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FIC: The Impossible Maze, Chpt 8
Title: The Impossible Maze (Daughter of Wisdom 4)
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Tyson, Grover Underwood, Rachel Dare, Nico di Angelo, various others, Gen with developing Percy/Annabeth
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Summary: Annabeth Chase has finally gotten her chance to lead a quest, but the stakes have never been so high. With war on the horizon, she and her friends must navigate the Labyrinth to find its creator and convince him to help Camp Half-Blood. But the Labyrinth is more than just a physical maze-in its twist and turns, Annabeth must not only confront the Titan army’s monsters, but her own fears, hopes, and scariest of all, her developing feelings for her best friend. An alternate PoV retelling of The Battle of the Labyrinth.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: Our Hide And Seek Game Goes Wrong
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Lee Fletcher, Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, plenty of camper cameos
Word Count: 3,195
Chapter Summary: Capture the flag takes an unexpected turn.
Notes: The reference to Silena blowing up a dragon isn't canon, but taken from my earlier fic The Golden Fleece.
Recognisable dialogue in this chapter comes from Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth.
Back to Fic Content Page
Lee Fletcher was on night watch. I found him standing on the porch of the Big House, peering up at the massive shadow hovering in the sky. He looked relieved to see me.
'It's been hanging around for fifteen minutes,' he said. 'It hasn't attacked or anything, so I don't know if it's worth sounding the alarm, but it's seriously creeping me out.'
'We should probably get a closer look,' I said.
Lee and I crept up Half-Blood Hill. At the crest, just beyond the property line, Peleus was growling at the monster-a serpent at least thirty feet long. It looped around the camp perimeter like it was doing an aerial recon. When it swooped back over Thalia's tree, I got a good look at its hideous, reptilian body: gleaming bronze scales, bright green eyes the size of dinner plates, and rows of sharp teeth. It ran up against the barrier and was forced to shoot upwards, climbing towards the moon.
'An Aethiopian drakon!' I'd seen pictures before, but this was the first time I'd seen one up close.
'How do we get rid of it?' Lee asked.
I tried to recall if there were any clues from the old stories about ancient Aethiopian monsters. Perseus had slain Cetus with Medusa's head. Oedipus had tackled the Sphinx by outsmarting her iconic riddle. I didn't think either of those methods was an option with this beast.
The drakon did another loop and came in for an assault on the barriers. Peleus blew a mouthful of flames at it, but the drakon just charged through the fire and snapped at him. Peleus whined and cowered behind Thalia's pine. The drakon hit the barrier and bounced halfway down the hill. I hoped the barrier had fried it, but the drakon just picked itself up and launched back into the air.
'Maybe it'll go away once it realises it can't get in,' Lee said hopefully.
'I don't think so. Look.' I pointed to the drakon's body. What I had taken for scales were actually plated bronze armour. The skin that peeked out between the armour plates was a radioactive acid green.
Random monsters didn't wear armour like this.
We will send them a little playmate to keep them busy.
I grimaced. 'We need to take it down. Aerial combat-that means arrows. Get your siblings.'
A few minutes later, the entire Apollo cabin was gathered, yawning and still in their pyjamas. They fired a volley of warning shots, but the drakon simply bared its teeth and continued looping the camp perimeter.
'We need to show it we actually mean business,' Lee said. 'Get it in the hide.'
'It keeps blocking the light,' Michael Yew complained. 'How are we supposed to aim when we can't see?'
'I got this,' I said. There was a big spotlight in the camp store. Within minutes, I had jimmied the lock (a handy trick Luke had taught me long ago). Will Solace helped me lug the spotlight to the top of Half-Blood Hill. There, I shone the beam over the crest while Apollo's archers took their positions again.
This time, their aim was flawless. They'd obviously been practising hard. The arrows lodged right in the chinks of the drakon's armour.
The monster's roar shook the entire valley. Its hide was clearly made of strong stuff because it didn't disintegrate. It took three rounds of arrows before the drakon finally turned and flew off into the distance.
Several of the archers cheered. I wasn't quite so jubilant. The only thing that had kept the drakon from decimating the valley was our magical barrier. Our best efforts at fighting it off had merely annoyed it. Now, it was probably off to report our weaknesses to Kronos.
