Annabeth's POV
Nico stared at me in surprise. "You're what?" he exclaimed, probably waking half the camp up.
Ok, I need to hurry up before they all come and stop us. I crossed my arms. "I said, genius, that I'm going with you. I am going to get Percy back."
He shook his head stubbornly, making me even more annoyed. "No way am I letting you go down there. It's the Underworld we're talking about. That would be way too dangerous for you. You're not going."
I shot him my best death glare. "For your information, I've been down there. Obviously, I survived. And I was a lot younger than I am now. So, no, it's not too dangerous," I argued.
He opened his mouth, no doubt to give more reasons that I couldn't go. I fixed that problem quickly by clamping my hand over his mouth. Looking him right in the eye, I said, "Nico, you're not going to stop me. Because I'm going to the Underworld, regardless of whether or not you let me go with you. So what will it be? Take me with you, or let me go off into the Underworld on my own?" I removed my hand from his mouth so that he could speak.
He didn't say anything for a while, but I saw lights from the cabins and the Big House come on and I turned towards him. "And you're running out of time to decide. People will be here soon and they won't let either of us go. They'll tell your dad to stop us," I added. "Do you really want that?"
He looked at me with fury in his eyes, but then it died down to just annoyance. "Fine. I'll let you come," he growled. "But this doesn't mean that I like it."
"Thank you," I said, and looked over his shoulder at the lights bobbing as they got nearer. They were still a ways off, but they were getting closer. "So, before we get caught and yelled at, we should get going. So, where do we start?"
In response, Nico whistled softly. A few seconds later, a mass of black fur easily the size of a tank came shambling up to us.
I smiled. "Hey, Mrs. O' Leary," I said. I scratched her behind the ears. Usually, this would make her tail thump against the ground so hard that you'd think there was an earthquake. But not tonight. Tonight, she seemed sad. She sniffed around the grave and whimpered, and I knew exactly who she was thinking about. "I know, girl. I know. Your master is gone. But we're getting him back. We'll need your help though. Can you help us?"
I don't really know how much she understood, but she seemed to perk up a little. Her tail wagged slightly, and I took that as a confirmation. "Good. Thank you," I said, smiling. "We'll find him, even if it means searching the whole Underworld, and Tartarus itself, too."
Nico snorted. "If he's in Tartarus, there's no getting him out. None of the gods would even go near Tartarus, and for good reason. It's like a black hole, a bottomless pit of evil. Get too close to it and you get sucked in. Nothing can escape Tartarus."
Kronos escaped from Tartarus," I pointed out.
Nico's expression turned dark. "That's only because of two reasons. For one, Tartarus, the spirit of the abyss from which it gets its name, was the husband of Gaea, who was the mother of Kronos, so he wanted Kronos to escape. The other reason is because dark, forbidden magic was used to bring pieces of him out."
"Oh," I said. "Wait, why are we even talking about this? We're wasting time, and they-" I gestured toward the nearing lights, "are getting closer, while we are getting farther from escaping."
"Well, you brought it up…" Nico said, rolling his eyes.
"Shut up," I replied. He opened his mouth to retort but I clamped my hand over his mouth again. "Is this getting us any nearer to Percy?" I asked. "No? I didn't think so. Come on, we have to go," I said, and took my hand off his mouth again.
Nico glared at me with some fire in his eyes. I stared him down, and he looked away, seemingly getting his anger under control. "Fine. Let's go," he said curtly, and whispered something in Mrs. O' Leary's ear. "Climb on."
I clambered up onto Mrs. O' Leary's back and held on to her collar. "LA?" I asked.
"No. Closer. Central Park, the Door of Orpheus," he replied.
"Oh. Okay," I said. "I guess that's easier than dealing with Charon, huh?" I smiled at the memory. Do I look like a centaur to you?
"No argument there," he said, seeming to brighten at least a little bit, and then put a hand on Mrs. O' Leary. "Go," he told her, and she bounded towards the shadow-filled trees and leaped, then suddenly we were moving at an insane speed through pitch black. I held on tightly to the collar in front of me, trying to not fall off. I didn't relax until we emerged from the shadows. I looked around; we were somewhere in Central Park. A little ways ahead of us, there were a cluster of big rocks.
Nico popped out beside us a second or two later. After years of shadow-travelling, it barely affected him anymore, so he didn't get tired or anything. He dusted himself off, then turned towards me.
"Alright. Now that we're here, we need to open the gate. And to open the gate, we are gonna need some music."
I was about to protest that my singing was the last thing that would count as music, but then a high, quiet voice spoke behind us. "Did somebody say that they needed music?" it said, and we turned as a little girl that looked a year or two younger than me walked up from out of the forest. She held something in her hand that was long and thin, but I couldn't tell what it was from where I was standing. She had dark hair and blue eyes set in a face that seemed both childlike and mature at the same time, like a god's sometimes looked. Her body was small and slim, but obviously fairly strong. Her skin was pale white, almost like paper. But the odd thing about her was that her body was shimmering silver and black. She was obviously either a god or a spirit. On Olympus, I had seen many different spirits, minor gods, and even the gods on the Olympian Council, but she was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I turned to Nico with a questioning look, but confusion and cluelessness was written all over his face. He had never seen anything like her before either. Well, no time like the present to learn. I turned to her and managed a smile.
