ｔｈｅ ｂａｔｔｌｅ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｌａｂｙｒｉｎｔｈ

THE NEXT MORNING THERE WAS A LOT OF EXCITEMENT AT BREAKFAST. Lucia However felt no excitement at all, she felt completely exhausted from running around at three in the morning after the Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. The disruption of her sleep had her cranky and desperate for some coffee. And she would go sleep longer, but being a child of Apollo forced you to be a morning person even if you desperately weren't.

The magical boundaries had kept the monster out last night, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in their defenses. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armor, and a blast of burning light hit him it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there," Lee warned them during announcements.

"Twenty arrows in its hide, And a burn wound but we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. Its eyes—" he shuddered.

Lucia felt queasy just remembering the sight

"You did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder.

"Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

The campers murmured among themselves.

Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that their attendance was down. They only had about eighty campers. Three years ago, Percy mentioned, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

"This is a good reason for new war games, "Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Yes..." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."

We all raised our glasses and repeated the blessing.

Lucia took her plate to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of her food into the flames. She hoped the gods liked raisin toast and Froot Loops. "Apollo," she said. Then she whispered, "Help me with Nico, and the camp, and Grover's problem... and with my powers please, I still don't know what I'm doing..."

There was so much to worry about she could've stood there all morning, but she headed back to the table. And grabbed her chalice

"Cafe negro." the cup filled to the brim with a rich dark liquid

"What's that?" Will asked from beside her

"Black coffee." Lucia responded, "You wanna try?"

"He's eleven" Lee scolded

Lucia shrugged "I've been drinking coffee since I came out— wait no—came out of the light?"

"Yeah, that's why you're short." Austin snorted

"That's a myth!" Lucia threw a froot loop at him "and why are you talking you're shorter than me!"

Austin gave her an innocent grin "But I'm eleven. I'll grow. you're stuck like that."

Lucia scoffed, Her siblings all burst into harmonious laughter. A ghost of a smile fell on her lips, after the night they had she didn't mind being the butt of the joke.

"Ha. Ha" Lucia faked a laugh

"You got all the gifts" Lee started cackling "So dad didn't give you any height."

The table started laughing even louder, Lucia tried to hold a straight face but eventually, she burst into laughter along with them.

"Ah-" Lucia choked on her laughter when a hand pulled her to her feet, stealing her away from her siblings. "wha—beth?"

Annabeth pulled her forward, before lightly pushing her to sit on the bench next to Percy, Annabeth sat in front of them sliding next to Grover.

"I'll tell you what it's about," She said. "The Labyrinth."

It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying because everybody in the dining pavilion was stealing glances at them and whispering. And Percy was right next to her. She means right next to her.

Tyson sat on the other side of him, and when Annabeth calls him 'big guy' she means it. Lucia and Percy were practically forced to touch. His right leg which was pressed up against hers began to bounce.

"You guys are not supposed to be here," He said.

"We need to talk," Annabeth insisted.

"But the rules..."

Lucia knew as well as they did that campers weren't allowed to switch tables. Satyrs were different. They weren't really demigods. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. Lucia wasn't even sure what the punishment was for switching tables. She'd never seen it happen.

If Mr. D had been here, he probably would've strangled Annabeth and Lucia with magical grapevines or something, but Mr. D wasn't here. Chiron had already left the pavilion. Quintus looked over and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything.

"Look," Annabeth said, "Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse, Lucia, and I have been investigating."

"She's being generous" Lucia mumbled

"Lucy what have we said about minimizing yourself " Annabeth glared

Lucia felt like a little child, she huffed "To not do it."

Percy shifted his weight, he looked like he was struggling to think clearly. "You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?"

"Exactly," Annabeth said.

"So...it's not under the king's palace in Crete anymore," He guessed. "The Labyrinth is under some building in America."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Under a building? Please, Percy. The Labyrinth is huge. It wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building."

"So...is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?"

"No." Annabeth frowned. "Well, there may be passages from the Labyrinth down into the Underworld. I'm not sure. But the Underworld is way, way down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second skin. It's been growing for thousands of years, lacing its way under Western cities, connecting everything together underground. You can get anywhere through the Labyrinth."

"If you don't get lost," Lucia muttered. "And die a horrible death."

"Lucy, you're going to scare Grover more. there has to be a way," Annabeth said. this wasn't the first time they had this conversation. "Clarisse lived."

"Barely!" Lucia said. "And the other guy—"

"He was driven insane. He didn't die."

"Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip quivered. "That makes me feel much

better."

"Whoa," Percy said. "Back up. What's this about Clarisse and a crazy guy?"

Annabeth glanced over toward the Ares table. Clarisse was watching them like she knew what we were talking about, but then she fixed her eyes on her breakfast plate.

"Last year," Annabeth said, lowering her voice, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron."

"I remember," He said. "It was secret."

