The Battle of the Labyrinth

stunned. “Just like that?”
    She nodded. “Just like that.”
    “But . . . my friends.”
    Calypso rose and took my hand. Her touch sent a warm current through my body. “You asked about my curse, Percy. I did not want to tell you. The truth is the gods send me companionship from time to time. Every thousand years or so, they allow a hero to wash up on my shores, someone who needs my help. I tend to him and befriend him, but it is never random. The Fates make sure that the sort of hero they send . . .”
    Her voice trembled, and she had to stop.
    I squeezed her hand tighter. “What? What have I done to make you sad?”
    “They send a person who can never stay,” she whispered. “Who can never accept my offer of companionship for more than a little while. They send me a hero I can’t help . . . just the sort of person I can’t help falling in love with.”
    The night was quiet except for the gurgle of the fountains and waves lapping on the shore. It took me a long time to realize what she was saying.
    “Me?” I asked.
    “If you could see your face.” She suppressed a smile, though her eyes were still teary. “Of course, you.”
    “That’s why you’ve been pulling away all this time?”
    “I tried very hard. But I can’t help it. The Fates are cruel. They sent you to me, my brave one, knowing that you would break my heart.”
    “But . . . I’m just . . . I mean, I’m just me .”
    “That is enough,” Calypso promised. “I told myself I would not even speak of this. I would let you go without even offering. But I can’t. I suppose the Fates knew that, too. You could stay with me, Percy. I’m afraid that is the only way you could help me.”
    I stared at the horizon. The first red streaks of dawn were lightening the sky. I could stay here forever, disappear from the earth. I could live with Calypso, with invisible servants tending to my every need. We could grow flowers in the garden and talk to songbirds and walk on the beach under perfect blue skies. No war. No prophecy. No more taking sides.
    “I can’t,” I told her.
    She looked down sadly.
    “I would never do anything to hurt you,” I said, “but my friends need me. I know how to help them now. I have to get back.”
    She picked a flower from her garden—a sprig of silver moonlace. Its glow faded as the sunrise came up. Daybreak is a good time for decisions , Hephaestus had said. Calypso tucked the flower into my T-shirt pocket.
    She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me on the forehead, like a blessing. “Then come to the beach, my hero. And we will send you on your way.”
    The raft was a ten-foot square of logs lashed together with a pole for a mast and a simple white linen sail. It didn’t look like it would be very seaworthy, or lakeworthy.
    “This will take you wherever you desire,” Calypso promised. “It is quite safe.”
    I took her hand, but she let it slip out of mine.
    “Maybe I can visit you,” I said.
    She shook her head. “No man ever finds Ogygia twice, Percy. When you leave, I will never see you again.”
    “But—”
    “Go, please.” Her voice broke. “The Fates are cruel, Percy. Just remember me.” Then a little trace of her smile returned. “Plant a garden in Manhattan for me, will you?”
    “I promise.” I stepped onto the raft. Immediately it began to sail from the shore.
    As I sailed into the lake I realized the Fates really were cruel. They sent Calypso someone she couldn’t help but love. But it worked both ways. For the rest of my life I would be thinking about her. She would always be my biggest what if .
    Within minutes the island of Ogygia was lost in the mist. I was sailing alone over the water toward the sunrise. Then I told the raft what to do. I said the only place I could think of, because I needed comfort and friends. “Camp Half-Blood,” I said. “Sail me home.”

THIRTEEN

WE HIRE A NEW GUIDE
    Hours later, my raft washed up at Camp Half-Blood. How I got there, I have no idea. At some point the lake water just changed to salt water. The familiar shoreline of Long Island appeared up ahead, and a couple of friendly great white sharks surfaced and steered me toward the beach.
    When I landed, the camp seemed deserted. It was late afternoon, but the archery range was empty. The climbing wall poured lava and rumbled all by itself. Pavilion: nothing. Cabins: all vacant. Then I noticed smoke rising from the amphitheater. Too early for a campfire, and I didn’t figure they were