Hi guys. Here's the next chapter. I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to post for a while. I will be away for the Easter holidays, no computer no internet so I won't get to write anything this week. I'll get on Chapter 8 as soon as I get back though.
Several reviewers have asked why Percy got wet during his swim into the mountain. It's the same reason why he didn't control the currents or breathed underwater and why he even passed out at sea. When he lost his memory he lost consciousness of who he is, he hasn't yet realized he is a half-blood and much less that he is a son of Poseidon/Neptune. I imagine that, before realizing this when he was 12, Percy managed to swim in the pool or take a shower and actually get wet even if he didn't want to. It's only when half-bloods realize who they are and are faced with extreme situations that their powers manifest themselves. Percy has yet to remaster the ability to stay dry underwater. He will, soon.
Detail: there is a Lewis Carroll quote in this chapter. Just saying, you know, for plagiarism issues and to see if anyone here knows it.
Anyway, chapter 7. Hope you like it.
Chapter 7 – The heart of the mountain
Liam's tunnel rose steeply as he walked, rising to the very centre of the mountain. There were torches lining the side of the walls, burning with a bright orange fire, just like the ones that had been at the lake's shore, and they guided him forward like sentries posted along a road to show travelers which is the way.
He wondered how he had gotten himself into such a situation when only two days before he'd simply been an unusual kid from London, spending some time in the United States while his family figured out what to do with him and lived down the embarrassment he'd caused them. He chuckled at the thought of what they would think if they could see him now.
His family was rich, and not just rich, they were noble rich. His grandfather, Lord Cavendish, was the Duke of Devonshire and, as he constantly liked to remind those around him, one of the most influential men in Europe. His nephews and cousins were gravely disappointed when he had his first and only child, a beautiful daughter he named Victoria, who was born when he was past his sixtieth birthday and became the sole heiress to the title and the Cavendish fortune whilst displacing many other relatives that had been waiting for the old man to die without any children. Unfortunately, and to her relative's delight, Victoria developed a very sour relationship with her father, out of a mysterious and excessive lifestyle which his father did not approve. And then, she had taken her relationship with her father to a breaking point when she had unexpectedly given birth to him, Liam, a son whose father she was unwilling to reveal.
To this day she had not told anyone, not even Liam himself, who the father was, and there had been much speculation about it. Victoria's cousins and uncles had seen him with contempt, a source of embarrassment and someone to be hid from the public eye. They insisted that his grandfather renounced him and disowned his mother for having embarrassed the family. When they had actually had come face to face with Liam, he'd received a mixture of indifference and outright jealousy, leading to his estrangement from almost everyone in his family.
His mother had grown apart from them because of this and she had raised him in London by herself, while she worked as a barrister at a small firm that barely managed to get by. Despite his pompous manner and ideas of grandeur, Lord Cavendish was a good man and he had ignored the advice of his nephews and brothers, recognizing Liam as his direct descendant, welcoming him as a grandson and treating him with kindness. However, he had also wanted his heir to grow up to be a worthy representative of the Cavendish family and to be able to lead it to better times when he died, as he did not trust Victoria to do it herself. He had therefore insisted on providing his education, including sending him to expensive boarding schools such as Harrow and Eton as well as whatever summer "courses" he chose. His mother had resisted at first, but had accepted finally, acknowledging that it would give Liam, a 'troublesome' kid, a chance at a better future.
And that had not gone down well for Liam. If he were at public school where he could go unnoticed, he would've been just fine. But in Eton, everyone knew who he was and what his circumstances were. His cousins also attended the school and they tormented him in every way they could. Bullies, teasers, everyone seemed to be out to get him for his parentage and he got into innumerable fights each semester, almost getting expelled every year before his grandfather stepped in and talked to the school into letting him stay for another term.
The previous winter, things had come to a boil. He had gotten into another fight with a couple of guys called Lester Hodgins and Timothy Kent, idiots if he had ever seen any. Liam had gotten off worse from the fight, seeing as how it had been two on one, and so, he had decided to get back at them. The prank he pulled consisted in breaking down the stands where they and their families (including another Duke and a Marquee) were watching a polo match, making their whole row slide into the horse stables next to the court and into a huge pile of horse crap he had responsibly gathered and strategically placed. There was nothing his grandfather could do when he was caught, and Eton had expelled his sorry butt in the middle of a press scandal that would probably shame the Cavendish family for years and force his grandfather into extensive apologies to his distant cousins.
