Annabeth Chase and the Sea of Monsters

Chapter 15 - The ghost ship

Percy looked uncomfortable as he stepped into the waves. I didn't blame him. I never spoke with Athena either.

"Um, Dad?" he called nervously. "How's it going?"

"Percy!" I whispered at him, looking over my shoulder as I heard the harpies coming even closer. "We're in a hurry!"

"We need your help," Percy said quickly. "We need to get to that ship, like, before we get eaten and stuff, so . . ." He trailed off, staring helplessly into the waves.

Nothing happened. I felt like we were going to be eaten for sure when some ripples about one hundred meters away caught my eye. The sea seemed to concentrate on them as they raced towards us until they were so close, the surf was blasted away from them.

"Fish ponies!" Tyson exclaimed.

In the waves wake were three creatures, their heads and upper bodies being that of white stallions, while the lower half were fish bodies, their scales glinting silver with rainbow fins. They were gorgeous.

"Hippocampi!" I breathed. "They're beautiful."

The one closest to me whinnied happily and nuzzled my chest. I patted it in admiration.

"We'll admire them later," Percy said. "Come on!" 

"There!" screeched a voice from behind us. "Bad children out of cabins! Snack time for lucky harpies!"

I turned to see five of the ugliest hags come flying over the sand dunes, their shriveled and twisted bodies cloaked in rags. They almost matched the Furies in ugly, although not in danger. Still, I did not feel like messing with them right now.

"Tyson!" Percy yelled, seeing his half-brother still staring at the Hippocampi with a dazed expression on his face. "Grab a duffel bag! Tyson!"

"Uh?"

"Come on!"

I grabbed a bag and shoved it at the Cyclops, who only caught it after it hit his chest and bounced off. I grabbed another bag and ran to my hippocampus, swiftly clambering aboard. Percy did the same with another bag and hippocampus while Tyson was a bit slower than us. Fortunately, his hippocampus was a lot bigger than Percy's or mine, as he would have squashed one any smaller.

"Giddy-up!" Percy yelled.

We turned our steeds away and plunged into the waves, racing away from the beach as the harpies arrived. They cursed us and pleaded us to come back, but I wasn't tempted. I was no ones dinner.

The hippocampi were fast. I was a good horse rider, but the hippocampi were even easier to ride. All you had to do was sit and enjoy the ride as they plunged through the waves effortlessly.

We shot away from Camp Half-Blood until it was no more than a smudge on the horizon behind us. I tried not to look back, but it was hard not to. I'd only been away a few minutes, but already I missed my home.

To get my mind off my loss, I looked at the cruise ship as we raced up to it. It was massive, as in it-takes-up-the-whole-horizon massive. Storeys upon storeys towered over us, thousands of windows lit up by little lights. It was painted completely white and had a name printed on the side. It took me awhile to decipher it, but when I did, I got a nasty chill down my spine.

Princess Andromeda.

It couldn't be a coincidence that the ship was named after a greek myth. It even had a figurehead of her in front - a beautiful girl in a traditional greek chiton screaming her head off in terror.

I had a bad feeling about this already.

"How do we get aboard?" I shouted to Percy.

He shrugged, but the hippocampi knew what they were doing. They carried us to a service ladder riveted to the side of the hull, one that was slick with water, but good enough.

"You first," Percy said, looking nervously at the ladder.

I pulled a face at him, but slung my duffel bag over my shoulder and hoisted myself onto the ladder. My hippocampus neighed a brief farewell to me before diving under the waves. I felt sad to see it go, but hid my pain and started climbing.

I heard Percy climb up behind me and him argue with Tyson, who was making a lot of noise. I didn't bother turn back though. I just kept climbing and left Percy to deal with the problem. He was the one who insisted on Tyson coming, so he could deal with him.

Reaching the top of the ladder, I found that it led to a maintenance deck stacked with yellow lifeboats. I allowed myself to catch my breath and wait for Percy as he climbed up. Tyson followed, sobbing about "rainbow," whatever that was.

At the end of the deck was a double set of doors that refused to open. I had to lever them open with my knife, cursing in Ancient Greek as I did so.

We didn't see a single person as we walked through the ship. There wasn't even a sign that anyone was aboard as we checked corridors, peeped over balconies and listened in on rooms. It was disturbing. And it only reinforced my feeling that something was wrong.

"It's a ghost ship," Percy muttered.

"No," Tyson said, looking nervous. He kept scanning as if he was afraid something wild jump out at him as he fiddled with his bag strap. "Bad smell."

I frowned. "I don't smell anything." Except him, of course.

"Cyclops are like satyrs," Percy told me. "They can smell monsters. Isn't that right, Tyson?"

He nodded nervously. Since we were away from camp, the Mist had settled over him again, making him look human. I still didn't like to look at him though because if I concentrated, I could still single his single eye.

"Okay," I said slowly. "So what exactly do you smell?"

"Something bad."

"Great. That clears it up."

We wandered around a bit more, finding a putt-putt golf course, restaurants, a gym and a climbing wall. Not even when we came out to the pool did we see anyone. It was creepy.

Percy looked as worried as I did. "We need a hiding place. Somewhere safe to sleep."

"Sleep," I agreed, feeling like my eyes were about to drop out from exhaustion.

We kept looking until we found an empty suite on the ninth level. It's door was open and it was filled with goodies like chocolate, sparkling cider and gifts. My instincts screamed at me not to go in, but by then, I was too tired to listen to them. All I wanted to do was sleep.

Before I could though, we checked out our duffel bags. Hermes seriously was a god. He'd packed us extra clothes, toiletries, camp rations, cash in an airtight bag, drachmas in a pouch. He'd even brought some books for me, which made me pretty happy.

"I'll be next door," I told Percy. "You guys don't drink or eat anything."

"You think the place is enchanted?"

I frowned. "I don't know. Something isn't right. Just . . . be careful."

I locked my door behind me as I went to the other bedroom. It was pretty nice, but I didn't have time to admire it. As soon as I lay down, I was immediately thrown straight into a dream.