𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑫 • 𝑃𝐸𝑅𝐶𝑌 𝐽𝐴𝐶𝐾𝑆𝑂𝑁 [2]

VI

They made it a hundred feet before they were hopelessly lost.

The tunnel looked nothing like the one Elaine and Percy had stumbled into before. Now it was round like a sewer, constructed of red brick with iron-barred portholes ever ten feet.

Elaine shined a light through one of the portholes out of curiosity, but she couldn't see anything. It opened into infinite darkness. She decided not to be curious in the Labyrinth after that.

Annabeth tried her best to guide them. She had this idea that they should track the left wall.

"If we 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."

It made sense, but 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 gotten there.

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

"Just turn around," Annabeth said.

They each turned toward 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 Elaine could tell, they were identical. "That way," she said.

"Why that way?" Elaine asked.

"Deductive reasoning." She reminded Elaine of the time she and Percy asked Apollo to explain one of his Oracle's prophecies.

"So ... you're guessing."

"Just come on," she said.

The tunnel she'd chosen narrowed quickly. The walls turned to gray 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 anymore," he whispered. "Are we there yet?"

"Please tell me we're there." Elaine agreed. She wasn't struggling as much as Grover was, who's very nature depended on, well, nature. But she definitely wasn't enjoying her time underground, incapable of seeing more than a few feet ahead of her.

"We've been down here maybe five minutes," Annabeth said.

"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 Elaine was sure the tunnel would get so narrow it would flatten them, it opened into a huge room. She shined her 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 colors—red, blue, green, gold. The frieze showed the Olympian gods at a feast. There was Apollo playing a lyre. Poseidon, with his trident, holding out grapes for Dionysus to turn into wine. Zeus was dancing with satyrs, and Hermes was flying through the air on his winged sandals. The pictures were beautiful, but they weren't very accurate. Elaine had seen the gods. Dionysus was not that handsome, and Hermes's nose wasn't that big.