Deadly Waters | Percy Jackson

19. We Find Out the Truth, In More Ways Than One

Then she saw what was ahead of them, and she stopped dead in her tracks.

Whispering exploded in her ears.

Jackson stopped with her and stared in fascinated horror.

The tunnel widened into a huge dark cavern, and in the middle was a chasm the size of a city block. Underwood was sliding straight toward the edge.

"Come on, Percy!" Blondie yelled, tugging at Jackson wrist.

"But that's-"

"I know!" she shouted. "The place you described in your dream! But Grover's going to fall if we don't catch him." She was right, of course. Grover's predicament got him moving again, and he grabbed Pez's arm and dragged her with him.

The satyr was yelling, clawing at the ground, but the winged shoes kept dragging him toward the pit, and it didn't look like they could possibly get to him in time.

What saved him were his hooves.

The flying sneakers had always been a loose fit on him, and finally Grover hit a big rock and the left shoe came flying off. It sped into the darkness, down into the chasm. The right shoe kept tugging him along, but not as fast. Grover was able to slow himself down by grabbing on to the big rock and using it like an anchor.

He was ten feet from the edge of the pit when they caught him and hauled him back up the slope. The other winged shoe tugged itself off, circled around them angrily and kicked their heads in protest before flying off into the chasm to join its twin.

They all collapsed, exhausted, on the obsidian gravel. Percy's limbs felt like lead. Even his backpack seemed heavier, as if somebody had filled it with rocks.

Grover was scratched up pretty bad. His hands were bleeding. His eyes had gone slit-pupiled, goat style, the way they did whenever he was terrified.

"I don't know how . . ." he panted. "I didn't . . ."

"Wait," Pez said, holding a hand up for silence. "Listen."

She heard something underneath the other whispers – a deeper sound in the darkness.

Another few seconds, and Blondie said, "Percy, this place-"

"Shh." Jackson stood.

The sound was getting louder, a muttering, evil voice from far, far below them. Coming from the pit.

Underwood sat up. "Wh-what's that noise?"

Blondie heard it too, now. Pez could see it in her eyes. "Tartarus. The entrance to Tartarus." I uncapped Anaklusmos.

The bronze sword expanded, gleaming in the darkness, and the evil voice seemed to falter, just for a moment, before resuming its chant.

Pez could almost make out words now, ancient, ancient words, older even than Greek. As if . . .

"Magic," Jackson said.

"We have to get out of here," Annabeth said.

Pez couldn't hear them – there was only white noise.

Suddenly, she wasn't in the pit anymore.

She was staring out the window of her 'parents' penthouse.

The window is so large it reminded her of a storefront, but so high up who can see in anyway? It was triple-glazed and so clear that the panorama is like a high definition screen at the movie theatre. The birds travel past, buffeted by the winds that whistle through these towers, as if to remind her that she was in their space now. She'd always thought real estate in the sky felt so futuristic, that she used to imagine that Zoya and Anton were some intergalactic Monarchs from the future, and they had just beamed the entire place there just for her.