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"Thermos!" Percy screamed as they hurtled toward the water.
"What?" Rory thought he had lost his mind.
She and Annabeth were holding on to the boat straps for dear life. The scrunchie that had been holding Rory's hair back flew out so her hair was whipping in her face, while Annabeth's was flying straight up like a torch.
Tyson understood. He managed to open the duffel bag and take out Hermes' magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat.
Arrows and javelins whistled past them.
Percy grabbed the thermos and mumbled a silent prayer. "Hang on!"
"I am hanging on!" Annabeth yelled.
"Well hang on tighter!"
Rory gripped the boat straps until her knuckles turned white. She tucked her head into her chest and braced for some kind of impact.
Tyson grabbed Annabeth and Rory by the backs of their shirts with one hand and Percy in the other. Percy gave the thermos cap a quarter turn.
Instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the thermos and propelled them sideways, turning their downward plummet into a forty-five degree crash landing.
The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the thermos, like it was glad to be free. As they hit the ocean, they bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then they were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in their faces and nothing but sea ahead.
There was a wail of outrage from the ship behind, but they were already out of weapon range. The Princess Andromeda faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone.
As they raced over the sea, Annabeth, Percy, and Rory tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. Somebody had to know what Luke was doing, and they didn't know who else to trust.
The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight — perfect for an Iris-message — but the connection was still poor. When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show them Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.
They told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the Princess Andromeda and the golden box for Kronos' remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on their end, only Zeus knows how much he actually heard.
"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for—"
His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him — a bunch of voices whooping it up like Spartan warriors.
