Wildfires, Heroes of Olympus ₂

046, she forgor

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
SILVIANA      DUVALL

Sylvie didn't see how it could get any worse. She had to go on a horrifying solo quest, she knew nothing except for her own name, and she was going to have to die with that. She was going to have to die, not knowing anything and not knowing anyone.

As the baby-blue scooter zipped through the streets of Rome, the goddess Rhea Silvia gave Sylvie a running commentary on how the city had changed over the centuries.

"The Sublician Bridge was over there," she said, pointing to a bend in the Tiber. "You know, where Horatius and his two friends defended the city from an invading army? Now, there was a brave Roman!"

"And look, dear," Tiberinus added, "that's the place where Romulus and Remus washed ashore."

He seemed to be talking about a spot on the riverside where some ducks were making a nest out of torn-up plastic bags and candy wrappers.

"Ah, yes," Rhea Silvia sighed happily. "You were so kind to flood yourself and wash my babies ashore for the wolves to find."

"It was nothing," Tiberinus said.

Sylvie felt light-headed. The river god was talking about something that had happened thousands of years ago, when this area was nothing but marshes and maybe some shacks. Tiberinus saved two babies, one of whom went on to found the world's greatest empire. It was nothing.

Rhea Silvia pointed out a large modern apartment building. "That used to be a temple to Venus. Then it was a church. Then a palace. Then an apartment building. It burned down three times. Now it's an apartment building again. And that spot right there—"

"Please," Sylvie said. "You're making me dizzy."

Rhea Silvia laughed. "I'm sorry, dear. Layers upon layers of history here, but it's nothing compared to Greece. Athens was old when Rome was a collection of mud huts. You'll see, if you survive."

"Not helping," Sylvie muttered.

"Here we are," Tiberinus announced.

He pulled over in front of a large marble building, the facade covered in city grime but still beautiful. Ornate carvings of Roman gods decorated the roofline. The massive entrance was barred with iron gates, heavily padlocked.

"I'm going in there?" Sylvie asked. This quest was seeming more hopeless by the second.

Rhea Silvia covered her mouth and giggled. "No, my dear. Not in it. Under it."

Tiberinus pointed to a set of stone steps on the side of the building—the sort that would have led to a basement apartment.

"Rome is chaotic aboveground," Tiberinus said, "but that's nothing compared to below ground. You must descend into the buried city, Sylvie. Find the altar of the foreign god. The failures of your predecessors will guide you. After that... I do not know."

That makes two of us, Sylvie wanted to say. She didn't. Instead, she elected to remind herself of the things she did know:

1.) Her name was Sylvie.