Chapter 18

I Catch up With a Friend Underground

As a demigod I've seen a lot of strange scenes. Old women with wings and claws, anthropomorphic goats, the list goes on. But a room packed to bursting with arm-wrestling giants, a blond teen standing in front of them with his hands on his hips, might have been a new record.

Luke had changed as much as I had. He was taller and broader, his body no longer stuck in the awkwardness of puberty. His blond hair was better kept and a little darker. At his waist a sword was sheathed. Just from a glance, I could see it was longer than Anfisa.

It was his face that had changed the most. Chiseled like a statue, but also cold as stone. His eyes were serious in a way I had only seen at the lowest moments while travelling together. He stood with stiff posture, his spine straight. An ugly vertical scar sliced from the forehead to his right cheek.

Then he looked past Dedalus and saw me. His eyes widened, followed quickly by a grin.

"Look who it is!" he shouted, putting on a false deep voice. "Percy Jackson, disciple of Dedalus! Clear the way, bigshot inbound!"

I cracked up, starting to think maybe I'd imagined the coldness. "I'm a bigshot? Only one of us is leading an army, Luke! Or is that general now?"

"Not unless you're one of those guys." He jerked a finger at the scattered giants, who had gotten bored with their arm-wrestling and moved on to headbutting contests. When one clash ended in a loud crunch, Dedalus hurried in to direct them.

"So," Luke said, closing in with a gleam in his eyes, "what have you been up to?"

I shrugged. "Training, learning, battling murder spirits… the regular. You?"

He grinned. "Something like that. I'll spill the details on the road- the trip will be long enough without wasting time here. C'mon, let's help your teacher marshal the forces."

When we got to him Dedalus looked on the verge of a breakdown. His arms were swinging like an overcaffeinated conductor as he tried to direct a dozen toddler-brained giants. As soon as he corrected one another would ask a question, and by the time he answered it three others had gotten distracted. Then Luke stepped up and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Attention!" he bellowed. "In order now. Quick!"

The giants scrambled into rows. When were all of them were stood anxiously Luke swept out a hand, stepping aside.

Dedalus cleared his throat. "Perfect. Thank you, general."

Luke smiled. "Please, just Luke. You're older than me after all."

"Well, so are they," Dedalus mumbled, casting an eye at the giants. He shook himself. "Very well. You there, the three on the end, head to table one, nearest the entrance. Then you two…"

I tuned out the barrage of directions. Instead I leaned to Luke and nudged his side.

"Why do they listen to you so well?" I asked. "I didn't even know monsters could follow orders."

He winked. "You pick up a few things after you've been in the job a while. Monsters aren't so hard, once you learn what makes them tick."

"I guess I wouldn't know," I admitted.

"You'll have it down in no time. I know you will."

I wasn't sure that was a compliment, but he said it like one, so I decided that was how I would take it. Dedalus finished rattling off instructions and the giants looked to Luke, who gave them a firm nod. They sprung to action as if prodded with a cattle iron.

Ever heard the saying many hands make light work? Well, many giant hands make extremely light work. Within minutes the piles of boxes were hoisted and prepped for transport. If the titan army ever gave up on world domination, they had one hell of a future as a moving business.

We filed out of the workshop, Luke at the front with me and Dedalus just behind him. Mrs. O'Leary was waiting outside, but what surprised me was she wasn't alone.

Packs of Dracaena, a few smaller hellhounds, and even some demigods were milling around. Kelli was off to one side, chatting animatedly to two other teenage girls. Everything with opposable thumbs was carrying a torch, giving the dim corridor some light. There were enough in total to raid a medium-sized castle no problem.

"What are these guys for?" I asked.

"Someone's got to clear a path for us," Luke said. "The Labyrinth isn't exactly known for offering safe passage. I expect you'd know that better than anyone."

"And the torches? We're a little past the fifteenth century."

