Disclaimer: I don't own PJO.

Chapter Four

I Visit a Familiar (Un)Dead Person

Chiron had insisted we talk about it in the morning, which was kind of like, Hey, your life and home are in mortal danger. Sleep tight! It was hard to fall asleep, but when I finally did, I dreamed of a prison. No doubt it was the first of many dream visions that would give me vague and frustrating hints about the situation and its' history.

There was a young boy in an Ancient Greek tunic and sandals crouching alone in a massive stone room. The ceiling was open to the night sky, but the walls were twenty feet high and polished marble, completely smooth. Scattered around the room were wooden crates. Some were cracked and tipped over, as if they'd been flung in there. Bronze tools spilled out of one—a compass, a saw, and a bunch of other things that I sure as Hades didn't recognize, but the members of Cabin 9 and 6 probably would.

The boy huddled in the corner, shivering from cold, or maybe fear. He was spattered in mud. His legs, arms, and face, were scraped up as if he'd been dragged here along with the boxes. It was a pathetic, fury-inducing scene.

Then the double oak doors moaned open. Two guards in bronze armour marched in, holding an old man between them. They flung him to the floor in a battered heap. He groaned, and I could tell that he must have been tortured.

"Father!" The boy ran to him. The man's robes were in tatters. His hair was streaked with grey, and his beard was long and curly. His nose had been broken. His lips were bloody. It was a terrible thing for a loving son to witness, and I wished I could grab the boy and hide his face in my stomach to shield him from the terrible sight. Or at least to kill the two guards who clearly had no qualms killing a man.

The boy took the old man's head in his arms. "What did they do to you?" Then he turned to yell at the guards. "I'll kill you!" He had spirit, despite his obvious fear.

"There will be no killing today," a voice, cold and distantly familiar, declared icily.

The guards moved aside. Behind them stood a tall man in white robes. He wore a thin circlet of gold on his head. His beard was pointed like a spear blade. His grey eyes glittered cruelly. "You helped the Athenian kill my Minotaur, Daedalus. You turned my own daughter against me."

I crinkled my brow, trying to remember the name of the king in the myth. All I could recall was that he was king of Crete, and his daughter who aided Theseus only to later be abandoned and marry Dionysus was named Ariadne.

"You did that yourself, Your Majesty," the old man, Daedalus, croaked.

A guard planted a kick in the old man's ribs. He groaned in agony.

"Stop!" the young boy cried.

"You love your maze so much," the king said, "I have decided to let you stay here. This will be your workshop. Make me new wonders. Amuse me. Every maze needs a monster. You will be mine!"

"I don't fear you," the old man groaned.

The king smiled coldly. He locked his eyes on the boy. "But a man cares about his son, eh? Displease me, old man, and the next time my guards inflict a punishment, it will be on him!"

The king swept out of the room with his guards, and the doors slammed shut, leaving the boy and his father alone in the darkness.

"What shall we do?" the boy moaned. "Father, they will kill you!"

The old man swallowed with difficulty. He tried to smile, but it was a gruesome sight with his bloody mouth.

"Take heart, my son." He gazed up at the stars. "I—I will find a way."

A bar lowered across the doors with a fatal BOOM, and I woke in a cold sweat, gasping for breath and shaking.

I was still feeling the effects of the dream the next morning when Chiron called a war council. We met in the sword arena instead of the rec room like usual, which I thought was pretty strange— trying to discuss the fate of the camp while Mrs. O'Leary chewed on a life-size Greek-warrior dummy.

Seeing the stuffing coming out of its' torn stomach made me feel more than a little disturbed.

Chiron and Quintus stood at the front by the weapon racks. As the pair with the most knowledge of the Labyrinth, Clarisse and Luke sat next to each other and led the briefing. Tyson and Grover sat as far away from each other as possible. Also present around the table that had been set up: Juniper, Silena, Beckendorf, my friend Malcolm who was the counsellor for the Athena kids, Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin, and even Argus, our hundred-eyed security chief.

If I hadn't already known the importance of our discovery, that alone would have told me that it was serious. Argus hardly ever shows up to meetings unless something really major is going on. The whole time Luke spoke, he kept his hundred blue eyes trained on her so hard his whole body turned bloodshot.

"Annabeth must have known about the Labyrinth entrance," Luke said, playing with a dagger and frowning deeply. "She researched everything that could be found about the maze. It bordered on obsession for her. Daedalus was her idol."

He kept his expression and tone even as he spoke, like she hadn't been the centre of his existence for years. I couldn't tell what he was thinking and that worried me. It was a rare occasion that I couldn't read Luke Castellan like an open book. Better, even, what with my dyslexia and all.