To Luke.
If he had a whole army of monsters that were this resistant to attack, we'd be crushed the instant they found a way around the Fleece's protection.
I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night. Half the camp had been roused by the drakon's roar, and it took a while to reassure everyone that we were no longer under attack. By breakfast time, I was ready to collapse into bed again.
As I revived over my second cup of strong, black coffee, I noticed Chiron leading Grover over to the Poseidon table. Tyson got up abruptly and left. I caught him as he passed my table and asked him what was going on.
'Pony man wants goat boy to talk to Percy,' he said, with a nervous glance back at his table.
Chiron patted Grover's shoulder and left him sitting glumly next to Percy. I could think of only one reason why Chiron would have urged him to chat with Percy right away.
I couldn't be left out of this discussion. Especially not after my dream last night.
How am I supposed to help you if you don't tell me anything?
There were strict rules against campers switching tables at mealtimes, but Chiron had already left the pavilion. Mr D wasn't around. The only adult left was Quintus, who'd only been here a week. He probably wouldn't make a fuss if I swapped tables for just a little while.
My mind made up, I got up and went to table three.
'What's he talking about?' Percy was asking Grover.
Grover didn't look keen on the conversation. 'He wants you to convince me.'
I broke in. 'I'll tell you what it's about-the Labyrinth.'
They both looked up. Grover gave me a pained look. Percy's eyes darted from me to the Athena table and back again.
'You're not supposed to be here,' he hissed.
I resisted the urge to hit him in the shoulder. 'We need to talk.'
'But the rules …'
I raised my eyebrows. I knew for a fact that Percy had contraband snacks stashed away in his cabin. Who was he to get all judgey on me about rules? The tops of his ears turned pink. He stared at his breakfast plate.
'Look, Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating.'
I told him everything we'd learnt about the Labyrinth so far: how it stretched underground, connecting cities from coast to coast, acting as a shortcut to anywhere in the world. Halfway through this, I glanced at Clarisse. The other kids at the Ares table were whispering and pointing at us like we were a big joke, but Clarisse met my eyes with an expression that said, great, do we really have to get him involved? I shrugged. She looked back at her food.
I lowered my voice to a whisper and explained the rest of it: Chris turning up in Phoenix, completely insane and obsessed about Ariadne's string; how we'd deduced that Luke had been exploring the maze, but we still didn't know why; and how the Labyrinth could be the key to Grover's problem.
Predictably, Grover's stance on the matter hadn't changed. 'I can't do it. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware.'
'Grover, it may be your last chance,' I reminded him. 'The council is serious.' They'd threatened to make him learn to tap dance if he didn't succeed within the week.
There was a loud ahem from the head table. Quintus was looking right at us. I guess he knew about the no-table-swaps rule after all.
I squeezed Percy's arm as I got up. 'We'll talk later. Convince him, will you?' I jerked my head towards Grover.
My siblings were all staring at me when I returned to my table.
'What?' I said, frowning.
They exchanged knowing looks. Malcolm cleared his throat.
'Well, um …' His eyes darted to Percy's table and back. 'You …'
I rolled my eyes. 'It was important.'
'If you say so,' Malcolm said.
+++
We held our first capture the flag of the summer that evening. All the head counsellors had made the usual cabin alliances, but it turned out that Chiron and Quintus had other plans.
'You will be in teams of two, which have already been chosen,' Quintus told us.
There was a rumble of annoyance, both from the counsellors, whose alliance trades were useless now, and the younger kids, who had started pairing off the moment Quintus mentioned 'teams of two.'
'Your goal is simple.' Quintus held up a circular silk package. 'Collect the gold laurels without dying.' He explained that there were six laurel wreaths, each wrapped inside a silk package and attached to the back of a monster, which we would have to slay to retrieve our prize.
Excitement rustled across the tables. It was the first time the prize for capture the flag could be won by more than one team. There'd be plenty of competition, of course-six prizes among forty pairs-but that was part of the fun.
