Chapter Text
Finding Percy was relatively easy as I’d asked some of the local sea life to help me look for him. A school of fish told me that they’d seen Percy up ahead a bit. They hadn’t seen any sign of Tyson but I wasn’t ready to totally give up hope yet.
Annabeth started fashioning a sail from gray uniform fabric she pulled from the floating debris while I went to get my brother. Most of the Athena kids were skilled at weaving and sewing. I’d traded a few favors with them for some embroidery patches I put on my school bag. Apollo kids with a talent for art would do the same thing as the Athena kids except with fabric paint. It was one of the ways that the campers decorated their shirts and belongings. One thing was the same though: the more intricate or involved the art, the bigger the favor or better the chore trade. A lot of campers hated to muck out the stables so I traded that chore a lot. The joke was on them though. Even though it was messy work, I liked spending time at the stables with the horses and pegasi. They were a great source of news and gossip.
Diving into the Sea of Monsters was overwhelming at first. The ocean teemed with magic and its energy spun all around me. I felt like I had stuck my finger on a live wire or had a triple espresso followed by a six-pack of energy drinks. Swimming in the ocean and controlling the water had never felt like this. It was like the ocean was eager and excited to respond. I could feel the currents around me and sense the ebb and flow of the tide. It was like I was fully awake for the first time in a long time. Swimming was effortless and I couldn’t help but laugh in glee. This must have been the magic of the waters of the Sea of Monsters.
When I found Percy, he was unconscious floating under the water a hundred feet down. Urging the water to pull us both up, we shot to the surface and bobbed there like buoys. I gently urged the ocean to lift us into the boat and thankfully it obliged.
I got my unconscious brother arranged in a semi-comfortable position and got to cataloging our supplies. Annabeth and I kept a lookout for any supplies that might be floating at the surface. A few helpful fish brought us some small things like granola bars and even a ziploc bag of ambrosia.
“You seem different.” Annabeth said, looking at me.
I bit my lip. Since taking a dip into the waters of the Sea of Monsters, I felt like my thoughts were sharper and my eyesight was clearer. It seemed even she’d noticed that I felt different. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“In what way?” I was intrigued.
“You just are.”
“Oh very descriptive.” I laughed. Annabeth gave me the stink eye. Sighing, I looked out at the ocean around us. “I think it’s the ocean here. The magic and ancientness of it. It’s powerful. Kid of the Sea God and all. It’s the closest to how the oceans were in the ancient days.”
Annabeth nodded and we both went back to our tasks. The sail was eventually done and I had to give Annabeth credit. It was a pretty good sail. We hoisted it into the wind and waited for my brother to wake up.
Percy woke up a little later. I pulled my twin into a hug and immediately laid him back down when he turned pale.
“Woozy?”
My brother nodded. Annabeth placed a supportive hand on his shoulder. “Rest. “You’re going to need it.”
“Tyson...?”
She shook her head. “Percy, I’m really sorry.”
We were silent while the waves tossed us up and down.
“He may have survived,” she said halfheartedly. “I mean, fire can’t kill him.”
Percy nodded, but even I was having trouble feeling hopeful. That explosion ripped through solid iron. If Tyson had been down in the boiler room, there was little chance he could’ve made it out.
He’d given his life for us. Steeling my resolve, I looked towards the horizon. “He’s not dead. If anything, he’ll reform in Tartarus. I hope he’s still out there and he won’t have to crawl back from Tartarus but still. We’ll see him again.”
Waves lapped at the boat and Percy wiped away the tears from his eyes. We showed Percy some of the things we’d salvaged from the wreckage—Hermes’s thermos (now empty), a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia, a couple of sailors’ shirts, and a bottle of Dr Pepper. Percy’s knapsack had been bitten in half by Scylla’s teeth and most of his stuff had floated away. Riptide had reappeared in his pocket as it always did. My knapsack had thankfully been spared and I still had some travel rations in there so we were alright on food for a little bit. I moved the Hermes’ vitamins to my pocket, just to be safe. The fate of Percy’s bag warned me that if I left the vitamins in my bag, they might get lost in some fight. Now, our main problem was fluids and hydration.
