Rick Riordan
The Sea Monsters - 02
but it fell short, narrowly missing Tyson and me.
"Yeah, yeah!" Clarisse taunted. "You throw like a wimp! Teach you to try marrying me, you
idiot!"
"Clarisse!" I yelled, unable to stand it. "Shut up!"
Too late. Polyphemus threw another boulder, and this time I watched helplessly as it sailed
over my head and crashed through the hull of the Queen Anne's Revenge.
You wouldn't believe how fast a ship can sink. The Queen Anne's Revenge creaked and
groaned and listed forward like it was going down a playground slide.
I cursed, willing the sea to push us faster, but the ship's masts were already going under.
"Dive!" I told Tyson. And as another rock sailed over our heads, we plunged underwater.
My friends were sinking fast, trying to swim, without luck, in the bubbly trail of the ship's
wreckage.
Not many people realize that when a ship goes down, it acts like a sinkhole, pulling down
everything around it. Clarisse was a strong swimmer, but even she wasn't making any progress.
Grover frantically kicked with his hooves. Annabeth was hanging on to the Fleece, whic h flashed in
the water like a wave of new pennies.
I swam toward them, knowing that I might not have the strength to pull my friends out.
Worse, pieces of timber were swirling around them; none of my power with water would help if I got
whacked on the head by a beam.
We need help, I thought.
Yes. Tyson's voice, loud and clear in my head.
I looked over at him, startled. I'd heard Nereids and other water spirits speak to me
underwater before, but it never occurred to me ... Tyson was a son of Poseidon. We could
communicate with each other.
Rainbow, Tyson said.
I nodded, then closed my eyes and concentrated, adding my voice to Tyson's: RAINBOW!
We need you!
Immediately, shapes shimmered in the darkness below—three horses with fish tails,
galloping upward faster than dolphins. Rainbow and his friends glanced in our direction and seemed
to read our thoughts. They whisked into the wreckage, and a moment later burst upward in a cloud
of bubbles—Grover, Annabeth, and Clarisse each clinging to the neck of a hippocampus.
Rainbow, the largest, had Clarisse. He raced over to us and allowed Tyson to grab hold of
his mane. His friend who bore Annabeth did the same for me.
We broke the surface of the water and raced away from Polyphemus's island. Behind us, I
could hear the Cyclops roaring in triumph, "I did it! I finally sank Nobody!"
I hoped he never found out he was wrong.
We skimmed across the sea as the island shrank to a dot and then disappeared.
"Did it," Annabeth muttered in exhaustion. "We ..."
She slumped against the neck of the hippocampus and instantly fell asleep.
I didn't know how far the hippocampi could take us. I didn't know where we were going. I just
propped up Annabeth so she wouldn't fall off, covered her in the Golden Fleece that we'd been
through so much to get, and said a silent prayer of thanks.
Which reminded me ... I still owed the gods a debt.
"You're a genius," I told Annabeth quietly.
Then I put my head against the Fleece, and before I knew it, I was asleep, too.
Chapter Seventeen
We Get A Surprise On Miami Beach
"Percy, wake up."
Salt water splashed my face. Annabeth was shaking my shoulder.
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