And so, his grandfather had sent him to a summer "course" in San Francisco, while he tried to fix the mess he'd caused. There, he was supposed to stay out of sight and learn how to behave but instead, he had befriended Jamie and Percy, with whom he spent the best two months of his life in a city where no one knew or cared who he was. From there, he had somehow managed to follow his new friends from the school, to the beach, to a forest and into a mountain where he was climbing through a tunnel that would somehow test his courage and his loyalty. He wondered what his grandfather would think of that. Maybe he'd be proud.
While he walked, Liam had noticed the tunnel getting smaller, the walls angling in so that he could touch either wall without having to stretch his arms. It made him nervous, he didn't really like closed spaces and much less being underground, he liked the open air and fields outside. A few minutes later, the tunnel really started to cramp down. The ceiling got lower and the walls started to close in so that he had to crouch to avoid hitting his head. He reached a spot where the torches ended and the corridor continued in utter blackness. The very last torch was shining brightly and seemed to point the way so he unhinged it and carried it in his right hand.
The going got harder. The ceiling got so low he was forced to continue on his knees and, just a bit further on, he was forced to crawl. The floor stopped being a smooth line and became a rocky outline, as if it had been dug by a drill and then left unfinished, instead of paved by human beings. As the tunnel stretched further and further, the air got thinner and heavier and he started to have trouble breathing. The tunnel was now only two feet wide and two feet tall, and extremely rough. As he travelled tore his jeans and his shirt and made small cuts all over his body.
He stopped for a second and wondered if he had somehow taken a wrong turn and chosen a tunnel that wasn't yet built. He was lying face down in the dirt and he felt the ground so close he could lift his head more than an inch without hitting his head. He looked back and saw that he had travelled quite a long way. It was impossible for him to miss any opening, it would've showed immediately. This was the only path and, seeing as how it had been the one to open for him, this was the way he was supposed to go.
The torch became much more of a hindrance so he got rid of it, leaving it lying on the ground behind him. With his hand free he could crawl more comfortably but he was forced to make his way in utter darkness, feeling the tunnel getting ever smaller than before.
He continued forward and wondered how far he had traveled and how long he had been there. It was so dark he didn't even know if his eyes were open or closed anymore, much less how far he was travelling, but he just kept crawling forward, telling himself it would be over soon. Liam followed a curve and, just beyond it, he saw the tunnel opening into a blinding light some fifty feet away. "Victory" he muttered to himself.
But of course, it could never be that easy. The second he cried out in triumph, the earth started to shake violently and the ground began to rumble beneath him. "An earthquake" mumbled Liam. He knew San Francisco was along a large fault line and that earthquakes were not uncommon but, of all times, there had to be an one now, when he was deep underground and crawling in a tunnel he was almost too large to fit through. The ground shook with incredible force and let out a roar that made it seemed like the very earth was raging below him. His teeth trembled and the vibrations became so powerful he hit his head against the roof of the tunnel and he was thrown against the side walls. Rocks and dirt started to fall around him in large piles and, in the distance, he could see them starting to cover the exit through which he had hoped to escape.
Terror seized him. The tunnel was collapsing and it was going to crush him if he didn't get out of there very soon. He looked behind him and saw that the tunnel was stable further back, there were no rocks and stones falling. He could reach it easily. Ahead of him, the exit seemed to be miles away, the chances of him reaching it before it collapsed were next to nothing. He started to panic, he didn't know what to do, there was no time. If he pushed forward, he might be able to get to the opening before it closed off completely but if he failed, he would die crushed by falling rocks or he would suffocate. Worst of all he could end up trapped inside the tunnel with no way of getting out and he would die there alone. He could easily save himself, all he had to do was to go back a few yards and he'd be out of there, but he would never reach Castra Roma. He would have failed. He would have failed his friends and his grandfather and himself.
"I should have chosen the door on the left" he muttered furiously.
He went forward. Madly, insanely in a semi-suicidal attempt but at least he had to try. One arm went in front of the other with fury, and he crawled as fast as he could, like a cobra slithering for its life. His jeans got completely torn on the side, his shirt got snagged on a rock and he ripped it completely, he got a deep cut on his arm, and another on his leg, his shoulders got a nasty scrape as he forced his way through a narrow pass, his back hurt like murder as rocks and sand and dirt fell on it again and again. He kept on going, ignoring the pain he was causing himself. He started to get close. A large rock, a part of the roof in fact, fell and hit him in the face, making his left eyebrow bleed, but he went around it and kept going. He was so close he could almost feel the air beyond the opening.