“That Dr. Pepper isn’t going to last with three people.” Percy pointed out, thankfully on my same train of thought.
“Luckily you and I don’t need to drink any of it. Remember the journals, scrolls, and books our siblings left us in the cabin?” I replied. “I’ve been reading them. It’s been a treasure trove of information. Apparently we can drink salt water and be fine.”
Annabeth and Percy stared at me like I’d grown a second head. I just rolled my eyes. “You have to swallow it and focus on it being a drink, not for breathing.”
Annabeth just shook her head. “That makes no sense.”
“No, no. Think about it for a minute. Penny and I can breath underwater in fresh and salt water. But we can also drink water. You get it?”
I reached down and summoned up a stream of water and sipped it. My thirst vanished. “See? Perfectly fine.”
Percy scooped up a handful of water and sipped it. He laughed in disbelief. “It works! It freaking works!”
“Wait, your siblings left you actual writings? How far back do they go?” Annabeth eagerly asked. Percy glanced at me. Here we go. Annabeth was going to flip at what we told her.
We sailed for hours and Annabeth sipped at the Dr. Pepper. Annabeth basically interrogated us about the stuff we had in the cabin. Her eyes had gotten so huge when we told her about the first-person accounts of our siblings’ adventures in Ancient Greece, like the account that Bellerophon had written about his encounter with the chimera and talking with Pegasus. Some of the more mundane things our siblings wrote interested her. There was one journal that contained entries where they wrote about visiting the main temples of the Twelve Olympians and had sketches of them. I promised to show her those when we got back.
We hadn’t shown any adverse effects from drinking the salt water. It seems that the more we learned and developed our abilities, the more I realized that in Ancient Greece we would have probably been indispensable on a ship. The navigational abilities, no need for freshwater, and the abilities with controlling the tides would be immeasurably useful.
Now that we were deep in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a brilliant green, like Hydra acid. The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too—as if a thunderstorm was brewing. I knew what direction we needed to go. Percy and I had confirmed with each other that we were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of our destination. Percy still seemed to feel lost, not that I could entirely blame him. The Sea of Monsters had its own rules of reality. No matter which way we turned, the sun seemed to shine straight into our eyes. If Percy and I hadn’t had our navigational sense, we would have been totally lost. Perhaps the stars were what you should navigate by in the Sea of Monsters but that was besides the point in the daylight hours.
We all shaded ourselves with the sail as best we could. And we talked about mine and Percy’s latest dream of Grover.
By Annabeth’s estimate, we had maybe forty-eight hours at most to find Grover, assuming the dream was accurate, and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn’t change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier. Annabeth worried that Polyphemus would get eager.
“Yeah,” Percy said bitterly. “You can never trust a Cyclops.”
“I’m sorry, Percy. I was wrong about Tyson, okay? I wish I could tell him that.”
I wasn’t necessarily mad at her knowing she had her own trauma and issues. We’d been through a lot together. She’d saved our lives plenty of times. I looked down at our measly possessions—the empty wind thermos and the bottle of multivitamins. Hermes had given us those in person. I thought about Luke’s look of rage when we’d tried to talk to him about his dad. He’d been unwilling to hear what we’d had to say.
“Annabeth, what’s Chiron’s prophecy?”
She pursed her lips. “Percy, I shouldn’t–”
“I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn’t tell me. But you didn’t promise, did you?”
“Knowledge isn’t always good for you.”
“Your mom is the wisdom goddess!”
“I know! But every time heroes learn the future, they try to change it, and it never works.”
“The gods are worried about something I’ll do or Penny will when we get older,” Percy guessed. “Something about when one of us turns sixteen.”
