A/N: Damn, we're on chapter sixteen already? I wish I could dispense these chapters faster than usual but daily updates aren't really my forte. Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoy the latest chapter of the Dissonant Notes of Fate, and please leave a comment, vote, review, or kudos if you liked the chapter. I'll enjoy reading your feedback and as usual, if you have any questions, reach out to me via PM. Thanks for taking time to read this. Have a great day/night.
-TripleHomicide.
P.S—This chapter is unedited and un-betaed because it delayed too much, in my opinion and a few readers, *Cough* Chris *Cough* got impatient. Point out any mistakes you see. Thank you!
NICO stood among the gravestones, this time in a different cemetery than before. A week had come to pass and in those short seven days, he had learnt more about himself and his powers than he could have ever thought he would at Camp Half-Blood. He held in his hands a sword—made out of Stygian Iron—which Minos had led him to at the Banks of the River Styx. And Nico liked how this new sword complimented him.
He liked how it fit with him and how it made him feel powerful. Different.
He watched as the gravediggers—skeletons Minos had taught him how to summon—did their work. He heard shovels at work and saw dirt flying out of the large hole. Nico adjusted his black cloak around him and squinted to see through the fog. It was warm and he could hear the croaking of frogs. His eyes drifted to the wal-mart bag at his feet.
"Is it deep enough?" He asked. He was tired of standing around. His patience was waning.
"Nearly, my Lord," Minos responded with a bow. Nico hated to admit it, but having the ghost at his beck and call made him feel…worthy of this power he had been born with. When he finally completed the task his father had sent Minos to give him, then he could maybe show Hades a few of his skills and impress the god enough to garner his attention.
"But, my lord," Minos spoke again. "I tell you, this is unnecessary. You already have me for advice."
"I want a second opinion!" Nico snapped at the ghost. That was just half of the truth. All he wanted to do was see if he could summon his mother's ghost. He wanted to see her, and talk with her. He snapped his fingers and the digging stopped. Two figures climbed out of the hole, their skeletons barely hidden in the rags they wore as clothes.
"You are dismissed," Nico waved at them. "Thanks for your help." The skeletons didn't answer, simply collapsing into piles of bones. Nico heard Minos mumbling something about thanking shovels but he was too distracted to pay the judge any heed. He bent, picking his bag from the ground and pulling out a pack of Coke. He popped open a can and moved forward as it fizzled. He inhaled. What he was doing was risky, he knew. But it was necessary. Nervously but full of determination, the son of Hades poured the coke into the grave the bones had dug.
"Let the dead taste again," He murmured. "Let them rise and take this offering. Let them remember." He slowly opened the rest of the cokes and poured them inside the grave, watching them soak into the earth and bubble. He pulled out his McDonald's happy meal and turned it upside down, pouring the fries and hamburger into the hole.
"In my day, animal blood is what we used," Minos mumbled. "It's perfectly good enough. They can't taste the difference."
Nico narrowed his eyes. He knew that Minos had taught him a lot and was sent there by Hades, but the ghost could get so irritating at times. "I will treat those who reside in Father's domain with respect," He hissed. Nico turned away from the transparent figure and picked more soda cans and happy meals, pouring them into the grave. He began chanting in ancient Greek, repeating the words he had said in English before. The soda in the grave began to bubble and froth. The liquid rose to the top of the hole and the fog appeared to thicken. Nico fought the urge to shiver and he pursed his lips as silence enveloped the graveyard. Dozens of figures began to appear among the gravestones around them, bluish and transparent, just like his mentor ghost Minos.
"There are too many," Minos said, voice low, with a tinge of anxiety. "You do not know how to control your powers fully."
"I've got it," Nico said through gritted teeth. Already, his feat had him swaying on his feet, perspiration coating his brow. He inhaled once more and drew his sword. The crowd of ghosts retreated at the sight of it.
"One at a time," He ordered. A figure floated forward and knelt at the pool of soda in the grave. It dipped its hands in and pulled the liquid to its lips, drinking. The bluish hands pulled out french fries from the pool. When the ghost stood once more Nico could see it clearly. His heart clenched with disappointment. It wasn't his mother.
Instead of what he had been expecting, the son of Hades got a teenage boy, with curly hair and startling green eyes, wearing a cloak with a seashell clasp.
"Who are you?" Nico asked. 'Where is my mother?"
