The Sea of Monsters pjatob-2

by Rick Riordan

  The first strand went snap!

  Polyphemus bounded after us, making the bridge sway wildly.

  The ropes were now half cut. Clarisse and I dove for solid ground, landing beside Grover. I made a wild slash with my sword and cut the remaining ropes.

  The bridge fell away into the chasm, and the Cyclops howled… with delight, because he was standing right next to us.

  "Failed!" he yelled gleefully. "Nobody failed!"

  Clarisse and Grover tried to charge him, but the monster swatted them aside like flies.

  My anger swelled. I couldn't believe I'd come this far, lost Tyson, suffered through so much, only to fail—stopped by a big stupid monster in a baby-blue tuxedo kilt. Nobody was going to swat down my friends like that! I mean… nobody, not Nobody. Ah, you know what I mean.

  Strength coursed through my body. I raised my sword and attacked, forgetting that I was hopelessly outmatched. I jabbed the Cyclops in the belly. When he doubled over I smacked him in the nose with the hilt of my sword. I slashed and kicked and bashed until the next thing I knew, Polyphemus was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning, and I was standing above him, the tip of my sword hovering over his eye.

  "Uhhhhhhhh," Polyphemus moaned.

  "Percy!" Grover gasped. "How did you—"

  "Please, noooo!" the Cyclops moaned, pitifully staring up at me. His nose was bleeding. A tear welled in the corner of his half-blind eye. "M-m-my sheepies need me. Only trying to protect my sheep!"

  He began to sob.

  I had won. All I had to do was stab—one quick strike.

  "Kill him!" Clarisse yelled. "What are you waiting for?"

  The Cyclops sounded so heartbroken, just like… like Tyson.

  "He's a Cyclops!" Grover warned. "Don't trust him!"

  I knew he was right. I knew Annabeth would've said the same thing.

  But Polyphemus sobbed… and for the first time it sank in that he was a son of Poseidon, too. Like Tyson. Like me. How could I just kill him in cold blood?

  "We only want the Fleece," I told the monster. "Will you agree to let us take it?"

  "No!" Clarisse shouted. "Kill him!"

  The monster sniffed. "My beautiful Fleece. Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in peace."

  "I'm going to step back slowly," I told the monster. "One false move…"

  Polyphemus nodded like he understood.

  I stepped back… and as fast as a cobra, Polyphemus smacked me to the edge of the cliff.

  "Foolish mortal!" he bellowed, rising to his feet. "Take my Fleece? Ha! I eat you first."

  He opened his enormous mouth, and I knew that his rotten molars were the last things I would ever see.

  Then something went whoosh over my head and thump!

  A rock the size of a basketball sailed into Polyphemus's throat—a beautiful three-pointer, nothing but net. The Cyclops choked, trying to swallow the unexpected pill. He staggered backward, but there was no place to stagger. His heel slipped, the edge of the cliff crumbled, and the great Polyphemus made chicken wing motions that did nothing to help him fly as he tumbled into the chasm.

  I turned.

  Halfway down the path to the beach, standing completely unharmed in the midst of a flock of killer sheep, was an old friend.

  "Bad Polyphemus," Tyson said. "Not all Cyclopes as nice as we look."

  Tyson gave us the short version: Rainbow the hippocampus—who'd apparently been following us ever since the Long Island Sound, waiting for Tyson to play with him—had found Tyson sinking beneath the wreckage of the CSS Birmingham and pulled him to safety. He and Tyson had been searching the Sea of Monsters ever since, trying to find us, until Tyson caught the scent of sheep and found this island.

  I wanted to hug the big oaf, except he was standing in the middle of killer sheep. "Tyson, thank the gods. Annabeth is hurt!"

  "You thank the gods she is hurt?" he asked, puzzled.

  "No!" I knelt beside Annabeth and was worried sick by what I saw. The gash on her forehead was worse than I'd realized. Her hairline was sticky with blood. Her skin was pale and clammy.

  Grover and I exchanged nervous looks. Then an idea came to me. "Tyson, the Fleece. Can you get it for me?"

  "Which one?" Tyson said, looking around at the hundreds of sheep.

  "In the tree!" I said. "The gold one!"

  "Oh. Pretty. Yes."

