LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . pjo

XXX.

"YOU'D THINK HE'D run out of rocks," Percy muttered, and Mia snickered under her breath.

"Swim for it!" Grover said.

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

"You, young Cyclops!" Polyphemus roared, and he could only be talking about Tyson. "Traitor to your kind!"

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

"I am not a traitor," Tyson growled.

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

There was a loud gust of wind, but then the boulder that had been thrown had been swatted aside by Tyson.

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

"Death or victory!" Polyphemus charged into the surf.

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

They were almost to the ship with the Fleece. Mia looked back to see Percy and Tyson talking, before Percy pulled out his sword.

Polyphemus advanced carefully, limping worse than ever. But there was nothing wrong with his throwing arm. He chucked his second boulder. Tyson's fist blasted the rock to rubble.

Mia turned just as a twenty-foot wave surged up, lifting Percy on its crest. He 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!" Percy 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 Percy, but he sidestepped. "Father Poseidon, curse this thief!" Polyphemus was blinking hard now, like he could barely see.

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

Mia got on the Queen Anne's Revenge after Clarisse as Polyphemus roared. He ripped an olive tree out of the side of the cliff and smashed it where Percy had been standing a moment before. "Humans not the same! Nasty, tricky, lying!"

Grover was helping Annabeth aboard the ship. Mia and Clarisse were waving frantically at Percy, telling him to get on the ship with them.

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. Then Tyson stepped forward, raising his hands defensively. "Don't fight, Cyclops brother. Put down the—"

Polyphemus spun toward his voice.

"Tyson!" Percy shouted.

The tree struck him with such force it would've flattened Mia into a pizza. Tyson flew backward, plowing a trench in the sand. Polyphemus charged after him, but Percy shouted, "No!" and lunged as far as he could with Riptide, stabbing the Cyclops above the thigh.

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

He dove, but still got raked across the back by a dozen jagged branches. Mia winced, but she was too weak to teleport and help Percy and Tyson out.