The boy frowned, brow creasing as though he was trying to bring back long gone memories. Then he spoke, his voice throaty and dry. "I am Theseus." Nico's eyes widened. The boy was just that. A boy. During his time at camp he had heard so many stories about the Greek heroes and Theseus had been one of them. But this boy looked just about four years older than Nico.
"Is my mother among the ghosts here today?" Nico asked again.
Theseus looked around, then shook his head.
"How can I bring her back?" The son of Hades pressed. Theseus stared at him with blank eyes and said, "Do not attempt it, My Lord. It is madness."
"Tell me," Nico's voice grew hard.
"My father died," Theseus said, voice distant. "He threw himself in the Aegean because he thought I was dead in the Labyrinth. I wanted to bring him back, but I could not." Minos hissed at Nico's side, "My Lord, ask him about the soul exchange."
Theseus' brow furrowed in confusion and Nico scowled. Minos shouldn't have spoken. Theseus would recognise him, if the stories were to be believed.
"I want to hear about my mother," Nico pressed. "Will going into the Labyrinth to find Daedalus help me bring her back? How can I navigate through the Maze?"
Theseus turned his eyes back to Nico, and said, "The Labyrinth is a treacherous place. The love of Ariadne is the only thing that helped me through. The string is only part of the answer. It was the Princess who guided me."
"We don't need that!" Minos snarled. "I alone shall guide the Young Master. Ask him about the exchange of souls."
Nico sighed. Minos was very…persistent.
"A soul for a soul," He said. "Is it true?"
"I—Yes," Theseus nodded. "But—"
Suddenly around the edges of the pool the other ghosts became restless. Whispers broke out among them and Nico looked around, eyes widening. "I want to see my mother! Where is she?!"
"He approaches," Theseus said, voice full of fear. "He has sensed your power. He comes!"
"Who?" Nico snarled. Around him the wind whipped and Nico's cloak billowed around him.
"You must release us!" Theseus yelled. The earth began to rumble. Nico watched as the ground shook and the soda rumbled. It exploded in the ground, fries and soda and chicken went flying and the shockwave sent Nico sailing through the air. He crashed into a gravestone and his head swam. Around him, the ghosts flickered out of existence, as though they had been snuffed out. Darkness descended on the graveyard as the temperature reduced drastically.
"My Lord!" Minos shouted. "We must go!" Nico knew not to argue. He remembered Theseus' words and fear set in. Either the gods were coming,or…Kronos. The latter seemed like the most probable answer. Nico shakily stood and spun, hobbling towards the gravestone at the corner which opened up into the Labyrinth.
"Nico di Angelo…" The imposing voice which said his name reached him in a whisper, whipping around in the wind and he felt pure terror engulf him. "I should have known." The voice was scratchy, like metal against metal, or a knife being scraped on a stone. Nico reached out and placed his palm on the Delta symbol.
"You cannot hide from me forever," Kronos hissed. "Make your choice!" Nico raced into the Labyrinth as it opened up, aware of Minos following. He ran, heart thumping loudly as Kronos laughed behind him, the dissonance of his voice resonating as the darkness of the Maze swallowed him up.
-X-
BIANCA followed Clarisse and the others as they dashed through the left doorway and into a tunnel. She kept flashing back to the handsome teenager who had just scared away Janus and gave them each messages from the traveller god. Thalia had called him Perseus, which meant he had been the man Lady Artemis and Zoë had spoken about.
She shook her head to force herself to concentrate as they sprinted down the tunnel. It went straight, with no side exits, twists or turns. Finally, Clarisse skidded to a stop, and cursed. Bianca looked up to see exactly what the problem was. She fought off the urge to curse as loudly as Clarisse had done when she spotted the huge boulder blocking their path. Bianca summoned her hunting knives, getting ready to fight. Of the two doorways Janus had given them, Grover had instructed them to go left, because a huge monster was approaching from the right. They had followed his lead and Bianca had even heard the groans and rumblings from the monster as it chased after them.
"We need to block its path!" Luke yelled.
"We can fight," Thalia argued. However, the daughter of Zeus didn't look too sure of herself. She drew her mace canister, hands edging towards the bracelet on her wrist. Luke unsheathed his sword, which glowed in the semi-darkness. Clarisse's spear crackled with electricity and Grover's hooves nervously pawed the ground. The sound of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor. Whatever it was, it was definitely not human.