Annabeth nodded.

"It was secret," Lucia agreed, "because she found Chris Rodriguez."

"The guy from the Hermes cabin?" Percy remembered.

"Yeah," Annabeth continued. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house."

"What do you mean he just appeared?"

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string."

"String," Percy said.

"He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."

Lucia felt Percy shiver, she didn't blame him she always wondered what could've driven him mad down there.

He looked at Grover, who was chewing up the rest of his fork.

"Okay," He asked. "Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," Annabeth said. "That's why Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed up because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because...well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. The architecture involved—" Her expression turned a little dreamy. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius. But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?"

"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"But not if you had Ariadne's string," Annabeth said. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."

"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," Percy said. "Why? What's he planning?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't know. I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make any sense. The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders. Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but...it was very dangerous. She had some close calls. I researched everything I could find about Daedalus. I'm afraid it didn't help much. I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning is, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."

Percy blinked. "You think Pan is underground?"

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find." Lucia nodded

Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"

"It sounds awful." Lucia trembled, she thought of wandering underground in the darkness. Wandering with no form of sunlight on her skin. It was terrifying to her. Bad things always happened to her in the dark... She hoped she would never go down there.

"But," Annabeth said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, trick you, and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for you—"

"It could lead you to the wild god," Percy concluded.

"I can't do it." Grover hugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."

"Grover, it may be your last chance," Annabeth said. "The council is serious. One week or you learn to tap dance!"

Lucia felt bad for Grover. Despite her opposition to the Labyrinth, she knew Annabeth was right, this was his only chance.

Over at the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. Lucia got the feeling he didn't want to make a scene, but they were really pushing it, sitting at the table so long.

"We'll talk later," Annabeth said. "Convince him, will you?"

Lucia set a hand on Percy's shoulder as she got up from her seat, she looked at Grover. "Whatever you choose Grover. Just know we're here for you."

Lucia and Annabeth shared a look before they returned to their respective table, ignoring all the people who were staring at them.

When Lucia sat down all her sibling's eyes were on her.

"Are you okay?" Lee asked, "You're shaking."

Lucia looked down at her hands. When the tips of her fingers started to spark she sat on them in fear. She turned to look at Quintus who was cutting up his sausage with a dagger then at Annabeth who was looking down at a book. Her gaze fell on Percy and to Grover's retreating figure before finally she looked back at Lee. Her gaze stayed on him, she felt herself become nauseous. She regretted drinking that coffee now. "Yeah, everything's fine..."

☼

THAT NIGHT AFTER DINNER, Quintus had the campers suit up in combat armor like they were getting ready for capture the flag, but the mood among them was a lot more serious. Percy mentioned seeing crates in the arena that had disappeared, and Lucia had a feeling whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods.

"Right," Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round."

He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost. Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. When everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled: "Which have already been chosen!"

"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course...you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

The crowd started murmuring excitedly. The task sounded pretty straightforward. Hey, they'd all slain monsters before. That's what we trained for.

"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."

"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf would be with Silena, which Beckendorf looked pretty happy about. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, would be together. No surprise. They did everything together. Clarisse was with Lee —melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat. Quintus kept rattling off the names when he said, "Percy Jackson with Annabeth Chase."

"Nice." He grinned at Annabeth.

"Your armor is crooked" was her only comment, and she redid his straps for him.

Lucia looked at them, She pursed her lips flat hating herself for the feeling in her chest.

"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."

Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"

"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"

"No complaining!" Quintus ordered. "Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"

Tyson and Grover both looked at Lucia pleadingly.

"Lucia Verano with Ethan Nakamura."

Lucia picked up, she looked at the pair with a not-so-sympathetic smile "Sorry guys!"

"Hey golden girl." A voice called "Looks like you're with me."

Lucia turned around to come face to face with the boy she got to know the past few months, she gave him a bright smile "I thought I was going to have to risk my life with someone I didn't know"

"Guess it's your lucky day."

Lucia couldn't help but laugh. She received the hand he offered her. He pulled her into him causing her to hit his chest plate playfully. She turned toward her friends. Annabeth looked amused, Percy not so much. "Good Luck!"

"Who the hades is that?"

☼

IT WAS STILL LIGHT WHEN THEY GOT INTO THE WOODS, but the shadows from the trees made it feel like midnight. It was cold, too, even in summer. Lucia and Ethan found tracks almost immediately—scuttling marks made by something with a lot of legs. They began to follow the trail.

They forged deeper into the west woods where the monsters were wilder. Lucia let Ethan guide her as her mind traveled back to Annabeth and Percy.

"You alright Golden girl?"

Lucia bumped into Ethan's back, she didn't realize he stopped walking

"You know if you don't focus we could die right."

Lucia shook her head, she sighed "I'm sorry... I promise I'll focus."

"You're thinking about them?" 

"What."

"Percy and Annabeth."

