The Battle of the Labyrinth

“Wake up.”
    “Uhhhhhhhh.”
    Annabeth knelt next to him and splashed icy cold river water in his face.
    “Splurg!” His eyelids fluttered. “Percy? Annabeth? Where . . .”
    “It’s okay,” I said. “You passed out. The presence was too much for you.”
    “I—I remember. Pan.”
    “Yeah,” I said. “Something powerful is just beyond that doorway.”
    * * *
    I made quick introductions, since Tyson and Grover had never met Rachel. Tyson told Rachel she was pretty, which made Annabeth’s nostrils flare like she was going to blow fire.
    “Anyway,” I said. “Come on, Grover. Lean on me.”
    Annabeth and I helped him up, and together we waded across the underground river. The current was strong. The water came up to our waists. I willed myself to stay dry, which is a handy little ability, but that didn’t help the others, and I could still feel the cold, like wading through a snowdrift.
    “I think we’re in Carlsbad Caverns,” Annabeth said, her teeth chattering. “Maybe an unexplored section.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Carlsbad is in New Mexico,” she said. “That would explain last winter.”
    I nodded. Grover’s swooning episode had happened when we passed through New Mexico. That’s where he’d felt closest to the power of Pan.
    We got out of the water and kept walking. As the crystal pillars loomed larger, I started to feel the power emanating from the next room. I’d been in the presence of gods before, but this was different. My skin tingled with living energy. My weariness fell away, as if I’d just gotten a good night’s sleep. I could feel myself growing stronger, like one of those plants in a time-lapse video. And the scent coming from the cave was nothing like the dank wet underground. It smelled of trees and flowers and a warm summer day.
    Grover whimpered with excitement. I was too stunned to talk. Even Nico seemed speechless. We stepped into the cave, and Rachel said, “Oh, wow.”
    The walls glittered with crystals—red, green, and blue. In the strange light, beautiful plants grew—giant orchids, star-shaped flowers, vines bursting with orange and purple berries that crept among the crystals. The cave floor was covered with soft green moss. Overhead, the ceiling was higher than a cathedral, sparkling like a galaxy of stars. In the center of the cave stood a Roman-style bed, gilded wood shaped like a curly U, with velvet cushions. Animals lounged around it—but they were animals that shouldn’t have been alive. There was a dodo bird, something that looked like a cross between a wolf and a tiger, a huge rodent like the mother of all guinea pigs, and roaming behind the bed, picking berries with its trunk, was a wooly mammoth.
    On the bed lay an old satyr. He watched us as we approached, his eyes as blue as the sky. His curly hair was white and so was his pointed beard. Even the goat fur on his legs was frosted with gray. His horns were enormous— glossy brown and curved. There was no way he could’ve hidden those under a hat the way Grover did. Around his neck hung a set of reed pipes.
    Grover fell to his knees in front of the bed. “Lord Pan!”
    The god smiled kindly, but there was sadness in his eyes. “Grover, my dear, brave satyr. I have waited a very long time for you.”
    “I . . . got lost,” Grover apologized.
    Pan laughed. It was a wonderful sound, like the first breeze of springtime, filling the whole cavern with hope.
    The tiger-wolf sighed and rested his head on the god’s knee. The dodo bird pecked affectionately at the god’s hooves, making a strange sound in the back of its bill. I could swear it was humming “It’s a Small World.”
    Still, Pan looked tired. His whole form shimmered as if he were made of Mist.
    I noticed my other friends were kneeling. They had awed looks on their faces. I got to my knees.
    “You have a humming dodo bird,” I said stupidly.
    The god’s eyes twinkled. “Yes, that’s Dede. My little actress.”
    Dede the dodo looked offended. She pecked at Pan’s knee and hummed something that sounded like a funeral dirge.
    “This is the most beautiful place!” Annabeth said. “It’s better than any building ever designed.”
    “I’m glad you like it, dear,” Pan said. “It is one of the last wild places. My realm above is gone, I’m afraid. Only pockets remain. Tiny pieces of life. This one shall stay undisturbed . . . for a little longer.”
    “My lord,” Grover said, “please, you must come back with me!