ｔｈｅ ｂａｔｔｌｅ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｌａｂｙｒｉｎｔｈ

CHIRON HAD INSISTED THEY TALK ABOUT IT IN THE MORNING, which was kind of like, Hey, your life's in mortal danger. Sleep tight! It was hard to fall asleep, but when Lucia finally did, She dreamt of a prison.

She saw a guy in a Greek tunic and sandals crouching alone in a massive stone room. The ceiling was open to the night sky, but the walls were twenty feet high and polished marble, completely smooth. Scattered around the room were wooden crates. Some were cracked and tipped over, as if they'd been flung in there. Bronze tools spilled out of one—a compass, a saw, and a bunch of other things I didn't recognize.

The boy huddled in the corner, shivering from cold, or maybe fear. He was spattered in mud. His legs, arms, and face, were scraped up as if he'd been dragged here along with the boxes.

Then the double oak doors moaned open. Two guards in bronze armor marched in, holding an old man between them. They flung him to the floor in a battered heap.

"Father!" The boy ran to him. The man's robes were in tatters. His hair was streaked with gray, and his beard was long and curly. His nose had been broken. His lips were bloody.

The boy took the old man's head in his arms. "What did they do to you?" then he yelled at the guards. "I'll kill you!"

"There will be no killing today," a voice said.

The guards moved aside. Behind them stood a tall man in white robes. He wore a thin circlet of gold on his head. His beard was pointed like a spear blade. His eyes glittered cruelly. "You helped the Athenian kill my Minotaur, Daedalus. You turned my won daughter against me."

"You did that yourself, Your Majesty," the old man croaked.

A guard planted a kick in the old man's ribs. He groaned in agony.

The young boy cried, "Stop!"

"You love your maze so much," the king said, "I have decided to let you stay here. This will be your workshop. Make me new wonders. Amuse me. Every maze needs a monster. You will be mine!"

"I don't fear you," the old man groaned.

The king smiled coldly. He locked his eyes on the boy. "But a man cares about his son, eh? Displease me, old man, and the next time my guards inflict a punishment, it will be on him!"

The king swept out of the room with his guards, and the doors slammed shut, leaving the boy and his father alone in the darkness.

"What shall we do?" the boy moaned. "Father, they will kill you!"

The old man swallowed with difficulty. He tried to smile, but it was a gruesome sight with his bloody mouth.

"Take heart, my son." He gazed up at the stars. "I—I will find a way."

A bar lowered across the doors with a fatal BOOM, and Lucia woke in a cold sweat.

☼

LUCIA WAS FEELING SHAKY AND NAUSEOUS the next morning when Chiron called a war council. According to Lee, Annabeth insisted on her presence. She tried to meet Ethan beforehand but he wasn't in the Hermes cabin when she looked for him. So she found herself going straight to the sword arena despite her nerves, they began to discuss the fate of the camp while Mrs. O'Leary chewed on a life-size squeaky pink rubber yak.

Chiron and Quintus stood at the front by the weapon racks. Clarisse and Annabeth sat next to each other and led the briefing. Lucia sat next to them when Annabeth called her over.

"Why is Lucia here?" Silena asked, "She's not a counselor."

"She helped Clarisse and me with the research" Annabeth insisted "She deserves to know what's going to go on."

No one seemed to argue, but Lucia still felt like melting into her chair. This is the second time she crashes one of these.

Tyson and Grover sat as far away from each other as possible. Also present around the table: Percy, Juniper the tree nymph, Silena, Travis and Connor Stoll, Beckendorf, Lee, and even Argus, their hundred-eyed security chief. That's how Lucia knew it was serious. Argus hardly ever shows up unless something major is going on. The whole time Annabeth spoke, he kept his hundred blue eyes trained on her so hard his whole body turned bloodshot.

"Luke must have known about the Labyrinth entrance," Annabeth said. "He knew everything about camp."

