A Pirate's Life For Me

Epilogue

Lord Poseidon steered the Doriana far from Athens, putting over a dozen miles between them in under an hour. Finally the ship stopped moving, and out of habit Frank dropped the sea anchor.

"Thank you, Lord Poseidon." Reyna curtsied awkwardly. She'd never been one for feminine formalities, even working on Circe's Island.

"You should be thanking someone else." The god smiled. "I received a prayer from a daughter of Aphrodite on the ship."

"That was me." Piper smiled, stepping forward. "And I still have to thank you. You helped me get to the crew so I could help them."

Poseidon nodded. "You brought the plight my son is suffering from to me, I'm glad I could help." He turned to Reyna again. "You have a plan to bring him back?"

"Yes, my Lord." Reyna nodded, jerking a thumb over her shoulder to where the self-proclaimed god was tied to the main mast. He was awake now, and glaring at everyone.

"Then I shall leave you to it. Let Percy know I'm proud of him, and that he's doing a great job with all of this."

Reyna felt a little pang in her chest when the god of the sea said that. She nodded and he disappeared in a sea breeze quickly lost in the wind.

She'd never spoken to her mother. Was Enyo proud of her?

"Reyna, we should get this done." Annabeth spoke. "Ladan is scum, but he is intelligent scum. The sooner we hand him over the better."

"I quite agree, but for different reasons." Reyna nodded. She walked to the mast and stared down at Ladan for a few moments before pulling out that compass that she had been given.

"Ladies Fate, we bring the man who eludes you."

There was a bright flash and the Fates appeared. Reyna kept her head down, mostly so that she didn't just attack them on sight like she wanted to every time they showed up.

"Ladan Graeme..." One cackled. "It has been a long time."

Ladan watched them silently, his eyes wide.

"Will this payment be sufficient?" Reyna asked them.

The Fates looked at each other for a few moments, then the one in the center nodded. "Ladan Graeme for your life and your lover's. It is sufficient."

Reyna breathed a sigh of relief, stepping back. The Fates swarmed Ladan, and his scream was cut off suddenly as all four disappeared.

Will darted into the ship immediately, and Reyna followed him.

Piper suddenly remembered something and raced after the both of them. "There's a chair in front of the door!"

Reyna stopped, looking back at her. "What?"

She smiled sheepishly. "I shoved a chair under the door to keep it closed when I was trying to figure out how to get off the ship without being seen. I don't know if you'll be able to get it out of the way."

Reyna shrugged. "I'll fix whatever needs to be fixed later."

Piper just nodded.

---------------

Percy didn't wake up immediately. It took two days. Then another week and a half before he could get out of bed. While he recovered, Reyna set the crew about tasks as usual. 

"You're really running them, huh?" Percy asked as he leaned against the deck on his first morning out of bed. 

"They needed the distraction. We had some... issues while you were out."

"Will gave me a rundown." Percy nodded, sighing. "I feel like I missed so many important things."

Reyna chuckled. "Well, you sort of did. But I think we've got everything figured out now... aside from your door."

He laughed. "Ah yes. That, you have to fix."

"I will, I will." Reyna waved him off and leaned on the railing next to him. "It's Piper's fault, but I will."

Percy turned to look at her. He was silent for a few moments before leaning over and taking Reyna's hand. "What was my father like?"

Reyna paused, thinking about the question. She hadn't talked to Poseidon much when he was on the ship, but he had made sure that everyone was okay while he was there, which was more than quite a lot of the gods would do.

"He cared, which isn't something I can say about a lot of deities... he wanted me to say that he was proud of you."

Percy's smile was so sweet and genuine. "He did?"

Reyna nodded. "He said specifically that you're doing a great job."

"Thank you for passing on the message." Percy grinned and pulled her in by the arm he had around her waist.

"Behave yourself, Captain." Reyna smirked.

"My ship, my rules."