Rocks were getting higher and higher near the exit and just as he was about to reach it, a large section of the roof crumbled, leaving a rock blocking his way and leaving only a sliver of light and air. "No! Damn you!" he yelled. He got desperate. Everything was collapsing around him. He looked behind and saw that the way back was already blocked. He had to get out of there before the tunnel completely collapsed, he could tell he had no more than twenty seconds before the roof crashed completely on top of him. He sank his feet into the ground as hard as he could, pressed his shoulders against the rock and pushed with everything he had, like there was nothing else in the world but him and that rock. He concentrated, closing his eyes, willing it to budge and making every muscle scream and every fiber in his being push.
"MOVE, you worthless piece of earth" he roared. "I will not die here. MOVE!"
His heart rushed, his head hurt and his arms were numb from the effort but even so, with a tremendous tug in his stomach, he gave an almighty shove and the rock gave way. He fell out of the opening into another room, landing hard on white marble floor. Behind him, there was a great rumble and the tunnel collapsed completely, causing some rocks and dust to fall into the room Liam had entered.
Liam lay on the ground for a while, panting, exhausted. "Ha haaaa!" he shouted with absolute triumph, "yeaaah! In your face, mountain!" He laughed for a few seconds on the floor, with absolute sunny happiness at being alive.
"Well done, hero" a voice said behind him.
Liam quickly got up and saw who was speaking. He had fallen into a circular room, made completely of marble with no windows but well lit with the same, bright orange, torches. The person who had spoken was a beautiful woman. She had brown hair, stern eyes and delicate features and she stood at the other end of the room between two wooden doors.
"Who are you?" asked Liam. She didn't seem armed or violent but he was too tired to pose much of challenge in a fight, especially if she was as good as the Castra Roma girls had been.
"I am Roma" she said. "I am the goddess of the city of Rome and the Roman state as a whole. I am the patron, I guess you could say, of Castra Roma and my power contributes to guarding its borders. I am one of the judges that shall determine your entry into camp".
"OK" said Liam slowly. "You are a goddess. I've seen weirder things this week. What do you want?"
"You have proven your courage, young hero" she answered. "Most would have turned back inside that tunnel, the possibility of reaching your goal was minimal, if you had hesitated even for a second longer than you did, you would have died. Now, I have come to test your loyalty".
"All right" said Liam feeling rather pleased with himself. "What kind of test is it going to be?"
"A choice" she answered simply. "I offer you a choice between the two doors behind me. The decision you make will tell me where your loyalties lie and how you build your priorities".
"Ok" answered Liam. "Soo.. what's behind door N° 1?" he said in his best TV host voice. "A brand new car?"
Roma's face was so serious Liam felt ashamed.
"The door on my left will lead you to Percy and Jamie. You have known these teenagers for two months now, befriended them and spent time with each of them. But now, Percy claims never to have seen you before and, in time, I believe you will find there is much more to his amnesia than you think. Jamie, on the other hand, favors Percy over yourself, something which I think you already know. However, they are good and worthy heroes and they are destined to embark in a dangerous quest that will affect us all. If you choose the door on the left your destiny will become intertwined with theirs and you will be there to help them. You might even shift the balance in their favor, I do not know".
"Easy choice, it seems" interrupted Liam. "What's behind door N° 2?"
"Your mother" answered Roma. "When news of your disappearance reached London, she became frantic and it caused a great scandal in your family. The mortal authorities believe you are dead and are currently searching for your body in the sea and along the coast where you fell. However, most experts have told your family that they believe the currents would have carried you out to sea and that you will never be found. It has been two days. Your grandfather and your mother have become bitter and are now fighting over blame and responsibility. I believe it will not be long before your mother is disowned and the title appointed to one of your uncles, depriving her, and you, from your inheritance. If you choose the door on the right you will go to her and the rift in your family may yet be resolved".
"So I have to choose" asked Liam, dumbfounded "between my friends and my family?"
"Yes and no" said Roma. "You will not lose either of them permanently or totally. If you choose to join your friends you will contact your mother eventually and she will know you live and your grandfather as well. If you choose your mother you will not lose your friendship with Percy and Jamie. What is at stake is the opportunity. Choose your mother and you will be left out of Castra Roma and you will lose the chance to be with your friends when they face their destiny. Choose your friends and you will not lose your family but you will fail to return in time to stop a dreadful and perhaps permanent division in your family. Where do your loyalties lie, Liam? Choose wisely".
Liam stared at the woman. He had completely forgotten about what his family might think of his disappearance. After all, the last anyone had seen of him was when he jumped over a cliff with two other kids. She must be going insane with worry and she was blaming his grandfather for sending him there. He could solve this if he went back now and he did feel the need to protect his family. And his inheritance, he wouldn't be surprised if his mother was disinherited if he didn't go back soon. And his grandfather never went back on a decision, his late arrival wouldn't change that.
