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FIC: The Impossible Maze, Chpt 22
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 Destination Is On The Right
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Rachel Dare, Mrs O'Leary, Ethan Nakamura, Quintus/Daedalus
Word Count: 3,457
Chapter Summary: Annabeth, Percy, and Rachel finally arrive at their goal.
Notes: Canon dialogue comes from BotL. I know the description of the workshop may not be entirely in keeping with Percy's narration, but I figured different things would catch Annabeth's eye, and with her interest in architecture and design, her focus would be on those.
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I should be more specific. It was just one hell that broke loose-one hellhound, to be exact. She ploughed into my Laistrygonian captor from behind, sending him flying into the arena. Then Mrs O'Leary clamped down on Kelli like the empousa was one of the training dummies she enjoyed gnawing to pieces, and flung her across the stadium. Kelli slammed straight into Luke, knocking him back into his seat.
Mrs O'Leary gave me a hopeful look.
'Good dog!' I said faintly.
'Let's go!' Percy yelled.
I didn't waste any more time. My bronze dagger had flown out of the Laistrygonian's hands when Mrs O'Leary mowed him down. I darted into the arena and snatched it up. I was about to run back for the Labyrinth tunnel when Rachel grabbed my arm and tugged me forward instead.
'The far exit! That's the right way!'
There was no time to argue with her. Percy and eye patch boy were already sprinting for the grate under the emperor's podium. Percy found the lever to raise the bars. Mrs O'Leary bounded to his heels in a single leap.
As I crossed the centre of the arena, I got a glimpse of the full Titan army. The monsters packed the spectator stands to the brim. Kelli was still tangled around Luke, but he stared at me with an unreadable expression. Sweat beaded on his forehead. There was something else that made me hesitate, though. Something off about his appearance. Something wrong.
I would have stopped, but Rachel dragged me forward. I passed under the stand, out of Luke's line of sight.
The monster army roared. The ground shook as they leapt the rails in pursuit. I didn't dare look back.
Unlike the tunnel we'd come down, the path ahead was dotted with side passages. Rachel ignored them until we came to one with a metal grate, like a drain cover. She wrenched it away.
'This way!'
The inside looked like a drain, too. It seemed the least likely way to Daedalus. 'Why should we follow you? You led us straight into that death trap!'
'It was the way you needed to go! And so is this. Come on!'
Percy didn't even hesitate. Eye patch boy was already barrelling ahead. Evidently he had no qualms trusting a crazy stranger.
Behind us, the tunnel thundered with the footsteps of the pursuing army. I made a face and dove into the drain hatch after Percy and Rachel. Mrs O'Leary thumped along behind me. I heard her quick, eager breath panting along, then she stopped, gave a little whine, and turned away down the tunnel.
Had she heard something? Gone back to slow the monsters down? How had she even shown up in the maze? The last I'd seen of her, she'd been curled up in a miserable ball in the sword-fighting arena, nipping at everyone who wasn't Quintus.
Quintus was down here, too. It had been four days since he'd disappeared into the entrance at Zeus's Fist. Had he sent Mrs O'Leary? Percy had said Luke was counting on him, but what if Quintus had double-crossed Luke instead?
'Percy-'
'It's okay!' he yelled back. 'Rachel knows what she's doing.'
Rachel pressed forward without hesitation. I couldn't believe how confident she was, after her insane choice had nearly gotten us killed in that arena. Left and right and left and left again … past a deep, foul-smelling ditch, a two-foot crevice we had to leap over, an axe that swung out of nowhere, nearly decapitating us … We ducked and continued running. I heard the unmistakable thud of it slamming into the monsters on our tail.
I couldn't help being mildly impressed by Rachel's stamina. For an untrained mortal, she sure could run. Then I felt pissed off again.
We finally stopped in a room that was a cross between an old-fashioned bank and a training gym. It had marble columns resembling the Chase Manhattan in Brooklyn, but dusty tumbling mats lined the concrete walls. The tunnel behind us was silent. We'd lost our pursuers.
Rachel bent over double, wheezing. I brushed my hair out of my eyes and tried to look like our mad dash through the tunnels hadn't winded me at all.
Eye patch kid sank to the ground, breathing hard. With his heavy armour, our sprint must have been hardest for him. His hair, dark as midnight, was plastered to his sweaty face. He removed his helmet, and I realised I knew him.
'I remember you! You were one of the undetermined kids in Hermes cabin years ago!' It must have been almost five years back … the year of Luke's quest. He'd arrived in the middle of Luke's disgrace and disappeared before the end of summer. I was pretty sure he hadn't had the eye patch then.
