Melancholy Kaleidescope | PJO

Ch. 14: CRSTUY'S WATRE BDE ALPACE

It was Annabeth's idea.

Really, no one else's–though Jinora may or may not have encouraged her. It certainly fed Annabeth's pride when the taxi driver swiped the casino card and called her "Your Highness." Gods, Jinora was never going to hear the end of that one.

They had plenty of time to talk while the taxi sped down the desert road at over ninety miles an hour. Percy told them about his latest dream, recalling a servant's voice he knew he recognized, he just couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to. The servant had called the monster in the put something other than "my lord."

"The Silent One? The Rich One," Annabeth suggested. Both of those are nicknames for Hades."

Percy looked unsure. "Maybe."

"That throne room sounds like Hades'," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."

Percy shook his head. "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit...I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice."

Uh, beg pardon?

Annabeth's eyes widened as Percy said that last part.

"What," he asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "Nothing. I was just–no, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong–"

"Like what?"

"I–I don't know," she admitted. "But if he stole Zeus' symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it back to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."

Jinora thought Annabeth's theory made a lot of sense, but the girl looked uneasy, like she didn't fully believe what she was saying. It was like she was trying to convince them and herself of what she said.

"But if I'd already retrieved the bolt, why would I be traveling to the Underworld," Percy asked.

"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back."

Jinora whistles. "You have evil thoughts for a goat."

"Why thank you."

"Anytime."

Percy still looked confused. "But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items. If the master bolt is one, what's the other?"

None of them had an answer, though Annabeth was looking at Percy like she was anticipating his next question. She was silently willing him not to ask it. Of course, Percy has a bad habit of not listening.

"You have an idea of what might be in that pit, don't you," he asked her, his tone dropping. "I mean, if it isn't Hades."

Annabeth sucked in a breath. "Percy...let's not talk about it. Because if it isn't Hades...no, it has to be Hades."

As they sped by a sign that read California State Line, 12 miles, there was a shared sense like they were missing a critical piece of information. The more Jinora thought about it, the more she decided that none of this really made sense. They were missing something, she was sure of it.

"The answer is still in the Underworld," Jinora determined. "You saw the spirits of the dead. There's only one place that could be. We're doing the right thing."