'I will now announce your partners. There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining.' His gaze rested on me and I knew he was thinking of my table swap this morning. I tried to look innocent. My mind was already running through the best strategy for different potential pairings. If I got Clarisse, we'd focus on close combat. An Apollo kid-Lee, or Michael maybe-would make a good combination: they could provide cover while I went in close. One of the Aphrodite campers would be a challenge, though Silena might not be too bad. I'd seen her blow up a dragon before.
After this morning, I didn't think Quintus would stick me with Percy, so it was a surprise when I heard, 'Percy Jackson with Annabeth Chase.'
'Nice!' Percy turned his brightest, one-dimpled grin on me. The unadulterated joy on his face made my heart flutter.
I hoped I wasn't blushing. Together, we had the best chance of winning. That was all.
'Your armour is crooked,' I said as steadily as I could. He leaned over so I could redo them. My fingers fumbled awkwardly with the straps.
Quintus rolled up his scroll and announced the last pair: 'Grover Underwood with Tyson.'
I'd never seen Tyson turn so pale, not even when he'd faced a seven-headed hydra. And Grover looked as though he'd just been sentenced to life in the Labyrinth.
Quintus silenced their complaints the moment they left their mouths. 'Get with your partner,' he ordered everyone. 'You have two minutes to prepare!'
Tyson sneezed. Percy looked a little worried, watching him and Grover go off together.
'They'll be fine,' I told him. Maybe spending time together was exactly what they needed to see how harmless the other was. 'Come on. Let's worry about how we're going to stay alive.'
I wasn't really worried. Percy and I had this one in the bag.
We trooped into the woods in pairs-Will and Malcolm, Katie and Michael, the younger kids like Lacy and Mitchell paired off with satyrs. Percy and I started following a trail of marks in the dirt that looked like they'd been made by a creature scuttling through the trees.
'I bet it's whatever was in those crates in the sword-fighting arena,' Percy said.
'Yeah, I saw those. Triple-G ranch.'
'Do you know what was inside?'
I shook my head. The creature that had made the tracks looked like it had a lot of legs. Or maybe it was a bunch of creatures moving together.
We followed the trail west, into a wilder part of the woods. I remembered this path. Grover, Clarisse, and I had taken it this spring on a similar capture the flag exercise. A few months before that, I'd come this way with Percy in search of Nico di Angelo.
'This is where … we stopped looking.' I glanced at Percy, wondering if he remembered. It was here, on this ledge, that he'd declared the Great Prophecy would be his.
Percy gazed down at the pond under the ledge. 'I saw him last night,' he said slowly.
My mind leapt to my dream of Luke and Kronos in the Labyrinth. But of course, Percy was talking about Nico. 'What do you mean?'
'I got an Iris-message. Like-a collect call or something. It showed me Nico. He was in the Underworld, talking to a ghost. And it told him he could summon Bianca from the dead by exchanging … well, he said, "a soul for a soul."' Percy gulped. 'I think he's going to try and kill … someone … to get Bianca back.'
The way he said someone, I got the feeling Percy knew exactly who Nico intended to murder, except he was too scared to tell me.
My stomach twisted. Bianca's death was my fault. Did Nico know that, or did he blame Percy?
'He's summoning the dead?' I said at last. 'That's not good.'
'The ghost was giving him bad advice. Telling him to take revenge.'
I pursed my lips, liking the sound of this less and less. It was the same way Kronos had corrupted Luke. And he'd been trying to manipulate Percy and Thalia for years. Nico was the last Big Three kid, Kronos's last chance to get one on his side.
I guess if Nico's advisor had been Kronos, Percy would have sensed it. But Kronos probably wasn't the only unsavoury spirit lurking around.
'Spirits are never good advisors,' I sighed. 'They've got their own agendas. Old grudges. And they resent the living.'
Percy ran his hand through his hair. 'He's going to come after me. The spirit mentioned a maze.'
So Nico did blame Percy. I felt guiltier than ever. And again, the maze-the Labyrinth. It was everywhere. We had to figure it out before Luke did.
Our conversation was cut short by a rustle of leaves and the loud snap of branches. A little further into the woods, something moved. Percy and I both tensed. It looked like we'd found our quarry.