The sulky look he cast me hadn't changed. 'Yeah,' he growled, 'and you're Annabeth.'
I was astonished that he remembered. We'd had, maybe, one conversation? I struggled for his name. Edward? No, Ethan. Ethan something.
'What-what happened to your eye?' I asked.
Ethan somehow managed to scowl even harder. He didn't answer.
Percy jumped in. 'You must be the half-blood from my dream-the one Luke's people cornered. It wasn't Nico after all.'
Ethan adjusted his armour. There was a strange symbol on his breastplate, the picture of a curved blade sitting above his heart. 'Who's Nico?' he said disinterestedly.
'Never mind,' I said, before Percy could give Nico away. We didn't know yet why Ethan was wandering in the Labyrinth. I stared at the insignia on his armour and a horrible idea dawned on me. 'Why were you trying to join up with the wrong side?'
Ethan confirmed my suspicions right away. 'There's no right side. The gods never cared about us. Why shouldn't I-'
'Sign up with an army that makes you fight to the death for entertainment?'
Ethan looked away. I snorted. 'Gee, I wonder.'
'I'm not going to argue with you.' Ethan's voice was short and clipped. He got up, ignoring Percy's outstretched hand. 'Thanks for the help, but I'm out of here.'
Percy didn't stop trying. 'We're going after Daedalus. Come with us. Once we get through, you'd be welcome back at camp.'
'You really are crazy if you think Daedalus will help you,' Ethan said, still ignoring Percy's overture.
'He has to! We'll make him listen.' Then I noticed Ethan had said, if you think Daedalus will help you. Not, if you think you can find him.
But Ethan didn't stick around for me to press him for more information. He threw Percy off like he'd offended him, as if we hadn't just rescued him from death by arena. And then he delivered the most chilling line of all: 'You shouldn't have spared me, Jackson. Mercy has no place in this war.'
We watched the back of his armour disappear down the tunnels. It was a long time before his footsteps faded away.
When we turned around, Rachel had dragged one of the tumbling mats over and plopped down on it.
'You okay?' Percy asked.
She nodded glumly.
'I'm really sorry about the arena,' he said.
'Oh, because you were the one who led us into a death trap,' I spat.
Percy looked at me pleadingly. Rachel didn't even look up. She was brushing the last flakes of golden glitter out of her hair with a blue plastic hairbrush. For some reason, this made me even angrier. I put my hands on my hips. 'So what now?'
'I guess we're all tired. Why don't we camp here for the night? Rachel's already found us the mats.'
'Well, good for her.'
Percy sighed and dragged some broken wooden crates over from a corner. I found a match and some crumpled paper in my knapsack and started the fire. In truth, I was exhausted from all the running around, even if I wasn't going to admit it to Percy and Rachel.
For a while, nobody spoke. The firelight flickered over Percy's face, turning the grey streak in his hair pale gold. It struck me then what had been weird about Luke. His hair-it had been all blond again, without the grey that had been threaded through it the last time I'd seen him. He'd lost the matching streak to Percy's and mine.
And although he must have been wandering the Labyrinth for days, he hadn't looked at all tired or bedraggled, like us. Physically, he could have just stepped out of an energising spa. He'd glowed with more perfection than Percy had on Calypso's island. But the way he'd behaved, all jittery, like he was barely keeping everything together …
A thin plank cracked and fell out of the fire. I poked it back in with my knife.
Percy looked at me curiously. I realised I'd been muttering to myself. 'Did you notice the way he was acting?' I asked.
He didn't need me to specify who. 'He looked pretty pleased to me. Like he'd spent a nice day torturing heroes.'
I glared at him. 'That's not true!' He'd obviously been trying to win Antaeus's favour. But there was more to it than that. 'There was something wrong with him,' I insisted. 'He looked … nervous.' And he'd said to spare me. 'He wanted to tell me something.'
I just want five minutes to talk. My blade seemed to burn with my desperate curiosity. What had Luke wanted to say to me?
Percy snorted. 'Probably, Hi, Annabeth! Sit here with me and watch while I tear your friends apart. It'll be fun!'
He was impossible. So he wouldn't let me gripe about Rachel's abysmal directions, but it was okay for him to snark about Luke?