"No." Lucia shook her head as she continued to walk through the forest making him trail beside her

"You like him."

Lucia stopped in her tracks, she turned "What."

"You like him. right?"

"I—"

"Lucia." Ethan stepped forward "You don't have to lie to me."

Lucia frowned "Okay...maybe...maybe i— I have a tiny crush on him. really tiny."

Ethan laughed, he walked towards her his hand came to lay on her cheek. "And you're jealous?"

"Annabeth is my friend." Lucia frowned "If they—if he—I'll be happy for them."

"And do you think your tiny crush could go away " Ethan whispered, his hand on her cheek inched higher. He stood closer to her than ever before.

A branch snapped in the woods. Dry leaves rustled. Something large was moving in the trees, just beyond the ridge.

Their head snapped to the side.

A scuttling noise seemed to be coming from one direction. Lucia broke away from Ethan, flicking her wrist her bow formed in her hands, she quickly notched an arrow as Ethan unsheathed his sword.

A huge monster scorpion scuttled out of the trees. It was so close Lucia could see its hideous mouth foaming, anticipating an ice juicy meal of demigods.

"Look out!" Lucia parried away a stinger with the limb of her bow. Ethan tried to stab with his sword but the scorpion backed out of range. They clambered sideways along the trees, but the scorpion followed them.

Lucia shot an arrow at it, but going on the offensive was too dangerous. If she went for the body, the tail stabbed downward. If she went for the tail, the thing's pincers came from either side and tried to grab her.

Lucia shot another arrow to make it stumble, she threw her weapons to the side.

"Are you crazy?"

"Yes! Distract it!" Lucia yelled as she made her way around the scorpion, Ethan deflected the scorpion with his sword, trying to not fall victim.

"What's the plan Golden Girl?!" He yelled as he somersaulted away from the stinger

Lucia caught a glimpse of the silk package tied around the scorpion's back, she raised her hands "Keep distracting it! be careful!"

"I'm trying!" Ethan panicked,

She took a deep breath in, closed her eyes and mumbled a small prayer to her father.

Then her eyes flew open, her hands raised higher. And she screamed.

The silk package ripped off the scorpion, The string before snapping flipped it over on its back. The package was now a few feet away.

Ethan ran forward, stabbing his sword down. The monster disintegrated with a terrifying shriek.

Lucia ran towards her weapons "Come on!" she grabbed Ethan's hand before taking the silk package

Ethan ran beside her until they were at a safe distance

"The laurels better be in there," He said out of breath, doubling over

Lucia opened the package carefully "Oh my gods!" She beamed "Oh my gods! we won! we won!"

Ethan smirked, "It really is your Lucky day Golden girl."

"We won!" She bounced "We did it! I have to tell Lee! And Percy! And Annabeth! Oh, my gods! we did it!"

Ethan took the Gold Laurel and placed it on her head, he laughed, "It only makes sense"

Lucia grinned before she heard two figures approaching, she took an arrow from her quiver and notched it, aiming in that direction.

"Lucia!" Clarisse said out of breath "I found you!"

Lucia lowered her weapon "Clarisse?"

Lee was next to her, a bit distracted "Hey! you did it!"

Lucia was about to gush to her brother but Clarisse cut her off "Annabeth and Percy are missing."

The Golden girl's smile dropped

☼

"PERCY! ANNABETH!" Tyson's voice bellowed the loudest, but others were calling out too.

"Percy!" Lucia cried "Annabeth!"

"They're over here!" Clarisse yelled

Lucia ran over almost tripping at her urgency, Clarisse and a bunch of other campers stood with torches in front of Zeus's fist.

"Where have you two been?" Clarisse demanded. "We've been looking forever."

"But we were gone only a few minutes," Percy said. Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson and Grover.

"Percy!" Tyson said. "You are okay?"

"We're fine," Percy said. "We fell in a hole."

Everyone looked at him skeptically, then at Annabeth. Lucia frowned at the implication.

"Honest!" He said. "There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were only gone a minute."

"You've been missing for almost an hour," Chiron said. "The game is over."

"Yeah," Grover muttered. "We would've won, but a Cyclops sat on me."

"Was an accident!" Tyson protested, and then he sneezed.

Lucia was wearing the gold laurels, but she wasn't about to brag about winning them, "A hole?" she said suspiciously. Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked around at the other campers.

"Chiron...maybe we should talk about this at the Big House."

Clarisse gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "I—Yeah. Yeah, we did."

A bunch of campers started asking questions, looking confused, but Chiron raised his hand for silence. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"

There was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking among themselves and giving Percy suspicious looks.

"This explains a lot," Clarisse said. "It explains what Luke is after."

Lucia stared at the rocks in worry, she muttered "It's so close..."

"Wait a second," Percy said. "What do you mean? What did we find?"

Annabeth turned toward him, her eyes were dark with worry. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."