𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 [Jason Grace]

29

𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐧 when Hazel and Piper burst into the mess hall, out of breath and flushed.

"What are you doing?" Hazel yelled, "We're under attack! The Romans caught up to us."

Dante was out of his seat in the blink of an eye, a little embarrassed at being caught slacking. "Sorry, so sorry."

He raced up the stairs to the deck, Coach on his heels, while Piper and Hazel went to the girls' bathroom to send Jason an iris message.

When Dante came up on the deck, ropes were flying on their own— releasing the dock ties, weighing the anchor. The sails unfurled and caught the wind. Meanwhile Annabeth fired the engine. The oars extended with a sound like machine-gun fire, and the Argo II turned from the dock, heading for the island in the distance.

"You guys okay?" He asked Annabeth. The ship thing was weird enough, but he'd seen weirder things.

"Where were you?" She asked, but she didn't look away from the ship's controls.

"Sorry, managed to get Hedge into the chairs in the mess hall," He explained, "Much less violent than what he proposed, trust me."

Three eagles still circled overhead, but they made no attempt to land on the ship, probably because Festus the figurehead blew fire whenever they got close. More eagles were flying in formation toward Fort Sumter—at least a dozen. If each of them carried a Roman demigod... that was a lot of enemies.

"Met Octavian," Percy said from the middle of the deck. He seemed to be the one controlling the ship. Damn. "He's not happy."

"Is he ever?"

Coach Hedge came pounding up the stairs with Hazel at his hooves.

"Where are they?" he demanded. "Who do I kill?"

"No killing!" Annabeth ordered. "Just defend the ship!"

"But they interrupted a bonding session!"

"There was no bonding." was Dante's immediate response.

Piper emerged from below. "Got a message through to Jason. Kind of fuzzy, but he's already on his way. He should be— oh! There!"

Soaring over the city, heading in their direction, was a giant bald eagle, unlike the golden Roman birds.

"Frank!" Hazel said.

Leo was holding on to the eagle's feet, and even from the ship, Dante could hear him screaming and cursing.

Behind them flew Jason, riding the wind. Dante had never seen him fly, the most he'd seen the guy do was use the winds to his aid in a fight.

"Never seen Jason fly before," Percy grumbled.

"He looks like a blond Superman." Dante blurted. Percy gave an agreeing nod.

"This isn't the time!" Piper scolded him. "Look, they're in trouble!"

Sure enough, the Roman flying chariot had descended from a cloud and was diving straight toward them. Jason and Frank veered out of the way, pulling up to avoid getting trampled by the pegasi. The charioteers fired their bows. Arrows whistled under Leo's feet, which led to more screaming and cursing. Jason and Frank were forced to overshoot the Argo II and fly toward Fort Sumter.

"I'll get 'em!" yelled Coach Hedge.

He spun the port ballista. Before anyone could yell, "Don't be stupid!" Hedge fired. A flaming spear rocketed toward the chariot.