Juniper cleared her throat, drawing my attention back to the meeting. "That's what I was trying to tell you last night. The cave entrance has been there a long time. Annabeth and Ethan used to use it, in the year before they... Left."

Silena and I both frowned. "You knew about the Labyrinth entrance, and you didn't say anything?" Silena demanded, before I got the chance.

Juniper's face turned green in a blush of embarrassment. "I didn't know it was important. Just a cave. I don't like yucky old caves."

"She has good taste," Grover muttered.

"I wouldn't have paid any attention except…well, it was Ethan." She blushed a little greener. I hid an eye-roll, wondering why so many of girls at camp thought Ethan Nakamura was remotely attractive.

Grover huffed. "Forget what I said about good taste." I had to agree with him there. I was surprised anyone found Ethan Nakamura attractive really, what with him being a psychotic murderer intent on destroying all of Western Civilization and all. That sort of thing tended to put me off, but maybe that was just me.

"Interesting," Quintus polished his sword as he spoke. "And you believe this pair, Annabeth and Ethan, would dare use the Labyrinth as an invasion route?"

"Definitely," Clarisse confirmed firmly. "If they could get an army of monsters inside Camp Half-Blood, just pop up in the middle of the woods without having to worry about our magical boundaries, we wouldn't stand a chance. They could wipe us out easy. They must've been planning this for months."

"Maybe longer, if they've known about it so long," I commented. I tried to remember if any mention had been made of the Labyrinth or an invasion during my captivity, but I'd been so focused on ignoring everything that was happening to stay sane, I'd barely understood what was happened. My injuries hadn't helped. I realized that I was scratching at my arm, the same one that still ached from Atlas shattering it, and hastily stopped, hoping that no one had noticed.

"They've been sending scouts into the maze," Luke pointed out. "We know because…because we found one."

"Chris Rodriguez," Chiron added. He gave Quintus a meaningful look.

"Ah," Quintus said. "The one in the…Yes, I understand."

I wanted to ask what they meant, but it wasn't the time, so I let it be.

"The point is, Annabeth and Ethan have been looking for a way to navigate the maze," Clarisse said. "They're searching for Daedalus' workshop."

I remembered my dream the night before—the bloody old man in tattered robes. "The guy who created the maze."

"Yes," Luke nodded, running a hand through his hair in a gesture of stress. "The greatest inventor of all time. If the legends are true, his workshop is in the centre of the Labyrinth.

He's the only one who knew how to navigate the maze perfectly. If Chase and Nakamura managed to find the workshop and convince Daedalus to help them, they wouldn't have to fumble around searching for paths, or risk losing his army in the maze's traps. They could navigate anywhere he wanted—quickly and safely. First to Camp Half-Blood to wipe us out. Then…to Olympus."

I swallowed. "But the Labyrinth is underground," I pointed out weakly, already sure that there was some way around this problem. "Wouldn't that keep them from getting to Olympus, at least?"

Chiron shook his head solemnly. "There is always a way," he replied grimly.

The arena was silent except for Mrs. O'Leary's toy Greek getting disembowelled: SQUEAK! SQUEAK! I felt my stomach churn as I stared at the headless dummy.

Finally Beckendorf put his huge hands on the table. "Back up a sec. Luke, you said 'convince Daedalus'? Isn't Daedalus dead?"

Quintus grunted. "I would hope so. He lived, what, three thousand years ago? And even if he were alive, don't the old stories say he fled from the Labyrinth?"

"If he's alive, then he's in hiding from Hades and Thanatos," I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. "From the sounds of it, the Labyrinth would be a good place for him to lie low, if he's really able to navigate it. Still, how would he be alive after all this time? Demigods barely live to their twenties for the most part, never mind their thousands."

It was a very depressing, but very true, fact. And the thought of a half-blood somehow living for thousands of years with the aid of the gods made my skin crawl. That was not natural, and had to involve some twisted ritual or something. I loathed that sort of thing.

Chiron clopped restlessly on his hooves. "That's the problem. No one knows. There are rumours…well, there are many disturbing rumours about Daedalus, but one is that he disappeared back into the Labyrinth toward the end of his life. He might still be there."

I thought about the old man I'd seen in my dreams. He'd looked so frail, it was hard to believe he'd lasted another week, much less three thousand years. That being said, parents could find a great deal of strength when it came to their children being in danger, as Daedalus' son had been. Mom had used the last of strength to pull me from our destroyed car before her death. I flinched away from the memory, and started scratching my wrist again.