We followed the sound to Zeus's Fist, a pile of boulders that we'd used a couple of times in our games. The clearing was empty when we got there, but I sensed motion a little way to the north.
'Over there.' I pointed into the trees.
'No, wait.' Percy turned around. 'Behind us.'
We stood back to back, swords at the ready, trying to figure out which direction the monster had gone. Then a head popped out among the boulders.
'Hi.'
I nearly ran Juniper through with my sword. She jumped back with a yelp.
'Put those down! Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?'
I sheathed my sword, breathing hard. 'Juniper, what are you doing here?'
'I live here!'
I knit my eyebrows. I could've sworn Juniper's tree had been somewhere else in the woods when we'd first met her.
'In the boulders?' Percy said, confused.
Juniper rolled her eyes and pointed to the trees beyond Zeus's Fist. 'In the juniper. Duh.' She looked at me hopefully. 'Are you guys busy?'
'Well, we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die,' Percy said.
Juniper's lower lip stuck out, like she was going to cry. I elbowed Percy in the ribs. 'We're not busy. What's wrong, Juniper?'
'It's Grover.' Her voice wobbled. 'He seems so distraught. All year he's been looking out for Pan. And every time he comes back, it's worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree.' The thought distressed her so much, green tears leaked from her eyes.
'No,' I said quickly, 'I'm sure that's not it.'
'He had a crush on a blueberry bush once.'
'Juniper,' I said, trying not to think too much about this, 'Grover would never even look at another tree. He's just stressed out about his searcher's license.'
Juniper's eyes bugged out in alarm. 'He can't go underground! You can't let him!'
I was starting to regret getting into this. 'It might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start.'
'Ah. About that …' Juniper shifted her weight from foot to foot. She dropped her gaze, her slanted eyes darting from side to side, almost as if …
As if she knew something.
But before I could press her for more information, the monster emerged from the trees. Juniper saw it first. With a squeaky cry, she vanished, leaving green smoke behind.
Dryads!
I saw the tail first-long, curved, and armoured, with a nasty orange sting. There was no doubt that sting could deliver any amount of painful, paralysing poison. It arched over the scorpion's back, where the red silk package containing our prize was tied. A set of razor-sharp pincers protruded half a foot in front of the scorpion's ugly face.
Percy and I fell into our familiar fighting pattern. This was the best thing about being paired with him. We'd fought together so many times, we didn't even need to discuss our strategy. I reached for my invisibility cap, ready to sneak around and cut off the monster's tail while Percy took point.
Then two more scorpions emerged into the clearing.
'Three?' I gasped. Quintus had said there were only six of them. How was it possible that half the group had come for us?
The game had changed drastically. Percy couldn't possibly take point against three scorpions at once. Even if both of us faced them head on, it would be a struggle to keep them off. We moved into a defensive stance, backing up against a boulder to guard our backs.
'Climb?' Percy suggested.
'No time.' The scorpions were too close. A sting ripped through the air; I met it with my blade. Percy jabbed at our first attacker, but it scuttled back easily.
We moved into the clump of boulders, where there was less space for the scorpions to manoeuvre. It helped us fend them off, but we were getting forced into a dead end among the boulders. If this kept up, we'd be trapped, with no choice but to keep parrying the scorpions' attacks until we tired. We needed a better plan, a way to hide and regroup so that we could come at the monsters one by one.
'In here!' Percy said. He jerked his head towards a gap between two boulders that was less than a foot wide.
'In there?' We wouldn't even have room to swing our swords. Would we even fit, with all our armour? 'It's too narrow.'
'I'll cover you,' Percy insisted. 'Go!'
I could sort of see his point. If we wedged ourselves in deep enough, the scorpions wouldn't be able to follow. Hoping there would indeed be enough space to accommodate us both, I started squeezing into the gap. It was a tight fit, but I managed to shuffle along sideways. My fingers pressed against the rock as I tried to burrow in deeper. The stone shifted with a creak.
Then the floor dropped out from under me. I cried out and flung my hands out reflexively. My fingers closed around Percy's armour strap and just like in my dream, we were falling, falling, into darkness.
