TERRIFIED . . . annabeth chase

forty one.

VAL TOOK THE lead as they crawled down the drainage pipe. After thirty feet, it opened into a wider tunnel. To their left, somewhere in the distance, Val heard rumbling and creaking, like a huge machine needed oiling. She had absolutely no desire to find out what was making that sound, so she figured that must be the way to go.

Several hundred feet later, they reached a turn in the tunnel. Val peeked around the corner, pulling Percy with her.

The corridor opened into a vast room with twenty-foot ceilings and rows of support columns. more crowded with stuff.

The creaking and rumbling came from huge gears and pulley systems that raised and lowered sections of the floor for no apparent reason. Water flowed through open trenches ( oh, great, more water ), powering waterwheels that turned some of the machines. Other machines were connected to huge hamster wheels with hellhounds inside. Val couldn't help thinking of Mrs. O'Leary, and how much she would hate being trapped inside one of those.

Suspended from the ceiling were cages of live animals — a lion, several zebras, a whole pack of hyenas, and even an eight-headed hydra. Ancient-looking bronze and leather conveyor belts trundled along with stacks of weapons and armor.

Leo would love it, Val thought. The whole room was like one massive, scary, unreliable machine.

"What is it?" Piper whispered.

Percy looked down at Val. She didn't see the giants, so she gestured for Jason and Piper to come forward and take a look.

About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life-size wooden cutout of a gladiator popped up from the floor. It clicked and whirred along a conveyor belt, got hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof.

Jason murmured, "What the heck?"

They stepped inside. Val scanned the room. There were several thousand things to look at, most of them in motion, but one good aspect of being an ADHD demigod was that she was comfortable with chaos. About a hundred yards away, she spotted a raised dais with two empty oversized praetor chairs. Standing between them was a bronze jar big enough to hold a person.

"Nico!" Val leaped forward, but Percy got her before she could go any further.

"You were about to run into a conveyor belt," he noted.

"I'm short enough to run into it," she rolled her eyes.

Piper frowned. "But that's too easy."

"Of course," Percy said to her.

"But we have no choice," Jason said. "We've got to save Nico."

"Duh." Val started across the room, picking her way around conveyor belts and moving platforms.

The hellhounds in the hamster wheels paid them no attention. They were too busy running and panting, their red eyes glowing like headlights. The animals in the other cages gave them bored looks, as if to say, I'd kill you, but it would take too much energy.

They jumped over a water trench and ducked under a row of caged wolves. They had made it about halfway to the bronze jar when the ceiling opened over them. A platform lowered. Standing on it like an actor, with one hand raised and his head high, was the purple-haired giant Ephialtes.

He was small by giant standards — about twelve feet tall, naturally — but he had tried to make up for it with his loud outfit. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt that was . . . interesting. It had a garish print made up of dying heroes, horrible tortures, and lions eating slaves in the Colosseum. The giant's hair was braided with gold and silver coins. He had a ten-foot spear strapped to his back, which wasn't a good fashion statement with the shirt. He wore bright white jeans and leather sandals on his . . . well, not feet, but curved snakeheads. The snakes flicked their tongues and writhed as if they didn't appreciate holding up the weight of a giant.