  Tyson lumbered over, careful not to step on the sheep. If any of us had tried to approach the Fleece, we would've been eaten alive, but I guess Tyson smelled like Polyphemus, because the flock didn't bother him at all. They just cuddled up to him and bleated affectionately, as though they expected to get sheep treats from the big wicker basket. Tyson reached up and lifted the Fleece off its branch. Immediately the leaves on the oak tree turned yellow. Tyson started wading back toward me, but I yelled, "No time! Throw it!"

  The gold ram skin sailed through the air like a glittering shag Frisbee. I caught it with a grunt. It was heavier than I'd expected—sixty or seventy pounds of precious gold wool.

  I spread it over Annabeth, covering everything but her face, and prayed silently to all the gods I could think of, even the ones I didn't like.

  Please. Please.

  The color returned to her face. Her eyelids fluttered open. The cut on her forehead began to close. She saw Grover and said weakly, "You're not… married?"

  Grover grinned. "No. My friends talked me out of it."

  "Annabeth," I said, "just lay still."

  But despite our protests she sat up, and I noticed that the cut on her face was almost completely healed. She looked a lot better. In fact, she shimmered with health, as if someone had injected her with glitter.

  Meanwhile, Tyson was starting to have trouble with the sheep. "Down!" he told them as they tried to climb him, looking for food. A few were sniffing in our direction. "No, sheepies. This way! Come here!"

  They heeded him, but it was obvious they were hungry, and they were starting to realize Tyson didn't have any treats for them. They wouldn't hold out forever with so much fresh meat nearby.

  "We have to go," I said. "Our ship is…" The Queen Anne's Revenge was a very long way away. The shortest route was across the chasm, and we'd just destroyed the only bridge. The only other possibility was through the sheep.

  "Tyson," I called, "can you lead the flock as far away as possible?"

  "The sheep want food."

  "I know! They want people food! Just lead them away from the path. Give us time to get to the beach. Then join us there."

  Tyson looked doubtful, but he whistled. "Come, sheepies! Um, people food this way!"

  He jogged off into the meadow, the sheep in pursuit.

  "Keep the Fleece around you," I told Annabeth. "Just in case you're not fully healed yet. Can you stand?"

  She tried, but her face turned pale again. "Ohh. Not fully healed."

  Clarisse dropped next to her and felt her chest, which made Annabeth gasp.

  "Ribs broken," Clarisse said. "They're mending, but definitely broken."

  "How can you tell?" I asked.

  Clarisse glared at me. "Because I've broken a few, runt! I'll have to carry her."

  Before I could argue, Clarisse picked up Annabeth like a sack of flour and lugged her down to the beach. Grover and I followed.

  As soon as we got to the edge of the water, I concentrated on the Queen Anne's Revenge. I willed it to raise anchor and come to me. After a few anxious minutes, I saw the ship rounding the tip of the island.

  "Incoming!" Tyson yelled. He was bounding down the path to join us, the sheep about fifty yards behind, bleating in frustration as their Cyclops friend ran away without feeding them.

  "They probably won't follow us into the water," I told the others. "All we have to do is swim for the ship."

  "With Annabeth like this?" Clarisse protested.

  "We can do it," I insisted. I was starting to feel confident again. I was back in my home turf—the sea. "Once we get to th
e ship, we're home free."

  We almost made it, too.

  We were just wading past the entrance to the ravine, when we heard a tremendous roar and saw Polyphemus, scraped up and bruised but still very much alive, his baby-blue wedding outfit in tatters, splashing toward us with a boulder in each hand.

  SIXTEEN

  I GO DOWN

  WITH THE SHIP

  "You'd think he'd run out of rocks," I muttered.

  "Swim for it!" Grover said.

  He and Clarisse plunged into the surf. Annabeth hung on to Clarisse's neck and tried to paddle with one hand, the wet Fleece weighing her down.

  But the monster's attention wasn't on the Fleece.

  "You, young Cyclops!" Polyphemus roared. "Traitor to your kind!"

  Tyson froze.

  "Don't listen to him!" I pleaded. "Come on."

  I pulled Tyson's arm, but I might as well have been pulling a mountain. He turned and faced the older Cyclops. "I am not a traitor."

  "You serve mortals!" Polyphemus shouted. "Thieving humans!"

