Chapter 13: Percy Lands A Triple Shot

Even in my dreams, I couldn't escape the Labyrinth.

I was following Luke and another guy, trudging through a section of the maze that curved overhead and was lined with straight bars and steel cable, like a subway tunnel. Luke held a lantern ahead of him, lighting up the steel tracks on the ground. Gravel crunched beneath their shoes.

'This doesn't look right, sir,' said the other guy. He held a map up to the light, peering at it through large, wire-framed glasses.

Luke cursed and snatched the map away. 'I don't get it! I've come through it fine before!'

'Maybe because you have entered with a destination in mind.'

'What?' Luke said.

His companion shook his head. 'I didn't say anything.'

The voice was low and sinister, and vaguely familiar. It seemed to issue out of the tunnel walls. 'Without a destination, you may just end up where you need to be. But if you enter with a goal in mind, you will never get there without clear sight …'

The map fluttered from the bespectacled boy's fingers. 'It's haunted!'

'Don't be stupid,' Luke snapped. 'Nothing's haunting this place. It's just the maze. It's designed to play tricks on your mind. It's—'

'Oh, it's treacherous,' said the disembodied voice. 'And I've helped it along.'

'Who's there?' Luke demanded. He raised his sword. The blade, half-steel, half-celestial bronze, reflected off his lantern. 'Show yourself!'

There was a faint shimmer. The outline of a man appeared in front of the subway beam. He was flimsy and translucent, his ghostly features unclear in the dark.

'Hello, son of Hermes,' said the ghost. 'I have come to make a deal with you. I understand you are looking for powerful half-bloods. I think I have just what you need …'

Luke pointed his sword at the ghost. 'Explain quickly. We're on a deadline here.'

The ghost spread his hands. 'I shall. I have already arranged a trade for you at the ranch. But first …' He stared straight at me, and I swear he could see me, even in the dream. The ghost made a warding gesture, a bit like the three-fingered claw we used to head off evil spirits, except he waved his clenched fist in a ring.

The subway tunnel vanished. I was back in our marble corridor with the bronze torches, lying on Percy's bedroll. My head lolled against his calf.

I jerked up. Percy started.

'What time is it?' I said stupidly, before I remembered time had no meaning in the Labyrinth.

Percy rubbed his calf with a grimace. It must have fallen asleep under my head.

'Did I—?'

'It's nothing,' he muttered.

'You should have woken me up,' I said. Thank the gods he couldn't see me blushing in the darkness.

'You were tired. It's fine.' He stretched out his leg. 'Everything okay?'

'Yeah, just—' I shook my head. 'Dreams. The usual, you know.'

I took over the watch so Percy could get some rest. While he slept, I went over my maps by flashlight. I still couldn't pinpoint where we were in relation to them. I was beginning to think it was useless to try.

At least we were in the right part of the Labyrinth, the oldest part. And if my dream was right, Luke was out in a newer area. We should be way closer to Daedalus than he was. But almost as soon as we set out again, my hopes were dashed. We passed from the marble corridor straight into a section like a dugout tunnel, with wooden beams running in criss-cross patterns above our heads. When I looked back, the stone walls behind us had vanished like they had never existed.

'This isn't right,' I murmured. How could the stone just disappear like that? Even if we'd moved into a different section, the old walls should still be behind us.

The light breakfast I'd eaten curdled in my stomach. I'd been so sure we were close. I'd made the most reasonable guesses I could, and all I got was this … this misdirection. It was just like I'd told Percy—there was no logic to any of it.

We reached a limestone cave and Percy stopped suddenly. He bent over a shallow rectangular depression in the earth, directing his flashlight into it. A moment later, he snapped the light back up and said sharply, 'Nico. He was summoning the dead again.'

I remembered him saying something about it last night. I hadn't spared much thought for Nico di Angelo in the middle of my headaches of trying to figure out the maze, but I knew Percy was still worried about the kid.

