Percy
_

Zoe pressed the symbol on the doors and they hissed open.

"So much for ancient architecture," I said.

Zoe scowled. Together we walked inside.

The first thing that struck me was the daylight—blazing sun coming through giant windows. Not the kind of thing you expect in the heart of a dungeon. The workshop was like an artist's studio, with thirty-foot ceilings and industrial lighting, polished stone floors, and workbenches along with windows. A spiral staircase led up to a second-story loft. Half a dozen easels displayed hand-drawn diagrams for buildings and machines that looked like Leonardo da Vinci sketches. Several laptop computers were scattered around on the tables. Glass jars of green oil—Greek fire—lined one shelf. There were inventions, too—weird metal machines I couldn't make sense of. One was a bronze chair with a bunch of electrical wires attached to it, like some kind of torture device. In another corner stood a giant metal egg about the size of a man. There was a grandfather clock that appeared to be made entirely of glass, so you could see all the gears turning. And hanging on the wall were several sets of bronze and silver wings.

"Di immortals," Zoe muttered. She ran to the nearest easel and looked at the sketch. "He's a genius. Look at the curves on this building!"

"And an artist," Lilly said in amazement. "These wings are amazing!"

The wings looked more advanced than the ones I'd seen in my dreams. The feathers were more tightly interwoven. Instead of wax seals, self-adhesive strips ran down the sides.

I kept my hand on my sword. Apparently, Daedalus was not at home, but the workshop looked like it had been recently used. The laptops were running their screen savers. A half-eaten blueberry muffin and a coffee cup sat on a workbench.

I walked to the window. The view outside was amazing. I recognized the Rocky Mountains in the distance. We were high up in the foothills, at least five hundred feet, and down below a valley spread out, filled with a tumbled collection of red mesas and boulders and spires of stone. It looked like some huge kid had been building a toy city with skyscraper-sized blocks, and then decided to knock it over.

"Where are we?" I wondered.

"Colorado Springs," A voice said behind us. "The Garden of the Gods."

Standing on the spiral staircase above us, with his weapon drawn, was my old sword master Quintus.

"You," Lilly said. "What have you done with Daedalus?"

Quintus smiled faintly. "Trust me, my dear. You don't want to meet him."

"Look, Mr. Traitor," she growled, "I didn't fight a dragon woman and a giant and a psychotic Sphinx to see you. Now, where is DAEDALUS?"

Quintus came down the stairs, holding his sword at his side. He was dressed in jeans and boots and his counselor's T-shirt from Camp HalfBlood, which made me curious as to where he got them. As far as I knew, he hadn't been to camp this time. For that matter, how did Lilly know him?

Zoe seemed to be thinking the same thing. "You know this man, Lilly?" she asked.

Lilly nodded. "He helped me find my way out of the labyrinth after Killian blew up Hephestaus's forge. But the way he knew our plans, and Kronos's...When I confronted him about it, he just said that I wouldn't understand and pushed me into camp. When I tried to go back into the labyrinth to find him, it just spit me back out."

"You think I'm an agent of Kronos," he said. "That I work for Alex."

"Well, duh," said Lilly.

"You're an intelligent girl," he said. "But you're wrong. I work only for myself."

"I can appreciate that," I muttered under my breath.

He walked past me like I was no threat at all and stood by the window. "The view changes from day to day," he mused. "It's always some place high up. Yesterday it was from a skyscraper overlooking Manhattan. The day before that, there was a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. But it keeps coming back to the Garden of the Gods. I think the Labyrinth likes it here. A fitting name, I suppose."

"You've been here before," I said.

"Oh, yes."

"That's an illusion out there?" I asked. "A projection or something?"

"No," Mimi murmured. "It's real. We're really in Colorado."

Quintus regarded her. "You have clear vision, don't you? You remind me of another mortal girl I once knew. Another princess who came to grief."

"Enough games," Killian said. "What have you done with Daedalus?"

Quintus stared at him. "My boy, you need lessons from your friend on seeing clearly. I am Daedalus."

