Reconnected [Book 3]

20 - Doctors orders

Under different circumstances, wandering through Rome with Adelia would have been pretty awesome. Even with Annabeth who was third wheeling, she didn't seem to mind though as she gazed adoringly at the architecture. They 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 Percy 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 Percy kept his eyes open for other things. Once he spotted a glowing purple ghost—a Lar—glaring at them from the window of an apartment building. Another time he 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 Percy felt like they were being watched, and the watchers were not friendly. He watched as Adelia practically glowed under the hot sun, and he saw all of her worries disappear. He promised himself that when this quest was over he was going to make sure she smiled like that every day.

Finally they reached the Colosseum, where a dozen guys in cheap gladiator costumes were scuffling with the police—plastic swords versus batons. Percy wasn't sure what that was about but Adelia barked out a laugh and tugged him along. Sometimes mortals were even stranger than monsters.

They made their way west, stopping every once in a while to ask directions to the river. Percy hadn't considered that—duh—people in Italy spoke Italian, while he 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. Adelia had obviously been doing some sort of reading and could converse with the Italians just enough to tell them they were most definitely American.

Next discovery: the Italians used euros, and Percy didn't have any. He regretted this as soon as he found a tourist shop that sold sodas. By then it was almost noon, getting really hot, and Percy was starting to wish he had a trireme filled with Diet Coke.

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."

Adelia smiled at her best friend, "Seriously, I don't know what we'd do without you Annie."

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-colored. 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?"

Percy was glad she had said we. He didn't want to leave her yet, and neither did Adelia. She had dropped his hand and now had her arm linked through Annabeths and he couldn't blame her, they had all been best friends since they were 12 and now one of them was going on a very dangerous quest all on her own. Neither of them wanted her to leave. In fact, he wasn't sure he could make himself do it when the time came. Gaea's words came back to him: Will you fall alone?