They hurled toward the water.
"Thermos!" Percy screamed.
"What?" Ethan yelled.
"Did you lost your mind?" Y/N shouted over the wind. He was holding on to the boat straps for dear life, his hair flying up.
Annabeth didn't seem to understand what Percy was talking about either. "AAAAAAAHHHH!" was the only sound coming out of her mouth.
But Tyson seemed to understand. 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. "Hang on!"
"I am hanging on!" Y/N yelled.
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 fall 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 a speed boat, salt spray in their faces and nothing but sea ahead.
As they raced over the sea, they tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. They figured it was important to 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 any 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.
They 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, Y/N wasn't 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, you shouldn't have let Percy and Y/N leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece—"
"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled. "Woohoooooo!"
The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made their boat vibrate.
"—Miami," Chiron was yelling. "I'll try to keep watch—"
Their misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone.
An hour later they spotted land—a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coast guard cruiser passed on their starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look. Not every day you see a yellow lifeboat with no engine going a hundred knots an hour, manned by five kids.
"That's Virginia Beach!" Annabeth said as they approached the shoreline. "Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far overnight? That's like—"
"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," Percy said.
Y/N, Annabeth and Ethan stared at him. "How did you know that?" Ethan asked.
"I—I'm not sure," he said.
Annabeth thought for a moment. "Percy, what's our position?"
"36 degrees, 44 minutes north, 76 degrees, 2 minutes west," he said immediately. Then he shook his head. "Whoa. How did I know that?"
"Because of your dad," Annabeth guessed. "When you're at sea, you have perfect bearings."
"That is so cool," Ethan said.
"Other boat is coming," Tyson said.
Y/N looked back. The coast guard vessel was definitely on their tail now. Its lights were flashing and it was gaining speed.
"We can't let them catch us," he said. "They'll ask too many questions."
"Keep going into Chesapeake Bay," Annabeth said to Percy. "I know a place we can hide."
Nobody asked what she meant, or how she knew the area so well. A fresh burst of wind sent them rocketing around the northern tip of Virginia Beach into Chesapeake Bay. The coast guard boat fell farther and farther behind.
"There," Annabeth said. "Past that sandbar."
They veered into a swampy area chocked with marsh grass and Percy beached the lifeboat at the foot of a giant cypress.
Vine-covered trees loomed over them. Insects chirred in the woods. The air was muggy and hot, and steam curled off the river. Basically, it wasn't Vermont, and Y/N didn't like it.
"Come on," Annabeth said. "It's just down the bank."
"What is?" Ethan asked.
"Just follow." She grabbed a duffel bag. "And we'd better cover the boat. We don't want to draw attention."
After burying the lifeboat with branches, Y/N, Ethan, Percy and Tyson followed Annabeth along the shore, their feet sinking in red mud. A snake slithered past Y/N's shoe and disappeared into the grass.
"Not a good place," Tyson said. He swatted the mosquitoes that were forming a buffet line on his arm.
After another few minutes, Annabeth said, "Here."
All Y/N saw was a patch of brambles. Then Annabeth moved aside a woven circle of branches, like a door, and he realized he was looking into a camouflaged shelter.
The inside was big enough for five, even with Tyson one of them. The walls were woven from plant material, like a Native American hut, but they looked pretty waterproof. Stacked in the corner was everything you could want to campout—sleeping bags, blankets, an ice chest, and a kerosene lamp. There were demigod provisions, too—bronze javelin tips, a quiver full of arrows, an extra sword, and a box of ambrosia. The place smelled musty, like it had been vacant for a long time.
"A half-blood hideout." Y/N looked at Annabeth in awe. "You made this place?"
"Thalia and I," she said quietly. "And Luke."
That shouldn't have bothered him. He knew Thalia and Luke had taken care of Annabeth when she was little. He knew the three of them had been runaways together, hiding from monsters, surviving on their own before Grover found them and tried to get them to Half-Blood Hill. But whenever Annabeth talked about the time she had spent with them, he kind of felt . . . uncomfortable.
No. It wasn't the word.
Jealous. That was the word.
But he didn't know why.
"So. . . ." he said. "You don't think Luke will look for us here?"
She shook her head. "We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke even remembers where they are. Or cares."
She threw herself down on the blankets and started going through her duffel bag. Her body language made it pretty clear she didn't want to talk.
Percy sent Tyson scouting around outside, looking for powdered donuts not too far.
