Indigo Eyes

Chapter 21

The cruise ship was even bigger in person and as much as she hated to admit it, riding the hippocampus with Percy was kinda fun. The white hull was at least ten storeys tall, topped with another dozen levels of decks with brightly lit balconies and portholes. The ship's name was painted just above the bow line in black letters, lit with a spotlight. Princess Andromeda.

Attached to the bow was a huge masthead – a three-storey-tall woman wearing a white Greek chiton, sculpted to look as if she were chained to the front of the ship. She was young and beautiful, with flowing black hair, but her expression was one of absolute terror, much like the expression she imagined the girl wore when she was chained to a rock and sacrificed to a sea monster. At least before Perseus, the original one from thousands of years ago, saved her by turning the sea monster to stone using the severed head of Medusa.

Cressida was wandering if Percy would end up like his namesake when Annabeth shouted, "How do we get aboard?"

Over the noise of the waves, the hippocampi knew what they needed as they skimmed along the starboard side of the ship, riding easily through its huge wake and pulling up next to a service ladder riveted to the side of the hull.

"You first!" Percy said to Annabeth who slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and grabbed the bottom rung, her hippocampus whining goodbye before it disappeared under the waves. "You're up next, Cressida," he said once Annabeth got far enough up the ladder, Percy not realising how he kept a hold of her hips until she was out of reach but Cressida was well aware. Percy then whispered thanks to his steed before he began his own trip up the ladder, leaving Tyson in the water. His hippocampus was treating him to 360° aerials and backward flips, and Tyson was laughing so hysterically, the sound echoed up the side of the ship.

"Tyson, shhh!" Percy said. "Come on, big buy!"

"Can't we take Rainbow?" he asked, his sky fading.

"Rainbow?" Percy questioned.

The hippocampus whinnied as if he liked his new name.

"Um, we have to go," Percy said. "Rainbow ... well, he can't climb ladders."

Tyson sniffled. He buried his face in the hippocampus's mane. "I will miss you, Rainbow!"

The hippocampus made a neighing sound, almost as if it was crying.

"We'll see him again soon," Cressida called down.

"Oh, please!" Tyson said as he perked up immediately. "Tomorrow!"

No one made any promises but Tyson eventually said his farewells to Rainbow before he climbed up the ladder and Rainbow did a backflip and dived into the sea.

But as they started to sneak around the ship, they realised that there was no one they needed to hide from.

"It's ghost ship" Percy murmured.

"No," Tyson said as he fiddled with the strap of his duffle bag. "Bad smell."

"I don't smell anything," Annabeth frowned.

"Tyson's like Grover. He can smell monsters," Cressida answered, the Mist having covered Tyson's face now that they were out of camp, making it seem as if he had two eyes instead of one.

"Ok. So, what exactly do you smell?" Annabeth wondered.

"Something bad," Tyson answered.

"Great," Annabeth grumbled. "That clears it up."

"He's trying," Cressida defended.

They came outside on the swimming pool level. There were rows of empty deckchairs and a bar closed off with a chain curtain. The water in the pool glowed eerily, sloshing back and forth from the motion of the ship. Above the fore and aft were more levels – a climbing wall, a pitch-and-putt golf course, a revolving restaurant, but no sign of life.