"Do you mind if I ask who you are?" I said, and she laughed. It was a high, sweet sound that seemed to ring like a bell. "I don't mind at all. My name is Kairina-"she curtsied, "but please, call me Kairi."
"It's nice to meet you, Kairi," I said.
Nico nodded distractedly, but his mystified gaze remained fixed upon Kairi, as if staring at her would somehow unlock the knowledge of what exactly she was. Kairi noticed his look and she laughed again, the melodic sound ringing through the air. "You have no idea what I am, do you? Well, that doesn't surprise me. After all, my people usually try to remain unseen, unknown, and unheard-of."
At this Nico's look became surprised, obviously because there wasn't much on, above, nor under the earth that he didn't know about. A whole spirit race of some sort, evading his notice? That must be hard for him to take. Kairi grinned at his expression, and said, "In answer to your question, I am one of the Shadow Singers."
I didn't think it was possible for Nico's expression to become more confused, but somehow it did. "Shadow… Singers?" he responded slowly, sounding it out as if doing that would bring understanding.
Kairi nodded. "Shadow Singers. That's just one branch of the Shadow People."
It really was rather entertaining watching Nico's face. It was very animated, surprising for a son of Hades. "Shadow… People?" he said, though it sounded more of a question than a statement.
"Shadow People," Kairi confirmed. "Shadow People are spirits that for some reason didn't go to the Underworld. They got trapped in the realm of shadows, between life and death. Their experiences and skills while they were alive determine their skills, and therefore their class, when they become a shadow person. When I was alive, my best pleasures in life were playing my flute and singing. When I died, my love and my skill for music blossomed, and I became a Shadow Singer, the musical side to the Shadow People. There are countless other kinds, and it is all determined by what people did or loved while they were alive. Do you understand now?" she asked, directing the question at Nico.
He slowly nodded. "Yes… I think so," he said, though it was plain that he didn't.
Kairi giggled a little. "No, you don't. But I can tell you more later. You said you needed music?"
"Oh yeah," I said. "That's right. Um, we need to get into the Gate of Orpheus so that we can get our friend Percy back from the Underworld."
She raised an eyebrow, but said, "Alright, I can open the gate for you. One second," she said, and pulled the slender object -which I now saw was a silver flute- to her lips. She took a breath and began to play.
The music surprised me, because it was far from what I expected. I had heard some beautiful flute music on MountOlympus, but this… this was beyond compare. The song was simple, but somehow it conveyed a feeling of soothing calmness. The music somehow brought to mind the sound of slow-moving water, and the feel of moonlight upon my face in the dark. On the face of the cliff, a triangular section dissolved, leaving a downward-slanting corridor, but I remained transfixed upon the sweet beauty of her music. When she lowered the flute, I wished that she would keep playing; I hungered to hear more.
Nico gaped. "That-that was…" he trailed off, looking for the right way to describe that which could not be simply named music.
"Indescribably beautiful," I finished for him, and Kairi ducked and blushed at the praise.
"It was nothing," she said. "Just a little music," she said, then changed the subject by asking, "What are your names, by the way?"
"My name is Annabeth," I said. "That's Nico over there, with his mouth hanging open." When he heard that, he snapped his mouth shut and turned red, and Kairi and I giggled.
"It is nice to meet you both," she said. "Anyways, shall we?" she gestured toward the entrance.
Surprised, I asked, "You're coming with us?"
She nodded. "I'd be glad to, I always love an adventure. That is," she amended, "if you don't mind me coming along."
I smiled. "Of course you can come along. We'd love-"
Nico cut me off. "Uh guys, in about 60 seconds, that entrance is gonna close for the next 12 hours…. Maybe we should, like, run," he said, and he took off for the opening. Kairi and I followed right behind him.
We got inside just before the cliff face rematerialized. I dusted myself off and looked down the tunnel. "Well then," I said. "We've got some quality time in the Underworld."
Author's Note! (Well, technically publisher's note)
Hello, I'm Cristina, the new publisher/editor. Two things: No more waiting for so and so reviews before publishing. Next thing, you'd think I'd get paid to do this.. No, I'm just joking. :) Chapter four should be up in hopefully the next few days, feel free to leave comments/advice/suggestions/random stuff you think we should know about in a review.
a/n hey y'all its me ben/bdawg/blitz/warfear take your pick lol. anyway, Cristina forgot to say why ive not posted in, like, forever. well, i'm only 15.. i got my computer privs taken away... i wasnt able to type and give it to cristina to post. im typing this a/n on my normal kindle. as of now ive been typing 'bout 15+ min. anyways, i am not yet requiring reviews. that will change once chapter 7 is posted. i dont want to but it's kinda sad if nobody ever tells u what they think of something you worked hard on. well anyways i'm able to use the computer to type (duh TY captain obvious) but no email so u guys what happens is i got 2 flash drives. i write, save, give one to her when i see her. we continue switching. update 7/12/13: ch4's done, 5 im still typing. i'll prob get my flashdrive to cristina on sunday. hopefully 5 will be done.
ok if i keep rambling y'all are gonna hate me. R&R PLZ
Blitz out!