Summary
The next thing Percy knows, Annabeth is shaking him awake. They’re in Miami, and the hippocampi can’t go any farther because of the pollution. Although they’re not very excited to swim for it, they thank the hippocampi for saving their lives and for the ride. In no time, they’re back in the mortal world and realize that they’ve been gone for ten days. They have to get the Fleece back as soon as possible since Thalia’s tree will be dead very soon. They start fighting, unsure of how to get back when Clarisse confesses that the prophecy received mentioned that she would be flying home alone. She’s mad about it, but Percy suggests that this means that they have to send Clarisse to take a flight back to New York so she can deliver the Fleece in time. Tyson, who has saved the money that Hermes gave them with the initial yellow duffel bags, brings out cash as Percy waves down a taxi and gives her the Fleece, which is now disguised as a letterman jacket, to Clarisse. After the taxi drives off, Annabeth comments that she thinks it’s insane that he gave her the Fleece, but Percy argues that it’s her quest.
They’re about to find a way home when Percy turns and finds a sword at his throat. Luke and his henchmen have returned with the ship Princess Andromeda. They get herded onto the ship, and Luke is frustrated when he realizes that they trusted Clarisse with the Fleece and that it’s not in their possession anymore. Luke makes plans to head to the airport while Percy realizes that Luke manipulated everything to get them to get him the Fleece so he could heal Kronos faster. Percy, seeing his chance, sends an Iris message to the entire camp while Luke lays out the details of his plan, forcing Mr. D to admit that Chiron was not responsible for poisoning Thalia’s tree. Mr. D banishes Tantalus just as he manages to grab a cheeseburger, and the campers start cheering.
While Percy is initially feeling pretty great, Luke turns and tells Percy that he’ll never leave the boat alive. Percy challenges Luke to a one-on-one fight as his henchmen bring him a flying horse to ride. While Luke initially claims that he can’t be pressured into a fight, his pride wins out and he brings out his own sword, Backbiter, to try and kill Percy quickly. Luke, who has a shield, has the advantage, and at first, things don’t look good for Percy. He finds a little help from the water, but it’s not enough. It looks like it’s over, until out of nowhere, two arrows kill Luke’s monster henchmen.
Percy has trouble understanding what’s happening in front of him but eventually, he absorbs that Chiron and his relatives, who unlike him, are dressed like serious partiers, have come to rescue them. They stun even Luke as they overwhelm the deck of the Princess Andromeda with their paintball guns while Chiron gallops towards Annabeth and Grover. Percy tries to get, up but his leg, which he wounded in the fight with Luke, stops him. Percy and Tyson manage to get on the backs of two centaurs, and they escape before Luke’s warriors form themselves into a phalanx. They end up in a centaur camp, and Percy asks Chiron how he knew that they would be near Miami. Chiron admits that things from the Sea of Monsters tend to wash up there. Percy isn’t satisfied with the result of the confrontation with Luke, who can now just sail away, but Chiron reminds them that their main focus has to be getting to Half-Blood Hill after Percy gets healed. He says that the centaurs will help them get back and that he’ll be glad to return to camp.
After they solidify those plans, Chiron takes Percy aside to talk about the prophecy. Although nothing is set in stone because they don’t know if Percy is the child in the prophecy, Chiron reassures him that he will not be alone in fighting Kronos. Percy is skeptical about what he can do to fight against Kronos, but Chiron reminds him that he’s the bridge between humanity and the eternal. He says Kronos will try and destroy him now that he knows he can’t use him. Percy is surprised that Chiron is so knowledgeable, and Chiron pushes him to remember the mythology he taught him. When Percy draws a blank, Chiron reminds him that Kronos is Chiron’s father. Due to the powers of the centaurs, they end up arriving just after Clarisse. Percy rides on Chiron’s back for most of the way, silent and thinking about what Chiron had revealed to him.
The camp’s been through a really hard three weeks, with some of the buildings having been destroyed and a lot of the campers seriously injured. The whole camp crowds around Thalia’s tree and as Clarisse drapes the Fleece over the lowest branch, the tree begins to heal. While they’re looking for a guardian for the tree, Chiron sets campers on a continuous border patrol. The campers honor Clarisse for bringing the Fleece while no one pays any attention to Annabeth and Percy, which Percy actually prefers. The next day, Chiron announces that they’ll be completing the chariot races after all. This time, Tyson, Percy, and Annabeth decide to work together, agreeing to split the prize of no chores between their two cabins.
