¹Pocket Full of Posies, p. jackson

vi. A Barbed Tongue

chapter six
❛ a barbed tongue ❜

━━━━━  FOR BEING THE daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom, Annabeth sounded rather foolish for suggesting that she go alone to try and find Luke. Her reasoning, which was equally as ridiculous, was that since she had the cap of invisibility among the four hiding in the women's restroom, that obviously meant she should be the one to go snooping.

Percy seemed almost eager to tell Annabeth how stupid he believed she was for even suggesting that she go alone. "Either we all go, or nobody goes." He shook his head, frowning right back at the daughter of Athena. "You say I have a self-sacrificing streak, but you're just as bad as me!"

He can't be serious, can he? Onesimus suddenly scoffed, startling Posie. He had been silent ever since their conversation that unfolded as they had skimmed across the surface of Long Island Sound, barreling toward the Princess Andromeda. He's acting like Annabeth's the one who blew up the St. Louis Arch!

"I vote nobody goes," Posie spoke up. She looked between Percy and Annabeth, slowly pursing her lips as they stared back — they equally hated her suggestion far more than Percy hated Annabeth's.

"Posie's right — nobody goes!" Tyson voted, raising his calloused hand as he did so. He slowly lowered his thick arm, his two eyes drifting between the three demigods. "Please ...?"

In the end, it was Percy who got what he wanted — the four sneaking around, all in search of where Luke Castellan had disappeared to. Tyson was chewing nervously on his huge fingernails as they crept about. They stopped at their rooms, staying just long enough to gather the stuff they had left behind earlier. Even if the vote for who goes in search of Luke wasn't unanimous, there was no need to even try for a vote on where they should be laying their heads next — all four agreed they needed to find another place to crash, any place that wasn't the Princess Andromeda. No matter what happened, the zombie-mortal cruise ship with the traitor son of Hermes aboard was worse than anything else; even the cruise ship's million-dollar bingo didn't sway them any. (Not that Posie would ever be swayed by anything that involved luck to win. Her life had proven more than enough times that she had horrible luck.)

Posie found her knuckles turning multiple shades lighter as she gripped the borrowed daggers from the shed behind Cabin Six. She couldn't shake the feeling of how wrong it felt to be holding two random daggers instead of Anthos and Arsis. The hilts had practically been molded for her hands by Beckendorf while he was making them, and after so many uses, her fingers naturally found their holding without much thought. With these borrowed daggers, Posie felt as if she were holding two awkwardly-sized kitchen knives. But she didn't have much choice in the matter — well, she did, truthfully, only if she had thought long enough to wonder if the green glow could destroy Celestial bronze.

Tyson tasked himself with carrying their stuff: all four duffel bags. Posie didn't want him to tire himself out too quickly, but Annabeth made a fair point — Tyson was a Cyclops; he had a lot more natural strength than the rest of them. "He's not a half-blood, like us," Annabeth finished her explanation in a short tone. Posie didn't know if she meant it as some not-at-all-thinly veiled comment against Tyson. That was a statement that made Percy's jaw tick in annoyance, but he kept his mouth shut — this time, at least. Posie was just grateful he did; she didn't want to try and play middle man once more between him and Annabeth, especially while trying to sneak onto the quest for the Golden Fleece.

Just as they had the previous night, the four were back to sneaking through the corridors, following the ship's sporadic YOU ARE HERE signs placed around the Princess Andromeda — until they made it to the admiralty suite in the depths of the cruise ship. Eventually, Annabeth's idea also came to fruition — she went ahead of the others, placing her cap of invisibility on her braids, so she could scout ahead like she had originally suggested. The three waiting hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people they saw were just glassy-eyed, zombie-like mortal passengers.