Chapter Seventeen
Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riodan.
Kyra's POV
"What do you mean he died? He was just standing right there!" I say.
"Ky, I'm telling you, that was Beckendorf. There's no mistaking him." Nico says.
"Well then how in Hades did he get back up here? Shouldn't he be down in Elysium?" I ask.
"Yea, he should be." he says.
"So if that actually was Beckendorf, I want to know why he's working for the scumbag that brought us here." I say.
"Maybe he didn't have a choice. You were telling me about a girl who brought Mike and the clothes and stuff earlier. What did she look like?" he asks.
"She had long dark hair, blue eyes, she was a bit short. She looked to be about 18 or 19." I say, shrugging.
He closes his eyes and gives a small sigh. "Oh boy." he says.
"What?" I ask.
"I bet that was Silena." he says.
"Another person who's supposed to be dead?" I guess.
He nods. "Silena and Beckendorf were dating, and they both died 21 years ago." he says.
"But—" the vault door creaks open, interrupting me.
"You three. C'mon." the person calls.
Nico picks up Mike, with difficulty since his wrists were bound together, and we walk over to the door.
There was another man standing there, looked to be in his mid-thirties. Nico didn't seem shocked at all by this guy as he had been when he had seen Beckendorf, so I assume this guy was actually supposed to be alive.
"Where are you taking us?" I ask.
"Shut your pretty mouth, or I might have to do something to ya." the man says, smirking at me.
I see Nico's eyes harden and his grip on Mike tightens a little. I give him a warning look and then we follow the man out.
He leads us through a blindingly white hallway that never seemed to end. When we finally reach the end, the guy stops in front of a pair of large, wooden doors. He pushes on them and they swing open soundlessly.
He grunts and pushes Nico and I inside, then slams the doors shut. I hear a clicking sound and sigh, realizing that he had locked us in.
I look around the room and see it was a sort of dining pavilion. There were large marble tables set with dishes all around us. The floor looked like it was made of an iridescent glass and the ceiling was like a giant sunroof. I could see clear blue sky and trees; I didn't think I'd ever seen a more beautiful sight.
"Why do you think they brought us here?" I ask.
"Well, maybe they brought us here to feed us." Nico says, shaking Mike awake.
"I dunno. Did you see anything we could use as an exit on our way down that hallway?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "No. Not a window or anything. You?" he asks.
"Nope." I sigh, shoving some of the plates and eating utensils away and sitting down on one of the tables. As I sit down, I feel something in my back pocket.
"We need to think of something, because I'm sure someone's gonna come in here soon to check up on us." he says, pacing.
I get back up and try to reach into my pocket, but fail. "Nico." I say.
"I mean, there has to be something we can do. An exit around this place or—"
"Nico!" I shout.
"What?!" he asks, alarmed.
"Come here and try to get this out of my pocket." I say.
"What?" he asks.
I sigh and roll my eyes. "My aMuse. Somehow, I forgot that it travels everywhere with me." I say.
"Oh." he says, getting to his feet and coming over to me.
He reaches into my back pocket and takes out the golden device, and then hands it to me.
"Thanks." I say, unlocking it.
In a matter of seconds, it was transformed into the golden throwing star. I cut through the ropes around Nico's wrists and then Mike's. Then he cuts through mine.
He gives me back the aMuse, it having transformed back into the magical iPod. I slip it back into my pocket and then sit on the table once again. Then I see something glint out of the corner of my eye. I look and see a small rainbow.
"Nico." I breathe, my eyes widening.
"What now?" he sighs.
"Look." I whisper, pointing to the rainbow.
His eyes land on it and he looks back to me, a sly grin on his lips.
"We just need a drachma." he says.
We pat our pockets and come up with nothing.
"Well, there goes that possibility." he says, glumly, sitting down next to me on the table.
Mike was running around the pavilion, throwing his hands up and giggling. A ghost of a smile comes to my lips as I watch him play with the forks and spoons.
"What?" Nico asks, seeing my smile.
I shrug, still smiling. "I just find it amazing that even after this morning, being captured and all, he still finds something to laugh about and have fun with." I say.
