cacoethes |PERCY JACKSON| [book 2]

XII

"THERMOS!" PERCY SCREAMED as they hurtled toward the water.

"What?" Selena asked, looking at him like he lost his mind. She was holding on to the boat straps for dear life, her hair flying straight up like a torch.

But Tyson understood. He managed to open Percy's duffel bag and take out Hermes's magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat.

Arrows and javelins whistled past them. Percy grabbed the thermos and hoped he was doing the right thing. "Hang on!"

"I am hanging on!" Annabeth yelled.

"Tighter!"

Percy hooked his feet under the boat's inflatable bench, and as Tyson grabbed Annabeth, Selena, and Percy by the backs of their shirts, and 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 speedboat, salt spray in their faces and nothing but sea ahead.

Selena heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind them, 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, Selena, and Percy tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. They figured it was important they let somebody 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 their 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.

The three demi-gods told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the Princess Andromeda and the golden box for Kronos's remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on their end, they weren't so sure how much he 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 Comanche warriors.

"What?" Percy yelled.

"Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight. "Annabeth, Selena, you shouldn't have let Percy leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece-"

"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled. "Woo-hoooooo!" The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made our boat vibrate.

"-Miami," Chiron was yelling. "I'll try to keep watch-"