²𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐃𝐘. percy jackson

XXIII.

MΛЯK ӨF ΛƬΉΣПΛ

AFTER BARELY SURVIVING THE NYMPHAEUM, Lucia trudged through the tunnels shivering and dripping wet. Her voluminous hair was now flat on her head and she wasn't shining as bright as usual. She couldn't help but start to feel insecure about her ragged appearance, feeling too unlike herself.

All she wanted was to get back to the surface and bask in the sunlight once again. But unfortunately, she knew that wasn't possible. Not only was Nico's life on the line, but all of Romes.

She walked with her Bow out, prepared for any sudden attacks. But it was obvious how jumpy she was every time she flinched at a sudden noise. She also still felt drained from almost drowning
—once again...

Seriously, at this point, I just have bad luck.

Lucia was just glad that, that bad luck didn't reach out and ruin her iPod. It was still working fine, which meant that her father had probably enchanted it to be completely water-resistant.

She was more than grateful to him, she couldn't help but wonder how he was doing. She had to admit that she missed him, nothing felt right since she found out Apollo was banished to Delos...

Soft rock rang through the one earbud she stuck in her ear, She twirled the wire in an attempt to keep herself calm.

Percy's hand in hers also helped do the trick.

Clios Scroll thankfully survived the water basin as well. But Lucia had a feeling that despite her, her friends, and her things surviving, she wasn't even close to facing the biggest challenges of this quest...

I would never bet against you Golden Girl.

Percy took the lead as they crawled down the drainage pipe. After thirty feet, it opened into a wider tunnel. To their left, somewhere in the distance, Lucia heard rumbling and creaking, like a huge machine needed oiling.

She had no desire to find out what was making that sound, so she told them that was the way to go.

Several hundred feet later, they reached a turn in the tunnel. Percy squeezed Lucia's hand and held up his free one, signaling Jason and Piper to wait. Lucia peeked around the corner.

The corridor opened into a vast room with twenty-foot ceilings and rows of support columns.

It looked like the same parking garage-type area Percy had described from his dreams, but now much more crowded with stuff.

"Is that—?"

"Yes..."

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 (oh, great, more water), powering waterwheels that turned some of the machines.

Other machines were connected to huge hamster wheels with hellhounds inside. Lucia frowned, she thought of Percy's pet Mrs. O'Leary, and how much she would hate being trapped inside one of those.

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

Leo would love it, Lucia thought. The whole room was like one massive, scary, unreliable machine.

"What is it?" Piper whispered.

Lucia wasn't even sure how to answer. She didn't see the giants, so she gestured for their friends to come forward and take a look.

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.