Chapter 18: Daughter of the Dawn

Chapter 17

Julie

The singing was beautiful, mesmerizing, and I wanted to get up and find its source. My next thought was to run down a quick list of the residents of the Sea of Monsters that sang, I came up with one. The following thought was, why can I think if it is their singing?

I flipped out of the bed and brought out my daggers, I haven’t heard about the Sirens having targeted singing, but just because I have never heard about it doesn’t mean it wasn't so. I willed the boat to keep my steps silent, and the wood sank a little as my foot came down, not making a sound. I opened the door and caught site of Duke and Max on their knees, hands to their ears. It looked like they were crying out in pain, but I couldn’t hear them. Then I saw someone else who had their back to the door. She was wearing a dress that reached to the deck, the rosy fabric swaying in time with the song. Gloved hands were holding a twirling an umbrella, this way with one stanza and reversed with the next. The words of the song, if they could be called words, tugged at me. I could almost understand them, somewhere in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite catch where I knew them from. Her raven hair hung in a braid that wrapped around her upper body and her waist, where it was tied in a loose knot, before hanging just above the floor. She turned and faced me.

“Ah, the whelp of Poseidon has awoken,” she said ending the song. The boys collapsed onto the deck, their cries suddenly slamming into the silence. Her voice reminded me of home, of the upper crust gentlemen who would try and buy the fishery from my family. It hinted at royalty, and good upbringing, and people who didn’t see the real world, but still were able to affect it because they had the money too.

“Hmm,” she continued,” red hair, indicating a witch, preference to blues and greens in your clothing, I suppose that is to be expected.” She started to walk in an ark to my right, as if to get a better look at me, I kept my hands at my sides, hiding the dagger blades with my body. “Unflattering clothing, not very lady like. However, it must be you who is somehow commanding this ship, as these two....boys,” she said the word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth, “refused to tell me anything once I told them who my mother was.”

“I suppose Eos is the bitch that spawned you?” I replied, forget being civil, she had no right torturing anyone.

“A bit of an uncouth way of describing it I suppose, but yes. Eos is my mother, and yes she is indeed a bitch most of the time. This latest attempt to free my grandfather from his latest prison is just foolhardy. However, she has accumulated enough power that it would be foolhardy for me to not bow to her wishes this time and, thus, we are at the reason I am here. Turn this ship around child, or I shall be forced to kill each of you and burn it down.”

“Your song doesn’t seem to work on me, how do you expect to do any killing?” I asked, tensing up.

“True, mothers song does not work on the fairer sex, I do have other talents however. The ability to bring this ship to utter darkness for example. I can also control many monsters, by my immortal status. I control the winds to a degree, more than Zeus’s child over there can, and to top it all off, I have three of the hours at my command. I simply out power you child, and there is nothing that you can do about it.”

“That may be the case Little Miss Braidy Pants, but you know that happens to hair like yours with the sea air?” Her eyes widened and her hair, I kid you not, started unwrapping itself from her waist and body. I didn’t wait for her do do whatever it was that she tried to do, I called upon the sea and from either side of the ship two hands made of water burst from the surface. They reached up until they could clear the railing and then clapped themselves together with her in the middle with a loud thwump. I felt a pull in stomach from the effort of keeping the torrent on her until my head started to hurt. I looked up to see her, and my mouth dropped open.

She was encased in a bubble of air that was holding back the water I was trying to hit her with, so that it simply built up and sloshed across the deck, her braid waving back and forth in front of her, waiting for an opening. Unfortunately, my energy was being drained from my attack, so I couldn't keep the water up for long.

“Pressure!” came a voice in my head, what the hell does that mean? Then it came to me. I focused the water pressure into a smaller point, and it cut through her protective bubble. And her hair.

She roared in ugly rage as her braid fell to the ground, threw aside her umbrella and she dived at me.

Chapter 19