Chapter 9
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Tyson, Grover Underwood, Rachel Dare, Nico di Angelo, various others, Gen with developing Percy/Annabeth
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Summary: Annabeth Chase has finally gotten her chance to lead a quest, but the stakes have never been so high. With war on the horizon, she and her friends must navigate the Labyrinth to find its creator and convince him to help Camp Half-Blood. But the Labyrinth is more than just a physical maze-in its twist and turns, Annabeth must not only confront the Titan army’s monsters, but her own fears, hopes, and scariest of all, her developing feelings for her best friend. An alternate PoV retelling of The Battle of the Labyrinth.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: Our Hide And Seek Game Goes Wrong
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Lee Fletcher, Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, plenty of camper cameos
Word Count: 3,195
Chapter Summary: Capture the flag takes an unexpected turn.
Notes: The reference to Silena blowing up a dragon isn't canon, but taken from my earlier fic The Golden Fleece.
Recognisable dialogue in this chapter comes from Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth.
Back to Fic Content Page
Lee Fletcher was on night watch. I found him standing on the porch of the Big House, peering up at the massive shadow hovering in the sky. He looked relieved to see me.
'It's been hanging around for fifteen minutes,' he said. 'It hasn't attacked or anything, so I don't know if it's worth sounding the alarm, but it's seriously creeping me out.'
'We should probably get a closer look,' I said.
Lee and I crept up Half-Blood Hill. At the crest, just beyond the property line, Peleus was growling at the monster-a serpent at least thirty feet long. It looped around the camp perimeter like it was doing an aerial recon. When it swooped back over Thalia's tree, I got a good look at its hideous, reptilian body: gleaming bronze scales, bright green eyes the size of dinner plates, and rows of sharp teeth. It ran up against the barrier and was forced to shoot upwards, climbing towards the moon.
'An Aethiopian drakon!' I'd seen pictures before, but this was the first time I'd seen one up close.
'How do we get rid of it?' Lee asked.
I tried to recall if there were any clues from the old stories about ancient Aethiopian monsters. Perseus had slain Cetus with Medusa's head. Oedipus had tackled the Sphinx by outsmarting her iconic riddle. I didn't think either of those methods was an option with this beast.
The drakon did another loop and came in for an assault on the barriers. Peleus blew a mouthful of flames at it, but the drakon just charged through the fire and snapped at him. Peleus whined and cowered behind Thalia's pine. The drakon hit the barrier and bounced halfway down the hill. I hoped the barrier had fried it, but the drakon just picked itself up and launched back into the air.
'Maybe it'll go away once it realises it can't get in,' Lee said hopefully.
'I don't think so. Look.' I pointed to the drakon's body. What I had taken for scales were actually plated bronze armour. The skin that peeked out between the armour plates was a radioactive acid green.
Random monsters didn't wear armour like this.
We will send them a little playmate to keep them busy.
I grimaced. 'We need to take it down. Aerial combat-that means arrows. Get your siblings.'
A few minutes later, the entire Apollo cabin was gathered, yawning and still in their pyjamas. They fired a volley of warning shots, but the drakon simply bared its teeth and continued looping the camp perimeter.
'We need to show it we actually mean business,' Lee said. 'Get it in the hide.'
'It keeps blocking the light,' Michael Yew complained. 'How are we supposed to aim when we can't see?'
'I got this,' I said. There was a big spotlight in the camp store. Within minutes, I had jimmied the lock (a handy trick Luke had taught me long ago). Will Solace helped me lug the spotlight to the top of Half-Blood Hill. There, I shone the beam over the crest while Apollo's archers took their positions again.
This time, their aim was flawless. They'd obviously been practising hard. The arrows lodged right in the chinks of the drakon's armour.
The monster's roar shook the entire valley. Its hide was clearly made of strong stuff because it didn't disintegrate. It took three rounds of arrows before the drakon finally turned and flew off into the distance.
Several of the archers cheered. I wasn't quite so jubilant. The only thing that had kept the drakon from decimating the valley was our magical barrier. Our best efforts at fighting it off had merely annoyed it. Now, it was probably off to report our weaknesses to Kronos.