Annabeth twisted her Yankees cap in her hands. “Percy, I don’t know the full prophecy, but it warns about a half-blood child of the Big Three—the next one who lives to the age of sixteen. That’s the real reason Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades swore a pact after World War II not to have any more kids. The next child of the Big Three who reaches sixteen will be a dangerous weapon.”
“Why?”
“Despite the fact we can blow up monuments, take out monsters in one hit, and do the powerful things we can, you ask why we’d be a dangerous weapon?” I asked my brother sarcastically. He gave me an exasperated look.
“Because that hero will decide the fate of Olympus. He or she will make a decision that either saves the Age of the Gods, or destroys it.” Annabeth corrected.
I let that nugget of truth sink in. Percy looked as ill as I felt. “That’s why Kronos didn’t kill me or Penny last summer.”
She nodded. “You two could be very useful to him. If he can get you, either of you, on his side, the gods will be in serious trouble.”
“But if it’s me or Penny in the prophecy–”
“We’ll only know that if you survive three more years. That can be a long time for a half-blood. When Chiron first learned about Thalia, he assumed she was the one in the prophecy. That’s why he was so desperate to get her safely to camp. Then she went down fighting and got turned into a pine tree and none of us knew what to think. Until you two came along.”
On our port side, a spiky green dorsal fin about fifteen feet long curled out of the water and disappeared. If that was the dorsal fin, I really didn’t want to see the creature it belonged to. We’d been lucky nothing had tried to eat our boat yet. Maybe our dad’s blood protected us or maybe he was actively protecting us out here on the ocean.
“This kid in the prophecy... they couldn’t be like, a Cyclops?” Percy asked. “The Big Three have lots of monster children.”
“That’s true but Tyson isn’t a halfblood Tyson wasn’t called a forbidden kid.” I added.
Annabeth nodded. “The Oracle said ‘halfblood.’ That always means half-human, half-god. There’s really nobody alive who it could be, except you two.”
“Then why do the gods even let us live? It would be safer to kill us.” Percy wondered.
“You’re right.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“We are dangerous though. Our existence at least.” I added.
“Guys, I don’t know. I guess some of the gods would like to kill you both, but they’re probably afraid of offending Poseidon. Other gods... maybe they’re still watching, trying to decide what kind of heroes you’re going to be. You could be a weapon for their survival, after all. The real question is... what will you do in three years? What decision will you make?”
“Did the prophecy give any hints?”
Annabeth hesitated. Maybe she would’ve told us more, but just then a seagull swooped down out of nowhere and landed on our makeshift mast. Annabeth looked startled as the bird dropped a small cluster of leaves into her lap.
“Land,” she said. “There’s land nearby!”
I sat up. Sure enough, there was a line of blue and brown in the distance. Another minute and I could make out an island with a small mountain in the center, a dazzling white collection of buildings, a beach dotted with palm trees, and a harbor filled with a strange assortment of boats. The current was pulling our rowboat toward what looked like a tropical paradise. We floated up to the dock with a lady standing ready to greet us.
“Welcome!” said the lady with the clipboard.
She looked like a flight attendant—blue business suit, perfect makeup, hair pulled back in a ponytail. She shook our hands as we stepped onto the dock. With the dazzling smile she gave us, you would’ve thought we’d just gotten off the Princess Andromeda rather than a battered rowboat which had seen better days.
Then again, our rowboat wasn’t the weirdest ship in port. Along with a bunch of pleasure yachts, there was a U.S. Navy submarine, several dugout canoes, and an old-fashioned three-masted sailing ship. There was a helipad with a “Channel Five Fort Lauderdale” helicopter on it, and a short runway with a Learjet and a propeller plane that looked like a World War II fighter.
Maybe they were replicas for tourists to look at or something.
“Is this your first time with us?” the clipboard lady inquired. Annabeth and Percy exchanged looks.
Annabeth said, “Umm...”
