𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

chapter sixty-eight. ☄︎. *. ⋆

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

PERCY AND I kept our distance the following morning. I found myself gazing at him from afar every once in a while, but I would have to look away when his eyes landed on me. It was a fun game we were playing; a game of chicken, almost.

Grover and Tyson joined us as we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Eurytion on the deck. Nico followed, too, but he still seemed angry. It took me a second to remember why; I'd almost forgotten the night before's happening. A lot had happened since then.

"Nico, you could come with us," Percy blurted.

He shook his head. I don't think any of us had slept well in the demon ranch house, but Nico looked worse than anybody else. His eyes were red and his face chalky. He was wrapped in a black robe that must've belonged to Geryon, because it was three sizes too big even for a grown man.

"I need time to think." His eyes wouldn't meet mine, but I could tell from his tone he was still angry. The fact that his sister had come out of the Underworld for me and Percy and not for him didn't seem to sit well with him.

"Nico," I said. "Bianca just wants you to be okay."

I put my hand on his shoulder, but he pulled away and trudged up the road toward the ranch house. And it could have been my imagination, but I was pretty sure the morning mist seemed to cling to him as he walked.

"I'm worried about him," I told Percy. "If he starts talking to Minos's ghost again—"

"He'll be all right," Eurytion promised. The cowherd had cleaned up nicely. He was wearing new jeans and a clean Western shirt and he'd even trimmed his beard. He'd put on Geryon's boots. "The boy can stay here and gather his thoughts as long as he wants. He'll be safe, I promise."

"What about you?" I asked.

Eurytion scratched Orthus behind one chin, then the other. "Things are going to be run a little different on this ranch from now on. No more sacred cattle meat. I'm thinking about soybean patties. And I'm going to befriend those flesh-eating horses. Might just sign up for the next rodeo."

The idea made me shudder. "Well, good luck."

"Yep." Eurytion spit into the grass. "I reckon you'll be looking for Daedalus's workshop now?"

I lit up—literally. A spark popped off me. "Can you help us?"

Eurytion studied the cattle guard, and I got the feeling the subject of Daedalus's workshop made him uncomfortable. "Don't know where it is. But Hephaestus probably would."

"That's what Hera said," I agreed, nodding too quickly. "But how do we find Hephaestus?"

Eurytion pulled something from under the collar of his shirt. It was a necklace—a smooth silver disk on a silver chain. The disk had a depression on the middle, like a thumbprint. He handed it to me.

"Hephaestus comes here from time to time," Eurytion said. "Studies the animals and such so he can make bronze automaton copies. Last time, I—uh—did him a favor. A little trick he wanted to play on my dad, Ares, and Aphrodite. He gave me that chain in gratitude. Said if I ever needed to find him, the disk would lead me to his forges. But only once."

"And you're giving it to me?" I asked, oddly touched.

Eurytion blushed. "I don't need to see the forges, miss. Got enough to do here. Just press the button and you'll be on your way."

Unable to wait any longer, I pressed the button, and the disk sprang to life. It elongated, growing two beady eyes and a forked tongue that stuck out of its mouth. I dropped it and screamed, much to Eurytion's confusion.

"She's, um, a little scared of snakes," Grover explained to him. "That old grudge between Apollo and Python."

"Oh." Eurytion looked embarrassed. "Sorry, miss."

The snake slithered to the cattle guard and disappeared between the bars.

"Hurry," Percy said. "That thing's not going to wait for us."

I wasn't anxious to follow, but I didn't have much choice. We said our good-byes to Eurytion, Tyson pulled the cattle guard off the hole, and we dropped back into the maze.

I wish I could've put the mechanical snake on a leash. It scuttled along the tunnels so fast, most of time I couldn't even see it. If it hadn't been for Tyson's and Grover's excellent hearing, we never would've known which way it was going.