The night before the race, Percy is tending the horses in the stables when he comes across Hermes again. He apologizes for not being able to save Luke, but Hermes doesn’t become angry as Percy expected. Instead, he asks Percy if he has ever felt abandoned by his own father, Poseidon. Percy knows immediately the answer is yes, and gets angry at the thought of how he never gets acknowledged by Poseidon. However, Hermes argues that he’s been paying attention to Percy in small, indirect ways, which is often the only way that a god can interfere. Hermes is grateful that Percy got the chance to talk to Luke, even if it ended in violence, and states that families are often messy. However, the main reason that Hermes is there is to make a delivery. After signing for the package as Hermes’ snakes bicker, Percy receives a sea-blue envelope, which he knows immediately is from his father. But unfortunately, the message inside disappoints him; it just reads: brace yourself. Percy stays up wondering what that warning might mean.
In the morning, however, he tries to turn his attention toward the race. He and Annabeth drive out onto the track, with Tyson handing him a wristwatch to protect him. Before they go to compete, Percy is ready to apologize to Tyson for being embarrassed by him but Tyson interrupts him by saying that Poseidon sent Percy after Tyson asked for a friend. Percy promises to win for him as the race starts. They're immediately in the lead, but they face javelins and lead-weighted nets from their opponents. They manage to fend off the Apollo cabin, but then the Hephaestus cabin sabotages them with Greek fire while trying to slice at them with a sword. However, Tyson’s invention comes in handy, transforming into a shield that protects them. Percy uses Riptide to flip the Greek fire away from them. Annabeth manages to drag them across the finish line, and as the crowd cheers, Annabeth gives credit to Tyson for helping them win the race and get the Fleece and all the other parts of the quest. In front of everyone, Percy claims Tyson as his brother. Tyson blushes, Annabeth kisses Percy on the cheek, and the Athena cabin carries the three of them on their shoulders to the winner’s platform.
That afternoon was one of the happiest Percy had at camp. Grover announces that he’s able to spend the rest of the summer with them before he resumes searching for Pan. While he could dissolve the empathy link between them, Percy admits that he’d rather keep it. During archery class, Chiron lets him know that he’s smoothed things over for him legally with Meriwether Prep, although he’s still expelled. He calls his mom, who chews him out but is just glad that he’s safe. Unfortunately, because he’s a half-blood, he can’t promise that things will get better. They agree that Percy will continue training at camp for the summer and then come home, where they’ll hopefully be able to find somewhere for him to go to school. Tyson has been accepted by the campers, but that evening, he lets Percy know that Poseidon has asked him to come and learn how to work at the Cyclops’ forge. He doesn’t want to leave Percy, but they both know that they’ll need weapons for the coming war. Percy is sad, but at least has the shield to remember him by, which Tyson says will save his life one day. As Percy presses the wristwatch to enlarge the shield, he sees scenes from their adventures that summer. Sensing that Percy feels down, Annabeth and Grover come to comfort him and the three of them head to dinner together.
That night, even though they’re protected again, Percy’s dreams are restless. In his dreams he sees Poseidon, who again warns him to brace himself. Percy wakes up to Grover banging on the door, and Grover has a look in his eyes that tells him that something’s wrong. Grover mentions something about Annabeth being on the hill, and Percy immediately freaks out, throwing on clothes to race down to the central yard as dawn begins to break. They come across Chiron, who asks Grover if it’s true and then grabs Percy and swings him onto his back. They head towards Thalia’s tree, and Chiron admits that the Fleece worked too well, giving Kronos another chance at the prophecy. Percy is overwhelmed when he sees a girl lying on the floor in Greek armor. He then realizes that Annabeth is the one kneeling next to the unconscious girl, crying. Kneeling by her side, Percy doesn’t recognize her but feels a strange sense of familiarity. Everyone is in shock and stays away, confusing Percy, who takes her by the shoulders, yelling for the others to bring nectar and ambrosia so they can take her to the Big House. She opens her eyes, which are electric blue. She asks who he is, and Percy introduces himself, assuring her she’s safe now. She trails off about having a strange dream where she was dying. Percy tells her she’s okay and asks for his name. But as she stares into his eyes, he realizes why they were sent on the quest for the Fleece: for Kronos to get another chess piece. As the others look on, stunned, she introduces herself as Thalia, daughter of Zeus.
