BLOOD OF OLYMPUS

xlii
Piper
PIPER’S DAD USED TO SAY that being in the airport didn’t count as visiting a city. Piper felt the same
way about sewers.
From the port to the Acropolis, she didn’t see anything of Athens except dark, putrid tunnels. The
snake men led them through an iron storm grate at the docks, straight into their underground lair,
which smelled of rotting fish, mould and snakeskin.
The atmosphere made it hard to sing about summertime and cotton and easy living, but Piper kept it
up. If she stopped for longer than a minute or two, Kekrops and his guards started hissing and looking
angry.
‘I don’t like this place,’ Annabeth murmured. ‘Reminds me of when I was underneath Rome.’
Kekrops hissed with laughter. ‘Our domain is much older. Much, much older.’
Annabeth slipped her hand into Percy’s, which made Piper feel downhearted. She wished Jason
were with her. Heck, she’d even settle for Leo … though maybe she wouldn’t have held his hand.
Leo’s hands tended to burst into flames when he was nervous.
Piper’s voice echoed through the tunnels. As they travelled further into the lair, more snake people
gathered to hear her. Soon they had a procession following behind them – dozens of gemini all
swaying and slithering.
Piper had lived up to her granddad’s prediction. She had learned the song of the snakes – which
turned out to be a George Gershwin number from 1935. So far she had even kept the snake king from
biting, just like in the old Cherokee story. The only problem with that legend: the warrior who
learned the snake song had to sacrifice his wife for the power. Piper didn’t want to sacrifice anyone.
The vial of physician’s cure was still wrapped in its chamois cloth, tucked in her belt pouch. She
hadn’t had time to consult with Jason and Leo before she left. She just had to hope they would all be
reunited on the hilltop before anyone needed the cure. If one of them died and she couldn’t reach them
…
Just keep singing, she told herself.
They passed through crude stone chambers littered with bones. They climbed slopes so steep and
slippery it was nearly impossible to keep their footing. At one point, they passed a warm cave the
size of a gymnasium filled with snake eggs, their tops covered with a layer of silver filaments like
slimy Christmas tinsel.
More and more snake people joined their procession. Slithering behind her, they sounded like an
army of football players shuffling with sandpaper on their cleats.
Piper wondered how many gemini lived down here. Hundreds, maybe thousands.