chapter XI

🌷  "You are in so much trouble," Clarisse said simply.

Daphne knew she had to agree. She hadn't given much thought about what the repercussions would be for leaving camp, but well... it definitely wasn't going to be good.

They'd just finished a ship tour that they told Clarisse they didn't want, squishing through dark rooms overcrowded with dead sailors. Daphne had seen the coal bunker, the boilers and engine, which huffed and groaned like it would explode any minute, and tried not to jump at the creaks. They'd seen the pilothouse and the powder magazine and gunnery deck (Clarisse's favorite) with two Dahlgren smoothbore cannons on the port and starboard sides and a Brooke nine-inch rifled gun fore and aft-all specially refitted to fire celestial bronze cannon balls.

(When Clarisse had announced the names for all the mechanical contraptions, Daphne zoned out. She truly didn't understand any of them.)

It would've been okay to deal with. But everywhere they turned, dead Confederate sailors stared at them, their ghostly bearded faces shimmering over their skulls. They approved of Annabeth because she told them she was from Virginia. They were interested in Percy too because his name was Jackson like the Southern general, but then he ruined it by telling them he was from New York. They all hissed and muttered curses about Yankees. (Daphne didn't mention she was from Brooklyn.)

Tyson was terrified of them. All through the tour, he insisted Annabeth hold his hand, which she didn't look too thrilled about. It took all of Daphnes strength not to ask Percy to hold hers, since the boat was really starting to creep her out. And those dead soldiers? Sheesh. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. In another universe, she would be just like them. Pale and ghostly. She tried not to shiver when they stared at her.

Finally, they were escorted to dinner. The CSS Birmingham captain's quarters were about the size of a walk-in closet, but still much bigger than any other room on board. The table was set with white linen and china. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, and Dr Peppers were served by skeletal crewmen. Daphne didn't want to eat anything served by ghosts, but her hunger overruled her fear. The small packets of granola were enough to live on when she was ten, but at her ripe age of 13, Daphne was starving.

"Tantalus expelled you for eternity," Clarisse told them smugly. "Mr. D said if any of you show your face at camp again, he'll turn you into squirrels and run you over with his SUV."

Oh no. Whatever would she do without Tantalus' approval?

"Did they give you this ship?" Percy asked as the rest of them filled their mouthed with food.

"'Course not. My father did."

"What, Ares?"

Clarisse sneered. "You think your daddy is the only one with sea power? The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That's their curse for being defeated. I prayed to my father for a naval transport and here it is. These guys will do anything I tell them. Won't you, Captain?"

Did that make her a Nepotism baby? Daphne couldn't wait for her mother to claim her so she could get special treatment. She hoped that they would hurry up, though.

The captain stood behind her looking stiff and angry. His glowing green eyes fixed Daphne with a hungry stare, and she decided that he was creepy. "If it means an end to this infernal war, ma'am, peace at last, we'll do anything. Destroy anyone."

Clarisse smiled. "Destroy anyone. I like that."

Tyson gulped.

"Clarisse," Annabeth told her through mouthfulls of peanut butter sandwiches, "Luke might be after the Fleece, too. We saw him. He's got the coordinates and he's heading south. He has a cruise ship full of monsters-"

"Good! I'll blow him out of the water."

"You don't understand," Daphne shook her head, putting her glass down delicately. "We've seen what it's like there. We have to combine forces. Let us help you-"

"No!" Clarisse pounded the table, making her flinch back in shock. Clarisse glared at Daphne like she'd punched her grandma, which the curly haired girl didn't really understand. She was pretty sure that this was one of their first actual interactions with each other. "This is my quest! Finally I get to be the hero, and you three will not steal my chance."

"Where are your cabin mates?" Percy interrupted her. "You were allowed to take two friends with you, weren't you?"

"They didn't... I let them stay behind. To protect the camp."

"You mean even the people in your own cabin wouldn't help you?"

"Shut up, Prissy! I don't need them! Or you!"

"Clarisse," Percy sighed, "Tantalus is using you. He doesn't care about the camp. He'd love to see it destroyed. He's setting you up to fail."

"No! I don't care what the Oracle-" She stopped herself.

"What?" Daphne looked up from her drink, interest peaked. "What did the Oracle tell you?"

"Nothing." Clarisse's ears turned pink. "All you need to know is that I'm finishing this quest and you're not helping. On the other hand, I can't let you go..."

