The Labyrinth *editing*

Chapter 9

The plan was pretty simple, with only a few steps, and about a million things that could go wrong. We would sneak into the room where they stored all the food. We would take most of it, and leave some for them, but the stuff that had been layer for the next meal for the sailors would be poisoned, using the blood of a dead rat Leon discovered under his bed. They would eat the food, hopefully before they noticed the missing food, and they would fall sick, maybe even die. We were all genuinely hoping for the latter. Then we would have food. But it could go wrong in many ways. So it was agreed that I would do the dirty work, because they all knew me as a thief by now, and I couldn't agree more. The next morning before the Cretans would eat breakfast, I would sneak in, with Adrianne as my guard, since she was small and lithe. Take all the food I could without it being noticed easily, pass it to Adrianne who would be standing in the doorway of the kitchen, who would pass it to Theseus, who would be standing by her, and he would run it back to our quarters. I would cut open the rat and spread the remnants on the food that they would eat next meal. So we all went to sleep that night, restless with anticipation and quivering with excitement. I doubted that this crew had ever carried such a reckless, rebellious bunch. Because they had never had me on here. They had never had an armed prisoner. Like me. And they had made me mad. I had a cause to fight for Esmeralda. And all of the Athenians that they had killed. Avenging the deaths that needn't have happened was important to me. I felt great, breaking the rules after they had locked us up for so long, and were continuing to do so as we speak. Better even, I will be able to hold up on my promise with Percy. Theseus and I still could clash, I suspected, but for now, we were friends still. It was also decided that when we went out at dawn, we were going to bury Esmeralda at sea. I drifted off to sleep, more comfortable and safe-feeling than I had been all week on this ship. We were working together. For now. But who knew how long that would last. Anyway, I drifted off finally, but I didn't think anyone else had fallen asleep. I had no dreams, and I woke up to Paris shaking me excitedly.

     "Get up! Get up! Let's do it!" he practically shouted with anticipation. I looked around groggily.

     "You seem to be all better." I said in annoyance, but he did not seem to notice that part of it.

     "Yep! Now come on!" he pleaded as he tugged me out of bed. My nose still ached, and it was very stiff and sore. But it seemed a bit better. At least the bleeding had stopped. I saw that everyone else was up and out if their bunks, even Esmeralda, who two boys were carrying to be buried at sea. Maya stepped up. "We," she gestured to herself and Theseus, "Have agreed to have a silent vigil for Esmeralda before, uh,.... Laying her to rest." Maya found the right phrase. She wiped away a tear. "Shall I say the eulogy?" she asked quietly. Nobody objected, so she started. "Esmeralda was a great girl. She brought a lot of joy to this world. It is a pure shame that she had to die so young... Like this... Her family and friends alike will miss her greatly. We all will. And today we avenge her. Today, we fire back. We will bring them down, somehow. For Esmeralda. Goodbye." she finished with her hand raised in salute to the dead girl that was her friend. We all followed suit. Then, after about a minute of silence, with heads bowed, we all broke away from the circle to get the job promised for Esmeralda done. Theseus, Adrianne, I, and a few others came out of the dirty prison room while the others, with Paris in the lead stood in the hallway ready to help if needed. I had my life-giving knife in hand, hoping to the heavens that I would not lose it as long as I lived. Which, given the circumstances, would not be very long. I walked down the hall, treading as softly as I could, which was amazingly quiet, and tried to ignore the fact that Theseus was obviously not very sneaky, since he was almost pounding the floor even with bare feet. Oh well. But it felt incredibly good to be able to do what I was best at- break the rules and sneak. I will admit that I did pickpocket - but only once! Honest. It was hard times for my family, and this person was rich... So what's a few missing coins, right? Anyway, I was good at it. Nobody ever even noticed anything was missing, since I replaced them with rocks. I'll bet you they noticed when they got home, but I never heard anything about it. So as I snuck down the hall to the door to the deck, I felt perfectly at home. When we reached the door, I paused and listened. I heard footsteps. Alarmed, I pushed the other two back against the wall, which they did not object to. That was one condition. They had to follow every command I gave them, since this was my home turf. I listened for any signs of them coming, and then, once I was sure they had left, I pushed open the door, managing it so it did not creak. I slipped out a crack, barely big enough for a cat to fit through, but the others had to push it opened a bit more. I groaned silently when Theseus stumbled and fell with a thud. We continued on, to the kitchen. I found it by smelling my way out. There was a sour, rotten scent to it. My sixth thief's sense told me to go right in. I crept in, while the two lookouts stayed back in the doorway, I saw the barrel of tack. There was also a barrel of dried beef. To be safe, I took only the tack for us, so I could freely poison the beef. Therefore, we would never eat the beef if given to us. I had a fair amount of tack in my arms which I passed to Adrianne, who handed it to Theseus, who made off with the loot. I also grabbed an armload and gave that to Adrianne to hold. Then I slit the rat's throat and let the guts spill over their beef. And for good measure, I buried the rat deep in the meat. There! Let the thing rot in there and kill the lot of them! I motioned to Adrianne to get going. We raced back to our quarters. When we arrived, we were given a great cheer, as we stashed our food on my bed with the rest of it. The stack was huge. I grinned. We had done it. I gave Maya a great hug, and everyone enjoyed one piece of tack. Now we had to bury Esmeralda. We all came as they carried her body, which was just starting to smell of rotting corpse, to the deck and then they tossed her overboard gently. Some of the sailors saw us clearly, but did not say anything as we tossed the body overboard. We all murmured goodbye to her. We were just turning around to go back, when Paris tugged on my sleeve.

     "Xenia? Are we due on Crete yet?" he asked uncertainly. I glanced at him.

     "Maybe. I have no idea really. Why?" He pointed to something in the sea and said,

     "Because, either that's Crete, or something else." I whipped around in shock. He was right, there was a tiny island in the distance. And we were heading straight toward it. In fact, the water seemed to be rushing toward the island, like it was sucking in all the water, and everything in it.

     "Hey, guys..." I murmured to the group. They didn't seem to hear me, so I raised my voice. "You all had better check this out. There's land!" They all stopped their conversations abruptly to turn and stare at me in disbelief. Obviously they found it impossible. I pointed to the island in the distance, that was now not so far, and all of them ran to the railing to look at the blotch that was rapidly growing bigger by the second. Smoky haze covered the island, and thunder rumbled in the distance. There was a strange fiery glow to the land and an acrid scent made us all wrinkle our noses. Theseus' eyes grew very wide, and he whispered something under his breath.

     "What?" I asked him. He did not take his eyes off the now very close island, and there was an obvious fear in his voice when he said,

     "Of course. The Aegean Sea. Also known as the Sea of the monsters... Monsters at every turn... It is scattered with islands, each with their own terror. One thing for sure. This is not Crete."