Rick Riordan Percy Jackson and the Olympians
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" 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 ," Grover mumbled . " No , no ," Chiron said . " 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 ."
I looked over at the campfire , where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun . I hoped they knew what they were getting into .
" So what now ?" I asked Chiron . " 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 my 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 !" Annabeth said . " Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now ." Chiron nodded , though he still looked 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 ?" I asked . " 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 . There ' s the rest of the summer to plan . So much training to do . And I want to see ... I ' m curious about the Fleece ."
I didn ' t know exactly what he meant , but it made me worried about what Luke had said : I was going to let you take the Fleece ... once I was done with it .
Had he just been lying ? I ' d learned with Kronos there was usually a plan within a plan . The titan lord wasn ' t called the Crooked One for nothing . He had ways of getting people to do what he wanted without them ever realizing his true intentions .
Over by the campfire , Tyson let loose with his paintball gun . A blue projectile splattered against one of the centaurs , hurling him backward into the lake . The centaur came up grinning , covered in swamp muck and blue paint , and gave Tyson two thumbs up .
" Annabeth ," Chiron said , " perhaps you and Grover would go supervise Tyson and my cousins before they , ah , teach each other too many bad habits ?" Annabeth met his eyes . Some kind of understanding passed between them . " Sure , Chiron ," Annabeth said . " Come on , goat boy ." " But I don ' t like paintball ." " Yes , you do ." She hoisted Grover to his hooves and led him off toward the campfire . Chiron finished bandaging my leg . " Percy , I had a talk with Annabeth on the way here . A talk about the prophecy ." Uh-oh , I thought . " It wasn ' t her fault ," I said . " I made her tell me ." His eyes flickered with irritation . I was sure he was going to chew me out , but then his look turned to weariness . " I suppose I could not expect to keep it secret forever ." " So am I the one in the prophecy ?" Chiron tucked his bandages back into his pouch . " I wish I knew , Percy . You ' re not yet sixteen . For now we must simply train you as best we can , and leave the future to the Fates ." The Fates . I hadn ' t thought about those old ladies in a long time , but as soon as Chiron mentioned them , something clicked . " That ' s what it meant ," I said . Chiron frowned . " That ' s what what meant ?" " Last summer . The omen from the Fates , when I saw them snip somebody ' s life string . I thought it meant I was going to die right away , but it ' s worse than that . It ' s got something to do with your prophecy . The death they foretold — it ' s going to happen when I ' m sixteen ."
Chiron ' s tail whisked nervously in the grass . " My boy , you can ' t be sure of that . We don ' t