But it certainly wouldn't be something Bianca couldn't take. In the six months she had been with the hunt she had gotten accustomed to monsters and had learnt a lot about battling them.
"I have an idea!" Clarisse rushed forward, slamming her shoulder into the rocks at the side of the boulder.
"Clarisse!" Thalia yelled. "You'll bring the roof down on us." The burly girl grunted in response, ignoring Thalia completely but continued slamming herself into the wall. The entire tunnel was rumbling and rocks fell from above them, making even Bianca a bit nervous about their chances. The big stone shifted a bit and Clarisse yelled, "Come on!" She squeezed herself through the small hole and Bianca rushed to follow.
Soon they were all on the other side of the boulder. They gathered, dropping their weapons as they pushed. They sealed the hole and Bianca finally let out a relieved breath. Whatever had been chasing them wailed and she shivered slightly at the soft voice. After a few seconds she turned. They were in a small cement room, the opposite wall covered with metal bars. Bianca frowned in uncertainty. It was a cell.
"What they Hades?" Thalia murmured. She reached forward, tugging at the bars. They didn't budge. Through the thick rods, Bianca could see rows and rows of cells in a ring around a dark courtyard.
"A prison," Luke said, quite smartly. "Clarisse, can you—"
"Yes sure," The daughter of Ares rolled her eyes. "Let me do all the work that demands you use your hands, will you?"
Clarisse stepped forward and it was then that Bianca heard the sobbing. She tilted her head to the side, looking up. A deep throaty sob echoed through the building. There was another sound too, a raspy voice, muttering in words Bianca couldn't understand. Clarisse turned considerably pale and stiffened. She took several steps away from the bars. The daughter of Ares began shivering all over, continuously shaking her head and murmuring, "No, no, no. Not her."
Bianca frowned in worry, stepping forward. The war child was afraid. She continued shaking, convulsing, like she was having a seizure. Her eyes looked haunted, as though she was reliving a terrible memory. Bianca reached out, grabbing her hand. "Clarisse," She whispered.
The girl took no notice of her. She continued muttering, eyes lighting crazily, "We have to go back. We have to escape this place."
"What's wrong?" Grover asked, worry etched on his face.
"Clarisse," Bianca repeated, her voice harder than before. "What's wrong with you?"
Again, no response. The hunter inhaled. She leaned forward, standing on the tips of her toes so she was level with the daughter of Ares. Bianca reached out and gripped Clarisse by her shoulders. The girl was taking in big gulps of air now and Bianca tightened her hold on her and whispered, "Clarisse, I need you to focus." No response. This time, she shook the girl. "Focus on me," She said harshly. "You're not wherever you think you are. It's just a terrible memory." She shook Clarisse once more. "Focus. This won't be like last time. You're not alone here."
They had a job to do and they couldn't have Clarisse collapsing on them. It would just lead to all their deaths.
"Snap out of it. You might have some bad memories of this place, but we need you to help us navigate. Camp needs you. I need you, to help me find my brother. And I'll be damned if I let you deteriorate into a weeping pile of demigod because of some random mumblings above us."
Thalia inhaled sharply. Bianca knew that what she'd said was mean, but the older girl needed some tough love.
She gripped Clarisse harder, and snarled. "Listen to me. Listen to my voice. We're in a prison cell. We're not wherever you're envisioning. You're around friends and we'll all die for you if it comes to that."
Clarisse's eyes were wide now, possibly from shock and a little anger. She pushed Bianca's hands away and growled, "You don't understand. This is Alcatraz. The worst of all monsters resides here." Bianca didn't even question their location. She'd learnt enough about the labyrinth to know that time and geography were wacky when you were inside. "Kampê is here."
Instantly the others around Bianca stiffened. The dark haired hunter arched an eyebrow at their reaction. Clearly, even though she'd been with the hunt she hadn't learnt enough about monsters to know who exactly Kampê was.
"We need to leave," Luke said, voice low, oozing with fear. "Now."
"What can be so bad about this Kampê person?" Bianca snorted. "We've all fought terrifying monsters before."
"She's different," Clarisse hissed. "Horrible."
"I've never smelt a monster that strong," Grover gulped.
"When the Titans ruled, Kampê served as the jailer to the Hundred-Handed Ones and the Cyclops, Gaea's other children. She worked for Kronos. She kept them locked up in Tartarus, tortured them always, till…Zeus arrived and killed her and saved Gaea's children," Thalia said, slowly, as though speaking to a child.
