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Summary

Chapter 11

Percy and Annabeth explore the battleship and learn that it is manned by dead Confederate soldiers. It was given to Clarisse by her father, the god of war, because the spirits on the losing side of every war owe tribute to Ares. Annabeth tells Clarisse that Luke is also after the Fleece and suggests they combine forces, but Clarisse refuses. Later, Percy has another dream about Grover, only this time he is also able to glimpse the Golden Fleece. Polyphemus catches Grover unraveling the train and gives him magic wool that cannot be unraveled, and says that Grover should be finished by tomorrow. Grover asks Polyphemus how intruders could ever enter the cave, knowing that Percy is listening, but the Cyclops boasts that it would be impossible for anybody to do so. 

Percy wakes and learns that they are about to enter the Sea of Monsters. He then overhears Clarisse having a conversation with Ares in which he repeatedly belittles and insults his daughter. Ares tells Clarisse not to let Percy steal the quest from her. Clarisse begins to imply that she may need Percy’s help because of the Oracle’s prophecy, but Ares silences her. The ship starts to sail between Scylla and Charybdis, two monsters that guard the entrance to the Sea of Monsters. Percy tries to strategize with Clarisse, but she is uninterested and chooses her own plan. Meanwhile, the engine's temperature spikes and Tyson volunteers to fix it, as he is immune to the heat. The ship draws closer to the monsters and Clarisse attempts to use the ship's guns to defeat them; they are unsuccessful, however, and the ship is damaged. Everyone evacuates to the lifeboats while Percy races to get to Tyson, who is still working in the engine room. Scylla grabs Percy and the engine explodes, causing the ship to blow up. Scylla drops Percy and he starts to fall, but the remaining winds in the thermos blow him away from the wreckage and into the water. His last thought before he loses consciousness is that Tyson is dead, and it’s his fault.

Chapter 12

Percy wakes up on a small raft with Annabeth and learns that she fished his unconscious body out of the water. Annabeth tries to cheer him up, claiming it is possible that Tyson survived the explosion due to his immunity to fire, but Percy remains unconvinced. He explains his latest dream to Annabeth and she guesses they have less than twenty-four hours to get to Grover. She then apologizes to Percy about her treatment of Tyson and admits she was wrong about him. Percy starts to think about Luke and remembers his cryptic comments about a prophecy. He asks Annabeth what Luke was talking about, and Annabeth reluctantly shares the little information she has. According to Chiron, there is a prophecy predicting the next child of the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades) to reach the age of sixteen will make a decision that will determine the fate of Olympus, and either save or destroy the Age of the Gods. Percy realizes that Kronos did not kill him last summer because Percy could still be useful to him if he manages to get Percy onto his side. Annabeth continues on to say that Chiron assumed Thalia was the demigod from the prophecy when he first learned about her, and that nobody knew what to think after she died—until Percy came along. Percy asks if there is any more to the prophecy, and Annabeth hesitates. She is saved from answering when their raft approaches a tropical island. 

Percy and Annabeth wash up on the shore of C.C.’s Spa and Resort. The two are welcomed into the resort and immediately separated by C.C. herself for their treatments. C.C. brings Percy in front of a mirror and manipulates him into drinking a potion, claiming that it will turn him into his better self. Percy does so and is transformed into a guinea pig. C.C. then locks him in a cage with the other men who suffered the same fate upon landing on her island. Annabeth returns, unaware that Percy is now a guinea pig, and C.C. tries to convince Annabeth to stay and learn sorcery from her. Annabeth realizes that C.C. is actually the famed sorceress Circe and demands to know what she has done with Percy. She notices the cage of guinea pigs in the corner and dumps Hermes multivitamins, which apparently make the consumer immune to sorcery, into the cage, turning Percy human again. The other guinea pigs in the cage also eat the vitamins and turn back into their true forms—revealing themselves to be the pirate captain Blackbeard and his crew. The pirates run off to loot the resort, and Percy and Annabeth escape on Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. 

Read more about the sorceress Circe in Homer’s Odyssey.

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