The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

thirteen

ARIANA MEETS DARKNESS (LITERALLY)

Ariana had never been scared of the dark, not even as a kid. She assumed it was due to being a daughter of Hades.

But normally the dark wasn't forty feet tall. It didn't have black wings, a whip made out of stars and a shadowy chariot pulled by vampire horses.
Nyx was almost too much to take in.

Looming over the chasm, she was a churning figure of ash and smoke, as big as the Athena Parthenos statue, but very much alive.

Her dress was void black, mixed with the colours of a space nebula, as if galaxies were being born in her bodice.

Her face was hard to see except for the pinpoints of her eyes, which shone like quasars.

When her wings beat, waves of darkness rolled over the cliffs, making Ariana feel heavy and sleepy, her eyesight dim.

The goddess's chariot was made of the same material as Ariana's sword - Stygian iron - pulled by two massive horses, all black except for their pointed silver fangs.

The beasts' legs floated in the abyss, turning from solid to smoke as they moved.

The horses snarled and bared their fangs at Annabeth. The goddess lashed her whip - a thin streak of stars like diamond barbs - and the horses reared back.

"No, Shade." the goddess said. "Down, Shadow. These little prizes are not for you."

The horses snickered.

I WANT TO EAT THEM.

"Uh, so you won't let them eat us?" Ariana questioned hopefully.

"They really want to eat us." Percy added, nodding.

Nyx's quasar eyes burned. "Of course not. I would not let my horses eat you, any more than I would let Akhlys kill you. Such fine prizes, I will kill myself!"

"Oh, don't kill yourself!" cried. "We're not that scary."

The goddess lowered her whip. "What? No, I didn't mean -"

"Well, I'd hope not!" Annabeth looked at Ariana and Percy and forced a laugh. "We wouldnt want to scare her, would we?"

"Ha, ha." Percy said weakly. "No, we wouldn't."

"Course not. She's like a major badass goddess!" Ariana laughed.

The vampire horses looked confused. They reared and snorted and knocked their dark heads together.

Nyx pulled back on the reins.

"Do you know who I am?" she demanded.

"Well, you're Night, I suppose." said Annabeth. "I mean, I can tell because you're dark and everything, though the brochure didn't say much about you."

Nyx's eyes winked out for a moment. "What brochure?"

Annabeth patted her pockets. "We had one, didn't we?"

Percy licked his lips. "Uh-huh."

He was still watching the horses, his hand tight on his sword hilt, but he was smart enough to follow Annabeth's lead.

"Anyway." Ariana sighed, "I guess the brochure didn't say much because you weren't spotlighted on the tour. We got to see the River Phlegethon, the Cocytus, the arai, the poison glade of Akhlys, even some random Titans and giants, but Nyx ... hmm, no, you weren't really featured."

"Featured? Spotlighted?"

"Yeah." Percy said, warming up to the idea. "We came down here for the Tartarus tour - like, exotic destinations, you know? The Underworld is overdone. Mount Olympus is a tourist trap -"