The Forgotten Olympian |BOOK 1| PJO X HP | Alexandra Marine

Chapter 28 - Alex - Water Cannons!

Hazel muttered under her breath. "Never mind. It's fine. Percy, he's talking about the trenches. The Field of Mars is riddled with tunnels from over the years. Some are collapsed, or buried deep, but a lot of them are still passable. I'm pretty good at finding them and using them. I can even collapse them if I have to."

"Like you did with the gorgons," I said, "to slow them down."

Frank nodded approvingly. "I told you Pluto was cool. He's the god of everything under the earth. Hazel can find caves, tunnels, trapdoors—"

"And it was our secret," she grumbled.

Frank blushed furiously. "Yeah, sorry. But if we can get close—"

"And if we can knock out the water cannons..." Percy nodded, like he was warming to the idea. "What do we do then?"

Frank checked his quiver.

"The rest is up to me," he said. "Let's go."

Hazel found us a tunnel with no problem. We crept along by the light of Riptide and Stormbringer.

Above, we heard the sounds of battle—kids shouting, Hannibal the elephant bellowing with glee, scorpion bolts exploding, and water cannons firing. The tunnel shook. Dirt rained down. A few minutes passed so, and my heart had began to pound so hard I felt like it might burst out of my chest.

"There's an opening just ahead," Hazel announced. "We'll come up ten feet from the east wall."

I sighed happily. "How can you tell?" Percy asked.

"I don't know," she said. "But I'm sure."

"Could we tunnel straight under the wall?" Frank wondered.

"No," Hazel said. "The engineers were smart. They built the walls on old foundations that go down to bedrock. And don't ask how I know. I just do."

Frank stumbled over something and cursed. Percy brought this sword around for more light. The thing Frank had tripped on was gleaming silver.

He crouched down.

"Don't touch it!" Hazel said.

Frank's hand stopped a few inches from the chunk of metal. It looked like a giant Hershey's Kiss, about the size of his fist.

"It's massive," he said. "Silver?"

"Platinum." Hazel sounded scared out of her wits. "It'll go away in a second. Please don't touch it. It's dangerous."

"O-okay," I said, almost feeling suspicious of her. As we watched, the chunk of platinum sank into the ground.

He stared at Hazel. "How did you know?"

In the light of Stormbringer, Hazel looked as ghostly as a Lar. "I'll explain later," she promised.

Another explosion rocked the tunnel, and we forged ahead.

We popped out of a hole just where Hazel had predicted. In front of me, the fort's east wall loomed. Off to our left, I could see the main line of the Fifth Cohort advancing in turtle formation, shields forming a shell over their heads and sides. They were trying to reach the main gates, but the defenders above pelted them with rocks and shot flaming bolts from the scorpions, blasting craters around their feet. A water cannon discharged with a jaw-rattling THRUM, and a jet of liquid carved a trench in the dirt right in front of the cohort.