The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

one

ARIANA HATES TARTARUS ALREADY

Nine days.

As she fell, Ariana thought about Hesiod, the old Greek poet who'd speculated it would take nine days to fall from earth to Tartarus.

She hoped Hesiod was wrong. She'd lost track of how long she, Annabeth and Percy had been falling - hours? A day? It felt like an eternity.

They'd all been holding hands ever since they'd dropped into the chasm. Now Percy pulled them both close, hugging them tight as they tumbled through absolute darkness.

Wind whistled in Ariana's ears. The air grew hotter and damper, as if they were plummeting into the throat of a massive dragon.

She wrapped her arms around Annabeth and Percy and tried not to sob. She'd never expected her life to be easy.

Most demigods died young at the hands of terrible monsters. That was the way it had been since ancient times. The Greeks invented tragedy. They knew the greatest heroes didnt get happy endings.

Still, this wasn't fair. She'd gone through so much through these past five or so years. Ariana had experienced so much pain and misery.

Now they had plunged to their deaths.

Even the gods couldn't devise a fate so twisted.
But Gaia wasn't like other gods. The Earth Mother was older, more vicious, more bloodthirsty.

Ariana could imagine her laughing as they fell into the depths.

Ariana tried to think of a plan, she was a daughter of Hades surely she had some control of Tartarus. But she couldn't think of any way to reverse or even slow their fall.

None of them had the power to fly - not like Jason, who could control the wind, or Frank, who could turn into a winged animal.

If they reached the bottom at terminal velocity ... well, she knew enough science to know it would be terminal.

She was seriously wondering whether they could fashion a parachute out of their shirts - that's how desperate she was - when something about their surroundings changed.

The darkness took on a grey-red tinge. She realized she could see Percy's and Annabeths hair as she hugged them.

The whistling in her ears turned into more of a roar. The air became intolerably hot, permeated with a smell like rotten eggs.

Ariana knew tiny bits and pieces about Tartarus, Hades had given her so many lectures. She knew that she'd see Tartarus in its true form - something Annabeth and Percy wouldn't be able to do.

Truth be told, she was terrified.

Suddenly, the chute they'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern. Maybe half a mile below them, Ariana could see the bottom.

For a moment she was too stunned to think properly. The entire island of Manhattan could have fitted inside this cavern - and she couldn't even see its full extent. Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood.

The landscape - at least what she could see of it - was rocky black plains, punctuated by jagged mountains and fiery chasms.

To Ariana's left, the ground dropped away in a series of cliffs, like colossal steps leading deeper into the abyss.

The stench of sulphur made it hard to concentrate, but she focused on the ground directly below them and saw a ribbon of glittering black liquid - a river.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled in his ear. "Water!"

She gestured frantically. Percy's face was hard to read in the dim red light. He looked shell-shocked and terrified, but he nodded as if he understood.