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FIC: The Impossible Maze, Chpt 25
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: Grover Grows His Horns
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Rachel Dare, Nico di Angelo, Grover Underwood, Tyson, Pan
Word Count: 4,219
Chapter Summary: An expiring god gives everyone a mission.
Notes: Canon dialogue comes from BotL.
Back to Fic Content Page
Luke's face haunted me as we ran. It kept changing before me, bewilderment into something harsh and cold, blue eyes fading to metallic gold. Back and forth, shifting between himself and the strange … thing that looked human, but was … not.
What had Kronos done to him?
Kronos is going to use me.
I would speak to her before our great triumph.
I felt sick. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe. If it hadn't been for Percy pushing me along, half-carrying me down the tunnels, I would have collapsed in tears. Was this what Luke had been trying to tell me? That Kronos had intended to turn him into this … what was he, an automaton?
Something under Kronos's control.
Oh, why had he gone back to Kronos?
Could I have prevented it?
I saw Kelli smirking at me in the arena. So you're the one.
The executioner's blade glinted over a doorway, with Luke trapped underneath. Only now it was Kronos's scythe, wicked and threatening. Janus hovered in front of him.
One choice can ruin your life, kill all your friends.
But how could I choose wisely when every path that led from one decision was as obscured as the forks in this impossible maze?
We finally came to a stop. Percy let me go. I immediately curled up into a ball, sobs wracking my body.
I didn't want to choose any more. I couldn't take any more of these decisions, these treacherous choices that seemed logical at the outset and then morphed into something completely wrong. I couldn't be responsible for the fates of all my friends.
Except I was. I was the leader. This was my quest.
For the first time, it truly hit me what it meant to be in charge. To lead. To have to make choices with incomplete information and just hope and pray you were doing the right thing anyway.
And live with the consequences if you didn't.
I struggled to get myself back under control. We were in a limestone cavern, with bright, jagged stalactites pointed at our heads. Rachel was panting hard a few feet away, her hand clapped over her side. The boys sat between us, talking quietly.
Percy saw me look up. He had that expression people generally wear at funerals-I'm sorry for your loss.
'What-' My breath hitched with one last sob. 'What was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?'
Percy played with his shoelaces, making one loop, and then two, before he answered. 'When I saw the sarcophagus, I thought … well, Kronos was supposed to be reforming inside, right? I thought if I could just stab him, I could stop all of it-the invasion, the war, everything. But then I opened the coffin and … it was Luke inside. Then Ethan and the telkhines came, and I tried to stop it, but he wouldn't listen. He pledged himself to Kronos. That was the last piece. Kronos woke up.' He looked at me, his funereal expression plainer than ever. 'He became Luke, Annabeth. Luke is Kronos now.'
The frost from the Titan's palace must have seeped into me somehow, because it was spreading through my body. 'No. That can't be true. He couldn't-'
'He gave himself over to Kronos. I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone.'
But he couldn't be. Kronos might be trying to control Luke's body, but I'd seen him. The real him. 'You saw when Rachel hit him!'
Percy missed the point completely, picking up instead on Rachel's bold aim. Like chucking a plastic hairbrush at Luke was some athletic feat to be celebrated.
I wouldn't let him sidetrack me. 'But you saw. When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses.'
'So maybe Kronos wasn't completely settled in the body, or whatever. It doesn't mean Luke was in control.'
What he was saying … it wasn't just that Kronos was controlling Luke. Percy was so adamant that Luke was … transformed, somehow.
'You want him to be evil, is that it?' My tears were rising again. 'You didn't know him before, Percy. I did!' He'd never wanted to give Luke a second chance, never been willing to see the traces of the boy Luke had once been, the one who cared about me.
'What is it with you? Why do you keep defending him?'
Rachel put her hands between us. 'Whoa, you two, knock it off.'
I stopped just short of punching her. 'Stay out of it, mortal girl! If it wasn't for you …' I couldn't finish. I would have loved to blame Rachel for everything, but the truth was, if she hadn't thrown that hairbrush, I'd never have seen that spark of the real Luke staring out from within … from within Kronos. I might even have believed Percy that Luke was gone. Beyond hope.
Luke was Kronos.
A fresh wave of tears overcame me.
'I thought if I could just stab him, I could stop all of it,' Percy had said. I could have done the same, when Luke had stood on my doorstep last month, defenceless against my dagger.
You may as well. You'll never get the chance again. What if I'd taken my knife and plunged it through his heart? I thought of Ariadne and Theseus in the Minotaur's arena-that horrible second in which Asterion had stared at Ariadne, right before Theseus had stabbed him.
Was Luke better off dead than trapped in a Titan's body?
A fate worse than-
I ripped the thought out of my head before it could take root. The conclusion was too scary. I wouldn't think about it. I couldn't think about it.
Percy's hand fell on my shoulder. He was kneeling in front of me, his expression gentle, like we hadn't been yelling our heads off at each other a moment ago.
'Hey,' he said, 'I'm sorry. We need to move.'
I blinked my tears away. He was probably right. Whatever Kronos had done to Luke, I couldn't fix it. And they would launch their attack on camp any time now.
'I know. I'm …' I took a deep breath. Luke's face flickered in front of me one last time. 'I'm all right.' I let Percy pull me to my feet.
'Back to New York,' he said, trying but failing to sound upbeat. 'Rachel, can you-'
We rounded a corner and Percy stopped dead.
A red Rasta cap lay in the mud, looking like an army had thundered across it.
Percy picked it up with trembling fingers. The cap was dripping wet. In the mud next to it were giant footprints and a set of cloven hoof marks, both pointing towards a fork on our left.
Percy voiced what I was thinking: 'We have to follow them. They went that way.' He bent to examine the mud tracks. 'It must have been recently.'
Nico looked at him like he'd suggested resurrecting Minos. 'What about Camp Half-Blood? There's no time.'
I took the cap from Percy. After what we'd just seen, I couldn't stand to give up on Grover and Tyson, too. 'We have to find them. They're our friends.'
The passage we followed was harder to navigate than any of the others we'd come through so far. The ground was so slick, we kept falling over and catching ourselves on the slimy walls. A chalky smell permeated the moist air, wound through with the scent of moss and lichen. It was vaguely familiar, bringing up images of a jaw-like cave entrance. For some reason, a brilliant blue peacock strutted across my mental image. At one point, the tunnel descended so sharply that we ended up sliding down a steep slope into another craggy cave. The stalagmites here rose like columns all the way to the ceiling. Water trickled through the marshy ground, a narrow underground river that cut across the centre of the cave. It separated us from a pair of crystal columns, twin guardians flanking a sparkling doorway.
'Tyson!' Percy cried.
He was holding Grover by the bank of the river. My initial surge of relief at seeing them alive was overshadowed by alarm when I saw how still Grover was.
Tyson looked up. His eye widened with relief. 'Percy! Come quick!'
Grover's lips were tinged blue. His skin felt like ice. Every so often, a violent tremor would seize his entire body.
'What happened?' Percy demanded.
Tyson shook his head, like he didn't know where to begin. 'So many things.' He recounted briefly the terrors they'd seen, the paths they'd taken leading into this cavern. 'Grover was excited. He ran. Then we reached this room, and he fell. Like this.'
Percy frowned. 'Did he say anything?'
'He said, "We're close."' Tyson looked sadly at Grover, who had gone still again. 'Then he hit his head on rocks.'
Alarmed, we crouched beside Grover. Percy shook his shoulders. 'Grover, wake up!'
Grover gave a soft, laborious moan. I scooped a handful of water from the river and poured it over his face. It did the trick. Grover spluttered and came to.
'Percy? Annabeth?' His head jerked up, then fell back like the motion made him dizzy. 'Where …'
'It's okay,' Percy said kindly. 'You passed out. The presence was too much for you.'
I glanced at the doorway with the crystal columns and a shiver ran through me. Not a bad one, like near Mount Othrys, but the prickling sensation of something ancient and powerful. I think we all felt it, even Rachel. She hugged herself and stared at the doorway in wonder.
'I-I remember,' Grover muttered. 'Pan.'
The lost one. Grover had been right about what it meant all along.
Percy helped Grover up, then seemed to remember Rachel and Nico standing awkwardly to the side, watching our reunion.
'Er, guys, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is my brother Tyson, and our friend Grover.'
'The Cyclops,' Rachel said faintly. 'And the satyr.'
Tyson smiled shyly at her. 'You are pretty.'
I scowled. He'd said the same thing to me on our first meeting. Did Rachel have to steal all my friends?
'And Nico, you remember Grover,' Percy continued quickly. 'This is Tyson. Tyson, Nico.'
Nico nodded wordlessly.
'Anyway, come on, Grover. Lean on me.' Percy lifted one of Grover's arms around his shoulder. I took the other. Together, we stepped into the frigid river. It was waist-deep, with an insistent undertow that lessened once Percy got in. He must have exerted some control over the water.
As we approached the crystal door, something about the glittering stalactites and the towering stalagmites snagged in my head. I recognised that chalky smell now, threaded through with moss and lichen.
'I think we're in Carlsbad Caverns.' I hadn't entered when Clarisse's mom had brought me by, and even if I had, I got the sense that we were the first humans ever to explore this particular section. But it all seemed to fit. Percy had told me about Grover passing out and going weird during their quest in December. He'd been coming back to New Mexico all year in search of that trail. 'That would explain last winter.'
We stepped through the door. Rachel gasped. 'Oh wow.'
The cavern seemed entirely constructed from crystals. They glittered every colour of the rainbow, like light bursting from a prism. The whole place was an enormous garden, with flowers I'd never seen before, exotic blooms that I didn't think were native to New Mexico. I didn't even think they existed anywhere else in the world.
It was warm in here, with a light tropical breeze rustling the plant vines. I had the same feeling I'd gotten that time I'd worn the Golden Fleece: a nature magic so strong it could heal the worst of injuries. But this was more than that. The freezing water evaporated, leaving me dry and toasty. My cares lifted from my shoulders. The terrible things I'd seen in the Labyrinth seemed to fade. I even forgot momentarily Luke's awful fate.
Animals gathered at the centre of the crystal cavern, animals that, like the plants, no longer existed in the outside world. In the midst of them, lying on a chaise lounge that was half-bed, half-throne … there he was.