"And now she's back?" Bianca guessed.
"This is bad," Luke exchanged a glance with Thalia. "It means the great stirring…"
A loud sob echoed above them.
"We have to get out here before she sniffs us out," Grover said. 'Now!"
Clarisse turned to the boulder blocking the entrance they had come from. She reached out, but a loud wail came from behind it. Their pursuer was still there. "We have no choice," Thalia glanced at the bars. "We have to go through the prison."
"And hope she doesn't notice us." Bianca swallowed at Luke's statement, watching as Clarisse set to work breaking the bars. She wasn't quite prepared to meet whatever could make the most fearless camper she'd met so far baulk. But she would rather jump into the abyss of Khaos than allow something or someone to obstruct her from rescuing Nico from the clutches of the ghost judge, Minos.
-X-
LUKE followed the others as they silently crept through the passages, Clarisse trying to lead them towards an exit. He tried to be as quiet as possible, his heart pounding in his chest. They had faced many terrible monsters before but if the stories were to be believed, then Kampê would be the worst and strongest of them all.
They couldn't allow themselves to be caught. Not now.
He moved quickly, shoulder-to-shoulder with Thalia as they ran, and distracted himself with thinking about Perseus and his surprise visit. The Titan looked different, and Luke clearly recalled him saying something about the magic weakening and his powers returning. To say Luke had been surprised to see him was an understatement. He was downright shocked. He hadn't expected the Titan to appear again. Ever.
Hecate and Morpheus were working with Kronos, and surely they had determined by now that recruiting the green eyed immortal was a lost cause. So they wouldn't allow him to escape his Island through dreams. Not when he could use said dream-form to obstruct their plans, as he had done once before. Luke had chosen not to think about Perseus, content with believing that Thalia was over her short friendship with him. He hadn't expected to see Perseus. There was no dream travel, and Luke sure as Hades wasn't ever pulling out that sword to free him.
But somehow, the son of Gaea had communed with the Earth and gotten passage to reach them. Luke wasn't even going to question the weird Titan magic at play. He shook his head, glancing sideways at Thalia, whose brow was furrowed as they moved, clearly thinking about how their quest had gone to shit immediately they had ventured into the maze.
Sure, Perseus would be a great ally. In Luke's eyes he had more than proved himself when he had helped them fight Atlas last winter. But the thought of him getting even more closer to Thalia than ever…it made Luke scared. Scared that he would lose his best friend before he even got a chance to tell her how he felt. He had seen how quickly Thalia and Perseus had clicked. He had seen how much the Titan cared for her, enough to betray his family just to get her safely from Othrys.
Clarisse's shocked gasp broke him out of his reverie and he looked up, a chill climbing up his body as he took in the sight before them. She looked like a centaur, with a woman's body from the waist up and the body of a dragon from the bottom. She was long, and black and scaly with enormous claws and a tail like a scorpion's. Her legs sprouted snakes, hundreds of them, darting around, constantly looking for something to bite, with hair also made of snakes. Around her waist where human met dragon, her skin bubbled and morphed, occasionally producing the heads of various animals—wolves, bears, lions, like a belt of animals.
"RUN!" Clarisse yelled. Together, they spun and took off back the way they had come. Behind them the creature yelled, in a mixture of hisses and whispers, speaking an ancient language none of them could understand. The lumbering footsteps told Luke that they were being pursued, again. They bolted down a catwalk, sprinting as fast as their legs could carry them.
Clarisse stumbled as she looked back, but Bianca was there, grabbing onto her hand and pulling her along. Luke lost his footing and lurched forward, but hands grabbed both his arms and Grover and Thalia hauled him up. Deep fear erupted in him as the beast behind them snarled and Luke shut his eyes for a second, trying to calm his heart.
Behind them, Kampê unfurled wings from her back and took to the air. She hissed and growled. Luke and the others scrambled down the stairs, through a corridor and past a guard station, out into another collection of cells.
"Go left!" Clarisse yelled. Out of all of them she looked the most panicked, and Luke was sure she was having horrible flashbacks of whatever had happened to her when she had ventured into the maze and encountered Kampê the first time.