We ran down a marble tunnel, then dashed to the left and almost fell into an abyss. Tyson grabbed me and pulled me back before I could fall. The tunnel continued in front of us, but there was no floor for about a hundred feet, just gaping darkness and a series of iron rungs in the ceiling. The mechanical snake was about halfway across, coiling itself around the bars with creepy ease.

"Monkey bars," I said. "Oh, I'm great at these."

I leaped onto the first rung and started swinging my way across, with almost as much ease as the snake.

"So you're scared of baby snakes," Percy called, "but not plummeting to your death from a set of monkey bars."

"Go figure," I agreed, landing on the opposite side. When my feet touched the ground, I rushed off to follow the snake without making sure my friends were following. I just knew they were.

We kept moving and passed a skeleton crumpled in the tunnel. It wore the remains of a dress shirt, slacks, and a tie. The snake didn't slow down. I slipped on a pile of wood scraps, but when I shined a light on them I realized they were pencils—hundreds of them, all broken in half.

The tunnel opened up onto a large room. A blazing light hit us. Once my eyes adjusted, the first thing I noticed was the amount of skeletons. Dozens littered the floor around us. Some were old and bleached white. Others were more recent and a lot grosser. They didn't smell quite as bad as Geryon's stables, but almost.

Then I saw the monster. She stood on a glittery dais on the opposite side of the room. She had the body of a huge lion and the head of a woman. She would've been pretty, but her hair was tied back in a tight bun and she wore too much makeup, so she kind of reminded me of my third-grade choir teacher. She had a blue ribbon badge pinned to her chest that took me a moment to read: THIS MONSTER HAS BEEN RATED EXEMPLARY!

Tyson whimpered. "Sphinx."

Spotlights blazed on either side of the creature. The only exit was a tunnel right behind the dais. The mechanical snake slithered between the Sphinx's paws and disappeared.

I started forward to follow, but the Sphinx roared, showing fangs in her otherwise human face. Bars came down on both tunnel exits, behind us and in front.

Immediately the monster's snarl turned into a brilliant smile.
"Welcome, lucky contestants!" she announced. "Get ready to play... ANSWER THAT RIDDLE!"

Canned applause blasted from the ceiling, as if there were invisible loudspeakers. Spotlights swept across the room and reflected off the dais, throwing disco glitter over the skeletons on the floor.

"Fabulous prizes!" the Sphinx said. "Pass the test, and you get to advance! Fail, and I get to eat you! Who will be our contestant?"

I frowned. "I can do this," I volunteered, then turned back to my friends and lowered my voice. "I already know the answer. The one about what walks on four legs, blah blah blah. Annabeth taught it to me."

Nobody argued, so I stepped forward to the contestant's podium, which had a skeleton in a school uniform hunched over it. I pushed the skeleton out of the way, and it clattered to the floor.

"Sorry," I told it.

"Welcome, Theodosia Scott!" the monster cried, though I was pretty sure I hadn't said my name. "Are you ready for your test?"

"Yes," I said. "Ask your riddle."

"Twenty riddles, actually!" the Sphinx said gleefully.

That dumbfounded me. "Sorry?"

"We've raised our standards! To pass, you must show proficiency in all twenty. Isn't that great?"

Applause switched on and off like somebody turning a faucet. I glanced at Percy nervously. He gave me an encouraging nod, but I could tell he was just as lost as I was.

"Okay," I told the Sphinx. "I'm ready."

A drumroll sounded from above. The Sphinx's eyes glittered with excitement. "What... is the capital of Bulgaria?"

I frowned. I knew the answer, obviously—I'd been there on a quest with Will once—but this was probably the last question I'd been expecting. "Sofia," I said, "but—"

"Correct!" More canned applause. The Sphinx smiled so wide her fangs showed. "Please be sure to mark your answer clearly on your test sheet with a number 2 pencil."

"What?" I was so lost I was debating just fighting my way out of there. Then a test booklet appeared on the podium in front of me, along with a sharpened pencil.

