𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

chapter fifty-seven ☄︎. *. ⋆

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AFTER THE HEARING, I had just enough time to rush back over to my cabin before cabin inspection began. Silena Beauregard from Aphrodite's cabin had inspector duty, from what I'd heard from Annabeth. And hey, Silena was nice, I really liked the girl, but she was a horrible neat freak. She liked things to be nice and pretty. And my cabin? We don't really do pretty.

     My siblings made a mess of the place in my brief absence. There were empty quivers hanging from bunk rails, arrows scattered across the floor, makeup strewn across the bathroom counter. Our cabin didn't consist of any Aphrodite kids, but gods, the way an Apollo kid could care about their appearance would make you think they're the goddess of beauty incarnate.

     On the bright side, Will had returned for the summer. He was looking tan as ever. I wondered if he was naturally that tan, or if he had to spend as much time as possible in the low UV rays of the wintertime.

     "Theo!" He pulled me, beaming, into a hug. "How are you—?"

     "All fine and good," I said dismissively, picking up as many clothes off the floor as possible. "Dude, we gotta get this shit picked up. I am so not doing dinner duty."

Will laughed, shaking his head. "Nah, don't worry. I told Silena I'd buy her that luxury lipstick set she's been wanting if she gave our cabin a good grade for inspection."

     I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "No way. The Will Solace, bribing someone for his own good? The Underworld must have frozen over."

     He rolled his eyes playfully. "And the Theo Scott just left camp to go on a date with Percy Jackson. The world really is coming to an end."

     Before I could even begin to shut down that stupid rumor, Lee's head popped out of his bunk. Michael's followed from the bunk on top. Both of their eyes were popping out of their heads, but before they could say anything, I was shaking my head.

     "Don't even start," I said firmly. I glared at Will. "It was not a date. I happened to be in town, and so did he, so we decided to meet up."

     "For lunch," Lee said, all sing-song.

     "Not to mention we didn't even make it to lunch," I said over their shared laughter, rolling my eyes. "Okay, whatever. We've got bigger things to focus on. Like—"

     "Oh, yeah," Will said, like he'd just remembered. "Clarisse came by earlier. Said she needed to talk to you in private. About the... the thing."

     I furrowed my brow. I'd just seen her. Why hadn't she said anything at Grover's hearing? Then again, I guess we were all too focused on the case. Clarisse was busy comforting Juniper, and I was way too absorbed with the hearing itself. Which did not go too well for Grover—in the end, the Council of Cloven Elders decided he had only one more week to search for and find the lost god, Pan. One week. Grover'd been searching for Pan ever since I'd known him. The possibility of finally finding a god that been missing for centuries within one week... it's pretty slim. I didn't want to say anything negative, but I didn't have to; Grover knew it. And he'd been inconsolable ever since the decision was made.

     Will shook his head dismissively. "But she said it's whatever if you're busy. I know you probably want to go see Tyson—"

     That got my attention. "Tyson's here?"

     "Just got here. I think he's down by the canoe lake with Percy."

     So if course I went down to the canoe lake to see Tyson and Percy.

     I was thrilled to see our old Cyclops friend. His teeth were as yellow and crooked as ever, and his hair was a rat's nest, but gods, was he a sight for sore eyes. He hugged me with the might of an iron press, so tightly I felt my ribs connect, but I didn't mind. I was always glad to see him.

     Tyson mentioned something about going boom, as he always did. I managed a faint smile. Now that the excitement of seeing him had worn off, I was back to feeling worried for Grover. I kept glancing at the woods—for more reasons than one—but nothing came out of them. Grover was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't blame him; if the council took away his searcher's license now, it would crush him.

     "What's this 'other way' that he can find Pan?" Percy asked me, sensing my worry. "Clarisse mentioned it earlier."

     I pursed my lips. "She shouldn't have said anything. It's just... something she scouted out. I helped her a little this spring. But it's dangerous—especially for Grover."

     "Goat boy scares me," Tyson murmured.

     Percy and I stared at him. Tyson had faced down fire-breathing bulls and cannibalistic giants, but Grover scared him? Percy asked, "Why would you be afraid of Grover?"

     "Hooves and horns," he replied nervously. "And goat fur makes my nose itchy."

     We nodded like we understood. That pretty much ended our Grover conversation.

     A few minutes later, Percy stood, announcing that he and Tyson were gonna head down to the sword arena. He asked me if I wanted to come along. I thought about it for a second, but then I remembered Chiron had just hired a new swordsman, and I decided I was in no shape to meet new people.

     "Oh, Quintus," Percy said, nodding. "Yeah. He's cool, though. I think you'll like him."

     "Quintus?" I scrunched my face. "What kind of name is that?"

     "Coming from—"

     "Coming from a Theodosia." I cringed, shaking my head. "Yeah, I know. I've got no room to talk. Whatever."

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

DINNER WAS PERFECTLY NORMAL, which I could not have been more grateful for. All the campers lined up by cabin and marched into the dining pavilion. Most of them ignored the sealed fissure in the marble floor at the entrance—a ten-foot-long jagged scar that hadn't been there last summer—but I was careful to step over it.

"Big crack," Will noticed. "Was there an earthquake over the winter?"

"Er.. not exactly," I said. I debated telling him about Nico. It was supposed to be a secret only Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and I knew. And it's not like Will really needed to know. But if Nico came back to camp and began threatening everyone, then I guess it would be important to tell people. But for now, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

The first half of the meal went smoothly. I sat between Will and Lee, at the Apollo table, like always. I kept catching Percy's eyes. He was next to Tyson at their table, but not long after dinner had begun, Chiron trotted over with Grover in tow. That caught my attention; I hadn't seen Grover at all since the hearing.

