The Blood of the Hydra (16 page)

“Yes.” Kate nodded, a grin spreading across her face. “Most definitely.”

“Except there’s one problem,” Zeus said. “If I do this for you, Poseidon won’t like it. He has quite the temper, and I wouldn’t put it past him to lose all foresight and take it out on you just to get back on me. And if he brings disaster to your ship and everyone on board perishes, then we’ll have a bigger problem on our hands, because we need at least some of you alive to re-seal the portal to Kerberos. If all of you die, then the Titans will be released onto the Earth again, and none of us want that.”

“No, we don’t,” I said, and everyone else shook their heads in agreement.

“Doesn’t Charybdis only open up her mouth three times a day?” Blake asked. Kate nodded, and his eyes brightened, as if he were coming up with a plan. “What if we waited until night time, and crossed over Charybdis’s side of the strait while she was sleeping?”

“On average, Charybdis does only take her meals three times a day,” Zeus said. “But if she smells something delicious—like a boat full of witches and demigods—she won’t be able to resist having a fourth meal. After all, mortals
are
her favorite food.”

“So we should proceed with Hypatia’s plan, then?” Danielle asked.

“You could,” Zeus said. “Or, you could use this.” With a flourish, he stuck his hand in his back pocket and pulled out a Lifesaver mint.

“A mint?” Danielle arched an eyebrow, looking at him as if he had a screw loose. “What are we supposed to do with
that
?”

I wanted to tell her to have more respect—this was
Zeus
we were talking to—but I supposed that Danielle would always be Danielle no matter what.

“That’s up for you to decide,” he said. “You see, this is more than your average mint. It’s been infused with power. When any of the five of you starts sucking on it, your powers will be increased ten fold. The magic will last until the mint is gone—so for about ten minutes.

“But of course, there’s a catch,” he added. “It can only be used once. For instance, if you start sucking on it but take it out of your mouth before it’s finished, you won’t be able to use it again. The magic can only be ignited
one
time. Understand?”

Chris smiled and stepped closer to Zeus, eyeing up the mint. “You mean that if I pop the mint right when we reach Charybdis, I’ll be able to fly the yacht over her so we can pass through the straight without anyone getting hurt?”

“If that’s when you choose to use it, then yes,” Zeus said, dropping the mint into Chris’s hand. “And don’t tell Poseidon about this little gift I’m giving you. Let’s have him believe that you got past Charybdis on your own, all right?”

“Deal,” Chris nodded. “Thanks for giving this to us. It’ll help a lot.”

“Of course.” Zeus smiled. “I didn’t want to miss the chance to give a descendent of mine a little glory. And kids?” he said, turning to Ethan and Rachael. “Good luck in the fight against the hydra. Help bring Team Zeus some glory up on Olympus.”

“We will.” Rachael smirked with a cockiness that matched her father’s.

“It shouldn’t be hard,” Ethan added. “After all, it’ll be seven against one. We’ve got this.”

“I know you do,” Zeus agreed, backing towards the door. “Anyway, my job here is done, so it’s time for me to head out. Best of luck out there.”

“Wait,” I said, stepping forward to stop him. “One more question before you leave?”

He paused, his raised eyebrow letting me know that he didn’t have all day.

I swallowed down my anxiety about what I was about to ask, since it was now or never. “Next time you see my father, can you let him know that I’m hoping to meet him, if he has any time?” I asked, wringing my hands together. “I know he’s probably busy and everything… but it would mean a lot.”

“Of course,” Zeus said, his eyes softer than they’d been since we’d met him. “I can’t promise what Apollo will do, but I
will
give him your message.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”

Then there was a flash of lightning, and as quickly as Zeus had arrived, he was gone.

“Was it just me, or did Zeus say that I was a descendent of his?” Chris asked, still holding tightly onto the mint.

“He did say that,” Kate agreed. “He also said that I’m a descendent of Athena. I’d always hoped that might be the case… and now I know it’s true. Wow. Amazing.”

