Warriors || Leo Valdez [2]

28

Finding the place was easy. Percy led them right to it, on an abandoned stretch of hillside overlooking the ruined Forum.

Getting in was easy too. Jason's gold sword cut through the padlock, and the metal gate creaked open. No mortals saw them. No alarms went off. Stone steps spiraled down into the gloom.

"I'll go first," Jason said.

"No!" Piper yelped.

Everyone turned toward her.

"Pipes, what is it?" Jason asked. "That image in the blade... you've seen it before, haven't you?"

She nodded. "I didn't know how to tell you. I saw the room down there filling with water. I saw the four of us drowning."

Alex frowned. She couldn't drown... right?

"Alex and I can't drown," Percy said, though he sounded like he was asking a question.

"Maybe the future has changed," Jason speculated. "In the image you showed us just now, there wasn't any water."

"Look," Percy said. "I'll check it out first. It's fine. Be right back."

Before Alex could object, he disappeared down the stairwell.

"Good news: no water," Percy said, when he appeared again. "Bad news: I don't see any exits down there. And, uh, weird news: well, you should see this...."

They descended cautiously. Percy took the lead, with Riptide drawn. Alex followed, her sword in her hand. She knew that if the moment came, she had to protect Piper, as she had no weapon, and Jason walked behind her, guarding their backs. 

The stairwell was a cramped corkscrew of masonry, no more than six feet in diameter. Even though Percy had given the "all clear," Alex kept her eyes open for traps. With every turn of the stairs, she anticipated an ambush. 

As they wound their way underground, they saw old graffiti gouged into the stones: Roman numerals, names and phrases in Italian. That meant other people had been down here more recently than the Roman Empire, but Alex wasn't reassured. If monsters were below, they'd ignore mortals, waiting for some nice juicy demigods to come along.

Finally, they reached the bottom.

Percy turned. "Watch this last step."

He jumped to the floor of the cylindrical room, which was five feet lower than the stairwell. Why would someone design a set of stairs like that? Alex had no idea. Maybe the room and the stairwell had been built during different time periods.

Alex jumped down next to Percy and offered her hand to Piper. 

The room was... creepy to say the least. The curved walls had once been painted with frescoes, which were now faded to eggshell white with only flecks of color. The domed ceiling was about fifty feet above.

Around the back side of the room, opposite the stairwell, nine alcoves were carved into the wall. Each niche was about five feet off the floor and big enough for a human-sized statue, but each was empty.

The air felt cold and dry. As Percy had said, there were no other exits.

"All right." Percy raised his eyebrows. "Here's the weird part. Watch."

He stepped to the middle of the room.

Instantly, green and blue light rippled across the walls. Alex heard the sound of a fountain, but there was no water. There didn't seem to be any source of light except for their blades. If she focused, she realised she felt better, more energised- the way she felt around an ocean.