“First–time–at–spa,” the lady said as she wrote on her clipboard. “Let’s see...”
She looked us up and down critically. “Mmm. Herbal wraps to start for the young ladies. And of course, a complete makeover for the young gentleman.”
“A what?” Percy asked.
“Excuse you?” I tried to protest but she was too busy jotting down notes to notice.
“Right!” She said with a breezy smile. “Well, I’m sure C.C. will want to speak with you personally before the luau. Come, please.”
Now here’s the thing. Annabeth, Percy, and I were used to traps, and usually those traps looked good at first. I kept expecting the clipboard lady to turn into a snake or a demon, or something, any minute. But on the other hand, we’d been floating in a rowboat for most of the day. I was exhausted and hungry, and when this lady mentioned food, my stomach growled begging me to find the food.
“I guess it couldn’t hurt,” Annabeth muttered.
Of course it could, but we followed the lady anyway. I kept my hand grasped on my collapsed trident—but as we got further into the resort, the more I forgot about my weapon’s presence.
The place was amazing. There was white marble and blue water everywhere I looked.
Terraces climbed up the side of the mountain, with swimming pools on every level, connected by waterslides and waterfalls and underwater tubes you could swim through. Fountains sprayed water into the air, forming impossible shapes, like flying eagles and galloping horses.
Tyson loved horses, and I knew he’d love those fountains. Percy and I turned around simultaneously excited to see the expression on his face but then we remembered: Tyson was gone.
“You guys okay?” Annabeth asked us. “You both look pale.”
“I’m okay,” Percy lied. “Just... let’s keep walking.”
“Tyson.” I choked out but I couldn’t look at Annabeth’s expression.
We passed all kinds of tame animals. A sea turtle napped in a stack of beach towels. A leopard stretched out asleep on the diving board. The resort guests—only young women, as far as I could see—lounged in deck chairs, drinking fruit smoothies or reading magazines while herbal masks dried on their faces and manicurists in white uniforms did their nails.
As we headed up a staircase toward what looked like the main building, I heard a woman singing. Her voice drifted through the air like a lullaby. Her words were in some language other than Ancient Greek, but just as old—Minoan, maybe, or something like that. I could understand what she sang about though—moonlight in the olive groves, the colors of the sunrise, and something about magic.
We came into a big room where the whole front wall was windows with panoramic ocean views. The back wall was covered in mirrors, so the room seemed to go on forever. There was a bunch of expensive-looking white furniture, and on a table in one corner was a large wire pet cage. The cage seemed out of place, but I didn’t have time to think about it too much, because just then I saw the lady who’d been singing.
She sat at a loom the size of a big screen TV, her hands weaving colored thread back and forth with amazing skill. The tapestry shimmered like it was three dimensional—a waterfall scene so realistic I could see the water moving and clouds drifting across a fabric sky.
Annabeth caught her breath. “It’s beautiful.”
The woman turned. She was even prettier than her fabric. Her long dark hair was braided with threads of gold. She had piercing green eyes and she wore a silky black dress with shapes that seemed to move in the fabric: animal shadows, black upon black, like deer running through a forest at night.
“You appreciate weaving, my dears?” the woman asked.
“Oh, yes, ma’am!” Annabeth said. “My mother is–”
She stopped herself. Even in the Sea of Monsters, you couldn’t just go around announcing that your mom was Athena, the goddess who invented the loom. Honestly, you shouldn’t say who your godly parent was in any situation where you weren’t sure who was friend or foe.
Our hostess just smiled. “You have good taste, my dear. I’m so glad you’ve come. My name is C.C.”
The animals in the corner cage started squealing. They must’ve been guinea pigs, from the sounds they made. We introduced ourselves to C.C. She looked Percy over with a twinge of disapproval, as if he’d failed some kind of test.
“Oh, dear,” she sighed. “You do need my help.”
“Ma’am?” Percy asked.
