"One on one, " I challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"
Luke curled his lip. The soldiers who were about to kill us hesitated, waiting for his order.
Before he could say anything, Agrius, the bear-man, burst onto the deck leading a flying horse. It was
the first pure-black pegasus I'd ever seen, with wings like a giant raven. The pegasus mare bucked and
whinnied. I could understand her thoughts. She was calling Agrius and Luke some names so bad Chiron
would've washed her muzzle out with saddle soap.
"Sir!" Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"
Luke kept his eyes on me.
"I told you last summer, Percy, " he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."
"And you keep avoiding one, " I noticed. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"
Luke glanced at his men, and he saw I'd trapped him. If he backed down now, he would look weak. If
he fought me, he'd lose valuable time chasing after Clarisse. For my part, the best I could hope for was to
distract him, giving my friends a chance to escape. If anybody could think of a plan to get them out of
there, Annabeth could. On the down-side, I knew how good Luke was at sword-fighting.
"I'll kill you quickly, " he decided, and raised his weapon. Backbiter was a foot longer than my own
sword. Its blade glinted with an evil gray-and-gold light where the human steel had been melded with
celestial bronze. I could almost feel the blade fighting against itself, like two opposing mag-nets bound
together. I didn't know how the blade had been made, but I sensed a tragedy. Someone had died in the
process. Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield.
He grinned at me wickedly.
"Luke, " Annabeth said, "at least give him a shield."
"Sorry, Annabeth, " he said. "You bring your own equip-ment to this party."
The shield was a problem. Fighting two-handed with just a sword gives you more power, but fighting
one-handed with a shield gives you better defense and versatility. There are more moves, more options,
more ways to kill. I thought back to Chiron, who'd told me to stay at camp no matter what, and learn to
fight. Now I was going to pay for not lis-tening to him.
Luke lunged and almost killed me on the first try. His sword went under my arm, slashing through my
shirt and grazing my ribs.
I jumped back, then counterattacked with Riptide, but Luke slammed my blade away with his shield.
"My, Percy, " Luke chided. "You're out of practice."
He came at me again with a swipe to the head. I parried, returned with a thrust. He sidestepped easily.
The cut on my ribs stung. My heart was racing. When Luke lunged again, I jumped backward into the
swimming pool and felt a surge of strength. I spun underwater, creat-ing a funnel cloud, and blasted out of
the deep end, straight at Luke's face.
The force of the water knocked him down, spluttering and blinded. But before I could strike, he rolled
aside and was on his feet again.
I attacked and sliced off the edge of his shield, but that didn't even faze him. He dropped to a crouch
and jabbed at my legs. Suddenly my thigh was on fire, with a pain so intense I collapsed. My jeans were
ripped above the knee. I was hurt. I didn't know how badly. Luke hacked downward and I rolled behind
a deck chair. I tried to stand, but my leg wouldn't take the weight.
"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated.
I rolled again as Luke's sword slashed the deck chair in half, metal pipes and all.
I clawed toward the swimming pool, trying hard not to black out. I'd never make it. Luke knew it, too.
He advanced slowly, smiling. The edge of his sword was tinged with red.
"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy."
He looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was still
holding Annabeth and Grover by the necks. "You can eat your din-ner now, Oreius. Bon appetit."
"He-he! He-he!" The bear-man lifted my friends and bared his teeth.
That's when all Hades broke loose.
Whish!
A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius's mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he
crumpled to the deck.
"Brother!" Agrius wailed. He let the pegasus's reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick
him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.
For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies
dissolve into smoke.
Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs
charged out of the main stairwell.
"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.
My mind had trouble processing everything I saw. Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives were
almost nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold
palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored
T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES:
SOUTH FLORIDA.
to be continued....
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