| chapter twelve |

in which the chariot races in a bang

"One on one," Percy challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"

Luke curled his lip, but before he could say anything, Agrius burst onto the deck leading a flying horse. The pegasus was pure black with wings like a giant raven. They bucked and whinnied.

"Sir," called Agrius, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"

Luke kept his eyes on Percy. "I told you last summer, Percy. You can't bait me into a fight."

"And you keep avoiding one," noticed Percy. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"

Luke glanced at his soldiers, knowing that Percy had him trapped. If he backed down, he would look weak. If he fought Percy, he would lose valuable time chasing after Clarisse.

"I'll kill you quickly," Luke decided and raised Backbiter. He whistled to one of the men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield. Luke grinned wickedly.

Annabeth bristled. "Luke, at least give him a shield."

"Sorry, Annabeth," he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."

"This is a party?" Nia muttered. The shield that Luke had was a clear problem. Fighting two-handed with just a sword gives more power but fighting one-handed with a shield gives better defense and versatility — more moves, more options, more ways to kill.

Luke lunged suddenly and almost killed Percy on the first try. His sword slashed through his shirt and grazed his ribs. Percy jumped back, then try to counterattack with Riptide, but Luke slammed it away with his shield.

"My, Percy," chided Luke. "You're out of practice." He came at him again with a swipe to the head. Percy parried returned with a thrust, and Luke sidestepped easily. When Luke lunged again, Percy jumped backward into the swimming pool and sent out a funnel cloud of water towards Luke.

The force of the water knocked him down, spluttering and blinded. But before Percy could get him, Luke rolled aside and was on his feet again.

Percy attacked Luke and sliced off the edge of his shield, but Luke dropped to a crouch and jabbed at Percy's legs, completely ripping through the flesh. 

Grover bleated, "Perrrrrcy!"

Nia glanced at Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson, desperate for a plan. But no one had one, not even Annabeth.

Percy rolled aside again as Luke's sword slashed the deck chair in half. Percy clawed through the swimming pool. Luke advanced slowly, smiling, the edge of his sword tinged with Percy's blood.

"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy." Luke looked at Oreius, who was still holding Annabeth, Grover, and Nia by their necks. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appetite."

"He-he! He-he!" The bear-man lifted all three of them up and bared his teeth.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

Whish!

A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius's mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he crumpled to the deck.

"Brother!" wailed Agrius. He let the pegasus's reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.

For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies dissolve into smoke. Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell, Chiron among them.

"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.

Nia blinked in surprise. The centaurs in the crowd were freer than Chiron. One had his face painted and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand. Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green.

They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that for a moment even Luke was stunned. 

As Luke was raising his sword to rally his troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke right in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool. The rest of Luke's warriors scattered.

"Come get some!" yelled one of the party ponies. Nia burst out laughing at the so-called 'warriors'.

The centaurs let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall.

Chiron galloped toward Annabeth, Grover, and Nia, neatly plucked them off the deck, and placed them on his back.

Luke was crawling out of the pool and ordered his troops, "Attack, you fools!" Somewhere below deck, a large alarm bell sounded. Any second they would be swamped by Luke's reinforcements. 

Tyson slapped half a dozen of them aside, knocking them over the guardrail into Miami Bay. But more warriors were coming up the stairs.

Chiron called, "Withdraw, brethren!"

"You won't get away with this, horseman!" Luke shouted. He raised his sword, but got smacked in the face again with another boxing glove arrow, and sat down hard in a deck chair.

A centaur hoisted Percy and Tyson on his back, and they all galloped to the edge of the deck and fearlessly jumped the guardrail, as if it were a steeplechase and not ten stories above the ground.

Nia almost screamed, but she bit it back.

They plummeted toward the docks, but the centaurs hit the asphalt with hardly a jolt and galloped off, whooping and yelling taunts at the Princess Andromeda as they raced into the streets of downtown Miami.

WHAT THE MIAMIANS THOUGHT as a group of centaurs galloped through the streets, Nia didn't know. She wasn't sure if she wanted to.

Streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. In no time, they'd left the city behind and raced through marshy fields of high grass and ponds and stunted trees.

Along the way, Annabeth and Chiron talked about the Great Prophecy — the one that was probably about Percy ( but could very well be about Naomi ). Apparently, Annabeth told him the basics of everything.

Eventually, they reached a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers, tricked out with TVs and mini-fridges and mosquito netting — a centaur camp.

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

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

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

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

"Chiron," Percy said, stunned. "You saved us."

Chiron gave them all a dry smile. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name."

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

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

"Gee, thanks," mumbled Grover.

"No, no," said Chiron. "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 Percy'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."

"So what now?" Percy asked Chiron, looking over at the campfire. "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. He opened the medicine pouch on his belt and started to treat Percy's wounds. "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!" said Annabeth. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."

Chiron nodded, looking uneasy. "You are all true heroes. And as soon as we get Percy fixed up, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."

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

"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. And I want to see. . . I'm curious about the Fleece."

Nia sighed, mind muddled from everything that happened.

Chiron suddenly said, "Annabeth? Nia? Grover? Perhaps you three would go and supervise Tyson and my cousins before they, ah, teach each other too many bad habits?"

Nia met his eyes. It was obvious that he wanted some time alone to talk with Percy. She glanced at Annabeth, who nodded at her.

"Sure, Chiron," said Annabeth. "Come on, goat boy."

"But I don't like paintball," protested Grover.

"Yes, you do. Come on, Nia," Annabeth hoisted Grover to his hooves and led him off to the campfire.