C.C. called to the lady in the business suit. “Hylla, take Annabeth and Penny on a tour, will you? Show them what we have available. The clothing will need to change. And the hair, my goodness. We will do a full image consultation after I’ve spoken with this young gentleman.”
“But...” Annabeth’s voice sounded hurt. “What’s wrong with my hair?”
I was getting upset. “I happen to like my hair.”
C.C. smiled benevolently. “My dears, you two are lovely. Really! But neither of you are showing off yourselves or your talents at all. So much wasted potential!”
“Wasted?”
“Well, surely you’re not happy the way you are! My goodness, there’s not a single person who is. But don’t worry. We can improve anyone here at the spa. Hylla will show you what I mean. You, my dear, need to unlock your true self!”
Annabeth’s eyes glowed with longing. “But... what about Percy?”
“Why are you hating on my brother?” I asked, eyes narrowing.
“Oh, definitely,” C.C. said, giving me a sad look as she ignored my question. “Percy requires my personal attention. He needs much more work than you.”
The guinea pigs squealed like they were hungry. I glanced over at the cage. The guinea pigs glared at me with beady eyes.
“Well...” Annabeth said. “I suppose...”
“Right this way, dear,” Hylla said.
Annabeth and I allowed ourselves to be directed into the water-laced gardens of the spa. We got a quick tour of the grounds and I thought Annabeth was going to cry when she saw the library. I was more interested in the various pools and hot springs but to each their own. Our final stop was a dressing room that looked like it was the size of an entire department store. Endless racks of dresses of every conceivable material hung in neat rows. It was like my worst nightmare.
“Please tell me we don’t have to try on a ton of dresses.” I moaned.
Hylla just raised an eyebrow at my whining. “No. We know your size.”
“That’s not creepy at all.” I whispered.
Another assistant brought two white dresses over to us. Taking it, I had the sudden urge to rub my face all along the silky texture of the dress. It was one of the softest things I’d ever touched. “Go put them on then we can move onto the next part of the makeover. Use the cloths to clean up first.”
Inside the dressing rooms, I found a cloth neatly folded on a shelf. I quickly took off my old clothes, stuffed them into my knapsack, and quickly wiped myself down. The cloth must have been enchanted because wherever I scrubbed, the dirt and grim from so many days literally disappeared from existence. The dress was simple and reminded me of a modernized white chiton.
Annabeth and I exited each of our dressing rooms and both gave each other weird looks. We looked odd, like it wasn’t really us in the dresses. I didn’t necessarily mind wearing a dress but I wanted to be the one to pick it.
Hylla directed us into a room that looked like a salon on steroids. We were pushed into chairs and turned to face huge wall-length mirrors. One of the uniformed attendants started brushing my hair.
“One moment please. You need some more length.” She explained.
“Hey!” I protested but I stared in amazement as the hair she brushed became longer with each pass the brush made. “What the...”
Suddenly I felt my hair being pulled gently into many sections. With skilled hands, my hairstylist braided my hair back into a fancy fishtail braid reminiscent of a Caryatid braid with strands of silver thread intertwined in it. The hairstylist leaned back and gave a quick nod.
“Now for the makeup.” Another lady said.
“Nope!” I jumped up from the chair, braid swinging behind me.
“Penny? What are you doing?”
I looked over at Annabeth and saw they had already done her makeup and hair too. My first thought was that Percy would be gaping at her right now. Annabeth was gorgeous in the dress and makeup. Her blond hair was newly washed and combed and braided with gold. It just wasn’t the Annabeth I knew. I took a step back. Instantly my thoughts cleared. Something was off. Annabeth in makeup? I’d only seen women here. Percy? Where was Percy?!
“I need to speak with Miss C.C. Come on Annabeth.” I grabbed my friend and dragged her back out the way we came.
“Hey! Penny, that was rude.” Annabeth admonished me.
“Percy. We need to find Percy. Something’s wrong here.” I replied. We reached the hallway that we came from and I knew C. C. was behind the door.
