Umbra

Chapter 34

Another attack had arrived.

Out of nowhere, she heard Percy yelling for Leo to stop. She leapt out of her bed at the worst moment. There came a collision, leaving her skidding into the far wall and sinking down to the floor. She could hear Festus blowing fire on the deck, a faint clicking and scraping sounding all around the edge of the Argo II.

The alarm bell began to sound. Emilia scrambled to her feet, rushing out into the hall. By then, the stairs were flooded with strange warriors– both human and dolphin. Some of the warriors had gray dolphin snouts, others held swords in stunted flippers, a few waddled on legs partially fused togethers while a handful had flippers for feet.

Human-dolphins (whatever they were) should not have been able to move as fast as these did. In an instant, they were swarmed. A group of them began breaking down cabin doors and ripping the other demigods out of their beds. The dolphin warriors made a series of whistling and popping noises as they converged on them, flashing a set of vicious-looking teeth.

Emilia had nowhere to run. She'd reached for her spear just as a group of three of them surged forward and tackled her into the wall, ripping Incubo away before she could send it back into the shadows. She could hear loud cracks from Jason's room– he was trying to fight them off. Then, there came a loud thud! followed by triumphant-sounding dolphin clicks.

"Let us go!" she could hear Piper crying out, her charmspeak as forceful as she could muster. "Let us–" Her words were cut off. Emilia gave a yelp as one of the dolphins tied her arms painfully behind her back, the other two binding her legs together. She was carried out along with the others– Jason was unconscious, Hazel was bound like her, and Piper had been gagged. The dolphins had sensed her charmspeak. Frank was the only one missing... and the dolphins that'd gone into his cabin had bee stings covering their faces.

When they were brought to the deck, she saw Percy and Annabeth already surrounded. The ship that'd rammed into them was another trireme with black sails that had a gorgon's head painted on them. The dolphins were answering to some strange man dressed in Greek combat armor— sandals, kilt, and greaves, a breastplate decorated with elaborate sea monster designs—and everything he wore was gold.

Even his sword, a Greek blade, was gold instead of bronze. His helmet was a full face mask fashioned like a gorgon's head—curved tusks, horrible features pinched into a snarl, and golden snake hair curling around the face. She remembered a story, but she wasn't sure of his name.

This leader and his dolphins had already made a pile of loot– crates of food, extra weapons, the magical ice chest from the mess hall. They'd left nothing behind. Even Coach Hedge was part of the pile, with a greasy wad of canvas in his mouth so he couldn't shout threats. Emilia wouldn't miss him if he was taken, but she felt sort of bad seeing him piled there with all these other random things. That anger rose when the dolphins threw Incubo into the pile, its tip pointed to where Leo was laid half-conscious on top of a pile of ropes.

"Excellent!" gloated the strange golden man. He directed his warriors to dump Jason by the crossbows, then examined the three girls like they were Christmas presents. "The boy is no use to me. But we have an understanding with the witch Circe. She will buy the women– either as slaves or trainees, depending on their skill. But this one–"

He reached out to grab Emilia's face. She almost managed to bite his fingers, but he seized her chin so roughly, her eyes watered involuntarily. "No, this one we will send elsewhere, along with you, lovely Annabeth–"

Annabeth recoiled before he could grab her. Emilia spat at the golden man as he withdrew his hand. "You're not taking us anywhere," said Annabeth sharply.