Rachel still hadn't said anything. She was drawing on the floor with the end of a burnt stick, totally unconcerned about what we were discussing. Irritation swelled inside me. The way Percy looked at her, full of concern, like she was this innocent princess we'd dragged along with us … I wanted her to snap back at me, to quit acting so forlorn. I wanted to stamp all over her stupid pictures-drawing monsters, couldn't she have drawn something more useful, like a map?
I shoved my dagger back into its sheath more forcefully than I'd intended. 'So which way now, Sacagawea?'
Rachel didn't rise to my bait. She added a few more strokes to her ash drawing before she said, quietly, 'We'll follow the path. The brightness on the floor.'
'The brightness that led us straight into a trap?'
Predictably, Percy jumped to her defence. 'Lay off her, Annabeth. She's doing the best she can.'
My mouth tasted like it was full of coal. If I could, I'd have spit fire. I got up. If Percy wanted Rachel to play our strategy, they could do it without me.
There were more broken crates near the entrance to the room. I started to pile them up, but I glanced behind me first, to where Percy and Rachel sat by the firelight. Their heads leaned in close as they talked. Rachel pointed in the other direction, towards the dark exit on the far side of the room.
I pressed my lips tightly together.
You could go back, said a voice in my head. Find Luke. Find out what he wanted to tell you.
I could go off on my own. Leave Percy and his new girlfriend. If he trusted her so much, she could help him finish the quest.
My fingernails dug into my palms. The image of Janus flickered before the door. I heard myself shouting in the heart of Mount St Helens: 'I choose Percy!'
I sighed and turned around, gathering up the wood scraps in my arms. What was I even thinking? This was still my quest, even if Percy had talked me into letting a useless mortal tag along.
When I returned, Rachel was curled up on the tumbling mat with her backpack under her head. Percy was staring guiltily at her. I threw the new wood onto the fire and announced that I'd take the first watch.
Percy tore his eyes away from Rachel's sleeping form. 'You don't have to act like that.'
'Like what?' I said crossly. If Percy wanted to accuse me of something, he'd better come right out and say it.
'Like … never mind.' He turned away and lay down by the fire, closing his eyes.
I stoked the fire with my dagger. My anger simmered inside me, like a pot of soup ready to boil over. Rachel's pictures were all over the floor. I had to admit, grudgingly, that she had skill. She'd managed to render the arena perfectly in ash. There was a dracaenae, and the Laistrygonian holding me captive, and Antaeus bound up in chains. That must have been what Percy had done on the ceiling. And there was Percy himself, a little ash figure with a sword. Despite my annoyance, I couldn't bring myself to wipe the surface clean.
It wasn't fair. Rachel had everything already-artistic talent, a normal life, even the navigational gift I'd begged every god we'd encountered to grant me. Why did she have to get my best friend, too?
Two years we'd been friends; Percy hadn't even known her for two weeks.
No, not exactly. He'd met her before, hadn't he? At Hoover Dam, he'd said. A place he knew I'd always wanted to see.
I wrapped my arms around my knees and stared into the fire. The outline of a little girl flickered in it, a goddess with rosy cheeks and embers for eyes. Hestia, goddess of the hearth, who'd once told me she appeared to those of us who were desperate for home.
But where was my home? Was it camp, which was under threat? Or San Francisco with my family, in the shadow of Mount Othrys?
Family.
I turned my dagger over. It was Luke's promise to me, the one he'd broken. What had he wanted to tell me? I'd probably never know. Either we'd find Daedalus and save camp, or we'd fail and Luke's army would attack. In either case, I'd lost my chance to speak to him. Just like in San Francisco, I'd chosen to walk away.
It's because of him. You choose Percy.
I felt like I had in the wreckage of Hephaestus's forge, like the choice I'd made had been ripped away from me anyway.
The memory was so vivid, I could feel the swaying of the lava platform. Then I realised the tremors were real. The floor was actually vibrating. Cracks formed at the edges of the walls, moving inwards.
I grabbed Percy's shoulder. 'Wake up! Percy! Wake up!'
He jerked upright. 'Tyson!' he gasped inexplicably. 'Tyson's in trouble! We have to help him!'
He must have had a dream. But we had no time to talk about it now. 'First things first-earthquake!'
We roused Rachel and ran for it, tripping and stumbling over the bucking floor. The marble columns splintered and crashed to the ground. I had a sickening recollection of the dark sky falling, falling on my shoulders. Then we burst through the exit. The room collapsed into dust and rubble behind us.
I glared at Rachel. How many near-death experiences did she intend to lead us into?
'You know what?' I said sarcastically. 'I like this way after all.'
She took a deep breath. 'Good, because we're almost there.'
