"Come on." Nico led the way.

 

I wished I had Annabeth's invisibility hat, but as it turned out, 1 didn't need

it. Every time we came to a skeleton guard, Nico just pointed at it, and its

glowing eyes dimmed. Unfortunately, the more Nico did it, the more tired he

seemed. We walked through a maze of corridors filled with guards. By the time we

reached a kitchen staffed by skeletal cooks and servants, I was practically

carrying Nico. Fie managed to put all the dead to sleep but nearly passed out

himself. I dragged him out of the servants' entrance and into the Fields of

Asphodel.

 

I almost felt relieved until I heard the sound of bronze gongs high in the

castle.

 

"Alarms," Nico murmured sleepily.

 

"What do we do?"

 

Fie yawned then frowned like he was trying to remember. "Flow about . . . run?"

 

Running with a drowsy child of Flades was more like doing a three-legged race

with a life-size rag doll. I lugged him along, holding my sword in front of me.

The spirits of the dead made way like the Celestial bronze was a blazing fire.

 

The sound of gongs rolled across the fields. Ahead loomed the walls of Erebos,