"Ah, those. They're a gift. More reliable than flashlights, especially long-term. Don't need batteries either."

I wondered how that worked- they just looked like regular old torches. "Sweet."

Luke smirked. "I'll pass your complements on to Lady Hecate."

When they spotted us all the groups stirred. Dracaena saluted. Demigods hastily straightened their armor. Every set of eyes pointed our way.

It took everything I had to keep from drawing my weapon. My instincts were screaming at me to run or fight or do literally anything to not be surrounded by monsters. I wondered if Luke felt it to. If he did he was hiding it well. With a bored expression, he didn't even bother speaking. One point of his finger was all it took to get the huge group moving with us near the center.

"Impressive," Dedalus mumbled.

"There's nothing to it," Luke said.

"Believe me," said Dedalus sourly, "if it were that easy I would've been saved so many headaches over the last month. Somehow, training a hellhound was easier…"

As if sensing she was being talked about, Mrs. O'Leary bounded over. One poor demigod nearly got squashed under her paws, and her wagging tail slapped a giant's head left, then right. Unaware of the chaos in her wake, she leaned her head against Dedalus, rubbing his side as we walked.

"I owe her one," Luke said, nodding to Mrs. O'Leary. "Without that dog we would've been caught long before getting to Camp. She gave us a fighting chance."

"And who would 'we' be?" Dedalus asked.

I stared at him. He knew exactly who it was. I'd given him every detail of my misadventures dozens of times, from names down to the types of food we ate. But his face was the picture of curiosity as he awaited an answer.

Luke gave him a slightly strange look. "The group I traveled with when I was younger. I thought Percy would've told you."

Dedalus shrugged. "I'm sure he did, but it was quite a while ago. I forgot. Were there a lot of you?"

"No, not many." Luke glanced around, checking that everyone was marching in their proper places. "Four at the highest, two at the lowest. Just a few of us."

"For demigods, four may as well be an army. It's impressive that you got anywhere at all with a group like that. Most wouldn't have been able to."

Natural light had been decreasing slowly, small slits in the ceiling that had been allowing bits of natural light having slowly disappeared. Now that the torches were our only light, Luke pulled a flashlight from his pocket and aimed the beam at the floor. "Thanks, I guess. But I'd say it was mostly luck."

Dedalus smiled knowingly. "The skilled ones always do, after the fact. I don't believe in luck, though. Not for demigods, and quite definitely not for children of the Big Three."

He wouldn't hear any arguments from me. When things went right, it was usually only to guide me into the next heap of trouble. Luke hummed.

"I never mentioned Thalia," he said.

Dedalus just chuckled. "My memory fades in and out. Sometimes things are there, at others I lose them entirely. I blame it on age. There's only so much reliable storage up here after all."

He tapped the side of his head, and I wondered how literal that analogy was. I'd still never learned exactly how Dedalus's mechanical body worked. I probably still wouldn't have understood even if he explained it to me. Something told me trapping your soul in a bunch of screws and gears took math more advanced than high school algebra.

"I'm sure it would be," Luke agreed good-naturedly. Then something on the edge of his flashlight beam caught his attention. His fingers clenched, and his mouth curved slightly down. "Hold on a second, I have something to straighten out. I'll be right back."

He slipped forward, muttering something about slackers. While he chewed out the vanguard for their marching form – is it even marching when your legs are snakes? – I glanced at Dedalus. In the semi-darkness, it was harder than normal to read his expression.

"What are you up to?" I asked. "And don't think for a second that I buy anything about spotty memory."

"That's harsh of you," Dedalus said. "What reason would I have to lie?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking."

He scratched Mrs. O'Leary under the chin. "An inventor should never neglect the experiment phase. You don't know what may blow up on you later if you don't."

"Luke is an experiment, then?"

"For now."

"And the Titans?"

"Oh, they're involved in quite a few." Dedalus poked my temple. "You should take a lesson from that."

I rubbed the spot. "What, to always be careful about the people you work with?"

"No," he said. "To find exactly how far you can piss them off before they decide to stab you. It's a wonderful way of setting boundaries. Now, go on- I'm sure you and your friend have plenty to catch up on away from my meddling."

He gave me a little shove. I glanced back at him, but he was busy looking away whistling to himself. With a sigh, I sped up.

I caught up just as we rounded a corner and the surroundings changed. What had been wooden and creaky, like the hold of a pirate ship, became immaculate stainless steel. Nobody in the group looked surprised. I guess we all had experience with the chaos that was the Labyrinth.

What did surprise me was the group of six Dracaena waiting by a fork in the path. To the left, a narrower pitch-black passage curved away. To the right there were spots of natural light, sunbeams reflecting on the metal floor, but also low rumblings that sounded suspiciously like snoring. When they saw us the snake women pointed at the left passage, and our group filed down it without stopping. The new additions slithered over to join the flank.

"Pretty clever, huh?" Luke had noticed my arrival. "The Labyrinth may be chaotic, but so long as we can retrace our steps before it shifts, we can get out easily."

"Maybe," I said. The idea was logical, which was why I couldn't shake the feeling it wouldn't work. If there was one thing the Labyrinth despised, it was making sense.

"Harsh, Percy. Have a little faith." We walked a few steps in silence before he sighed. "I said I would fill you in on the way, didn't I? About, well, this." He gestured at the marching army and his own manicured clothes. "Now is as good a time as we'll get. Go for it."

"Is Annabeth with you?" There were more obvious questions to ask first, like how he'd become BFF's with the titans or what hair routine he was using to get his locks so much smoother than the last time I'd seen him. But for some reason, that one struck me as the most important."

"She is picking the wrong side at the moment," Luke said carefully. "But don't worry too much about it. We'll be having a full reunion soon enough."

That wording seemed pretty weird to me, considering last I'd heard Thalia was a tree. But that was a topic I wasn't willing to go anywhere near just yet. Instead I asked, "And these demigods? Where'd you find them?"

"Camp, mostly. At least they were there for a bit. Some longer than others. Almost all of them were never claimed, or had parents not deemed important enough for a cabin. You know what the gods are like."

I wasn't quite sure what claimed meant, or why the kids would be so concerned about getting a wooden building, but I got the gist of what he was saying. They were like us. Their lives had been twisted around and mucked up, and they were looking to do something to change them. I glanced over my shoulder at a pair of demigods marching and chatting. A boy a little younger than I was, and a girl that looked slightly older. The girl said something, and the boy chuckled, brushing the fringe of his brown bangs from his face. They should've been wandering around a mall somewhere, not decked out in armor deep underground. That thought made me a little mad.

"There's no place for kids like us, is there?"

"Us?" Luke asked.

"Demigods," I clarified. "We're always running from something, stuck between worlds. Dedalus taught me a lot. I know our odds of surviving to college, let alone longer. It isn't right."

Luke patted my back. "That's why we're doing this, isn't it? If the system sucks, raze it."

As he said razeit, it felt like he really looked at me hard

"Do you think we can?" I asked. "I mean, Olympus has stood for what, two-thousand years? They won't go down easy."

"Honestly?" Luke said, "I'm not sure that we can fail. The gods are experts at pissing others off, and it's catching up with them. You'll understand when you see the base. This isn't just us anymore. Far, far from it."

It didn't seem like empty talk. Whether he was right or not, Luke truly believed what he was saying. In fact, he almost looked intimidated, like a surfer at the crest of a monster wave who knew he had no choice now but to ride until it broke. But mostly he looked excited. Even years ago, I had known how badly he wanted to get back at his father. I wasn't sure there was anything he wouldn't do for that sort of chance.

"Think about it for a second, though," he carried on. "A world we can help design. One where lives like ours don't happen. No absentee parents. No runaways forced to live on the street. No killing kids over silly prophecies."

