The Forbidden Daughter | PJO Book One

six

THE GODDESS OF MARRIAGE MAKES AN APPEARANCE

They made it thirty metres before they were hopelessly lost.

The tunnel looked nothing like the one Annabeth, Percy and Ariana had stumbled into before. Now it was round like a sewer, constructed of red brick with iron-barred portholes every three metres.

Percy shone a light through one of the portholes out of curiosity, but Ariana couldn't see anything. It opened into infinite darkness. She thought she heard voices on the other side, but it may have been just the cold wind.

Ariana felt shadows all around her, it gave her some sort of confidence.

Annabeth tried her best to guide them. She had this idea that they should stick to the left wall.
If they keep one hand on the left wall and follow it,

she said, "we should be able to find our way out again by reversing course."

Unfortunately, as soon as she said that, the left wall disappeared. They found themselves in the middle of a circular chamber with eight tunnels leading out, and no idea how they'd got there.

"Um, which way did we come in?" Grover said nervously.

"Just turn around." Annabeth said.

They each turned towards a different tunnel. It was ridiculous. None of them could decide which way led back to camp.

"Left walls are mean." Tyson said. "Which way now?"

Annabeth swept her flashlight beam over the archways of the eight tunnels. As far as Ariana could tell, they were identical.

"That way." she said.

"How do you know?" Percy asked.

"Deductive reasoning."

"So... you're guessing."

Ariana rolled her eyes. "Of course she's guessing, Seaweed Brain."

"Calm down; Death Girl."

"Death girl?" She raised an eyebrow. "Is that what your calling me now?"

Percy shrugged. "You call me Seaweed Brain I'll call you Death Girl."

"Just come on." Annabeth said.

The tunnel she'd chosen narrowed quickly. The walls turned to grey cement, and the ceiling got so low that pretty soon they were hunching over. Tyson was forced to crawl.

Grover's hyperventilating was the loudest noise in the maze.

"I can't stand it any more." he whispered. "Are we there yet?"

"We've been down here maybe five minutes." Annabeth told him.

"It's been longer than that." Grover insisted. "And why would Pan be down here? This is the opposite of the wild!"

They kept shuffling forward. Just when Ariana was sure the tunnel would get so narrow it would squish them, it opened into a huge room.

Percy shone his light around the walls and said,
"Whoa."

The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. The pictures were grimy and faded, but she could still make out the colours - red, blue, green, gold. The frieze showed the Olympian gods at a feast.

There was Poseidon, with his trident, holding out grapes for Dionysus to turn into wine. Zeus was partying with satyrs, and Hermes was flying through the air on his winged sandals.

The pictures were beautiful, but they weren't very accurate.

She had seen the gods. Dionysus was not that handsome, and Hermes's nose wasn't that big.