'We've got to find him,' Percy said. And he took off, his sneakers slapping against the dirt floor.

'Percy!' I sprinted after him, terrified. If I lost sight of him, the maze might separate us permanently. Luckily, he didn't go far. He stopped in a pool of light that shone down through an open manhole cover—another exit.

'Moo!'

Metal bars were striped across the open ceiling. A cow put his nose to the opening in the grate and sniffed at Percy's hair.

A bright red cow. And when I say red, I mean red like tomatoes, or cherries, or the Golden Gate Bridge on a sunny day.

'It's a cattle grid,' Grover said, pointing to the bars. 'They put them at the gates of ranches so the cows can't get out.'

'Didn't Hera say something about a ranch?' Percy recalled. 'We need to check it out. Nico might be up there.'

I wasn't keen to derail our quest in search of Nico di Angelo, but part of me felt responsible for him. After all, it was thanks to me that he no longer had a sister.

Tyson bust us out of the tunnel by punching out the cattle grid. After the tight confines of the maze, the expanse of land and sky that lay before us was a shock. So was the blazing hot sun, which sent waves of heat across our skin. We were in an open field, surrounded by more bright red cattle.

'The cattle of the sun,' I realised.

Percy scratched his head. 'What?'

'They're sacred to Apollo,' I explained.

'Holy cows?' He quirked an eyebrow at one of them. It raised its head and gave him a baleful Moo! before going back to grazing.

'Exactly,' I said. What were Apollo's cows doing here though? And where was here?

Grover held up his hand. 'Wait—listen.'

His keen ears picked up the barking before the rest of us. A pair of dogs cantered through a woodsy hill on one side of the cattle ranch. They leapt out from a clump of bushes.

We stared in shock. They weren't a pair of dogs but a single one, like Cerberus minus one head. Also, this one was a greyhound, with long floppy ears whipping around suspiciously as it growled at us.

The two-headed dog was followed by a broad-shouldered ranchhand, the kind of guy who looked like he'd spent all his life wrestling with bulls. Bare-handed. He was easily double Tyson's size, and Tyson wasn't exactly petite. His denim jacket looked like the sleeves had fallen off when he flexed. In his arm, he carried a a club that the Ares kids would have died for.

'Heel, Orthus.' At his command, the two-headed dog hastened to his master's feet, all the while still growling at us.

'What've we got here?' He had a deep, southern drawl. Texan, maybe. 'Cattle rustlers?'

I explained quickly who we were.

To no one's surprise, the ranchhand introduced himself as a son of Ares. 'Eurytion,' he said. 'The cowherd for this here ranch. You came through the Labyrinth like the other one, I reckon.'

Percy picked up on this right away. 'The other one? You mean like Nico di Angelo?'

Eurytion neither confirmed nor denied it. 'We get a load of visitors from the Labyrinth,' he said cryptically. Then, more ominously, 'Not many ever leave.'

'Wow, I feel welcome,' Percy muttered. I elbowed him in the ribs.

'I'm only going to say this once, demigods.' Eurytion leaned towards us, casting a wary glance over his shoulder. 'Get back in the maze now—before it's too late.'

The wise thing to do would've been to take his advice and get back on our quest. But given Eurytion's caginess about the other half-blood …

I thought of Luke, wandering the Labyrinth in the night. 'We're not leaving. Not until we see this other demigod. Please,' I added as an afterthought.

Eurytion looked at us like, your funeral. 'Then you leave me no choice, missy. I've got to take you to see the boss.'

From Eurytion's appearance, I expected him and his boss to live in a rodeo barn. The ranch house came as a shock. It sat on a hill at the edge of the woods, a white stone building with cascading windows. They were lined with wooden panels that made it look like each level had been built into the hill rather than on top of it.

'It looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright!' I marvelled. My eighth-grade teacher had had pictures of the renown architect's best buildings in her office. Could this be an original? I certainly hadn't expected to find one in the middle of the prairie.

