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"Or I passed a test," she said aloud
Her torch sputtered out, leaving her with only the light of her dagger She realized that she’d left her makeshift crutch on the other side of the chasm
She felt exhausted and out of tricks, but herwith that woven bridge
The weaver, she thought I must be close At least I knohat’s ahead
She ht off her bad foot
She didn’t have far to go
After twenty feet, the tunnel opened into a cavern as large as a cathedral, soshe saw She guessed that this was the room froical light, like the gods used on Mount Olylowed around the circueous tapestries The stone floor ebbed with fissures like a sheet of ice The ceiling was so high, it was lost in the gloom and layers upon layers of spiderwebs
Strands of silk as thick as pillars ran fro the walls and the floor like the cables of a suspension bridge
Webs also surrounded the centerpiece of the shrine, which was so inti her eyes to look at it Loo over her was a forty-foot-tall statue of Athena, with luold In her outstretched hand, Athena held a statue of Nike, the winged victory goddess--a statue that looked tiny from here, but was probably as tall as a real person Athena’s other hand rested on a shield as big as a billboard, with a sculpted snake peeking out frooddess’s face was serene and kindly…and it looked like Athena Annabeth had seen iant version, o, made her think that the artist must have met Athena in person He had captured her perfectly
"Athena Parthenos," Annabeth murmured "It’s really here"
All her life, she had wanted to visit the Parthenon Now she was seeing the main attraction that used to be there--and she was the first child of Athena to do so inopen She forced herself to s Annabeth could have stood there all day looking at the statue, but she had only accomplished half her mission She had found the Athena Parthenos No could she rescue it froauze pavilion Annabeth suspected that without those webs, the statue would have fallen through the weakened floor long ago As she stepped into the room, she could see that the cracks beloere so wide, she could have lost her foot in the but empty darkness
A chill washed over her Where was the guardian? How could Annabeth free the statue without collapsing the floor? She couldn’t very well shove the Athena Parthenos down the corridor that she’d co to see soht help Her eyes wandered over the tapestries, which were heart-wrenchingly beautiful One showed a pastoral scene so three-dimensional, it could’ve been aAnother tapestry showed the gods battling the giants Annabeth saw a landscape of the Underworld Next to it was the skyline of modern Roht her breath It was a portrait of two de underwater: Annabeth and Percy, the day their friends had thrown them into the canoe lake at camp It was so lifelike that she wondered if the weaver had been there, lurking in the lake with a waterproof camera
"How is that possible?" she looes I have known that you would come, my sweet"
Annabeth shuddered Suddenly she was seven years old again, hiding under her covers, waiting for the spiders to attack her in the night The voice sounded just as Percy had described: an angry buzz in multiple tones, female but not hu e
"I have seen you in my dreams," the voice said, sickly sweet and evil, like the smell in the corridors "I had to make sure you orthy, the only child of Athena clever enough to pass my tests and reach this place alive Indeed, you are her most talented child This will make your death so much more painful to my old enemy when you fail utterly"
The pain in Annabeth’s ankle was nothing co her veins She wanted to run She wanted to plead for mercy But she couldn’t shoeakness--not now
"You’re Arachne," she called out "The weaver as turned into a spider"
The figure descended, beco clearer and more horrible "Cursed by your mother," she said "Scorned by all and …because I was the better weaver"
"But you lost the contest," Annabeth said
"That’s the story written by the winner!" cried Arachne "Look on my work! See for yourself!"
Annabeth didn’t have to The tapestries were the best she’d ever seen--better than the witch Circe’s work, and, yes, even better than sos she’d seen on Mount Olympus She wondered if her mother truly had lost--if she’d hidden Arachne away and rewritten the truth But right now, it didn’tthis statue since the ancient ti here I’ it back"
"Ha," Arachne said
Even Annabeth had to adirl in a Bubble Wrap ankle cast reround chamber?
"I’m afraid you would have to defeat me first, my sweet," Arachne said "And alas, that is impossible"
The creature appeared fro, and Annabeth realized that her quest was hopeless She was about to die
Arachne had the body of a giant black ith a hairy red hourglassspinnerets Her eight spindly legs were lined with curved barbs as big as Annabeth’s dagger If the spider cah to make Annabeth faint But the ht once have been a beautiful woman Now black mandibles protruded frorown into thin white needles Fine dark whiskers dotted her cheeks Her eyes were large, lidless, and pure black, with two s out of her temples
The creature hter
"Noill feast on you, my sweet," Arachne said "But do not fear I willyour death"