We continued through the maze without talking. This tunnel was the most modern of all the ones we'd been in, with fluorescent lighting and aluminium panelling. I felt sure we were completely off course. But Rachel took off once we emerged into a section like an industrial catwalk, paved with stainless-steel gratings. 'This way! We're close!'
'This is so wrong!' I complained. The tunnel smelt like a brand new factory, all metalwork and polish. 'The workshop should be in the oldest section of the maze. This can't …'
My voice trailed off when I saw it: the blue Delta staring me in the face. 'This can't be …'
Rachel stopped before the double doors. 'We're here-Daedalus's workshop.'
Like all the other Labyrinth entrances, the doors opened at my touch. I didn't quite believe we'd really arrived until we stepped inside. And then I couldn't imagine it was anything else.
The place was an inventor's dream. It was even bigger than Hephaestus's workshop, bursting with light and colour and the coolest gadgets you could imagine. I didn't know where to look first. Everywhere I turned, from the ground to the open loft, a new item caught my eye. There was a corner with miniature architectural mock-ups, model buildings that were an astounding combination of organic and classical styles. A wireless lightbulb floated half a foot in the air above a wooden platform. Little round solar panels were suctioned to the window, with charger wires connected to laptop computers and portable disc players on a nearby workstation.
Even the room was a masterpiece in itself, with large bay windows that let the sunshine stream in at just the right angle and a spiral staircase that doubled up as storage shelves.
'Di immortales,' I gasped, fixating on the sketches that stared at me from easels all around the room. I couldn't tear my eyes away from them. One was a plan for the most intriguing building imaginable, all curves and flexible supports-functional and beautiful. 'He's a genius.'
'And an artist.' Rachel reached out to touch a set of metal wings hanging off pegs on the wall. They were made of bronze and silver, but managed to look light and airy all the same. Their interlocking feathers caught the sun and threw bursts of light across the room.
A lump rose in my throat. It wasn't fair. How could one man have all these ideas, be so brilliant at so many things?
Percy wandered over to the window. 'Where are we?'
'Colorado Springs,' said a familiar voice. I turned from the fascinating architectural sketch. In our admiration of the workshop, we hadn't noticed him emerge from the shadows of the loft.
Quintus came down the spiral staircase, his sword at the ready. 'The Garden of the Gods,' he said, nodding at the view outside.
I couldn't care less where we were. We'd finally reached Daedalus's workshop … but the traitor had gotten here first.
'You. What have you done with Daedalus?'
'Trust me, my dear,' Quintus said, 'you don't want to meet him.'
'Look, Mr Traitor, I didn't fight a dragon woman and a three-bodied man and-and a psychotic Sphinx to see you.' I pulled my dagger. 'Now where is Daedalus?'
Quintus kept on walking calmly down the stairs. 'You think I'm an agent of Kronos. That I work for Luke.'
'Well, duh.' I looked around for Mrs O'Leary, but besides us, the room was empty. Had that been another trick, sending the hellhound to our aid in the arena?
Quintus nodded. 'You're an intelligent girl. But you're wrong. I work only for myself.'
'Luke mentioned you!' Percy said. 'Geryon knew about you, too.'
The scorpions. They'd been loose the day Quintus had disappeared … a distraction after all.
'Of course. I've been almost everywhere,' Quintus said lightly. 'Even here.'
I remembered him mentioning that. I'd assumed he'd had a brush with the Labyrinth, a harrowing escape like Clarisse and Chris. He'd let us believe that. But it obviously wasn't true. He knew the Labyrinth a lot better than he'd let on.
He could have guided us to our goal all along.
Quintus strolled to the window, like he was just here to admire the view. He even mused about it, the different locations he'd watched it travel in the past few days. He must have been here ever since he'd left camp.
'That's an illusion out there?' Percy said. 'A projection or something?'
'No, it's real,' Rachel said. 'We're really in Colorado.'
Quintus studied her intently. 'You have clear vision, don't you?' A faraway look came into his eyes. 'You remind me of another mortal girl I once knew. Another princess who came to grief.'
His words made me shiver. They were heavy and sad, the way Chiron sounded when he spoke of heroes he'd known a long time ago. I thought of Ariadne running into Daedalus's arms, laughing as he spun her around.
'What have you done with Daedalus?' Percy demanded.
'My boy …' Quintus sighed. 'You need lessons from your friend on seeing clearly.' But it was me his gaze drifted to, not Rachel. A second before he said it, I knew what he was going to admit.
'I am Daedalus.'
