The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

twelve

NEW ROME

Annabeth and Percy held hands as they navigated the winding streets, dodging cars and crazy Vespa drivers, squeezing through mobs of tourists and wading through oceans of pigeons.

The day warmed up quickly. Once they got away from the car exhaust on the main roads, the air smelled of baking bread and freshly cut flowers.

They aimed for the Colosseum because that was an easy landmark, but getting there proved harder than Ariana anticipated.

As big and confusing as the city had looked from above, it was even more so on the ground. Several times they got lost on dead-end streets.

They found beautiful fountains and huge monuments by accident. Annabeth commented on the architecture, but Ariana kept her eyes open for other things.

Once she spotted a glowing purple ghost - a Lar - glaring at them from the window of an apartment building.

Another time she saw a white-robed woman - maybe a nymph or a goddess - holding a wicked-looking knife, slipping between ruined columns in a public park.

Nothing attacked them, but Ariana felt like they were being watched, and the watchers were not friendly.

Finally they reached the Colosseum, where a dozen guys in cheap gladiator costumes were scuffling with the police - plastic swords versus batons.

Ariana wasn't sure what that was about, but she, Percy and Annabeth decided to keep walking.
Sometimes mortals were even stranger than monsters.

They made their way west, stopping every once in a while to ask directions to the river. Ariana hadn't considered that - duh - people in Italy spoke Italian, while she did not.

As it turned out, though, that wasn't much of a problem. The few times someone approached them on the street and asked a question, Percy just looked at them in confusion, and they switched to English.

Next discovery: the Italians used euros, and Ariana didn't have any. She regretted this as soon as she found a tourist shop that sold sodas.

By then it was almost noon, getting really hot, and Ariana was starting to wish she had a trireme filled with Diet Coke.

"Next time we go to a new country, somebody remind me to ask Hades for their currency."

Annabeth solved the problem. She dug around in her backpack, brought out Daedalus's laptop and typed in a few commands. A plastic card ejected from a slot in the side.

Annabeth waved it triumphantly.

"International credit card. For emergencies."
Percy stared at her in amazement. "How did you -? No. Never mind. I don't want to know. Just keep being awesome."

The sodas helped, but they were still hot and tired by the time they arrived at the Tiber River. The shore was edged with a stone embankment.

A chaotic assortment of warehouses, apartments, stores and cafés crowded the riverfront.
The Tiber itself was wide, lazy and caramel-coloured.

A few tall cypress trees hung over the banks. The nearest bridge looked fairly new, made from iron girders, but right next to it stood a crumbling line of stone arches that stopped halfway across the river - ruins that might've been left over from the days of the Caesars.

"This is it." Annabeth pointed at the old stone bridge. "I recognize that from the map. But what do we do now?"

Ariana was glad she had said we. She didn't want to leave her yet. In fact, she wasnt sure she could make herself do it when the time came. Gaia's words came back to her: Will you fall alone?