LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . pjo

XXVIII.

WHEN MIA THOUGHT about what a "monster island" should look like, she thought about craggy rocks and bones scattered on the beach like the island of the Sirens.

The Cyclops's island was nothing like that. It did have a rope bridge across a chasm, which was not a good sign. You might as well put up a billboard that said, SOMETHING EVIL LIVES HERE. But except for that, the place looked like a Caribbean postcard. It had green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches. As they sailed toward the shore, Annabeth breathed in the sweet air. "The Fleece," she said.

Mia nodded. She couldn't see the Fleece yet, but she could feel its power. She could believe it would heal anything, even Thalia's poisoned tree. "If we take it away, will the island die?" Mia asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "It'll fade. Go back to what it would be normally, whatever that is."

Mia felt a little guilty about ruining this paradise, but she reminded herself that they had no choice. Camp Half-Blood was in trouble.

In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge — the size of hippos. Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was a massive oak tree. Something gold glittered in its branches.

"This is too easy," Percy said. "We could just hike up there and take it?"

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "There's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon or . . ."

That's when a deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves.

Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air.

A second later the sheep all moved away, back to their regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.

Mia, Annabeth, and Percy exchanged looks.

"They're like piranhas," Percy said.

"Piranhas with wool," Mia agreed. "How will we—"

"Guys!" Annabeth gasped, grabbing Mia's arm. "Look."

Annabeth pointed down the beach, to just below the sheep meadow, where a small boat had been run aground . . . the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham.

They decided there was no way they could get past the man-eating sheep. Annabeth wanted to sneak up the path invisibly and grab the Fleece, but in the end Percy convinced her that something would go wrong. The sheep would smell her. Another guardian would appear. Something. And if that happened, Mia and Percy would be too far away to help.

Besides, their first job was to find Grover and whoever had come ashore in that lifeboat — assuming they'd gotten past the sheep.

They moored the Queen Anne's Revenge on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good two hundred feet. The cliffs looked climbable, barely — about as difficult as the lava wall back at camp, which Mia had never mastered. At least it was free of sheep. She hoped that Polyphemus did not also keep carnivorous mountain goats.

They rowed a lifeboat to the edge of the rocks and made their way up, very slowly. Annabeth went first because she was the better climber, then Mia, then Percy, because he'd catch her if she fell.

Mia only came close to dying ten times, which she thought was pretty good. She'd been too short to reach certain ledges, so she'd had to backtrack in order to get up, which was tough. She'd nearly fallen multiple times.