  Polyphemus threw his first boulder. Tyson swatted it aside with his fist.

  "Not a traitor," Tyson said. "And you are not my kind."

  "Death or victory!" Polyphemus charged into the surf, but his foot was still wounded. He immediately stumbled and fell on his face. That would've been funny, except he started to get up again, spitting salt water and growling.

  "Percy!" Clarisse yelled. "Come on!"

  They were almost to the ship with the Fleece. If I could just keep the monster distracted a little longer…

  "Go," Tyson told me. "I will hold Big Ugly."

  "No! He'll kill you." I'd already lost Tyson once. I wasn't going to lose him again. "We'll fight him together."

  "Together," Tyson agreed.

  I drew my sword.

  Polyphemus advanced carefully, limping worse than ever. But there was nothing wrong with his throwing arm. He chucked his second boulder. I dove to one side, but I still would've been squashed if Tyson's fist hadn't blasted the rock to rubble.

  I willed the sea to rise. A twenty-foot wave surged up, lifting me on its crest. I rode toward the Cyclops and kicked him in the eye, leaping over his head as the water blasted him onto the beach.

  "Destroy you!" Polyphemus spluttered. "Fleece stealer!"

  "You stole the Fleece!" I yelled. "You've been using it to lure satyrs to their deaths!"

  "So? Satyrs good eating!"

  "The Fleece should be used to heal! It belongs to the children of the gods!"

  "I am a child of the gods!" Polyphemus swiped at me, but I sidestepped. "Father Poseidon, curse this thief!" He was blinking hard now, like he could barely see, and I realized he was targeting by the sound of my voice.

  "Poseidon won't curse me," I said, backing up as the Cyclops grabbed air. "I'm his son, too. He won't play favorites."

  Polyphemus roared. He ripped an olive tree out of the side of the cliff and smashed it where I'd been standing a moment before. "Humans not the same! Nasty, tricky, lying!"

  Grover was helping Annabeth aboard the ship. Clarisse was waving frantically at me, telling me to come on.

  Tyson worked his way around Polyphemus, trying to get behind him.

  "Young one!" the older Cyclops called. "Where are you? Help me!"

  Tyson stopped.

  "You weren't raised right!" Polyphemus wailed, shaking his olive tree club. "Poor orphaned brother! Help me!"

  No one moved. No sound but the ocean and my own heartbeat. Then Tyson stepped forward, raising his hands defensively. "Don't fight, Cyclops brother. Put down the—"

  Polyphemus spun toward his voice.

  "Tyson!" I shouted.

  The tree struck him with such force it would've flattened me into a Percy pizza with extra olives. Tyson flew backward, plowing a trench in the sand. Polyphemus charged after him, but I shouted, "No!" and lunged as far as I could with Riptide. I'd hoped to sting Polyphemus in the back of the thigh, but I managed to leap a little bit higher.

  "Blaaaaah!" Polyphemus bleated just like his sheep, and swung at me with his tree.

  I dove, but still got raked across the back by a dozen jagged branches. I was bleeding and bruised and exhausted. The guinea pig inside me wanted to bolt. But I swallowed down my fear.

  Polyphemus swung the tree again, but this time I was ready. I grabbed a branch as it passed, ignoring the pain in my hands as I was jerked skyward, and let the Cyclops lift me into the air. At the top of the arc I let go and fell straight against the giant's face—landing with both feet on his already damaged eye.

  Polyphemus yowled in pain. Tyson tackled him, pulling him down. I landed next to them—sword in hand, within striking distance of the monster's heart. But I locked eyes with Tyson, and I knew I couldn't do it. It just wasn't right.

  "Let him go," I told Tyson. "Run."

  With one last mighty effort, Tyson pushed the cursing older Cyclops away, and we ran for the surf.

  "I will smash you. " Polyphemus yelled, doubling over in pain. His enormous hands cupped over his eye.

  Tyson and I plunged into the waves.

  "Where are you?" Polyphemus screamed. He picked up his tree club and threw it into the water. It splashed off to our right.

  I summoned up a current to carry us, and we started gaining speed. I was beginning to think we might make it to the ship, when Clarisse shouted from the deck, "Yeah, Jackson! In your face, Cyclops!"

  Shut up, I wanted to yell.

