cacoethes |PERCY JACKSON| [book 2]

XXVI

"PERCY, WAKE UP."

Selena leaned down and splashed salt water on Percy's face. He immediately sat up.

In the distance, the sun was setting behind a city skyline. She could see a beachside highway lined with palm trees, storefronts glowing with red and blue neon, a harbor filled with sailboats and cruise ships.

"Miami, I think," Annabeth said from her hippocampus with Grover. 

Selena nodded, "That's where Chiron wanted us to go if we retrieved the Fleece."

"But the hippocampi are acting funny." Annabeth continued.

Sure enough, their fishy friends had slowed down and were whinnying and swimming in circles, sniffing the water. They didn't look happy. One of them sneezed. Percy could tell what they were thinking.

"This is as far as they'll take us," Percy explained to the others, "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to shore on our own."

None of them were very psyched about that, but they thanked Rainbow and his friends for the ride. Tyson cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle pack he'd made, which contained his tool kit and a couple of other things he'd salvaged from the Birmingham wreck. He hugged Rainbow around the neck, gave him a soggy mango he'd picked up on the island, and said good-bye.

Once the hippocampi's white manes disappeared into the sea, they swam for shore. Selena stuck by Annabeth to make sure she was okay to swim on her own. The waves pushed them forward, and in no time they were back in the mortal world. They wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers. If anybody noticed them—six kids dripping wet and looking like they'd just had a fight with a monster—they didn't let on.

Now that they were back among mortals, Selena made sure the Mist would blur Tyson's single eye to make it look like there was two. Grover had put on his cap and sneakers. Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high school letter jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.

Annabeth ran to the nearest newspaper box and checked the date on the Miami Herald. She cursed. "June eighteenth! We've been away from camp ten days!"

"That's impossible!" Clarisse replied.

But Selena knew it wasn't. Time traveled differently in monstrous places.

"Thalia's tree must be almost dead," Grover wailed. "We have to get the Fleece back tonight."

Clarisse slumped down on the pavement. "How are we supposed to do that?" Her voice trembled. "We're hundreds of miles away. No money. No ride. This is just like the Oracle said. It's your fault, Jackson! If you hadn't interfered—"

"Percy's fault?!" Selena exploded. "Clarisse, how can you say that? You are the biggest—"

"Stop it!" Percy pulled Selena back.

Clarisse put her head in hands and Selena stomped her foot in frustration.

The thing was: he'd almost forgotten this quest was supposed to be Clarisse's. For a scary moment, Percy saw things from her point of view. How would he feel if a bunch of other heroes had butted in and made him look bad?

Percy thought about what he'd overheard in the boiler room of the CSS Birmingham—Ares yelling at Clarisse, warning her that she'd better not fail. Ares couldn't care less about the camp, but if Clarisse made him look bad ...

"Clarisse," Percy said, "what did the Oracle tell you exactly?"

She looked up. Seena thought she was going to tell him off, but instead she took a deep breath and recited her prophecy:

"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone, You shall find what you seek and make it your own, But despair for your life entombed within stone, And fail without friends, to fly home alone." 

"Ouch," Grover mumbled.

"No," Percy said. "No ... wait a minute. I've got it."

He searched his pockets for money, and found nothing but a golden drachma. "Does anybody have any cash?"

Selena, Annabeth, and Grover shook their heads morosely. Clarisse pulled a wet Confederate dollar from her pocket and sighed.

"Cash?" Tyson asked hesitantly. "Like ... green paper?"

Percy looked at him. "Yeah."

"Like the kind in duffel bags?"

"Yeah, but we lost those bags days a-g-g—" Percy stuttered to a halt as Tyson rummaged in his saddle pack and pulled out the Ziploc bag full of cash that Hermes had included in our supplies. "Tyson!" He exclaimed, "How did you—"

"Thought it was a feed bag for Rainbow," Tyson said. "Found it floating in sea, but only paper inside. Sorry." He handed Percy the cash. Fives and tens, at least three hundred dollars.

He ran to the curb and grabbed a taxi that was just letting out a family of cruise passengers, "Clarisse," Percy yelled. "Come on. You're going to the airport. Annabeth, give her the Fleece."

He wasn't sure which of them looked more stunned as Percy took the Fleece letter jacket from Annabeth, tucked the cash into its pocket, and put it in Clarisse's arms.

Clarisse said, "You'd let me—"

"It's your quest," Percy told her, "We only have enough money for one flight. Besides, I can't travel by air. Zeus would blast me into a million pieces. That's what the prophecy meant: you'd fail without friends, meaning you'd need our help, but you'd have to fly home alone. You have to get the Fleece back safely."

Selena could see her mind working—suspicious at first, wondering what trick Percy was playing, then finally deciding he meant what he said.

Clarisse jumped in the cab. "You can count on me. I won't fail."

"Not failing would be good."

The cab peeled out in a cloud of exhaust. The Fleece was on its way.

"Percy," Annabeth said, "that was so—"

"Generous?" Grover offered.

"Insane," Annabeth finished, "You're betting the lives of everybody at camp that Clarisse will get the Fleece safely back by tonight?"

"It's her quest," Percy shrugged, "She deserves a chance."

"Percy is nice," Tyson said.

"Percy is too nice," Selena grumbled, crossing her arms, but Percy had surprised her, in a good way. After all that Clarisse had done to him and he let her take all the glory.

"Come on," Percy told them, "Let's find another way home."

That's when he turned and found a sword's point at his throat, "Hey, cuz," smiled Luke. "Welcome back to the States."