Wanted: The Dark Kingdom (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chapter 45 - The Dark Crown

Wanted- The Dark Kingdom

Chapter 45 – The Dark Crown

A Wind from the North blows,

Bringing with it those who lie below.

With them, spreads the infection,

To what may be the darkest connection.

A crown forged from the tears of good and bad,

Will choose the king whose army stands.

The light leads and the dark follows,

To the first jewel of the girl who borrowed.

Then, the dark leads and the light follows,

To the second jewel of a man's true horror.

A king shall be crowned where the first king stepped,

Putting an end to their world's unrest.

~

With every minute that ticked by, Percy's annoyance only grew. They had docked about an hour ago, coming face to face with the tunnel's dead end. And so far, they had made no progress at all on trying to figure out where to head next.

"This is a dead end," Piper said. She sat on the ground, leaning against the stone wall.  "But I don't understand, what did we do wrong?"

Colin shrugged. "But where else could we go? We are beneath the castle, that is a sign that we are on the right path. And so far, we've followed the riddle." Colin stood up from where he sat next to Piper and stood at the edge, peering down at the black water. "Maybe we need to sail back? Maybe this time the boat will take us in a different direction?"

"Different direction where?" Hazel, who stood near the fire pit, said. "There are only two places to sail to. Back to where we started or here. There are no other tunnels."

Colin turned away from the water and faced her. "We could've missed it."

"No way," Annabeth said, shaking her head. "For those of us on watch, we would've seen another tunnel if there was one. And besides, the boat moved by itself. It's blessed with god magic so I'm positively sure it took us to the right spot."

"The reason I don't trust the boat is because it was blessed by a god." Colin added.

"No, I'm with Annabeth on this. I believe we are in the right place. We just need to find the next path or tunnel." Percy said. He moved away from where he had been surveying the stone walls, running his hand across it in hopes of finding a secret passageway that had to be revealed and made his way to the fire pit.

"The line in the riddle is. 'Halt where the blessings of the sea stop. From there, follow the fire but beware of the drop.' There's a fire pit right here." Percy explained.

"But there are also thousands of burning torches hung on the two walls." Colin added.

"Yes, but they also stop where the black water ends. I don't understand how, but we need to follow this fire. At first I thought that meant following the direction it cast it's shadow." Percy said, pointing to where the tunnel walls met, curved, and ended. "But I've found nothing that shows there is a hidden passageway or door."