Rick Riordan Percy Jackson and the Olympians
I couldn ' t see anything . I spun in the air , got clonked on the head by something hard , and hit the water with a crash that would ' ve broken every bone in my body if I hadn ' t been the son of the Sea God .
The last thing I remembered was sinking in a burning sea , knowing that Tyson was gone forever , and wishing I were able to drown .
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Chapter Twelve
We Check In To C . C .' S Spa & Resort
I woke up in a rowboat with a makeshift sail stitched of gray uniform fabric . Annabeth sat next to me , tacking into the wind . I tried to sit up and immediately felt woozy . " Rest ," she said . " You ' re going to need it ." " Tyson ... ?" She shook her head . " Percy , I ' m really sorry ." We were silent while the waves tossed us up and down . " He may have survived ," she said halfheartedly . " I mean , fire can ' t kill him ." I nodded , but I had no reason to feel hopeful . I ' d seen that explosion rip through solid iron . If
Tyson had been down in the boiler room , there was no way he could ' ve lived . He ' d given his life for us , and all I could think about were the times I ' d felt embarrassed by him and had denied that the two of us were related .
Waves lapped at the boat . Annabeth showed me some things she ' d salvaged from the wreckage — Hermes ' s thermos ( now empty ), a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia , a couple of sailors ' shirts , and a bottle of Dr Pepper . She ' d fished me out of the water and found my knapsack , bitten in half by Scylla ' s teeth . Most of my stuff had floated away , but I still had Hermes ' s bottle of multivitamins , and of course I had Riptide . The ballpoint pen always appeared back in my pocket no matter where I lost it .
We sailed for hours . Now that we were in the Sea of Monsters , the water glittered a more brilliant green , like Hydra acid . The wind smelled fresh and salty , but it carried a strange metallic scent , too — as if a thunderstorm were coming . Or something even more dangerous . I knew what direction we needed to go . I knew we were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of our destination . But that didn ' t make me feel any less lost .
No matter which way we turned , the sun seemed to shine straight into my eyes . We took turns sipping from the Dr Pepper , shading ourselves with the sail as best we could . And we talked about my latest dream of Grover .
By Annabeth ' s estimate , we had less than twenty-four hours to find Grover , assuming my dream was accurate , and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn ' t change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier . " Yeah ," I said bitterly . " You can never trust a Cyclops ." Annabeth stared across the water . " I ' m sorry , Percy . I was wrong about Tyson , okay ? I wish I could tell him that ." I tried to stay mad at her , but it wasn ' t easy . We ' d been through a lot together . She ' d saved my life plenty of times . It was stupid of me to resent her . I looked down at our measly possessions — the empty wind thermos , the bottle of multivitamins . I thought about Luke ' s look of rage when I ' d tried to talk to him about his dad . " Annabeth , what ' s Chiron ' s prophecy ?" She pursed her lips . " Percy , I shouldn ' t —" " I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn ' t tell me . But you didn ' t promise , did you ?" " Knowledge isn ' t always good for you ." " Your mom is the wisdom goddess !" " I know ! But every time heroes learn the future , they try to change it , and it never works ." " The gods are worried about something I ' ll do when I get older ," I guessed . " Something when