Eurytion gave us a rundown of the rules of our visit before we entered—no fighting, no weapons, no personal remarks about the boss. It became clear as soon as we stepped onto the front porch why he'd added the last rule.

The boss had three chests. And I mean actual human chests, split from his neck and reconnected at his waist like some weird paper-chain doll.

'Say hello to Mr Geryon,' Eurytion said.

'Nice chests,' Percy said automatically, breaking rule number three before we could even make nice. 'Er—ranch!' he corrected quickly. 'Nice ranch you have.'

'Geryon,' someone said from inside the building, 'I won't wait for—'

It was Nico di Angelo. He slid back the glass door and stepped out onto the porch, stopping dead when he saw us gathered there. It had been no more than half a year since I'd seen him, but he looked like he'd gotten several years older. His hair was long and shaggy, his eyes hollow and ringed with shadows. He'd transformed from the geeky little kid playing with trading cards to an angsty teenager. Except your average teenager didn't carry the wickedly sharp blade Nico now produced. I'd never seen a sword so black. It seemed to exude darkness the same way my Celestial bronze dagger issued light.

'Put that away, Mr di Angelo,' Geryon said sharply. 'I ain't gonna have my guests killing each other.'

'But that's—'

'Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and a couple of their monster friends,' Geryon said. 'Yes, I know.'

'Monster friends?' Geryon huffed.

I was more worried about the fact that Geryon already knew our names before we'd introduced ourselves. He claimed it was his business to stay informed, but it sounded very much like he'd been spying on us. Or someone had prepared him for our arrival.

After some coercion, Geryon managed to get Nico to stow his weapon. Nico was clearly reluctant to relinquish his sword in Percy's presence. He seemed to think Percy was here to finish him off. He obviously blamed Percy for Bianca's death, which made my insides shrivel with guilt. It was me that Nico should be angry at.

But Geryon didn't give us the chance to discuss any of this. 'Come along, folks,' he said in a faux-jovial tone. 'I want to give you a tour of the ranch.'

If we'd even considered for a moment that the tour was optional, the way Eurytion raised his club would have quickly disabused us of the notion. Orthus snapped at our heels, herding us towards Geryon's ranch buggy. It was like a trolley train, with a driver's car up front and the passenger cart hitched to the back. We piled into the six-seater buggy and it started chugging down the hill.

The ranch spanned an incredible expanse of land. It stretched across miles of hilly terrain, acres upon acres of grazing grounds. The air was sweltering hot, the kind of moist, sticky heat that makes your clothes cling to you and your hair plaster against the back of your neck. The animals didn't seem to mind. They roamed their pastures contentedly, eating and grooming and dozing under the scorching sun. Geryon announced each one as we passed, like an enthusiastic safari ranger pointing out the sights: horses, and cattle, and—

'Hippalek-tryons?' My stepbrothers had a picture book of prehistoric animals—dodo-birds and mammoths and the like. I'd seen the rooster-horse hybrids that appeared in front of us in that book. 'I thought they were extinct!'

Tyson leaned out of the buggy to get a better look. 'Rooster ponies! Do they lay eggs?'

'Once a year! Very much in demand for omelettes.'

I stared at him, aghast. 'That's horrible. They must be an endangered species.'

Geryon sniffed. 'Gold is gold, darling. And you haven't tasted the omelettes.'

It soon became clear that threatening endangered animals wasn't Geryon's only crime. This was no preservation ranch. He was running a glorified factory farm. Every animal here, from the poor Hippalek-tryons to the scorpions that Quintus must have acquired for capture the flag, was raised purely for profit.

And I had a feeling I knew just who Geryon's most lucrative buyer was.

We finished the tour at the very end of the ranch compound, where Geryon had his prize stables. It was immediately clear why he kept these valuable animals so far away from the main ranch house. The smell was overpowering. Imagine the world's most disgusting sewer, mingled with the dirtiest public toilet, and then multiply that by a hundred.