"So we're prisoners?" Annabeth snarled.

"Guests. For now." Clarisse propped her feet up on the white linen tablecloth and opened another Dr Pepper. "Captain, take them below. Assign them hammocks on the berth deck. If they don't mind their manners, show them how we deal with enemy spies."

"Seriously?" Daphne hissed as they were shepherded up and away.

"You're making a mistake, Clarisse!" Percy shouted after her as they were pushed into the hall. "You need to listen-"

The door slammed shut.

Daphne was quickly realizing that the reason she could handle the cruise ship fine because the boat was massive and smooth sailing. But on the Dead Confederate ship, the waters were getting choppier and more dangerous, and as Daphne, Percy, Annabeth and Tyson descended deeper to the berth deck, she felt the force of the water a lot stronger than she wanted to.

She clung to the walls as they were pushed forward, the force of the ocean pushing her side-to-side and reminding her that she was immensely seasick.

Percy fell asleep right as his head hit the pillow. Understandable, of course - the ocean was his home, and so the annoyingly ragged rocking of it wouldn't have bugged him. But Daphne couldn't stand it. After a few minutes of laying in multiple positions trying to see which way made her feel less nauseous, she gave up and snuck out of the room. Clarisse had obviously underestimated them as none of the soldiers were watching guard outside of their door.

The boat was even creepier to explore when alone. A couple or so times she took a wrong turn and ended up in an empty, cold room with boilers and such making creaking noises. She edged back out and slammed the door behind her, shuddering.

Finally, she stopped before a room that wasn't so creepy that it was making her palms sweat and was relatively empty. It must've been right below deck, because the creaking footsteps above made her feel less alone. Daphne walked in and curiously walked around the room, looking at what seemed to be old war relics held behind dirty glass.

"You shouldn't be in here," Clarisse snapped from behind her. Daphne jumped, taking her hand away from the glass.

"I wasn't-" she started guiltily.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Clarisse interrupted her.

"Uh... I get seasick." Daphne admitted, hating how pathetic and small she sounded.

Clarisse stared at her. "Really?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Huh. Would've thought that being close with the son of the sea god would've stopped it." she sneered.

"Uhh, what?" Daphne didn't know why Clarisse would've thought that. Well, yeah, they were friends, but it was weird phrasing. Were her cheeks pink?

But Clarisse didn't hear. She started walking around the room, collecting sorts of rusted metal trinkets and muttering to herself. They looked like parts to a gun, or machine.

Daphne stood by the door awkwardly. She didn't know whether to leave or ask Clarisse what she was doing - again, the look of her straggly blond hair was giving her a weird sort of deja~vu that she remembered feeling when she entered camp for the first time and saw her glaring and sullen by the campfire.

Despite her best interest, she stepped closer to her and peered at what she was doing. "What're you looking for?"

"Nothing."

She digressed, moving forward and peeking over Clarisse's shoulder at a couple pieces of what looked to be rusted pipe. "I can help you collect these if you wan-" she started to offer before Clarisse cut her off.

"Leave it!" she snapped. Daphne dropped it quickly. "Gods, you really don't think at all, do you?"

"Woah, hey, where's that coming from?" she held her arms up in defence. "I don't even know you! That is so rude."

Clarisse stared at her with a withering glare. "Of course. You don't remember, do you? I don't know what I expected."

Daphne really hated feeling confused, but sometimes she just couldn't help it. "Wait, what? Remember what?"

"Just forget it, Princess!" Clarisse sneered at her. Daphne recoiled at the nickname she was using in offence. "Go braid your hair or something. Just stay out of my way!"

Daphne recoiled. "Hey, there's no need to talk to me like that! Listen, we're all just trying to help you, and going to fight Luke alone is a death wish. Just let us help-"

"No." she shook her head. "No way. Now get out of my father's treasure room. Now."

Daphne frowned. "Do I know you from somewhere, or something? Did I steal from you? I've stolen from a lot of people, so I'm sorry if so."

But Clarisse just glowered at her. "If I have to ask again, I'll get my soldiers back and kick you off this ship the hard way!"

Daphne blinked. She really didn't like those soldiers... so she turned on her heel and left. Clarisse wasn't worth it anyway, obviously not open for discussion - but Daphne still felt guilty and wracked her brain to think of where she'd seen her before. But her mind really couldn't remember.

