Warriors || Leo Valdez [2]

21

Three giant pink bubbles bursting at the surface off the starboard bow and ejecting Frank, Hazel, and Leo. Alex cried out in relief and jumped into the water. It wasn't planned or co ordinated, but Piper was by her side too. 

Piper kissed Leo on his cheek while Alex pressed one to his lips. 

"Miss me?" Leo laughed.

Alex was suddenly furious. "Where were you? How are you guys alive?" 

"Long story," he said. A picnic basket bobbed to the surface next to him. "Want a brownie?"
Once they got on board and changed into dry clothes (poor Frank had to borrow a pair of too-small pants from Jason) the crew all gathered on the quarterdeck for a celebratory breakfast-except for Coach Hedge, who grumbled that the atmosphere was getting too cuddly for his tastes and went below to hammer out some dents in the hull. While Leo fussed over his helm controls, Hazel and Frank related the story of the fish-centaurs and their training camp.

"Incredible," Jason said. "These are really good brownies."

"That's your only comment?" Piper demanded and Alex rolled her eyes.

He looked surprised. "What? I heard the story. Fish-centaurs. Merpeople. Letter of intro to the Tiber River god . Got it. But these brownies-"

"I know," Frank said, his mouth full. "Try them with Esther's peach preserves."

"Ooh peaches" Violet mumbled, while reaching for the jar.

"That," Hazel said, "is incredibly disgusting."

"Pass me the jar, Violet" Jason said, Alex pulled a disgusted look.

Hazel and Piper exchanged a look of total exasperation. 

Percy, for his part, wanted to hear every detail about the aquatic camp. He kept coming back to one point: "They didn't want to meet me?"

"It wasn't that," Hazel said. "Just... undersea politics, I guess. The merpeople are territorial. The good news is they're taking care of that aquarium in Atlanta. And they'll help protect the Argo II as we cross the Atlantic."

Percy nodded absently. "But they didn't want to meet me? or even Allie"

Annabeth swatted his arm. "Come on, Seaweed Brain! Alex doesn't care and besides, we've got other things to worry about.

"She's right," Hazel said. "After today, Nico has less than two days. The fish-centaurs said we have to rescue him. He's essential to the quest somehow."

She looked around defensively, as if waiting for someone to argue. No one did. Alex tried to imagine what Nico di Angelo was feeling, stuck in a jar with only two pomegranate seeds left to sustain him, and no idea whether he would be rescued. 

"Nico must have information about the Doors of Death," Piper said. 

"We'll save him, Hazel. We can make it in time. Right, Leo?" Alex asked.

"What?" Leo tore his eyes away from the controls. "Oh, yeah. We should reach the Mediterranean tomorrow morning. Then spend the rest of that day sailing to Rome, or flying, if I can get the stabilizer fixed by then..."

Violet looked like suddenly her brownie didn't taste so good. "Which will put us in Rome on the last possible day for Nico. Twenty-four hours to find him-at most."

Percy crossed his legs. "And that's only part of the problem. There's the Mark of Athena, too."

Annabeth didn't seem happy with the change of topic. She rested her hand on her backpack, which, since they'd left Charleston, she always seemed to have with her.