To Luke.
If he had a whole army of monsters that were this resistant to attack, we'd be crushed the instant they found a way around the Fleece's protection.
I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night. Half the camp had been roused by the drakon's roar, and it took a while to reassure everyone that we were no longer under attack. By breakfast time, I was ready to collapse into bed again.
As I revived over my second cup of strong, black coffee, I noticed Chiron leading Grover over to the Poseidon table. Tyson got up abruptly and left. I caught him as he passed my table and asked him what was going on.
'Pony man wants goat boy to talk to Percy,' he said, with a nervous glance back at his table.
Chiron patted Grover's shoulder and left him sitting glumly next to Percy. I could think of only one reason why Chiron would have urged him to chat with Percy right away.
I couldn't be left out of this discussion. Especially not after my dream last night.
How am I supposed to help you if you don't tell me anything?
There were strict rules against campers switching tables at mealtimes, but Chiron had already left the pavilion. Mr D wasn't around. The only adult left was Quintus, who'd only been here a week. He probably wouldn't make a fuss if I swapped tables for just a little while.
My mind made up, I got up and went to table three.
'What's he talking about?' Percy was asking Grover.
Grover didn't look keen on the conversation. 'He wants you to convince me.'
I broke in. 'I'll tell you what it's about-the Labyrinth.'
They both looked up. Grover gave me a pained look. Percy's eyes darted from me to the Athena table and back again.
'You're not supposed to be here,' he hissed.
I resisted the urge to hit him in the shoulder. 'We need to talk.'
'But the rules …'
I raised my eyebrows. I knew for a fact that Percy had contraband snacks stashed away in his cabin. Who was he to get all judgey on me about rules? The tops of his ears turned pink. He stared at his breakfast plate.
'Look, Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating.'
I told him everything we'd learnt about the Labyrinth so far: how it stretched underground, connecting cities from coast to coast, acting as a shortcut to anywhere in the world. Halfway through this, I glanced at Clarisse. The other kids at the Ares table were whispering and pointing at us like we were a big joke, but Clarisse met my eyes with an expression that said, great, do we really have to get him involved? I shrugged. She looked back at her food.
I lowered my voice to a whisper and explained the rest of it: Chris turning up in Phoenix, completely insane and obsessed about Ariadne's string; how we'd deduced that Luke had been exploring the maze, but we still didn't know why; and how the Labyrinth could be the key to Grover's problem.
Predictably, Grover's stance on the matter hadn't changed. 'I can't do it. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware.'
'Grover, it may be your last chance,' I reminded him. 'The council is serious.' They'd threatened to make him learn to tap dance if he didn't succeed within the week.
There was a loud ahem from the head table. Quintus was looking right at us. I guess he knew about the no-table-swaps rule after all.
I squeezed Percy's arm as I got up. 'We'll talk later. Convince him, will you?' I jerked my head towards Grover.
My siblings were all staring at me when I returned to my table.
'What?' I said, frowning.
They exchanged knowing looks. Malcolm cleared his throat.
'Well, um …' His eyes darted to Percy's table and back. 'You …'
I rolled my eyes. 'It was important.'
'If you say so,' Malcolm said.
+++
We held our first capture the flag of the summer that evening. All the head counsellors had made the usual cabin alliances, but it turned out that Chiron and Quintus had other plans.
'You will be in teams of two, which have already been chosen,' Quintus told us.
There was a rumble of annoyance, both from the counsellors, whose alliance trades were useless now, and the younger kids, who had started pairing off the moment Quintus mentioned 'teams of two.'
'Your goal is simple.' Quintus held up a circular silk package. 'Collect the gold laurels without dying.' He explained that there were six laurel wreaths, each wrapped inside a silk package and attached to the back of a monster, which we would have to slay to retrieve our prize.
Excitement rustled across the tables. It was the first time the prize for capture the flag could be won by more than one team. There'd be plenty of competition, of course-six prizes among forty pairs-but that was part of the fun.