"Mama!" he calls, sounding excited.
"What, Mike?" I ask, getting off the table and making my way over to him.
"Look what I found!" he says, holding his fist in the air.
I reach him and take his hand in mine. He uncurls his fingers to reveal a gleaming drachma.
"Can I take this, Mike?" I ask.
"No!" he says, curling his fingers over it again.
"Honey, daddy and I need this. I promise, I'll get you another one when we get home." I say.
"Really?" he asks, his forest green and dark chocolate brown eyes suspicious.
I nod. "But you gotta give this one to me." I say.
He looks down at the coin in the palm of his hand and then back up at me. He sets his jaw and then drops the coin into my hand.
"You promise though." he says, eyeing me.
"I promise." I say, nodding.
He seemed content with that and then goes back to playing with the eating-ware.
I rush back over to Nico, grinning like a mad-mad, and show him the coin.
"How do you think he got that?" Nico asks.
"I don't know and I don't care. We can figure that out later. The only thing that matters is that we have it and we can call someone." I say, walking over to the rainbow.
"Who should we call?" I ask.
Nico thinks for a second, looking up at the blue sky. "Mo?" he asks.
"I would, but now that I think about it, it might be better to contact someone at Camp. Whoever these people are that have us here might be monitoring the Iris messages somehow. If they are, they'd be able to see who we contacted in the mortal world. They wouldn't be able to if we contacted someone inside Camp because of the boarders. Better safe than sorry." I say, shrugging.
"James?" he asks.
I look at the coin. Our only hope of making it out of this place depended on who we called, and we only had one shot at it.
"James." I say.
I toss the coin into the rainbow and it disappears. "O Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Show me James di Angelo at Camp Half-Blood." I say.
The rainbow shimmers and an image of James firing an arrow pops up. It was just him at the archery range, so I assume that he's using some free time or he got there before the rest of his cabin.
"James!" I call.
He spins around, his leaf green eyes wide and startled.
"Mom? Where in the world are you?" he asks, peering closer.
"James, just listen to me. I don't have much time to explain." I say.
I quickly tell him what all had happened. As I talked, the look of dread on his face deepened.
"And now we need you to tell Chiron or contact Uncle Mo or someone. Please, James." I say.
"I—mom, how did this even happen? What does this guy want with you? Is Mike okay?" he asks.
"Yes, he's perfectly fine. I have no idea what this guy wants with us. That's why I need you to tell someone so they can try to find us while we try and see if we can break out of this place." I say.
"I—" he says, at a loss for words.
I felt sorry for him. Here I am, his mother, calling to him for help because Nico and I had been captured by some lunatic, and he had no idea what to do. He'd never really been put in a situation like this before.
Nico gently moves me out of the way and looks at the rainbow. I knew our time would be up soon unless we put in another drachma, which we didn't have.
"James, you listen to me. All you have to do is contact Mo or one of the others, tell them what's happened, and then they can come and find us. That's all." Nico says, his tone hard.
James meets Nico's eyes. His eyes harden and he sets his jaw and nods. "I'll do it." he says.
"Good boy. I'll see you soon, Jamie." Nico says, his voice softening.
"Bye dad." he says.
I skim my fingers though the rainbow and the image shimmers and disappears.
A/N:
Ahh, yes. Finally making some progress. Where do you think Michael got the drachma? Do you think he had it to begin with, or do you think someone gave it to him?
Well, today has been relatively calm. I went to class this morning and it was only me and my friend there, which was quite nice. Then I came home and ate lunch while watching the fourth Harry Potter movie. Every once and a while I just have this urge to watch all of the movies and I usually spend a whole week doing so.
In a few minutes I'm going to see Catching Fire, at last! I've heard so many people say how awesome it is, so I'm pretty excited ^.^
M/A:
"''Cause you are the one that started
To make me feel this way
And every night I'm thinking
About the words you'd say
Pictures going through my mind
When we're together
All these long and sleepless nights
Will I ever get better'"
The One I Want by Green Day.
XOXO,
Mrs-diAngelo25