Frank

After a few twists and turns, I felt completely lost. The stairs split in three different directions. As soon a Hazel chose a path, the stairs split again. They wound their way through interconnecting tunnels and rough-hewn burial chambers that all looked the same--the walls carved with dusty niches that might once have held bodies. The arches over the doors were painted with black cows, white poplar trees, and owls.

"I thought the owl was Minerva's/Athena's symbol?" Jason murmured.

"The screech owl is one of Hades's sacred animals," Nico said. "It's cry is a bad omen."

"This way." Hazel pointed to a doorway that looked the same as all the others. "It's the only one that won't collapse on us."

"Good choice, then," Leo said.

I felt like he was leaving the world of the living. My skin tingled, and I wondered if it was a side effect of the poison. The pouch with the firewood seemed heavier on my belt. In the eerie glow of their magic weapons, my friends looked like flickering ghosts, pale and fierce looking.

Cold air brushed against his face. I'm his mind, Ares and Mars had gone silent, but Frank thought he heard other voices whispering in the side corridors, beckoning him to veer off course, to come closer and listen to them speak.

Finally they reached an archway carved in the shape of human skulls--or maybe they were human skulls embedded in the rock. In the purple light of Diocletian's scepter, the hollow eye sockets seemed to blink.

I almost hit the ceiling when Hazel put a hand on my arm.

"This is the entrance to the second level," she said. "I'd better take a look."

I hadn't realized that he'd moved in front of the doorway.

"Uh. . .yeah. . ." I made way for her.

Hazel traced her fingers across the carved skulls. "No traps on the doorway, but something strange is here. My underground senses is--is fuzzy, like someone is working against me, hiding what's ahead of us."

"The sorceress that Hecate warned you about?" Jason guessed. "The one Leo saw in his dream? What was her name?"

Hazel chewed her lip. "It would be safer not to say her name. But stay alert. One thing I'm sure of: From this point on, the dead are stronger than the living. "

I wasn't sure how she knew that, but he believed her. The voices in the darkness seemed to whisper louder. I caught glimpses of movement in the shadows. From the way my friend's eyes darted around, I guessed they were seeing things too.

"Where are the monsters?" I wondered aloud. "I though Gaea had an army guarding the Doors."

"Don't know," Jason said, his pale skin looked as green as the poison from the chalice. "At this point I'd prefer a straight-up fight."

"Careful what you wish for, man." Leo summoned a ball of fire to his hand, and for once I was glad to see the flames. "Personally, I'm hoping nobody's home. We walk in, find Percy and Annabeth, destroy the Doors of Death, and walk out. Maybe stop at a gift shop."

"Yeah," I said. "That'll happen."

The tunnel shook. Rubble rained down from the ceiling. Hazel grabbed my hand. "That was close," she muttered. "These passageways won't take much more."

"The Doors of Death just opened again," Nico said.

"It's happening, like, every fifteen minutes," Piper noted.

"Every twelve," Nico corrected, though he didn't explain how he knew. "We'd better hurry. Percy and Annabeth are close. They're in danger I can sense it."

As we traveled deeper, the corridors widened. The ceiling rose to six meters high, decorated with elaborate paintings of owls in the branches of white poplars. The extra space should have made Frank feel better, but all he could think about was the tactical situation. The tunnels were big enough to accommodate large monsters, even giants. There were blind corners everywhere, perfect for ambushes. Their group could be flanked or surrounded easily. They would have no good options for retreat.

All of my instincts told him to get out of these tunnels. If no monsters were visible, that just, ent they were hiding, waiting to spring a trap. Even though i knew that, there wasn't much I could do about it. They had to find the Doors of Death.

Leo held his fire close to the walls. I saw Ancient Greek graffiti scratched into the stone. I couldn't read Ancient Greek, but I guessed they were prayers or supplications to the dead, written by pilgrims thousands of years ago. The tunnel floor was littered with ceramic shards and silver coins.

"Offerings?" Piper guessed.

"Yes," Nico said. "If you wanted your ancestors to appear you had to make an offering."

"Let's not make an offering," Jason suggested.

Nobody argued.

"The tunnel from here is unstable," Hazel warned. "The floor might. . .well, just follow me. Step exactly where I step."

She made her way forward. Frank walked right behind her--not because he felt particularly brave, but because he wanted to be close to if Hazel, needed his help.The voices of the war god were arguing again in his ears. He could sense danger--very close now.

Fai Zhang.

I stopped cold. That voice. . .it wasn't Ares or Mars. It seemed to come from right next to me, like someone whispering in my ear.

"Frank?" Jason whispered behind him. "Hazel hold up a second. Frank, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Frank murmured. "I just--"

Pylos, I await you in Pylos.