Chapter 23
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 Destination Is On The Right
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Rachel Dare, Mrs O'Leary, Ethan Nakamura, Quintus/Daedalus
Word Count: 3,457
Chapter Summary: Annabeth, Percy, and Rachel finally arrive at their goal.
Notes: Canon dialogue comes from BotL. I know the description of the workshop may not be entirely in keeping with Percy's narration, but I figured different things would catch Annabeth's eye, and with her interest in architecture and design, her focus would be on those.
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I should be more specific. It was just one hell that broke loose-one hellhound, to be exact. She ploughed into my Laistrygonian captor from behind, sending him flying into the arena. Then Mrs O'Leary clamped down on Kelli like the empousa was one of the training dummies she enjoyed gnawing to pieces, and flung her across the stadium. Kelli slammed straight into Luke, knocking him back into his seat.
Mrs O'Leary gave me a hopeful look.
'Good dog!' I said faintly.
'Let's go!' Percy yelled.
I didn't waste any more time. My bronze dagger had flown out of the Laistrygonian's hands when Mrs O'Leary mowed him down. I darted into the arena and snatched it up. I was about to run back for the Labyrinth tunnel when Rachel grabbed my arm and tugged me forward instead.
'The far exit! That's the right way!'
There was no time to argue with her. Percy and eye patch boy were already sprinting for the grate under the emperor's podium. Percy found the lever to raise the bars. Mrs O'Leary bounded to his heels in a single leap.
As I crossed the centre of the arena, I got a glimpse of the full Titan army. The monsters packed the spectator stands to the brim. Kelli was still tangled around Luke, but he stared at me with an unreadable expression. Sweat beaded on his forehead. There was something else that made me hesitate, though. Something off about his appearance. Something wrong.
I would have stopped, but Rachel dragged me forward. I passed under the stand, out of Luke's line of sight.
The monster army roared. The ground shook as they leapt the rails in pursuit. I didn't dare look back.
Unlike the tunnel we'd come down, the path ahead was dotted with side passages. Rachel ignored them until we came to one with a metal grate, like a drain cover. She wrenched it away.
'This way!'
The inside looked like a drain, too. It seemed the least likely way to Daedalus. 'Why should we follow you? You led us straight into that death trap!'
'It was the way you needed to go! And so is this. Come on!'
Percy didn't even hesitate. Eye patch boy was already barrelling ahead. Evidently he had no qualms trusting a crazy stranger.
Behind us, the tunnel thundered with the footsteps of the pursuing army. I made a face and dove into the drain hatch after Percy and Rachel. Mrs O'Leary thumped along behind me. I heard her quick, eager breath panting along, then she stopped, gave a little whine, and turned away down the tunnel.
Had she heard something? Gone back to slow the monsters down? How had she even shown up in the maze? The last I'd seen of her, she'd been curled up in a miserable ball in the sword-fighting arena, nipping at everyone who wasn't Quintus.
Quintus was down here, too. It had been four days since he'd disappeared into the entrance at Zeus's Fist. Had he sent Mrs O'Leary? Percy had said Luke was counting on him, but what if Quintus had double-crossed Luke instead?
'Percy-'
'It's okay!' he yelled back. 'Rachel knows what she's doing.'
Rachel pressed forward without hesitation. I couldn't believe how confident she was, after her insane choice had nearly gotten us killed in that arena. Left and right and left and left again … past a deep, foul-smelling ditch, a two-foot crevice we had to leap over, an axe that swung out of nowhere, nearly decapitating us … We ducked and continued running. I heard the unmistakable thud of it slamming into the monsters on our tail.
I couldn't help being mildly impressed by Rachel's stamina. For an untrained mortal, she sure could run. Then I felt pissed off again.
We finally stopped in a room that was a cross between an old-fashioned bank and a training gym. It had marble columns resembling the Chase Manhattan in Brooklyn, but dusty tumbling mats lined the concrete walls. The tunnel behind us was silent. We'd lost our pursuers.
Rachel bent over double, wheezing. I brushed my hair out of my eyes and tried to look like our mad dash through the tunnels hadn't winded me at all.
Eye patch kid sank to the ground, breathing hard. With his heavy armour, our sprint must have been hardest for him. His hair, dark as midnight, was plastered to his sweaty face. He removed his helmet, and I realised I knew him.
'I remember you! You were one of the undetermined kids in Hermes cabin years ago!' It must have been almost five years back … the year of Luke's quest. He'd arrived in the middle of Luke's disgrace and disappeared before the end of summer. I was pretty sure he hadn't had the eye patch then.