So when Chiron took Tyson and left the Poseidon table, exiting the pavilion in a timely manner, I took their places in the conversation.

"What's he talking about?" Percy was asking Grover when I walked up.

"I'll tell you what it's about," I said, sliding onto the bench next to him. "The Labyrinth."

I could tell none of them were concentrating on what I was saying, because everybody in the dining pavilion started staring at us and whispering. And I guess I was right next to Percy. Like, right next to him.

"You're not supposed to be here," he said, leaning his head towards me and lowering his voice.

"I know. But we have got to talk."

"But the rules..."

I knew as well as everybody else did that campers weren't allowed to switch tables. Satyrs were different. They weren't really demigods. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. I wasn't even sure what the punishment was for switching tables. I'd never seen it happen. If Mr. D had been here, he probably would've strangled me with magical grapevines or something, but Mr. D wasn't here. Chiron had already left the pavilion. A man sitting at their table, who must've been the new swordsman, Quintus, looked over and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything. I developed a respect for him.

     And of course it didn't help that I'd broken a never-broken rule for Percy. I could already hear all my siblings' stupid jokes.

"Oh, since when have you cared about rules?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "Look, Grover's in trouble. There's only one way we could find to help him: the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been working on."

Percy shifted his weight, shutting his eyes in concentration. "You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?"

"Exactly," I confirmed.

"So... it's not under the king's palace in Crete anymore," he guessed. He looked proud of himself. "The Labyrinth is under some building in America."

I stared at him. "Um, no. The Labyrinth is huge, Percy. It wouldn't fit under a single state, much less a single building."

"So is the Labyrinth a part of the Underworld?"

I shook my head, glancing at Grover. "Not exactly. There's probably passages that lead to the Underworld, but we're not sure. The Underworld is, like, wayyy down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second layer of cake or something. It's been growing for thousands of years, sneaking its way under Western cities, connecting everything together underground. You can get anywhere through it."

"If you don't get lost," Grover muttered. "And die a horrible death."

"Grover, please." I met his eyes and tried my best to look earnest. "There has to be a way. Clarisse lived."

"Barely!" Grover said. "And the other guy—"

"He went insane. He didn't die."

"Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip quivered. "That makes me feel much better."

"Whoa," Percy said. "Back up. What's this about Clarisse and a crazy guy?"

I glanced over toward the Ares table. Clarisse was watching us like she knew what we were talking about, but then she fixed her eyes on her dinner plate.

"So last year," I said, lowering my voice, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron. You remember? She was gone all winter."

"Yeah." Percy nodded. "The secret one."

"That's it. It was secret," I said, glancing around to make sure nobody could hear me, "because she found Chris Rodriguez."

"The guy from the Hermes cabin?" Percy raised his eyebrows in shock. I couldn't blame him; Chris had abandoned Camp Half-blood for Luke's army. We'd run into him aboard the Princess Andromeda a few years ago.

I nodded. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, near Clarisse's mom's house."

"What do you mean he just appeared?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, wearing full Greek armor, babbling about string."

"String," Percy repeated.

"He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't, like, put him in a hospital. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and spoke to him, but it wasn't much good. They only got one thing out of him."

     Over at the Athena table, Annabeth caught my eye. I could tell she knew exactly what we were talking about. She nodded gravely, like giving me permission to tell Percy.

     I turned back to him. "Luke's armies have been exploring the Labyrinth."

     Percy absorbed this for a moment. Then he said, "Okay. Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

     I widened my eyes and shook my head, leaning back. "That's what we don't know. Clarisse went on the mission to scout out the Labyrinth, but Chiron kept it all under wraps so not to make anyone panic. He got me involved because Clarisse asked for me—she said I'd have the knowledge of prophecies and whatnot, so she figured I'd be of good use, or whatever. Chiron told Annabeth because she's always been interested in the Labyrinth—something about the architecture, I'm sure. But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with insane speed."

     "Except it's a maze, right?"

     "Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

     "But not if you have Ariadne's string," I said, ignoring Grover. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a... a navigation tool of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris was mumbling about string."

     I raised my eyebrows, waiting for Percy to catch on.

     "So... Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," he said, his brow scrunched together in thought. "But why? What's he planning?"

     "That's also something we don't know." I frowned. "We don't really know a lot, I guess. But whatever. I thought that maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that actually doesn't make any sense, now that I say it out loud. The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders. Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but she couldn't go too far because it was super dangerous. She had some close calls. Annabeth researched everything she could about Daedalus. I explored across pretty much the entire camp, looking for any sort of entrance, but it ended up being pointless. It didn't help much. I don't understand what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth is probably the key to Grover's problem."

     Percy blinked. I don't think he'd ever heard me say so much at once. "You think Pan is underground?"

     "It would explain why he's been impossible to find for so long."

     Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops..."

     "But," I said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was invented to fool you, to trick and kill you; it was literally designed to work against you. But if you can switch it around, make the Labyrinth work for you—"

     "It could lead you to the wild god," Percy said, nodding. He was beginning to catch on.

     "I can't do it." Grover hugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my dinner."

     "Grover, it may be your last chance," I said, reasonably. "Think about Pan."

     "The council is serious. One week or I'm out!"

     Over at the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. I got the feeling he didn't want to make a scene, but I was really pushing it, sitting at Percy's table for so long.

     "We'll talk later." I squeezed Percy's arm and stood, giving him a desperate look. "Please try to convince him."

     And I left, ignoring all the whispering and stares following me as I headed back to my own table.