Lucia thought she heard a little pride in her voice, like she still respected the guy, evil as he was.

Juniper cleared her throat. "That's what I was trying to tell you last night. The cave entrance has been there a long time. Luke used to use it."

Silena frowned. "You knew about the Labyrinth entrance, and you didn't say anything?"

Juniper's face turned green. "I didn't know it was important. Just a cave. I don't like yucky old caves."

"She has good taste," Grover said.

"I wouldn't have paid any attention except...well, it was Luke." She blushed a little greener.

Grover huffed. "Forget what I said about good taste."

"Interesting," Quintus polished his sword as he spoke. "And you believe this young man, Luke, would dare use the Labyrinth as an invasion route?"

"Definitely," Clarisse said. "If he could get an army of monsters inside Camp Half-Blood, just pop up in the middle of the woods without having to worry about our magical boundaries, we wouldn't stand a chance. He could wipe us out easy. He must've been planning this for months."

"He's been sending scouts into the maze," Annabeth said. "We know because...because we found one."

"Chris Rodriguez," Chiron said. He gave Quintus a meaningful look.

"Ah," Quintus said. "The one in the...Yes, I understand."

"The one in the what?" Percy asked.

Clarisse glared at him. "The point is, Luke has been looking for a way to navigate the maze. He's searching for Daedalus's workshop."

Lucia remembered her dream the night before—the bloody old man in tattered robes.

"The guy who created the maze," Percy said

"Yes," Annabeth said. "The greatest architect, the greatest inventor of all time. If the legends are true, his workshop is in the center of the Labyrinth. He's the only one who knew how to navigate the maze perfectly. If Luke managed to find the workshop and convince Daedalus to help him, Luke wouldn't have to fumble around searching for paths, or risk losing his army in the maze's traps. He could navigate anywhere he wanted—quickly and safely. First to Camp Half-Blood to wipe us out. Then...to Olympus."

The arena was silent except for Mrs. O'Leary's toy yak getting disemboweled: SQUEAK! SQUEAK!

Finally, Beckendorf put his huge hands on the table. "Back up a sec, Annabeth, you said 'convince Daedalus'? Isn't Daedalus dead?"

Quintus grunted. "I would hope so. He lived, what, three thousand years ago? And even if he were alive, don't the old stories say he fled from the Labyrinth?"

Chiron clopped restlessly on his hooves. "That's the problem, my dear Quintus. No one knows. There are rumors...well, there are many disturbing rumors about Daedalus, but one is that he disappeared back into the Labyrinth toward the end of his life. He might still be there."

Lucia thought about the old man she'd seen in her dreams. He'd looked so frail, that it was hard to believe he'd lasted another week, much less three thousand years.

"We need to go in," Annabeth announced. "We have to find the workshop before Luke does. If Daedalus is alive, we convince him to help us, not Luke. If Ariadne's string still exists, we make sure it never falls into Luke's hands."

"Wait a second," Percy said. "If we're worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?"

"Great idea!" Grover said. "I'll get the dynamite!"

"It's not so easy, stupid," Clarisse growled.

Lucia decided to chime in before Clarisse blew his head off "They tried that at the entrance they found in Phoenix. It didn't go well."

Annabeth nodded. "The Labyrinth is magical architecture, Percy. It would take huge power to seal even one of its entrances. In Phoenix, Clarisse demolished a whole building with a wrecking ball, and the maze entrance just shifted a few feet. The best we can do is prevent Luke from learning to navigate the Labyrinth."

"We could fight," Lee said. "We know where the entrance is now. We can set up a defensive line and wait for them. If an army tries to come through, they'll find us waiting with our bows." He looked toward his sister who gave him an affirming nod.

"We will certainly set up defenses," Chiron agreed. "But I fear Clarisse is right. The magical borders have kept this camp safe for hundreds of years. If Luke manages to get a large army of monsters into the center of camp, bypassing our boundaries...we may not have the strength to defeat them."

