① Percy Jackson: Age of Eternity

Chapter 14

The bear twins herded us aboard the Princess Andromeda. They threw us down on the aft deck in front of a swimming pool with sparkling fountains that sprayed into the air. A dozen of Luke's assorted goons—snake people, Laistrygonians, demigods in battle armor—had gathered to watch us get some "hospitality. "

 "And so, the Fleece," Luke mused. "Where is it?" He looked us over, prodding Percy's shirt with the tip of his sword, poking Grover's jeans.

"Hey!" Grover yelled. "That's real goat fur under there!"

"Sorry, old friend. " Luke smiled. "Just give me the Fleece and I'll leave you to return to your, ah, little nature quest. "

"Blaa-ha-ha!" Grover protested. "Some old friend!"

"Maybe you didn't hear me. " Luke's voice was dangerously calm. "Where—is—the—Fleece?"

"Where your sense of humor is.." I said smiling smugly, "gone."

I probably shouldn't have told him anything, but it felt good to throw the truth in his face. 

"We sent it on ahead of us. You messed up," Percy said smiling with me.

Luke's eyes narrowed. "You're lying. You couldn't have ..." His face reddened as a horrible possibility occurred to him. "Clarisse?"

 Percy nodded.

"You trusted ... you gave ..."

"Yeah. "

"Agrius!"

The bear giant flinched. "Y-yes?"

"Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to the Miami Airport, fast. '"

"But, boss—"

"Do it!" Luke screamed. "Or I'll feed you to the drakon!"

The bear-man gulped and lumbered down the stairs. Luke paced in front of the swimming pool, cursing in Ancient Greek, gripping his sword so tight his knuckles turned white.

The rest of Luke's crew looked uneasy. Maybe they'd never seen their boss so unhinged before.

 "You've been toying with us all along," Percy said. "You wanted us to bring you the Fleece and save you the trouble of getting it. "

Luke scowled. "Of course, you idiot! And you've messed everything up!"

"Traitor!" Percy threw a gold drachma at Luke. He dodges it easily. 

The coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-colored water.


"You tricked all of us!" Percy yelled at Luke. "Even DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD!"

Behind Luke, the fountain began to shimmer. Percy got up and uncapped riptide. I was still being held so I couldn't help him. Percy seemed to have another plan in mind though.

Luke just sneered. "This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop your puny little sword, or I'll have you killed sooner rather than later. "

"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?"

"I did, of course," he snarled. "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus. "

"Chiron had nothing to do with it?"

"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts. "

"You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?"

Luke raised his sword. "You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece ... once I was done with it. "

That made me hesitate. Why would Luke need the fleece? It's not like he needed a magical tree to heal like Percy and everyone else did.

"You were going to heal Kronos," Percy said.

"Yes! The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little. "

"And so you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up—all to help Kronos destroy the gods. "

Luke gritted his teeth. "You know that! Why do you keep asking me?"

"Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you. "

"What audience?"

Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and his goons did the same. They gasped and stumbled back.

Above the pool, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was a image just like when we spoke to the guy on the boat. There were two people eating at a table with a bunch of other kids wearing orange t-shirts. One of the guys looked as if he was a drug addict at a trailer park. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. The other guy looked old and wrinkled, no idea who he was. Never read about him before. The man in the Hawaiian shirt took me a minute, Dionysus god of wine.