Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth Read online

  ‘I – I must say yes. But the spectre –’

  ‘Just answer the questions, knave!’ the ghost said.

  Suddenly, around the edges of the pool, the other ghosts became restless. They stirred, whispering in nervous tones.

  ‘I want to see my sister!’ Nico demanded. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘He is coming,’ Theseus said fearfully. ‘He has sensed your summons. He comes.’

  ‘Who?’ Nico demanded.

  ‘He comes to find the source of this power,’ Theseus said. ‘You must release us!’

  The water in my fountain began to tremble, humming with power. I realized the whole cabin was shaking. The noise grew louder. The image of Nico in the graveyard started to glow until it was painful to watch.

  ‘Stop,’ I said out loud. ‘Stop it!’

  The fountain began to crack. Tyson muttered in his sleep and turned over. Purple light threw horrible, ghostly shadows on the cabin walls, as if the spectres were escaping right out of the fountain.

  In desperation I uncapped Riptide and slashed at the fountain, cleaving it in two. Salt water spilled everywhere, and the great stone font crashed to the floor in pieces. Tyson snorted and muttered, but he kept sleeping.

  I sank to the ground, shivering from what I’d seen. Tyson found me there in the morning, still staring at the shattered remains of the saltwater fountain.

  Just after dawn, the quest group met at Zeus’s Fist. I’d packed my backpack – Thermos with nectar, bag of ambrosia, bedroll, rope, clothes, flashlights and lots of extra batteries. I had Riptide in my pocket. The magic shield/wristwatch Tyson had made for me was on my wrist.

  It was a clear morning. The fog had burned off and the sky was blue. Campers would be having their lessons today, flying pegasi and practising archery and scaling the lava wall. Meanwhile, we would be heading underground.

  Juniper and Grover stood apart from the group. Juniper had been crying again, but she was trying to keep it together for Grover’s sake. She kept fussing with his clothes, straightening his Rasta cap and brushing goat fur off his shirt. Since we had no idea what we would encounter, he was dressed as a human, with the cap to hide his horns, and jeans, fake feet and trainers to hide his goat legs.

  Chiron, Quintus and Mrs O’Leary stood with the other campers who’d come to wish us well, but there was too much activity for it to feel like a happy send-off. A couple of tents had been set up by the rocks for guard duty. Beckendorf and his siblings were working on a line of defensive spikes and trenches. Chiron had decided we needed to guard the Labyrinth exit at all times, just in case.

  Annabeth was doing one last check on her supply pack. When Tyson and I came over, she frowned. ‘Percy, you look terrible.’

  ‘He killed the water fountain last night,’ Tyson confided.

  ‘What?’ she asked.

  Before I could explain, Chiron trotted over. ‘Well, it appears you are ready!’

  He tried to sound upbeat, but I could tell he was anxious. I didn’t want to freak him out any more, but I thought about last nights dream, and before I could change my mind, I said, ‘Hey, uh, Chiron, can I ask you a favour while I’m gone?’

  ‘Of course, my boy.’

  ‘Be right back, guys.’ I nodded towards the woods. Chiron raised an eyebrow, but he followed me out of earshot.

  ‘Last night,’ I said, ‘I dreamed about Luke and Kronos.’ I told him the details. The news seemed to weigh on his shoulders.

  ‘I feared this,’ Chiron said. ‘Against my father, Kronos, we would stand no chance in a fight.’

  Chiron rarely called Kronos his father. I mean, we all knew it was true. Everybody in the Greek world – god, monster or Titan – was related to one other somehow. But it wasn’t exactly something Chiron liked to brag about. Oh, my dad is the all-powerful evil Titan lord who wants to destroy Western Civilization. I want to be just like him when I grow up!

  ‘Do you know what he meant about a bargain?’ I asked.

  ‘I am not sure, but I fear they seek to make a deal with Daedalus. If the old inventor is truly alive, if he has not been driven insane by millennia in the Labyrinth… well, Kronos can find ways to twist anyone to his will.’

  ‘Not anyone,’ I promised.

  Chiron managed a smile. ‘No. Perhaps not anyone. But, Percy, you must beware. I have worried for some time that Kronos may be looking for Daedalus for a different reason, not just passage through the maze.’

