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chapter twenty-seven. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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THE NEXT MORNING, after a long night of ship tours and offhanded comments about how much trouble we were in at camp, Clarisse sailed us to our doom.
Now, I should clarify: Clarisse was not the one captaining the ship, per se, but she was clearly in charge. Her entire crew was made up of ghost soldiers that had once fought on CSS Birmingham and lost their battle, so they owed Ares a debt, and it was being paid by providing safe transport across the ocean for Clarisse's quest. I tried to find any hostages from camp aboard the ship that Clarisse had forced to come along with her, but she told me she 'let them stay behind to protect the camp.' I decided that was a load of crap and the real reason she was alone was because none of Clarisse's siblings had wanted to come along on this highly risky quest.
Annabeth, Percy, Tyson and I slept belowdeck in four uncomfortably stacked hammocks. Every time the ship rocked, I had to grip the sides of my hammock so I wouldn't fall onto Percy.
I also learned that I have a tendency to get majorly sea-sick. Figures.
The next morning, we were peacefully awoken by blaring alarms and shouting over the intercom. Tyson fell out of the top hammock and landed face-first on the wooden floor.
When we joined the rest of the ghost crew on the main deck, the sky was overcast and foggy. Clarisse had found what she was looking for through her binoculars, but I couldn't make out anything besides a couple dark splotches in the distance. The engine groaned as we increased speed.
Tyson muttered nervously, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water." I wasn't sure how he knew that, but it made me nervous.
After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead of us came into focus. To the north, a huge mass of rock rose out of the sea—an island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall. About half a mile south of that, the other patch of darkness was a storm brewing. The sky and sea boiled together in a roaring mass.
"Charybdis," I muttered, clutching the ship's railing for stability. I'd heard the myth of Charybdis and Scylla, but truthfully, I never thought they could actually be real. Sure, my father being an Olympian was legit enough. One of my best friends was half goat. But sister sea monsters that worked together to take down sailors and pirates? Yeah, that was insane.
I looked to Clarisse, expecting her to be frantic and trying to steer the ship in the other direction, but she looked smug. I gaped at her. "Are you crazy?"
"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla." Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs.
"What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth said. "That's another gateway. Jason used it."
