Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 83

Percy was really glad to be back on the ship as he barrelled straight into Cressida's arms, startling her a little bit.

"If I'm going to fight in an arena for other people's entertainment, can you at least fight by my side?" he asked as she rubbed his back and played with the hair on the back of his head.

"Always," she promised before she laughed at the site of Nike. She was bound and gagged with a sock duck-tapped to her mouth.

"By the way Hollywood," Leo had said. "Thank you for making Aquaman here, so whipped for you that he had your hair ties on his wrist. Saved our lives it did."

Cressida let out one of her musical laughs as Percy blushed and wrapped his arms around her tighter. "You're welcome, Houston."

And Leo had then thrown Nike in the stables until she had apparently given them a list of other challenges they had to accomplish, the poison of Pylos and some chained god in Sparta.

Piper and Frank had gone in search of the poison and they'd gathered on the foredeck for a quick meeting as Percy was keeping an eye on a giant red sea serpent swimming off the port side and he'd dragged Cressida to join him.

"That thing is really red," Percy muttered, Cressida tucked under his arm. "I wonder if it's cherry-flavoured."

"Why don't you swim over and find out?" Annabeth asked.

"How about no."

"I think it's raspberry flavoured - no strawberry," Cressida proclaimed.

"I think you're onto something," Percy agreed. "Strawberry but a bit sourer than the ones at camp."

"Exactly!" Cressida grinned as he understood her, and Annabeth gave them a disbelieving look.

"Are you seriously debating how a sea monster would taste?"

"Books, I love you, but do you ever get tired of lecturing us?" Cressida asked and Annabeth didn't have the heart to say anything as she saw how happy the two of them were despite how strange they were.

"Anyway," Frank said, "according to my Pylos cousins, the chained god we're looking for in Sparta is my dad ... uh, I mean Ares, not Mars. Apparently, the Spartans kept a statue of him chained up in their city so the spirit of war would never leave them."

"Oo-kay," Leo said. "The Spartans were freaks. Of course, we've got Victory tied up downstairs, so I guess we can't talk."

Jason leaned against the forward ballista. "On to Sparta, then. But how does a chained god's heartbeat help us find a cure for dying?"

"Piper?" Hazel asked.

She stirred, stuck in thought about how Jason was still in pain. "Sorry, what?"

"I was asking you about the visions," Hazel prompted. "You told me you'd seen some stuff in your dagger blade?"

"Uh ... right." Piper reluctantly unsheathed Katoptris. Ever since she'd used it to stab the snow goddess Khione, the visions in the blade had become colder and harsher, like images etched in ice. She'd seen eagles swirling over Camp Half-Blood, a wave of earth destroying New York. She'd seen scenes from the past: her father beaten and bound at the top of Mount Diablo, Jason, Percy and Cressida fighting giants in the Roman Colosseum, the river god Achelous reaching out to her, pleading for the cornucopia she'd cut from his head.

"I, um ..." She tried to clear her thoughts. "I don't see anything right now. But one vision kept popping up. Annabeth, Cressida and I are exploring some ruins –"

"Ruins!" Leo rubbed his hands. "Now we're talking. How many ruins can there be in Greece?"

"Quiet, Leo," Annabeth scolded. "Piper, do you think it was Sparta?"