The sulky look he cast me hadn't changed. 'Yeah,' he growled, 'and you're Annabeth.'
I was astonished that he remembered. We'd had, maybe, one conversation? I struggled for his name. Edward? No, Ethan. Ethan something.
'What-what happened to your eye?' I asked.
Ethan somehow managed to scowl even harder. He didn't answer.
Percy jumped in. 'You must be the half-blood from my dream-the one Luke's people cornered. It wasn't Nico after all.'
Ethan adjusted his armour. There was a strange symbol on his breastplate, the picture of a curved blade sitting above his heart. 'Who's Nico?' he said disinterestedly.
'Never mind,' I said, before Percy could give Nico away. We didn't know yet why Ethan was wandering in the Labyrinth. I stared at the insignia on his armour and a horrible idea dawned on me. 'Why were you trying to join up with the wrong side?'
Ethan confirmed my suspicions right away. 'There's no right side. The gods never cared about us. Why shouldn't I-'
'Sign up with an army that makes you fight to the death for entertainment?'
Ethan looked away. I snorted. 'Gee, I wonder.'
'I'm not going to argue with you.' Ethan's voice was short and clipped. He got up, ignoring Percy's outstretched hand. 'Thanks for the help, but I'm out of here.'
Percy didn't stop trying. 'We're going after Daedalus. Come with us. Once we get through, you'd be welcome back at camp.'
'You really are crazy if you think Daedalus will help you,' Ethan said, still ignoring Percy's overture.
'He has to! We'll make him listen.' Then I noticed Ethan had said, if you think Daedalus will help you. Not, if you think you can find him.
But Ethan didn't stick around for me to press him for more information. He threw Percy off like he'd offended him, as if we hadn't just rescued him from death by arena. And then he delivered the most chilling line of all: 'You shouldn't have spared me, Jackson. Mercy has no place in this war.'
We watched the back of his armour disappear down the tunnels. It was a long time before his footsteps faded away.
When we turned around, Rachel had dragged one of the tumbling mats over and plopped down on it.
'You okay?' Percy asked.
She nodded glumly.
'I'm really sorry about the arena,' he said.
'Oh, because you were the one who led us into a death trap,' I spat.
Percy looked at me pleadingly. Rachel didn't even look up. She was brushing the last flakes of golden glitter out of her hair with a blue plastic hairbrush. For some reason, this made me even angrier. I put my hands on my hips. 'So what now?'
'I guess we're all tired. Why don't we camp here for the night? Rachel's already found us the mats.'
'Well, good for her.'
Percy sighed and dragged some broken wooden crates over from a corner. I found a match and some crumpled paper in my knapsack and started the fire. In truth, I was exhausted from all the running around, even if I wasn't going to admit it to Percy and Rachel.
For a while, nobody spoke. The firelight flickered over Percy's face, turning the grey streak in his hair pale gold. It struck me then what had been weird about Luke. His hair-it had been all blond again, without the grey that had been threaded through it the last time I'd seen him. He'd lost the matching streak to Percy's and mine.
And although he must have been wandering the Labyrinth for days, he hadn't looked at all tired or bedraggled, like us. Physically, he could have just stepped out of an energising spa. He'd glowed with more perfection than Percy had on Calypso's island. But the way he'd behaved, all jittery, like he was barely keeping everything together …
A thin plank cracked and fell out of the fire. I poked it back in with my knife.
Percy looked at me curiously. I realised I'd been muttering to myself. 'Did you notice the way he was acting?' I asked.
He didn't need me to specify who. 'He looked pretty pleased to me. Like he'd spent a nice day torturing heroes.'
I glared at him. 'That's not true!' He'd obviously been trying to win Antaeus's favour. But there was more to it than that. 'There was something wrong with him,' I insisted. 'He looked … nervous.' And he'd said to spare me. 'He wanted to tell me something.'
I just want five minutes to talk. My blade seemed to burn with my desperate curiosity. What had Luke wanted to say to me?
Percy snorted. 'Probably, Hi, Annabeth! Sit here with me and watch while I tear your friends apart. It'll be fun!'
He was impossible. So he wouldn't let me gripe about Rachel's abysmal directions, but it was okay for him to snark about Luke?
Rachel still hadn't said anything. She was drawing on the floor with the end of a burnt stick, totally unconcerned about what we were discussing. Irritation swelled inside me. The way Percy looked at her, full of concern, like she was this innocent princess we'd dragged along with us … I wanted her to snap back at me, to quit acting so forlorn. I wanted to stamp all over her stupid pictures-drawing monsters, couldn't she have drawn something more useful, like a map?