Nobody looked happy about that news. Chiron usually tried to be upbeat and optimistic. If he was predicting they couldn't hold off an attack, that wasn't good.

"We have to get to Daedalus's workshop first," Annabeth insisted. "Find Ariadne's string and prevent Luke from using it."

"Wait but if nobody can navigate in there," Lucia said, "what chance do we have?"

"I've been studying architecture for years," she said. "I know Daedalus's Labyrinth better than anybody."

"From reading about it."

"Well, yes."

"That's not enough."

"It has to be!"

"It isn't!"

"Are you going to help me or not?"

Lucia realized everyone was watching Annabeth and her like a tennis match.

Mrs. O'Leary's squeaky yak went EEK! As she ripped off its pink rubber head.

Chiron cleared his throat. "First things first. We need a quest. Someone must enter the Labyrinth, find the workshop of Daedalus, and prevent Luke from using the maze to invade this camp."

"We all know who should lead this," Clarisse said. "Annabeth."

There was a murmur of agreement. Annabeth had told Lucia that she had been waiting for her own quest since she was a little kid, but she looked uncomfortable.

"You've done as much as I have, Clarisse," she said. "You should go, too."

Clarisse shook her head. "I'm not going back in there."

Travis Stoll laughed. "Don't tell me you're scared. Clarisse, chicken?"

Clarisse got to her feet, she said in a shaky voice: "You don't understand anything, punk. I'm never going in there again. Never!"

She stormed out of the arena.

Travis looked around sheepishly. "I didn't mean to—"

Chiron raised his hand. "The poor girl has had a difficult year. Now, do

we have an agreement that Annabeth should lead the quest?"

They all nodded except Quintus. He folded his arms and stared at the table,

Lucia found Percy's gaze, he sent her a look that showed he had noticed as well.

"Very well," Chiron turned to Annabeth. "My dear, it's your time to visit the Oracle. Assuming you return to us in one piece, we shall discuss what to do next."

☼

LUCIA PACED BACK AND FORTH AS THEY WAITED FOR ANNABETH

She'd only heard the oracle speak a prophecy once before. One time was enough for her. Watching the corpse of a woman go for a little stroll in the woods and speak into your mind was nightmare-inducing.

It didnt help that Lucia had heard stories: campers who'd gone insane, or who'd seen visions so real they died of fear.

Lucia and Percy were restless, waiting.

Mrs. O'Leary ate her lunch, which consisted of a hundred pounds of ground beef and several dog biscuits the size of trash-can lids. Lucia had wondered where Quintus got dog biscuits that size. She didn't figure he could just walk into Pet Zone and put those in his shopping cart.

Chiron was deep in conversation with Quintus and Argus. It looked to her like they were disagreeing about something. Quintus kept shaking his head.

On the other side of the arena, Tyson and the Stoll brothers were racing miniature bronze chariots that Tyson had made out of armor scraps.

Lucia gave up on pacing "I'm going to take a walk"

"Can I come?" Percy sighed, he was biting the nail of his thumb like he usually did when he felt anxious

Lucia nodded and they left the arena. She stared across the fields at the Big House's attic window, dark and still. What was taking Annabeth so long?

"Who's Ethan?"

Lucia knit her eyebrows together, she looked toward Percy "A friend. You met him, on my first day."

"You didn't mention him when we were iris-messaging. You're close?" He rambled, "You seemed close."

"I guess we are?" Lucia shrugged

"Blackjack told me you guys almost kissed"

Lucia choked she looked at Percy with wide eyes "He did?"

Percy nodded, His jaw clenched. "Is it true"

"No! He doesn't know what he saw!" Lucia shook her head "He doesn't like me like that. We're friends"

"Do you want him to?" Percy blurted out

"Perce." Lucia sighed "Could we talk about this later? I'm kind of going out of my mind worrying about Annabeth."