They burst outside and found themselves in a prison yard, ringed with towers and barbed wires. Luke blinked several times to get used to the sunlight, and the tourists who were walking around with cameras. The wind was whipping around, and to the south, San Francisco and Mount Tam were bathed in storm clouds and fog.
"Keep moving!" Clarisse shouted at them. 'There's no time to stare at tourists, you morons!"
Luke didn't even reply to the insult. They ran to the far end of the yard, far far away from the door they'd come through. Almost immediately the wall exploded. Screams came next from around them as the she-demon appeared from the dust and rubble, her wings spread out and looking like some devil incarnate. She was clutching two swords—scimitars, actually, that glowed with a weird aura, wisps of vapour that smelled sour coming from it.
"Poison!" Grover yelped. "Avoid her weapons or—"
"We'll die, got it," Thalia answered.
Kampê thundered towards them on her legs and Luke's hold on his sword tightened. "We have to get out of here," Clarisse yelled.
"There's no time," Bianca argued. "We can fight!"
Luke levelled his sword towards the beast who bared her fangs at them. "Do you have a death wish, di Angelo?" Thalia snarled. "Even I'm not stupid enough to fight that thing."
"Can't you lightning it to dust?" Grover asked, whimpering.
Thalia shook her head and Luke understood. There was no fighting this thing. As if they had rehearsed it, they all turned and ran through the gates of the prison, the monster right on their tail.
They hit the wharf as sirens began to blare. "Do we take a boat?" Bianca asked.
"It won't be fast enough," Luke shook his head. "She can fly."
"We have to get back into the Maze!" Clarisse shouted in answer.
"We need a diversion," Thalia yelled. "I'll distract her. You guys go." Instantly Luke felt his heart crawl into his throat. There was something extremely familiar about those words. Fear gnawed at his gut and he grabbed Thalia's hand, hissing, "I'm not letting you go off and distract a monster by yourself. You almost got turned into a pine tree the last time."
Thalia's eyes flashed rebelliously. "I can do this—"
"I almost lost you once before!" Luke snarled, pain in his voice as the memories of that night three years ago filled his head. "I'm not ever going to risk that again. I can't."
Thalia's gaze softened considerably and she nodded. Luke stopped as she did and they turned to face Kampê. "I'll call down a lightning bolt. The rest of you, run. We'll join you in the Maze." Thalia looked up and above them storm clouds gathered. The winds picked up as Kampê screeched. A gigantic bolt of lightning arched down from the sky, slamming into Thalia's raised spear. She pointed the spear at the fast approaching beast and tendrils of electricity slammed into her. The woman dragon hybrid wailed as she was thrown into the wall. Luke watched, bouncing on his feet as the others raced towards the concession stands. The daughter of Zeus grabbed his hand, pulling him after them.
Luke knew that the bolt wouldn't stop the monster. Sure, the lightning would keep her down and in pain and shock, but it would only delay her. And Thalia's eyes looked distant and woozy; he was sure she was just a few minutes from collapsing. Behind them a roar came as Kampê exploded from the rubble once more.
As they reached the door of the cellblock, Luke looked back. Kampê was racing towards them, plastered in ice cream and T-shirts, and an assortment of tourist items.
"Hurry!" Bianca shouted to them. Luke spun once more, diving into the room as a giant scimitar slashed the spot they'd been in before. Together they raced towards the cell they'd come from, and squeezed in. The boulder had vanished, leaving a slab of cement in its place. Either they had secured an escape for themselves, or they had sealed their fate by trapping themselves in the cell.
"Look for the mark!" Clarisse ordered.
It was Bianca who found it and she pressed her palm onto the mark of Daedalus, making it glow blue. The stone wall ground open and Luke bounced on his feet in panic as the sounds of the monster grew louder and nearer. Adrenaline pumped through his veins. "Inside!" Clarisse yelled, racing in. Bianca followed, then Grover, then Thalia was through.
"Come on," Thalia yelled at him. Luke watched as Kampê appeared, right in front of the cell. In a desperate move he hurled his sword, watching it sink into the monster's flesh. She yelled out in a fit of hisses and pain, faltering for a fraction of a second. Luke turned and ran through the hole in the wall. Kampê charged, but she was too late. The wall closed and the darkness engulfed them, the Labyrinth protecting them from the furious Tartarus spawn pounding on the wall behind them.