I felt like the poison was bubbling back up my throat. I'd been scared plenty of times before. I'd even faced the god of Death.

But this voice terrified me in a different way. It resonated right down to my bones, as if it knew everything about me--my curse, my history, my future.

My grandmother's superstitions were silly. Now I changed my mind. I had no doubt. . .the voice that spoke to me was one of my ancestors.

"Frank, don't move." Hazel sounded alarmed.

I looked down and I'd been about to step out of line.

To survive you must lead, the voice said. At the break, you must take charge.

"Lead where?" I asked aloud.

Then the voice was gone. I could feel its absence, as if the humidity had suddenly dropped.

"Uh, big guy?" Leo asked. "Could you not freak out on us? Please and thank you."

My friends were all looking at me with concern.

"I'm okay," I managed to say, "Just. . .a voice."

Nico nodded. "I did warn you. It'll only get worse. We should--"

Hazel held up her hand for silence. "Wait here, everybody."

I didn't like it, but she forged ahead alone. I counted twenty-three before she came back, her face drawn and pensive.

"Scary room ahead, don't panic.

"Those two things never go together," Leo murmured. They followed Hazel into the scary room.

The place was like a circular cathedral, with a ceiling so high it was lost in the gloom. Dozens of other tunnels led off in different directions, each echoing with ghostly voices. The thing that made me nervous was the floor. It was a gruesome mosaic of bones and gems-human bones to be exact, like human femurs, hip bones and ribs twisted and fused together into a smooth surface, dotted with diamonds and rubies. The bones formed patterns, like skeletal contortionists tumbling together, curling to protect the jewels-a dance of death and riches.

"Touch nothing," Hazel said.

"Wasn't planning on it," Leo muttered.

Jason scanned the exits. "Which way now?"

For once, Nico looked uncertain. "This should be the room where the priests invoked the most powerful spirits. One of these passages leads deeper into the temple, to the third level and the altar of Hades himself. But which--?"

"That one.' I pointed at the doorway at the opposite end of the room, a ghostly Roman legionnaire beckoned to them, or rather me. I got the feeling it was looking directly at me.

Hazel frowned. "Why there?"

"You don't see the ghost?"

"Ghost? What ghost?" Nico asked.

Okay. . .something was definitely wrong since i can see a ghost that the Underworld children couldn't see. i felt like the ground was vibrating underneath me, then I realized it was vibrating.

"We need to get to that exit now!"

"But Frank! This floor is unstable, and underneath. . .well, I'm not sure what's underneath. I need to scout a safe path."

"No time! Just go, go!" I herded Hazel and drew his bow. Leo scrambled to light their path while the others drew their weapons ready for a fight.

I heard the throaty below of the Earthborns, the screech of gryphons, the guttural war cries of Cyclopes-all sounds he remembered from the Battle of New Rome, amplified underground, echoing in his head even louder than the war god's voices.

"Hazel, don't stop!" shouted Nico, drawing the scepter of Diocletian from his belt.

A vanguard of six-armed Earthborn threw a volley of stones shattering the bone-and-jewel-floor like ice. A fissure spread across the room heading toward Leo and Hazel.

No time for caution. I tackled Leo and Hazel, and the three of them skidded across the cavern, landing at the edge of the ghost's tunnel as rocks and spears flew overhead. "Go!" I yelled. "Go, go!"

Hazel and Leo scrambled into the tunnel. Two meters in, Leo turned. "The others!"

The entire cavern shuddered. I looked back and my courage crumbled to dust as I saw that dividing them from the others was 15-meter-wide chasm.

Jason, Piper and Nico were surrounded by Cyclopes and hellhounds. They would never make it into the other side, even if Jason flew them, they would get shot down.

I remembered the voice of his ancestors. At the break, you must take charge.

"We have to help them." Hazel said.

My mind raced, doing battle calculations.

"Nico! The scepter."

Nico raised Diocletia's scepter, and the cavern shimmered purple. Ghosts climbed from the walls-an entire Roman legion in full battle gear. They began taking physical form, like corpses, but they seemed confused. Jason yelled in Latin but the undead just shuffled among the monsters, causing momentary confusion.

Frank turned to Hazel and Leo. "You two keep going."

"What? No!" Hazel said eyes widening.

"You have to. Go find the Doors and save Percy and Annabeth."

"But-" Leo glanced over Frank's shoulder. "Hit the deck!"

I dove for cover. as a volley of rocks slammed overhead. When I got up, coughing and covered in dust, the entrance to the tunnel was gone. An entire section of the wall had collapsed, leaving a slope of smoking rubble.

"Hazel. . ." My voice broke. I had to hope she and Leo were alive on the the other side. I couldn't afford to think otherwise.

Anger swelled in my chest. I turned and charged toward the incoming flow of monsters.