WARNING: badly written but a rewrite is up on my page
REDAMANCY | Lorna and her friends are the demigods of the great prophecy. Together, they will sail to Rome, with a camp of demigods trying to kill them, to save a son of Hades, and follow the Mar...
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26. Nymphs
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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 Lorna turned toward her. "Pipes, what is it?" Lorna 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."
The demigods frowned.
"Lorna and I can't drown," Percy said, though he sounded like he was asking a question.
"Maybe the future has changed," Jason speculated. "In the image you showed us just now, there wasn't any water."
"Look," Percy said. "I'll check it out first. It's fine. Be right back."
Before Lorna could object, he disappeared down the stairwell. 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. Piper followed, Lorna shadowed her, 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,' Lorna kept her eyes open for traps.
With every turn of the stairs, she anticipated an ambush. As they wound their way underground, Lorna 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 Lorna 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? Lorna had no idea. Maybe the room and the stairwell had been built during different time periods. She wanted to turn and exit, but she couldn't do that with Jason behind her, and she couldn't just leave Percy down there.
Piper and Lorna clambered down, and Jason followed. The room had curved walls that 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. Around the back side of the room, opposite the stairwell, nine alcoves were carved into the wall. Each niche was about five feet off the floor and big enough for a human-sized statue, but each was empty. The air felt cold and dry. As Percy had said, there were no other exits.