I shoved my dagger back into its sheath more forcefully than I'd intended. 'So which way now, Sacagawea?'
Rachel didn't rise to my bait. She added a few more strokes to her ash drawing before she said, quietly, 'We'll follow the path. The brightness on the floor.'
'The brightness that led us straight into a trap?'
Predictably, Percy jumped to her defence. 'Lay off her, Annabeth. She's doing the best she can.'
My mouth tasted like it was full of coal. If I could, I'd have spit fire. I got up. If Percy wanted Rachel to play our strategy, they could do it without me.
There were more broken crates near the entrance to the room. I started to pile them up, but I glanced behind me first, to where Percy and Rachel sat by the firelight. Their heads leaned in close as they talked. Rachel pointed in the other direction, towards the dark exit on the far side of the room.
I pressed my lips tightly together.
You could go back, said a voice in my head. Find Luke. Find out what he wanted to tell you.
I could go off on my own. Leave Percy and his new girlfriend. If he trusted her so much, she could help him finish the quest.
My fingernails dug into my palms. The image of Janus flickered before the door. I heard myself shouting in the heart of Mount St Helens: 'I choose Percy!'
I sighed and turned around, gathering up the wood scraps in my arms. What was I even thinking? This was still my quest, even if Percy had talked me into letting a useless mortal tag along.
When I returned, Rachel was curled up on the tumbling mat with her backpack under her head. Percy was staring guiltily at her. I threw the new wood onto the fire and announced that I'd take the first watch.
Percy tore his eyes away from Rachel's sleeping form. 'You don't have to act like that.'
'Like what?' I said crossly. If Percy wanted to accuse me of something, he'd better come right out and say it.
'Like … never mind.' He turned away and lay down by the fire, closing his eyes.
I stoked the fire with my dagger. My anger simmered inside me, like a pot of soup ready to boil over. Rachel's pictures were all over the floor. I had to admit, grudgingly, that she had skill. She'd managed to render the arena perfectly in ash. There was a dracaenae, and the Laistrygonian holding me captive, and Antaeus bound up in chains. That must have been what Percy had done on the ceiling. And there was Percy himself, a little ash figure with a sword. Despite my annoyance, I couldn't bring myself to wipe the surface clean.
It wasn't fair. Rachel had everything already-artistic talent, a normal life, even the navigational gift I'd begged every god we'd encountered to grant me. Why did she have to get my best friend, too?
Two years we'd been friends; Percy hadn't even known her for two weeks.
No, not exactly. He'd met her before, hadn't he? At Hoover Dam, he'd said. A place he knew I'd always wanted to see.
I wrapped my arms around my knees and stared into the fire. The outline of a little girl flickered in it, a goddess with rosy cheeks and embers for eyes. Hestia, goddess of the hearth, who'd once told me she appeared to those of us who were desperate for home.
But where was my home? Was it camp, which was under threat? Or San Francisco with my family, in the shadow of Mount Othrys?
Family.
I turned my dagger over. It was Luke's promise to me, the one he'd broken. What had he wanted to tell me? I'd probably never know. Either we'd find Daedalus and save camp, or we'd fail and Luke's army would attack. In either case, I'd lost my chance to speak to him. Just like in San Francisco, I'd chosen to walk away.
It's because of him. You choose Percy.
I felt like I had in the wreckage of Hephaestus's forge, like the choice I'd made had been ripped away from me anyway.
The memory was so vivid, I could feel the swaying of the lava platform. Then I realised the tremors were real. The floor was actually vibrating. Cracks formed at the edges of the walls, moving inwards.
I grabbed Percy's shoulder. 'Wake up! Percy! Wake up!'
He jerked upright. 'Tyson!' he gasped inexplicably. 'Tyson's in trouble! We have to help him!'
He must have had a dream. But we had no time to talk about it now. 'First things first-earthquake!'
We roused Rachel and ran for it, tripping and stumbling over the bucking floor. The marble columns splintered and crashed to the ground. I had a sickening recollection of the dark sky falling, falling on my shoulders. Then we burst through the exit. The room collapsed into dust and rubble behind us.
I glared at Rachel. How many near-death experiences did she intend to lead us into?
'You know what?' I said sarcastically. 'I like this way after all.'
She took a deep breath. 'Good, because we're almost there.'