Annabeth unsheathed her knife and started cleaning the blade with a rag.
Y/N sat down next to her. "He let us go too easily."
She nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. What we overheard him say about a gamble, and 'they'll take the bait'. . . . I think he was talking about us."
"The Fleece is the bait? Or Grover?"
She studied the edge of her knife. "I don't know, Y/N. Maybe he wants the Fleece for himself. Maybe he's hoping we'll do the hard work and then he can steal it from us. I just can't believe he would poison the tree."
"What did he mean, that Thalia would've been on his side?"
"He's wrong." She had spoken fast. Too fast. Like someone who wanted to convinced herself of something for no other reason than her fear that she might be wrong.
"You don't sound sure," Y/N said.
She glared at him, and he started to wish he hadn't asked her about this while she was holding a knife.
"Luke's wrong." Annabeth stuck her knife blade into the dirt.
Y/N wanted to ask her about the prophecy Luke had mentioned and what it had to do with Percy's sixteenth birthday. But he figured she wouldn't tell him.
"So what did Luke mean about Cyclopes?" he asked. "He said you of all people—"
"I know what he said. He . . . he was talking about the real reason Thalia died."
Y/N waited, not sure about what to say.
Annabeth drew a shaky breath. "You can never trust a Cyclops, Y/N. Six years ago, on the night Grover was leading us to Half-Blood Hill—"
She was interrupted when the door of the hut creaked open. Tyson crawled in.
"Powdered donuts!" he said proudly, holding up pastry boxes.
Ethan sprang to his hooves and didn't wait for a second to open one.
Annabeth stared at Tyson. "Where did you get that? We're in the middle of the wilderness. There's nothing around for—"
"Fifty feet," Tyson said. "Monster Donut shop—just over the hill!"
Five minutes later they were crouching behind a tree and staring at the donut shop in the middle of the woods.
"This is bad," Annabeth muttered.
It looked brand new, with brightly lit windows, a parking area, and a little road leading off into the forest, but there was nothing else around, and no cars parked in the lot. They could see one employee reading a magazine behind the cash register. That was it. On the store's marquis, in huge black letters that even Y/N could read, it said:
MONSTER DONUT
A cartoon ogre was taking a bite out of the O in MONSTER. The place smelled good, like fresh-baked chocolate donuts.
"This shouldn't be here," Annabeth whispered. "It's wrong."
"What?" Ethan asked as he took a bite. "It's a donut shop."
"Shhh!"
"Why are you whispering?" Ethan continued, though lower this time. "Tyson went in and bought two dozens. Nothing happened to him."
"He's a monster."
"Aw, c'mon, Annabeth," Percy said. "Monster Donut doesn't mean monsters! It's a chain. We've got them in New York."
"A chain," she agreed. "And don't you think it's strange that one appeared immediately after you told Tyson to get donuts? Right here in the middle of the woods?"
It did seem a little weird, but . . . well, donut shops weren't real high on Y/N's list of sinister forces.
"It could be a nest," Annabeth explained.
Tyson whimpered. He had plowed through half a dozen donuts from his box and was getting powdered sugar all over his face.
Ethan grabbed another donut—next second it was down in his stomach.
"A nest for what?" Y/N asked.
"Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so fast?" Annabeth asked. "One day there's nothing and then the next day—boom, there's a new burger place or a coffee shop or whatever? First a single store, then two, then four—exact replicas spreading across the country?"
"Um, no," Y/N said. "Never thought about it. To be honest, I've never been to a McDonald's in my life, so knowing how quick fast-foods appear—no idea."
"Y/N, all you need to know is, some of the chains multiply so fast because all their locations are magically linked to the life force of a monster. Some children of Hermes figured out how to do it back in the 1950s. They breed—"
She froze.
"What?" Y/N demanded. "They breed what?"
"No—sudden—moves," Annabeth said, as if her life depended on it. "Very slowly, turn around."
Then he heard it: a scraping noise, like something large dragging its belly through the leaves.
He turned and saw a rhino-sized thing moving through the shadows of the trees. It was hissing, its front half writhing in all different directions. He couldn't understand what he was seeing at first. Then he realized the thing had multiple necks—at least seven, each topped with a hissing reptilian head. Its skin was leathery, and under each neck it wore a plastic bib that read: I'M A MONSTER DONUT KID!
A lot of monsters have very terrible eyesight. It was possible the Hydra might pass them by.
They waited.