“If you’re a descendent of Zeus, then that makes us relatives,” Ethan said to Chris. “Cool, man. Welcome to the family.”

“But
very
distant relatives,” Rachael clarified, twisting her hair around her finger as she looked at Chris. “Probably from centuries ago. So untraceable that it doesn’t matter.”

Was she
flirting
with him? I glanced over at Kate—I’d always suspected Kate had a crush on Chris, although she was too shy to ever admit it—and the way she refused to look at either Chris or Rachael convinced me that my suspicion was correct. Rachael was flirting with Chris, and by the way Chris smiled back at her, he seemed to be into her, too.

“So,” Chris said, pacing around the room, as hyped as ever. “I’ll pop the mint once we’re close to Charybdis, fly us over the water, and set us down on the other side of the strait. I’ve never done this before, so you all should probably brace yourselves. Are there seatbelts on this boat?”

“We’re not going anywhere yet,” Hypatia said, resuming her spot at the head of the table. “Because first, we need to discuss how we plan on using this present from Zeus.”

“What do you mean?” Chris’s forehead crinkled. “I’m going to suck on it and fly us over Charybdis so we can pass by her and Scylla without anyone getting hurt. That’s why Zeus
gave
it to us.”

“Zeus was clear that
if
you took the mint when we reached the strait of Scylla and Charybdis, you would be able to use it for that purpose,” Hypatia said. “But he never said it was the
only
thing you could use it for. While your proposal is a good one, we have to be responsible and think through all of our options.”

“When else would we use it?” Danielle asked. “In the fight against the hydra?”

“We won’t have any problem fighting the hydra,” Rachael said, brushing the idea away. “After all, Hercules slayed the hydra
on his own
. But… no one’s ever fought Charybdis before, have they?”

For the answer to that question, we all looked to Kate.

“No.” Kate shook her head. “Both Scylla and Charybdis are ancient and immortal. They can’t be killed. Like I said earlier, it isn’t even advised to
try
. We just need to focus on getting past them with our yacht and everyone on it intact.”

“But didn’t you hear what Zeus said?” Rachael asked. “He said he was rooting for us. He trusts us to slay the hydra, so that won’t shock him much. But if we manage to slay
Charybdis
…” She smiled, as if she was already basking in the glory of it. “Think of how proud he would be then.”

“You cannot slay Charybdis,” Hypatia said, so calmly that it was clear this wasn’t up for debate. “I’m here to guide you on a mission, and that mission is to gather the three ingredients for the potion you need to kill the monsters who have escaped from Kerberos. So far, we have only
one
of those three ingredients. Attempting to attack Charybdis will do nothing to help us on that mission. And, on the rare chance that you succeed in slaying her, you will bring the wrath of Poseidon upon this entire ship. Rachael, I understand that you want to impress your father, but to protect us all, I’m putting my foot down on this idea.”

“Fine.” Rachael leaned back in her chair and pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. “It was just a thought.”

“But Danielle did have a good point,” Hypatia said. “If you save the mint to use during your battle with the hydra, your chances of slaying it will increase tremendously.”

“But then six of our crew—who are all fellow witches who volunteered to join us on this mission—will die,” I said. “If Scylla eats them alive, I’ll have no chance to heal them. But if one of us gets hurt in the fight against the hydra, I
can
heal them.”

“But if we can’t slay the hydra, way more than six people will die once the Titans escape Kerberos,” Danielle said. “Yes, we would have to sacrifice six lives to get past Scylla, but by doing so, we would save many more.”

“You don’t think we can slay the hydra?” Chris asked her.

“I never said that,” she said. “I was just pointing out that it’s a possibility.”

“Both options are valid,” Hypatia said. “Which means there’s only one fair thing for us to do now.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“We’ll have to leave it up to a vote.”

