Umbra

Chapter 47

An hour later, they were seeing Ancient Sparta.

The three of them stood on a hill overlooking the ruins after scouting the modern city, which consisted of a bunch of low, boxy, whitewashed buildings sprawled across a plain at the foot of some purplish mountains.

Annabeth had insisted on checking the archaeology museum, then the giant metal statue of the Spartan warrior in the public square, then the National Museum of Olives and Olive Oil. They met no giants and found no statues of chained gods. Annabeth was reluctant to check the ruins, but when they ran out of other places to look, they figured it was the only course of action.

There wasn't much to see. According to Annabeth, the hill they stood on had once been Sparta's acropolis– its highest point and main fortress– but it was nothing like the massive Athenian acropolis that the giants lingered in. The weathered slope was covered with dead grass, rocks and stunted olive trees. Below, ruins stretched out for maybe a quarter of a mile: limestone blocks, a few broken walls and some tiled holes in the ground like wells.

Piper wiped the sweat from her forehead, all tired from hiking around. "You'd think if there was a thirty-foot-tall giant around we'd see him."

Annabeth stared at the distant shape of the Argo II floating above downtown Sparta. She fingered the red coral pendant on her necklace– a gift from Percy when they started dating. "It'll be alright," said Emilia as soothingly as she could. "We'll make it back to the ship."

(The first night Emilia had gone to speak with Percy and Annabeth after their return from Tartarus, Annabeth had waited for Percy to enter the shower before revealing something that had happened with Akhlys, while Emilia had been following a different path to the Mansion of Night. Percy had controlled a tide of poison to suffocate the goddess Akhlys and break her hold on them, after which they'd gone unconscious and only woken up after they crossed the River Acheron. Emilia still remembered how much Annabeth's voice had wavered when she told her, how afraid she'd been.)

"The way he worries," murmured Annabeth. "The way he held you back, made you promise to protect me... he did the same with Jason before, I know it. I don't know why it's hitting me so hard all of a sudden. I can't quite get that memory out of my head ... how Percy looked when he was standing at the edge of Chaos."

"Give him time." Piper sat next to Annabeth. "The guy is crazy about you. You've been through so much together."

"I know..." Annabeth's grey eyes reflected the green of the olive trees. "It's just... Bob warned me there would be more sacrifices ahead. I want to believe we can have a normal life someday... but I allowed myself to hope for that last summer, after the Titan War. Then Percy disappeared for months. Then we fell into that pit..." A tear traced its way down her cheek. "Piper, if you'd seen the face of the god Tartarus, all swirling darkness, devouring monsters and vaporizing them– I've never felt so helpless. I try not to think about it..."

Piper and Emilia each took one of Annabeth's hands. Emilia realized without needing to ask that Annabeth had been having nightmares of Tartarus, of their experience there, of the god's face when he'd been looking down at them, ready to kill.

Emilia had stopped having nightmares. She'd never even dreamt of Tartarus's face again. Was it her family protecting her, preventing his consciousness from seeping into her dreams? Or was it something else?

"Hey," said Piper gently as Annabeth tried not to cry. "Don't try to shut out the feelings. You won't be able to. Just let them wash over you and drain out again. You're scared"'

"Gods, yes, I'm scared."

"You're angry."

"At Percy for frightening me, at my mom for sending me on that horrible quest in Rome, at ... well, pretty much everybody. Gaea. The giants. The gods for being jerks."