Page 61 of Heroines of Olympus

Cadmus navigates around the turns of the Love Temple hallways without referencing the map. Medusa can picture him as a teenager running around here, likely when he was not supposed to be. The thought makes her smile slightly, but she clears her head of the daydreaming and refocuses on the task at hand.

They descend a set of stairs that becomes more poorly lit the farther they go down. There is a junction at the bottom. To the right is an illuminated tunnel that even has a runner along the floor. To the left is darkness and Medusa grimaces when Cadmus turns that way.

After a few moments, Cadmus stops and Medusa slams into his back. The rest of the group do the same to her and they all clash like dominoes. Cadmus grunts in frustration, but that is all she hears from him until the sound of the door’s mechanism being fiddled with meets her ears. A few more grumbles and clinking metal sounds, and the door slowly slides open. Cadmus takes Medusa’s hand in the dark and they walk forward, with Medusa taking Alec’s hand behind her.

This side of the tunnel is dark as well, but light appears the farther they go provided by the occasional flickering sconce.

Soon they are at the end of the tunnel and, as expected, it brings them directly to the abandoned marketplace. What is unexpected is the fact that it is empty. Are they too late? Is this a trap?

Alec gets in Cadmus’s face. “Well? This was your plan! Where is everyone?”

“I… I don’t know.” Cadmus looks stunned. “I told you, these are old schematics. Don’t blame me. For all we know, they could have a shiny new dungeon somewhere. This was always a guess!”

Medusa steps between them, pushing them out of each other’s faces. “Stop it. We need to come up with a new plan and then get out of here before we’re caught. Fighting amongst ourselves will just get us killed.”

The layout is a labyrinth, with stalls branching out in each direction. The group members wander separately, assessing the area so they can formulate a plan while Alec goes to see if Hestia is here.

Once almost everyone is back, minus Ajax and Alec, Cadmus addresses them, “I think we need to leave. This is on me. I gave it my best guess, and it was a bad call. We need to cut our losses and leave before we push our luck and are noticed by someone.”

Everyone is nodding their heads, and Medusa is inclined to agree. All the time and resources wasted like this is frustrating, but dwelling on it long enough to further risk their safety does not seem like a wise course of action either.

Ajax comes jogging back over and interrupts Cadmus to say, “Hey! Looks like we weren’t too far off. You’re going to want to see this.”

Rushing over to see what he found, Medusa gasps. They had converted the market stalls into cages. There are small pieces of tattered clothing discarded. When her eyes land on a pile of bloody rags, Medusa feels woozy and puts her hand on the nearest object to brace herself, which is one of the cages.

She startles when suddenly the bundle of blankets in the cage moves.

“Help! Quick!” Medusa shouts.

The others come running as she tries to find the door to the cage. A scared pair of eyes peeks out and stills her. Medusa calms her energy, not wanting to startle the nymph. She crouches down to appear less threatening and says in a soothing voice, “I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. You’re safe with us.”

The eyes blink back at her and Medusa thinks she is going to have to try again when the blankets start to shift and the nymph emerges from them, eyes wide with fear, frail body trembling.

Medusa hears the sharp collective intake of breath when it becomes visible to everyone what kind of shape the nymph is in. She is emaciated, and her wrists and ankles have dark circles around them, indicating the use of restraints. Her skin is a dull slate gray, despite her being a water nymph who should be the richest of blues. The gills at her throat are dry and crusted over.

Medusa looks around all the empty cages.Oh no.

“We’re too late,” Alec says.

“How long has it been since you’ve been in the water?” Medusa asks.

The nymph merely holds up all five fingers on one hand.

“Five days?” Medusa asks, and the nymph shakes her head no.

“Five weeks?” No, again.

“No. Five months?”

The nymph sadly nods her head and Medusa has to do everything in her power to restrain her anger, not wanting to scare the nymph.

“Let’s see if we can’t get you out of there. Then we’ll try to find you some water.” Medusa says. The nymph nods her head and sits back down, pulling her knees up to her chest and putting her head down on them.

Medusa turns back to the group before her, “Can we get the cage open without the key?”

Cadmus pulls against the bars at the cage door, grunting as he strains.

“I don’t think so,” he answers. “I can probably use the hilt of my sword.”

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