Percy sighed, he took a deep breath in "Yeah, me too. I don't know why she's taking so long... When I got my quest it was a lot faster."

"Percy, Lucia," a girl whispered.

Juniper was standing in the bushes. It was weird how she almost turned invisible when she was surrounded by plants.

She gestured them over urgently. "You need to know: Luke wasn't the only one I saw around that cave."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked

She glanced back at the arena. "I was trying to say something, but he was right there."

"Who?"

"The sword master," she said. "He was poking around the rocks."

Lucia's stomach clenched. "Quintus? When?"

"I don't know: I don't pay attention to time. Maybe a week ago, when he first showed up."

"What was he doing? Did he go in?"

"I—I'm not sure. He's creepy. I didn't even see him come into the glade. Suddenly he was just there. You have to tell Grover it's too dangerous—"

"Juniper?" Grover called from inside the arena. "Where'd you go?"

Juniper sighed. "I'd better go in. Just remember what I said. Don't trust that man!."

She ran into the arena.

Lucia stared at the Big House, feeling more uneasy than ever. If Quintus was up to something...Lucia needed Annabeth's advice. She might know what to make of Juniper's news. But where the hades was she? Whatever was happening with the Oracle, it shouldn't be taking this long.

Finally, Lucia couldn't stand it anymore. Percy turned to her with a knowing look.

It was against the rules, but then again, nobody was watching. They ran down the hill and headed across the fields.

☼

THE FRONT PARLOR OF THE BIG HOUSE WAS STRANGELY QUIET. Lucia was used to seeing Dionysus by the fireplace, playing cards and eating grapes, and griping at satyrs, but Mr. D was still away.

Lucia and Percy walked down the hallway, floorboards creaking under their feet. When they got to the base of the stairs, she hesitated. Four floors above would be the little trapdoor leading to the attic. Annabeth would be up there somewhere. Lucia and Percy stood quietly and listened. But what they heard wasn't what they had expected.

Sobbing. And it was coming from below them.

"Percy!" Lucia whisper-yelled "no!"

Percy didnt listen as he crept around the back of the stairs. Lucia huffed following behind him. The basement door was open. Percy peered inside and saw two figures in the far corner, sitting amid a bunch of stockpiled cases of ambrosia and strawberry preserves. One was Clarisse. The other was a teenage Hispanic guy in tattered camouflage pants and a dirty black T-shirt. His hair was greasy and matted. He was hugging his shoulders and sobbing. It was Chris Rodriguez, the half-blood who'd gone to work for Luke.

Lucia tried to pull him away but he stubbornly insisted on staying. She flipped him off.

"It's okay," Clarisse was telling him. "Try a little more nectar."

"You're an illusion, Mary!" Chris backed farther into the corner. "G-get away."

"My name's not Mary." Clarisse's voice was gentle but sad. "My name is Clarisse. Remember. Please."

"It's dark!" Chris yelled. "So dark!"

"Come outside," Clarisse coaxed. "The sunlight will help you."

"A...a thousand skulls. The earth keeps healing him."

"Chris," Clarisse pleaded. It sounded like she was close to tears. "You have to get better. Please. Mr. D will be back soon. He's an expert in madness. Just hang on."

Chris's eyes were like a cornered rat's—wild and desperate.

"There's no way out, Mary. No way out."

Then he caught a glimpse of Percy and made a strangled, terrified sound. "The son of Poseidon! He's horrible!"

Percy backed away, Lucia followed hoping Clarisse hadn't seen them. She listened for her to come charging out and yell at them, but instead, she just kept talking to Chris in a sad pleading voice, trying to get him to drink the nectar. Maybe she thought it was part of Chris's hallucination, but...son of Poseidon? Chris had been looking at him, and yet why did Lucia get the feeling he hadn't been talking about Percy at all?

