The Battle of the Labyrinth

it.”
    I didn’t see anything like she was describing, but I nodded. “Okay. Forward.”
    “You believe her?” Annabeth asked.
    “Yeah,” I said. “Don’t you?”
    Annabeth looked like she wanted to argue, but she waved at Rachel to lead on. Together we kept walking down the brick corridor. It twisted and turned, but there were no more side tunnels. We seemed to be angling down, heading deeper underground.
    “No traps?” I asked anxiously.
    “Nothing.” Rachel knit her eyebrows. “Should it be this easy?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “It never was before.”
    “So, Rachel,” Annabeth said, “where are you from, exactly?”
    She said it like, What planet are you from? But Rachel didn’t look offended.
    “Brooklyn,” she said.
    “Aren’t your parents going to be worried if you’re out late?”
    Rachel exhaled. “Not likely. I could be gone a week and they’d never notice.”
    “Why not?” This time Annabeth didn’t sound as sarcastic. Having trouble with parents was something she understood.
    Before Rachel could answer, there was a creaking noise in front of us, like huge doors opening.
    “What was that?” Annabeth asked.
    “I don’t know,” Rachel said. “Metal hinges.”
    “Oh, that’s very helpful. I mean, what is it ?”
    Then I heard heavy footsteps shaking the corridor— coming toward us.
    “Run?” I asked.
    “Run,” Rachel agreed.
    We turned and fled the way we’d come, but we didn’t make it twenty feet before we ran straight into some old friends. Two dracaenae —snake women in Greek armor—leveled their javelins at our chests. Standing between them was Kelli, the empousa cheerleader.
    “Well, well,” Kelli said.
    I uncapped Riptide, and Annabeth pulled her knife; but before my sword was even out of pen form, Kelli pounced on Rachel. Her hand turned into a claw and she spun Rachel around, holding her tight with her talons at Rachel’s neck.
    “Taking your little mortal pet for a walk?” Kelli asked me. “They’re such fragile things. So easy to break!”
    Behind us, the footsteps came closer. A huge form appeared out of the gloom—an eight-foot-tall Laistrygonian giant with red eyes and fangs.
    The giant licked his lips when he saw us. “Can I eat them?”
    “No,” Kelli said. “Your master will want these. They will provide a great deal of entertainment.” She smiled at me. “Now march, half-bloods. Or you all die here, starting with the mortal girl.”
    It was pretty much my worst nightmare. And believe me, I’ve had plenty of nightmares. We were marched down the tunnel flanked by dracaenae , with Kelli and the giant in back, just in case we tried to run for it. Nobody seemed to worry about us running forward. That was the direction they wanted us to go.
    Up ahead I could see bronze doors. They were about ten feet tall, emblazoned with a pair of crossed swords. From behind them came a muffled roar, like from a crowd.
    “Oh, yessssss,” said the snake woman on my left. “You’ll be very popular with our hossssst.”
    I’d never gotten to look at a dracaena up close before, and I wasn’t real thrilled to have the opportunity. She would’ve had a beautiful face, except her tongue was forked and her eyes were yellow with black slits for pupils. She wore bronze armor that stopped at her waist. Below that, where her legs should’ve been, were two massive snake trunks, mottled bronze and green. She moved by a combination of slithering and walking, as if she were on living skis.
    “Who’s your host?” I asked.
    She hissed, which might have been a laugh. “Oh, you’ll sssssee. You’ll get along famousssly. He’ssss your brother, after all.”
    “My what?” Immediately I thought of Tyson, but that was impossible. What was she talking about?
    The giant pushed past us and opened the doors. He picked up Annabeth by her shirt and said, “You stay here.”
    “Hey!” she protested, but the guy was twice her size and he’d already confiscated her knife and my sword.
    Kelli laughed. She still had her claws at Rachel’s neck. “Go on, Percy. Entertain us. We’ll wait here with your friends to make sure you behave.”
    I looked at Rachel. “I’m sorry. I’ll get you out of this.”
    She nodded as much as she could with a demon at her throat. “That would be nice.”
    The dracaenae prodded me toward the doorway at javelin-point, and I walked out onto the floor of an arena.
    I guess it wasn’t the largest arena I’d ever been in, but