They sailed out of the Colosseum and veered south over the rooftops of Rome. All around the Piazza del Colosseo, traffic had come to a standstill. A crowd of mortals had gathered, probably wondering about the strange lights and sounds that had come from the ruins. As far as Percy could see, none of the giants' spectacular plans for destruction had come off successfully. The city looked the same as before. No one seemed to notice the huge Greek trireme rising into the sky.
The demigods gathered around the helm. Jason bandaged Piper's sprained shoulder while Hazel sat at the stern, feeding Nico ambrosia. The son of Hades could barely lift his head. His voice was so quiet, Hazel had to lean in whenever he spoke.
Cressida and Percy had also been fed some godly food, Frank offering them vials of Solace Solution but they waved it off in favour of the weaker stuff, pocketing the vials for later. They were seriously running low on the stuff with everything they'd done so far.
Frank and Leo recounted what had happened in the room with the Archimedes spheres, and the visions Gaia had shown them in the bronze mirror. They quickly decided that their best lead for finding Annabeth was the cryptic advice Bacchus had provided: the Emmanuel Building, whatever that was. Frank started typing at the helm's computer while Leo tapped furiously at his controls, muttering, "Emmanuel Building. Emmanuel Building."
Coach Hedge tried to help by wrestling with an upside-down street map of Rome.
Percy knelt next to Jason and Piper. "How's the shoulder?"
Piper smiled. "It'll heal. All of you did great."
Jason elbowed Percy. "Not a bad team, you and me."
"Better than jousting in a Kansas cornfield," Percy agreed.
"Oh, are you sure it's not you two that should be getting married instead?" Cressida teased and Piper had to laugh.
"Could we be bridesmaids?" she asked, and Cressida beamed.
"Oh, I think we'd both look good in blue. It's kinda the neutral colour of the sea and sky."
"And they're those simple silk ones that are really form-fitted and have pockets and -"
"Are you two seriously getting a kick out of planning a wedding for Percy and me?" Jason asked, still quite confused and Percy wore a similar expression.
"Yep," both girls answered in unison and Percy and Jason didn't know how to feel about that.
"There it is!" Leo cried, pointing to his monitor. "Frank, you're amazing! I'm setting course."
Frank hunched his shoulders. "I just read the name off the screen. Some Chinese tourist marked it on Google Maps."
Leo grinned at the others. "He reads Chinese."
"Just a tiny bit," Frank said.
"How cool is that?"
"Guys," Hazel broke in. "I hate to interrupt your admiration session, but you should hear this."
She helped Nico to his feet. He'd always been pale, but now his skin looked like powdered milk. His dark sunken eyes reminded Percy of photos he'd seen of liberated prisoners-of-war, which Percy guessed Nico basically was.
"Thank you," Nico rasped. His eyes darted nervously around the group. "I'd given up hope."
Cressida moved forward first as she bent down to kiss his cheek. "Nico, no matter what happened, you're my friend. I don't leave friends behind."
Nico might've blushed had his skin not seemed so pale. "Thank you," he repeated again, and she gave him a small smile.
"You knew about the two camps all along," Percy said. "You could have told me who I was the first day I arrived at Camp Jupiter, but you didn't."
Nico slumped against the helm. "Percy, I'm sorry. I discovered Camp Jupiter last year. My dad led me there, though I wasn't sure why. He told me the gods had kept the camps separate for centuries and that I couldn't tell anyone. The time wasn't right. But he said it would be important for me to know..." He doubled over in a fit of coughing. Hazel held his shoulders until he could stand again. "I—I thought Dad meant because of Hazel," Nico continued. "I'd need a safe place to take her. But now...I think he wanted me to know about both camps, so I'd understand how important your quest was, and so I'd search for the Doors of Death."
The air turned electric—literally, as Jason started throwing off sparks.
"Did you find the doors?" Percy asked.
Nico nodded. "I was a fool. I thought I could go anywhere in the Underworld, but I walked right into Gaia's trap. I might as well have tried running from a black hole."
"Um..." Frank chewed his lip. "What kind of black hole are you talking about?"
Nico started to speak, but whatever he needed to say must have been too terrifying. He turned to Hazel.
She put her hand on her brother's arm. "Nico told me that the Doors of Death have two sides—one in the mortal world, one in the Underworld. The mortal side of the portal is in Greece. It's heavily guarded by Gaia's forces. That's where they brought Nico back into the upper world. Then they transported him to Rome."
Piper must've been nervous because her cornucopia spat out a cheeseburger. "Where exactly in Greece is this doorway?"
Nico took a rattling breath. "The House of Hades. It's an underground temple in Epirus."
"Oh, I know that place," Cressida said. "People have said to have gone mad inside the temple. They wandered the tunnels and never came back out. It's like another version of the labyrinth."
"Lovely. I'm so looking forward to going back in there," Percy huffed and Cressida rolled her eyes before Nico began talking again.
"The -the mortal side of the portal isn't the problem. In the Underworld, the Doors of Death are in...in..."
Shivers were sent down Percy and Cressida's backs, the feeling cold as they finished his thought.
A black hole. A black hole that sucked up everything. An inescapable part of the Underworld where even Nico di Angelo couldn't go.
"Tartarus," Percy guessed. "The deepest part of the Underworld."
"I think I'm gonna be sick," she said as she hugged her stomach and Percy placed his hands on her shoulders, both of them needed the contact because both of them still had nightmares of that Pit, even from just being near it.
Nico nodded. "They pulled me into the pit, Percy. The things I saw down there..." His voice broke.
Hazel pursed her lips. "No mortal has ever been to Tartarus," she explained. "At least, no one has ever gone in and returned alive. It's the maximum-security prison of Hades, where the old Titans and the other enemies of the gods are bound. It's where all monsters go when they die on the earth. It's...well, no one knows exactly what it's like."
Her eyes drifted to her brother. The rest of her thought didn't need to be spoken: No one except Nico. Hazel handed him his black sword. Nico leaned on it like it was an old man's cane. "Now I understand why Hades hasn't been able to close the doors," he said. "Even the gods don't go into Tartarus. Even the god of death, Thanatos himself, wouldn't go near that place."
Leo glanced over from the wheel. "So let me guess. We'll have to go there."
Nico shook his head. "It's impossible. I'm the son of Hades, and even I barely survived. Gaia's forces overwhelmed me instantly. They're so powerful down there...no demigod would stand a chance. I almost went insane. If it wasn't for the protection Cressida gave me two years ago for the labyrinth, I don't think I'd be here."
Hazel looked even more grateful to the daughter of wine than before, but Cressida felt that she hadn't done enough because there was this broken look in his eyes, and she didn't think that it would ever be fixed.
"Then we'll sail for Epirus," Percy said. "We'll just close the gates on this side."
"I wish it were that easy," Nico said. "The doors would have to be controlled on both sides to be closed. It's like a double seal. Maybe, just maybe, all seven of you working together could defeat Gaia's forces on the mortal side, at the House of Hades. But unless you had a team fighting simultaneously on the Tartarus side, a team powerful enough to defeat a legion of monsters in their home territory—"
"There has to be a way," Jason said.
Nobody volunteered any brilliant ideas.
Percy thought his stomach was sinking. Then he realized the entire ship was descending toward a big building like a palace. Annabeth.
"Hey, hey," he said to Cressida, angling her face up to his as she still seemed rather nauseous. "We figure that out later. Right now, we save our best friend. Ok?"
She took a deep breath as she tried to settle her stomach and nodded. "Is that the Emmanuel Building?"
Leo nodded. "Bacchus said something about the parking lot in the back? Well, there it is. What now?"
"We have to get to her," Cressida said after a moment.
"Well, yeah," Leo agreed. "But, uh..." He looked like he wanted to say, What if we're too late? Wisely, he changed tack. "There's a parking lot in the way."
Percy looked at his girlfriend. "Bacchus said something about breaking through," he reminded her, and she smirked as she followed his train of thought.
"Oh, Gleeson," she sang. "You still have ammo for the ballistae?"
The satyr grinned like a wild goat. "Oh, my darling Ressa, I thought you'd never ask."