Rick Riordan
The Sea Monsters - 02
"I hear they got two more coming," the familiar voice said. "They keep arriving at this rate,
oh, man—no contest!"
The voices faded down the corridor.
"That was Chris Rodriguez!" Annabeth took off her cap and turned visible. "You remember—
from Cabin Eleven."
I sort of recalled Chris from the summer before. He was one of those undetermined campers
who got stuck in the Hermes cabin because his Olympian dad or mom never claimed him. Now that
I thought about it, I realized I hadn't seen Chris at camp this summer. "What's another half-blood
doing here?"
Annabeth shook her head, clearly troubled.
We kept going down the corridor. I didn't need maps anymore to know I was getting close to
Luke. I sensed something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil.
"Percy." Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look."
She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory 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
like the ones who'd attacked me with dodge balls, 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 armor who was hacking on a
straw dummy. A lump formed in my throat when I realized the dummy was wearing an orange Camp
Half-Blood T-shirt. As we watched, the guy in armor stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped
upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled.
Annabeth stepped away from the window. Her face was ashen.
"Come on," I told her, trying to sound braver than I felt. "The sooner we find Luke the better."
At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere
important. When we were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside."
"You can hear that far?" I asked.
Tyson closed his eye like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a
husky approximation of Luke's. "—the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."
Before I could react, Tyson's voice changed again, becoming deeper and gruffer, like the
other guy we'd heard talking to Luke outside the cafeteria. "You really think the old horseman is
gone for good?"
Tyson laughed Luke's laugh. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The
poisoning of the tree was the final straw."
Annabeth shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy."
Tyson opened his eye and looked puzzled. "Just lis