I gagged, partly from the stench, partly from the way Geryon discussed his profits with relish. Who cared if his flesh-eating horses had miserable living conditions, as long as his clients paid well?

'You're a monster,' I said. 'And the clients you keep talking about—you work for Kronos, don't you? You're supplying his army with horses, food, whatever they need.' It turned my stomach to think of these very animals being pressed into service this summer, with Luke leading them into camp. I clenched my fists. It was more imperative than ever that we get to Daedalus. I wished we hadn't insisted on coming to the ranch.

'I work for anyone with gold, young lady. I'm a businessman. And I sell them anything I have to offer.' Geryon stopped the train and got out, crossing his arms over his multiple chests and surveying the stinking stables with an air of satisfaction.

Nico clambered out of the buggy and strode up to him. 'I came here for business, Geryon. And you haven't answered me.'

Geryon considered him for a moment. 'Yes, you'll get a deal, all right,' he said carefully.

'My ghost told me you could help. He said you could guide us to the soul we need.'

Percy got to his feet. 'Wait a second—I thought I was the soul you wanted.'

'You?' Nico practically spat the word out. 'Why would I want you? Bianca's soul is worth a thousand of yours!' He turned back to Geryon. 'Now, can you help me, Geryon, or not?'

I didn't like the way Geryon was smiling. 'Oh, I imagine I could. Your ghost friend, by the way, where is he?'

A chill crept over me in spite of the tropical heat.

'He can't form in broad daylight,' Nico said. 'It's hard for him. But he's around somewhere.'

Geryon's smile grew even more sinister. 'I'm sure. Minos likes to disappear when things get … difficult.'

Minos? King Minos?

Percy had reached the same conclusion. 'That's the ghost who's been giving you advice?'

'It's none of your business, Percy!' Nico snapped. Of Geryon, he demanded, 'What do you mean about things getting difficult?'

'Well, you see, Nico—can I call you Nico?' He continued despite Nico's refusal, 'You see, Nico, Luke Castellan is offering very good money for half-bloods. Especially powerful half-bloods.'

The shiver that ran through me had a distinct thrill of fear. I have already arranged a trade for you at the ranch. Was this the same ghost whispering to Nico? Had we walked straight into a trap?

'I'm sure when he learns your little secret, who you really are, he'll pay very, very well indeed,' Geryon told Nico.

Percy and I exchanged worried looks. We hadn't told anyone who Nico's dad really was. I wasn't even sure if Nico himself knew.

Nico produced his sword. As soon as he did, Eurytion's club came up, knocking it into a clump of bushes several feet away. Orthus sprang onto our laps and bared his teeth inches from Percy's throat.

The fight was over before it had even started. Eurytion sighed and secured Nico under one beefy arm. With his other hand, he picked up Nico's black sword between his thumb and forefinger, as if it were a dangerous explosive.

Geryon rubbed his hands gleefully. 'Now we've had the tour, let's go back to the lodge, have some lunch … and send an Iris-message to our friends in the Titan army.'

My heart sank. 'You fiend!'

'Don't worry, my dear. Once I've delivered Mr di Angelo, you and your party can go. I don't interfere with quests. Besides, I've been paid well to give you safe passage—which does not, I'm afraid, include Mr di Angelo.'

My jaw dropped. 'Paid by whom? What do you mean?'

'Never you mind, darlin',' Geryon said airily. 'Let's be off, shall we?'

'Wait!' Percy interrupted. 'Geryon, you said you're a businessman. Make me a deal.'

'Percy …' I hissed. What was he doing? This was our chance to get out of here.

'What sort of deal?' Geryon said suspiciously. 'Do you have gold?'

'I've got something better,' Percy said, ignoring my warning look. 'Barter.'

Geryon surveyed all of us. 'But, Mr Jackson, you've got nothing.'

'You could have him clean the stables,' Eurytion said casually. I raised my eyebrows. Whose side was he on?

'I'll do it!' And Percy proceeded to make the craziest gamble I'd ever heard him make (and I'd heard plenty by now). He'd clean the stables, and the deal was all of us, or nothing.

