Annabeth Chase and the Sea of Monsters

Chapter 19 - We make our daring escape

It took Percy a moment to work it out.

"So?" he demanded. "What's so special . . ." His face paled. "Whoa, you don't mean -"

"He is reforming," Luke said proudly. "Little by little, we're calling his life force out of the pit. With every recruit who pledges our cause, another small piece appears -"

"That's disgusting!" I snapped.

Luke sneered at me. "Your mother was born from Zeus's split skull, Annabeth. I wouldn't talk. Soon there will be enough of the titan lord so that we can make him whole again. We will piece together a new body for him, a work worthy of the forges of Hephaestus."

"You're insane."

"Join us and you'll be rewarded. We have powerful friends, sponsors rich enough to buy this cruise ship and much more. Percy, your mother will never have to work again. You can buy her a mansion. You can have power, fame - whatever you want. Annabeth, you can realize your dream of being an architect. You can build a monument to last a thousand years. A temple to the lords of the next age!"

It was tempting, that was for sure. But the cost was too much.

"Go to Tartarus," I hissed at him.

He sighed, and he actually looked disappointed with me. I felt sorrow at that, but I had to steel myself against him. He was my enemy. Nothing more.

"A shame," he murmured.

He pulled a remote out of his pocket and pressed a red button. Immediately, the doors opened and two dazed humans wearing crew uniforms marched in, almost as if they had been waiting outside the doors, which was strange as when we came in, there had been no one. They carried nightsticks and walked up to Luke, their eyes unfocused but their stance was aggressive. Worse of all, seeing as they were human, if it came down to a fight, our celestial bronze blades wouldn't hurt them.

"Ah, good, security," Luke said. "I'm afraid we have some stowaways."

"Yes, sir," they sighed dreamily.

Luke nodded, pleased and turned to Oreius. "It's time to feed the Aethiopian drakon. Take these fools below and show them how it's done."

I felt horror at that, but Oreius looked excited. "Hehe! Hehe!"

"Let me go, too," Agrius said, looked worried. "My brother is worthless. That Cyclops -"

"Is no threat," Luke interrupted. He turned to look at the golden sarcophagus, stroking it with a frown on his face. "Agrius, stay here. We have important matters to discuss."

"But -"

"Oreius, don't fail me. Stay in the hold to make sure the drakon is properly fed."

Oreius nodded, still looking pleased with himself. He prodded us in the back with the tip of his javelin, steering us out of the room. I tried to look back but the two zombie human guards blocked my view as we were shepherded out of the room.

What could they be talking about? I was burning to know everything that Luke had been up to. Maybe, somehow, I could stop him, bring back the old Luke.

Percy also looked deep in thought, although by the look on his face, I didn't think we were on the same train of thought.

We started to cross an open deck, the sides lined with lifeboats. I'd studied enough boats to know that once we passed through the doors on the far side of the deck, we wouldn't have any where to escape to. This was our last chance before we became a drakon's chew toy.

Fortunately, Percy was way ahead of me. He looked back at Tyson and said, "Now."

Somehow, Tyson seemed to understand. He spun and whacked Oreius with his hand, sending the human bear flying. He flew ten metres backward, crashing into the pool like a giant furry cannonball.

"Ah!" screamed the kids swimming there. "We are not having a blast in the pool!"

We weren't out of danger yet though. I sensed one of the human guards coming up behind me and ducked as he swung his nightstick at me. Before he could swing again, I kicked him in the chest, winding him as he fell to his knees. I turned to kick the other guard, only to see him running for the nearest alarm box.

"Stop him!" I yelled.

Percy grabbed a deck chair and raced after him, but the guard managed to hit the alarm just before Percy flattened him with the chair.

Red lights started flattening and sirens wailed. Oh, Styx.

"Lifeboat!" Percy yelled.

We ran for the nearest one and started struggling with the cover. We took so long wrestling with it that by the time we got it off, the deck was starting to fill with more human guards and monsters. Tourists were being shoved out of the way, spilling drinks so that humans were tripping over the water. It was chaos and would have been funny, hadn't it been for the row of archers that popped up on the deck above us.

"How do you launch this thing?" I screamed, fiddling with the ropes and pulleys.

A hellhound leapt at Percy as his back was turned, but Tyson smacked it away with a fire extinguisher.

"Get in!" Percy yelled, uncapping Riptide.

I didn't dare question him while he was carrying a sword. I clambered in the boat, yelling at Tyson to get in too. He managed to stumble his way in, and I made sure that he was on the other side to me.

Percy swiped his sword, cutting a volley of arrows out of the air. While he was keeping the monsters distracted, I yanked at the pulleys, my panic making it impossible to work. Nothing I did seemed to make it move at all. It didn't help that we were hanging over the side of the ship also, the boat swinging gently but worryingly.

"Hold on!" Percy yelled, hopping into the boat with us.

Before I could stop him, he slashed the ropes with the sword, sending us into a free fall as arrows whistled over our heads. If we hadn't dropped so suddenly, they would have hit us in the head.

Not that I was grateful that we were falling either, me screaming so loud that I nearly didn't hear Percy yelling for a flask.

"What?" I screamed back at him, holding onto the boat straps for dear life. Why was he thinking of hot drinks at a time like this?

Then Tyson yanked the flask Hermes had given Percy out of a duffel bag and handed it to him. I had to duck as arrows and javelins whipped past us, nearly getting caught in my hair as it stood straight up.

"Hang on!" Percy yelled at me, rather unnecessarily.

"I am hanging on!" I yelled back.

"Tighter!"

I saw him hook his feet under the bench and I did the same, winding my feet and arms under every available loop. Tyson also grabbed the back of my shirt as Percy twisted the Flask 45 degrees.

A white sheet of wind jetted out of the flask and knocked us sideways so as we crashed into the water, we were at a flatter angle rather than completely vertical. We skidded along like a skipped stone as the wind seemed to to grow stronger, sending us racing across the water. The wind sounded like it was laughing, going so fast that spray was catapulted back in our faces and our hair and clothes were whipped about.

Screams of anger from the ship followed us as we zoomed away, going so fast that the Princess Andromeda quickly disappeared from sight.