Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 87

If you motivated Percy in the right way, you could get him to do anything. For example, motivate Percy with a rain check, and he'll empty an entire Greek trireme of tens of thousands of gallons of water in under 10 seconds.

But even still, the ship wasn't in good shape as they sailed for Delos. They were too damaged to fly and too slow to outrun monsters.

They fought hungry sea serpents about every hour. They attracted schools of curious fish. At one point they got stuck on a rock, and Percy and Jason had to get out and push. With Cressida's help of course as she gave the boys a boost and grew some grapevines to help lift the ship.

Let's just say it was a long three days before they made it to Mykonos and Cressida, Percy, Annabeth and Piper went on a scouting mission. Piper mostly wanted the chance to quiz him on the whole immortality thing. Percy didn't mind it. He enjoyed the chance to make his girlfriend blush as he said nice things about her.

And then they came back, they brought gelato for everyone. Percy made sure to get himself rocky road and get Cressida cookie dough just as he did in central park on her birthday two years ago.

The whole crew sat on deck, without a storm or a monster attack to worry about for the first time in days, and ate ice cream. Well, except for Frank, who was lactose intolerant. He got an apple.

Mykonos was beautiful. – a collection of white stucco buildings with blue roofs, blue windows and blue doors.

"We saw these pelicans walking around town," Percy reported. "Like, just going through the shops, stopping at the bars."

Hazel frowned. "Monsters in disguise?"

"No," Annabeth said, laughing, "just regular old pelicans. They're the town mascots or something. And there's a 'Little Italy' section of town. That's why the gelato is so good."

"Good? Books, this stuff is heavenly," Cressida said from where she sat, leaning against Percy as she ate her gelato.

Leo was inclined to agree as he thanked Piper for getting him double chocolate delight.

"Europe is messed up." Leo shook his head. "First we go to Rome for Spanish steps. Then we go to Greece for Italian ice cream."

He did hate the fact that the closer they got to August 1, the more upbeat his friends acted. Or maybe upbeat wasn't the right word. They seemed to be pulling together for the final lap – aware that the next two days would make or break them. There was no point moping around when you faced imminent death. The end of the world made gelato taste a lot better.

Especially for Cressida who was supposed to turn 17 on D-day.

Piper set down her ice cream cup. "So, the island of Delos is right across the harbour. Artemis and Apollo's home turf. Who's going?"

"Me," Leo said immediately.

Everybody stared at him.

"What?" Leo demanded. "I'm diplomatic and stuff. Frank and Hazel volunteered to back me up."

"We did?" Frank lowered his half-eaten apple. "I mean ... sure we did."

Hazel's gold eyes flashed in the sunlight. "Leo, did you have a dream about this or something?"

"Yes," Leo blurted. "Well ... no. Not exactly. But ... you got to trust me on this, guys. I need to talk to Apollo and Artemis. I've got an idea I need to bounce off them."

Annabeth frowned. She looked like she might object, and so did Cressida, but Jason spoke up.

"If Leo has an idea," he said, "we need to trust him."