SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

80 - death house

DESPITE THE MIDDAY heat and the raging storm of death energy, a group of tourists was climbing over the ruins. Fortunately there weren't many, and they didn't give the demigods a second look.

Briar had stopped worrying too much about getting noticed. If they could fly their warship into the Colosseum with ballistae blazing and not even cause a traffic slowdown, she figured they could get away with anything.

Nico led the way. At the top of the hill, they climbed over an old retaining wall and down into an excavated trench. Finally they arrived at a stone doorway leading straight into the side of the hill. The death storm seemed to originate right above their heads. Looking up at the swirling tentacles of darkness, Briar felt like she was trapped at the bottom of a flushing toilet bowl. That didn't calm her nerves.

Nico faced the group. "From here, it gets tough."

"Sweet," Leo said. "'Cause so far I've totally been pulling my punches."

Nico glared at him. "We'll see how long you keep your sense of humor. Remember, this is where pilgrims came to commune with dead ancestors. Underground, you may see things that are hard to look at, or hear voices trying to lead you astray in the tunnels. Frank, do you have the barley cakes?"

"What?" Frank asked. Briar felt bad, so she hid her laugh.

"I've got the cakes," Hazel said. She pulled out the magical barley crackers they'd made from the grain from some god. Briar didn't know, and she didn't want to ask, but she'd had fun baking them with Hazel and Leo.

"Eat up," Nico advised.

Briar chewed her cracker of death and tried not to gag. It reminded her of a cookie made with sawdust instead of sugar.

"Yum," she said, totally making a face, but oh well.

"Okay." Nico choked down the last of his barley. "That should protect us from the poison."

"Poison?" Leo asked. "Did I miss the poison? 'Cause I love poison."

"Soon enough," Nico promised. "Just stick close together, and maybe we can avoid getting lost or going insane."

On that happy note, Nico led them underground.

The tunnel spiraled gently downward, the ceiling supported by white stone arches that reminded Briar of a whale's rib cage. She'd seen one at a museum she and Reyna had gone to.

As they walked, Hazel ran her hands along the masonry. "This wasn't part of a temple," she whispered. "This was . . . the basement for a manor house, built in later Greek times."

Briar found it eerie how Hazel could tell so much about an underground place just by being there.

"A manor house?" Frank asked. "Please don't tell me we're in the wrong place."

"The House of Hades is below us," Nico assured. "But Hazel's right, these upper levels are much newer. When the archaeologists first excavated this site, they thought they'd found the Necromanteion. Then they realized the ruins were too recent, so they decided it was the wrong spot. They were right the first time. They just didn't dig deep enough."

They turned a corner and stopped. In front of them, the tunnel ended in a huge block of stone.

"A cave-in?" Jason asked.

"A test," Nico said. "Hazel, would you do the honors?"

Hazel stepped forward. She placed her hand on the rock, and the entire boulder crumbled to dust.

The tunnel shuddered. Cracks spread across the ceiling. For a terrifying moment, Briar imagined they'd all be crushed under tons of earth — a disappointing way to die, after all they'd been through. Then the rumbling stopped. The dust settled.