¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

010.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter ten

━━ THE METAL DOOR was half hidden behind a laundry bin full of dirty hotel towels. Elisa didn't see anything strange until Rachel pointed out the faint blue symbol etched on the wall.

"It hasn't been used in a long time," Annabeth pointed out, narrowing her eyes to see the symbol better.

"I tried to open it once," Rachel said, "just out of curiosity. It's rusted shut."

"No." The daughter of Athena stepped forward. "It just needs the touch of a half-blood."

Sure enough, as soon as the blonde put her hand on the mark, it glowed blue. The metal door unsealed and creaked open, revealing a dark staircase leading down.

"Wow." Rachel looked calm enough but Elisa knew it was all a façade. The tension in the redhead's shoulders gave it away. She looked at the three demigods. "So ... after you?"

"You're the guide," Annabeth said, her tone laced with false politeness. "Lead on."

The stairs led down to a large brick tunnel. It was so dark Elisa couldn't see further than two feet in front of them, but she, Annabeth, and Percy had restocked on flashlights. As soon as they switched them on, Rachel yelped.

A skeleton was grinning at the four. It wasn't human. It was huge, for one thing—at least ten feet tall. It had been strung up, chained by its wrists and ankles so it made a kind of giant 'X' over the tunnel. It had a single black eye socket in the center of its skull.

"A Cyclops," Annabeth said. "It's very old. It's not ... anybody we know."

By her last statement, Annabeth meant it wasn't Tyson. That didn't exactly make Elisa feel better. The Cyclops felt like a warning to the daughter of Dionysus; whatever could kill a grown Cyclops, she didn't want to meet.

Despite her better judgment and wanting to avoid the boy at all costs, Elisa looked back at Percy. The boy was pale, watching the Cyclops as if it could come alive at any moment.

Rachel swallowed. "You have a friend who's a Cyclops?"

"Tyson," said Percy. "My half-brother."

"Your half-brother?"

"Hopefully we'll find him down here," Percy said, catching Elisa looking at him; the daughter of madness looked away quickly. "... And Grover. He's a satyr."

"Oh." Rachel's voice was small. "Well then, we'd better keep moving."

She stepped under the skeleton's left arm and kept walking. Annabeth and Percy exchanged looks as Elisa trailed after the redhead. Annabeth raised her eyebrows silently, giving the son of Poseidon an I-told-you-so look. The two followed Rachel and Elisa deeper into the maze.

After fifty feet they came to a crossroads. Ahead, the brick tunnel continued. To the right, the walls were made of ancient marble slabs. To the left, the tunnel was earth and tree roots.

Percy pointed left. "That looks like the tunnel Tyson and Grover took."

Annabeth frowned. "Yeah, but the architecture to the right—those old stones—that's more likely to lead to an ancient part of the maze, towards Daedalus's workshop."