abandon the ship and we can't leave it at the Fort."
Travis leaned over to Connor. "She's absolutely creepy when she gets like this, ain't she?" Connor nodded, but shushed his brother.
"He was kept a three days horse ride from the Port, which means he'd be there tomorrow evening, which would be the time we'd be there as well, so no option. We stay in sea, there are no other ports near our position as far as I know, that leaves sailing along the coast north, out to open sea or south."
Suddenly Thalia perked up. "Sail south."
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Thalia hesitated. "We have the Broken Lands in our south. You knew Luke. If he were to get a ship, it would be sooo large, just to match his ego. The 'Half-Blood' is fairly small, we would have a better chance at outmanoeuvring him between all the islands." Thalia said. "You know the broken lands, tall columns of rock one hundred feet above the sea, within short distance of each other. It'd take ages for him to find us there, the area is so large..."
Annabeth waved her off and glanced at her suspiciously. After a while she said:" Connor, Travis, send a messenger owl to my father. Tell him of the situation and warn him, as well as tell him we are sailing north towards the Old Coastforest and Renfrew."
The Stolls nodded and Thalia looked at her, hurt shining in her eyes. "I thought you trusted my judgement."
Annabeth smirked. "I do. That's why we're sailing south. And I know Luke will suspect a diversion. So either we lead him on a wrong track and we're good, or we're ready for him." She looked at them, determination evident in her eyes. "Now go. We set sails before dawn, so get everybody ready." Her three most trusted crew members exited her cabin and left her alone. Suddenly the chill she had felt in the morning was back. She felt that everything would go wrong. Then she shook her head and the feeling left.
Percy Jackson looked at his new ring. It gave a bluish-green glow, very dim though. And he could see his reflection in the silver metal of the ring. But what he noticed most was the power surging through the metal and the pulsing of the stones. It was as is they were made out of pure energy.
Percy snapped out of his trance. And retraced the day. When the city was put under lockdown he had panicked and fled to his favourite place - the ocean - just to stupidly notice that the pier, which connected the port with larger ships, was a dead end with only two ships docking. One was a small ship with a single sail. The other was a medium sized barque and it was just leaving Percy noticed.
So acting fast, he took his rope and bound it around the rear end if the barque and jumped into the smaller boat. He tied the rope tightly around the mast and let himself be pulled along by the larger ship. He made sure it was not possible for him to be spotted from the deck of the barque and the he crashed. He hasn't cared for where the ship was going, his main goal was to get as far away from the fort as possible.
Ahnen he awoke sometime in the middle of the night, he first of all went for a swim, which he combined with checking out the ship from other sides than the back end. Apparently he had slept through quite ruckus because the ship he was currently hitchhiking on was a pirates ship, which was just his bloody luck.
At the same time though, they might've been towards his fathers kingdom... no. He didn't think so, it was probably just a group of ragtag pirates. Only the high Pirate lords sailed to his fathers court, which was why he had to get there soon. He was still staring at the ring while thinking, when suddenly an arrow whizzed by his ear and stuck in the wooden floor of his boat with a thud. He froze and started thinking of ways to escape, but a mother arrow landed in the boat. "Next arrow will hit!" A voice told him. He raised his hands slowly behind his head.
A few minutes later he found himself tied to the main mast of the Pirate ship, his stuff being searched by the his captivators and the little boat, which he had grown quite fond of, floating aimlessly in the ocean. It had been twenty minutes since his discovery and so far no one had bothered to talk to him, even though he had tried to make conversation. The only form of communication he got was a fist thrown at him by a bulky a bulky brunette, which he luckily dodged.
Now he was standing around at the mast, because, well, he couldn't go anywhere else. Percy was bored to death. The crew of the ship was doing their apparent normal work, but he could see all of them sneaking glances at him suspiciously every now and then. Finally Percy perked up. He heard footsteps behind him and from the sound of them, it was the captain. Percy smirked. After years at sea and his fathers court he was a master at reading people, the way they talked, moved and even walked. This person was far more confident than all of the other crew members, so he assumed this person was the captain.
He wasn't prepared for what he faced next. The captain turned out to be a women. She was simply gorgeous. She was in her early twenties, had long, blonde hair, a stunningly beautiful face, which seemed eerily familiar to Percy, and a battle ready posture, having one hand on the handle of her dagger. But what stroke Percy the most were her eyes. They were a cold grey and seemed to analyse his every movement. He could almost see her brain working through her eyes and Percy thought this was very good, as it meant she had no idea who he was. They stared at each other for a while. 'Where have I seen this face before?' Percy asked himself.
"Who the fuck are you?" The captain then asked, completely out of the blue.
"No one important." Percy asked with a smirk. "I just needed to hitch a ride."
The captain raised an eyebrow. "You don't even know where we're going."
Percy shrugged. "I've always been kind of spontaneous."
The captain narrowed her eyes. "You had to get out of the city quickly. Were you the thief at the castle?"
Percy let out a laugh. "Look at me! I fell a sleep while 'illegally' hitching a ride with you, do you think I'm competent and stealthy enough to steal something from the most secure Fortress in Olympia?" Percy shook his head. "No that's not the reason I needed to get out of the city. I need to see family as soon as possible." The Captain pursed her lips and stemmed her hands into her hips.
"Careful Annabeth." Someone suddenly called and Percy identified a girl with spiky black hair as the source. Then something clicked and he whipped his head back to 'Annabeth'. "It might be a front. Who knows what his real intentions are." Spiky continued, but Percy's mind was no longer in the topic.
He smirked and bowed, or tried to bow as good as possible whilst tied to the mast. The captain looked at him confused. "What are you doing?"
Percy's smirk got wider. "One should bow in the presence of princesses, daughter of Athena. I'm merely paying respect." He laughed. "I had wondered why your face seemed so familiar."
Captain Annabeth's eyes shot open. She whispered something to Spiky and Spiky nodded. "Throw him downstairs." Annabeth ordered. Then she turned heel and walked away.
Percy smirked internally. He had reached two of his goals. First to make her insecure in front of her crew so that they could talk alone. Secondly he had managed to get on her nerves within five minutes, which was a new record and something Percy was highly proud of.
The girl from earlier brought him downstairs and Percy though was not that awesome. Luckily her apparent boyfriend was with them this time, which prevented her from harming Percy in any way possible.
