The Battle of the Labyrinth

from raw earth, and wrapped in thick roots. Grover stopped dead in his tracks.
    “What is it?” I said.
    He didn’t move. He stared openmouthed into the dark tunnel. His curly hair rustled in the breeze.
    “Come on!” Annabeth said. “We have to keep moving.”
    “This is the way,” Grover muttered in awe. “This is it.”
    “What way?” I asked. “You mean . . . to Pan?”
    Grover looked at Tyson. “Don’t you smell it?”
    “Dirt,” Tyson said. “And plants.”
    “Yes! This is the way. I’m sure of it!”
    Up ahead, the spider was getting farther down the stone corridor. A few more seconds and we’d lose it.
    “We’ll come back,” Annabeth promised. “On our way back to Hephaestus.”
    “The tunnel will be gone by then,” Grover said. “I have to follow it. A door like this won’t stay open!”
    “But we can’t,” Annabeth said. “The forges!”
    Grover looked at her sadly. “I have to, Annabeth. Don’t you understand?”
    She looked desperate, like she didn’t understand at all.
    The spider was almost out of sight. But I thought about my conversation with Grover last night, and I knew what we had to do.
    “We’ll split up,” I said.
    “No!” Annabeth said. “That’s way too dangerous. How will we ever find each other again? And Grover can’t go alone.”
    Tyson put his hand on Grover’s shoulder. “I—I will go with him.”
    I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. “Tyson, are you sure?”
    The big guy nodded. “Goat boy needs help. We will find the god person. I am not like Hephaestus. I trust friends.”
    Grover took a deep breath. “Percy, we’ll find each other again. We’ve still got the empathy link. I just . . . have to.”
    I didn’t blame him. This was his life’s goal. If he didn’t find Pan on this journey, the council would never give him another chance.
    “I hope you’re right,” I said.
    “I know I am.” I’d never heard him sound so confident about anything, except maybe that cheese enchiladas were better than chicken enchiladas.
    “Be careful,” I told him. Then I looked at Tyson. He gulped back a sob and gave me a hug that just about squeezed my eyes out of their sockets. Then he and Grover disappeared through the tunnel of tree roots and were lost in the darkness.
    “This is bad,” Annabeth said. “Splitting up is a really, really bad idea.”
    “We’ll see them again,” I said, trying to sound confident. “Now come on. The spider is getting away!”
    It wasn’t long before the tunnel started to get hot.
    The stone walls glowed. The air felt as if we were walking through an oven. The tunnel sloped down and I could hear a loud roar, like a river of metal. The spider skittered along, with Annabeth right behind.
    “Hey, wait up,” I called to her.
    She glanced back at me. “Yeah?”
    “Something Hephaestus said back there . . . about Athena.”
    “She swore never to marry,” Annabeth said. “Like Artemis and Hestia. She’s one of the maiden goddesses.”
    I blinked. I’d never heard that about Athena before. “But then—”
    “How come she has demigod children?”
    I nodded. I was probably blushing, but hopefully it was so hot anyway that Annabeth didn’t notice.
    “Percy, you know how Athena was born?”
    “She sprung from the head of Zeus in full battle armor or something.”
    “Exactly. She wasn’t born in the normal way. She was literally born from thoughts. Her children are born the same way. When Athena falls in love with a mortal man, it’s purely intellectual, the way she loved Odysseus in the old stories. It’s a meeting of minds. She would tell you that’s the purest kind of love.”
    “So your dad and Athena . . . so you weren’t . . .”
    “I was a brain child,” Annabeth said. “Literally. Children of Athena are sprung from the divine thoughts of our mother and the mortal ingenuity of our father. We are supposed to be a gift, a blessing from Athena on the men she favors.”
    “But—”
    “Percy, the spider’s getting away. Do you really want me to explain the exact details of how I was born?”
    “Um . . . no. That’s okay.”
    She smirked. “I thought not.” And she ran ahead. I followed, but I wasn’t sure I would ever look at Annabeth the same way again. I decided some things were better left as mysteries.
    The roaring got louder. After another half mile or so, we emerged in a cavern the size of a Super Bowl stadium. Our spider escort stopped and curled into a ball. We had arrived