We continued through the maze without talking. This tunnel was the most modern of all the ones we'd been in, with fluorescent lighting and aluminium panelling. I felt sure we were completely off course. But Rachel took off once we emerged into a section like an industrial catwalk, paved with stainless-steel gratings. 'This way! We're close!'
'This is so wrong!' I complained. The tunnel smelt like a brand new factory, all metalwork and polish. 'The workshop should be in the oldest section of the maze. This can't …'
My voice trailed off when I saw it: the blue Delta staring me in the face. 'This can't be …'
Rachel stopped before the double doors. 'We're here-Daedalus's workshop.'
Like all the other Labyrinth entrances, the doors opened at my touch. I didn't quite believe we'd really arrived until we stepped inside. And then I couldn't imagine it was anything else.
The place was an inventor's dream. It was even bigger than Hephaestus's workshop, bursting with light and colour and the coolest gadgets you could imagine. I didn't know where to look first. Everywhere I turned, from the ground to the open loft, a new item caught my eye. There was a corner with miniature architectural mock-ups, model buildings that were an astounding combination of organic and classical styles. A wireless lightbulb floated half a foot in the air above a wooden platform. Little round solar panels were suctioned to the window, with charger wires connected to laptop computers and portable disc players on a nearby workstation.
Even the room was a masterpiece in itself, with large bay windows that let the sunshine stream in at just the right angle and a spiral staircase that doubled up as storage shelves.
'Di immortales,' I gasped, fixating on the sketches that stared at me from easels all around the room. I couldn't tear my eyes away from them. One was a plan for the most intriguing building imaginable, all curves and flexible supports-functional and beautiful. 'He's a genius.'
'And an artist.' Rachel reached out to touch a set of metal wings hanging off pegs on the wall. They were made of bronze and silver, but managed to look light and airy all the same. Their interlocking feathers caught the sun and threw bursts of light across the room.
A lump rose in my throat. It wasn't fair. How could one man have all these ideas, be so brilliant at so many things?
Percy wandered over to the window. 'Where are we?'
'Colorado Springs,' said a familiar voice. I turned from the fascinating architectural sketch. In our admiration of the workshop, we hadn't noticed him emerge from the shadows of the loft.
Quintus came down the spiral staircase, his sword at the ready. 'The Garden of the Gods,' he said, nodding at the view outside.
I couldn't care less where we were. We'd finally reached Daedalus's workshop … but the traitor had gotten here first.
'You. What have you done with Daedalus?'
'Trust me, my dear,' Quintus said, 'you don't want to meet him.'
'Look, Mr Traitor, I didn't fight a dragon woman and a three-bodied man and-and a psychotic Sphinx to see you.' I pulled my dagger. 'Now where is Daedalus?'
Quintus kept on walking calmly down the stairs. 'You think I'm an agent of Kronos. That I work for Luke.'
'Well, duh.' I looked around for Mrs O'Leary, but besides us, the room was empty. Had that been another trick, sending the hellhound to our aid in the arena?
Quintus nodded. 'You're an intelligent girl. But you're wrong. I work only for myself.'
'Luke mentioned you!' Percy said. 'Geryon knew about you, too.'
The scorpions. They'd been loose the day Quintus had disappeared … a distraction after all.
'Of course. I've been almost everywhere,' Quintus said lightly. 'Even here.'
I remembered him mentioning that. I'd assumed he'd had a brush with the Labyrinth, a harrowing escape like Clarisse and Chris. He'd let us believe that. But it obviously wasn't true. He knew the Labyrinth a lot better than he'd let on.
He could have guided us to our goal all along.
Quintus strolled to the window, like he was just here to admire the view. He even mused about it, the different locations he'd watched it travel in the past few days. He must have been here ever since he'd left camp.
'That's an illusion out there?' Percy said. 'A projection or something?'
'No, it's real,' Rachel said. 'We're really in Colorado.'
Quintus studied her intently. 'You have clear vision, don't you?' A faraway look came into his eyes. 'You remind me of another mortal girl I once knew. Another princess who came to grief.'
His words made me shiver. They were heavy and sad, the way Chiron sounded when he spoke of heroes he'd known a long time ago. I thought of Ariadne running into Daedalus's arms, laughing as he spun her around.
'What have you done with Daedalus?' Percy demanded.
'My boy …' Quintus sighed. 'You need lessons from your friend on seeing clearly.' But it was me his gaze drifted to, not Rachel. A second before he said it, I knew what he was going to admit.
'I am Daedalus.'
Chapter 23