'Lord Pan!' Grover dropped to his knees in ecstatic reverence. I fell automatically to mine as well. Tyson, Nico, and Rachel followed my lead. Percy was the last to kneel. He seemed completely dazed.
The others remained fixated on Pan, but I couldn't take my eyes off the wondrous cavern. The crystal walls arched overhead into a perfect dome, recreating a glittering, starry sky underground. Every crystal gleamed in perfect synchrony. The dark moss made a natural carpet over the ground. Even Pan's bed, crafted from gilded wood that looked like it had grown out of the earth, was a natural altar to fit its occupant. It was like an ancient temple, one that had been created organically, without a single contribution from man. This was beyond any organic architecture I'd seen and admired. Its beauty took my breath away. Its function stirred my heart.
Pan smiled at me when I marvelled at all of it. He was a satyr like Grover, but so much older-older even than the Cloven Elders, who must have been around for centuries. He had the largest horns I'd ever seen on a satyr, curling impressively over his snow-white head.
'I'm glad you like it, my dear. It is one of the last wild places. My realm above is gone, I'm afraid.'
One of the animals, a dodo bird, came to him and rested her head against his shoulders, humming softly. Pan patted her fondly. 'Only pockets remain. Tiny pieces of life. This one shall stay undisturbed … for a little longer.'
'My lord.' Grover begged Pan to return with us. 'You can save the wild!'
Pan touched Grover's head as though delivering a blessing. His fingers barely moved, but Grover's hair ruffled like a breeze was whistling through it. 'You are so young, Grover. So good and true. I think I chose well.'
'Chose? I-I don't understand.'
'I have slept many aeons,' Pan said. He talked about his dreams as if he were a demigod plagued with nightmares. 'Each time my waking is shorter. Now we are near the end.'
Grover blinked rapidly. 'What? But no! You're right here!'
'My dear satyr, I tried to tell the world two thousand years ago. I announced it to Lysas, a satyr very much like you. He lived in Ephesos, and he tried to spread the word.'
I repeated the lines of the story, the one that had passed down from generation to generation. Two thousand years ago … Was that when Pan had started to fade? When humans had started killing off the wild?
'But that wasn't true!' Grover protested.
'Your kind never believed it. You sweet, stubborn satyrs refused to accept my passing.' He smiled at Grover. It was a sad, tired smile, like passage of a thousand years had weighed it down. I knew before he spoke what his next words would be. Although his power filled the cavern, his form was insubstantial, as smoky as the ghosts we'd summoned at our séance on the ranch.
It was Grover's turn to lose a hero.
For the first time since we'd entered the tunnel, Nico spoke. 'He's dying. He should have died long ago. This …' We watched Pan's form waver in and out of being for a second. 'This is more like a memory.'
'But gods can't die,' Grover insisted.
'They can fade when everything they stood for is gone,' Pan said.
I thought of Briares, losing his brothers. How painful it must be, losing pieces of yourself, but being unable to let go until your followers released you. Pan repeated the lines of the old story-'Tell them that the great god Pan is dead.' He begged Grover to take it back to the Council of Cloven Elders, to all the satyrs, the nature spirits, everyone who still waited for him to save them.
Pan wasn't coming. There would be no saviour. We had only ourselves to depend on.
'Be strong. You have found me. And now …' Pan's words took on a formal weight, like he was laying a charge upon us. 'You must release me. You must carry on my spirit. It can no longer be carried by a god. It must be taken up by all of you.'
He had a gift for each of us. To Percy, he promised courage. To Tyson, heroism. To Rachel, the chance to make amends, to be as important as her father. And to me …
'Daughter of Athena, your time is coming.' His words were almost tangible, like a cloak enveloping me with its mantle. 'You will play a great role,' he promised, 'though it may not be the role you imagined.'
The promise clung to my skin. What did he mean, a great role? My dagger tingled in its sheath, like an accusation. I wasn't ready for more terrible choices. Wasn't this quest proof of that? Every time I let myself believe I could prevail, I screwed up.
Pan's eyes drifted over Nico, but he didn't address him directly. He returned to Grover, who looked more terrified than he had all those times he'd feared he would fail in his search.
'My dear satyr, will you carry my message?'
Grover wrung his hands. 'I-I can't.'
'You can. You are the strongest and bravest. Your heart is true. You have believed in me more than anyone ever has, which is why you must bring the message, and why you must be the first to release me.'
'I don't want to,' Grover pleaded.
Pan didn't force the point. He explained softly, kindly, the origin and evolution of his name, and how his mantle must be passed on. He was waiting, I realised, for Grover to see the truth for himself.
I saw why he had waited thousands of years for someone like Grover. Pan had an incredibly difficult task to pass on. He needed someone with enough heart and enough faith to undertake it. And when he found him … this mantle could not be forced. It had to be taken up willingly.
It took Grover some time to internalise this. When he did, he rose, denial giving way to acceptance. 'I-I've spent my whole life looking for you,' he whispered. 'Now … I release you.'
Pan's smile was like the flicker of a candle before it fades into the wind. He breathed a final blessing, and it was like his essence flowed out in that last breath. Smoke rippled through the room, smelling of sage and cedar. Little tendrils of it crept into each of us, even Rachel, the mortal, and Nico, who had not received a specific charge. It filled me like a breath of spring air, a rush of energy, a fountain of hope and courage.