Nia got up and, after one more look at Percy and Chiron, walked away. Once she got over there, she sat down on another picnic blanket and started watching Percy as Chiron talked to him. She didn't even realize that she was doing it.

Annabeth quickly walked over to her and smirked. "You're staring."

Nia snapped her head to her. "Huh?"

"You're staring at Percy."

"No," Nia defended. "I'm looking at the sunset. It's nothing."

"If it were nothing, you wouldn't have said it was nothing."

"It's true," Grover grinned at her.

"Yes," Tyson agreed. "You are staring."

"None of you know what you're talking about," Nia blushed furiously and started going through her hunting bag inventory.

"Whatever you say, Nia," Annabeth said, grinning.

Scowling, Nia kept her face down, refusing to speak to any of them any longer. She wasn't some silly teenage girl who got caught up in boys ( or girls ). That wasn't her.

Then what was she doing?

THEY ALL ARRIVED IN LONG ISLAND just after Clarisse did, thanks to the centaurs' travel powers. Nia didn't speak to anyone the whole way, lest someone start talking about her and Percy again.

When they reached camp, the whole camp gathered at the top of Half-Blood Hill. It looked like the campers had been through a rough two weeks — the arts and crafts cabin had burned to the ground from an attack by a Draco Aionius ( Nia couldn't get the image of a very angry Draco Malfoy breathing fire out of her head. ) Apollo cabin had been overwhelmed by the injuries. Everyone looked weary and battered as they gathered around Thalia's tree.

The moment Clarisse draped the Golden Fleece over the lowest bough, the moonlight seemed to brighten, turning from gray to liquid silver. A cool breeze rustled through the air. Everything came into sharper focus. And gradually, the needles on Thalia's pine tree started turning brown to green.

Everyone cheered. The Fleece's magic was seeping into the tree, filling it with new power and expelling the poison. Everything would be back to normal in no time.

Chiron ordered a twenty-four / seven guard duty on the hilltop, at least until he could find an appropriate monster to protect the Fleece. He said he would place an ad in Olympus Weekly right away.

In the meantime, Clarisse was carried on her cabin mates' shoulders down to the amphitheater, where she was honored with a laurel wreath and a lot of celebrating around the campfire. No one gave Nia, Percy, or Annabeth a second look. It was like they'd never left.

But honestly? Nia was okay with that. She'd had enough attention to last a lifetime. She hoped that soon, after Kronos was said and done with, things would really be peaceful. Well, as peaceful as it could get for half-bloods.

At the campfire, Nia sat down next to all her friends, singing songs and listening to ghost stories ( thankfully none like Tantalus's ) and eating s'mores and roasted sausages.

Naomi leaned toward Nia and whispered, "I wanna come along on the next quest."

Nia laughed. "You know what? Let's not have a next quest. At least not for a little while."

"Yeah, right," Naomi giggled, took a bite of her s'more, and said, "Hey, wanna hear a joke?"

"Sure."

"Why do they call these s'mores?"

"I don't know, Naomi," Nia shook her head, knowing exactly what she was going to say. "Why do they call these s'mores?"

"Because you just gotta have some more!" Naomi grinned and looked at Nia expectantly.

Nia just smiled and slung an arm over Naomi's shoulder. "Gods, I've missed you, Nomi."

THE NEXT MORNING, Chiron made a surprise announcement: the chariot races would go ahead as scheduled. Everyone had figured that they were history now that Tantalus was gone — thank the gods — but completing them felt like the right thing to do, especially now that Chiron was back and the camp was safe again.

Tyson, Annabeth, and Percy were doing the race together. Nia had opted out again, content with just watching. Naomi decided to watch with her.

Everyone was buzzing about the chariot races, though they all kept glancing nervously at the sky like they expected to see Stymphalian birds. Luckily for them, none appeared. It was a beautiful summer day with a blue sky and plenty of sunshine. The meadows were lush; the white columns gleamed on the Greek buildings; dryads played happily in the woods. The camp was looking the way it should.

The races were exciting, but to tell you the truth — Nia didn't really watch them. She was more focused on everything that had happened in the past two weeks. Thalia's tree, Percy, her dream vision of her mom and those three other people, Percy, Kronos reforming, and Percy.

Gods, why was the idiotic Seaweed Brain himself on her mind so much? He was just her friend — one of her best friends, yes, but still. Just her friend.

Just her friend.

Before Nia knew it, the chariot races were over and Annabeth and Percy had won, with the help of Tyson's newly crafted shield.

The crowd mobbed the two of them, chanting their names, but Annabeth yelled over the noise: "Hold up! Listen! It wasn't just us!"

The crowd didn't want to be quiet, but Annabeth made herself be heard: "We couldn't have done it without somebody else! We couldn't have done it without somebody else! We couldn't have won this race or gotten the Fleece or saved Grover or anything! We owe our lives to Tyson, Percy and Naomi's. . ."

"Brother!" Percy said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Tyson, our baby brother."

Tyson blushed; Naomi grinned. The crowd cheered. Nia was still standing back from the crowd, watching as Chiron presented her friends with the winning laurels. Nia clapped with a small smile on her face. "Not bad, Jackson. Not bad."

happy ( late ) valentine's day everyone! i meant to publish this chapter yesterday, but i couldn't find any time to actually get to my computer so it didn't happen. but i'm writing one today!

yay !

this is the second-to-last chapter of part one — chapter thirteen will be out soon, i hope — and then we'll be getting into titan's curse!! i already have a good amount written for it, so hopefully updates will be out soon.

and with that, i hope you all have a fabulous rest of your day! 

talk soon!

—icedcoffeemug