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As a test, she tied one end around a support coluht The plastic swords bent under her, but they provided some extra bulk to the knots in the cord, so at least she could keep a better grip

The ladder wouldn’t win any design awards, but it et her to the bottom of the cavern safely First, she stuffed her backpack with the leftover spools of string She wasn’t sure why, but they were one more resource, and not too heavy

She headed back to the hole in the mosaic floor She secured one end of her ladder to the nearest piece of scaffolding, lowered the rope into the cavern, and shinnied down

Chapter 34

As Annabeth hung in the air, descending hand over hand with the ladder swinging wildly, she thanked Chiron for all those years of training on the cli course at Camp Half-Blood She’d co would never help her defeat a monster Chiron had just smiled, like he knew this day would come

Finally Annabeth e and landed in the canal, but it turned out to be only a few inches deep Freezing water soaked into her running shoes

She held up her glowing dagger The shallow channel ran down the middle of a brickwork tunnel Every few yards, cerauessed that the pipes were drains, part of the ancient Ro to her that a tunnel like this had survived, crowded underground with all the other centuries’ worth of pipes, baseht chilled her even one on a quest in Daedalus’s labyrinth--a secret network of tunnels and rooms, heavily enchanted and trapped, which ran under all the cities of America

When Daedalus died in the Battle of the Labyrinth, the entire maze had collapsed--or so Annabeth believed But what if that was only in America? What if this was an older version of the labyrinth? Daedalus once told her that hisand changing Maybe the labyrinth could regenerate, like monsters That would make sense It was an archetypal force, as Chiron would say--so that could never really die

If this was part of the labyrinth…

Annabeth decided not to dwell on that, but she also decided not to assume her directions were accurate The labyrinth less If she wasn’t careful, she could walk twenty feet in the wrong direction and end up in Poland

Just to be safe, she tied a new ball of string to the end of her rope ladder She could unravel it behind her as she explored An old trick, but a good one

She debated which way to go The tunnel seemed the same in both directions Then, about fifty feet to her left, the Mark of Athena blazed against the wall Annabeth could swear it was glaring at her with those big fiery eyes, as if to say, What’s your proble to hate that owl

By the tie had faded, and she’d run out of string on her first spool

As she was attaching a new line, she glanced across the tunnel There was a broken section in the brickwork, as if a sledgehammer had knocked a hole in the wall She crossed to take a look Sticking her dagger through the opening for light, Annabeth could see a lower cha and narroith adown either side It was shaped sort of like a subway car

She stuck her head into the hole, hoping nothing would bite it off At the near end of the room was a bricked-off doorway At the far end was a stone table, or , but Annabeth was sure this was the way She ren god There didn’t seem to be any exits from the altar room, but it was a short drop onto the bench below She should be able to cli her string, she lowered herself down

The roo was barrel-shaped with brick arches, but Annabeth didn’t like the look of the supports Directly above her head, on the arch nearest to the bricked-in doorway, the capstone was cracked in half Stress fractures ran across the ceiling The place had probably been intact for two thousand years, but she decided she’d rather not spend too much time here With her luck, it would collapse in the next twonarrow mosaic with seven pictures in a row, like a time line At Annabeth’s feet was a raven Next was a lion Several others looked like Roed or covered in dust for Annabeth to make out details The benches on either side were littered with broken pottery The walls were painted with scenes of a banquet: a robednext to a larger guy who radiated sunbea around them were torchbearers and servants, and various aniround Annabeth wasn’t sure what the picture represented, but it didn’t reends that she knew

At the far end of the roo thea knife to the neck of a bull On the altar stood a stone figure of a er and a torch in his outraised hands Again, Annabeth had no idea what those ies meant

She took one step toward the altar Her foot went CRUNCH She looked down and realized she’d just put her shoe through a hue

Annabeth sed back a screalanced down only a moment before and hadn’t seen any bones Now the floor was littered with thee was obviously old It crumbled to dust as she reer verythe weapon, or it had killed him

She held out her blade to see in front of her A little farther down the mosaic path sprawled a more complete skeleton in the remains of an embroidered red doublet, like a man from the Renaissance His frilled collar and skull had been badly burned, as if the guy had decided to wash his hair with a blowtorch

Wonderful, Annabeth thought She lifted her eyes to the altar statue, which held a dagger and a torch

Souys had failed Correction: not just two guys More bones and scraps of clothing were scattered all the way to the altar She couldn’t guess howto bet they were all deods from the past, children of Athena on the same quest

"I will not be another skeleton on your floor," she called to the statue, hoping she sounded brave

A girl, said a watery voice, echoing through the roood, said a second voice Inexcusable

The cha Annabeth bolted for the hole she’d co had been severed She clambered up on the bench and pounded on the here the hole had been, hoping the hole’s absence was just an illusion, but the wall felt solid

She was trapped