The crystal cavern dimmed slowly, now that the source that powered it had died. The lights, the animals, the flowers-they all shrivelled to ash.
The beautiful temple of Pan was no more. We were left in a dark, empty cave.
Grover reached out to take his cap from my hands. He set it on his head like a crown. Maybe it was just me, but his horns looked thicker and longer now, more like Pan's.
We didn't speak much on the way out of Carlsbad Caverns. Rachel found us a different way out of the cave, but it was so narrow that we had to crawl through it single file. Up ahead, I heard Percy asking Rachel about something. She replied in monosyllabic answers, just like when I'd pumped her about her family. After a while, he gave up.
The tunnels back to New York were devoid of threats or traps. Maybe with Minos gone and Luke's army headed for camp, no one was left in it to stall us. Or maybe Daedalus was helping in some small way, making the Labyrinth friendlier, more accommodating.
Along the way, we filled each other in on everything that had happened since we'd split up. Grover and Tyson related their adventures in the tunnel of roots: they'd survived a duel with some of Luke's men, a wrestle with a giant snake, and a cave-in. Nico told us how Minos had led him to Kelli and the Laistrygonians. Percy and I would have preferred to leave out the Mount St Helens fiasco, but of course, Grover and Tyson asked about it. We recounted our adventure in the volcano with the briefest of details. Rachel raised her eyebrows. Percy had skipped this part of the story when we recruited her.
Tyson was distraught when he heard about the telkhines, which he professed were Cyclopes' natural enemies. He was even sadder that Percy and I had gotten caught in a volcano without him to help. He gave me such a fierce hug, I forgave him on the spot for calling Rachel pretty.
Percy's ears went red when he mentioned getting marooned on a desert island. He also studiously avoided looking at Grover when he spoke. If I'd had any doubts about which phantom island it had been, they were definitely gone now.
Grover smiled knowingly. I would have given a million Ariadne's strings to know just what he was sensing over their empathy link.
We told them about the arena, and Daedalus's workshop, and the fortress on Mount Othrys. Percy looked very carefully away from me when he mentioned Kronos rising from the sarcophagus in Luke's body.
'There was something weird about that guy,' Nico said. 'I sensed … something from the Underworld.'
'He's not dead,' I said, more harshly than I intended. 'Just because you sense dead people all the time.'
Nico shrank back at my tone. Percy opened his mouth, presumably to object.
'Don't even start,' I snapped.
'I was just going to say I'm sorry about him.'
'Well, don't,' I said. 'Because he's not gone. He's still in there.'
'Seriously, you two,' Grover said. 'Knock it off.'
I sighed and turned to Nico. 'Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. And-thank you. We should have said that earlier. If you hadn't done that trick with the rocks … we'd be dead. We're going to need your powers when we get to camp.'
'Yeah.' Percy backed me up quickly. 'I should have said that, too.'
Nico turned red and stared at his feet. I had a sudden vision of myself behaving the same way a few years ago whenever Luke threw a compliment my way. I was beginning to have more than a sneaking suspicion about the kid's feelings.
We emerged from the Labyrinth entrance in the Marriott Marquis. The sunlight was practically blinding after our long underground trek. Percy ushered us into a deserted alley, where he proceeded to summon a flock of camp pegasi. It was a good sign that they responded to his call. If the Titans' attack was already underway, they'd never have made it to us. I guess Nico's little stunt had incapacitated Luke-I couldn't call him Kronos-more than we'd expected. Though it was probably too much to hope that the decimated palace would put a halt to all their attack plans.
As I saddled my pegasi, I became very aware that Percy was saying goodbye to Rachel. Snatches of their conversation drifted my way-'Pan … I'm sorry … you were so brave …'
I looked determinedly away. We'd be flying into battle within the hour. This was no time for distractions.
'… call me …'
'… I'd like that …'
My pegasus stamped his foot in annoyance. I'd done the stirrups up too tight.
A nervous whinny caught my attention. I turned gratefully to the problem. Nico's pegasus was shivering every time he touched it. Tyson used to have similar issues with them, until he learnt to soften them up with a lump of sugar. He'd managed to scrounge up a sugar cube from somewhere to make nice with his current pegasus.
I hurried over and placed a soothing hand on the neck of Nico's pegasus. He calmed slightly, but jittered away when Nico tried to mount him.
Nico pouted and stalked away. 'Go without me! I don't want to go back to that camp anyway.'
Percy came back to us. He and Rachel had finally finished their goodbyes. She'd already disappeared down the street.
'Nico, we need your help,' Percy said.
'Nico, please.' I touched his shoulder. Nico tensed, but didn't pull away. After a few seconds, he relented.
'All right, for you. But I'm not staying.'
Okay, he definitely had a crush on me. I wasn't sure how I should feel about that, but if it got the kid to Camp Half-Blood, I was fine with it for now.
Percy gave me an incredulous look. I made a face in return. Let him see that some boys thought I was cool. He sighed and started convincing Nico's pegasus to carry him.
Soon, we were airborne once more, and rushing towards an imminent battle.
