Daughter of Poseidon

The Princess and the Wood

The Princess Andromeda glowed on the horizon - a huge cruise ship lit up yellow and white. From a distance, you'd think it was just a party ship, not the headquarters for the Titan lord. Then as you got closer, you might notice the giant figurehead - a dark-haired maiden in a Greek chiton, wrapped in chains with a look of horror on her face, as if she could smell the stench of all the monsters she was being forced to carry. Seeing the ship twisted my gut into knots.

It had been just two hours, two hours, since we had left Virginia for Miami. The journey that Luke, Nico and I had taken forced us to go through Richmond and with that had surfaced memories of the mansion and Hal . . . along with memories of happier times with Thalia, Luke and Annabeth. I remembered the way that Thalia had used to look at Luke and jealousy swelled within me. What I thought of as friendly exchanges now seemed to be flirting to my older self and I felt angry at Thalia, who definitely didn't deserve it, so I shrugged it off - didn't really stop my jealousy though.

Slowly, I walked up to the ship, dragging my heels slightly, dreading the moment that I would meet the other members of the ship, and Kronos. I would have to play a rather elaborate game if I didn't want them to find out what my true intentions were, it meant probably years of living in constant danger. But if it saved Luke in the end, it would be worth it. Then there was the small matter of the gods and the fact that they probably now wanted to kill me, I didn't think they were particularly happy about the whole curse of invincibility that I'd gotten from the river Styx.

It had been a long, arduous task fighting off all of the living-dead warriors, but bathing in the river seemed to change things. Everything had shifted into sharper focus, it was clearer, and things seemed to move in almost slow motion. I could see the exact arc of where someone was going to strike, and arrows seemed to dodge me of their own accord. It was still the most stupid thing i'd ever done though. The red coats fired at me at point-blank range - they should have all hit me, but they didn't. Bayonets jabbed. Swords slashed. Guns reloaded and fired. Nothing touched me, or Luke as we whirled through the ranks, a whirlwind of destruction. We moved in harmony, defending, deflecting and slashing timed, so that we would always be protecting the other's back, and Nico, who looked as though he was having a hard time not fainting. Just like old times. We broke through the enemy line and, in a moment of pure rashness and stupidity, I leaped into the black chariot. Hades raised his staff. A bolt of dark energy shot toward me, but I deflected it off my blade and slammed into him. The next thing I knew, my knee was planted on Hades's chest. I was holding the collar of his royal robes in one fist, and the tip of my sword was poised right over his face.

"You dare fight with the stolen sword"

I was confused. "What stolen swo-?"

Hades cut me off. "That sword, Peresis, has a long and bloody history. One of my brother, Poseidon's brats stole it off me a milennia ago, adding the celestial bronze and defacing it."

"Well it's mine now, and a millennia is a long time. Are you sure you can't just go to 'Stygian Iron Swords 'r' Us' or something?"

I inwardly gulped - Hades' eyes looked like black fire and he seethed with rage, then melted into nothing, leaving me holding empty black robes. I cursed and got to my feet, breathing heavily.

Nico stood in stunned silence, but then hurried us along, as even louder warning bells seemed to toll. Hades was calling in his entire army.

"We have to get out of here." Nico had said. "But father's guarding all the exits. Even the one you came from, so we can only shadow-travel out."

"Isn't that supposed to be really draining though?"

"It is, but we need to get out of here. It might plonk us in the middle of the ocean - I'm really tired, and don't have the strength to control it very well. But if we land in water, at least you can help us, 'eh?" He said weakly.