The Truths Spoken In The Sea Of Lies

A battle is fought, A battle is won

Rhea's bold challenge,

Provokes giant's mighty rage,

Victory she finds.

***

The metal door was half hidden behind a laundry bin full of dirty hotel towels.

They didn't see anything strange about it, but Rachel showed them where to look, and they recognized the faint blue symbol etched in the metal.

"It hasn't been used in a long time," Annabeth said.

"I tried to open it once," Rachel said, "just out of curiosity. It's rusted shut."

"No." Annabeth stepped forward. "It just needs the touch of a half-blood."

Sure enough, as soon as Annabeth put her hand on the mark, it glowed blue. The metal door unsealed and creaked open, revealing a dark staircase leading down.

"Wow." Rachel looked calm. She'd changed into a ratty Museum of Modern Art T-shirt and her regular marker-colored jeans, her blue plastic hairbrush sticking out of her pocket. Her red hair was tied back, but she still had flecks of gold in it, and traces of the gold glitter on her face. "So...after you?"

"You're the guide," Annabeth said with mock politeness. "Lead on."

The stairs led down to a large brick tunnel. It was so dark they couldn't see two feet in front of them, but Annabeth and Rhea had restocked on flashlights. As soon as they switched them on, Rachel yelped.

A skeleton was grinning at them. It wasn't human. It was huge, for one thing—at least ten feet tall. It had been strung up, chained by its wrists and ankles so it made a kind of giant X over the tunnel. But what really sent shivers down my spine was the single black eye socket in the centre of its skull.

"A Cyclops," Annabeth said. "It's very old. It's not...anybody we know."

Rachel swallowed. "You have a friend who's a Cyclops?"

"Tyson my half-brother."

"Your half-brother."

"We'll find him, and Grover. He's a satyr."

"Oh." Her voice was small. "Well then, we'd better keep moving."

She stepped under the skeleton's left arm and kept walking. They followed Rachel deeper into the maze. After fifty feet they came to a crossroads. Ahead, the brick tunnel continued. To the right, the walls were made of ancient marble slabs. To the left, the tunnel was dirt and tree roots.

Rhea pointed left. "That looks like the tunnel Tyson and Grover took."

Annabeth frowned as she looked at a tunnel. "Those old stones—that's more likely to lead to an ancient part of the maze, toward Daedalus's workshop."

"We need to go straight," Rachel said.

Annabeth and Rhea both looked at her.

"That's the least likely choice," Annabeth said.

"You don't see it?" Rachel asked. "Look at the floor."

They saw nothing except well-worn bricks and mud.

"There's a brightness there," Rachel insisted. "Very faint. But forward is the correct way. To the left, farther down the tunnel, those tree roots are moving like feelers. I don't like that. To the right, there's a trap about twenty feet down. Holes in the walls, maybe for spikes. I don't think we should risk it."