The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

seven

REUNIONS

Annabeth volunteered to go alone since she had the cap of invisibility, but Percy convinced her it was too dangerous.

Either they all went together, or nobody went.

"Nobody." Tyson voted. "Please?"

But in the end he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails. They stopped at their cabin long enough to gather their stuff.

They figured whatever happened, they would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo.

Percy made sure Riptide was in his pocket and the vitamins and flask from Hermes were at the top of his bag.

Ariana didn't want Tyson to carry everything, but he insisted, and Annabeth told her not to worry about it. Tyson could carry three full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as she could carry a backpack.

They sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs towards the admiralty suite.

Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. They hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people they saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.

As they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be,

Annabeth hissed. "Hide!" and shoved them into a supply closet.

Ariana heard a couple of guys coming down the hall.

"You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said.

The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome!"

Ariana froze once again. It was Chris, one of her cabin mates from cabin 11. Annabeth was still invisible, but she squeezed her arm hard.

Ariana heard. "They got two more coming."

Chris said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man - no contest!"

The voices faded down the corridor.

"That was Chris Rodriguez." Ariana whispered.

Annabeth took off her cap and turned visible.
"You remember - from Cabin Eleven."

"What's another half-blood doing here?" Percy asked

Annabeth shook her head, clearly troubled.
They kept going down the corridor. Ariana didn't need maps any more to know she was getting close to Luke. She sensed something cold and unpleasant - the presence of evil.

"Percy. Ariana." Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look."

She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistorey canyon that ran through the middle of the ship.

At the bottom was the Promenade - a mall full of shops - but that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention.

A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants, two hellhounds and a few even stranger creatures - humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs.

"Scythian Dracaenae." Annabeth whispered. "Dragon women."

The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armour who was hacking on a straw dummy.

A lump formed in her throat when she realised the dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt.

As they watched, the guy in armour stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upwards.
Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled.