[Y/N's POV]
Charon put a key into the elevator panel and we began to descend. I immediately felt lightheaded. I guess my heritage and being around death don't exactly mix.
"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Annabeth asked.
"Nothing," Charon said.
"For how long?"
"Forever, or until I'm feeling generous."
"Oh," she said. "That's... fair."
Charon raised an eyebrow. "Whoever said death was fair, young miss? Wait until it's your turn. You'll die soon enough, where you're going."
"We'll leave here alive." I said.
"Ha. That's a good one."
We jolted forward. Everything started spinning, and I felt like my stomach was going to erupt. I bent over and wrapped an arm around it and put a hand over my mouth.
"That junk food is coming back up."
Just as quickly as the spinning had started, it had vanished. My stomach pain disappeared, and my body settled. I opened my eyes and looked at Charon's black robes in front of me. His eyes were giving off the energy of death and darkness. I could see his skin flashing between transparent and opaque.
I saw his skull.
He saw me looking, and said, "Well?"
"That looks... cool."
His face shifted in surprise before contorting into a smile. "Thanks little man. That swordfish hasn't messed up your sense of fashion I see." He cackled, throwing his head back.
It felt calming to look into his eyes. Or lack thereof. I wasn't sure why. It felt... relieving.
Grover said, "I think I'm getting seasick."
Percy held his stomach, blinking rapidly. Annabeth was trying her hardest to keep breathing.
We were suddenly in a boat. The elevator from before had vanished. Charon was poling us across a dark river, with whirlpools, skulls, dead animals, and a bunch of other weird worn down objects. I looked down at the river. It felt inviting. This place felt good.
Not at all what I was thinking it would be. I tried to take my thoughts off of the feelings, and instead looked around at the objects in there. Dolls, old flowers, pieces of paper, photo albums and the like.
"The River Styx," Annabeth murmured. "It's so..."
"Polluted," Charon said. "For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across. Hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."
Mist curled off the filthy water. Above us, almost lost in the gloom, was a magnificent ceiling of stalactites. Ahead, the far shore glimmered with greenish light, the color of poison.
I felt a shiver run up my back. It was cold, but at the same time not. Everyone around me was dead, and I didn't care. Annabeth grabbed onto my hand. That was warm. I smiled. Her face flushed but she didn't let go.
I looked around the boat. Grover was twitching and Percy was muttering.
The shore of Hades neared. Dark rocks sat by the edge. Not far from the other side, past the volcanic dust that made up the shore, was a gigantic wall. It was tall, and made of stone. I couldn't see either end of it. I tried to imagine how long it was but it wasn't very deep into my thought process until my brain started hurting.
A loud barking echoed through the vapors of the river. It bounced off the rocks around us and sounded louder than I hoped it actually was.
"Old Three Face is hungry," Charon said. His smile turned skeletal in the greenish light. "Bad luck for you, godlings." I wasn't worried. I'm not sure why that was, but I wasn't. Annabeth finally let go of my hand as the dead started filing out of the boat.
There was an older woman and a little girl, an old man hobbling on a cane, and someone who couldn't have been much older than we were. It probably should've made me nervous, but looking at them, I felt nothing. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover looked at them sadly.
Charon said, "I'd wish you luck, mate, but there isn't any down here. Mind you, don't forget to mention my pay raise."
He counted our golden coins into his pouch, then took up his pole. He warbled something that sounded like a Barry Manilow song as he ferried the empty barge back across the river.
We followed the spirits up a well worn path.
We reached a fork in the path. Three different places we could go, all split under a large black sign that read:
"YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS."
All three entrances had lines. The souls walked through these gateways, and were patted down by black robed people like Charon was.
The animal's barks were louder, and it was pretty loud. But I couldn't see anything. Still though, I felt no fear. None that I should have at least.
Two of the paths had lines with the black robed...
Are they people? Black robed creatures were standing on duty, and another line read "EZ DEATH" I'm sure you can guess which line was hurrying along. I turned to my friends.
"What do you think we should do?" I asked Annabeth.
"The fast line must go straight to Asphodel," she said. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."
"That makes sense. I wouldn't want to be judged after I died." I reasoned. "Especially if I died in a lame way."
"There's a court for dead people?" Percy sputtered.
I chuckled. Annabeth looked back at him.
"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare. People like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward. The Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."
"And do what?"
Grover said, "Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever."
"Harsh," he said.
"Can't be as bad at that." I pointed. "Look over there."
A couple of black robed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk. The face of the dead man looked vaguely familiar.
"He's that preacher who made the news, remember?" Grover asked.
"That's why he looks familiar." When we were in our dorm at Yancy Academy we'd seen the guy a few times on the tv. He was some religious nut who was doing a fundraiser for orphans and then he got caught spending the money for himself. Whatever punishment they had in mind for him was alright with me. That guy sucked.
Percy said, "What're they doing to him?"
"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur-... the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."
He shuddered. Probably from the fact that the furies lived down here.
"But if he's a preacher," he said, "and he believes in a different hell..."
Grover shrugged. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You're very stubborn, persistent, that way." Grover pointed Percy at me, as if offering me as an example. He wasn't wrong.
"Hey, sometimes being stubborn is a good thing. It's great to stand your ground."
"Yeah but you stand your ground even when you're wrong."
"All the more reason. I-"
Annabeth cleared her throat, cutting me off. "Now who's the bickering pair?" She bantered.
"Alright alright. Whatever, Einstein. Let's move."
We walked towards the gates. Not far in front of the gates, the fumes shimmered and there was the giant three headed dog from hell. Literally. He lived here. Right where the path split off. He was just sitting. Menacingly.
Now I felt uncomfortable.
Percy muttered "He's a Rottweiler."
"What else would he be... A poodle?" My voice wavered and cracked.
The spirits walked right up to, under, and past him with no regard for the fact that he had teeth about as big as my arm. Granted, they were dead, so it's not like he'll kill them with those teeth.
Lucky for us, the EZ DEATH line was the one going right under him. This was the biggest issue with being alive. I could still die.
"I'm starting to see him better," Percy muttered. "Why is that?"
"I think..." Annabeth moistened her lips. "I'm afraid it's because we're getting closer to being dead."
"Oh that's comforting." I said.
The dog's middle head craned toward us. It sniffed the air and growled.
"It can smell us. It can smell us because we're alive." I panicked.
"But that's okay," Grover said, trembling next to me. "Because we have a plan."
"Right," Annabeth said. I'd never heard her voice sound quite that meek. "A plan."
"The best plan ever." I stumbled over my own words.
We moved toward the monster.
The middle head growled at us and snapped. I jumped back, almost pushing Percy and Grover down.
"Can you talk to him too, G?" I muttered to Grover.
"Oh yeah," he said. "I can understand him."
"Do I want to know what he's saying?"
"I doubt it. I'm not sure what humans call it anyway. But no."
"Wonderful."
Next to me, Percy pulled a bedpost out of his bag. He had taken that from Crusty's waterbed emporium. For a moment, I wondered if you could drown in a water bed.
(Authors's note here: This was actually a mid-writing thought of mine. And when I looked it up, I got rerouted to a suicide hotline. Never did get an answer.)
"Hey, Big Fella," he called out. "I bet they don't play with you much."
It growled violently. I felt my spine rattle.
"Good boy, Cerberus... Good boy." I said weakly.
Percy waved the post around. The middle head followed it, but that's the fun thing about three headed dogs. It had two other sets of eyes. They were watching us. More specifically they were watching Percy.
"Fetch!" he threw the stick into the gloom, a good solid throw. Like an outfielder in baseball. I heard it take a dunk in the River Styx.
Cerberus glared at us, unimpressed. His eyes looked almost hungry.
"Well... There goes the plan." I swallowed a lump in my throat, and I felt bile start to rise, but the lump going down took it with. My heart was racing. Was I actually going to die in the underworld? That would be ironic.
Cerberus was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats.
"Um," Grover said. "Guys?"
"Yeah?" Percy answered.
"I just thought you'd want to know."
"What's that goat boy?" Annabeth whispered
"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that... well... he's hungry."
"Maybe we should just go back to the casino..." I threw the idea out there. It wasn't the worst idea in the world, but the smart one of us saved the day.
"Wait!" Annabeth said. She started rifling through her pack.
"Five seconds," Grover said. "Do we run now?"
"I vote yes." I turned to grab my friends and run, but Annabeth pulled out a massive red ball. It was one from Waterland. Before I could run like a wuss, she lifted the ball into the air.
She started off towards Cerberus. I tried to grab her arm and stop her, but I was too late.
She shouted, "See the ball? You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"
Cerberus looked as stunned as we were.
All three of his heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated. All six pupils grew.
"Sit!" Annabeth called again.
I was about to pull my hair out. I didn't have it on the itinerary that one of my friends would become a dog treat.
Instead, Cerberus licked its three lips, shuffled around, and indeed, did sit. He crushed about a
half dozen spirits but still.
Annabeth said, "Good boy!"
She threw Cerberus the ball.
He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, and the other heads started snapping at the middle, trying to get the new toy.
"Drop it.'" Annabeth ordered.
Cerberus's heads stopped fighting and looked at her. The ball was wedged between two of his teeth like a tiny piece of gum. He made a loud, scary whimper, then dropped the ball, now slimy and bitten nearly in half, at Annabeth's feet.
"What?!" I shouted, unable to hide my confusion any further.
"Good boy." She picked up the ball, ignoring the monster spit all over it.
She turned toward us. "Go now. EZ DEATH line. It's faster."
Percy said, "What-"
"Now.'" She ordered, in the same tone she was using on the dog. Me, Grover, and Percy inched towards the dog. He was starting to growl, and I really hoped he didn't see me as a chew toy.
"Stay!" Annabeth ordered the monster. "If you want the ball, stay!" Cerberus whimpered, but he stayed where he was.
"What are you gonna do?" I asked Annabeth warily as we passed her. "I know what I'm doing, Y/N," she muttered. "At least, I hope so..."
We walked between the dog's legs. I really hoped she didn't tell him to sit now. Those spirits evaporated. I don't think I would leave like that. Nevertheless, we passed through.
Annabeth said, "Good dog!"
She threw the tattered red ball. While the three headed dog fought among itself, she raced under it, and joined back up with us. I had my hands on my head out of worry. I caught my breath that she hadn't been eaten. She seemed to do the same thing.
"How... What the- EH!?" I couldn't form words anymore. I was shocked.
"Obedience school," she said breathlessly.
"You went to obedience school?" I jested. She gave me an unamused expression. But I could see tears forming from the corners of her eyes. "Not me. When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman..."
"Never mind that," Grover said, tugging at my collar. "Come on!" We were gonna make a break for it through the line but the giant puppy turned and whined. Annabeth stopped and turned. Cerberus had reared around to face us.
The dog panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at its feet. "Good boy," Annabeth said, but her voice sounded melancholy and uncertain.
The monster's heads turned sideways, as if worried about her. "I'll bring you another ball soon," Annabeth promised faintly. "Would you like that?"
The monster whimpered. I didn't need Grover to translate. He was sad she was leaving.
"Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I- I promise." Annabeth turned to us. "Let's go."
We pushed through the spirits and set off what I now knew was supposed to be a metal detector.
"Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"
Cerberus started to bark.
More alarms blared as we rushed through the EZ Death gate. Within a few minutes, we were hiding within the base of a wide dead oak tree. I don't know how all of us fit down here but I wasn't complaining.
Security ghouls screamed past, asking for help from the Furies. We all tried to catch our breath.
Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"
"That three headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"
"No," Grover said. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!"
"I think... From now on, we should leave the planning exclusively to Annabeth." I mumbled, sucking in air. Annabeth smirked, but still fought for breath herself.
She wiped a tear from her eye. Cerberus whined in the distance for his new friend to come back. We all tried to wait out the security detail that was roaming.
***
[Percy's POV]
Imagine the largest concert crowd you've ever seen, a football field packed with a million fans. Now imagine a field a million times that big, packed with people, and imagine the electricity has gone out, and there is no noise, no light, no beach ball bouncing around over the crowd.
Something tragic has happened backstage. Whispering masses of people are just milling around in the shadows, waiting for a concert that will never start.
If you can picture that, you have a pretty good idea what the Fields of Asphodel looked like. The black grass had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp.
Black trees; Grover told me they were poplars; grew in clumps here and there. The cavern ceiling was so high above us it might've been a bank of storm clouds, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint gray and looked wickedly pointed. I tried not to imagine they'd fall on us at any moment, but dotted around the fields were several that had fallen and impaled themselves in the black grass.
I guess the dead didn't have to worry about little hazards like being speared by stalactites the size of booster rockets. Annabeth, Grover, Y/N, and I tried to blend into the crowd, keeping an eye out for security ghouls. I couldn't help looking for familiar faces among the spirits of Asphodel, but the dead are hard to look at. Their faces shimmer.
They all look slightly angry or confused. They will come up to you and speak, but their voices sound like chatter, like bats twittering.
Once they realize you can't understand them, they frown and move away. The dead aren't scary. They're just sad. We crept along, following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gates toward a black tented pavilion with a banner that read:
JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION
Welcome, Newly Deceased!
Out the back of the tent came two much smaller lines. To the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment, which glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas.
Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music.
I could just make out a tiny hill, with the ant size figure of Sisyphus struggling to move his boulder to the top. And I saw worse tortures, too. Things I don't want to describe. The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls.
A gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions.
Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors. I could hear laughter and smell barbecue cooking.
Elysium.
In the middle of that valley was a glittering blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. The Isles of the Blest, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium.
"That's what it's all about," Annabeth said, like she was reading my thoughts. "That's the place for heroes."
"That's where you want to go when we die, Perce. Because if not, it's either torture or nothingness." Y/N added.
Those didn't sound like great alternatives, so I silently resigned that I also wanted to go there. But I thought of how few people there were in Elysium, how tiny it was compared to the Fields of Asphodel or even the Fields of Punishment. So few people did good in their lives. It was sad.
We left the judgment pavilion and moved deeper into the Asphodel Fields. It got darker. The colors faded from our clothes. The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin.
After a few miles of walking, we began to hear a familiar screech in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three dark batlike creatures: the Furies. I got the feeling they were waiting for us.
"I suppose it's too late to turn back," Grover said wistfully.
"We'll be okay." I tried to sound confident.
"Hope we end up better than the bus." Y/N joked but Annabeth elbowed him in the side. He stopped and massaged his side.
"Maybe we should search some of the other places first," Grover suggested. "Like, Elysium, for instance..."
"Come on, goat boy." Annabeth grabbed his arm.
Grover yelped. His sneakers sprouted wings and his legs shot forward, pulling him away from Annabeth. He landed on his back in the grass.
"Grover," Annabeth chided. "Stop messing around."
"But I didn't-"
He yelped again. His shoes were flapping like crazy now. They levitated off the ground and started dragging him away from us.
"Maia!" he yelled, but the magic word seemed to have no effect. "Maia, already! Nine one one! Help!"
I got over being stunned and made a grab for Grover's hand, but too late. He was picking up speed, skidding downhill like a bobsled.
We ran after him.
[Y/N's POV]
I sprinted ahead. Behind me, I heard Annabeth shouting, "Untie the shoes!"
It wasn't a bad idea, but Grover couldn't get there. He sat up and tried to reach down, but the shoes were speeding along. His core strength hadn't
He tore between the legs of different spirits. Grover was headed straight for Hades' palace, but suddenly made a sharp turn to the right. He turned so sharply that I skidded along the gravel path, falling off my feet. I was moving too fast, scraping my knees and palms on the ground while trying to slow down.
Percy and Annabeth got ahead of me. I groaned as I felt some of the tiny stone chunks in my shoes now. Not having the time to get them out, I tried my hardest not to think about it.
I got back on my feet and caught up. I passed Percy and Annabeth again. Grover was starting to go downhill. It was getting steep. Even sprinting near top speed, Grover was starting to go even faster. He was going faster than I could run.
"Grover!" I yelled, my voice echoing. "Grab something to slow yourself down!"
"What?" he yelled back.
He was grabbing at gravel, but there was nothing big enough to slow him down.
The tunnel darkened. It smelled awful in here, but I couldn't think about anything but trying to get to my best friend. I kicked into a new gear I didn't know I had, and nearly caught up to him.
The tunnel opened up into a huge pit. Grover was sliding straight toward the edge.
I heard Percy and Annabeth yell something to me but I kept pace and watched as Grover hit a big rock, knocking one of the shoes off his hooved feet. That was my chance. I finally caught up, and grabbed his arm.
I used his clothing to pull myself up further and managed to rip the shoe off his hoof just in time for him to skid short of the edge.
I wasn't so fortunate. My feet were teetering over the rim of the pit. I swung my arms, trying to balance myself and stay out. My eyes widened and I started to fall.
I swear something in the pit moved. But the depth of it made me think I was just hallucinating before falling to my death.
Again. Something moved. A formless mass speeding towards me as time started to slow.
Then I heard a different voice call out to me. It wasn't cruel sounding. It was familiar. But it wasn't the one from the arch. This one had more authority. It was less angry. Disappointed would be a better word.
As I started dropping into the pit, the mass hit me in the face. Well. It didn't hit me. It melted into me. The voice whispered and drowned everything else out.
It said "Need I do everything myself?"
I lost the ability to breathe. And my heart stopped beating. My body moved on its own. That same feeling creeped up again.
[Percy's POV]
Just as Y/N managed to rip off Grover's shoe, he slid right over the edge. My eyes widened and my stomach dropped.
Annabeth and Grover yelled. "Y/N!"
I came to my senses and we all ran up to the edge to watch where our friend had ended up.
We looked over the edge and saw Y/N hanging there, his sword buried into the edge of the pit a few feet down. He was huffing, and the better part of his body was hidden by the drowning darkness of the pit. He looked really confused hanging there but relieved when he saw us looking down at him.
"CAN I GET A HAND HERE?!" He yelled out. I snapped back to reality.
Annabeth, Grover, and I worked together to pull him and his sword out of the pit. We dragged him up the gravel slope and all collapsed, exhausted, on the obsidian gravel. My limbs felt like lead. Even my 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..."
Y/N was on his back, his eyes wide, and breathing rapidly.
"I... Oh... What..." He stammered. Annabeth was kneeling over him, tapping him on the face. "Don't do that, you idiot!" she cried. "I didn't mean to." Y/N heaved.
"Wait," I said. "Listen."
I heard something... A deep whisper in the darkness.
Another few seconds, and Annabeth said, "Percy, this place-"
"Shh." I stood.
The sound was getting louder, a muttering, evil voice from far, far below us. Coming from the pit. Grover sat up. "Wh- what's that noise?"
Annabeth heard it too, now. I could see it in her eyes. "Tartarus. The entrance to Tartarus." I uncapped Anaklusmos.
"Oh so we almost just fell into the deepest darkest part of the underworld?!" Y/N cried out. His breathing had picked back up. His eyes were wide, and he covered his face with his hands. He swore something in Ancient Greek.
My bronze sword expanded, gleaming in the darkness, and the evil voice seemed to falter, just for a moment, before resuming its chant.
I could almost make out words now, ancient, ancient words, older even than Greek. As if...
"Magic," I said.
"We have to get out of here," Annabeth said.
Together, we dragged Grover and Y/N up and started back out the tunnel. My legs wouldn't move fast enough. My backpack weighed me down. The voice got louder and angrier behind us, and we broke into a run.
Not a moment too soon.
A cold blast of wind pulled at our backs, as if the entire pit were inhaling. For a terrifying moment, I lost ground, my feet slipping in the gravel. If we'd been any closer to the edge, we would've been sucked in.
We kept struggling forward, and finally reached the top of the tunnel, where the cavern widened out into the Fields of Asphodel. The wind died. A wail of outrage echoed from deep in the tunnel. Something was not happy we'd gotten away.
"What was that?" Grover panted, when we'd collapsed in the relative safety of a black poplar grove.
"One of Hades's pets?"
"Uh-uh." Y/N heaved out.
He and Annabeth looked at each other. I could tell they were nursing an idea, probably the same one Annabeth had gotten during the taxi ride to L.A., but she was too scared to share it.
That was enough to terrify me.
I capped my sword, put the pen back in my pocket. "Let's keep going." I looked at Grover. "Can you walk?"
He swallowed. "Yeah, sure. I never liked those shoes, anyway." He tried to sound brave about it, but he was trembling as badly as Annabeth and I were. I looked at my other friend. He was still on his back.
"You alright?" He gave me a look and said "Sure. I would definitely want to do that again." about as sarcastically as someone could.
He got back to his feet, and dusted himself off. Annabeth looked at him for a moment. He cracked his knuckles and rubbed the back of his neck, scratching it as well. We started moving.
Whatever was in that pit was nobody's pet. It was unspeakably old and powerful. Even Echidna hadn't given me that feeling. I was almost relieved to turn my back on that tunnel and head toward the palace of Hades.
Almost.
The Furies circled the parapets, high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two story tall bronze gates stood wide open.
Up close, I saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times. An atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls, but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. I wondered if I was looking at prophecies that had come true.
Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden I'd ever seen. Multi Colored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as my fist, clumps of raw diamonds.
Standing here and there like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues. Petrified children, satyrs, and centaurs, All smiling grotesquely.
In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. "The garden of Persephone," Annabeth said. "Keep walking."
I understood why she wanted to move on. The tart smell of those pomegranates was almost overwhelming. I had a sudden desire to eat them, but then I remembered the story of Persephone. One bite of Underworld food, and we would never be able to leave. Y/N and I pulled Grover away to keep him from picking a big juicy one.
We walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above. I guess they never had to worry about rain down here.
Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered us, but their hollow eye sockets followed us as we walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.
Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at us, rocket propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.
"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door to door salesmen."
My backpack weighed a ton now. I couldn't figure out why. I wanted to open it, check to see if I had somehow picked up a stray bowling ball, but this wasn't the time.
"Well, guys," I said. "I suppose we should... knock?"
"I mean... I guess it wouldn't hurt." Y/N muttered, moving to stand in front of the doors. He was studying them. "I think-"
A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open, knocking Y/N off of his feet. He scrambled back up as the guards stepped aside.
"I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said.
The room inside looked just like in my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied. He was the third god I'd met, but the first who really struck me as godlike. He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder length and jet black.
He didn't look as outwardly buff as Ares, but he radiated power, and carried himself like some who was stronger than you anyway. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther. He looked like he could kill us with the flick of his wrist if he really wanted to.
(Liam Neeson as Hades)
I immediately felt like he should be giving the orders. He knew more than I did. He should be my master. Then I told myself to snap out of it. Hades's aura was affecting me, just as Ares's had. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures I'd seen of tyrant kings in my history books, or emperors like Julius Caesar. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma.
"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."
Numbness crept into my joints, tempting me to lie down and just take a little nap at Hades's feet. Curl up here and sleep forever.
I fought the feeling and stepped forward. I knew what I had to say. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."
Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out.
The ADHD part of me wondered, off task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades's underwear?
"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."
I swallowed. This was going about as well as I'd feared.
I glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades'. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. I wished Queen Persephone were here. I recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods.
But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons.
Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded me in the back.
"Lord Hades," I said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be... bad."
"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.
"Like... Unbelievably bad, sir." Y/N agreed.
Hades' air of terror slightly lessened when he looked at Y/N. It was more like surprise. He looked like he was studying my friend, with a keen, knowing eye. He quickly shifted back to terrifying when he looked at me.
"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," I said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."
Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"
I glanced back at my friends. They looked as confused as I was.
"Lord Hades," Y/N said. "It's confusing that you continue to say 'after what you've done.' What exactly have any of us done?"
The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.
Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, child?"
"Well... these guys with the guns make me consider the idea." He muttered. Hades' eyes lit ablaze with anger. Y/N swallowed a large lump in his throat.
"You are the Lord of the Dead," I said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"
"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"
"Well..."
"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but Hades was on a roll now.
"More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"
"Charon wants a pay raise," I heard Y/N blurt out. As soon as he said it, he clamped his hands over his mouth.
"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."
"But you took Zeus's master bolt."
"Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goal post. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."
"His plan?"
"You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, You took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"
"But..." Annabeth spoke. I could tell her mind was going a million miles an hour. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"
"Do not play innocent with me, girl. You, Artemis' bastard-"
"Lord Hades I ask you, please do not call me that." Y/N cut in. The throne room started shaking dangerously.
"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME WHEN I SPEAK BOY!!! UNLESS YOU WISH TO JOIN THE WANDERING SPIRITS IN THE FIELD!!"
Y/N looked stunned, standing unblinking, holding his breath for a while. A lone sputter escaped from his mouth. He finally inhaled when Hades buried his face into his hand, fighting to regain his composure. Eventually, he looked back up at us.
"You godlings and the satyr have been helping this hero, coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt, to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"
"No!" I said. "Poseidon didn't- I didn't-"
"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance" Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."
"You didn't try to stop us? But-"
"Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counter proposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson, your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."
The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready. At that point, I probably should have been terrified. The strange thing was, I felt offended. Nothing gets me angrier than being accused of something I didn't do. I've had a lot of experience with that.
"You're as bad as Zeus," I said. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"
"Of course," Hades said.
"And the other monsters?"
Hades curled his lip. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you. I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"
"Easily?!" Grover and Y/N questioned loudly behind me.
"SILENCE!" He yelled, sweeping a hand over the room. Everyone shut their mouths.
"Return my property!"
I fought the urge to never speak. "But I don't have your helm. I came for the master bolt."
"Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could threaten me!"
"But I didn't!"
"Open your pack, then."
A horrible feeling struck me. The weight in my backpack, like a bowling ball. It couldn't be...
I slung it off my shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two foot long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.
"Percy," Annabeth said. "How-"
"I-I don't know. I don't understand."
"Dude. This... this can't be real..." Y/N panicked, putting his hands on his head.
"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now... my helm. Where is it?"
I was speechless. I had no helm. I had no idea how the master bolt had gotten into my backpack. I wanted to think Hades was pulling some kind of trick. Hades was the bad guy. But suddenly the world turned sideways.
I realized I'd been played with. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had been set at each other's throats by someone else. The master bolt had been in the backpack, and I'd gotten the backpack from...
"Lord Hades, wait," I said. "This is all a mistake."
"A mistake?" Hades roared.
The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne. The one with Mrs. Dodds's face grinned at me eagerly and flicked her whip.
"There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come. I know the real reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."
Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of me, and there was my mother, frozen in a shower of gold, just as she was at the moment when the Minotaur began to squeeze her to death.
I couldn't speak. I reached out to touch her, but the light was as hot as a bonfire.
"Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."
I thought about the pearls in my pocket. Maybe they could get me out of this. If I could just get my mom free...
"Ah, the pearls," Hades said, and my blood froze. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."
My hand moved against my will and brought out the pearls.
"Only four," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."
I looked at my friends. Their faces were grim.
"We were tricked," I told them. "Set up."
"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit-"
"There's no way it's that simple." Y/N said.
"I don't know yet," I breathed out. "But I intend to ask."
"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.
"Percy." Grover put his hand on my shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt,"
"I know that."
"Leave me here," he said. "Use the last pearl on your mom."
"No!"
"I'm a satyr," Grover said. "We don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."
"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You guys go on. Y/N. Grover, you two have to protect Percy. Grover, you have to get your searcher's license and start your quest for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."
"No way," Grover said. "I'm staying behind."
"Think again, goat boy," Annabeth said.
"Both of you, be quiet!" Y/N yelled. I got the urge to listen to him.
"I've got a pretty simple fix to this issue. It's me." He sighed. "It has to be me. All of you guys have things... People, who would miss you if you get stuck down here. We came here to get the bolt. Now we have it and we can get Percy's mom back on top of it."
He spoke calmly. Grover looked like he wanted to cry again.
"I've got nothing that matters out there. I can stay. Get your mom, Percy, and get outta here, guys." His voice cracked. He put a hand on his sword and drew it. "If I'm going down, some of them are coming with me."
"Y/N, you have us!" Annabeth stammered. "You don't have nobody."
"Yeah, we'd miss you." Grover said, a tear sliding down his patchy hairy face. "That's why it has to be me!"
"If you guys stay here then I really have nothing! I'm staying. There's no other way this'll go!" Y/N's voice wavered. "I'm not leaving you here!" Annabeth shouted. "And you think I'll let you stay!?" Y/N questioned right back.
"Stop it, all of you!" I felt like my heart was being ripped into pieces. These three had been with me through so much.
I remembered Grover dive bombing Medusa in the statue garden, Y/N standing between me and the Chimera, and Annabeth saving us from Cerberus; we'd survived Hephaestus' Waterland ride, the St. Louis Arch, the Lotus Casino.
I had spent thousands of miles worried that I'd be betrayed by a friend, but these friends would never do that.
They had done nothing but save me, over and over, and now they wanted to sacrifice their lives for my mom.
"I know what to do," I said. "Take these."
I handed them each a pearl.
Annabeth said, "But, Percy..."
"Dude. Your mom. You came all this way-" Y/N argued.
I turned and faced my mother. I desperately wanted to sacrifice myself and use the last pearl on her, but I knew what she would say. She would never allow it. I had to get the bolt back to Olympus and tell Zeus the truth. I had to stop the war. She would never forgive me if I saved her instead.
I thought about the prophecy made at Half-Blood Hill, what seemed like a million years ago. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.
"I'm sorry," I told her. "I'll be back. I'll find a way."
The smug look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling?..."
"I'll find your helm, Uncle," I told him. "I'll return it. Remember about Charon's pay raise."
"Do not defy me-"
"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."
"Percy Jackson, you will not-"
I shouted, "Now, guys!"
We smashed the pearls at our feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened.
Hades yelled, "Destroy them!"
The army of skeletons rushed forward, swords out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into flame.
Just as the skeletons opened fire, the pearl fragments at my feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. I was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground.
Annabeth, Y/N, and Grover were right behind me. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as we floated up. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook and I knew it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A.
"Look up.'" Grover yelled. "We're going to crash!"
Sure enough, we were racing right toward the stalactites, which I figured would pop our bubbles and skewer us.
"How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted.
"There's no directions!" Y/N yelled.
"I don't think you do!" I shouted back.
We screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and... Darkness.
Were we dead?
No, I could still feel the racing sensation. We were going up, right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. That was the power of the pearls, I realized. What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.
For a few moments, I couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of my sphere, then my pearl broke through on the ocean floor. The three other milky spheres, my friends, kept pace with me as we soared upward through the water. And ker-blam!
We exploded on the surface, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"
I grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy. I saw Y/N splash back into the ocean. He coughed up sea water, groaning and wiping his hair from his face. Annabeth landed on top of him. He dragged her over. A curious shark was circling us, a great white about eleven feet long.
I said, "Beat it."
The shark turned and raced away.
The four of us caught our breath as the surfer screamed something about taking bad mushrooms and paddled away from us as fast as he could. Somehow, I knew what time it was:
early morning, June 21, the day of the summer solstice.
In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighborhoods all over the city. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades's fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after me right now.
But at the moment, the Underworld wasn't my biggest problem.
I had to get to shore. I had to get Zeus's thunderbolt back to Olympus. Most of all, I had to have a serious conversation with the god who'd tricked me.