  "Rarrr!" Polyphemus picked up a boulder. He threw it toward the sound of Clarisse's voice, but it fell short, narrowly missing Tyson and me.

  "Yeah, yeah!" Clarisse taunted. "You throw like a wimp! Teach you to try marrying me, you idiot!"

  "Clarisse!" I yelled, unable to stand it. "Shut up!"

  Too late. Polyphemus threw another boulder, and this time I watched helplessly as it sailed over my head and crashed through the hull of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

  You wouldn't believe how fast a ship can sink. The Queen Anne's Revenge creaked and groaned and listed forward like it was going down a playground slide.

  I cursed, willing the sea to push us faster, but the ship's masts were already going under.

  "Dive!" I told Tyson. And as another rock sailed over our heads, we plunged underwater.

  My friends were sinking fast, trying to swim, without luck, in the bubbly trail of the ship's wreckage.

  Not many people realize that when a ship goes down, it acts like a sinkhole, pulling down everything around it. Clarisse was a strong swimmer, but even she wasn't making any progress. Grover frantically kicked with his hooves. Annabeth was hanging on to the Fleece, which flashed in the water like a wave of new pennies.

  I swam toward them, knowing that I might not have the strength to pull my friends out. Worse, pieces of timber were swirling around them; none of my power with water would help if I got whacked on the head by a beam.

  We need help, I thought.

  Yes. Tyson's voice, loud and clear in my head.

  I looked over at him, startled. I'd heard Nereids and other water spirits speak to me underwater before, but it never occurred to me… Tyson was a son of Poseidon. We could communicate with each other.

  Rainbow, Tyson said.

  I nodded, then closed my eyes and concentrated, adding my voice to Tyson's: RAINBOW! We need you!

  Immediately, shapes shimmered in the darkness below—three horses with fish tails, galloping upward faster than dolphins. Rainbow and his friends glanced in our direction and seemed to read our thoughts. They whisked into the wreckage, and a moment later burst upward in a cloud of bubbles—Grover, Annabeth, and Clarisse each clinging to the neck of a hippocampus.

  Rainbow, the largest, had Clarisse. He raced over to us and allowed Tyson to grab hold of his mane. His friend who bore Annabeth did the same for me.

  We broke the surface of the water and raced away from Polyphemus's island. Behind us, I could hear the Cyclops roaring in triumph, "I did it!
I finally sank Nobody!"

  I hoped he never found out he was wrong.

  We skimmed across the sea as the island shrank to a dot and then disappeared.

  "Did it," Annabeth muttered in exhaustion. "We…"

  She slumped against the neck of the hippocampus and instantly fell asleep.

  I didn't know how far the hippocampi could take us. I didn't know where we were going. I just propped up Annabeth so she wouldn't fall off, covered her in the Golden Fleece that we'd been through so much to get, and said a silent prayer of thanks.

  Which reminded me… I still owed the gods a debt.

  "You're a genius," I told Annabeth quietly.

  Then I put my head against the Fleece, and before I knew it, I was asleep, too.

  SEVENTEEN

  WE GET A SURPRISE

  ON MIAMI BEACH

  "Percy, wake up."

  Salt water splashed my face. Annabeth was shaking my shoulder.

  In the distance, the sun was setting behind a city skyline. I could see a beachside highway lined with palm trees, storefronts glowing with red and blue neon, a harbor filled with sailboats and cruise ships.

  "Miami, I think," Annabeth said. "But the hippocampi are acting funny."

  Sure enough, our fishy friends had slowed down and were whinnying and swimming in circles, sniffing the water. They didn't look happy. One of them sneezed. I could tell what they were thinking.

  "This is as far as they'll take us," I said. "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to shore on our own."

  None of us was very psyched about that, but we thanked Rainbow and his friends for the ride. Tyson cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle pack he'd made, which contained his tool kit and a couple of other things he'd salvaged from the Birmingham wreck. He hugged Rainbow around the neck, gave him a soggy mango he'd picked up on the island, and said good-bye.

  Once the hippocampi's white manes disappeared into the sea, we swam for shore. The waves pushed us forward, and in no time we were back in the mortal world. We wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers. If anybody noticed us—five kids dripping wet and looking like they'd just had a fight with a monster—they didn't let on.