'I will now announce your partners. There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining.' His gaze rested on me and I knew he was thinking of my table swap this morning. I tried to look innocent. My mind was already running through the best strategy for different potential pairings. If I got Clarisse, we'd focus on close combat. An Apollo kid-Lee, or Michael maybe-would make a good combination: they could provide cover while I went in close. One of the Aphrodite campers would be a challenge, though Silena might not be too bad. I'd seen her blow up a dragon before.
After this morning, I didn't think Quintus would stick me with Percy, so it was a surprise when I heard, 'Percy Jackson with Annabeth Chase.'
'Nice!' Percy turned his brightest, one-dimpled grin on me. The unadulterated joy on his face made my heart flutter.
I hoped I wasn't blushing. Together, we had the best chance of winning. That was all.
'Your armour is crooked,' I said as steadily as I could. He leaned over so I could redo them. My fingers fumbled awkwardly with the straps.
Quintus rolled up his scroll and announced the last pair: 'Grover Underwood with Tyson.'
I'd never seen Tyson turn so pale, not even when he'd faced a seven-headed hydra. And Grover looked as though he'd just been sentenced to life in the Labyrinth.
Quintus silenced their complaints the moment they left their mouths. 'Get with your partner,' he ordered everyone. 'You have two minutes to prepare!'
Tyson sneezed. Percy looked a little worried, watching him and Grover go off together.
'They'll be fine,' I told him. Maybe spending time together was exactly what they needed to see how harmless the other was. 'Come on. Let's worry about how we're going to stay alive.'
I wasn't really worried. Percy and I had this one in the bag.
We trooped into the woods in pairs-Will and Malcolm, Katie and Michael, the younger kids like Lacy and Mitchell paired off with satyrs. Percy and I started following a trail of marks in the dirt that looked like they'd been made by a creature scuttling through the trees.
'I bet it's whatever was in those crates in the sword-fighting arena,' Percy said.
'Yeah, I saw those. Triple-G ranch.'
'Do you know what was inside?'
I shook my head. The creature that had made the tracks looked like it had a lot of legs. Or maybe it was a bunch of creatures moving together.
We followed the trail west, into a wilder part of the woods. I remembered this path. Grover, Clarisse, and I had taken it this spring on a similar capture the flag exercise. A few months before that, I'd come this way with Percy in search of Nico di Angelo.
'This is where … we stopped looking.' I glanced at Percy, wondering if he remembered. It was here, on this ledge, that he'd declared the Great Prophecy would be his.
Percy gazed down at the pond under the ledge. 'I saw him last night,' he said slowly.
My mind leapt to my dream of Luke and Kronos in the Labyrinth. But of course, Percy was talking about Nico. 'What do you mean?'
'I got an Iris-message. Like-a collect call or something. It showed me Nico. He was in the Underworld, talking to a ghost. And it told him he could summon Bianca from the dead by exchanging … well, he said, "a soul for a soul."' Percy gulped. 'I think he's going to try and kill … someone … to get Bianca back.'
The way he said someone, I got the feeling Percy knew exactly who Nico intended to murder, except he was too scared to tell me.
My stomach twisted. Bianca's death was my fault. Did Nico know that, or did he blame Percy?
'He's summoning the dead?' I said at last. 'That's not good.'
'The ghost was giving him bad advice. Telling him to take revenge.'
I pursed my lips, liking the sound of this less and less. It was the same way Kronos had corrupted Luke. And he'd been trying to manipulate Percy and Thalia for years. Nico was the last Big Three kid, Kronos's last chance to get one on his side.
I guess if Nico's advisor had been Kronos, Percy would have sensed it. But Kronos probably wasn't the only unsavoury spirit lurking around.
'Spirits are never good advisors,' I sighed. 'They've got their own agendas. Old grudges. And they resent the living.'
Percy ran his hand through his hair. 'He's going to come after me. The spirit mentioned a maze.'
So Nico did blame Percy. I felt guiltier than ever. And again, the maze-the Labyrinth. It was everywhere. We had to figure it out before Luke did.
Our conversation was cut short by a rustle of leaves and the loud snap of branches. A little further into the woods, something moved. Percy and I both tensed. It looked like we'd found our quarry.