'All right, I'll accept your offer,' Geryon said. But then he upped the stakes: Percy had to finish by sunset. 'If you fail, your friends get sold, and I get rich.'

I tried to catch Percy's eye, to tell him this was the worst idea he'd ever had, but he was looking straight at Geryon. 'Deal.'

'I'm going to take your friends with me, back to the lodge,' Geryon said. 'We'll wait for you there.'

Eurytion let out a sharp whistle. Orthus bounded from Percy's lap to mine. I let out a squeak as he growled, his menacing glare now trained on me.

Percy climbed out of the buggy. I gave him a pleading look, though it was too late to back out now. 'I hope you know what you're doing.'

His reply wasn't exactly comforting. 'I hope so, too.'

Geryon got back into the cab. Eurytion dumped Nico in the rear and got in next to him. The train made its way back up the ranch, leaving Percy by the stinking stables with his impossible task.

As soon as we got back to the ranch house, Geryon and Eurytion bound us one by one. Tyson's fists came up when Eurytion came to tie him up, but Orthus's teeth snapped dangerously close to my throat. Tyson looked at me helplessly with his one big eye, and succumbed to the binds.

We sat trussed up in a corner of the porch, listening to Geryon order Eurytion to haul out the barbecue. He kept talking to us as he put up party decorations: streamers and banners that spelt out, WELCOME TITAN KIDS! Or it could have been WE COME TO KILL.

'I love a good party. And there's nothing better than sun cattle patties for the grill. Ain't that right, Eurytion?'

Eurytion didn't answer. He sat at the picnic table with a sour look, probably because he'd been pressed into blowing up balloons.

Orthus stayed perilously close to me, growling occasionally to remind us of his presence. Only when Geryon fired up the barbecue did he leave to snatch a bite of holy beef.

Grover's nose wrinkled at the smell of cooking meat. 'Do you think he'll make us eat it?'

'That's probably the least of our problems, Grover,' I said.

'Percy will save us,' Tyson said. 'Percy will make the bad man go away.'

It was true that Percy was good at coming up with stuff on the fly, but this was insanely dangerous. And now that Geryon wanted to sell us all to the Titan army, it would be twice as hard to escape.

The ropes holding me were painfully tight around my wrists. I wriggled them and bumped into Nico, who was fuming silently.

'Nico?' I said. 'What did you mean, when you asked Geryon to guide you to the soul you wanted?'

Nico glowered at me. At first I thought he wasn't going to answer. Then he said in a small, hurt voice, 'Bianca shouldn't have died.'

'I know.' My chest felt hollow. 'But that's not Percy's fault, Nico.'

'He told me I could get her back. He promised—a soul for a soul.'

'Who? Minos? Nico, you can't—'

'Eurytion!' Geryon complained. 'The chatter's getting tiresome. Do something about that, will you?'

Eurytion lumbered over. He looked like he was sick of taking Geryon's orders, but he obediently stuffed a gag in my mouth, then each of the others'. The cloth smelt like it had been used to mop up the same stables Percy was now trying to clean.

The sun crept lower and lower towards the horizon. There was no sign of Percy. I tried to spot the stables in the distance, but they were too far away. If he didn't return … No, I didn't want to think about that.

Why had he made the bargain? If he hadn't said anything, we would have been free to go—well, except for Nico. Now we were all at risk. He'd essentially traded us in to save Nico.

I looked at Nico. Stripped of his sword and swagger, he seemed no older than my stepbrothers, or my cousin Magnus. Just another forlorn, abandoned half-blood child. I guess I could understand why Percy had made his bargain.

I didn't like the way Nico had spoken of Minos, a disembodied spirit giving him advice. It reminded me of Kronos whispering in Luke's ears, swaying him. Was it even truly Minos that Nico was listening to?

And who had paid for our safe passage? Who could have known we would stumble on Geryon's ranch? A part of me hoped it was Luke, even though that didn't make any sense.