“We’ll find Percy and you’ll see. Nothing’s wrong.” Annabeth rolled her eyes before calling out, “Miss C.C.?”
Just as Annabeth and I walked into the room, C.C. was looking slightly flustered like she had just been hurrying with something.
“My brother.” I asked. “I need to talk with him.”
Miss C.C. smiled gently at us. “Not right now, dears. He’s a bit indisposed.”
We both looked around the room. Annabeth frowned. “Where’s Percy?”
One guinea pig was squealing in distress from the cage. Walking over to the cage, I noticed that one guinea pig was going from squealing to full on screeches.
C.C. smiled. “He’s having one of our treatments, my dear. Not to worry. You look wonderful! What did you two think of the tour?”
Annabeth’s eyes brightened. “Your library is amazing!”
“Yes, indeed,” C.C. said. “The best knowledge of the past three millennia. Anything either of you want to study, anything you want to be, my dear.”
“An architect?”
“Alive to adulthood?” I joked but then I looked closer to the guinea pig squealing up at me. Its green eyes stared up at me. A green color I would know anywhere. Percy?
“Pah!” C.C. said. “You, my dear Annabeth, have the makings of a sorceress. Like me.”
“Percy?” I whispered at the brown and white guinea pig staring up at me. The little creature let out a long insistent reeeeeet as if saying ‘Yes, finally!’
Annabeth took a step back. “A sorceress?”
I spun around. My trident extended and I stood between C.C. and the cage ready to defend my brother.
“Yes, my dear.” C.C. held up her hand. A flame appeared in her palm and danced across her fingertips. “My mother is Hecate, the goddess of magic. I know a daughter of Athena when I see one. We are not so different, you and I. We both seek knowledge. We both admire greatness. Neither of us needs to stand in the shadow of men.”
“I–I don’t understand.” Annabeth looked between C.C. and me.
I glanced back to see the other guinea pigs emerging from their hutch to check my brother and the situation out. The other rodents looked rough with dirty fur, cracked teeth, and beady eyes. They were covered with shavings and obviously hadn’t been cleaning themselves at all despite the cage being very clean.
“Stay with me,” C.C. was telling Annabeth. “Study with me. You can join our staff, become a sorceress, learn to bend others to your will. You will become immortal! You too Penny. Put that weapon away and join us.”
“But–” Annabeth tried to interject.
“You are too intelligent, my dear,” C.C. said. “You know better than to trust that silly camp for heroes. How many great female half-blood heroes can you name?”
“Um, Atalanta, Amelia Earhart–”
“Bah! Men get all the glory.” C.C. closed her fist and extinguished the magic flame. “The only way to power for women is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now there were powerful women! And me, of course. The greatest of all.”
“You... C.C.... Circe!”
“Yes, my dear.”
Annabeth backed up, I braced myself for any sudden movements and Circe laughed. “You need not worry. I mean neither of you any harm.”
“What have you done to Percy?”
“Only helped him realize his true form.”
Annabeth scanned the room. Finally she saw me standing in front of the cage and Percy scratching at the bars, all the other guinea pigs crowding around him. Her eyes went wide.
“Forget him,” Circe said. “Join me and learn the ways of sorcery.”
“But–”
“The boy will be well cared for. He’ll be shipped to a wonderful new home on the mainland. The kindergartners will adore him. Meanwhile, you both will be wise and powerful. You will have all you ever wanted.”
Annabeth was still staring at Percy, but she had a dreamy expression on her face. I decided to adopt what I figured was her strategy of playing enchanted. I swung my trident away and began giggling. “He does look quite classroom pet worthy now.”
“Let me think about it,” Annabeth murmured. “Just... give us a minute alone. To say good-bye.”
“Of course, my dears,” Circe cooed. “One minute. Oh... and so you all have absolute privacy...”
