RED ¹ / Percy Jackson !

53

THEY FOUND THEMSELVES AT THE EDGE OF A LAKE . The trailers were all horsetrailers, tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito netting. They were in a centaur camp.

"Dude!" said a party pony as he unloaded his gear. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all like:'Whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!'"

The centaur with the googly-eye glasses laughed. "That was awesome! Head slam!"

The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces.

Chiron sighed. He set Annabeth, Percy Grover down on a picnic blanket next to Viviene and Tyson. "I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have the brain cells to spare."

"Chiron," Viviene said, still stunned by the fact that he was here. "You saved us."

He gave her a dry smile. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you'vecleared my name."

"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.

"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of theSea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."

"Gee, thanks," Grover mumbled.

"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean ... Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr.The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Viviene's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."

Percy and Viviene looked over at the campfire, where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun. Percy hoped they knew what they were getting into.

"So what now?" Percy asked Chiron. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway."

Chiron knelt, carefully folding his front legs underneath him.. "I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won."

"But we got the Fleece!" Annabeth said. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."

Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy. "You are all true heroes. And as soon as we getPercy fixed up, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."

"You're coming, too?" Percy asked.

"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate DeanMartin's music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see ... I'm curious about the Fleece."

Viviene didn't know exactly what he meant, but it made me worried about what Luke had said: I was going to let you take the Fleece ... once I was done with it.Had he just been lying? She'd learned with Kronos there was usually a plan within a plan. The titan lord wasn't called the Crooked One for nothing. He had ways of getting people to do what he wanted without them ever realizing his true intentions.