"Hi," she said weakly.
They nodded their heads, a bow. Charlotte noticed that when she looked at them directly, all she saw was shape and light, but when she looked away, looked at them out of the corner of her eye, she could almost see the imprint of the long-gone faces of the people they once were.
"I'm, um, going to see Hades," she told them. "I need to warn him. There's a man, an evil man…" She paused, chewing on her lips. "Can you help me?"
The Dead did not answer, they simply watched her.
"This man, he's very nasty. He wants to overthrow Hades…"
Still they did not move. Charlotte, remembering what Mr. Metos had said about the Lord of the Dead, wondered if perhaps they thought overthrowing Hades was not such a bad idea.
"He has my cousin. He wants to throw the Dead in Tartarus!" She gestured to the gigantic, smoking pit to the left, and the Dead shrank back abruptly.
"I-I need to warn Hades. Can you take me to the City?" She pointed to the towers ahead. But again the Dead stepped back. Charlotte didn't understand. "You should come to the City with me. This is so grim. It looks much nicer there."
She pointed again, and as one, the group of Dead hurried away.
"Oooo-kay," Charlotte breathed.
She moved on, cutting a swath through the oceans of Dead. She had to step carefully; the plain was littered with small rocks, and she could just see herself twisting her ankle. That would be great.
The landscape was awful. It smelled like Harpy, it was treacherous, and it was deathly boring, like one of those long car trips through states that never end. At least in Tartarus something happened.
She moved on, slowly, carefully, the Dead falling in line behind her. One by one they joined her- they kept their distance, but she could sense a growing column of them weaving behind her as she walked-not leading her, but following.
They are drawn to Life, Charlotte thought sadly.
There weren't just Dead, of course. On the ground scurried those fist-size spiders, while cobra-size nine-headed Hydras slithered after them. In the air flew gaggles of black birds of the type that had brought the note to Charlotte and Zee, and in the background she could hear the sound of the Harpies singing, their voices magnified by the great silence of the Dead. The very sound of those voices made Charlotte shudder.
But singing wasn't all they did. They kept flying right over the Dead, shouting insults at them, and the Dead cowered in their path. Off to the right one of them buzzed directly into a crowd of Dead, cackling as it chased them away. Next to Charlotte, another hovered right over a group of Dead and threw a ball of purple green slime at them, screeching, "Here's a present for you!"
Charlotte did not want to think what that was. She looked up and shouted, "Now, that's just mean!"
The Harpy turned to her. "Carrot top! Big mouth!"
"Smelly old hag!" Charlotte yelled.
"Underachiever!" the Harpy yelled back.
An ear-shattering screech sounded from the air, and in swooped another gigantic flying creature-not a Harpy, but a Griffin, with head and wings of an eagle, body of a lion, and scaly tail of a snake. The Griffin soared into the Harpy's path and lunged at it, and the Harpy lunged back.
"Lion butt!" screamed the Harpy.
Feathers flew everywhere, and screams filled the air, not to mention some insults that Charlotte really could not repeat. Green blood dripped from the sky; a few drops landed on Charlotte's backpack and burned a hole through it. The pair of hideous, bird-like birds tumbled and pecked and screeched in the sky, and Charlotte was relieved that at least there was someone protecting the Dead-until the Griffin spit Harpy feathers at them.
This was awful, Charlotte thought. Was this what Death held? Barren landscapes and mean monsters and eternal quiet and all this boredom? Why didn't Hades do something about it? Mr. Metos had said that Prometheus believed Zeus wasn't worthy of being a god because he didn't help humans. Hades, then, seemed hardly worthy of being Lord of the Dead, but it didn't look like anyone was asking Charlotte. Maybe she could say something to him after he, you know, stopped Philonecron and saved Zee and didn't eat her or turn her into a ferret.
Charlotte walked for an hour, passing such lovely sights as Harpies dining on the carcass of one of their own, a Cyclops picking his substantial nose, and piles of steaming evidence of Hades' legendary herd of night black cattle. She didn't know which smelled worse, the piles or the Harpies. Too close to call.
The City grew closer and closer, and Charlotte was soon able to make out details. It seemed a bizarre place to find in the Underworld-its elegant stone structures and spires looked like something out of a Dickens book. But there were no jet-black palaces in Dickens, at least Charlotte did not think so.
Then, suddenly, there was movement in the silent column of Dead, a rustling, a sense of chaos, where once there had been quiet order. Charlotte turned to look at them.
"What?"
They were all staring at something off in the direction of the City. Charlotte gazed over and she started.
There was someone hurrying toward them. Someone who looked very, very much like a person. Like a boy.
He couldn't really be a boy, of course-and certainly when he got closer, Charlotte would see that he had red eyes or hands made of birds or a snake's head for a tongue. Or he spit fire or had five noses or had a hideously long tail. Or something.
But he came closer, and closer still, and Charlotte saw no deformities whatsoever. In fact… well… in fact, the boy was quite handsome. Really quite handsome. He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, and he had dark chocolate brown eyes and wavy black hair; he would have looked like he belonged in the halls of Charlotte's school if he hadn't been far, far more attractive than anyone who had ever graced the hallways of Hartnett Prep.
Charlotte stared. Who was he? What was he doing down here? And, um, however did he get so cute?
Charlotte stood where she was, while around her the Dead backed away slowly. She didn't really notice; her eyes were locked on the boy's chocolaty orbs. Charlotte did so like chocolate.
The boy sauntered up to her.
"Hey," he said.
Charlotte stared. "Um, hey." The boy was acting like he was, in fact, encountering her at the halls of Hartnett instead of the deathly terrain of the Underworld. Which was kind of cute, actually, in its own weird way.
"I'm Joshua."
Charlotte bit her lip. That was her favorite name. "Charlotte."
The boy grinned. "I love that name! It's my favorite."
Charlotte's heart raced. Who knew that she'd come to the Underworld and find love? What a magical, wondrous place the universe was!
"So, where are you going?" he asked, staring at her as if he might have a better idea.
"Um…" Charlotte gulped. She couldn't say she was going to Hades to save the world, how dorky was that? What a grade-A loser she would sound like!
"To the City," she said vaguely.
"Cool," The boy nodded. "Hey, though, I've got a better idea."
"You do?" Charlotte's knees seemed to be melting. She had always thought that was a figure of speech, but no, her knees were actually melting. Well, figuratively.
"Yeah. I've got great tickets to Tartarus. Have you ever been there?"
Charlotte drew back a bit. "Huh?"
"To Tartarus. It's awesome. You really can see some great stuff. We could sit and make fun of everyone. It'll be a blast."
Charlotte blinked. "Well, I have to be somewhere," she said vaguely.
"Aw, hell, it can wait. We'll have fun. I have a private box." He stared at her meaningfully.