"Hold up." I held up a hand. "I don't mean to be a downer, but isn't that last one literally what Kronos did? Eating his kids before they could become a threat? That doesn't seem like great assurance for him getting rid of it. And it will be his world, won't it? It's not like we'll be able to veto him, just because we helped out a bit."

It was hard to spot in dark, but Luke paled. "Uh, Percy? Careful with that. The leader doesn't take too well to people talking bad about him. He hates failure, too. He won't kill you, not with how important you are, but he doesn't have to. He has other ways to shut you up."

He rubbed his forehead as if fighting down a migraine. An unconscious habit, and one that came with a shiver. Whatever 'other ways' Luke had experienced, just the memory made him uncomfortable.

"Got it," I said. "Thanks for the heads up."

He gave a thin smile. "No problem. Don't get too worried. Just try not to complain, and if you do at least drop the name. As long as you bring in consistent results you won't have anything to worry about."

"No pressure," I added.

"That's the spirit."

As we got further the metal of the passage didn't disappear, but it did stop being smooth. At first it was lumps. Protrusions on the floor, walls, and ceiling, something pressing hard from the other side. The demigods grumbled about the uneven footing, but the dracaena just slithered straight over.

Then I saw the first one. It was the same as the other lumps, except it was burst at the top. Rising out and up the wall was a girthy root that ran all the way to a matching hole in the ceiling. Looking around, Luke frowned.

"This doesn't make any sense," he muttered. "We were just through here. But I never saw this."

"It's the Labyrinth," I told him. "You said it earlier- it isn't known for letting people travel through it."

He glanced at me. "I meant more, you know, the things inside it. Not the maze itself."

"Then you were worrying about the wrong part."

Soon roots crisscrossed the path, starting to layer on top of each other. Our pace slowed to a crawl to keep from tripping. As we passed a knot of roots, I could've sworn I saw chips taken off it. Like bites from tiny teeth.

The attack came without warning. A hellhound near the front yelped, and by the time I looked its way the dog was disintegrating, a trio of arrows falling with the dust. From somewhere down the tunnel came a whooping battle cry, and more projectiles fired out of the dark.

As the Dracaena reoriented to meet the attack, Luke started barking orders.

"Block off the right side! Funnel them toward the hellhounds, then support! Kelli, keep those at the back watching for an ambush!" Then he glanced at me. "Stay beside me. Nothing should get to us here."

I nodded, peeling my eyes for a look at our attackers. Whatever it was, they were small. None of the silhouettes could've been taller than three foot. But they were crafty, hanging back beyond the glow of the torches. One frustrated Dracaena broke formation and rushed forward. A moment later she went down looking like a porcupine, arrows sprouting from everywhere.

Some of her sisters joined her, lucky shots finding chinks in their armor or lodging in their necks. A hellhound's snarl was cut short as a shaft sprouted from its nose. I would've been worried if our force wasn't so huge. Every monster we lost couldn't make a dent in the total numbers. The longer the arrows came the more Luke urged the troops forward:

"Quicker! Quicker! Don't allow them time to fall back!"

A demigod that landed the first hit. He darted through the lines and stabbed his spear nearly blind into the dark. A shrill squeak echoed. The torchlight illuminated the creature for a second before it crumbled to dust- pointy ears, leathery brown skin, and goatlike legs. It looked like a cross between a satyr, an elf, and a leather bag, all rolled up and shrunk to the height of an elementary schooler.

"It's kallikantzaroi!" Luke shouted. "Press up close and they can't fight back! Go!"

With a cry the whole front portion surged forward. Some were picked off by arrows, but soon the kallikantzaroi were stuck in the light, unable to hide any longer. Their eyes squinted. Wails and squawks echoed as they were cut down. Most tried to flee but only ran headfirst into walls. Others ran the complete wrong way and collided with the slaughtering soldiers.