She waved her hand and iron bars slammed down over the windows. She swept out of the room and I heard the locks on the door click shut behind her. The dreamy look melted off Annabeth’s face and I swung back around to the cage.
I ripped open the lid and grabbed the guinea pig-ified version of my brother. Snuggling him into my stomach, I helped shield him from the world as his tiny body shook. Being a rodent was no doubt terrifying.
“How are we going to change him back?” I asked, tears pricking the corner of my eyes.
“When Odysseus faced her, he had...” Annabeth trailed off.
“Moly!” I gasped and pulled the Hermes’ vitamins from my knapsack. “The vitamins have Moly in them! Open it. I can’t do it one handed.”
She rushed over and pulled the medicine bottle open. She popped a lemon chewable in her mouth and handed me the bottle. I popped a cherry flavored vitamin in my mouth just as the door opened. I pulled the bottle behind my back to shield it from view but this effectively left me without a hand for a weapon with the bottle in one and Percy supported in the other. Circe came back in, flanked by two of her business-suited attendants.
“Well,” Circe sighed, “how fast a minute passes. What are your answers, my dears?”
“This,” Annabeth said, and she drew her bronze knife. Annabeth stepped in front of me to help guard me. The sorceress stepped back, but her surprise quickly passed. She sneered. “Really, little girl, a knife against my magic? Is that wise?”
Circe looked back at her attendants, who smiled. They raised their hands as if preparing to cast a spell. Percy was squealing at us obviously trying to warn us. The other guinea pigs squealed in terror and scuttled around the cage.
“What will Annabeth’s makeover be?” Circe mused. “Something small and ill-tempered. I know... a shrew! And Penny? Something harmless... oh a seal!”
Blue fire coiled from her fingers curling like serpents around Annabeth and me.
I waited for the vitamins to fail to protect us but nothing happened. I sent a thank you to Hermes. I would have to find something to give as an offering to him in thanks once we got back to Camp. I was still me and Annabeth was still Annabeth, only angrier. She leaped forward and stuck the point of her knife against Circe’s neck. “How about turning me into a panther instead? One that has her claws at your throat!”
“How!” Circe yelped.
I pulled the bottle of vitamins out from behind my back for the sorceress to see. Circe howled in frustration. “Curse Hermes and his multivitamins! Those are such a fad! They do nothing for you.”
“Kept your magic at bay didn’t they?” I hissed.
“Turn Percy back to a human or else!” Annabeth said.
“I can’t!”
“Then you asked for it.”
Circe’s attendants stepped forward, but their mistress said, “Get back! They’re immune to magic until that cursed vitamin wears off.”
Annabeth dragged Circe over to me and pulled the knife tighter. “Change him back!”
“I can’t!”
I felt my rage build. I could hear waves and the ocean growing choppier outside. Through clenched teeth, I spat, “Turn him back or I will destroy this place. I am a daughter of Poseidon. If you think his wrath is bad, wait until you see mine.”
Circe’s eyes grew wide with terror. “I told you I can’t!”
“Then how do we change him back?” I hissed, leaning in close, my eyes no doubt full of rage. I could see Annabeth staring at me with both awe and fear. Circe just kept shaking her head saying she couldn’t. I looked at the vitamins. Circe’s eyes got even bigger. I smiled. “Ahh! You can’t but the vitamins can.”
Percy squealed eagerly. I shook out a vitamin out onto my arm in front of Percy’s mouth. He immediately began nibbling on it. Circe to start kicking out with her legs.
“No!” Circe screamed.
Her knee caught my arm and the rest of the vitamins went flying out of the bottle. The rain of gummies fell onto the floor and into the guinea pig cage. The imprisoned guinea pigs scuttled out to check out this new food.
My brother began growing bigger in size and soon he was standing in front of me, a human again—somehow back in his regular clothes, thank the gods.
Then suddenly, bang! The cage exploded. Six other guys who all looked disoriented, blinking and shaking wood shavings out of their hair.
