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Annabeth XXXIV

"Annabeth XXXIV," Phoebe read.

Annabeth crossed her arms, mouth in a tight frown. She kept her face stoic, ignoring the anxiousness building inside her.

Percy's forehead was beading with sweat, his heart was beating so fast, he was surprised that the others couldn't hear it.

This is it. No more drawing things out with eating bad pizza, scooter rides, and rope work, Annabeth was really starting her quest now.

Percy took a deep breath and shakily exhaled.

AS ANNABETH HUNG IN THE AIR, descending hand over hand with the ladder swinging wildly, she thanked Chiron for all those years of training on the climbing course at Camp Half-Blood. She'd complained loudly and often that rope climbing would never help her defeat a monster. Chiron had just smiled, like he knew this day would come.

"Maybe not this exact day, but he knew you'd need to know rope climbing eventually," Athena said, and she couldn't help but feel grateful that Chiron had taught her.

Annabeth's eyes widened in disbelief. She hated the Climbing Wall with a burning passion, even before that one time she had fallen off. She was always so sure it was pointless, after all, what were the odds that she would have to climb a volcano with loose boulders and pouring lava?

"I guess it came in handy after all..." she muttered, grimacing as she thought back to the last time she reached the top. After this, I need to start practicing again.

...She missed the brickwork edge and landed in the canal, but it turned out to be only a few inches deep...

Annabeth cringed. And maybe ask Chiron for advice.

She held up her glowing dagger. The shallow channel ran down the middle of a brickwork tunnel. Every few yards, ceramic pipes jutted from the walls. She guessed that the pipes were drains, part of the ancient Roman plumbing system...

A sudden thought chilled her even more than the water. A few years ago, Percy and she had gone on a quest in Daedalus's labyrinth—a secret network of tunnels and rooms, heavily enchanted and trapped, which ran under all the cities of America.

The demigods froze. Dionysus grimaced at the reminder.

"You think this could be part of the labyrinth?" Percy guessed, frown deepening. Taking Annabeth's grim expression as a yes, he argued, "but wasn't Daedalus' life force tied with it? It should've collapsed after he died."

"It is possible that a portion of the labyrinth is gone, but not all of it." Athena said, her expression becoming more somber. "Something as powerful as that does cease to exist so easily."

The demigods were horrified by the very idea. After all they went through with the Battle of the Labyrinth, there was a chance that another entrance could open back up in Camp?

"You gotta be kidding me," Travis said, face expressionless.

Taking in the teens' solemn faces, Leo shifted uncomfortably.

"So, if this was part of the Labyrinth Annabeth could get lost, right?" he recalled, thinking back to the bits and pieces he heard about the myth. "Can't she use the string as a trail in case she needs to find her way back?"

"It would've been better with Ariadne's String, but yeah, that's the next best thing." Annabeth sighed, playing with her college ring. "I hope I'm just being paranoid. I don't need to go through the Labyrinth again on top of finding the statue."

"I know right?" Percy agreed miserably.

...Just to be safe, she tied a new ball of string to the end of her rope ladder. She could unravel it behind her as she explored. An old trick, but a good one.