𝙄𝙉𝙁𝙇𝘼𝙈𝙀𝘿; heroes of olympus

a forgotten gift

ERITH JAY
PERCY took the lead as they crawled down the drainage pipe. Erith was right behind him, followed by Piper, then Jason.

Erith couldn't see Percy's face, but he didn't look like he was having a ton of fun. His body was tense. He kept muttering under his breath whenever his shoulder hit something―because drainage pipes weren't made to be crawled through.

Not that Erith blamed him. She herself wasn't having much fun, either. Her clothes were cold and wet, and drops of water kept dripping into her face from her hair. Wherever her hands or knees landed, there was water, courtesy of Percy.

There was also the fact that Annabeth could be dead right now, or dying, and they had no idea. Leo, Hazel, and Frank were still missing, and could be terribly injured or led into a trap, because it was obvious this was the way to Nico―not the way Hazel had taken.

At least, Erith hoped this was the way to Nico. Because that represented the fifth person she was worried about. He could be dead. Every second they wasted crawling through this stupid pipe could be one second too late.

So, yeah. Erith would have rather spent a nice day in Rome enjoying the sights and walking around without a million deadlines and a million possibilities of everyone she loved dying.

But hey, those were simple pleasures you couldn't ask for when you were a demigod. Unfortunately.

After thirty feet, the drainage pipe opened into a wider tunnel. To their left, somewhere in the distance, Erith heard rumbling and creaking, like a huge machine that needed oiling. She had absolutely no desire to find out what was making that sound, especially when their signature mechanic wasn't here, so it must be the way to go!

Percy turned that way, and with a resigned sigh, Erith followed him.

Several hundred feet later, they reached a turn in the tunnel. Percy held up his hand, signaling them to wait. Then he peeked around the corner.

After maybe a minute of Percy with his head gone, Piper whispered, "What is it?"

Percy crept forward, then gestured for them to follow.

Erith went first, and her breath disappeared in her throat.

The corridor opened into a vast room with twenty-foot ceilings and rows of support columns. It looked like a parking-garage-type area crowded with stuff.

The creaking and rumbling came from huge gears and pulley systems that raised and lowered sections of the floor for no apparent reason. Water flowed through open trenches (yay, more water!), powering waterwheels that turned some of the machines. Other machines were connected to huge hamster wheels with hellhounds inside.

Suspended from the ceiling were cages of live animals―a lion, several zebras, a whole pack of hyenas, and even an eight-headed hydra. Ancient-looking bronze and leather conveyor belts trundled along with stacks of weapons and armor.

The whole room was like one massive, scary, unreliable machine.

"Leo would love this," Erith said quietly, scanning the room for giants.

"That's what I thought," Percy agreed.

About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life-size wooden cutout of a gladiator popped up from the floor. It clicked and whirred along a conveyor belt, got hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof.