The Sea of Monsters

dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, but I knew we were only postponing our deaths. Eventually, we would make a mistake and the thing would kill us.
    Then I heard a strange sound—a chug-chug-chug that at first I thought was my heartbeat. It was so powerful it made the riverbank shake.
    “What’s that noise?” Annabeth shouted, keeping her eyes on the Hydra.
    “Steam engine,” Tyson said.
    “ What? ” I ducked as the Hydra spat acid over my head.
    Then from the river behind us, a familiar female voice shouted: “There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!”
    I didn’t dare look away from the Hydra, but if that was who I thought it was behind us, I figured we now had enemies on two fronts.
    A gravelly male voice said, “They’re too close, m’lady!”
    “Damn the heroes!” the girl said. “Full steam ahead!”
    “Aye, m’lady.”
    “Fire at will, Captain!”
    Annabeth understood what was happening a split second before I did. She yelled, “Hit the dirt!” and we dove for the ground as an earth-shattering BOOM echoed from the river. There was a flash of light, a column of smoke, and the Hydra exploded right in front of us, showering us with nasty green slime that vaporized as soon as it hit, the way monster guts tend to do.
    “Gross!” screamed Annabeth.
    “Steamship!” yelled Tyson.
    I stood, coughing from the cloud of gunpowder smoke that was rolling across the banks.
    Chugging toward us down the river was the strangest ship I’d ever seen. It rode low in the water like a submarine, its deck plated with iron. In the middle was a trapezoid-shaped casemate with slats on each side for cannons. A flag waved from the top—a wild boar and spear on a bloodred field. Lining the deck were zombies in gray uniforms— dead soldiers with shimmering faces that only partially covered their skulls, like the ghouls I’d seen in the Underworld guarding Hades’s palace.
    The ship was an ironclad. A Civil War battle cruiser. I could just make out the name along the prow in moss-covered letters: CSS Birmingham .
    And standing next to the smoking cannon that had almost killed us, wearing full Greek battle armor, was Clarisse.
    “Losers,” she sneered. “But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard.”

ELEVEN

CLARISSE BLOWS UP EVERYTHING
    “You are in so much trouble,” Clarisse said.
    We’d just finished a ship tour we didn’t want, through dark rooms overcrowded with dead sailors. We’d seen the coal bunker, the boilers and engine, which huffed and groaned like it would explode any minute. We’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.
    Everywhere we went, dead Confederate sailors stared at us, their ghostly bearded faces shimmering over their skulls. They approved of Annabeth because she told them she was from Virginia. They were interested in me, too, because my name was Jackson—like the Southern general—but then I ruined it by telling them I was from New York. They all hissed and muttered curses about Yankees.
    Tyson was terrified of them. All through the tour, he insisted Annabeth hold his hand, which she didn’t look too thrilled about.
    Finally, we 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. I didn’t want to eat anything served by ghosts, but my hunger overruled my fear.
    “Tantalus expelled you for eternity,” Clarisse told us 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.”
    “Did they give you this ship?” I asked.
    “’Course not. My father did.”
    “ 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?”
    The captain stood behind her looking stiff and angry. His glowing green eyes fixed me with a hungry stare. “If it