  ‘What else would he want?’

  ‘Something Annabeth and I were discussing. Do you remember what you told me about your first trip to the Princess Andromeda, the first time you saw the golden coffin?’

  I nodded. ‘Luke was talking about raising Kronos, little pieces of him appearing in the coffin every time someone new joined his cause.’

  ‘And what did Luke say they would do when Kronos had risen completely?’

  A chill went down my spine. ‘He said they would make Kronos a new body, worthy of the forges of Hephaestus.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Chiron said. ‘Daedalus was the world’s greatest inventor. He created the Labyrinth, but much more. Automatons, thinking machines… What if Kronos wishes Daedalus to make him a new form?’

  That was a really pleasant thought.

  ‘We’ve got to get to Daedalus first,’ I said, ‘and convince him not to.’

  Chiron stared off into the trees. ‘One other thing I do not understand… this talk of a last soul joining their cause. That does not bode well.’

  I kept my mouth shut, but I felt guilty. I’d made the decision not to tell Chiron about Nico being a son of Hades. The mention of souls, though – What if Kronos knew about Nico? What if he managed to turn him evil? It was almost enough to make me want to tell Chiron, but I didn’t. For one thing, I wasn’t sure Chiron could do anything about it. I had to find Nico myself. I had to explain things to him, make him listen.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said at last. ‘But, uh, something Juniper said, maybe you should hear.’ I told him how the tree nymph had seen Quintus poking around the rocks.

  Chiron’s jaw tightened. ‘That does not surprise me.’

  ‘It doesn’t sur– you mean you knew?’

  ‘Percy, when Quintus showed up at camp, offering his services… well, I would have to be a fool not to be suspicious.’

  ‘Then why did you let him in?’

  ‘Because sometimes it is better to have someone you mistrust close to you, so that you can keep an eye on him. He may be just what he says: a half-blood in search of a home. Certainly he has done nothing openly that would make me question his loyalty. But, believe me, I will keep an eye –’

  Annabeth trudged over, probably curious about why we were taking so long.

  ‘Percy, you ready?’

  I nodded. My hand slipped into my pocket, where I kept the ice whistle Quintus had given me. I looked over and saw Quintus watching me carefully. He raised his hand in farewell.

  Our spies report success, Luke had said. The same day we decided to send a quest, Luke had known about it.

  ‘Take care,’ Chiron told us. ‘And good hunting.’

  ‘You, too,’ I said.

  We walked over to the rocks, where Tyson and Grover were waiting. I stared at the crack between the boulders – the entrance that was about to swallow us.

  ‘Well,’ Grover said nervously, ‘goodbye, sunshine.’

  ‘Hello, rocks,’ Tyson agreed.

  And, together, the four of us descended into darkness.

  6 WE MEET THE GOD WITH TWO FACES

  We made it thirty metres before we were hopelessly lost.

  The tunnel looked nothing like the one Annabeth and I had stumbled into before. Now it was round like a sewer, constructed of red brick with iron-barred portholes every three metres. I shone a light through one of the portholes out of curiosity, but I couldn’t see anything. It opened into infinite darkness. I thought I heard voices on the other side, but it may have been just the cold wind.

  A
nnabeth tried her best to guide us. She had this idea that we should stick to the left wall.

  ‘If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it,’ she said, ‘we should be able to find our way out again by reversing course.’

  Unfortunately, as soon as she said that, the left wall disappeared. We found ourselves in the middle of a circular chamber with eight tunnels leading out, and no idea how we’d got there.

  ‘Um, which way did we come in?’ Grover said nervously.

  ‘Just turn around,’ Annabeth said.

  We each turned towards a different tunnel. It was ridiculous. None of us could decide which way led back to camp.

  ‘Left walls are mean,’ Tyson said. ‘Which way now?’

  Annabeth swept her flashlight beam over the archways of the eight tunnels. As far as I could tell, they were identical. ‘That way,’ she said.

  ‘How do you know?’ I asked.

  ‘Deductive reasoning.’

  ‘So… you’re guessing.’

  ‘Just come on,’ she said.

  The tunnel she’d chosen narrowed quickly. The walls turned to grey cement, and the ceiling got so low that pretty soon we were hunching over. Tyson was forced to crawl.

