The Battle of the Labyrinth

shouted.
    “And when you grow to be big telekhines, will you make weapons for his army?”
    “Yes!”
    “Excellent. Now, we’ve brought in some scraps for you to practice with. Let’s see how ingenious you are.”
    There was a rush of movement and excited voices coming toward the cart. I got ready to uncap Riptide. The tarp was thrown back. I jumped up, my bronze sword springing to life in my hands, and found myself facing a bunch of . . . dogs.
    Well, their faces were dogs, anyway, with black snouts, brown eyes, and pointy ears. Their bodies were sleek and black like sea mammals, with stubby legs that were half flipper, half foot, and humanlike hands with sharp claws. If you blended together a kid, a Doberman pinscher, and a sea lion, you’d get something like what I was looking at.
    “A demigod!” one snarled.
    “Eat it!” yelled another.
    But that’s as far as they got before I slashed a wide arc with Riptide and vaporized the entire front row of monsters.
    “Back off!” I yelled at the rest, trying to sound fierce. Behind them stood their instructor—a six-foot-tall telekhine with Doberman fangs snarling at me. I did my best to stare him down.
    “New lesson, class,” I announced. “Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is perfectly normal, and will happen to you right now if you don’t BACK OFF!”
    To my surprise, it worked. The monsters backed up, but there were at least twenty of them. My fear factor wasn’t going to last long.
    I jumped out of the cart, yelled, “CLASS DISMISSED!” and ran for the exit.
    The monsters charged after me, barking and growling. I hoped they couldn’t run very fast with those stubby little legs and flippers, but they waddled along pretty well. Thank the gods there was a door on the tunnel leading out to the main cavern. I slammed it shut and turned the wheel handle to lock it, but I doubted it would keep them long.
    I didn’t know what to do. Annabeth was out here somewhere, invisible. Our chance for a subtle reconnaissance mission had just been blown. I ran toward the platform at the center of the lava lake.
    “Annabeth!” I yelled.
    “Shhh!” An invisible hand clamped over my mouth and wrestled me down behind a big bronze cauldron. “You want to get us killed?”
    I found her head and took off her Yankees cap. She shimmered into existence in front of me, scowling, her face streaked with ash and grime. “Percy, what is your problem?”
    “We’re going to have company!” I explained quickly about the monster orientation class. Her eyes widened.
    “So that’s what they are,” she said. “Telekhines. I should’ve known. And they’re making . . . Well, look.”
    We peeked over the cauldron. In the center of the platform stood four sea demons, but these were fully grown, at least eight feet tall. Their black skin glistened in the firelight as they worked, sparks flying as they took turns hammering on a long piece of glowing hot metal.
    “The blade is almost complete,” one said. “It needs another cooling in blood to fuse the metals.”
    “Aye,” a second said. “It shall be even sharper than before.”
    “What is that?” I whispered.
    Annabeth shook her head. “They keep talking about fusing metals. I wonder—”
    “They were talking about the greatest Titan weapon,” I said. “And they . . . they said they made my father’s trident.”
    “The telekhines betrayed the gods,” Annabeth said.
    “They were practicing dark magic. I don’t know what, exactly, but Zeus banished them to Tartarus.”
    “With Kronos.”
    She nodded. “We have to get out—”
    No sooner had she said that than the door to the classroom exploded and young telekhines came pouring out. They stumbled over each other, trying to figure out which way to charge.
    “Put your cap back on,” I said. “Get out!”
    “What?” Annabeth shrieked. “No! I’m not leaving you.”
    “I’ve got a plan. I’ll distract them. You can use the metal spider—maybe it’ll lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what’s going on.”
    “But you’ll be killed!”
    “I’ll be fine. Besides, we’ve got no choice.”
    Annabeth glared at me like she was going to punch me. And then she did something that surprised me even more. She kissed me.
    “Be careful, Seaweed Brain.” She put on her hat and vanished.
    I probably would’ve sat there for the rest of the day, staring at the lava and trying to remember what my