Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
79
79
explosion caused Typon to stir in his sleep. We’ll have to wait and see—”
“I couldn’t release him, could I? I mean, I’m not that powerful!”
The god grunted. “Not that powerful, eh? Could have fooled me. You’re the son of the
Earthshaker, lad. You don’t know your own strength.”
That’s the last thing I wanted him to say. I hadn’t been in control of myself in that mountain.
I’d released so much energy I’d almost vaporized myself, drained all the life out of me. Now I found
out I’d nearly destroyed the Northwest U.S. and almost woken the most horrible monster ever
imprisoned by the gods. Maybe I was too dangerous. Maybe it was safer for my friends to think I
was dead.
“What about Grover and Tyson?” I asked.
Hephaestus shook his head. “No word, I’m afraid. I suppose the labyrinth has them.”
“So what am I supposed to do?”
Hephaestus winced. “Don’t ever ask an old cripple for advice, lad. But I’ll tell you this. You’ve
met my wife?”
“Aphrodite.”
“That’s her. She’s a tricky one, ad. Be careful of love. It’ll twist your brain around and leave
you thinking up is down and right is wrong.”
I thought about my meeting with Aphrodite, in the back of a white Cadillac in the desert last
winter. She’d told me that she had taken a special interest in me, and she’d be making things hard
for me in the romance department, just because she liked me.
“Is this part of her plan?” I asked. “Did she land me here?”
“Possibly. Hard to say with her. But if you decide to leave this place—and I don’t say what’s
right or wrong—then I promised you an answer to your quest. I promised you the way to Daedalus.
Well now, here’s the thing. It has nothing to do with Ariadne’s string. Not really. Sure, the string work.
That’s what the Titan’s army will be after. Btu the best way through the maze…Theseus had the
princess’s help. And the princess was a regular mortal. Not a drop of god blood in her. But she was
clever, and she could see, lad. She could see very clearly. So what I’m saying—I think you know
how to navigate the maze.”
It finally sank in. why hadn’t I seen it before? Hera had been right. The answer was there all
the time.
“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, I know.”
“Then you’ll need to decide whether or not you’re leaving.”
“I…” I wanted to say yes. Of course I would. But the words stuck in my throat. I found myself
looking out at the lake, and suddenly the idea of leaving seemed very hard.
“Don’t decide yet,” Hephaestus advised. “Wait until daybreak. Daybreak is a good time for
decisions.”
“Will Daedalus even help us?” I asked. “I mean, if he gives Luke a way to navigate the
Labyrinth, we’re dead. I saw dreams about…Daedalus killed his nephew. He turned bitter and angry
and—”
“It isn’t easy being a brilliant inventor,” Hephaestus rumbled. “Always alone. Always
misunderstood. Easy to turn bitter, make horrible mistakes. People are more difficult to work with
than machines. And when you break a person, he can’t be fixed.”
Hephaestus brushed the last drops of Pepsi off his work clothes. “Daedalus started well
enough. He helped the Princess Ariadne and Theseus because he felt sorry for them. He tried to do
a good deed. And everything in his life went bad because of it. Was that fair?” The god shrugged. “I
don’t know if Daedalus will help you, lad, but don’t judge someone until you’ve stood at his forge
and worked with his hammer, eh?”
“I’ll—I’ll try.”
Hephaestus stood. “Good-bye, lad. You did well, destroying the telekhines. I’ll always
remember you for that.”
It sounded very final, that good-bye. Then he erupted into a column of flame, and the fire
moved over the water, heading back to the world outside.
***
I walked along the beach for several hours. When I finally came back to the meadow, it was
very late, maybe four or five in the morning, but Calypso was still in her garden, tending the flowers