She trailed around the ship a few more times before her dazed stupor was interrupted by a shrill alarm being rung on the deck. All thoughts of Clarisse simmered as Daphne ran up, the lack of sleep not affecting her as she found her friends on the opposite side of the ship.

Annabeth saw her and let out a sigh of relief before turning angry again. "Where have you been? I was so worried!"

"Uh, sightseeing," Daphne thought of the excuse quickly. She frowned when she looked at Percy and saw his nauseous expression, even sicker than Daphne must've looked. (Seriously, could the waves ever let up? Not only did she have a fear of the wide ocean, she got so seasick. How was this fair?)

"Hey, Percy? What's wrong?" she asked him softly. "Another dream?"

He nodded, but didn't say anything else about it. Daphne would've guessed that he didn't want to reveal any crucial details in case the Confederates wanted to steal the information, but something about his pale face made her frown. He was usually so suntanned, like a surfer boy, even though he had the lean figure of a skater.

Clarisse came up the stairs right after him, and Daphne noticed how he tried not to look at her. Her frown deepened - did they talk about something, maybe? Did she threaten him? She was overcome with a sense of protection already.

Clarisse grabbed a pair of binoculars from a zombie officer and peered toward the horizon. "At last. Captain, full steam ahead!"

Daphne pushed through her sea sickness and looked in the same direction as she was, but she really couldn't see much. The sky was overcast and the air was hazy and humid, like steam from an iron. If  she squinted real hard, she could just about make out a couple of dark fuzzy splotches in the distance.

"Where are we?" Daphne whispered to Percy.

His nautical senses told him: "Somewhere off the coast of northern Florida. We've come a long way overnight, farther than any mortal ship can travel."

The engine groaned as they increased speed.

Tyson muttered nervously, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."

Daphne wasn't sure how he knew that, but it made her really nervous. She started to pick at the sleeve of her blue hoodie which was advertising for the cover-up they used for the mortals if they ever noticed camp: Delphi's Strawberries.

Percy glanced at her. "Hey, Tyson, knock it off."

She was quietly grateful.

After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead of them came into focus, and Daphne was super proud of herself for controlling her seasickness. To the north, a huge mass of rock rose out of the sea-an island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall. About half a mile south of that, the other patch of darkness was a storm brewing. The sky and sea boiled together in a roaring mass.

"Hurricane?" Annabeth asked, staring at it in awe.

"No," Clarisse said. "Charybdis."

Annabeth paled as Percy and Daphne turned to her in confusion. "Are you crazy?" she said, pushing her braids away from her face that she'd let down from her ponytail to sleep.

"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla." Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs, and Daphne got the feeling something lived up there that she did not want to meet.

"What do you mean the only way?" Percy asked. "The sea is wide open! Just sail around them."

Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them."

"What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth said. "That's another gateway. Jason used it."

Ah, that's why Daphne was stood there in confusion. She hadn't covered Jason in her Greek mythology classes yet. She didn't know when she'd get to meet him, but something told her it wouldn't be too soon.

"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse shook her head. "Monsters, on the other hand..."

"You're crazy," Annabeth decided.

"Watch and learn, Wise Girl." Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"

"Aye, m'lady."

The engine groaned, the iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed.

"Clarisse," Percy started cautiously, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"

"And spits it back out again, yeah."

"Wait, what?" Daphne frowned. Nobody answered her.

"What about Scylla?" Percy continued.

"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship."

"Choose Scylla then," he said like a genius. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past."

"No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the center of her whirlwind. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"

She said it with such relish that Daphne almost wanted to believe her. But instead, she started wondering what Chiron would write as her obituary.

The engine hummed. The boilers were heating up so much she could feel the deck getting warm beneath her feet. The smokestacks billowed as the red Ares flag whipped in the wind.

As they got closer to the monsters, the sound of Charybdis got louder and louder - a horrible wet roar which sounded like a dead pirate screaming beneath the tides. Every time Charybdis inhaled, the ship shuddered and lurched forward. Every time she exhaled, it rose in the water and they were buffeted by ten-foot waves.

Daphne rocked back and forth with the boat, loosing all sense of rationality as she grabbed onto Annabeth desperately. "Lord Hades, please let me pass quickly," she started to pray.