The Hydra was only a few feet away. It seemed to be sniffing the ground and the trees like it was hunting for something. Then Y/N noticed that two of the heads were ripping apart a piece of yellow canvas—one of their duffel bags. The thing had already been to their campsite. It was following their scent.
Y/N's heart pounded. Each head was diamond-shaped, like a rattlesnake's, but the mouths were lined with jagged rows of sharklike teeth.
Ethan was trembling. He stepped back and accidentally snapped a twig. Immediately, all seven heads turned toward them and hissed.
"Scatter!" Annabeth yelled. She dove to the right.
Y/N rolled to the left. One of the Hydra heads spat an arc of green liquid that shot past his shoulder and splashed against an elm. The trunk smoked and began to disintegrate. The whole tree toppled toward Tyson, who still hadn't moved, petrified by the monster that was now right in front of him.
"Tyson!" Percy tackled him, knocking him aside just as the Hydra lunged and the tree crashed on top of two of its heads.
The Hydra stumbled backward, yanking its heads free then wailing in outrage at the fallen tree. All seven heads shot acid, and the elm melted into a steaming pool of muck.
Y/N ran to one side with his sword, hoping to draw the monster's attention.
It worked.
As soon as his glowing blade appeared, the Hydra whipped toward it with all its heads, hissing and baring its teeth.
The good news: Percy and Tyson were momentarily out of danger. The bad news: he was about to be melted into a puddle of goo.
One of the heads snapped at him experimentally. Without thinking, he dodged and swung his sword.
"No!" Annabeth yelled.
At the very last moment, Y/N stopped his blade, only scratching the Hydra. He remembered Heracles's labors, and understood that he had just come really, really close to making a huge mistake. A little more, and he'd have had eight heads against him instead of seven.
"Fire!" Annabeth said. "We have to have fire!"
Right. The Hydras's heads would only stop multiplying if the stumps were burned before they regrew. That's what Heracles had done, anyway.
But Y/N was a little busy right now.
He backed up toward the river. The Hydra followed. He dodged all its heads, moving in a kind of very strange dance.
Annabeth moved in on his left and tried to distract one of the heads, parrying its teeth with her knife, but another head swung sideways like a club and knocked her into the muck.
His instinct took over. Y/N slashed off the Hydra's head. Two more heads now faced him. Uh, oh.
Ethan went on the offensive. Maybe he was doing martial arts in his room at night, because he began riddling the new heads with acrobatic hoof kicks.
Tyson started smashing at the monster's heads with his fists.
They kept inching backward, dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, but Y/N knew they were only postponing their deaths. Eventually, they would make a mistake and the thing would kill them.
Then he heard a strange sound—a chug-chug-chug that at first he thought was his heartbeat. It was so powerful it made the riverbank shake.
"What's that noise?" Percy shouted, keeping his eyes on the Hydra.
"Steam engine," Tyson said.
"What?" Y/N dodged as the Hydra spat acid over his head.
Then from the river behind them, a familiar voice shouted: "There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!"
He didn't dare look away from the Hydra, but if that was who he thought it was behind them, he figured they now had enemies on two fronts.
A gravelly male voice said, "They're too close, m'lady!"
"Damn the heroes!" the girl said. "Full steam ahead!"
"Aye, m'lady."
"Fire at will, Captain!"
Annabeth got to her feet. She understood what was happening a split second before Y/N did. She yelled, "Hit the dirt!" and they dove for the ground as an earth-shattering BOOM echoed from the river. There was a flash of light, a column of smoke, and the Hydra exploded right in front of them, showering them with nasty green slime that vaporized as soon as it hit, the way monster guts tend to do.
"Yuk!" Ethan screamed.
"Steamship!" Tyson yelled.
Y/N stood, coughing from the gunpowder smoke that was rolling across the banks.
Chugging toward them down the river was the strangest ship he had ever seen. It rode low in the water like a submarine, its deck plated with iron. In the middle was a trapezoid-shaped casemate with slats on each side for cannons. A flag waved from the top—a wild boar and spear on a bloodred field. Lining the deck were zombies in gray uniforms—dead soldiers with shimmering faces that only partially covered their skulls, like the ghouls in the Underworld guarding Hades's palace.
The ship was an ironclad. A Civil War battle cruiser. Y/N could just make out the name along the prow in moss-covered letters: CSS Birmingham.
And standing next to the smoking cannon that had almost killed them, wearing full Greek battle armor, was Clarisse.
"Losers," she sneered. "But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard."