Rick Riordan The Battle of the Labyrinth- 04 anything?” Juniper’ s face turned green.“ I didn’ t know it was important. Just a cave. I don’ t like yucky old caves.”“ She has good taste,” Grover said.“ I wouldn’ t have paid any attention except … well, it was Luke.” She blushed a little greener. Grover huffed.“ Forget what I said about good taste.”“ Interesting,” Quintus polished his sword as he spoke.“ And you believe this young man,
Luke, would dare use the Labyrinth as an invasion route?”
“ Definitely,” Clarisse said.“ If he could get an army of monsters inside Camp Half-Blood, just pop up in the middle of the woods without having to worry about our magical boundaries, we wouldn’ t stand a chance. He could wipe us out easy. He must’ ve been planning this for months.”
“ He’ s been sending scouts into the maze,” Annabeth said.“ We know because … because we found one.”“ Chris Rodriguez,” Chiron said. He gave Quintus a meaningful look.“ Ah,” Quintus said.“ The one in the … Yes, I understand.”“ The one in the what?” I asked. Clarisse glared at me.“ The point is, Luke has been looking for a way to navigate the maze.
He’ s searching for Daedalus’ s workshop.” I remembered my dream the night before— the bloody old man in tattered robes.“ The guy who created the maze.”
“ Yes,” Annabeth said.“ The greatest architect, the greatest inventor of all time. If the legends are true, his workshop is in the center of the Labyrinth. He’ s the only one who knew how to navigate the maze perfectly. If Luke managed to find the workshop and convince Daedalus to help him, Luke wouldn’ t have to fumble around searching for paths, or risk losing his army in the maze’ s traps. He could navigate anywhere he wanted— quickly and safely. First to Camp Half-Blood to wipe us out. Then … to Olympus.”
The arena was silent except for Mrs. O’ Leary’ s toy yak getting disemboweled: SQUEAK! SQUEAK!
Finally Beckendorf put his huge hands on the table.“ Back up a sec, Annabeth, you said‘ convince Daedalus’? Isn’ t Daedalus dead?”
Quintus grunted.“ I would hope so. He lived, what, three thousand years ago? And even if he were alive, don’ t the old stories say he fled from the Labyrinth?”
Chiron clopped restlessly on his hooves.“ That’ s the problem, my dear Quintus. No one knows. There are rumors … well, there are many disturbing rumors about Daedalus, but one is that he disappeared back into the Labyrinth toward the end of his life. He might still be there.”
I thought about the old man I’ d seen in my dreams. He’ d looked so frail, it was hard to believe he’ d lasted another week, much less three thousand years.
“ We need to go in,” Annabeth announced.“ We have to find the workshop before Luke does. If Daedalus is alive, we convince him to help us, not Luke. If Ariadne’ s string still exists, we make sure it never falls into Luke’ s hands.”
“ Wait a second,” I said.“ If we’ re worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance?
Seal the tunnel?”“ Great idea!” Grover said.“ I’ ll get the dynamite!”“ It’ s not so easy, stupid,” Clarisse growled.“ We tried that at the entrance we found in
Phoenix. It didn’ t go well.”
Annabeth nodded.“ The Labyrinth is magical architecture, Percy. It would take huge power to seal even one of its entrances. In Phoenix, Clarisse demolished a whole building with a wrecking ball, and the maze entrance just shifted a few feet. The best we can do is prevent Luke from learning to navigate the Labyrinth.”
“ We could fight,” Lee Fletcher said.“ We know where the entrance is now. We can set up a defensive line and wait for them. If an army tries to come through, they’ ll find us waiting with our bows.”
“ We will certainly set up defenses,” Chiron agreed.“ But I fear Clarisse is right. The magical borders have kept this camp safe for hundreds of years. If Luke manages to get a large army of monsters into the center of camp, bypassing our boundaries … we may not have the strength to
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