And Clarisse's tenderness—it had never even occurred to Lucia that she might like someone; but the way she said Chris's name...She'd known him before he changed sides. She'd known him a lot better than Lucia realized. And now he was shivering in a dark basement, afraid to come out, and mumbling about someone named Mary. No wonder Clarisse didn't want anything to do with the Labyrinth. What had happened to Chris in there?

They heard a creak from above—like the attic door opening—and they both ran for the front door. They needed to get out of that house.

☼

"MY DEAR," Chiron said. "You made it."

Annabeth looked at them first. Lucia couldn't tell if she was trying to warn them, or if the look in her eyes was just plain fear. Then she focused on Quintus.

"I got the prophecy. I will lead the quest to find Daedalus's workshop."

Nobody cheered. Everyone liked Annabeth, and they wanted her to have a quest, but this one seemed insanely dangerous. After what Lucia had seen of Chris Rodriguez, She didn't even want to think about Annabeth descending into that weird maze again.

Chiron scraped a hoof on the dirt floor. "What did the prophecy say exactly, my dear? The wording is important."

Annabeth took a deep breath. "I, ah...well, it said, you shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze..."

They waited.

"The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise."

Grover perked up. "The lost one! That must mean Pan! That's great!"

"With the dead and the traitor," Percy added. "Not so great."

"And?" Chiron asked. "What is the rest?"

"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand," Annabeth said, "the child of Athena's final stand."

Everyone looked around uncomfortably. Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, and a final stand didn't sound good.

"Hey...we shouldn't jump to conclusions," Silena said. "Annabeth isn't the only child of Athena, right?"

"But who's this ghost king?" Beckendorf asked.

No one answered. Lucia thought about the dreams she'd seen of Nico summoning spirits. She had a bad feeling the prophecy was connected to that.

"Are there more lines?" Lucia asked. "The prophecy doesn't sound complete."

Annabeth hesitated. "I don't remember exactly."

Lucia raised an eyebrow. Annabeth was known for her memory. She never forgot something she heard.

Annabeth shifted on her bench. "Something about...Destroy with a hero's final breath."

"And?" Lucia asked.

She stood. "Look, the point is, I have to go in. I'll find the workshop and stop Luke. And...I need help." She turned to Percy. "Will you come?"

He didn't even hesitate. "I'm in."

She smiled "Grover, you too? The wild god is waiting."

Grover seemed to forget how much he hated the underground. The line about the "lost one" had completely energized him. "I'll pack extra recyclables for snacks!"

"And Tyson," Annabeth said. "I'll need you too."

"Yay! Blow-things-up time!" Tyson clapped so hard he woke up

Mrs. O'Leary, who was dozing in the corner.

"Lucy." Annabeth looked over, her eyes desperate "Will you come?"

Lucia gulped, she thought of the darkness she would have to face, the lack of sunlight... The suffocating fear that would take over her. She didn't know if she was capable of going through it.

"Beth—." Lucia wrinkled her nose "It's so dark"

"You have to come ." Annabeth pleaded "It won't be the same without you."

Lucia gulped, she looked at Percy who gave her a tight-lipped smile before turning to look at Lee who gave her an encouraging nod. She took a deep breath in before gazing back at Annabeth. "Okay, I'll do it."

"Wait, Annabeth," Chiron said. "This goes against the ancient laws. A hero is allowed only two companions."

"I need them all," she insisted. "Chiron, it's important."

Lucia didn't know why she was so certain, but she was happy she'd included Tyson. She couldn't imagine leaving him behind. He was huge and strong and according to Percy, great at figuring out mechanical things.

Unlike satyrs, Cyclopes had no problem underground.

"Annabeth." Chiron flicked his tail nervously. "Consider well. You would be breaking the ancient laws, and there are always consequences. Three is a sacred number. There are three fates, three furies, three Olympian sons of Kronos. It is a good strong number that stands against many dangers. Five...this is risky."

