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I urged the horses to keep up the speed. We were now neck and neck with Apollo. Hephaestus was coming up close behind. Ares and Hermes were falling behind, riding side by side as Clarisse went sword-on-javelin with Co
If we took one more hit to our wheel, I knew we would capsize.
"You're mine!" the driver from Apollo yelled. He was a first-year camper. I didn't remember his name, but he sure was confident.
"Yeah, right!" A
She picked up her second javelin—a real risk considering we still had one full lap to go—and threw it at the Apollo driver.
Her aim was perfect. The javelin grew a heavy spear point just as it caught the driver in the chest, knocking him against his teammate and sending them both toppling out of their chariot in a backward somersault. The horses felt the reins go slack and went crazy, riding straight for the crowd. Campers scrambled for cover as the horses leaped the corner of the bleachers and the golden chariot flipped over. The horses galloped back toward their stable, dragging the upside-down chariot behind them.
I held our own chariot together through the second turn, despite the groaning of the right wheel. We passed the starting line and thundered into our final lap.
The axle creaked and moaned. The wobbling wheel was making us lose speed, even though the horses were responding to my every command, ru
The Hephaestus team was still gaining.
Beckendorf gri
A
"Can't cut them. " she yelled.
The Hephaestus chariot was now dangerously close, their horses about to trample us underfoot.
"Switch with me!" I told A
"But—"
"Trust me!"
She pulled herself to the front and grabbed the reins. I turned, trying hard to keep my footing, and uncapped Riptide.
I slashed down and the cables snapped like kite string. We lurched forward, but Beckendorf's driver just swung his chariot to our left and pulled up next to us. Beckendorf drew his sword. He slashed at A
We were coming up on the last turn. We'd never make it. I needed to disable the Hephaestus chariot and get it out of the way, but I had to protect A
We were neck and neck now, Clarisse coming up from behind, making up for lost time.
"See ya, Percy!" Beckendorf yelled. "Here's a little parting gift!"
He threw a leather pouch into our chariot. It stuck to the floor immediately and began billowing green smoke.
"Greek fire!" A
I cursed. I'd heard stories about what Greek fire could do. I figured we had maybe ten seconds before it exploded.
"Get rid of it!" A
Then I remembered the watch.
I didn't know how it could help, but I managed to punch the stopwatch button. Instantly, the watch changed. It expanded, the metal rim spiraling outward like an old-fashioned camera shutter, a leather strap wrapping around my forearm until I was holding a round war shield four feet wide, the inside soft leather, the outside polished bronze engraved with designs I didn't have time to examine.
All I knew: Tyson had come through. I raised the shield, and Beckendorf's sword clanged against it. His blade shattered.
"What?" he shouted. "How—"
He didn't have time to say more because I knocked him in the chest with my new shield and sent him flying out of his chariot, tumbling in the dirt.
I was about use Riptide to slash at the driver when A
The Greek fire was shooting sparks. I shoved the tip of my sword under the leather pouch and flipped it up like a spatula. The firebomb dislodged and flew into the Hephaestus chariot at the driver's feet. He yelped.
In a split second the driver made the right choice: he dove out of the chariot, which careened away and exploded in green flames. The metal horses seemed to short-circuit. They turned and dragged the burning wreckage back toward Clarisse and the Stoll brothers, who had to swerve to avoid it.
A
Once the chariot stopped, our friends mobbed us. They started chanting our names, but A
The crowd didn't want to be quiet, but A
"Brother!" I said, loud enough for everybody to hear. "Tyson, my baby brother."
Tyson blushed. The crowd cheered. A
TWENTY
THE FLEECE WORKS
ITS MAGIC TOO WELL
That afternoon was one of the happiest I'd ever spent at camp, which maybe goes to show, you never know when your world is about to be rocked to pieces.
Grover a
Grover told me he could dissolve the empathy link between us, now that we were face to face, but I told him I'd just as soon keep it if that was okay with him. He put down his reed pipes and stared at me. "But, if I get in trouble again, you'll be in danger, Percy! You could die!"
"If you get in trouble again, I want to know about it. And I'll come help you again, G-man. I wouldn't have it any other way."
In the end he agreed not to break the link. He went back to playing «YMCA» for the strawberry plants. I didn't need an empathy link with the plants to know how they felt about it.
Later on during archery class, Chiron pulled me aside and told me he'd fixed my problems with Meriwether Prep. The school no longer blamed me for destroying their gymnasium. The police were no longer looking for me.
"How did you manage that?" I asked.
Chiron's eyes twinkled. "I merely suggested that the mortals had seen something different on that day—a furnace explosion that was not your fault."
"You just said that and they bought it?"
"I manipulated the Mist. Some day, when you're ready, I'll show how it's done."