chapter Thirty-Eight
Bliss
he next morning, Bliss told the rest of the pack about her dream and her realization. "We need to discover a way into that underground city. The Theatre of Pompey was part of it, I remember now."
"But almost nothing of the theater remains," Malcolm said. "It was all destroyed."
"It can't be. I saw it. I saw it standing," Bliss said. "Where are those maps of Rome? Of the old city? And the new one?"
She placed the maps over each other. "There," she said, pointing to a semicircular location in the center of the ancient city. "In that neighborhood. That's where the theater used to be." The foundation of the theater still remained, she was sure, but it was hidden underneath, in the surrounding basements and cellars of the buildings that had been built upon its ruins.
"What's there now?" Rafe asked, leaning closer.
"A hotel," Malcolm said. "The Albergo Sole al Biscione near the Campo de Fiori."
The sky was overcast and gray, and the weather had cooled, so there weren't many tourists around when they arrived at the open-air market. Which meant they were less likely to be observed, but also less likely to blend in. They would just have to be careful.
The Biscione was a grand old hotel, and as soon as they entered the lobby, Bliss felt everyone's eyes on them. The boys were wearing their usual mismatched thrift-store castoffs, and Bliss felt grubby in her day-old jeans and flannel shirt. Ahramin looked perfectly striking as usual, like an old-fashioned femme fatale in her black clothes, so perhaps the pack would pass as her entourage.
Bliss wasn't the daughter of a senator for nothing. "Most rich American kids look like bums, so just act like you belong and no one will question you," she told them.
"Right," Malcolm said.
But after an hour of surveying every inch of the lobby and visiting the basement restaurant, they were stymied. Bliss looked around helplessly. Nothing looked familiar. The group split up: Edon went with Rafe, Malcolm with Bliss, and Ahramin went alone.
A half hour later, it was Ahramin who gathered the pack together at a corner sofa, hidden from the guests. "I found it!" she whispered, triumphant.
"Where?" Malcolm asked.
"I'll show you," she said, and they followed her down the steps to the underground restaurant.
"We were already here; there was nothing," Edon complained.
But Ahramin kept leading them down. Past the wine cellar. To a stone wall.
"Does that look familiar?" she asked Bliss.
Bliss blinked. It was the wall. The wall of the theater from her dream. This was it.
"Here." Ahramin pointed at a grate in the stone floor that seemed to be useless - it just covered another stone.
"What are we looking at?" Bliss asked.
Ahri looked around to make sure no one was watching, then lifted the grate.
"It's just another rock," Edon said.
"Look closer."
Bliss peered at the stone. Just like all the other ones. But wait - there was a gap between that stone and the one next to it.
"Watch this," Ahri said, then inserted her fingertips into the space between the stones. She pushed, and the stone easily slid back, revealing a narrow stone staircase.
"You really did it," Bliss said, trying not to sound too surprised.
"Let's go!" Malcolm said.
"No, you guys need to stay back," said Bliss.
"You can't go alone," he argued.
Bliss looked at Edon and Rafe. She didn't want to be responsible for something bad happening to Malcolm.
"Take Mac; he's small but he's still a wolf. A fighter. We'll stand guard here," Rafe said. "We'll make sure no one else goes down there; and if you're not back in an hour we'll come and check on you."
"Me first," Malcolm said.
"I don't think so," Bliss said, and made her way down the stairs.
Malcolm followed closely behind her. "I can't see anything."
Bliss turned on her phone. The screen made a dim light, but it was enough. The stairs were narrow and seemed to go on for a long time, but finally they reached the bottom. They'd only walked a few steps before Bliss could see that they were standing in the same courtyard with the columns from her dreams.
"This is it," she said. "The Theatre of Pompey. The entrance to the passages."