We followed the sound to Zeus's Fist, a pile of boulders that we'd used a couple of times in our games. The clearing was empty when we got there, but I sensed motion a little way to the north.
'Over there.' I pointed into the trees.
'No, wait.' Percy turned around. 'Behind us.'
We stood back to back, swords at the ready, trying to figure out which direction the monster had gone. Then a head popped out among the boulders.
'Hi.'
I nearly ran Juniper through with my sword. She jumped back with a yelp.
'Put those down! Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?'
I sheathed my sword, breathing hard. 'Juniper, what are you doing here?'
'I live here!'
I knit my eyebrows. I could've sworn Juniper's tree had been somewhere else in the woods when we'd first met her.
'In the boulders?' Percy said, confused.
Juniper rolled her eyes and pointed to the trees beyond Zeus's Fist. 'In the juniper. Duh.' She looked at me hopefully. 'Are you guys busy?'
'Well, we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die,' Percy said.
Juniper's lower lip stuck out, like she was going to cry. I elbowed Percy in the ribs. 'We're not busy. What's wrong, Juniper?'
'It's Grover.' Her voice wobbled. 'He seems so distraught. All year he's been looking out for Pan. And every time he comes back, it's worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree.' The thought distressed her so much, green tears leaked from her eyes.
'No,' I said quickly, 'I'm sure that's not it.'
'He had a crush on a blueberry bush once.'
'Juniper,' I said, trying not to think too much about this, 'Grover would never even look at another tree. He's just stressed out about his searcher's license.'
Juniper's eyes bugged out in alarm. 'He can't go underground! You can't let him!'
I was starting to regret getting into this. 'It might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start.'
'Ah. About that …' Juniper shifted her weight from foot to foot. She dropped her gaze, her slanted eyes darting from side to side, almost as if …
As if she knew something.
But before I could press her for more information, the monster emerged from the trees. Juniper saw it first. With a squeaky cry, she vanished, leaving green smoke behind.
Dryads!
I saw the tail first-long, curved, and armoured, with a nasty orange sting. There was no doubt that sting could deliver any amount of painful, paralysing poison. It arched over the scorpion's back, where the red silk package containing our prize was tied. A set of razor-sharp pincers protruded half a foot in front of the scorpion's ugly face.
Percy and I fell into our familiar fighting pattern. This was the best thing about being paired with him. We'd fought together so many times, we didn't even need to discuss our strategy. I reached for my invisibility cap, ready to sneak around and cut off the monster's tail while Percy took point.
Then two more scorpions emerged into the clearing.
'Three?' I gasped. Quintus had said there were only six of them. How was it possible that half the group had come for us?
The game had changed drastically. Percy couldn't possibly take point against three scorpions at once. Even if both of us faced them head on, it would be a struggle to keep them off. We moved into a defensive stance, backing up against a boulder to guard our backs.
'Climb?' Percy suggested.
'No time.' The scorpions were too close. A sting ripped through the air; I met it with my blade. Percy jabbed at our first attacker, but it scuttled back easily.
We moved into the clump of boulders, where there was less space for the scorpions to manoeuvre. It helped us fend them off, but we were getting forced into a dead end among the boulders. If this kept up, we'd be trapped, with no choice but to keep parrying the scorpions' attacks until we tired. We needed a better plan, a way to hide and regroup so that we could come at the monsters one by one.
'In here!' Percy said. He jerked his head towards a gap between two boulders that was less than a foot wide.
'In there?' We wouldn't even have room to swing our swords. Would we even fit, with all our armour? 'It's too narrow.'
'I'll cover you,' Percy insisted. 'Go!'
I could sort of see his point. If we wedged ourselves in deep enough, the scorpions wouldn't be able to follow. Hoping there would indeed be enough space to accommodate us both, I started squeezing into the gap. It was a tight fit, but I managed to shuffle along sideways. My fingers pressed against the rock as I tried to burrow in deeper. The stone shifted with a creak.
Then the floor dropped out from under me. I cried out and flung my hands out reflexively. My fingers closed around Percy's armour strap and just like in my dream, we were falling, falling, into darkness.
Chapter 9