  Grover’s hyperventilating was the loudest noise in the maze. ‘I can’t stand it any more,’ he whispered. Are we there yet?’

  ‘We’ve been down here maybe five minutes,’ Annabeth told him.

  ‘It’s been longer than that,’ Grover insisted. And why would Pan be down here? This is the opposite of the wild!’

  We kept shuffling forward. Just when I was sure the tunnel would get so narrow it would squish us, it opened into a huge room. I shone my light around the walls and said, ‘Whoa.’

  The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. The pictures were grimy and faded, but I could still make out the colours – red, blue, green, gold. The frieze showed the Olympian gods at a feast. There was my dad, Poseidon, with his trident, holding out grapes for Dionysus to turn into wine. Zeus was partying with satyrs, and Hermes was flying through the air on his winged sandals. The pictures were beautiful, but they weren’t very accurate. I’d seen the gods. Dionysus was not that handsome, and Hermes’s nose wasn’t that big.

  In the middle of the room was a three-tiered fountain. It looked like it hadn’t held water in a long time.

  ‘What is this place?’ I muttered. ‘It looks –’

  ‘Roman,’ Annabeth said. ‘Those mosaics are about two thousand years old.’

  ‘But how can they be Roman?’ I wasn’t that great on ancient history, but I was pretty sure the Roman Empire never made it as far as Long Island.

  ‘The Labyrinth is a patchwork,’ Annabeth said. ‘I told you, it’s always expanding, adding pieces. It’s the only work of architecture that grows by itself.’

  ‘You make it sound like it’s alive.’

  A groaning noise echoed from the tunnel in front of us.

  ‘Let’s not talk about it being alive,’ Grover whimpered. ‘Please?’

  All right,’ Annabeth said. ‘Forward.’

  ‘Down the hall with the bad sounds?’ Tyson said. Even he looked nervous.

  ‘Yeah,’ Annabeth said. ‘The architecture is getting older. That’s a good sign. Daedaluss workshop would be in the oldest part.’

  That made sense. But soon the maze was toying with us – we went fifteen metres and the tunnel turned back to cement, with brass pipes running down the sides. The walls were spray-painted with graffiti. A neon tag sign read: moz rulz.

  ‘I’m thinking this is not Roman,’ I said helpfully.

  Annabeth took a deep breath, then forged ahead.

  Every few metres the tunnels twisted and turned and branched off. The floor beneath us changed from cement to mud to bricks and back again. There was no sense to any of it. We stumbled into a wine cellar – a bunch of dusty bottles in wooden racks – like we were walking through somebody’s basement, only there was no exit ahead of us, just more tunnels leading on.

  Later the ceiling turned to wooden planks, and I could hear voices above us and the creaking of footsteps, as if we were walking under some kind of bar. It was reassuring to hear people, but then again we couldn’t get to them. We were stuck down here with no way out. Then we found our first skeleton.

  He was dressed in white clothes, like some kind of uniform. A wooden crate of glass bottles sat next to him.

  ‘A milkman,’ Annabeth said.

  ‘What?’ I asked.

  ‘They used to deliver milk.’

  ‘Yeah, I know what they are, but… that was when my mom was little, like a million years ago. What’s he doing here?’

  ‘Some people wander in by mistake,’ Annabeth said. ‘Some come exploring on purpose and never make it back. A long time ago, the Cretans even sent people in here as human sacrifices.’

  Grover gulped. ‘He’s been down here a long time.’ He pointed to the skeleton’s bottles, which were coated with white dust. The skeleton’s fingers were clawing at the brick wall, like he had died trying to get out.

  ‘Only bones,’ Tyson said. ‘Don’t worry, goat boy. The milkman is dead.’

  ‘The milkman doesn’t bother me,’ Grover said. ‘It’s the smell. Monsters. Can’t you smell it?’

  Tyson nodded. ‘Lots of monsters. But underground smells like that. Monsters and dead milk people.’

  ‘Oh, good,’ Grover whimpered. ‘I thought maybe I was wrong.’

  ‘We have to get deeper into the maze,’ Annabeth said. ‘There has to be a way to the centre.’

  She led us to the right, then the left, through a corridor of stainless steel like some kind of air shaft, and we arrived back in the Roman tile room with the fountain.

