Piper took her friend’s hands. They were trembling badly. She remembered her first day at Camp Half-Blood, when Annabeth had given her a tour. Annabeth had been shaken up about Percy’s disappearance and, though Piper was pretty disoriented and scared herself, comforting Annabeth had made her feel needed, like she might actually have a place among these crazy-powerful demigods.
Annabeth Chase was the bravest person she knew. If even she needed a shoulder to cry on once in a while … well, Piper was glad to offer hers.
‘Hey,’ she said gently. ‘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,’ she said. ‘At my mom for sending me on that horrible quest in Rome. At … well, pretty much everybody. Gaia. The giants. The gods for being jerks.’
‘At me?’ Piper asked.
Annabeth managed a shaky laugh. ‘Yes, for being so annoyingly calm.’
‘It’s all a lie.’
‘And for being a good friend.’
‘Ha!’
‘And for having your head on straight about guys and relationships and –’
‘I’m sorry. Have you met me?’
Annabeth punched her arm, but there was no force to it. ‘I’m stupid, sitting here talking about my feelings when we have a quest to finish.’
‘The chained god’s heartbeat can wait.’ Piper tried for a smile, but her own fears welled up inside her – for Jason and her friends on the Argo II, for herself, if she wasn’t able to do what Aphrodite had advised. In the end, you will only have the power for one word. It must be the right word, or you will lose everything.
‘Whatever happens,’ she told Annabeth, ‘I’m your friend. Just … remember that, okay?’
Especially if I’m not around to remind you, Piper thought.
Annabeth started to say something. Suddenly a roaring sound came from the ruins. One of the stone-lined pits, which Piper had mistaken for wells, spewed out a three-storey geyser of flames and shut off just as quickly.
‘What the heck?’ Piper asked.
Annabeth sighed. ‘I don’t know, but I have a feeling it’s something we should check out.’
Three pits lay side by side like finger holes on a recorder. Each one was perfectly round, two feet in diameter, tiled around the rim with limestone; each one plunged straight into darkness. Every few seconds, seemingly at random, one of the three pits shot a column of fire into the sky. Each time, the colour and intensity of the flames were different.
‘They weren’t doing this before.’ Annabeth walked a wide arc around the pits. She still looked shaky and pale, but her mind was now obviously engaged in the problem at hand. ‘There doesn’t seem to be any pattern. The timing, the colour, the height of the fire … I don’t get it.’
‘Did we activate them somehow?’ Piper wondered. ‘Maybe that surge of fear you felt on the hill … Uh, I mean we both felt.’
Annabeth didn’t seem to hear her. ‘There must be some kind of mechanism … a pressure plate, a proximity alarm.’
Flames shot from the middle pit. Annabeth counted silently. The next time, a geyser erupted on the left. She frowned. ‘That’s not right. It’s inconsistent. It has to follow some kind of logic.’
Piper’s ears started to ring. Something about these pits …
Each time one ignited, a horrible thrill went through her – fear, panic, but also a strong desire to get closer to the flames.
‘It isn’t rational,’ she said. ‘It’s emotional.’
‘How can fire pits be emotional?’
Piper held her hand over the pit on the right. Instantly, flames leaped up. Piper barely had time to withdraw her fingers. Her nails steamed.
‘Piper!’ Annabeth ran over. ‘What were you thinking?’
‘I wasn’t. I was feeling. What we want is down there. These pits are the way in. I’ll have to jump.’
‘Are you crazy? Even if you don’t get stuck in the tube, you have no idea how deep it is.’
‘You’re right.’
‘You’ll be burned alive!’
‘Possibly.’ Piper unbuckled her sword and tossed it into the pit on the right. ‘I’ll let you know if it’s safe. Wait for my word.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Annabeth warned.
Piper jumped.
For a moment she was weightless in the dark, the sides of the hot stone pit burning her arms. Then the space opened up around her. Instinctively she tucked and rolled, absorbing most of the impact as she hit the stone floor.