xiii. home

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THEA HAS BEEN SPENDING A LOT OF TIME WITH TYSON—EVEN MORE THAN PERCY HAS. Percy doesn't want to spend time with Tyson and she can't blame him. She can't imagine having a cyclops for a half-brother. Because suddenly Percy isn't the cool son of Poseidon who fought the Minotaur and went to the Underworld, he's Percy the son of Poseidon who has a monster for a brother.

She doesn't have any siblings, at least not ones that she knows of, but Charlie is practically her brother. Still, it isn't like she can understand what Percy is feeling. She punched Jessica from the Aphrodite cabin for teasing Percy but it did no good except for a few bruised knuckles.

Charlie is nice enough to Tyson and even if he clams up occasionally the cyclops doesn't seem to notice in the slightest. The rest of Charlie's siblings aren't as accepting, but Tyson seems just as happy having only Charlie to teach him how to make things in the forges. Thea isn't too good in the forges, mediocre at best, but she helps in any way she can just to spend time with everyone. Which includes Tyson, too, apparently.

Thea goes on border patrol, too, as often as she can. Tantalus had ordered that it be stopped but a few campers still continue it behind his back, mostly members of the Ares and Apollo cabin and a few from Athena, but that's it. Their previously large ranks are down to less than fifteen.

She helps Charlie and his siblings with their chariot even if it is against the rules because technically Thea isn't in any cabin, she's unclaimed. She won't participate in the race but it doesn't matter, she just wants to keep herself busy.

Because if she has only a few seconds to think her mind is spiraling out of control, her nightmares will get worse, and everything will burn up in flames. She has to keep busy to stop from thinking about the fact that camp will be gone in under two years.

This leads her to her current predicament: shoveling out the pegasi stables. It isn't awful, Thea has done dirtier jobs, but it isn't something she looks forward to. She doesn't have to do it, but she always likes the pegasi and takes every chance she can to spend time with them. Her favorite is one named Achilles, a mean-looking pegasus that resembles a brown Hanoverian. She isn't sure how he got braids in his mane since everyone at camp is terrified of him, but they're there.

"What's up?" Thea refills his water bucket. "You're one mean motherfucker, you know that?"

Achilles' lips flap in that way horses always do. "I mean it in a good way. Like, wow, you could probably kill me, y'know?"

Thea has never thought horses could be judgemental, but Achilles certainly is.

"Yeah, I know."

She finishes filling the water buckets and turns back to Achilles. "Behave. No more biting people."

Achilles drinks his water and doesn't even spare her a glance.

"Well, screw you t—" Thea blinks in realization. "...That isn't the chariot race."

Chariots don't screech. Not like birds.

She takes off, unsheathing her sword in the process, and races toward the track. She can see the birds swarming in the air, diving toward the crowd as they scream and try to fight them off. Stymphalian birds, from Hercules' sixth task.

And they're swarming the Hephaestus cabin's chariot.

"Charlie!" she screams, slashing wildly at the birds around her as she scrambles up the track. "Nyssa!"

The Poseidon and Athena cabins' chariots roar past her, birds flying after them, and Thea nearly stops until she hears Charlie scream.

She slashes at the birds, knocking them to the side the best she can as they claw at her, her bleeding fingers fumbling with the lock on the chariot's door that's been scratched shut.

"Thea, go!" Charlie yells. "We're okay, the door's bolted shut!"

"And the windows are open! They'll tear you to shreds, dammit!"

She finally gets the lock open right as a bird dives down and catches her bad hand in their talons. She screams, flailing, desperately trying to hit the bird off as her sword falls to the ground.

With one swing of Charlie's hammer, the bird is on the ground, its beak nearly knocked clean off.

"You okay?" he asks, tilting her head to the side as he checks over her. "Your scalp's bleeding—"

"Nothing that hasn't happened before." She picks her sword up in her right hand and slashes at an oncoming bird. "It's fine! Try to get to the stands!"

"Magic!" Nyssa yells, kicking a bird square in the face. "Do magic!"

"There's nothing I can do that wouldn't hurt everyone else!"

And she doesn't have enough magic in her to do something that big.

Charlie bashes another bird with his hammer when it comes too close to Nyssa. "There's hundreds!"

Thea knows better than to think that would stop him, and she's right. Together, the three of them attack any time a bird comes close until they reach the stands.

Music starts playing, loud and obnoxious, and she nearly drops her sword in confusion. Italian music? Bad Italian music?