"But you don't even look like Daedalus," Killian protested. "I saw him in a dream, and..." Killian stopped as he put the pieces together.

"Yes," Quintus said. "You've finally guessed the truth."

"You're an automaton. You made yourself a new body."

"Killian," Zoe said uneasily, "that's not possible. That—that can't be an automaton."

Quintus chuckled. "Do you know what Quintus means, my dear?"

"The fifth, in Latin. But—"

"This is my fifth body." The swordsman held out his forearm. He pressed his elbow and part of his wrist popped open—a rectangular hatch in his skin. Underneath, bronze gears whirred. Wires glowed.

"That's amazing!" Mimi said.

"Still weird," I said.

"You found a way to transfer your animus into a machine?" Killian said. "That's...not natural."

"Oh, I assure you, it's still me. I'm still very much Daedalus. My mother and your great ancestor, Athena, makes sure I never forget that." He tugged back the collar of his shirt. At the base of his neck was the mark I'd seen before—the dark shape of a bird grafted to his skin.

"A murderer's brand," Zoe said.

"For your nephew, Perdix," I guessed. "The boy you pushed off the tower."

Quintus's face darkened. "I did not push him. I simply—"

"Made him lose his balance," I said. "Let him die."

Quintus gazed out the windows at the purple mountains. "I regret what I did, Percy. I was angry and bitter. But I cannot take it back, and Athena never lets me forget. As Perdix died, she turned him into a small bird—a partridge. She branded the bird's shape on my neck as a reminder. No matter what body I take, the brand appears on my skin."

I looked into his eyes, and I realized he was the same man I'd seen in my dreams. His face might be totally different, but the same soul was in there— the same intelligence and all the sadness.

"You really are Daedalus," I decided. "But why spy on us?"

"To see if your camp was worth saving. Alexander had given me one story. I preferred to come to my own conclusions."

"So you have talked to Alex."

"Oh, yes. Several times. He is quite persuasive."

"But now you've seen the camp!" Lilly persisted. "So you know we need your help. You can't let Alex through the maze!"

Daedalus set his sword on the workbench. "The maze is no longer mine to control, Lillian. I created it, yes. In fact, it is tied to my life force. But I have allowed it to live and grow on its own. That is the price I paid for privacy."

"Privacy from what?"

"The gods," he said. "And death. I have been alive for two millennia, my dear, hiding from death."

"But how can you hide from Hades?" I asked. "I mean...Hades has the Furies."

"They do not know everything," he said. "Or see everything. You have encountered them, Percy. You know this is true. A clever man can hide quite a long time, and I have buried myself very deep. Only my greatest enemy has kept after me, and even him I have thwarted."

"You mean Minos," I said.

Daedalus nodded. "He hunts for me relentlessly. Now that he is a judge of the dead, he would like nothing better than for me to come before him so he can punish me for my crimes. After the daughters of Cocalus killed him, Minos's ghost began torturing me in my dreams. He promised that he would hunt me down. I did the only thing I could. I retreated from the world completely. I descended into my Labyrinth. I decided this would be my ultimate accomplishment: I would cheat death."

"And you did," Zoe marveled, "for two thousand years." She sounded kind of impressed, despite the horrible things Daedalus had done.

Just then a loud bark echoed from the corridor. I heard the ba-BUMP, baBUMP, ba-BUMP of huge paws, and Mrs. O'Leary bounded into the workshop. She licked Killian's face once, then almost knocked Daedalus over with an enthusiastic leap.

"There is my old friend!" Daedalus said, scratching Mrs. O'Leary behind the ears. "My only companion all these long lonely years."

"You," Killian said. "You were the one who sent her to me. When I was on Ogygia."

"You were on Ogygia?" Lilly exclaimed.

Killian nodded, not taking his eyes off Daedalus. "I was there for ten days, I think. I couldn't leave. It wasn't that Calypso wouldn't let me, it's that...She couldn't. I know her myth. Only those who she came to love could leave, but me...I wasn't one of them. But one day, this hellhound appeared. I was ready to kill it, but Calypso stopped me. Attached to the collar was a note, saying that she would take me back to camp. When I climbed on, she did exactly that before disappearing."

