Annabeth Chase and the Battle of the Labyrinth

Chapter 12 - A mummy gives me advice

The Oracle had always creeped me out. I don't know whether because the host is dead and the spirit is merely inhabiting its body, or whether the knowledge it contained seemed too much for a mere mortal to handle. 

Now, looking at her, slumped sideways on her stool with old beads and greasy, lank hair dangling all over the place, she looked even creepier than normal. I'd never been as close to her before as I was now, and I didn't like what I saw, and it wasn't just the decaying body. She stank something foul. 

Taking a deep breath, and not just because of the smell, I stepped closer, moving away from the rows of shelves of treasures and coming to stand directly in front of her. All she had to do was sit up and we'd be almost eye to eye. 

"Oh, Oracle," I whispered, barely able to speak. "I request a quest to save the camp."

For a moment nothing happened, and I was starting to think I was going to have to shake her awake, when she slowly swayed upright, her head twisting around to face me. Her eyelids lifted to reveal luminous green eyes that strangely didn't have pupils. Her mouth opened and green smoke curled out of it. The smoke wafted around her face then stretched towards me, ghosting right in front of my nose. My heart thudded loud and heavily in my chest, but I steeled my body, determined to not show weakness before the spirit. It seemed to study me, before drifting back to drift above the mummy's head. 

"You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze," a voice hissed, although the mummy's mouth didn't move. "The dead, the traitor and the lost one raise."

I could feel goosebumps starting to rise on my skin, and shivers racking my body, but the Oracle didn't stop. 

"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand. The child of Athena's final stand."

I took a step back, my fear starting to overwhelm me. I wanted out, anything to stop hearing the Oracle's horrible prophecies, but the Oracle wasn't done. 

"Destroy with a hero's final breath." Her voice turned triumphant. "And lose a love to worse than death."

I gasped as the green smoke shot towards me, causing me to stumble backwards even as the smoke returned to the mummy. As it disappeared into her mouth, her eyes and lips shut and she slumped to one side again. 

I felt numb, my entire body shaking. I tried to stumble away, but my knees wouldn't take me, so I ended up near collapsing onto one of the shelves, trying to control my breathing. 

This quest was doomed to fail, I saw that now. It was more hopeless than I could even imagine it to be. Everything the Oracle had said seemed to fill me with dread and horror, and gave me more questions rather than the answers I desperately needed. 

The child of Athena's final stand. I swallowed a sob. There was no time for self-pity, but I couldn't help but think I wasn't going to come back from this quest alive. 

Steeling myself, I tried to push myself off the shelf, only to feel a soft fabric in my hands. Looking down, I saw a pink scarf lying on the table, with a placard beside it that read, 'The goddess Aphrodite's scarf. Found by Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Waterland, Denver.' 

I stared at the scarf. I'd almost forgotten that I'd put it there, nearly three years ago now. Back when Percy and I were on our first quest and I had to learn how to overcome my mother's rivalry and become friends with the son of Poseidon. How things, and feelings, had changed. 

Looking at the scarf should have brought me comfort, but instead it just reminded me of the prophecy, in particular the last line. And lose a love to worse than death. What could possibly be worse than death?