Reconnected [Book 3]

21 - Ragdoll

Finding the place was easy. Percy led them right to it, on an abandoned stretch of hillside overlooking the ruined Forum.

Getting in was easy too. Jason's gold sword cut through the padlock, and the metal gate creaked open. No mortals saw them. No alarms went off. Stone steps spiraled down into the gloom.

"I'll go first," Jason said.

"No!" Piper yelped.

Both boys and Adelia turned toward her.

"Pipes, what is it?" Jason asked. "That image in the blade...you've seen it before, haven't you?"

She nodded, her eyes stinging. "I didn't know how to tell you. I saw the room down there filling with water. I saw the four of us drowning."

Jason and Percy both frowned.

"I can't drown," Percy said, though he sounded like he was asking a question.

Adelia frowned, her eyebrows knitting together, just as confused, "No, babe, you can't."

"Maybe the future has changed," Jason speculated. "In the image you showed us just now, there wasn't any water."

Piper wished he was right, but she suspected they wouldn't be so lucky.

"Look," Percy said. "I'll check it out first. It's fine. Be right back."

Before Adelia could object or stop him in anyway, he disappeared down the stairwell.

"For all of Olympus," Adelia groaned, hitting her head with her hand, "Why can't he just wait."

She counted silently as they waited for him to come back. Somewhere around thirty-five, she heard his footsteps, and he appeared at the top, looking more baffled than relieved.

"Good news: no water," he said. "Bad news: I don't see any exits down there. And, uh, weird news: well, you should see this...."

They descended cautiously. Percy took the lead, with Riptide drawn. Adelia held his hand, her palm flaring with moonlight. Piper followed, and Jason walked behind her, guarding their backs. The stairwell was a cramped corkscrew of masonry, no more than six feet in diameter. Even though Percy had given the "all clear," Piper kept her eyes open for traps. With every turn of the stairs, she anticipated an ambush. She had no weapon, just the cornucopia on a leather cord over her shoulder. If worse came to worst, the boys' swords wouldn't do much good in such close quarters. Maybe Piper could shoot their enemies with high-velocity smoked hams.

As they wound their way underground, Piper saw old graffiti gouged into the stones: Roman numerals, names and phrases in Italian. That meant other people had been down here more recently than the Roman Empire, but Piper wasn't reassured. If monsters were below, they'd ignore mortals, waiting for some nice juicy demigods to come along.

Finally, they reached the bottom.

Percy turned. "Watch this last step."

He jumped to the floor of the cylindrical room, which was five feet lower than the stairwell. Why would someone design a set of stairs like that? Piper had no idea. Maybe the room and the stairwell had been built during different time periods. Percy grabbed Adelia's waist as she put her hand son his shoulders, and he helped her down, pulling her close.

She wanted to turn and exit, but she couldn't do that with Jason behind her, and she couldn't just leave Percy and Adelia down there. She clambered down, and Jason followed.

The room was just like she'd seen it in Katoptris's blade, except there was no water. The curved walls had once been painted with frescoes, which were now faded to eggshell white with only flecks of color. The domed ceiling was about fifty feet above.