"Make sure you bubble each answer clearly and stay inside the circle," the Sphinx said. "If you have to erase, erase completely or the machine will not be able to read your answers."

"What machine?" I asked.

The Sphinx pointed with her paw. Over by the spotlight was a bronze box with a bunch of gears and levers and a big Greek letter Êta on the side, the mark of Hephaestus. My stomach churned. This was a test, both literally and figuratively.

"Now," said the Sphinx, "next question—"

"Wait a second," I protested. "What about 'What walks on four legs in the morning'?"

"I beg your pardon?" the Sphinx said, clearly annoyed now.

"The riddle about man. He walks on four legs in the morning, like a baby, two legs in the afternoon, like an adult, and three legs in the evening, as an old man with a cane. That's the riddle you used to ask."

"Exactly why we changed the test!" the Sphinx exclaimed. "You already knew the answer. Now second question, what is the square root of sixteen?"

"Four," I said, "but—"

"Correct! Which U.S. president signed the Emancipation Proclamation?"

"Abraham Lincoln, but—"

"Correct! Riddle number four. How much—"

"Shut up!" I shouted.

I glanced at Percy. He mouthed for me to Stop complaining! But I disagreed.

"These aren't riddles," I said.

"What do you mean?" the Sphinx snapped. "Of course they are. This test material is specially designed—"

"It's just a bunch of dumb, random facts," I insisted. "Riddles are supposed to make you think."

"Think?" The Sphinx frowned. "How am I supposed to test whether you can think? That's ridiculous! Now, how much force is required—"

"Stop it!" I said. "This is a stupid test. I won't have it."

"Um, Theo," Grover cut in nervously. "Maybe you should just, you know, finish first and complain later?"

"Riddles are one of my top skills," I insisted. "I've beat Annabeth in a riddle-off. This is an insult to my pride. I'm not answering these questions."

The spotlights glared. The Sphinx's eyes glittered pure black. "Why then, my dear," the monster said, calmly. "If you won't pass, you fail. And since we can't allow any children to be held back, you'll be EATEN!"

The Sphinx bared her claws, which gleamed like stainless steel. She pounced at the podium.

"No!" Tyson charged. He hates it when people threaten me, but I couldn't believe he was being so brave, especially since he'd had such a bad experience with a Sphinx before.

He tackled the Sphinx midair and they crashed sideways into a pile of bones. This gave me just enough time to gather my wits and draw my bow and nock an arrow. Tyson got up, his shirt clawed to shreds. The Sphinx growled, looking for an opening.

Percy drew Riptide and stepped in front of me. "Turn invisible," he told me.

"I can fight—"

"No!" he yelled. "The Sphinx is after you! Let us get it."

As if to prove his point, the Sphinx knocked Tyson aside and tried to charge past Percy. Grover poked her in the eye with somebody's leg bone. She screeched in pain. I rolled my eyes, but acquiesced and focused on manipulating the light hitting my body. The Sphinx pounced right where I'd been standing, but came up with empty paws.

"No fair!" the Sphinx wailed. "Cheater!"

With me no longer in sight, the Sphinx turned on Percy. He raised his sword, but before he could strike, Tyson ripped the monster's grading machine out of the floor and threw it at the Sphinx's head, ruining her hair bun. It landed in pieces all around her.

"My grading machine!" she cried. "I can't be exemplary without my test scores!"

The bars lifted from the exits. We all dashed for the far tunnel. The Sphinx started to follow, but Grover raised his reed pipes and began to play. Suddenly the pencils remembered they used to be parts of trees. They collected around the Sphinx's paws, grew roots and branches, and began wrapping around the monster's legs. The Sphinx ripped through them, but it bought us just enough time.

Tyson pulled Grover into the tunnel, and the bars slammed shut behind us. "Theo!" Percy yelled.

"Here!" I said, right next to him. "Just keep moving!"

We ran through the dark tunnels, listening to the roar of the Sphinx behind us as she complained about all the tests she would have to grade by hand.