The group was frozen stiff, but they managed to move, running slightly. The voice behind them got louder and angrier, and they broke into a sprint.
Not a moment too soon.
A cold blast of wind pulled at their backs, as if the entire pit were inhaling. For a terrifying moment, Andromeda lost ground, her feet slipping in the gravel. If they'd been any closer to the edge, they would've been sucked in.
Struggling forward, they finally reached the top of the tunnel, where the cavern widened out into the Fields of Asphodel. The wind died. A wail of outrage echoed from deep in the tunnel. Something was not happy that they'd gotten away.
"What was that?" Grover panted, when the group collapsed in the relative safety of a black poplar grove. "One of Hades' pets?" he suggested, clearly not wanting to even think it was what Jakob said it was.
The Son of Thor turned to Grover, hooking the Leviathan Axe to his back. "You know what that was, Grover." He said gravely. "Or rather who that was."
Annabeth looked like she was in too much of a panic to even think about it, too scared to even agree with the notion Jakob made. "I-I thought he wasn't - isn't he supposed to be -"
She seemed startled, as well as scared. Jakob didn't blame her. He didn't even bother pointing out that he was right all along. It just didn't seem like the right time.
Andromeda seemed scared, which no one blamed her for.
The daughter of Poseidon capped her sword, putting the pen back in her pocket. "Let's keep going." She said, turning to Grover. "Can you walk?"
He swallowed. "Yeah, sure. I never liked those shoes, anyway."
Grover tried to sound brave about it, but he was trembling as badly as the rest of the group. Whatever was in that pit was nobody's pet. It was unspeakably old and powerful. Was Jakob right? Was that really Kronos? The truth seemed to terrify Andromeda. She almost wished it were false. Then she slapped her face lightly, telling herself to keep going forward. She sighed in relief with her back towards the pit now.
Desperate to leave the pit behind, they headed towards the palace of Hades.
The Furies circled the parapets, high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open.
Up close, the group could tell that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times - an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls - but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. Like some deranged prophecies that had come true.
Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden they'd ever seen. Multicoloured mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as a fist, clumps of raw diamonds. Standing here and there like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues — petrified children, satyrs, and centaurs — all sporting some twisted expression between a smile and a scream.
"Well, at least the Underworld is into art, at least," Mimir joked slightly to lift the heavy atmosphere. It didn't seem to work.
In the centre of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. "The garden of Persephone," Annabeth said. "Keep walking."
Jakob knew the story of Persephone. One bite of Underworld food, and they would never be able to leave. He had to pull Grover back to stop him from eating a particular juicy pomegranate.
They walked up the steps of the palace, between gleaming black marble columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above. They never had to worry about rain down here it seems.
Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armour, some British redcoat uniforms, some in camouflage uniforms with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered the questers, but their hollow eye sockets followed them as they walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.
Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at them, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.
"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."
"Or have that many visitors," Jakob added.
Andromeda's backpack weighed a ton now and she couldn't figure out why. She wanted to check what had somehow secretly jumped in there, but this wasn't the time.
Jakob, noticing this, asked, "You all right, Andie?"
Not wanting him, she nodded. "Yeah, fine."
Jakob probably would've said more, but, seeing Andromeda's mood, dropped the matter.
"Well, guys," said Andromeda. "I suppose we should...knock?"
"Knowing Gods of these realms, the doors will just-" Mimir stopped as the doors swung open slowly, like something out of a horror movie. "...open themselves."
"Stay behind me, and let me do the talking." Jakob told the others before he walked inside first, the others following behind him.
They were now in Hades' throne room, and the God of the Underworld himself sat upon his throne.
Hades as at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.
To Jakob, he was reminded a little of Hela, the Goddess of Death and ruler of Helheim.
Actually, Jakob was sure Hades looked a little familiar but he couldn't place where the familiarity came from.
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