The Battle of the Labyrinth

Manhattan. You might stop by your mother’s, Percy. She is . . . understandably distraught.”
    My heart skipped a beat. All that time on Calypso’s island, I’d never even thought how my mom would be feeling. She’d think I was dead. She’d be devastated. What was wrong with me that I hadn’t even considered that?
    “Chiron,” I said, “what about Grover and Tyson? Do you think—”
    “I don’t know, my boy.” Chiron gazed into the empty fireplace. “Juniper is quite distressed. All her branches are turning yellow. The Council of Cloven Elders has revoked Grover’s searcher’s license in absentia . Assuming he comes back alive, they will force him into a shameful exile.” He sighed. “Grover and Tyson are very resourceful, however. We can still hope.”
    “I shouldn’t have let them run off.”
    “Grover has his own destiny, and Tyson was brave to follow him. You would know if Grover was in mortal danger, don’t you think?”
    “I suppose. The empathy link. But—”
    “There is something else I should tell you, Percy,” he said. “Actually two unpleasant things.”
    “Great.”
    “Chris Rodriguez, our guest . . .”
    I remembered what I’d seen in the basement, Clarisse trying to talk to him while he babbled about the Labyrinth. “Is he dead?”
    “Not yet,” Chiron said grimly. “But he’s much worse. He’s in the infirmary now, too weak to move. I had to order Clarisse back to her regular schedule, because she was at his bedside constantly. He doesn’t respond to anything. He won’t take food or drink. None of my medicines help. He has simply lost the will to live.”
    I shuddered. Despite all the run-ins I’d had with Clarisse, I felt horrible for her. She’d tried so hard to help him. And now that I’d been in the Labyrinth, I could understand why it had been so easy for the ghost of Minos to drive Chris mad. If I’d been wandering around down there alone, without my friends to help, I’d never have made it out.
    “I’m sorry to say,” Chiron continued, “the other news is less pleasant still. Quintus has disappeared.”
    “Disappeared? How?”
    “Three nights ago he slipped into the Labyrinth. Juniper watched him go. It appears you may have been right about him.”
    “He’s a spy for Luke.” I told Chiron about the Triple G Ranch—how Quintus had bought his scorpions there and Geryon had been supplying Kronos’s army. “It can’t be a coincidence.”
    Chiron sighed heavily. “So many betrayals. I had hoped Quintus would prove a friend. It seems my judgment was bad.”
    “What about Mrs. O’Leary?” I asked.
    “The hellhound is still in the arena. It won’t let anyone approach. I did not have the heart to force it into a cage . . . or destroy it.”
    “Quintus wouldn’t just leave her.”
    “As I said, Percy, we seem to have been wrong about him. Now, you should prepare yourself for the morning. You and Annabeth still have much to do.”
    I left him in his wheelchair, staring sadly into the fireplace. I wondered how many times he’d sat here, waiting for heroes that never came back.
    Before dinner I stopped by the sword arena. Sure enough, Mrs. O’Leary was curled up in an enormous black furry mound in the middle of the stadium, chewing halfheartedly on the head of a warrior dummy.
    When she saw me, she barked and came bounding toward me. I thought I was dead meat. I just had time to say, “Whoa!” before she bowled me over and started licking my face. Now usually, being the son of Poseidon and all, I only get wet if I want to, but my powers apparently did not extend to dog saliva, because I got a pretty good bath.
    “Whoa, girl!” I yelled. “Can’t breathe. Lemme up!”
    Eventually I managed to get her off me. I scratched her ears and found her an extra-gigantic dog biscuit.
    “Where’s your master?” I asked her. “How could he just leave you, huh?”
    She whimpered like she wanted to know that, too. I was ready to believe Quintus was an enemy, but still I couldn’t understand why he’d leave Mrs. O’Leary behind. If there was one thing I was sure of, it was that he really cared for his megadog.
    I was thinking about that and toweling the dog spit off my face when a girl’s voice said, “You’re lucky she didn’t bite your head off.”
    Clarisse was standing at the other end of the arena with her sword and shield. “Came here to practice yesterday,” she grumbled. “Dog tried to chew me up.”
    “She’s an intelligent