A Pirate's Life For Me

Whispers In The Dark

Annabeth woke up to voices. Jason and Light chained her and the girls up separately at night, something about Leo and Green Eyes, as the darker skinned girls called him, taking advantage of them. She found it ridiculous, since neither boy had made any move on the girls.

Aside from Leo's shameless flirting with every pirate woman on the ship.

The deck shone brightly under the full moon as the ship floated along the waves.

"You hear it too?" Reyna asked. The younger of the two new girls, she was a spitfire, kicking Jason between the legs once she had woken and found him standing above her smugly. He had, of course, immediately issued lashes that the barely conscious mute prisoner had taken in a heartbeat.

"Yeah...Who is it?" She didn't recognize the voice.

"No clue. Can you hear what they're saying?" Annabeth frowned and listened intently.

"-is near? Are you sure, Maurai?"

"Of course I'm sure, Kelp for Brains."

"You disrespect your prince?"

"No, I disrespect my friend." The unfamiliar female's voice held a note of laughter.

"Glad to know I count as one."

"Of course you do. You're a seaman at heart, dear prince. We will help you as you need it."

"Thank you, Maurai. Now you should leave before anyone sees you."

Annabeth heard a splash, then saw a silver shimmer leaving the ship, nearer to where the boys were chained.

"That's a mermaid." Reyna breathed.

"How do you know?"

"My sister and I worked on an island near here. When a group of pirates, not these, attacked, we stole a small rowboat and took to sea to get away. A few days ago, our little boat was surrounded by silver shimmers like that. As they neared the surface, we could see tails and torsos."

Annabeth's eyes strained to catch another glance of the elusive creature, but it was gone.

"Why would a mermaid be on the ship?"

"She was talking to a man. A prince." Reyna's dark eyes met Annabeth's grey ones. "There's a son of Poseidon on this ship."

———————————-

"So, who's your godly parent?" Leo asked quietly when the boy guarding them, Frank Zhang, wasn't paying attention.

"Is it Ares?" Annabeth had noticed the violence in both girls.

"Close." Reyna muttered out of the corner of her mouth. Hylla, her older sister, didn't talk much.

"You know, Frank's a son of Ares." They all looked over at the guard, who was staring out at the sea, his mind obviously far away.

"It's not Ares." Hylla snapped. Leo and Annabeth exchanged a surprised look. That was the longest sentence she'd said so far.

"We're daughters of Enyo." Reyna said.

"Sister of Ares and goddess of war. Makes sense." Annabeth mused.

"Uh...guys?" Leo suddenly sounded kind of scared. The girls looked at him.

Annabeth bit back a scream.

Leo's hand was covered in fire. "It doesn't hurt." He whispered.

"What?" Annabeth was shocked. He was on fire and it didn't hurt?

Leo shook his head and clenched his fist. The fire went out.

"Oh my gods, he's a son of Hephaestus." Reyna said.

"Then he's not the person who was talking to the mermaid last night." Annabeth muttered.

"There was a mermaid?" Leo sounded intrigued.

"We weren't sure at first, then Reyna saw the silver shimmer it's tail made as it swam away. It was talking to a son of Poseidon. Did you see anything?"

"Why would I have seen anything?" Leo frowned.

"It was nearer to your side of the boat."

"Oh. No, I didn't see anything." But something in his eyes betrayed him.

"Leo-" Annabeth began.

"Get back to work." Frank snapped. He had pulled himself out of the little dream world he was in.

The prisoners didn't respond, just scrubbed at the deck in silence.

Annabeth noticed that the boys seemed to be moving faster than the girls. That didn't make sense, there were more girls.

Green Eyes was completely focused on his task. Even though she knew he couldn't speak, she could have sworn she heard him muttering, "A few more days. Only a few more days," as he scrubbed.

But that was impossible. He was mute.

[A/N so I knew there was a Greek form of Bellona, despite Reyna saying there wasn't. So I looked it up. She's actually Enyo, that's not made up. Daughter of Zeus/Jupiter and Hera/Juno, Enyo/Bellona is the sister of Ares/Mars. She is sometimes called his twin sister and sometimes simply his sister. Either way, she is real and she is a goddess of war, though not as prominent as her brother]