While Daphne was accepting death, Percy tried to time the whirlpool. As near as he could figure, it took Charybdis about three minutes to suck up and destroy everything within a half-mile radius. To avoid her, the boat would have to skirt right next to Scylla's cliffs. And as bad as Scylla might be, those cliffs were looking awfully good to him.

Undead sailors calmly went about their business on the spar deck. Daphne guessed they'd fought a losing cause before, so this didn't bother them. Or maybe they didn't care about getting destroyed because they were already deceased. Neither thought made her feel any better, especially because she did not want to become deceased too.

Beside Percy stood Daphne and Annabeth, the former of which was still hanging onto her friend desperately as well as hooking her free arm over the rail. "You still have your thermos full of wind?" Annabeth yelled over the crashed of the waves.

He nodded. "But it's too dangerous to use with a whirlpool like that. More wind might just make things worse."

"What about controlling the water?" she asked. "You're Poseidon's son. You've done it before."

"Yeah!" Daphne scrambled. "Call like a mermaid, or something!"

Percy blinked at her. "Like Ariel?"

"Who?"

"What - you don't know who-"

"We're loosing time, Percy! Tell Daphne about the boring film later-"

Percy turned to Annabeth, positively scandalised. "Did you just say boring? Gods, do you ever have fun?"

"Hey!" Daphne came to her defence. "It's not Annabeths fault she's boring!"

"What- I'm not- ugh! Just hurry up, Percy!"

He complied but not without a final, meaningful glare at her - closing his eyes and trying to calm the sea. But he couldn't concentrate. Charybdis was too loud and powerful. The waves wouldn't respond.

"I-I can't," he said miserably.

"We need a backup plan," Annabeth said, thinking quickly to herself. "This isn't going to work."

"Annabeth is right," Tyson said. Daphne felt bad, but she'd almost forgotten that he was there since he was acting so calm about the whole thing. "Engine's no good."

"What do you mean?"Annabeth furrowed her brows.

"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."

Before he could explain, the stupid, terrifying monster screamed with a mighty roaaar! The ship lurched forward and Percy was thrown to the deck. (Maybe if he'd been clinging to Annabeth and the rail like Daphne was, that wouldn't have happened - but now was no time to brag.) They were in the whirlpool.

"Full reverse!" Clarisse screamed above the noise. The sea churned around them, waves crashing over the deck. The iron plating was now so hot it steamed. "Get us within firing range! Make ready starboard cannons!"

Dead Confederates rushed back and forth. The propeller grinded into reverse, trying to slow the ship, but it still kept sliding toward the center of the vortex.
A zombie sailor burst out of the hold and ran to Clarisse. His gray uniform was smoking and Daphne had to look twice to realise that his beard was on fire. "Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!"

"Well, get down there and fix it!"

"Can't!" the sailor yelled. "We're vaporizing in the heat."

Clarisse pounded the side of the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get in range!"

"We're going in too fast," the captain said grimly. "Prepare yourself for death."

"No!" Tyson bellowed. "I can fix it."

Clarisse looked at him incredulously. "You?"

"He's a Cyclops," Annabeth realized. "He's immune to fire! And he knows mechanics."

"Go!" yelled Clarisse.

"Tyson, no!" Percy grabbed his arm. "It's too dangerous!"

He patted his hand. "Only way, brother." His expression was determined - confident, even. Daphne had only known him a short while, but something told her that he didn't usually wear that sort of expression. "I will fix it. Be right back."

As Daphne watched him follow the smoldering sailor down the hatch, she had a terrible feeling. She saw Percy's expression falter like he wanted to run after him, but before she could beg him not to, the ship lurched again - and then she saw Charybdis.

She appeared only a few hundred yards away, through a swirl of mist and smoke and water. The first thing Daphne noticed was the reef - a black crag of coral with a fig tree clinging to the top, an oddly peaceful thing in the middle of a maelstrom. All around it, water curved into a funnel, like light around a black hole. Then she saw the horrible thing anchored to the reef just below the waterline - an enormous mouth with slimy lips and mossy teeth the size of rowboats. And worse, the teeth had braces, bands of corroded scummy metal with pieces of fish and driftwood and floating garbage stuck between them.

"Gross!" she yelled over the waves. A couple of seconds later, she scrambled to the far side of the boat and retched over the side, madly trying to keep her hair out of the way. There went her lunch.

