ENTRAPPED ₂

60

LEO STILL LOOKED HALF-FROZEN. Madeleine didn't know what kind of PTSD episode he and Hazel were having together, but it would have to wait. If Madeleine could so kindly delay her PTSD episodes these days, so could those two.

"Leo, take the helm!" Madeleine shouted, clinging to the wheel. She could steer the ship, but that was about all she could do. In fact, Ethan could probably do it better. The ship had been constructed at Camp Half-Blood, and Madeleine hadn't touched the place in months. (This made her infuriated and upset, but her PTSD episodes could be delayed.)

The ship tilted to starboard. Hazel gripped the rigging. Leo climbed the tilting deck and Ethan grabbed him, shoving him toward the wheel. "Go on!"

Unfortunately, that was when the monster came into view. The thing was the length of their ship. In the moonlight, it looked like a cross between a giant shrimp and a cockroach, with a pink chitinous shell, a flat crayfish tail, and millipede-type legs undulating hypnotically as the monster scraped against the hull of the Argo II.

Its head surfaced last: the slimy pink face of an enormous catfish with glassy dead eyes, a gaping toothless maw, and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril. Madeleine was lucky she had seen worse shit in battle, because a lesser person would have thrown up.

"Well, get steering!" Ethan shouted at Leo. He had his knives in his hands, his eyes alight with something akin to panic.

Madeleine tried to remember the last time either of them had fought a monster this big. It would probably have to go to the drakon that had murdered Silena. That was not a happy memory. Delay, delay, delay. That was all Madeleine seemed to do these days.

"I don't think steering is going to help," Leo said, but he managed to get himself situated at the helm. Ethan kept a grip on the rail, his other arm wrapped around Madeleine's waist, as if he was the one with the flying shoes.

The rest of their crew stumbled up the stairs. Percy yelled, "What's going―gah! Shrimpzilla!"

"Leave it to Percy to name the damn thing," Ethan mumbled.

"Names have power," Madeleine mocked, in an appropriate imitation of Chiron. This made Ethan smile, just barely, before his face resumed panic.

Frank ran to Hazel's side, which was good. She was clutching the rigging, still looking as dazed as Leo. Madeleine had seen that look on her face before. It was how she looked after a black out. But her black outs hadn't happened in months, as far as Madeleine was aware.

What the hell was going on?

Madeleine had no time to figure that out. The monster rammed the ship again, and the hull groaned. Annabeth, Piper, and Jason tumbled to starboard and almost rolled overboard. Ethan cursed viciously and let go of Madeleine to sprint over to them, steadying himself remarkably well across the tilting deck.

Leo's hands flew across the controls on the helm. Festus clacked and clicked.

"How did it get so close?" Annabeth shouted. Ethan had managed to grab her by the back of the shirt, and now she was pulling herself up on one of the rail shields while Ethan went fishing for Jason and Piper.

"I don't know!" Madeleine yelled. She had her knives in her hands, though she didn't think they would do much good. It would be a miracle if she could get through the monster's nose tentacles.

"I'm stupid!" Leo scolded himself. "Stupid, stupid! I forgot the sonar!"

The ship tilted further to starboard. Piper and Jason were almost completely overboard, and Ethan was clinging to the rail with one hand and gripping them with the other, so Madeleine took that as her cue. She half-slid, half-stumbled down the deck and grabbed Jason.