The Silver Archer 2️⃣ (Percy Jackson)

42. Oh My Lords

Adira

I plummeted toward the valley and the red rocks below. At the last moment, I spread my arms, and I flopped up.

I looked above me, where everyone looked like ducks mixed with toddlers. And by everyone, I meant Percy. "Spread your arms! Keep them extended."

His arms responded. As soon as he spread them out, the wings stiffened, caught the wind, and the descent slowed. He soared downward, but at a controlled angle, like a kite in a dive.

"Yeah!" he yelled. I knew the feeling. The feeling was unbelievable. After getting the hang of it, I felt like the wings were part of my body once again. I could soar and swoop and dive anywhere I wanted to.

I turned and saw my friends—Percy, Brett, Rachel, Annabeth, and Nico—spiraling above me, glinting in the sunlight. Behind them, smoke billowed from the windows of Daedalus's workshop.

"Land!" Annabeth yelled. "These wings won't last forever."

"How long?" Rachel asked.

"I don't want to find out!" Annabeth said.

We swooped down toward the Garden of the Gods. I did a complete circle around one of the rock spires and freaked out a couple of climbers. Then the six of us soared across the valley, over a road, and landed on the terrace of the visitor center. It was late afternoon and the place looked pretty empty, but they ripped off their wings as quickly as they could.

Looking at them, I could see Annabeth was right. The self-adhesive seals that bound the wings to their backs were already melting, and they were shedding bronze feathers. It seemed a shame, but we couldn't fix them, and couldn't leave them around for the mortals, so we stuffed the wings in trash bins outside the cafeteria.

I focused for a good second, and my wings were gone. Brett, who was looking at me, did the same.

I used the tourist binocular camera to look up at the hill where Daedalus's workshop had been, but it had vanished. No more smoke. No broken windows. Just the side of a hill.

"The workshop moved," Annabeth guessed. "There's no telling where."

"So what do we do now?" I asked. "How do we get back in the maze?"

Annabeth gazed at the summit of Pikes Peak in the distance. "Maybe we can't. If Daedalus died...he said his life force was tied into the Labyrinth. The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop Luke's invasion."

I thought about Grover and Tyson, still down there somewhere. And Daedalus...even though he'd done some terrible things and put everybody I cared about at risk, it seemed like a pretty horrible way to die.

"No," Nico said. "He isn't dead."

"How can you be sure?" I asked.

"I know when people die. It's this feeling I get, like a buzzing in my ears."

"What about Tyson and Grover, then?" Percy asked.

Nico shook his head. "That's harder. They're not humans or half-bloods. They don't have mortal souls."

"We have to get into town," Annabeth decided. "Our chances will be better of finding an entrance to the Labyrinth. We have to make it back to camp before Luke and his army."

"We could just take a plane," Rachel said.

I shuddered. "Percy don't fly."

"But he just did."

"That was low flying," Percy said, "and even that's risky. Flying up really high—that's Zeus's territory. I can't do it. Besides, we don't even have time for a flight. The labyrinth is the quickest way back."