¹𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀. percy jackson

XXIV.

ｔｈｅ ｂａｔｔｌｅ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｌａｂｙｒｉｎｔｈ

THEY MADE IT A HUNDRED FEET BEFORE THEY WERE HOPELESSLY LOST.

Lucia glowed dimly in the dark. After the group complained about her almost blinding them once they stepped into the tunnels she tried to keep her 'shininess' to a minimum.

The tunnel was round like a sewer, constructed of red brick with iron-barred portholes every ten feet. Lucia shined a light through one of the portholes out of curiosity, but she couldn't see anything. It opened into infinite darkness. She thought she heard voices on the other side, which only pushed her to keep walking.

Annabeth tried her best to guide them. She had this idea that they should stick to 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."

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. None of them could decide which way led back to camp.

"This is ridiculous" Lucia huffed

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

Annabeth swept her flashlight beam over the archways of the eight tunnels. As far as Lucia could tell, they were identical. "That way," she said.

"How do you know?" Lucia asked.

"Deductive reasoning."

"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?"

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

"Five minutes of pure agony," Lucia complained as her back started to ache from their walking position.

"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 they were sure the tunnel would get so narrow it would squish them, it opened into a huge room. Percy shined his flashlight around the walls and said, "Whoa."

The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. The pictures were grimy and faded, but they could still make out the colors—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. Lucia had seen the gods. Dionysus was not that handsome, and Hermes's nose wasn't that big.

In the middle of the room was a three-tiered fountain. It looked like it hadn't held water in a long time.

"What is this place?" Percy muttered. "It looks—"

"Roman," Annabeth said. "Those mosaics area bout two thousand years old."

"But how can they be Roman?" Percy questioned