"What's wrong with them?" I asked, watching the figures that had been such deadly archers cower and flail helplessly.

"Kallikantzaroi live their whole lives underground," Luke said. "Their eyesight is excellent in the dark, twice as good as a human's outside, but they're so sensitive to light that they're practically blind in it."

With the threat seeming mostly gone, I took the chance to glance around the passage. The first thing I noticed was the strange shape of the roots. They seemed to swirl and open up to offer as much surface area as possible. It looked designed, or at the very least not natural.

Then I spotted something more interesting.

"Are those… houses?"

Along the walls what looked like dens were built into the gnarled roots. Little gaps plugged up with claylike mud. The deeper we pressed the more dens I saw, and the louder the remaining kallikantzaroi squealed.

Luke followed my gaze. "Those holes? Probably. Kallikantzaroi are vegetarians. They won't even touch demigods if left alone, since they only eat off the roots of potently magical trees." He stared at the roots around us, tracing them from floor to ceiling. "These won't be an exception. Whatever tree they belong to must be powerful. I wonder which it is."

I didn't really feel like guessing with him. Knowing that we were strolling through someone's home slaughtering them didn't make me feel all that good. Sure they were monsters, but from what Luke had said they wouldn't even have attacked if we hadn't marched an army through their home. Did they even count as monsters at that point? And who wouldn't fight back in their shoes?

A shout up ahead drew my attention. A kallikantzaroi had landed a lucky hit using his arrow like a spear, slicing a demigod's leg and rushing past him. Even blind, the little guy was slippery. Darting between legs and underneath clumsy swipes, whipping his arrow in front like a snowplow.

But luck could only get him so far. A hellhound kicked out and slammed him into a roll. He stopped with a thump, splayed at Luke and I's feet.

"Huh," said Luke. "Would you look at that."

He didn't draw his sword. Instead he bent down and nabbed the arrow out of the little guy's hand, holding it point down. The kallikantzaroi was groaning and holding his side, completely out of it.

A chirp rung from the edge of the passage, followed immediately by a high-pitched squeal. A tiny kallikantzaroi had rushed from one of the dens, shielding his eyes. Behind him a female in a tunic-like dress reached out a desperate hand at the den's entrance.

The small one was making a beeline for us. I drew Anfisa, but I might as well not have. He didn't even look at us as he draped his body over the adult's like a protective blanket.

His eyes were shut tight. I could see his arms trembling. He was terrified, but didn't look up or move, keeping his body as a shield. The adult seemed to have realized he was there and tried to push him off, but he wouldn't budge. Both were letting out streams of burbling chirps. I let Anfisa sink to my side. They weren't any threat.

"Wow. Two for the price of one."

My eyes widened. The moment before Luke drove the arrow down I saw what was coming and lunged to stop him. Someone caught my arm and held me back, andI whirled to find Dedalus shaking his head. I didn't even notice he'd gotten so close.

The kallikantzarois disintegrated, clutching each other until their hands crumbled.

"Keep an eye out for stragglers!" Luke shouted, tossing the arrow aside. The female wailed from the den, and Luke glanced toward her. "Check the dens as you go, starting with that one. We don't want any threats to the rearguard."

Every word out of his mouth was professional, but he couldn't fool me. Not after what I had seen. He was enjoying this. The killing, and the enemy's fear. There was no other explanation for his complete lack of hesitation. Unconsciously, my hand tightened on my sword.

"Don't do anything we would regret," Dedalus whispered to me, grabbing my wrist.

"Do you expect to just put my head down and ignore all this?" I whispered back.

"That's exactly what I expect," he said. "Throwing a tantrum here will do nothing. Or do you think we could win against everyone here?"

I wasn't too hot on him describing my righteous stand as a tantrum, but I did like that he said we. It was a good reminder that even if I ruined his plans, he would still be watching my back. Because that was what he was doing; even if I didn't like it, starting a fight here would only end badly. Reluctantly, I put my weapon away again.