  This time, we weren’t alone.

  What I noticed first were his faces. Both of them. They jutted out from either side of his head, staring over his shoulders, so his head was much wider than it should’ve been, kind of like a hammerhead shark’s. Looking straight at him, all I saw were two overlapping ears and mirror-image sideburns.

  He was dressed like a New York City doorman: a long black overcoat, shiny shoes and a black top hat that somehow managed to stay on his double-wide head.

  ‘Well, Annabeth?’ said his left face. ‘Hurry up!’

  ‘Don’t mind him,’ said the right face. ‘He’s terribly rude. Right this way, miss.’

  Annabeth’s jaw dropped. ‘Uh… I don’t…,’

  Tyson frowned. ‘That funny man has two faces,’

  ‘The funny man has ears, you know!’ the left face scolded. ‘Now come along, miss.’

  ‘No, no,’ the right face said. ‘This way, miss. Talk to me, please.’

  The two-faced man regarded Annabeth as best he could out of the corners of his eyes. It was impossible to look at him straight on without focusing on one side or the other. And suddenly I realized that’s what he was asking – he wanted Annabeth to choose.

  Behind him were two exits, blocked by wooden doors with huge iron locks. They hadn’t been there our first time through the room. The two-faced doorman held a silver key, which he kept passing from his left hand to his right hand. I wondered if this were a different room completely, but the frieze of the gods looked exactly the same.

  Behind us, the doorway we’d come through had disappeared, replaced by more mosaics. We wouldn’t be going back the way we’d come.

  ‘The exits are closed,’ Annabeth said.

  ‘Duh!’ the man’s left face said.

  ‘Where do they lead?’ she asked.

  ‘One probably leads the way you wish to go,’ the right face said encouragingly. ‘The other leads to certain death.’

  ‘I – I know who you are,’ Annabeth said.

  ‘Oh, you’re a smart one!’ the left face sneered. ‘But do you know which way to choose? I don’t have all day.’

  ‘Why are you trying to confuse me?’ Annabeth asked.

  The right face smiled. ‘You’re in charge now, my dear. All the decision
s are on your shoulders. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?’

  ‘I-’

  ‘We know you, Annabeth,’ the left face said. ‘We know what you wrestle with every day. We know your indecision. You will have to make your choice sooner or later. And the choice may kill you.’

  I didn’t know what they were talking about, but it sounded like it was about more than a choice between doors.

  The colour drained out of Annabeths face. ‘No… I don’t –’

  ‘Leave her alone,’ I said. ‘Who are you, anyway?’

  ‘I’m your best friend,’ the right face said.

  ‘I’m your worst enemy,’ the left face said.

  ‘I’m Janus,’ both faces said in harmony. ‘God of Doorways. Beginnings. Endings. Choices.’

  ‘I’ll see you soon enough, Perseus Jackson,’ said the right face. ‘But for now it’s Annabeths turn,’ He laughed giddily. ‘Such fun!’

  ‘Shut up!’ his left face said. ‘This is serious. One bad choice can ruin your whole life. It can kill you and all your friends. But no pressure, Annabeth. Choose!’

  With a sudden chill, I remembered the words of the prophecy: the child of Athena’s final stand.

  ‘Don’t do it,’ I said.

  ‘I’m afraid she has to,’ the right face said cheerfully.

  Annabeth moistened her lips. ‘I – I choose –’

  Before she could point to a door, a brilliant light flooded the room.

  Janus raised his hands to either side of his head to cover his eyes. When the light died, a woman was standing at the fountain.

  She was tall and graceful, with long hair the colour of chocolate, braided in plaits with gold ribbons. She wore a simple white dress, but when she moved, the fabric shimmered with colours like oil on water.

  ‘Janus,’ she said. Are we causing trouble again?’

  ‘N-no, milady!’ Janus s right face stammered.

  ‘Yes!’ the left face said.

  ‘Shut up!’ the right face said.

  ‘Excuse me?’ the woman asked.

  ‘Not you, milady! I was talking to myself.’

  ‘I see,’ the lady said. ‘You know very well your visit is premature. The girl’s time has not yet come. So I give you a choice: leave these heroes to me, or I shall turn you into a door and break you down.’