The Exiled

Ch. 16

Ch. 16

"This way," a young girl in a silver parka said as she strode through the dimly lit corridor.

Behind her, two other girls and a boy who happened to have the lower body of a goat, followed deeper into the creepy looking hallway.

"How do you know?" Clarisse asked in a sharp tone, narrowing her eyes as she eyed the path before them. It looked no different than the other corridor they could have taken back when the maze forked about fifty yards back.

The young hunter, who looked about thirteen years old (though that was wildly inaccurate), turned back and rolled her eyes, "You asked me to come on this quest. If you're just going to question me on every turn I make then I'll just hop out at the next exit. And you can continue navigating like you were before you came running back to Camp Half-Blood after accomplishing nothing."

Thalia glared at the daughter of Ares before turning back to the huntress, "Sorry Celyn. We're grateful that you're here to lead us. Just ignore Clarisse."

Clarisse held up her hands and looked incredulous, "What?" She protested, "All I asked was how she knows... I couldn't see any difference between each corridor back there, I'm just wondering how she knows this is the right way."

Celyn gestured to the floor beneath them, "You don't see it?"

Thalia, Clarisse and Grover all looked at the floor but saw nothing that would indicate they were heading in the direction they needed to go.

"The glow," Celyn continued, "it's faint but its right there, like the tracks of an animal. It must be the guide for navigating the maze successfully."

None of the other three saw anything.

"It makes sense only she could see it," Grover offered, "The prophecy says we have to be guided by a clearsighted mortal. It must only be visible to her. Otherwise, we wouldn't have needed a guide."

Thalia nodded like that made sense but Clarisse just looked annoyed,

"That's stupid. Why would Daedalus make it so it could only be navigated by mortals?"

"Probably because Daedalus spent the majority of his adult life hiding from King Minos," Grover answered like it was obvious. "Minos was a son of Zeus. What better way to hide from a powerful demigod king than in a maze that he can't find his way through."

Clarisse's face reddened but she couldn't seem to find a retort for his very logical argument. Thalia smirked at her which only made Clarisse's scowl deepen.

Before Clarisse could curse Thalia out, Grover froze in front of them, stopping without a word and causing both girls to nearly plow right into him.

"What the Hades, Grover?" Clarisse growled as she caught herself before crashing into his back.

The satyr didn't respond. He just stood stiff as a board, his nose twitching like it was having its own little seizure.

"Grover," Thalia asked worriedly, "What's wrong?"

Grover turned to his left and stepped towards a narrow corridor that they hadn't noticed until then. His nose continued to twitch in a mini spasm, like it was desperate to suck in as much of the air as possible.

"There," he said reverently. "The scent. The wild. It's down there!"

Clarisse looked thoroughly unconvinced, "You've said that about a half dozen other times since we entered the Labyrinth. And each time, we walked for hours before you admitted you were wrong. We need to keep going. The hunter says she can see the path to Daedalus, that's where we need to go."