¹Royal Cries.

018.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter eighteen

━━ "WE WILL NEVER make it," Zoë said. "We are moving too slow. But we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus."

The serpent bull mooed, keeping in line with Percy as they jogged along the waterfront. They had left the shopping center far behind them, heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge. However, it was a lot farther than Elisa had anticipated; the sun was already starting to dip in the west.

"I don't get it," Percy said. "Why do we have to get there at sunset?"

"The Hesperides are the nymphs of the sunset," Zoë explained. "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

"What happens if we miss it?"

"Tomorrow is winter solstice. If we miss sunset tonight, we would have to wait until tomorrow evening. And by then, the Olympian Council will be over. We must free Lady Artemis tonight."

And if they didn't succeed, Bianca would've died for nothing, Elisa thought.

She couldn't let that happen.

"We need a car," Thalia said.

"But what about Bessie?" Percy asked.

Grover stopped dead in his tracks. "I've got an idea! The Ophiotaurus can appear in different bodies of water, right?"

"Well, yeah," Percy said. "I mean—he was in Long Island Sound. Then he just popped into the water at Hoover Dam. And now he's here."

"So maybe we could coax him back to Long Island Sound," Gover said. "Then Chiron could help us get him to Olympus."

"But he was following me," the son of Poseidon pointed out. "If I'm not there, would he know where he's going?"

Bessie mooed forlornly in the water.

"I ... I can show him," Gover said slowly. "I'll go with him."

"Grover," Elisa started. As far as she was aware, trying to swim with goat hooves wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world. "Are you sure?"

"I'm the only one who can talk to him," the satyr said. "It makes sense."

He bent down and said something in the Ophiotaurus's ear. Bessie shivered, then made a contented, lowing sound.

"The blessing of the Wild," Grover said. "That should help with safe passage. Percy, pray to your dad, too. See if he will grant us safe passage through the seas."

Elisa didn't see how it was possible to swim from San Francisco to Long Island in such a short amount of time, but if Poseidon was in a good mood, maybe it would've been possible.

"Dad," said the son of Poseidon. "Help us. Get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to camp. Protect them at sea."

"A prayer like that needs a sacrifice," Thalia said. "Something big."

It was silent as everybody thought of something to offer to the God of the Sea. Elisa slowly touched the lion skin coat around her shoulders. She quickly unclasped it, tossing it to Percy.

"Offer that," she said. "It's rightly yours anyway."

"Elisa," Grover said. "Are you sure? That lion skin ... that's really helpful! Hercules used it!"