-X-
THALIA didn't know how far they ran, just that after a while, the pounding on the wall and shrieking coming from Kampê were a thing of the past. They finally stopped in a corridor made of huge marble blocks. It had bronze torch holders fastened to the walls and to Thalia it looked like an older part of the maze, which Clarisse decided was a good sign.
The atmosphere of the entire group was a bit subdued, each and everyone remembering everything that had just gone down with the beast of a jailer. Thalia's mind kept playing back to Luke's words to her, and she felt a bit of warmth erupt in her chest each time she thought of it, but then guilt overcame that feeling, although she did not know why.
"We must be close to the workshop," Clarisse said after a while. Her eyes were blank, and for the first time since they had met, Thalia couldn't feel the air of contempt and arrogance around her. She had met Kampê before, and clearly, meeting her again was bringing back some very bad memories. Clarisse kept on unconsciously touching her arm, and Thalia was sure she could guess what exactly had happened.
"Get some rest, everyone," The daughter of Ares said. "We'll keep going in a few hours." They didn't need to be told twice. Grover pulled out straw from his backpack and promptly collapsed on his make-shift pillow. Bianca leaned on a wall, knees pulled up to her chest. Her hunter's gear was dirty and grimy, like all their clothes. Soon enough, she was out. Clarisse took longer falling asleep and kept tossing and turning on the ground.
After a while it was only Thalia and Luke who remained awake, side by side on a wall. They were both quiet, both melancholic and try as Thalia did, she couldn't get the monster out of her head. She was sure this was the part where she went insane, like many others who ventured into the maze did.
Thalia and Luke sat in silence, each basking in the other's presence. Soon enough, Luke was deep in sleep. Thalia followed a few seconds after.
She dreamed she was back in the old man—Daedalus—'s prison in the Labyrinth. It looked more like a workshop now, tables littered with measuring instruments and all sorts of devices and contraptions Thalia would have never deemed interesting. A forge burned red hot in the corner, Daedalus' son, Icarus, stoking the bellows. The boy was taller now, older. A few years on Thalia, it seemed. A weird funnel was attached to the forge chimney, trapping the smoke and heat and sending it through a pipe on the floor, next to a big manhole cover.
It was daytime, the sky was blue. Daedalus looked sickly, and terribly thin, his hands red. White hair fell into his eyes and his tunic could barely be classified as that. It was just pieces of cloth, which looked like they would rip apart any second. He was working on some long metal thing, and he picked up a piece of machinery and inserted it into whatever thing he was bent over.
"It's done," He called. His voice was frail now. Weaker.
He picked up his project and even Thalia's eyes widened in awe. It was metal wings, constructed with bronze feathers. Daedalus pulled on something and the wings expanded. The craftsmanship was simply excellent and the metal feathers caught the light and flashed gold. Icarus raced over and grinned, praising his father. Daedalus smiled and said, "Hurry, it shall take at least an hour to attach them."
"You go first," Icarus said, his voice holding no room for argument. Thalia watched as the old man protested and as she observed the dream, she got lost in a stream of thoughts. Morpheus was working for the Titans now, so who was sending her these dreams? Did a god want her to know something? Was it their way of telling her how to locate Daedalus?
She watched the boy attach the wings to his father and then Daedalus attach the wings to Icarus. "—And we should avoid flying too high or too low. The water would wet the wax seals—" Daedalus was saying.
"And the sun's heat would loosen them," Icarus finished for him. "Yes, Father. I know." Daedalus simply smiled and patted Icarus' head. The two continued interacting and Thalia took notice of the old man's behaviour. He loved his son, and for a second, she felt a sharp pain in her heart, wishing her father loved her as much as this.
"We should—" The workshop doors shuddered as a loud blast resounded across the room, making the two jerk.
"Hurry!" Icarus shouted. It sounded as though several bulls were trying to plough the door down. A small crack appeared on the right door. Thalia watched the two men scramble and lift the manhole, and then suddenly the doors splintered and the head of a bronze battering ram emerged. Axes and swords cut through what remained of the door and the king, Minos, or Spear-beard, as Thalia would be calling him, stepped in.
"Going somewhere, Daedalus?" The king asked, smiling cruelly, eyes glinting with malice. Daedalus and his son went still and Thalia watched as the two old men—the king and the inventor—exchanged words.
"You let my daughter escape," Minos sneered. "You turned her against me and drove my wife to madness. You aided Theseus to kill my beast and made me the laughingstock of Greece. And you think I shall let you leave Crete with your life?"