As they watched, the entire sea around her was sucked into the void - sharks, schools of fish, a giant squid. Daphne had a second to wonder if this was what happened to Amelia Earhart before she realised that, in a few seconds, the CSS Birmingham would be next.

"Lady Clarisse," the captain shouted. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!"

"Fire!" Clarisse ordered.

Three rounds were blasted into the monster's maw. One blew off the edge of an incisor. Another disappeared into her gullet. The third hit one of the pieces of driftwood stuck in Charybdis's mouth and shot back at them, snapping the Ares flag off its pole.

"Again!" Clarisse ordered. The gunners reloaded, but Daphne knew it was hopeless. They would have to pound the monster a hundred more times to do any real damage, and they didn't have that long. They were being sucked in too fast, and she was going to die again, this time to her second to worst fear.

Gods, she was unlucky.

But before she could pass out from giving up with life,  the vibrations in the deck changed. The hum of the engine got stronger and steadier and the ship shuddered as they started pulling away from the mouth.

"Tyson did it!" Daphne realized. "Woo! We're gonna live!"

"Wait!" Clarisse ordered. "We need to stay close!"

"What? But we'll die!"she wailed, her split second of happiness quickly being broken. "We have to move away!"

They all surged forward and gripped the rail as the ship fought against the suction. The broken Ares flag raced past their faces and lodged in Charybdis's braces. They weren't making much progress, but at least they were holding their own. Tyson had somehow given the boat just enough juice to keep the ship from being sucked in.

Suddenly, the mouth snapped shut. The sea died to absolute calm. Water washed over Charybdis. Daphne staggered back, hit off guard from the rush and...

Just as quickly as it had closed, the mouth exploded open, spitting out a wall of water, ejecting everything inedible, including the ships cannonballs, one of which slammed into the side of the CSS Birmingham with a ding like the bell on a carnival game.

They were thrown backward on a wave that must've been forty feet high. Even Daphnes vice grip on the railing couldn't have saved her from being knocked over. Percy was using all of his willpower to keep the ship from capsizing, but they were still spinning out of control, hurtling toward the cliffs on the opposite side of the strait.

Another smoldering sailor burst out of the hold. He stumbled into Clarisse, almost knocking them both overboard. "The engine is about to blow!"

"What? Where's Tyson?" Percy demanded as Daphne still tried to regain her footing, spitting water out of her mouth. At least it would wash away the taste of sick.

"Still down there," the sailor said. "Holding it together somehow, though I don't know for how much longer."

The captain grimaced, "We have to abandon ship."

"No!" Clarisse yelled.

"We have no choice, m'lady. The hull is already cracking apart! She can't-"

He never finished his sentence. Quick as lightning, something brown and green shot from the sky, snatched up the captain, and lifted him away. All that was left were his leather boots.

Daphne screamed. He had been standing right beside her.

"Scylla!" a sailor yelled, as another column of reptilian flesh shot from the cliffs and snapped him up. It happened so fast it was like watching a laser beam rather than a monster. Daphne couldn't even make out the thing's face, just a flash of teeth and scales.

Percy uncapped Riptide and tried to swipe at the monster as it carried off another deckhand, but he was way too slow. Daphne's hands were stuck, unable to grab for her sword, unable to even move.

"Everyone get below!" Percy yelled.

"We can't!" Clarisse drew her own sword. "Below deck is in flames."

"Lifeboats!" Annabeth realized, trying to pull Daphne out of her shocked stupor.. "Quick!"

"They'll never get clear of the cliffs," Clarisse snapped. "We'll all be eaten."

"We have to try. Percy, the thermos."

"I can't leave Tyson!"

"We have to get the boats ready!"

Clarisse took Annabeth's command. She and a few of her undead sailors uncovered one of the two emergency rowboats while Scylla's heads rained from the sky like a meteor shower with teeth, picking off Confederate sailors one after another.

"Get the other boat." Percy threw Annabeth the thermos. "I'll get Tyson."

"You can't!" she said. "The heat will kill you!"

As per usual, he didn't listen. He ran for the boiler room hatch when suddenly, his feet weren't touching the deck anymore. He was flying straight up, the wind whistling in his ears, the side of the cliff only inches from his face.

The last thing Daphne saw before she fainted was ocean green, and not from the sea below them.

౨ৎ ˖ ࣪⊹ 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
🌷🪷🌊

Why's the fight with the water monster lowkey feel like the battle against the kraken in the pirates of the carribean lego game....