Only the five of us were allowed to vote, since this was our mission. Kate and Danielle voted to use the mint in the fight against the hydra. Chris, Blake, and I voted to use the mint to fly the yacht over Charybdis.

“It is decided, then,” Hypatia said. “Chris will use the mint now, and everyone on board will survive the strait between Scylla and Charybdis.”

“Good choice,” Rachael said, nodding at me in approval. But I could barely reply to her—all I could do was stare at Kate, my mouth open in shock.

“You wanted to sacrifice six of our crew?” I asked her, feeling like I was looking at a complete stranger. “
Why
?”

“I don’t
want
to sacrifice anyone,” she said. “But I had to think about numbers. So many more people will die if we can’t slay the hydra.”

“Which is irrelevant,” Blake cut in. “Because we
will
slay the hydra.”

“Exactly,” Ethan agreed. “No one is going to die. We’ll get the other two ingredients, and once we do, Rachael and I will go home. It’ll all work out fine.”

I nodded, wishing I could share their confidence. Because while I did believe in us, I also knew it would increase our odds of slaying the hydra if we used the mint against it. But my gut told me that using it now was the best decision. I’d gone with my gut so far, and so far it had worked out. And since one of Apollo’s abilities was prophecy, I had to hope that I’d inherited some of that, too.

Chris tossed the mint in the air, catching it with his other hand. “What are we waiting for?” he asked, spinning around and heading toward the door. “Let’s fly past these monsters.”

Eager to get a view of Scylla and Charybdis, we gathered on the front deck, along with the captain and a few of the crew numbers. Chef was there, hanging over the railing like a kid trying to see an animal at the zoo. But most of the crew had gathered below deck. They wanted to see the monsters, but they didn’t want to risk being in the open air in case Scylla got too close. We assured them that that wouldn’t happen—that Chris was going to fly the ship near Charybdis’s side of the strait—but they still didn’t want to take their chances.

Just to be safe, I stood on the left side of the ship, which was as far away from Scylla’s side as possible. And even though we wouldn’t need them, we all held onto our weapons, just in case.

“When will it be time to take the mint?” Chris asked Hypatia.

“You’ll want to wait until we’re as close to Charybdis as possible,” she answered. “We can’t risk the mint fully disintegrating before we’re completely across the strait. I’ll tell you when.”

Trying to relax—after all, there was nothing I could do to help at this moment—I watched the land funneling around us as we approached the entrance to the strait. Mountains towered high on both sides, although the right side—Scylla’s side—was so tall that clouds covered the peak. The cliffs were so steep that barely any trees grew on them—they were mostly jagged rocks. If Chris messed up and ran the boat into the mountain, the rocks would cut into us like the iceberg did to the Titanic.

But with the gift Zeus had given to him, he shouldn’t mess up.

As we got closer to the strait, the water became rockier and rockier. It soon got so bad that we had to sit down or hold onto something so we didn’t fall over. Wind rushed past the rocks, creating a faint whiny sound that reminded me of a whimpering puppy. This place was so eerie, and we all remained silent, as if paying respect to the ancient monsters we were about to pass.

As we got closer, I saw an alcove on the left side of the strait—all that grew there was a single tree, with branches so wide that they extended far over the water.

“The fig tree,” Kate whispered, as if it were a holy object. “Its branches extend over the center of Charybdis’s mouth. It’s the tree that Odysseus held onto when he came back through the strait—Charbydis ate his ship, but that tree saved his life. I can’t believe we’re seeing it with our own eyes.”

We didn’t have much time to take it in, because there was a low rumbling, and the water below the tree started to swirl, like a toilet when it’s flushed.

“Chris,” Hypatia said his name, her eyes wide in panic. “Pop that mint. Now!”

Chris did as she said, and the next thing I knew, the yacht was hovering above the water, gaining height until it was slightly higher than the tallest branch of the fig tree. The ascent was smooth, like a hot air balloon—we could now stand steadily without having to hold on for dear life. And Chris was managing this without any visible strain at all.