σɾɳιƚԋαʂ (ρʝσ x ɱαʅҽ σƈ)

We End Up in a Gladiator Fight

Theo's POV

The metal door was half hidden behind a laundry bin full of dirty hotel towels. I didn't see anything strange about it, but Rachel showed us where to look, and I recognized the faint blue symbol etched in the metal.

Annabeth: It hasn't been used in a long time.

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

Theo: No. It just needs the touch of a half-blood.

The second I put my hand on the mark, it glowed blue. The metal door unsealed and creaked open, revealing a dark staircase leading down.

Rachel: Wow.

Rachel looked calm, but I couldn't tell if she was pretending or not. She'd changed into a ratty Museum of Modern Art T-shirt and her regular marker-colored jeans, her blue plastic hairbrush sticking out of her pocket. Her red hair was tied back, but she still had flecks of gold in it, and traces of the gold glitter on her face.

Rachel: So...after you?

Annabeth: You're the guide. Lead on.

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

A skeleton was grinning at us. 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. But what really sent shivers down my spine was the single black eye socket in the center of its skull.

I looked over at Percy, and he looked terrified. I knew why. He thought it belonged to Tyson.

Theo: A Cyclops. This one look like he's been down here for years. He's not anyone we know, so don't worry.

Percy didn't look relaxed, and I knew why. Whatever could kill a grown Cyclops, I didn't want to meet.

Rachel: You have a friend who's a Cyclops?

Percy: Tyson. My half-brother.

Rachel: Your half-brother?

Percy: Hopefully we'll find him down here. And Grover. He's a satyr,

Rachel: Oh. Well then, we'd better keep moving.

She stepped under the skeleton's left arm and kept walking. The four of us exchanged looks. Annabeth shrugged. We followed Rachel deeper into the maze.

After fifty feet we 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 dirt and tree roots.

Percy: (gestures to the tunnel on the left) That looks like the tunnel Tyson and Grover took.

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

Rachel: We need to go straight.

Annabeth, Zoe, Percy, and I looked at her.

Zoe: How do you figure?

Annabeth: That's the least likely choice.

Rachel: You don't see it? Look at the floor.

I saw nothing except well-worn bricks and mud.