The birds take to the air, screeching as they try to flee the noise. Sure enough, when she looks, Percy and Annabeth have a boombox and are moving the volume dial up. The archers take place, firing six arrows, one after another with a near-perfect aim, until all the birds are on the ground.

It seems too good to be true, but Thea is just glad she won't get injured once again.

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IT IS TOO good to be true. Tantalus, the spineless dick, is convinced that somehow it's their fault that the birds attacked. As if it's Thea's fault that her cousin was getting attacked by pigeons of death.

Luckily Charlie and Nyssa aren't included since they were part of the chariot race and didn't "cause trouble." Tyson doesn't understand, but he likes the idea of playing with the lava.

The Harpies clean the dishes with lava, meaning that they have to wear protective gloves as they wash the dead bird bones off the plates.

"So you've been having dreams about Grover and didn't think you'd need to give me a run-down?"

"Well, you were busy with the chariot and—"

"And because I was helping build a chariot you couldn't tell me our friend was about to die?!"

"Aw, Thea, did you call him your friend?"

"Shut up Annabeth." She glares at Percy. "Seriously, you should've told me! I get that I called Grover an ass a lot but—"

"You were happy, okay?" Percy says, his cheeks flaring red. "I didn't want to ruin it."

Her heart clenches and she can't decide if she wants to hug him or punch him in the nose. Thankfully, Annabeth notices and cuts the conversation short.

"If he's really found it, and if we could retrieve it—"

"Hold on," Percy says. "You act like this . . . whatever-it-is Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save the camp. What is it?"

It clicks instantly for Thea. Why hadn't she realized from the story he told what it would be? Of course Grover was drawn to it.

"I'll give you a hint. What do you get when you skin a ram?"

"Messy?"

"He's from New York," Thea says. "He has no idea what you get."

He glares at her and Annabeth continues. "A fleece. The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to have golden wool—"

"The Golden Fleece," he whisperes. "Are you serious?"

Annabeth scrapes off a plate into the lava. "Percy, remember the Gray Sisters? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told him how to find the Golden Fleece. You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?"

They had met the Gray Sisters?

"Yeah," Percy says. "That old movie with the clay skeletons."

Thea blinks at him. "What the hell, no."

"What? You asked!"

"Just listen," Annabeth says. "The real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important."

"It was probably important to her."

"The point is, when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung the Fleece in a tree in the middle of the kingdom. The Fleece brought prosperity to the land. Animals stopped getting sick. Plants grew better. Farmers had bumper crops. Plagues never visited. That's why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalize any land where it's placed. It cures sickness, strengthens nature, cleans up pollution—"

Percy's hands are still with realization. "It could cure Thalia's tree."

Annabeth nods. "And it would totally strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood. But Percy, the fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it with no luck."

"But Grover found it," Percy says. "He went looking for Pan and found the Fleece instead because they both radiate the same magic. It makes sense, Annabeth. We can rescue him and save camp at the same time. It's perfect!"

Annabeth hesitates. "A little too perfect, don't you think? What if it's a trap?"

The last time they had been in a trap, Thea ended up having to have the tips of two of her fingers amputated. She isn't going to do that again.

"What choice do we have?" he asks. "Are you guys going to help me rescue Grover or not?"

Annabeth glances at Tyson who is happily making toy boats out of dishes and lava. "Percy," she whispers, "we'll have to fight a Cyclops. Polyphemus, the worst of the Cyclopes. And there's only one place his island could be. The Sea of Monsters."

"Where's that?"

"The Sea of Monsters," she says, as if it's obvious. "The same sea Odysseus sailed through, and Jason, and Aeneas, and all the others."

"You mean the Mediterranean?"

"No. Well, yes but . . . no."

"It's the Bermuda Triangle," Thea says, sparing Percy the Annabeth Explanation. "It's full of the nastiest monsters there is, and it shifts West with the gods, too. That's why the Bermuda Triangle has only been dangerous for a short time."

He nods. "Okay. At least we know where to look."

"It's still a huge area, Percy," Annabeth says. "Searching for one tiny island in monster-infested waters—"

"Hey, I'm the son of the sea god. This is my home turf. How hard can it be?"

She doesn't look convinced. "We'll have to talk to Tantalus, get approval for the quest. He'll say no."

"Not if we tell him tonight at the campfire in front of everybody. The whole camp will hear. They'll pressure him. He won't be able to refuse."

It doesn't matter if Tantalus refused. Thea will do anything to save her home.