Chapter 26
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: Grover Grows His Horns
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Rachel Dare, Nico di Angelo, Grover Underwood, Tyson, Pan
Word Count: 4,219
Chapter Summary: An expiring god gives everyone a mission.
Notes: Canon dialogue comes from BotL.
Back to Fic Content Page
Luke's face haunted me as we ran. It kept changing before me, bewilderment into something harsh and cold, blue eyes fading to metallic gold. Back and forth, shifting between himself and the strange … thing that looked human, but was … not.
What had Kronos done to him?
Kronos is going to use me.
I would speak to her before our great triumph.
I felt sick. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe. If it hadn't been for Percy pushing me along, half-carrying me down the tunnels, I would have collapsed in tears. Was this what Luke had been trying to tell me? That Kronos had intended to turn him into this … what was he, an automaton?
Something under Kronos's control.
Oh, why had he gone back to Kronos?
Could I have prevented it?
I saw Kelli smirking at me in the arena. So you're the one.
The executioner's blade glinted over a doorway, with Luke trapped underneath. Only now it was Kronos's scythe, wicked and threatening. Janus hovered in front of him.
One choice can ruin your life, kill all your friends.
But how could I choose wisely when every path that led from one decision was as obscured as the forks in this impossible maze?
We finally came to a stop. Percy let me go. I immediately curled up into a ball, sobs wracking my body.
I didn't want to choose any more. I couldn't take any more of these decisions, these treacherous choices that seemed logical at the outset and then morphed into something completely wrong. I couldn't be responsible for the fates of all my friends.
Except I was. I was the leader. This was my quest.
For the first time, it truly hit me what it meant to be in charge. To lead. To have to make choices with incomplete information and just hope and pray you were doing the right thing anyway.
And live with the consequences if you didn't.
I struggled to get myself back under control. We were in a limestone cavern, with bright, jagged stalactites pointed at our heads. Rachel was panting hard a few feet away, her hand clapped over her side. The boys sat between us, talking quietly.
Percy saw me look up. He had that expression people generally wear at funerals-I'm sorry for your loss.
'What-' My breath hitched with one last sob. 'What was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?'
Percy played with his shoelaces, making one loop, and then two, before he answered. 'When I saw the sarcophagus, I thought … well, Kronos was supposed to be reforming inside, right? I thought if I could just stab him, I could stop all of it-the invasion, the war, everything. But then I opened the coffin and … it was Luke inside. Then Ethan and the telkhines came, and I tried to stop it, but he wouldn't listen. He pledged himself to Kronos. That was the last piece. Kronos woke up.' He looked at me, his funereal expression plainer than ever. 'He became Luke, Annabeth. Luke is Kronos now.'
The frost from the Titan's palace must have seeped into me somehow, because it was spreading through my body. 'No. That can't be true. He couldn't-'
'He gave himself over to Kronos. I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone.'
But he couldn't be. Kronos might be trying to control Luke's body, but I'd seen him. The real him. 'You saw when Rachel hit him!'
Percy missed the point completely, picking up instead on Rachel's bold aim. Like chucking a plastic hairbrush at Luke was some athletic feat to be celebrated.
I wouldn't let him sidetrack me. 'But you saw. When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses.'
'So maybe Kronos wasn't completely settled in the body, or whatever. It doesn't mean Luke was in control.'
What he was saying … it wasn't just that Kronos was controlling Luke. Percy was so adamant that Luke was … transformed, somehow.
'You want him to be evil, is that it?' My tears were rising again. 'You didn't know him before, Percy. I did!' He'd never wanted to give Luke a second chance, never been willing to see the traces of the boy Luke had once been, the one who cared about me.
'What is it with you? Why do you keep defending him?'
Rachel put her hands between us. 'Whoa, you two, knock it off.'
I stopped just short of punching her. 'Stay out of it, mortal girl! If it wasn't for you …' I couldn't finish. I would have loved to blame Rachel for everything, but the truth was, if she hadn't thrown that hairbrush, I'd never have seen that spark of the real Luke staring out from within … from within Kronos. I might even have believed Percy that Luke was gone. Beyond hope.
Luke was Kronos.
A fresh wave of tears overcame me.
'I thought if I could just stab him, I could stop all of it,' Percy had said. I could have done the same, when Luke had stood on my doorstep last month, defenceless against my dagger.
You may as well. You'll never get the chance again. What if I'd taken my knife and plunged it through his heart? I thought of Ariadne and Theseus in the Minotaur's arena-that horrible second in which Asterion had stared at Ariadne, right before Theseus had stabbed him.
Was Luke better off dead than trapped in a Titan's body?
A fate worse than-
I ripped the thought out of my head before it could take root. The conclusion was too scary. I wouldn't think about it. I couldn't think about it.
Percy's hand fell on my shoulder. He was kneeling in front of me, his expression gentle, like we hadn't been yelling our heads off at each other a moment ago.
'Hey,' he said, 'I'm sorry. We need to move.'
I blinked my tears away. He was probably right. Whatever Kronos had done to Luke, I couldn't fix it. And they would launch their attack on camp any time now.
'I know. I'm …' I took a deep breath. Luke's face flickered in front of me one last time. 'I'm all right.' I let Percy pull me to my feet.
