Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
97
97
That's the great thing about my mom. She's no good at staying angry. She tries, but it just
isn't in her nature.
"I'm sorry, Mom," I told her. "I won't scare you again."
"Don't promise me that, Percy. You know very well it will only get worse." She tried to sound
casual about it, but I could tell she was pretty shaken up.
I wanted to say something to make her feel better, but I knew she was right. Being a half-
blood, I would always be doing things that scared her. And as I got older, the dangers would just get
greater.
"I could come home for a while," I offered.
"No, no. Stay at camp. Train. Do what you need to do. But you will come home for the next
school year?"
"Yeah, of course. Uh, if there's any school that will take me."
"Oh, we'll find something, dear," my mother sighed. "Some place where they don't know us
yet."
As for Tyson, the campers treated him like a hero. I would've been happy to have him as my
cabin mate forever, but that evening, as we were sitting on a sand dune overlooking the Long Island
Sound, he made an announcement that completely took me by surprise.
"Dream came from Daddy last night," he said. "He wants me to visit."
I wondered if he was kidding, but Tyson really didn't know how to kid. "Poseidon sent you a
dream message?"
Tyson nodded. "Wants me to go underwater for the rest of the summer. Learn to work at
Cyclopes' forges. He called it an inter—an intern—"
"An internship?"
"Yes." I let that sink in. I'll admit, I felt a little jealous. Poseidon had never invited me
underwater. But then I thought, Tyson was going? Just like that?
"When would you leave?" I asked.
"Now."
"Now. Like ... now now?"
"Now."
I stared out at the waves in the Long Island Sound. The water was glistening red in the
sunset.
"I'm happy for you, big guy," I managed. "Seriously."
"Hard to leave my new brother," he said with a tremble in his voice. "But I want to make
things. Weapons for the camp. You will need them."
Unfortunately, I knew he was right. The Fleece hadn't solved all the camp's problems. Luke
was still out there, gathering an army aboard the Princess Andromeda. Kronos was still re-forming
in his golden coffin. Eventually, we would have to fight them.
"You'll make the best weapons ever," I told Tyson. I held up my watch proudly. "I bet they'll
tell good time, too."
Tyson sniffled. "Brothers help each other."
"You're my brother," I said. "No doubt about it."
He patted me on the back so hard he almost knocked me down the sand dune. Then he
wiped a tear from his cheek and stood to go. "Use the shield well."
"I will, big guy."
"Save your life some day."
The way he said it, so matter-of-fact, I wondered if that Cyclops eye of his could see into the
future.
He headed down to the beach and whistled. Rainbow, the hippocampus, burst out of the
waves. I watched the two of them ride off together into the realm of Poseidon.
Once they were gone, I looked down at my new wristwatch. I pressed the button and the
shield spiraled out to full size. Hammered into the bronze were pictures in Ancient Greek style,
scenes from our adventures this summer. There was Annabeth slaying a Laistrygonian dodgeball
player, me fighting the bronze bulls on Half-Blood Hill, Tyson riding Rainbow toward the Princess
Andromeda, the CSS Birmingham blasting its cannons at Charybdis. I ran my hand across a picture