The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

ten

BAD SPAR TRIP

Ariana woke up in a rowboat with a makeshift sail stitched of grey uniform fabric. Annabeth sat next to her, tacking into the wind. Percy was also beside her, though he looked sick.

Ariana tried to sit up and immediately felt woozy.

"Rest." Annabeth said. "You're going to need it."

"Tyson ...?" Percy asked.

Ariana didn't think she could even speak yet. Her throat felt tight; she couldn't help but think how she was even alive.

She shook her head. "Percy, I'm really sorry."

They were silent while the waves tossed them up and down.

"He may have survived." Ariana said half heartedly. "I mean, fire can't kill him."

Percy nodded and Ariana knew that he didn't believe a word she had just told him. If Tyson had been down in the boiler room, there was no way he could've lived.

Waves lapped at the boat. Annabeth showed them some things she'd salvaged from the wreckage - Hermes's Flask (now empty), an airtight bag full of ambrosia, a couple of sailors' shirts and a bottle of Dr Pepper.

She'd fished Ariana and Percy out of the water and found Percy's knapsack, bitten in half by Scylla's teeth.

Most of their stuff had floated away, but they still had Hermes's bottle of multivitamins, and of course Percy had Riptide and Ariana had her two rings.

They sailed for hours. Now that they were in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid.

The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too - as if a thunderstorm were coming.

They took turns sipping from the Dr Pepper, shading themselves with the sail as best they could. And they talked about Percys latest dream of Grover.

By Annabeth's estimate, they had less than twenty-four hours to find Grover, assuming his dream was accurate, and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn't change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier.

"Yeah." Percy said bitterly. "You can never trust a Cyclops."

Ariana immediately looked away.

Annabeth stared across the water. "I'm sorry, Percy. I was wrong about Tyson, okay? I wish I could tell him that."

Ariana looked down at their measly possessions- the empty wind Flask, the bottle of multivitamins.

She thought about Luke's look of rage when she had tried to talk to him about his dad.

"Annabeth, what's Chiron's prophecy?" Ariana asked.

Percy's head snapped upwards.

She pursed her lips. "Ariana , I shouldn't -"

"I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn't tell us. But you didn't promise, did you?" Percy joined in, protesting.

"Knowledge isn't always good for you!"

"Your mom is the wisdom goddess!" Complained Ariana.

"I know! But every time heroes learn the future, they try to change it, and it never works."

"The gods are worried about something
we might do when we get older." Percy guessed.

Ariana nodded. "Something when one of us turn sixteen!"

Annabeth twisted her Yankees cap in her hands. "Guys , I don't know the full prophecy, but it warns about a half-blood child of the Big Three - the next one who lives to the age of sixteen. That's the real reason Zeus, Poseidon and Hades swore a pact after World War II not to have any more kids. The next child of the Big Three who reaches sixteen will be a dangerous weapon."