The Battle of the Labyrinth

into Luke’s lap. Mrs. O’Leary snarled, and the two dracaenae guards backed away. For a moment the monsters in the audience were caught completely by surprise.
    “Let’s go!” I yelled at my friends. “Heel, Mrs. O’Leary!”
    “The far exit!” Rachel cried. “That’s the right way!”
    Ethan Nakamura took his cue. Together we raced across the arena and out the far exit, Mrs. O’Leary right behind us. As we ran, I could hear the disorganized sounds of an entire army trying to jump out of the stands and follow us.

FIFTEEN

WE STEAL SOME SLIGHTLY USED WINGS
    “This way!” Rachel yelled.
    “Why should we follow you?” Annabeth demanded. “You led us straight into that death trap!”
    “It was the way you needed to go,” Rachel said. “And so is this. Come on!”
    Annabeth didn’t look happy about it, but she ran along with the rest of us. Rachel seemed to know exactly where she was going. She whipped around corners and didn’t even hesitate at crossroads. Once she said, “Duck!” and we all crouched as a huge axe swung over our heads. Then we kept going as if nothing had happened.
    I lost track of how many turns we made. We didn’t stop to rest until we came to a room the size of a gymnasium with old marble columns holding up the roof. I stood at the doorway, listening for sounds of pursuit, but I heard nothing. Apparently, we’d lost Luke and his minions in the maze.
    Then I realized something else: Mrs. O’Leary was gone. I didn’t know when she’d disappeared. I didn’t know if she’d gotten lost or been overrun by monsters or what. My heart turned to lead. She’d saved our lives, and I hadn’t even waited to make sure she was following us.
    Ethan collapsed on the floor. “You people are crazy.” He pulled off his helmet. His face gleamed with sweat.
    Annabeth gasped. “I remember you! You were one of the undetermined kids in the Hermes cabin, years ago.”
    He glared at her. “Yeah, and you’re Annabeth. I remember.”
    “What—what happened to your eye?”
    Ethan looked away, and I got the feeling that was one subject he would not discuss.
    “You must be the half-blood from my dream,” I said. “The one Luke’s people cornered. It wasn’t Nico after all.”
    “Who’s Nico?”
    “Never mind,” Annabeth said quickly. “Why were you trying to join up with the wrong side?”
    Ethan sneered. “There’s no right side. The gods never cared about us. Why shouldn’t I—”
    “Sign up with an army that makes you fight to the death for entertainment?” Annabeth said. “Gee, I wonder.”
    Ethan struggled to his feet. “I’m not going to argue with you. Thanks for the help, but I’m out of here.”
    “We’re going after Daedalus,” I said. “Come with us. Once we get through, you’d be welcome back at camp.”
    “You really are crazy if you think Daedalus will help you.”
    “He has to,” Annabeth said. “We’ll make him listen.”
    Ethan snorted. “Yeah, well. Good luck with that.”
    I grabbed his arm. “You’re just going to head off alone into the maze? That’s suicide.”
    He looked at me with barely controlled anger. His eye patch was frayed around the edges and the black cloth was faded, like he’d been wearing it a long, long time. “You shouldn’t have spared me, Jackson. Mercy has no place in this war.”
    Then he ran off into the darkness, back the way we’d come.
    Annabeth, Rachel, and I were so exhausted we made camp right there in the huge room. I found some scrap wood and we started a fire. Shadows danced off the columns rising around us like trees.
    “Something was wrong with Luke,” Annabeth muttered, poking at the fire with her knife. “Did you notice the way he was acting?”
    “He looked pretty pleased to me,” I said. “Like he’d spent a nice day torturing heroes.”
    “That’s not true! There was something wrong with him. He looked . . . nervous. He told his monsters to spare me. He wanted to tell me something.”
    “Probably, ‘Hi, Annabeth! Sit here with me and watch while I tear your friends apart. It’ll be fun!’”
    “You’re impossible,” Annabeth grumbled. She sheathed her dagger and looked at Rachel. “So which way now, Sacagawea?”
    Rachel didn’t respond right away. She’d become quieter since the arena. Now, whenever Annabeth made a sarcastic comment, Rachel hardly bothered to answer. She’d burned the tip of a stick in the fire and was using it to draw ash figures on the floor, images of the