"We need to go in," Luke announced heavily, meeting my worried gaze. "We have to find the workshop before the others do. If Daedalus is alive, we have to convince him to help us, not Chase and Nakamura. If Ariadne's string still exists, we make sure it never falls into their hands."

"Wait a second," I protested. "If we're worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?"

"Great idea!" Grover chirruped. "I'll get the dynamite!"

"It's not that easy," Clarisse growled, looking bitter. "We tried that at the entrance we found in Phoenix. It didn't go well."

Luke nodded. "The Labyrinth is magical, Ana. It would take huge power to seal even one of its' entrances. In Phoenix, Clarisse demolished a whole building with a wrecking ball, and the maze entrance just shifted a few feet. The best we can do is prevent Chase and Nakamura from learning to navigate the Labyrinth."

I slumped in disappoint, though truthfully I hadn't expected it to be that easy. Nothing ever was for demigods.

"We could fight," Lee insisted, leaning in to emphasize his point. "We know where the entrance is now. We can set up a defensive line and wait for them. If an army tries to come through, they'll find us waiting with our bows."

"We will certainly set up defences," Chiron agreed. "But I fear that Clarisse is right. The magical borders have kept this camp safe for hundreds of years. If Annabeth and Ethan manage to get a large army of monsters into the centre of camp, bypassing our boundaries…we may not have the strength to defeat them."

Nobody looked happy about that news. Chiron usually tried to be upbeat and optimistic. If he was predicting we couldn't hold off an attack, that wasn't good.

"We have to get to Daedalus' workshop first," Luke insisted, jaw clenched. "Find Ariadne's string and prevent Chase and Nakamura from using it."

"But if nobody can navigate in there," I said, "what chance do we have?"

"I'm the son of Hermes, and I spent years helping Annabeth research the thing. I know more about it than anybody else in the camp."

"That's not enough."

"We don't have another choice."

"Then we need to figure one out."

"Are you going to help me or not?"

I realized everyone was watching Luke and I arguing like it was a tennis match. Mrs. O'Leary's squeaky toy went EEK! as she ripped off its' pink rubber head.

"Of course," I sighed, crossing my arms and looking away. My heart hadn't been in the argument really.

Gods, I didn't feel ready for this. I was still a wreck from last winter. But I couldn't, wouldn't, let Camp be destroyed.

Chiron cleared his throat. "First things first. We need a quest. Someone must enter the Labyrinth, find the workshop of Daedalus, and prevent Annabeth and Ethan from using the maze to invade this camp."

"Luke should be leader," Clarisse declared.

There was a murmur of agreement.

Luke had led two quests before, both of which had resulted in the deaths of two of his companions, so I wasn't surprised that he looked uncomfortable. He'd already told me that he never wanted to lead a quest again.

"You've done as much as I have, Clarisse," he protested. "You should go, too."

Clarisse shook her head. "I'm not going back in there." Her eyes were wide and her shoulders were tense.

"Clarisse," I began, but she cut me off.

"NO! I'm never going in there again. Never!"

She stormed out of the arena.

There was silence for a moment, before Luke turned to me. "Then it should be you." I wanted to object, but I could see the desperation in his eyes. Luke didn't want to be the one to lead another quest. Not after his last two. I knew that he would go, because, as he himself had said, he had the best chance of navigating it. But he couldn't lead it.

My shoulders slumped and I nodded silently. "I'll go to the Oracle, if no one objects?" My gaze flickered over the others, silently hoping that somebody would protest or volunteer. Nobody did, and Chiron gave me a strained smile.

"No time to lose, my dear," he urged me gently, and I gave another curt nod, pushing myself out of my chair. I left the arena, heading for the Big House, without another word.

The Oracle's attic lair was just as I remembered it. I pulled on the cord to bring down the ladder, and climbed up into the dark room.

The warm air smelled like mildew and rotten wood and snakes.

The attic was filled with the same junk it had been last time: armour stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying where they'd come from. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled monster parts. There was a dusty mounted trophy on the wall that looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.

I shuddered, recalling my own encounter with the multi-headed snake. It hadn't been pleasant.

Finally, I could delay no longer. Reluctantly, I turned to the window, and there she was. Sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the Egyptian kind, but a human female body shrivelled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles. Supposedly, she had been like this since the 1940s at least.

I licked my dry lips, despite the fact that the inside of my mouth was as dry as my lips were, and stepped forward, trying to decide how to phrase my request.

Green smoke came out of the Oracle's suddenly open mouth and swirled around me before forming an image of Daedalus' son.

"I am the Oracle of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python," she rasped the exact same words that I still vividly recalled from my last visit. It was disturbing to hear her reptilian voice coming from such a small young boy.