"Thank you, Percy," Dedalus said, and I could hear he meant it.

"Yeah," I said, putting my head down and pulling free from his hand. "Let's just get through here."

The fighting was pretty much over. The few remaining kallikantzaroi warriors were being trapped and dusted one by one. Demigods and dracaena were searching the closest dens, prodding with torches until they caught fire. If anything darted out to escape the flames, that was the last thing it did. I averted my eyes. There was nothing I could do.

Luke looked around, surveying the process. "Not bad," he said. "The path will be cleared soon." Then he looked back over his shoulder. "But behind… there were other dens. Someone needs to double back and deal with them. Kelli!"

I started. Right, there were other dens we'd missed. A crazy idea started forming. Maybe there was nothing I could do for these kallikantzaroi, but that didn't mean I couldn't do anything for every kallikantzaroi. If I could get the others out, at least warn them before all the roots were burned…

But would that really work? And as bad as I felt for them, was it worth the risk? They were monsters. Vegetarian, self-sacrificing, isolationist monsters- except that was a contradiction, wasn't it?

My eyes fell on the torch in a demigod's hands, the options weighing on my mind, and as my brain worked it's light flashed bright purple. A woman's voice, so close it left goosebumps on my arm, whispered in my ear:

"Choices, choices. Never underestimate them, hero. You can be great or terrible. Merciful or ruthless. Successful, or a horrid failure. At everything's core, is a choice."

My vision began to tunnel. Twin visions flashed in front of my eyes, one where I doubled back and one where I put my head down and carried on. My breath quickened. More and more images flashed, more and more expressions, events that I could only make out flashes of and scenes I could only-

"You called?"

Kelli's voice jolted me back to reality. The torch's glow was back to orange. Nobody was looking at it or saying "huh, that was weird," and there certainly wasn't anybody close enough to whisper to me. As my heartrate settled, I realized that, at some point, I had decided.

"Yes, Kelli. Take a group and-"

"Wait," I interrupted Luke. "Let me do it."

Luke frowned. "Percy, there's no need for that. We've got enough bodies without you chipping in. Besides, it's dangerous."

"I know," I said. "but I feel cramped just standing around. I'm not cut out for the sidelines, you know?"

Dedalus appeared at my shoulder. "Let him do it," he said. "I didn't train a student so weak as to die to a few goblins. It will be good experience."

We shared a look, and I knew he was on to me. He gave a minute nod. His green light.

"I suppose it would be alright," Luke said, sounding unconvinced.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Kelli bounced over and tried to wrap her arm around my shoulder. "We can do it together. Wouldn't that be so romantic?"

I stepped out of the way and she flashed past, coming up with air. As she turned with a pout, I shook my head.

"I'll do it myself. Or if you're really worried, I can take Mrs. O'Leary. But I won't go with someone I don't trust."

"Alright," Luke said. The way he looked at her, I got the feeling he didn't think much higher of Kelli than I did. "You could also take some demigods, or…" He trailed off, seeing my face. "Alone it is. But be careful, and take this."

He beckoned over a dark-haired kid with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other. Pointing at the torch, he said, "Percy's going to be borrowing that."

The kid glanced around as if to say 'who's Percy?' With a grunt, Luke pointed my direction. The kid practically tripped over himself rushing to give it to me. Irritating his superior seemed to bring him physical discomfort.

"It's an honor to be of help," he said to me as he passed it over, but I got the feeling he was talking indirectly to the son of Hermes behind him.

"Thanks," I said. "It's an honor to, uh, use your torch I guess."

I set off the way we had come.

Sure, I couldn't help most of the kallikantzaroi. Hell, I couldn't even save their homes. But that didn't mean all of them had to die. Not if I had anything to say about it.

(-)

Delayed one day for family commitments, but we're basically sticking to this whole chapter-a-week thing. Now I just have to keep it up.