But then there was Percy and Jamie. What would become of them? Would they need him? He could shift the balance in their favor, Roma had said, but they seemed to get along fine by themselves, they were even quite powerful by themselves. Maybe he was just a fifth wheel to them.
He looked at the doors and thought hard. It wasn't just about who he was loyal to, his loyalty was to both of them and they were coming into conflict. On one hand, his mom, who had sacrificed everything for him and, on the other, his friends that might need him in the future. He hesitated, he had never expected loyalties to come into conflict.
Roma just looked at him intently as if she could follow his thoughts, waiting for him to choose. Then, Liam realized something, Roma was playing with him, there was no conflict, not really.
"I choose the door on your left" he said finally. "Take me to my friends".
"Why?" asked Roma. "Why do you choose your friends over your family?"
Liam smiled. "That is a trick question" he answered. "I thought you were making me choose between them, to choose one loyalty over the other, but that's not right. The choice is not really between my mother and my friends but between my friends and my title. When my mother finds out I'm alive she'll be happy and relieved and my grandfather as well. If we try, we can always rebuild our relationship, even if it costs me my title. The things at stake by choosing my friends are only material: nobility, money, power, things that are not that important, not if you face them against friendship, companionship and loyalty. By choosing my title I would lose those things, permanently, even if I get to see Percy and Jamie every once in a while. I choose the door on the left".
Roma smiled. "Well done, my young hero. Go on and welcome to Castra Roma".
Jamie felt scared as she walked down her tunnel, heading deeper into the mountain. The torches lining the walls burned with an eerie purple light that made her nervous but not nearly as much as the absolute silence that reigned in the corridor and the knowledge that no one could come and help her if something went wrong.
She kept on walking for what seemed like hours, going further into an endless tunnel. Jamie thought she might as well stop and rest for a second, when suddenly all of the torches turned off and she was immersed in darkness so absolute she thought she might have gone blind. She couldn't see anything, not her own hands in front of her face or her body beneath her. And that wasn't the only problem, along with her sight she seemed to have lost all of her other senses too. There was nothing to be heard, no wind, no movement, no rocks falling to the ground or insects crawling up the walls. Nothing to be heard, except her thoughts. And even her sense of smell had deserted her, even the damp decaying stench of the tunnel had disappeared into nothingness, as if it had never been there.
Jamie felt trapped, like in a small room with no windows slowly shrinking around her. The darkness was so complete it seemed to envelop her, to make everything disappear so that she didn't even know if she was in the mountain, she could be anywhere, she could be nowhere at all. The only thing real to her anymore, beside herself, was the ground under her feet. Desperate for something else to touch, she reached to the side hoping to grasp the wall of the tunnel and feel something real, something to hold on to and guide her.
It wasn't there. She walked a bit further, maybe she'd miscalculated and the wall was just a few more steps forward. Nothing. A knot formed in her stomach and her throat clenched. She walked in the opposite direction, hoping to find the other wall of the tunnel. After walking for a minute with her hands outstretched in front of her, and even running a bit in desperation, she didn't find anything. It was as if the tunnel had disappeared and she had been left standing in the middle of a huge vacuum with no walls, standing in absolute darkness.
Jamie just stood there, paralyzed. She walked one way, and then the other, trying to find any landmark, any place to say, here I am, but she just stretched her hands in the darkness and found nothing. After a while, she lost all sense of time and direction. She had no idea how long she'd been in the darkness or where she was going, she could be going back for all she knew or heading somewhere inside the mountain she didn't want to be. She stopped walking and sat on the floor, and started to cry softly. This was not what she had expected from a test of courage, she had thought there would be an actual challenge, a jump or fight or decision she could just take with her eyes closed and with determination and thereby pass the test. But this endless wandering in the dark had no point, no solution and she felt like she was going insane, having only her thoughts to keep her company.
She kept on going, for minutes, maybe hours. As she walked, a feeling of dread kept growing inside her, convincing her that she would never get out of the invisible maze that was that place and leaving her utterly hopeless. It wasn't just the darkness, it was the certainty that she was completely alone, the fact that she was unable to sense anything, not sounds or smells or to feel something other than the earth below her, and what was worse, the conviction that kept getting stronger with every step, that there was nothing she could do, that she was absolutely powerless to do anything, that she'd be stuck there forever. Jamie felt like lying down and crying and simply giving up.
"Do not despair, child" spoke a voice in the darkness. Jamie turned around violently but the complete darkness prevented her from recognizing anyone and she could not tell where the voice had come from, it seemed to be all around her.
