The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3)(73)

“I’m stupid!” Leo scolded himself. “Stupid, stupid! I forgot the sonar!”

The ship tilted farther to starboard. Either the monster was trying to give them a hug, or it was about to capsize them.

“Sonar?” Hedge demanded. “Pan’s pipes, Valdez! Maybe if you hadn’t been staring into Hazel’s eyes, holding hands for so long—”

“What?” Frank yelped.

“It wasn’t like that!” Hazel protested.

“It doesn’t matter!” Piper said. “Jason, can you call some lightning?”

Jason struggled to his feet. “I—” He only managed to shake his head. Summoning the storm earlier had taken too much out of him. Leo doubted the poor guy could pop a spark plug in the shape he was in.

“Percy!” Annabeth said. “Can you talk to that thing? Do you know what it is?”

The son of the sea god shook his head, clearly mystified. “Maybe it’s just curious about the ship. Maybe—”

The monster’s tendrils lashed across the deck so fast, Leo didn’t even have time to yell, Look out!

One slammed Percy in the chest and sent him crashing down the steps. Another wrapped around Piper’s legs and dragged her, screaming, toward the rail. Dozens more tendrils curled around the masts, encircling the crossbows and ripping down the rigging.

“Nose-hair attack!” Hedge snatched up his bat and leaped into action; but his hits just bounced harmlessly off the tendrils.

Jason drew his sword. He tried to free Piper, but he was still weak. His gold blade cut through the tendrils with no problem, but faster than he could sever them, more took their place.

Annabeth unsheathed her dagger. She ran through the forest of tentacles, dodging and stabbing at whatever target she could find. Frank pulled out his bow. He fired over the side at the creature’s body, lodging arrows in the chinks of its shell; but that only seemed to annoy the monster. It bellowed, and rocked the ship. The mast creaked like it might snap off.

They needed more firepower, but they couldn’t use ballistae. They needed to deliver a blast that wouldn’t destroy the ship. But how… ?

Leo’s eyes fixed on a supply crate next to Hazel’s feet.

“Hazel!” he yelled. “That box! Open it!”

She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. The label read WARNING. DO NOT OPEN.

“Open it!” Leo yelled again. “Coach, take the wheel! Turn us toward the monster, or we’ll capsize.”

Hedge danced through the tentacles with his nimble goat hooves, smashing away with gusto. He bounded toward the helm and took the controls.

“Hope you got a plan!” he shouted.

“A bad one.” Leo raced toward the mast.

The monster pushed against the Argo II. The deck lurched to forty-five degrees. Despite everyone’s efforts, the tentacles were just too numerous to fight. They seemed able to elongate as much as they wanted. Soon they’d have the Argo II completely entangled. Percy hadn’t appeared from below. The others were fighting for their lives against nose hair.

“Frank!” Leo called as he ran toward Hazel. “Buy us some time! Can you turn into a shark or something?”

Frank glanced over, scowling; and in that moment a tentacle slammed into the big guy, knocking him overboard.

Hazel screamed. She’d opened the supply box and almost dropped the two glass vials she was holding.

Leo caught them. Each was the size of an apple, and the liquid inside glowed poisonous green. The glass was warm to the touch. Leo’s chest felt like it might implode from guilt. He’d just distracted Frank and possibly gotten him killed, but he couldn’t think about it. He had to save the ship.

“Come on!” He handed Hazel one of the vials. “We can kill the monster—and save Frank!”

He hoped he wasn’t lying. Getting to the port rail was more like rock climbing than walking, but finally they made it.

“What is this stuff?” Hazel gasped, cradling her glass vial.

“Greek fire!”

Her eyes widened. “Are you crazy? If these break, we’ll burn the whole ship!”

“Its mouth!” Leo said. “Just chuck it down its—”

Suddenly Leo was crushed against Hazel, and the world turned sideways. As they were lifted into the air, he realized they’d been wrapped together in a tentacle. Leo’s arms were free, but it was all he could do to keep hold of his Greek fire vial. Hazel struggled. Her arms were pinned, which meant at any moment the vial trapped between them might break…and that would be extremely bad for their health.

They rose ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet above the monster. Leo caught a glimpse of his friends in a losing battle, yelling and slashing at the monster’s nose hairs. He saw Coach Hedge struggling to keep the ship from capsizing. The sea was dark, but in the moonlight he thought he saw a glistening object floating near the monster—maybe the unconscious body of Frank Zhang.

“Leo,” Hazel gasped, “I can’t—my arms—”

“Hazel,” he said. “Do you trust me?”

“No!”

“Me neither,” Leo admitted. “When this thing drops us, hold your breath. Whatever you do, try to chuck your vial as far away from the ship as possible.”

“Why—why would it drop us?”