TERRIFIED . . . annabeth chase

thirty nine.

THEY REAPPEARED NEAR the ship, effectively interrupting the picnic Jason and Piper were having. That was fine, honestly, Val didn't care. Her vision was blurry, and her legs were trembling, and she so needed coffee.

They gathered on deck so that Coach Hedge could hear the story of their adventures in Rome.

"So Annabeth was kidnapped on a motor scooter," Piper summed up, "by Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn."

"Not kidnapped, exactly," Percy said. "But I've got this bad feeling . . ." He took a deep breath. "Anyway, she's — she's gone. Maybe we shouldn't have let her, but—"

"You had to," Piper said. "You knew she had to go alone. Besides, Annabeth is tough and smart. She'll be fine."

Val sipped at her coffee. "Maybe you're right. Anyway, Gregory — I mean Tiberinus — said we had less time to rescue Nico than we thought. Hazel and the guys aren't back yet?"

Piper checked the time on the helm control and frowned. "It's two in the afternoon. We said three o'clock for a rendezvous."

"At the latest," Jason said.

Percy pointed at Piper's dagger. "Tiberinus said you could find Nico's location . . . you know, with that."

"I've tried," she said. She didn't seem like she'd tried. "The dagger doesn't always show what I want to see. In fact, it hardly ever does."

"Please," Val said, putting on her convincing face and voice again. "Try again."

"Fine," Piper sighed, and drew her dagger.

"While you're at it," said Coach Hedge, "see if you can get the latest baseball scores. Italians don't cover baseball worth beans."

"Shh." Piper studied the bronze blade. The light shimmered. Val saw a loft apartment filled with Roman demigods. A dozen of them stood around a dining table as Octavian talked and pointed to a big map. Reyna paced next to the windows, gazing down at Central Park.

"That's not good," Jason muttered. "They've already set up a forward base in Manhattan."

"And that map shows Long Island," Percy said.

"They're scouting the territory," Jason guessed. "Discussing invasion routes."

Light rippled across the blade. Val saw ruins — a few crumbling walls, a single column, a stone floor covered with moss and dead vines — all clustered on a grassy hillside dotted with pine trees.

"We were there earlier," Percy said. "That's in the old Forum."

Val frowned. "Were we?"

He shrugged. "You were probably busy talking to someone."

"Good point," she leaned in slightly so she could see what was going on.

The view zoomed in on the knife. On one side of the stone floor, a set of stairs had been excavated, leading down to a modern iron gate with a padlock. The blade's image zoomed straight through the doorway, down a spiral stairwell, and into a dark, cylindrical chamber like the inside of a grain silo.

Piper dropped the blade.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked. "It was showing us something."

Piper shook her head vigorously. "We can't go there."

Val felt bitter. Piper, the coward. Drew was so right about her sometimes. "Piper, Nico is dying. We've got to find him. Not to mention, Rome is about to get destroyed."

Piper picked up the knife again.

Val saw two giants in gladiator armor sitting on oversized praetors' chairs. The giants toasted each other with golden goblets as if they'd just won an important fight. Between them stood a large bronze jar.