'Back to New York,' he said, trying but failing to sound upbeat. 'Rachel, can you-'
We rounded a corner and Percy stopped dead.
A red Rasta cap lay in the mud, looking like an army had thundered across it.
Percy picked it up with trembling fingers. The cap was dripping wet. In the mud next to it were giant footprints and a set of cloven hoof marks, both pointing towards a fork on our left.
Percy voiced what I was thinking: 'We have to follow them. They went that way.' He bent to examine the mud tracks. 'It must have been recently.'
Nico looked at him like he'd suggested resurrecting Minos. 'What about Camp Half-Blood? There's no time.'
I took the cap from Percy. After what we'd just seen, I couldn't stand to give up on Grover and Tyson, too. 'We have to find them. They're our friends.'
The passage we followed was harder to navigate than any of the others we'd come through so far. The ground was so slick, we kept falling over and catching ourselves on the slimy walls. A chalky smell permeated the moist air, wound through with the scent of moss and lichen. It was vaguely familiar, bringing up images of a jaw-like cave entrance. For some reason, a brilliant blue peacock strutted across my mental image. At one point, the tunnel descended so sharply that we ended up sliding down a steep slope into another craggy cave. The stalagmites here rose like columns all the way to the ceiling. Water trickled through the marshy ground, a narrow underground river that cut across the centre of the cave. It separated us from a pair of crystal columns, twin guardians flanking a sparkling doorway.
'Tyson!' Percy cried.
He was holding Grover by the bank of the river. My initial surge of relief at seeing them alive was overshadowed by alarm when I saw how still Grover was.
Tyson looked up. His eye widened with relief. 'Percy! Come quick!'
Grover's lips were tinged blue. His skin felt like ice. Every so often, a violent tremor would seize his entire body.
'What happened?' Percy demanded.
Tyson shook his head, like he didn't know where to begin. 'So many things.' He recounted briefly the terrors they'd seen, the paths they'd taken leading into this cavern. 'Grover was excited. He ran. Then we reached this room, and he fell. Like this.'
Percy frowned. 'Did he say anything?'
'He said, "We're close."' Tyson looked sadly at Grover, who had gone still again. 'Then he hit his head on rocks.'
Alarmed, we crouched beside Grover. Percy shook his shoulders. 'Grover, wake up!'
Grover gave a soft, laborious moan. I scooped a handful of water from the river and poured it over his face. It did the trick. Grover spluttered and came to.
'Percy? Annabeth?' His head jerked up, then fell back like the motion made him dizzy. 'Where …'
'It's okay,' Percy said kindly. 'You passed out. The presence was too much for you.'
I glanced at the doorway with the crystal columns and a shiver ran through me. Not a bad one, like near Mount Othrys, but the prickling sensation of something ancient and powerful. I think we all felt it, even Rachel. She hugged herself and stared at the doorway in wonder.
'I-I remember,' Grover muttered. 'Pan.'
The lost one. Grover had been right about what it meant all along.
Percy helped Grover up, then seemed to remember Rachel and Nico standing awkwardly to the side, watching our reunion.
'Er, guys, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is my brother Tyson, and our friend Grover.'
'The Cyclops,' Rachel said faintly. 'And the satyr.'
Tyson smiled shyly at her. 'You are pretty.'
I scowled. He'd said the same thing to me on our first meeting. Did Rachel have to steal all my friends?
'And Nico, you remember Grover,' Percy continued quickly. 'This is Tyson. Tyson, Nico.'
Nico nodded wordlessly.
'Anyway, come on, Grover. Lean on me.' Percy lifted one of Grover's arms around his shoulder. I took the other. Together, we stepped into the frigid river. It was waist-deep, with an insistent undertow that lessened once Percy got in. He must have exerted some control over the water.
As we approached the crystal door, something about the glittering stalactites and the towering stalagmites snagged in my head. I recognised that chalky smell now, threaded through with moss and lichen.
'I think we're in Carlsbad Caverns.' I hadn't entered when Clarisse's mom had brought me by, and even if I had, I got the sense that we were the first humans ever to explore this particular section. But it all seemed to fit. Percy had told me about Grover passing out and going weird during their quest in December. He'd been coming back to New Mexico all year in search of that trail. 'That would explain last winter.'
We stepped through the door. Rachel gasped. 'Oh wow.'
The cavern seemed entirely constructed from crystals. They glittered every colour of the rainbow, like light bursting from a prism. The whole place was an enormous garden, with flowers I'd never seen before, exotic blooms that I didn't think were native to New Mexico. I didn't even think they existed anywhere else in the world.
It was warm in here, with a light tropical breeze rustling the plant vines. I had the same feeling I'd gotten that time I'd worn the Golden Fleece: a nature magic so strong it could heal the worst of injuries. But this was more than that. The freezing water evaporated, leaving me dry and toasty. My cares lifted from my shoulders. The terrible things I'd seen in the Labyrinth seemed to fade. I even forgot momentarily Luke's awful fate.
Animals gathered at the centre of the crystal cavern, animals that, like the plants, no longer existed in the outside world. In the midst of them, lying on a chaise lounge that was half-bed, half-throne … there he was.
'Lord Pan!' Grover dropped to his knees in ecstatic reverence. I fell automatically to mine as well. Tyson, Nico, and Rachel followed my lead. Percy was the last to kneel. He seemed completely dazed.
The others remained fixated on Pan, but I couldn't take my eyes off the wondrous cavern. The crystal walls arched overhead into a perfect dome, recreating a glittering, starry sky underground. Every crystal gleamed in perfect synchrony. The dark moss made a natural carpet over the ground. Even Pan's bed, crafted from gilded wood that looked like it had grown out of the earth, was a natural altar to fit its occupant. It was like an ancient temple, one that had been created organically, without a single contribution from man. This was beyond any organic architecture I'd seen and admired. Its beauty took my breath away. Its function stirred my heart.
Pan smiled at me when I marvelled at all of it. He was a satyr like Grover, but so much older-older even than the Cloven Elders, who must have been around for centuries. He had the largest horns I'd ever seen on a satyr, curling impressively over his snow-white head.
'I'm glad you like it, my dear. It is one of the last wild places. My realm above is gone, I'm afraid.'
One of the animals, a dodo bird, came to him and rested her head against his shoulders, humming softly. Pan patted her fondly. 'Only pockets remain. Tiny pieces of life. This one shall stay undisturbed … for a little longer.'
'My lord.' Grover begged Pan to return with us. 'You can save the wild!'
Pan touched Grover's head as though delivering a blessing. His fingers barely moved, but Grover's hair ruffled like a breeze was whistling through it. 'You are so young, Grover. So good and true. I think I chose well.'
'Chose? I-I don't understand.'
'I have slept many aeons,' Pan said. He talked about his dreams as if he were a demigod plagued with nightmares. 'Each time my waking is shorter. Now we are near the end.'
Grover blinked rapidly. 'What? But no! You're right here!'
'My dear satyr, I tried to tell the world two thousand years ago. I announced it to Lysas, a satyr very much like you. He lived in Ephesos, and he tried to spread the word.'
I repeated the lines of the story, the one that had passed down from generation to generation. Two thousand years ago … Was that when Pan had started to fade? When humans had started killing off the wild?
'But that wasn't true!' Grover protested.
'Your kind never believed it. You sweet, stubborn satyrs refused to accept my passing.' He smiled at Grover. It was a sad, tired smile, like passage of a thousand years had weighed it down. I knew before he spoke what his next words would be. Although his power filled the cavern, his form was insubstantial, as smoky as the ghosts we'd summoned at our séance on the ranch.
It was Grover's turn to lose a hero.
For the first time since we'd entered the tunnel, Nico spoke. 'He's dying. He should have died long ago. This …' We watched Pan's form waver in and out of being for a second. 'This is more like a memory.'
'But gods can't die,' Grover insisted.
'They can fade when everything they stood for is gone,' Pan said.
I thought of Briares, losing his brothers. How painful it must be, losing pieces of yourself, but being unable to let go until your followers released you. Pan repeated the lines of the old story-'Tell them that the great god Pan is dead.' He begged Grover to take it back to the Council of Cloven Elders, to all the satyrs, the nature spirits, everyone who still waited for him to save them.
Pan wasn't coming. There would be no saviour. We had only ourselves to depend on.
'Be strong. You have found me. And now …' Pan's words took on a formal weight, like he was laying a charge upon us. 'You must release me. You must carry on my spirit. It can no longer be carried by a god. It must be taken up by all of you.'
He had a gift for each of us. To Percy, he promised courage. To Tyson, heroism. To Rachel, the chance to make amends, to be as important as her father. And to me …
'Daughter of Athena, your time is coming.' His words were almost tangible, like a cloak enveloping me with its mantle. 'You will play a great role,' he promised, 'though it may not be the role you imagined.'
The promise clung to my skin. What did he mean, a great role? My dagger tingled in its sheath, like an accusation. I wasn't ready for more terrible choices. Wasn't this quest proof of that? Every time I let myself believe I could prevail, I screwed up.
Pan's eyes drifted over Nico, but he didn't address him directly. He returned to Grover, who looked more terrified than he had all those times he'd feared he would fail in his search.
'My dear satyr, will you carry my message?'
Grover wrung his hands. 'I-I can't.'
'You can. You are the strongest and bravest. Your heart is true. You have believed in me more than anyone ever has, which is why you must bring the message, and why you must be the first to release me.'
'I don't want to,' Grover pleaded.
Pan didn't force the point. He explained softly, kindly, the origin and evolution of his name, and how his mantle must be passed on. He was waiting, I realised, for Grover to see the truth for himself.
I saw why he had waited thousands of years for someone like Grover. Pan had an incredibly difficult task to pass on. He needed someone with enough heart and enough faith to undertake it. And when he found him … this mantle could not be forced. It had to be taken up willingly.
It took Grover some time to internalise this. When he did, he rose, denial giving way to acceptance. 'I-I've spent my whole life looking for you,' he whispered. 'Now … I release you.'
Pan's smile was like the flicker of a candle before it fades into the wind. He breathed a final blessing, and it was like his essence flowed out in that last breath. Smoke rippled through the room, smelling of sage and cedar. Little tendrils of it crept into each of us, even Rachel, the mortal, and Nico, who had not received a specific charge. It filled me like a breath of spring air, a rush of energy, a fountain of hope and courage.
