“And so, the Fleece,” Luke mused. “Where is it?”
He looked us over, prodding my shirt with the tip of his sword, poking Grover’s jeans.
“Hey!” Grover yelled. “That’s real goat fur under there!”
“Sorry, old friend.” Luke smiled. “Just give me the Fleece and I’ll leave you to return to your, ah, little nature quest.”
“Blaa-ha-ha!” Grover protested. “Some old friend!”
“Maybe you didn’t hear me.” Luke’s voice was dangerously calm. “Where—is—the—Fleece?”
“Not here,” I said. I probably shouldn’t have told him anything, but it felt good to throw the truth in his face. “We sent it on ahead of us. You messed up.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “You’re lying. You couldn’t have…” His face reddened as a horrible possibility occurred to him. “Clarisse?”
I nodded.
“You trusted…you gave…”
“Yeah.”
“Agrius!”
The bear giant flinched. “Y-yes?”
“Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to the Miami Airport, fast!”
“But, boss—”
“Do it!” Luke screamed. “Or I’ll feed you to the drakon!”
The bear-man gulped and lumbered down the stairs. Luke paced in front of the swimming pool, cursing in Ancient Greek, gripping his sword so tight his knuckles turned white.
The rest of Luke’s crew looked uneasy. Maybe they’d never seen their boss so unhinged before.
I started thinking…If I could use Luke’s anger, get him to talk so everybody could hear how crazy his plans were…
I looked at the swimming pool, at the fountains spraying mist into the air, making a rainbow in the sunset. And suddenly I had an idea.
“You’ve been toying with us all along,” I said. “You wanted us to bring you the Fleece and save you the trouble of getting it.”
Luke scowled. “Of course, you idiot! And you’ve messed everything up!”
“Traitor!” I dug my last gold drachma out of my pocket and threw it at Luke. As I expected, he dodged it easily. The coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-colored water.
I hoped my prayer would be accepted in silence. I thought with all my heart:O goddess, accept my offering.
“You tricked all of us!” I yelled at Luke. “Even DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD!”
Behind Luke, the fountain began to shimmer, but I needed everyone’s attention on me, so I uncapped Riptide.
Luke just sneered. “This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop your puny little sword, or I’ll have you killed sooner rather than later.”
“Who poisoned Thalia’s tree, Luke?”
“I did, of course,” he snarled. “I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus.”
“Chiron had nothing to do with it?”