Icarus suddenly darted forward, grabbing the wax gun. He sprayed it at the king and his guards, who yelled as a stream of hot wax was split onto their faces.
"The vent!" Icarus yelled. "Come on!"
"Get them!" Minos roared. Thalia watched, eyes wide as Daedalus and his son shot into the sky on their bronze wings, carried by a blast of hot air streaming out of the ground. Minos yelled and raged at the guards to shoot them down but Daedalus and Icarus were out of reach. Thalia continued watching as they sailed out through the sky, brow creasing when she remembered what was going to happen.
An odd feeling filled her as she watched Icarus tumble out of the sky a few minutes later, slamming into the ocean. Thalia woke up just as he hit it, cold and freezing, as though ice had been poured on her. She looked around. Everyone was still asleep. But she thought she could hear the anguished cry of Daedalus as his son fell towards the sea, and sank, and drowned, and died.
-X-
LUKE woke up just about the same time as the others and sat with them as they had a breakfast of granola bars and juice boxes. And then they kept moving. As they walked, he kept throwing glances at Thalia, who looked extremely put out about something, a grim frown on her face as they walked. Luke wanted to ask her what was wrong.
As they walked, the stone tunnels changed to dirt with cedar beams and Clarisse was obviously beginning to get worked up. They walked into a cave where stalactites hung low from the ceiling. In the centre of the dirt floor was a rectangular pit, like a grave. Luke's eyes caught sight of the half chewed cheeseburger floating in a sea of brown.
"It smells like…"
"Death," Bianca finished Grover's statement, her eyes narrowed. She looked around her and voiced what they had all been thinking. "Nico's been here."
"He was summoning the dead?" Luke heard Clarisse mumble.
Bianca ran a hand through her hair as worry and a bit of agitation overtook her features. She frowned and murmured, "Why is Minos making him do this?" Beside Luke, Thalia stiffened and the son of Hermes arched an eyebrow in confusion. Clearly everyone was going through something of a sort, or hiding something from one other.
Grover shivered and muttered lowly about hating the underground. And the dead. "Ghosts were here," Grover said. "I hate ghosts."
"He's still here," Bianca suddenly perked. "He's still around here, somewhere. I've got to find him!" Without warning, she shot down a tunnel and began racing away from them. Luke just had time to shout out her name before he was running after her. He could hear the others darting after them, hot on his heels and finally, after minutes of running, he caught up with the daughter of Hades.
She was staring up at daylight, streaming through a set of bars above them. They were under a steel grate, made from metal pipes. Luke could see trees, and blue sky.
"What the—" He took a step back when an animal—a cow—came into view. But it was not normal. Not normal at all. The cow was bright red, like an apple, or a cherry. Luke blinked. The cow blinked back.
Grover came up behind him, panting and he squinted up. "A cattle guard," he finally said in distaste. Luke smiled faintly at his words, remembering their journey to camp three years ago. Grover was always complaining when they passed through farms and ranches, where they usually encountered cattle guards.
"Percy mentioned a ranch," Thalia said from behind him. "We have to go there."
"Nico is there," Bianca spoke, her voice shaking with emotion. "I have to get to him." Luke looked around, taking note of everyone's expressions. Clarisse looked hesitant, and so did Thalia. Grover looked a bit uneasy, but Bianca looked worried out of her mind. And Luke made a decision, then. He needed to help her find Nico. The boy was like a little brother to him and he'd be damned if he allowed Nico to wander around the maze and other unknown places for any longer. He wouldn't allow Nico to self-destruct or play right into Kronos and Annabeth's hands.
He had already lost the daughter of Athena to the Titan Lord. He wouldn't lose Nico too. Not to Kronos, and certainly not to death or insanity induced by the maze.
He nodded to Clarisse, who reached forward, slamming her meaty fists against the cattle guard. It popped off and went flying out of sight, eliciting a startled moo from the cow. She hauled herself out of the cattle guard and Luke watched as the others followed her lead. When it was his turn, he hauled himself up and planted his feet on green grass. The blond haired demigod looked around. They were on a ranch, all right. And Nico di Angelo was staring right at them.
A/N: Well, so this is the end of chapter sixteen. I won't say much. Hope you enjoyed it. Cheerio!
-TripleHomicide.