"How can I save Camp Half-Blood from the invasion?" I croaked out, shivering in discomfort at the goosebumps on my arms.

The boy opened his mouth and spoke again, while I resisted the urge to flee.

"You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze,

The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise.

You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand,

The child of Athena's final stand.

Destroy with a hero's final breath,

And witness a fate worse than death."

I couldn't control myself any longer. Even as the Oracle's smoke began to dissipate, I was scrambling back down the ladder, shaking and replaying the awful words in my head.

"My dear," Chiron said when I returned to the arena after regaining control of myself. "You made it."

I looked at Luke first. I couldn't even tell myself it I was trying to warn him, or if I was just desperately seeking reassurance. He gave me an encouraging smile, but I could see a troubled look in his eye.

I turned away and looked at Chiron. "I got the prophecy. I will lead the quest to find Daedalus' workshop."

Nobody cheered, but I wasn't offended. They were my friends, and everybody knew that I wasn't exactly doing well lately. Plus, this was a serious situation, with our home and only safe haven being threatened. There was no reason for celebration. Except maybe that I had survived the visit with my sanity intact.

Chiron scraped a hoof on the dirt floor. "What did the prophecy say exactly, my dear? The wording is important."

I took a deep breath. "I, ah…well, it said, you shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze..."

Everyone was quiet as they waited for me to continue.

"The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise."

Grover perked up. "The lost one! That must mean Pan! That's great!"

"With the dead and the traitor," I reminded him glumly. "Not so great."

"And?" Chiron asked. "What is the rest?"

"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand," I reluctantly continued, I bit my lip before forcing myself to finish. "the child of Athena's final stand."

Everyone looked around uncomfortably. Malcolm inhaled sharply, his storm-cloud eyes widening in worry, both for himself and his siblings. I couldn't blame him. A final stand didn't sound good.

"Hey…we shouldn't jump to conclusions," Silena said. "Malcolm isn't the only child of Athena, right?"

"Maybe it's Annabeth," Luke offered, expression tight.

"But who's this ghost king?" Beckendorf asked.

No one answered. I thought about the Iris-message I'd seen of Nico summoning spirits. I had a bad feeling the prophecy was connected to that, but I didn't dare to say anything and put him at risk.

"Are there more lines?" Chiron asked me, furrowing his eyebrows. "The prophecy does not sound complete."

I hesitated, not wanting to say anymore. It had been the same way the first time I'd gotten a prophecy from the Oracle. "I don't remember exactly." It was a lie, and I looked down at my lap to avoid catching someone's eye and being called out on it.

I shifted on my bench, crossing my arms tightly over my chest. "Something about…Destroy with a hero's final breath."

"And?" Chiron pressed me, but I couldn't say the rest.

I leapt to my feet. "Look, the point is, I have to go in. I'll find the workshop and stop Chase and Nakamura. And…I need help." I turned to Luke. "Will you come?"

He didn't hesitate for a second. "Like you could keep me away, Ariel. After all, you'd be lost without me." He flashed a cocky grin at me, though it didn't reach his anxious eyes.

I smiled for what felt like the first time in days, if not months, and turned to my other best friend. "Grover, you too? The wild god is waiting."

Grover seemed to forget how much he hated the underground. The line about the "lost one" had completely energized him, and he was beaming with excitement. "I'll pack extra recyclables for snacks!"

I turned to the last companion that I had decided on during my return from the attic. "And Tyson," I said warmly. "I'll need you too."

"Yay! Blow-things-up time!" Tyson clapped so hard he woke up Mrs. O'Leary, who was dozing in the corner.

"Wait, Ana," Chiron objected. "This goes against the ancient laws. A hero is allowed only two companions."

"I need them all," I insisted. "Chiron, it's important."

It was. I didn't know why I was so sure that I needed all three of my boys to come with me, but I knew that I did. After all these years of street-life and living out a modern day Greek tragedy, I had learned to trust my instincts about things.

Chiron flicked his tail nervously. "Ana, consider your choices well. You would be breaking the ancient laws, and there are always consequences to doing such things. Last winter, five went on a quest to save yourself and Artemis. Only three came back. Think on that.

Three is a sacred number. There are three fates, three furies, three Olympian sons of Kronos. It is a good strong number that stands against many dangers. Four…this is risky."

I took a deep breath. "I know. But we have to. Please."

I could tell that Chiron didn't like it, and I hated to upset him, though I knew that it had to be this way. Quintus was studying us, like he was trying to decide which of us would come back alive.

Chiron sighed. "Very well. Let us adjourn. The members of the quest must prepare themselves. Tomorrow at dawn, we send you into the Labyrinth."