The crystal cavern dimmed slowly, now that the source that powered it had died. The lights, the animals, the flowers-they all shrivelled to ash.
The beautiful temple of Pan was no more. We were left in a dark, empty cave.
Grover reached out to take his cap from my hands. He set it on his head like a crown. Maybe it was just me, but his horns looked thicker and longer now, more like Pan's.
We didn't speak much on the way out of Carlsbad Caverns. Rachel found us a different way out of the cave, but it was so narrow that we had to crawl through it single file. Up ahead, I heard Percy asking Rachel about something. She replied in monosyllabic answers, just like when I'd pumped her about her family. After a while, he gave up.
The tunnels back to New York were devoid of threats or traps. Maybe with Minos gone and Luke's army headed for camp, no one was left in it to stall us. Or maybe Daedalus was helping in some small way, making the Labyrinth friendlier, more accommodating.
Along the way, we filled each other in on everything that had happened since we'd split up. Grover and Tyson related their adventures in the tunnel of roots: they'd survived a duel with some of Luke's men, a wrestle with a giant snake, and a cave-in. Nico told us how Minos had led him to Kelli and the Laistrygonians. Percy and I would have preferred to leave out the Mount St Helens fiasco, but of course, Grover and Tyson asked about it. We recounted our adventure in the volcano with the briefest of details. Rachel raised her eyebrows. Percy had skipped this part of the story when we recruited her.
Tyson was distraught when he heard about the telkhines, which he professed were Cyclopes' natural enemies. He was even sadder that Percy and I had gotten caught in a volcano without him to help. He gave me such a fierce hug, I forgave him on the spot for calling Rachel pretty.
Percy's ears went red when he mentioned getting marooned on a desert island. He also studiously avoided looking at Grover when he spoke. If I'd had any doubts about which phantom island it had been, they were definitely gone now.
Grover smiled knowingly. I would have given a million Ariadne's strings to know just what he was sensing over their empathy link.
We told them about the arena, and Daedalus's workshop, and the fortress on Mount Othrys. Percy looked very carefully away from me when he mentioned Kronos rising from the sarcophagus in Luke's body.
'There was something weird about that guy,' Nico said. 'I sensed … something from the Underworld.'
'He's not dead,' I said, more harshly than I intended. 'Just because you sense dead people all the time.'
Nico shrank back at my tone. Percy opened his mouth, presumably to object.
'Don't even start,' I snapped.
'I was just going to say I'm sorry about him.'
'Well, don't,' I said. 'Because he's not gone. He's still in there.'
'Seriously, you two,' Grover said. 'Knock it off.'
I sighed and turned to Nico. 'Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. And-thank you. We should have said that earlier. If you hadn't done that trick with the rocks … we'd be dead. We're going to need your powers when we get to camp.'
'Yeah.' Percy backed me up quickly. 'I should have said that, too.'
Nico turned red and stared at his feet. I had a sudden vision of myself behaving the same way a few years ago whenever Luke threw a compliment my way. I was beginning to have more than a sneaking suspicion about the kid's feelings.
We emerged from the Labyrinth entrance in the Marriott Marquis. The sunlight was practically blinding after our long underground trek. Percy ushered us into a deserted alley, where he proceeded to summon a flock of camp pegasi. It was a good sign that they responded to his call. If the Titans' attack was already underway, they'd never have made it to us. I guess Nico's little stunt had incapacitated Luke-I couldn't call him Kronos-more than we'd expected. Though it was probably too much to hope that the decimated palace would put a halt to all their attack plans.
As I saddled my pegasi, I became very aware that Percy was saying goodbye to Rachel. Snatches of their conversation drifted my way-'Pan … I'm sorry … you were so brave …'
I looked determinedly away. We'd be flying into battle within the hour. This was no time for distractions.
'… call me …'
'… I'd like that …'
My pegasus stamped his foot in annoyance. I'd done the stirrups up too tight.
A nervous whinny caught my attention. I turned gratefully to the problem. Nico's pegasus was shivering every time he touched it. Tyson used to have similar issues with them, until he learnt to soften them up with a lump of sugar. He'd managed to scrounge up a sugar cube from somewhere to make nice with his current pegasus.
I hurried over and placed a soothing hand on the neck of Nico's pegasus. He calmed slightly, but jittered away when Nico tried to mount him.
Nico pouted and stalked away. 'Go without me! I don't want to go back to that camp anyway.'
Percy came back to us. He and Rachel had finally finished their goodbyes. She'd already disappeared down the street.
'Nico, we need your help,' Percy said.
'Nico, please.' I touched his shoulder. Nico tensed, but didn't pull away. After a few seconds, he relented.
'All right, for you. But I'm not staying.'
Okay, he definitely had a crush on me. I wasn't sure how I should feel about that, but if it got the kid to Camp Half-Blood, I was fine with it for now.
Percy gave me an incredulous look. I made a face in return. Let him see that some boys thought I was cool. He sighed and started convincing Nico's pegasus to carry him.
Soon, we were airborne once more, and rushing towards an imminent battle.
Chapter 26