Annabeth took a deep breath. "I know. But we have to. Please."

Lucia could tell Chiron didn't like it. Quintus was studying them, like he was trying to decide which of them would come back alive.

Chiron sighed. "Very well. Let us adjourn. The members of the quest must prepare themselves. Tomorrow at dawn, we send you into the Labyrinth."

☼

AS LONG AS LUCIA HAD BEEN AT CAMP (which really wasn't that long),  she'd never been inside the Athena cabin.

It was a silvery building, nothing fancy, with plain white curtains and a carved stone owl over the doorway. The owl's onyx eyes seemed to follow her as she walked closer.

"Hello?" She called inside.

Nobody answered. Lucia stepped in and caught her breath. The place was a workshop for brainiac kids. The bunks were all pushed against one wall as if sleeping didn't matter very much. Most of the room was filled with workbenches and tables and sets of tools and weapons. The back of the room was a huge library crammed with old scrolls and leather-bound books and paperbacks.

There was an architect's drafting table with a bunch of rulers and protractors, and some 3-D models of buildings. Huge old war maps were plastered to the ceiling. Sets of armor hung under the windows, their bronze plates glinting in the sun.

Annabeth stood in the back of the room, rifling through old scrolls. "Knock, knock?" Lucia said knocking a snippet of Annabeth's favorite song on a table.

She turned with a start. "Oh...hi. Didn't hear you."

"You okay?"

She frowned at the scroll in her hands. "Just trying to do some research. Daedalus's Labyrinth is so huge. None of the stories agree about anything. The maps just lead from nowhere to nowhere."

"We'll figure it out," Lucia promised.

Her hair had come loose and was hanging in a tangled blond curtain all around her face. Her gray eyes looked almost black.

"I've wanted to lead a quest since I was seven," she said.

"You're going to do amazing beth."

She looked at her gratefully, but then stared down at all the books and scrolls she'd pulled from the shelves. "I'm worried, Lucia. Maybe I shouldn't have asked you to do this. Or Percy Or Tyson or Grover."

"Hey, we're your friends. We want to come"

"You want to come?" She raised an eyebrow

"Well not for the maze" Lucia shuddered "But for you, I wouldn't miss it. If you're all there with me I'll be okay."

"But..." She stopped herself.

"What is it?" Lucia asked. "The prophecy?"

"I'm sure it's fine," she said in a small voice.

"What was the last line?"

Then she did something that surprised Lucia. She blinked back tears and put out her arms.

Lucia stepped forward and hugged her. She let the blonde hide her face in her neck.

"Hey, it's...it's okay." Lucia rubbed her back.

.Annabeth's hair smelled like lemon soap. She was shivering.

"Chiron might be right," she muttered. "I'm breaking the rules. But I don't know what else to do. I need you Four. It just feels right."

"Then don't worry about it," Lucia managed. "You've had plenty of problems before, and you've solved them."

"This is different. I don't want anything happening to...any of you." Behind them, somebody cleared his throat.

It was one of Annabeth's half-brothers, Malcolm. His face was bright red.

"Um, sorry," he said. "Archery practice is starting, Annabeth. Chiron said to come find you."

Lucia stepped away from Annabeth.

"Tell Chiron I'll be right there," Annabeth said, and Malcolm left in a hurry.

Annabeth rubbed her eyes. "You go ahead, Lucy. I'd better get ready for archery."

"Beth?" She said. "About your prophecy. The line about a hero's last breath—"

"You're wondering which hero? I don't know."

"No. Something else. I was thinking the last line usually rhymes with the one before it. Was it something about—did it end in the word death?"

Annabeth stared down at her scrolls. "You'd better go, Lucy. Get ready for the quest. I'll—I'll see you in the morning."

Lucia gave her one last hug before she left her there, staring at maps that led from nowhere to nowhere; but Lucia couldn't shake the feeling that one of them wasn't going to come back from this quest alive.