I hated not knowing who was meddling in our quest.

The shadows on the porch grew long. It was almost sunset. Geryon looked across the ranch at the low-hanging sun, then at his watch. He grinned slowly.

'Well, I guess you won't have to feed the horses tonight,' he told Eurytion. 'As for our guests …'

'Let them go!'

My heart leapt. There was Percy, running back towards the house. 'I cleaned the stables!'

'Did you, now?' Geryon said. He sounded like he was asking about the weather. 'How'd you manage it?'

Percy burst out something about a river and a naiad and a bunch of seashells. Geryon congratulated him, but there was a sly smile playing around his lips. I knew then he wasn't going to hold up his end of the bargain.

I strained against my gag, trying to warn Percy, but the only sound that came out was, auuuff arrrrgh.

'Did you make me swear on the River Styx?' Geryon said. 'No you didn't. So it's not binding. When you're conducting business, sonny, you should always get a binding oath.'

I wanted to slap the smirk off his cheating face. Percy's sword came up at the ready. Orthus dropped his beef patty and returned to menace Grover.

'Eurytion, the boy is starting to annoy me,' Geryon said. 'Kill him.'

I struggled against my bonds but only succeeded at chafing my wrists further. Then Eurytion did something that shocked me into stillness.

'Kill him yourself.' He stepped back and plonked himself down at the picnic table. I wasn't surprised that he'd finally had enough of Geryon's orders. Pity he hadn't decided he was fed up with fighting Geryon's battles an hour or so ago.

It was a good thing Orthus seemed to be under Eurytion's control and not Geryon's. The two-headed dog trotted back to the barbecue, leaving Percy free to fight Geryon.

It had been a while since I'd seen Percy in action. I was proud to see that he hadn't lost any of his skill. Riptide flashed through the air masterfully, parrying Geryon's attacks, countering with a thrust that should have felled the rancher … if he didn't have two back-up chests.

My heart sank. Percy's sword would never be able to kill this monster. He needed a different weapon, something that could pierce three hearts at once. Something like …

I tried to scream at him to find a spear or a javelin, but all I could manage from behind the gag was a muffled squeal.

After two more futile sticks with the sword, Percy seemed to realise his problem as well. Geryon laughed and raised the fork from the barbecue. It made a mini trident in his hands, the points wickedly sharp.

Percy ran for the house.

Geryon shook his barbecue fork. His face was flushed with excitement and bloodlust. 'Coward! Come back and die right!'

Percy came back, all right. From our corner, we saw him pull a bow and arrow off the wall. In a move worthy of the Hunters of Artemis, he lunged to the side and took a shot.

The arrow went clean through Geryon's right chest, zipped through the centre, and exited the left. A perfect triple shot.

Geryon looked down at his chests in disbelief. 'You can't shoot,' he said. 'They told me you couldn't …'

He never got to explain who 'they' were. The arrows had done their job. His three hearts stopped beating. Geryon crumbled into monster dust in the doorway.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

A/N: So timeline-wise, I know it's a bit fudged as Luke is apparently back on Mount Tam with Kelli and Kampê, talking about negotiating the arena while they're all on the ranch … but hey, time is skewed in the Labyrinth, right? I reckon he could have left once he and Minos made their deal, especially since Geryon's death kind of messed things up.

Thank you to VCRx, Hello, CQ816, OverLordRevan, Thunderwolf7226, ArtimuosJackson, MariaClaire, Kyleryan, and the Anon guest for stopping by this week!

Anon: thank you so much, binge-reading the series is a massive compliment. :)

Heads up that I might be a little slow at responding to comments this week as the first batch of marking for the term has just landed so I'm going to be knee deep in student lab reports all week. I'll still read your reviews and am very grateful for them; I just may not be able to write something back right off! (I'm also praying I'll get the marking done in time to get chapter 14 on schedule next Saturday, especially as I'm meant to be headed for a weekend away Saturday morning!)