Jet stream

When | couldn’t stand it any longer, | looked back and found ... a heap of cut ropes. An empty mast. Annabeth’s bronze knife lay on the deck. Somehow, she’d managed to wriggle it into her hand. I'd totally forgotten to disarm her.
| rushed to the side of the boat and saw her paddling madly for the island, the waves carrying her straight towards the jagged rocks.
| screamed her name, but if she heard me, it didn’t do any good. She was entranced, swimming towards her death.
| looked back at the pilot’s wheel and yelled, ‘Stay!’
Then | jumped over the side.
| sliced into the water and willed the currents to bend around me, making a jet stream that shot me forward.
| came to the surface and spotted Annabeth, but a wave caught her, sweeping her between two razor-sharp fangs of rock.
| had no choice. | plunged after her. | dived under the wrecked hull of a yacht, wove through a collection of floating metal balls on chains that | realized afterwards were mines. | had to use all my power over water to avoid getting smashed against the rocks or tangled in the nets of barbed wire strung just below the surface.
| jetted between the two rock fangs and found myself in a half-moon-shaped bay. The water was choked with more rocks and ship wreckage and floating mines. The beach was black volcanic sand.
| looked around desperately for Annabeth.
There she was.
Luckily or unluckily, she was a strong swimmer. She’d made it past the mines and the rocks. She was almost to the black beach.
Then the mist cleared and | saw them - the Sirens.


| pulled Annabeth back into the surf. | couldn’t hear her, but | could tell she was screaming. She kicked me in the face, but | held on.
| willed the currents to carry us out into the bay. Annabeth pummelled and kicked me, making it hard to concentrate. She thrashed so much we almost collided with a floating mine. | didn’t know what to do. I’d never get back to the Ship alive if she kept fighting.
We went under and Annabeth stopped struggling. Her expression became confused. Then our heads broke the

surface and she started to fight again.
The water! Sound didn’t travel well underwater. If | could submerge her long enough, | could break the spell of the music. Of course, Annabeth wouldn’t be able to breathe, but at the moment, that seemed like a minor problem.

SoM ch.13