"Who is it?" she spoke into the darkness. "Who are you?
"You will come to know me very well, in time" the voice answered. "Right now, know I am here to help you pass this test. It is important that you do. The way out of the darkness is before you, you just need to realize it, like you realized the entrance into the mountain".
"I don't know!" yelled Jamie. "There is nothing here! If you really want to help me, tell me, do you know which way I ought to go?"
"Well" the voice said slowly and meaningfully "that depends a good deal on where you want to get to".
"I don't care where!" yelled Jamie, in frustration.
"Then it doesn't really matter which way you go…" started the voice.
"So long as I get somewhere…" finished Jamie. "So it doesn't actually matter if I'm lost, as long as I'm moving?" she asked "That's the answer? Come on, give me a break".
There was no answer. Jamie screamed her throat sore into the blackness that surrounded her but the mysterious voice seemed to have said its piece and vanished into the nothingness the room was made of. What had it wanted to tell her? The advice had made no sense, it had told her nothing on how to pass the stupid test, it had only told her to keep walking, something she could've done on her own. The test, she thought. Why was the test doing this to her? If she was supposed to be proving her courage, the room should test her with a monster or jumping off a cliff, or having to save someone in danger, risking her own life.
Then what was the room testing her for? If it was testing for courage, then it wasn't the old fashioned movie style bravery where you jump out and save the innocents from the evil men. Sure, thought Jamie, one could be courageous by doing dangerous things, jumping out of trains, chasing around people with a gun. But maybe what she was being tested for, maybe true courage wasn't just in the grand heroic actions. One could see different forms of courage every day, and in purer, simpler forms. Like the kid that stands up to the bully again and again even though he knows he's gonna get beaten up, or the mother that decides to raise a child alone even though she knows how hard it's going to be and the sacrifices she would have to make, when she could simply give the kid up. They did not have to fight or jump or risk their lives to be brave, but still that was exactly what they were.
In the middle of the dark, Jamie smiled. The test was not for grandstanding or battle, it was testing for one of the very core aspects of courage, one that was neglected and never taught and rarely made it into an action movie. Perseverance. To continue doing something you know is right without regard to failure, criticism and the sacrifice it can imply. The room was testing her resolve, her determination to keep going even when the darkness made her feel like she didn't exist. She would only fail this test if she gave up.
So she started to walk again. It didn't matter which way she was going, or how long it would take, she just had to keep going on and on into the darkness. She got tired, her legs and arms started to ache and even her neck started to get tense, yelling for her to stop, to rest, to give up and go back home. She didn't care. She'd realized she would never leave this room if she would give up, just like she would never accomplish anything in life if she let herself be defeated the second she encountered trouble or faced a problem she couldn't understand. There was no telling who that voice had belonged to, but she was thankful it had come when it did, it had made her see.
At long last, after hours of traveling, when Jamie's legs were feeling numb and she felt like she'd walked for miles, her foot crashed into something. There was a slope ahead of her. Nothing else had changed but Jamie felt like jumping into the air and shouting. In the absolute darkness anything new was worth celebrating. So she started to go up, motivated by her triumph. But again, it felt like she was climbing the whole mountain to the very top, the slope went on and on never endingly and she actually had to crouch on her knees and keep going, for the steepness of it and the exhaustion she was feeling.
And then the floor leveled and she tripped over a rock, falling face first into the ground. As she stood up she raised her hand and touched something, a wall. She reached to the other side and found another wall. She had tripped into a corridor. She groped around for a few seconds and she found a door. The second she put her hand on it, there was a small flash and a thousand torches were lit, all around the corridor and behind her. She went back to the edge of the slope and saw the place where she had been.
It was a huge amphitheatre, shaped like a circle several miles wide in diameter, surrounded by a huge slope, at the top of which she now stood. Jamie had no idea where she had entered the room from, because there was no entrance but she could see her footsteps all over the place and all around the circle. She had been travelling lost for hours in every direction possible and had probably walked several miles. She had been lucky too, the slope could lead you to a dead end and force you to go around the perimeter of the circle. She had found the exit just after reaching the top.
She turned around and, as she walked to the door and opened it, she thought she heard a voice whisper, "well done, child" behind her. When she turned, there was no one there. Jamie opened the door.
Hey everyone. I'm afraid I won't get to finish this chapter before the holidays. Work is kind of insane and tomorrow night I'm taking the trip I mentioned before. I'll finish this after Easter and start chapter 8 in Castra Roma, if they pass the remaining tests. Who knows.
Anyway, Happy Easter.
WPR