all around me monsters and demigods shouted orders and strapped on their

weapons. I was empty-handed. Riptide, being magic, would appear in my pocket

sooner or later, but for now it was stuck somewhere under the wreckage of the

crab, and I had no time to retrieve it.

 

In the elevator foyer on deck eight, a couple of dracaenae slithered across my

path. From the waist up, they were women with green scaly skin, yellow eyes, and

forked tongues. From the waist down, they had double snake trunks instead of

legs. They held spears and weighted nets, and I knew from experience they could

use them.

 

"What isss thisss?" one said. "A prize for Kronosss!"

 

I wasn't in the mood to play break-the-snake, but in front of me was a stand

with a model of the ship, like a Y OU ARE HERE display. I ripped the model off

the pedestal and hurled it at the first iracaena.

 

The boat smacked her in the face and she went down with the ship. I jumped over

her, grabbed her friend's spear, and swung her around. She slammed into the

elevator, and I kept running toward the front of the ship.

 

"Get him!" she screamed.

 

Hellhounds bayed. An arrow from somewhere whizzed past my face and impaled

itself in the mahogany-paneled wall of the stairwell.