“No!” Circe screamed. “You don’t understand! Those are the worst!”
One of the men stood up—a huge guy with a long tangled pitch-black beard and teeth the same color. He wore mismatched clothes of wool and leather, knee-length boots, and a floppy felt hat. The other men were dressed more simply—in breeches and stained white shirts. All of them were barefoot.
“Argggh!” bellowed the big man. “What’s the witch done t’me!”
“No!” Circe moaned.
Annabeth gasped. “I recognize you! Edward Teach, son of Ares?”
“Aye, lass,” the big man growled. “Though most call me Blackbeard! And there’s the sorceress what captured us, lads. Run her through, and then I mean to find me a big bowl of celery! Arggggh!”
Circe screamed. She and her attendants ran from the room, chased by the pirates.
Annabeth sheathed her knife and glared at Percy.
“Thanks...” Percy faltered. “I’m really sorry–”
Before Percy could say anything else, I pulled him into a crushing hug. When I let go of him, Annabeth tackled him with her own hug, then pulled away just as quickly. “I’m glad you’re not a guinea pig.”
“Me, too.” Percy’s face was tomato red.
Annabeth undid the golden braids in her hair but I left mine alone. It kept my now really long hair out of my face.
“Come on, Seaweed Brain, Kelp Head,” she said. “We have to get away while Circe’s distracted.”
We ran down the hillside through the terraces, past screaming spa workers and pirates ransacking the resort. Blackbeard’s men broke the tiki torches for the luau, threw herbal wraps into the swimming pool, and kicked over tables of sauna towels.
I almost stopped to help the women and girls but we were running out of time to save camp. Plus, I was still enraged at Circe trying to sell my brother as a classroom pet.
“Which ship?” Annabeth said as we reached the docks.
I looked around desperately. The dinky rowboat was not an option since we had to get off the island fast. What else to use though? The sub? A plane? No, just no to the plane. Uncle Zeus would blast us from the sky. My brother and I saw it at the same time.
“There,” he said.
“That one.” I confirmed.
Annabeth blinked. “But–”
“We can make it work.”
“How?”
We didn’t have time to explain the Poseidon children’s sailing magic to her so Percy just grabbed Annabeth’s hand and pulled her towards the old sailing vessel. It would be our best bet to get away from the island quickly. We rushed aboard the ship with the name Queen Anne’s Revenge painted on its prow.
“Argggh!” Blackbeard yelled somewhere behind us. “Those scalawags are a-boarding me vessel! Get ‘em, lads!”
“We’ll never get going in time!” Annabeth yelled as we climbed aboard.
Percy and I looked around at the complex maze of sails and ropes. The ship was in great condition for a three-hundred-year old vessel, but it would still take a crew of fifty several hours to get underway. For two children of Poseidon, it would take much less.
The pirates ran down the dock stairs, waving tiki torches and sticks of celery.
“Penny! Rudder control. I’ve got the rigging!” Percy yelled.
Closing my eyes, I spread out my senses towards the vessel underneath my feet. I concentrated on its hull, the waves lapping against it. The currents flowed around the rudder and along the keel and I took to the wheel.
Percy yelled, “Mizzenmast!”
“Pidálio!” I called.
Annabeth looked at us like we were nuts, but in the next second, the air was filled with whistling sounds of ropes being snapped taut, canvases unfurling, and wooden pulleys creaking. A faint splash told me that the rudder had shifted to turn us away from the dock.
Annabeth ducked as a cable flew over her head and wrapped itself around the bowsprit. “Percy, Penny, how...”
“Children of Poseidon have the ability to connect with sailing vessels. Unless blocked by some more powerful force on board.” I explained. I could feel the ship responding to me and Percy as if it were part of our bodies. We willed the sails to rise and the rudder to turn us out of the port. The Queen Anne’s Revenge lurched away from the dock, and by the time the pirates arrived at the water’s edge, we were already underway, sailing once again into the Sea of Monsters.