Rick Riordan
The Battle of the Labyrinth - 04
***
The next morning we walked down to the cattle guard and said our good-byes.
“Nico, you could come with us,” I blurted out. I guess I was thinking about my dream, and
how much the young boy Perdix reminded me of Nico.
He shook his head. I don’t think any of us had slept well in the demon ranch house, but Nico
looked worse than anybody else. His eyes were red and his face chalky. He was wrapped in a black
robe that must’ve belonged to Geryon, because it was three sizes too big even for a grown man.
“I need time to think.” His eyes wouldn’t meet mine, but I could tell from his tone he was still
angry. The fact that his sister had come out of the Underworld for me and not for him didn’t seem to
sit well with him.
“Nico,” Annabeth said. “Bianca just wants you to be okay.”
She put her hand on his shoulder, but he pulled away and trudged up the road toward the
ranch house. Maybe it was my imagination, but the morning mist seemed to cling to him as he
walked.
“I’m worried about him,” Annabeth told me. “If he starts talking to Minos’s ghost again—”
“He’ll be al right,” Eurytion promised. The cowherd had cleaned up nicely. He was wearing
new jeans and a clean Western shirt and he’d even trimmed his beard. He’d put on Geryon’s boots.
“The boy can stay here and gather his thoughts as long as he wants. He’ll be safe, I promise.”
“What about you?” I asked.
Eurytion scratched Orthus behind one chin, then the other. “Things are going to be run a little
different on this ranch from now on. No more sacred cattle meat. I’m thinking about soybean patties.
And I’m going to befriend those flesh-eating horses. Might just sign up for the next rodeo.”
The idea made me shudder. “Well, good luck.”
“Yep.” Eurytion spit into the grass. “I reckon you’ll be looking for Daedalus’s workshop now?”
Annabeth’s eyes lit up. “Can you help us?”
Eurytion studied the cattle guard, and I got the feeling the subject of Daedalus’s workshop
made him uncomfortable. “Don’t know where it is. But Hephaestus probably would.”
“That’s what Hera said,” Annabeth agreed. “But how do we find Hephaestus?”
Eurytion pulled something from under the collar of his shirt. It was a necklace—a smooth
silver disk on a silver chain. The disk had a depression on the middle, like a thumbprint. He handed
it to Annabeth.
“Hephaestus comes here from time to time,” Eurytion said. “Studies the animals and such so
he can make bronze automaton copies. Last time, I— uh—did him a favor. A little trick he wanted to
play on my dad, Ares, and Aphrodite. He gave me that chain in gratitude. Said if I ever needed to
find him, the disk would lead me to his forges. But only once.”
“And you’re giving it to me?” Annabeth asked.
Eurytion blushed. “I don’t need to see the forges, miss. Got enough to do here. Just press
the button and you’ll be on your way.”
Annabeth pressed the button and the disk sprang to life. It grew eight metallic legs. Annabeth
shrieked and dropped it, much to Eurytion’s confusion.
“Spider!” she screamed.
“She’s, um, a little scared of spiders,” Grover explained. “That old grudge between Athena
and Arachne.”
“Oh.” Eurytion looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry, miss.”
The spider scrambled to the cattle guard and disappeared between the bars.
“Hurry,” I said. “That thing’s not going to wait for us.”
Annabeth wasn’t anxious to follow, but we didn’t have much choice. We said our good-byes
to Eurytion, Tyson pulled the cattle guard off the hole, and we dropped back into the maze.
***
I wish I could’ve put the mechanical spider on a leash. It scuttled along the tunnels so fast,
most of time I couldn’t even see it. If it hadn’t been for Tyson’s and Grover’s excellent hearing, we
never would’ve known which way it was going.
We ran down a marble tunnel, then dashed to the left and almost fell into an abyss. Tyson
grabbed me and hauled me back before I could fall. The tunnel continued in front of us, but there
was no floor for about a hundred feet, just gaping darkness and a series of iron rungs in the ceiling.
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