Quintus pulled me aside as the council was breaking up.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he told me.

Mrs. O'Leary came over, wagging her tail happily. She dropped her shield at my feet, and I threw it for her. Quintus watched her romp after it. I still didn't trust him, but when he looked at me, I saw what looked like genuine concern in his eyes.

"I don't like the idea of you going down there," he told me. "Any of you. but if you must, I want you to remember something. The Labyrinth exists to fool you. It will distract you. That's dangerous for half-bloods. We are easily distracted."

"You've been in there?"

"Long ago." His voice was ragged. "I barely escaped with my life. Most who enter aren't that lucky."

He gripped my shoulder. "Ana, keep your mind on what matters most. If you can do that, you might find the way. And here, I wanted to give you something."

He handed me a little silver tube. It was so cold I almost dropped it.

"A whistle?" I asked.

"A dog whistle," Quintus elaborated. "For Mrs. O'Leary."

"Um, thanks, but—"

"How will it work in the maze? I'm not a hundred percent certain it will. But Mrs. O'Leary is a hellhound. She can appear when called, no matter how far away she is. I'd feel better knowing you had this. If you really need help, use it; but be careful, the whistle is made of Stygian ice."

"What ice?"

"From the River Styx. Very hard to craft. Very delicate. It cannot melt, but it will shatter when you blow it, so you can only use it once."

I thought about Annabeth, my old enemy. Right before I'd gone on my first quest, she had given Luke a gift, too—a Yankee cap that had been designed to drag us to our deaths.

Quintus seemed nice. So concerned. And Mrs. O'Leary liked him, which had to count for something. She dropped the slimy shield at my feet and barked excitedly when I threw it again for her.

I felt ashamed that I could even think about mistrusting Quintus. But then again, Luke had trusted Annabeth and Ethan once.

"Thanks," I told Quintus. I slipped the freezing whistle into my pocket, promising myself that I would never use it, and I dashed off to find Luke.

It was rare for the Hermes cabin to be deserted, but when I stuck my head in, only Luke was there, shuffling some papers with tension lining his shoulders.

"Knock, knock," I called to him, making his head jolt up. He gave me a strained smile.

"Who's there?"

"Trouble," I replied dryly. He gave a bitter snort.

"We're demigods Ariel," he sighed. "We're all trouble. Or else we're in it."

I shrugged in acceptance and my way over to him, picking my way through the sleeping bags that covered the floor like a carpet.

"What happened when I was in the attic?" I asked bluntly once we were both seated on his bunk. He didn't look surprised that I knew something had occurred.

He raked a hand through his hair, looking strained. "Juniper told me that she saw Quintus poking around the entrance to the Labyrinth," he admitted. My shoulders went stiff, and I found myself reaching into my pocket to touch the whistle.

"He just gave me a whistle supposedly made from Stygian ice for Mrs. O'Leary," I answered after a moment. "One-use only, according to him."

Luke pursed his lips. "Trap?"

I shrugged. "Could be. I dunno."

He gave me a guilty look. "I'm sorry I pressed you into being the leader for this," he murmured, reaching over to wrap an arm around my shoulders and tug me into his side. "I know that you're struggling."

I laid my head on his shoulder.

"No, it's okay," I replied tiredly. "I know why. And the Oracle wouldn't have given me a prophecy if it wasn't my task anyway." Despite my words, tears began slipping out of my eyes, and I turned my head into his shirt to cry softly. Luke didn't speak, simply rubbing my back in comfort.

"Oh, uh." I jolted up and away from Luke, humiliated at the sight of Travis at the door. He was one of my friends too, but I only ever let Luke, Grover and Chiron see me in tears, on the rare occasions that I let them fall.

Travis looked away apologetically as he spoke, letting me regain my dignity.

"It's time for archery with the Athena cabin, Luke," he said. "I came to get you."

Message given, he hurried off again, much to my relief. Once he was gone, Luke glanced at me, asking me with his eyes if I needed him to skip it, but I just forced a weary smile back at him.

"See you later," I murmured. "I'm gonna go and get packed. I want to touch in with Chiron too."

"If you're sure," he agreed reluctantly.

"I am," I stated firmly, turning to leave. He called after me just before I stepped out the door.

"Ana wait!"

"Yeah?" I turned back around to raise an eyebrow at him.

"About your prophecy. The line about a hero's last breath—"

I went tense. "You're wondering which hero? I don't know. The Oracle didn't give me any hints about that."

"No. Something else. I was thinking the last line usually rhymes with the one before it. Was it something about—did it end in the word death?"

I looked away, my jaw tense. "I'll see you later Luke."