Analysis
They’ve made it out of the Cyclops’ island, but their troubles aren’t quite over. As always, time in the mortal world runs differently than it does in the mythical one. Although this is obviously a very stressful situation, Percy manages to showcase his generosity by offering to let Clarisse take the Fleece home. Even though it was foretold by the Oracle that she would be the one to take it back, it’s still pretty big of Percy to give her the Fleece and potentially lose all credit for finding it. It also means that he has to extend trust to Clarisse and believe in her ability to get the Fleece back to camp safely. He also is willing to look past their former differences and arguments to do what’s best for everyone.
It turns out to be key that he gave it over to Clarisse, because otherwise, it would have ended up in Luke’s control. The encounter reveals that all of the conflicts of the novel so far went exactly according to Kronos’s plan. Percy and his friends were a convenient excuse for them to get the Fleece, just like Percy and Annabeth suspected after they escaped the boat so easily. Despite this surely being disappointing, Percy still thinks of how to help the camp and reveals Luke to the entire camp using Iris Message. This is particularly satisfying for Percy, who was caught off guard by Luke last summer and only narrowly escaped death. Just like before with their decision to announce the quest in front of everyone, public shaming forces action, and Tantalus is quickly removed from the camp.
This time, Luke’s pride becomes an obstacle for him. If he hadn't fought Percy one-on-one, he would have eventually defeated him, but engaging Percy like that gave the centaurs time to arrive and for Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson to escape with them. The modern-day centaurs are partiers as opposed to their mythical counterparts, who were considered wild and primitive. Chiron, like he was in myth, is still considered the odd one out. His intuition is good enough to know exactly where Percy and his friends will be, and he’s smart enough to know that Kronos will only become more aggressive now that Percy has definitively rejected his offer. Chiron’s status as Kronos’ son explains why Mr. D was so eager to point fingers at him, but it also shows how deeply important family is in this conflict.
Nevertheless, Percy has people that are willing to stand beside him. Although the camp’s been through some tough times, and despite the fact that he’s not getting full credit for retrieving the Fleece, the camp has become a place where he can feel safe again. He’s also grown a lot in the meantime: instead of choosing between Annabeth and Tyson, they all link up to work together. The chariot races aren’t a breeze, but working together and using all of their talents, including the talents that Tyson has that are particular to him being a Cyclops, they form a team. The positive nature of this moment, however, is counterbalanced by the seriousness of his encounter with Hermes. Hermes doesn’t blame Percy for what happened, but he lets him know that often, the gods’ distance from their children isn’t exactly their choice. Hermes says that family is messy, which reminds the reader that everyone fighting in this war is part of a large extended family. This war is building up to be parent-versus-child and sibling-versus-sibling.
Poseidon’s message is a way of trying to prepare Percy for that incoming war. But those small gestures aren’t very useful, and often don’t really help at all. Although Hermes might be right that gods are limited in how much they can interfere in their children’s lives, what Percy and the others want isn’t necessarily interference. Percy is grateful for the note, but he would much rather have his dad come to visit him, even if he didn’t say anything. His way of dealing with the mystery of it is simply to ignore it entirely. But Tyson reveals another way that Poseidon remains involved in his children’s lives—by sending Percy and Tyson to find each other. On the one hand, Tyson has protected Percy by shielding him from monsters for the bulk of the year and by helping him on quests, while Percy has helped Tyson find a friend. Shockingly, Poseidon is listening to the children who are are so-called “mistakes,” as well as Percy. In Tyson, Percy has a close family connection to his dad from which he doesn’t have to constantly distance himself, and he makes sure to let the whole camp know.
Percy’s close relationships continue to flourish as the summer progresses, even though they all must part when the school year starts. His mom is unsurprisingly angry when he finally gets back to her, but she understands and is willing to let him go when she needs to. It’s something that Percy has to learn to do when Tyson reveals that he’ll be leaving for Poseidon’s underwater forges. Just like his mother has to accept that Percy has to leave to train at Camp Half-Blood, Percy has to accept that Tyson has to leave to make weapons so they can be ready for the war with Kronos. Tyson parts with Percy with a touch of foreshadowing, saying that the shield he gave Percy will save his life someday. But the war is even closer than they think. Kronos’s initial plan might have fallen through, but his backup plan remained solid. Percy takes the lead to take care of Thalia, but as Chiron comments, Thalia’s presence is a pretty clear bid to try and control the prophecy from another angle. Everything comes together: Thalia’s tree was poisoned so that the Fleece could heal it and potentially bring back Thalia. The mysterious punk girl that Percy saw in his dreams was Thalia herself, and her confrontation with Kronos speaks of what’s to come. Now that Thalia is alive, she is the child of the prophecy, not Percy.