Daedalus nodded. "I had heard of what you did, son of Hyperion. To thwart Kronos, you would've sacrificed yourself. You are brave and selfless. Two things I am not. When I realized you had not died, but not been found either, I had an idea of where you might be. So I sent Mrs. O'Leary there. You have a good heart. I wanted to help you. Perhaps I—I felt guilty, as well."

"Guilty about what?"

"That your quest would be in vain."

"What?" Lilly said. "But you can still help us. You have to! Give us Ariadne's string so Alex can't get it."

"Yes...the string. I told Alexander that the eyes of a clear-sighted mortal are the best guide, but he did not trust me. He was so focused on the idea of a magic item. And the string works. It's not as accurate as your mortal friend here, perhaps. But good enough. Good enough."

"Where is it?" Zoe said.

"With Alexander," Daedalus said sadly. "I'm sorry, my dear. But you are several hours too late."

"Kronos promised me freedom," Quintus said. "Once Hades is overthrown, he will set me over the Underworld. I will reclaim my son Icarus. I will make things right with poor young Perdix. I will see Minos's soul cast into Tartarus, where it cannot bother me again. And I will no longer have to run from death."

"That's your brilliant idea?" Zoe yelled. "You're going to let that boy destroy our camp, kill hundreds of demigods, and then attack Olympus? You're going to bring down the entire world so you can get what you want?"

"Your cause is doomed, my dear. I saw that as soon as I saw your camp. There is no way you can hold back the might of Kronos."

"That's not true!" she cried.

"I am doing what I must, my dear. The offer was too sweet to refuse. I'm sorry."

Zoe pushed over an easel. Architectural drawings scattered across the floor. "I used to respect you. You—you built amazing things. You solved problems. Now...I don't know what you are. Children of Athena are supposed to be wise, not just clever. Maybe you are just a machine. You should have died two thousand years ago."

Instead of getting mad, Daedalus hung his head. "You should go warn your camp. Now that Alexander has the string—"

"Cut the shit," I interrupted. Maybe it was hearing about Calypso, still stuck on that island, or maybe it was Zoe's anger rubbing off on me, but something seriously pissed me off. "You just want to save yourself. You think that if you can see your son and nephew again, that'll make everything right. But it won't. You want to know how I know? Cause I did the same thing. And what happened? I lost some of the most important people in my life. My mother, my stepfather, my real father, my brother. All to see the dead again." Wind whistled in my ears and blew my hair around. I knew I should've looked for the cause, but I was too angry to care, too absorbed in self-loathing for what I did. "It had seemed too good to be true, but I didn't read into the consequences of my actions. Do you really want that, Daedalus? Do you want to be responsible for the death of every demigod alive right now? All the mortals who will suffer if Kronos comes to power? Do you?!"

"Percy," Zoe whispered in my ear. "Calm down. Please. If you keep going, you're going to tear this place apart."

I felt her hand squeeze my shoulder. The tension in my body melted. I took a few deep breaths and opened my eyes.

It looked like a tornado had ravaged the room during my rant. Killian was holding a clump of Greek fire, Lilly was looking for something to put it in, Mimi was moving a couple of easels from in front of the doorway, and Mrs. O'Leary was licking some ink off her fur.

I looked back at the old inventor. If possible, Daedalus' grief seemed to have dug deeper.

I shook my head and turned to Zoe. "Sorry," I muttered.

She tilted her head and smiled slightly. She rubbed my shoulder comfortingly. "I think we have our answer," she declared. "Daedalus has decided to be a coward this day, and if we live to see Thursday, I will personally send my lady Artemis after him."

"Your lady?" Daedalus murmured, looking more intrigued than scared. "I see."

"You see nothing," Zoe said sharply. She turned away, waving at our friends. "Let's go. Mimi, take us back to camp. We must prepare for Kronos's army."