Mari almost dropped her sword in shock. She wanted to believe that Quintus was lying. If he was telling the truth, then this whole quest had been for nothing. She'd gone into the labyrinth for nothing, and been at the Triple A Ranch for nothing. Mason had died for nothing! But her instincts thrummed with confirmation - it was true. Mari clenched her fists. Qui- no, Daedalus had a lot to answer for.
"But you don't even look like Daedalus!" Percy pointed out. "I saw him in a dream, and..." Percy trailed off, comprehension dawning in his eyes.
"Yes," Daedalus smiled. "You've finally guessed the truth."
"You're an automaton," Percy said. "You've made yourself a new body."
Mari looked to one of the workbenches, where detailed plans were strewn across the surface, papers and measuring tapes sticking out in every direction. She hadn't paid attention to what those plans were before, but now she was looking. There were diagrams of arms, legs, even eyeballs, with detailed illustration of where the cogs would go, and how the wires would simulate the nervous system... oh gods. This was an Elon Musk level of horrifying.
"Percy." Annabeth shook her head. "That's not possible. That - that can't be an automaton."
Daedalus laughed. "Do you know what Quintus means, my dear?"
"The fifth, in Latin," Annabeth said. "But-"
"This is my fifth body."
Daedalus interrupted whatever Annabeth had been about to say (probably that using the Latin didn't make sense, since Daedalus was a Greek). Daedalus pressed his fingers into his elbow and his wrist sprang open. Inside was... a mess. Instead of flesh, there were gears. Bone was replaced by polished metal, and where there should be lots and lots of healthy veins, there were just wires and tiny plastic tubes of glowing oil. Daedalus wasn't flesh; he was just a machine parading around as a person. And under the right conditions, machines could malfunction.
There was an untouched cup of coffee on one of the workbenches.
"That's amazing!" Rachel breathed.
"That's weird," Percy said.
"It's downright disturbing," Mari muttered.
"You found a way to transfer your psyche into a machine?" Annabeth asked. "That's... not natural."
Mari inched around one of the workbenches, reaching for the coffee cup. Quiet as a mouse she picked up the liquid, careful not to slosh any of it around the sides. It was still hot. Good.
"Oh, I assure you, my dear, it's still me. I'm still very much Daedalus. Our mother, Athena, makes sure I never forget that." Daedalus tugged the collar of his shirt down, revealing a tattoo. No, not a tattoo. It was the shape of a dark bird, seared onto his 'skin'.
"A murderers brand," Annabeth whispered.
"For your nephew, Perdix," Percy said. "The boy you pushed off the tower."
Mari's hands shook around the cup and she nearly spilled some of the coffee as she inched closer to Daedalus. That was what Daedalus had meant, back at Camp Half-Blood. About murdering family. Even the method was the same. He'd pushed his nephew. She'd pushed her brother. At least Daedalus hadn't slit his nephew's throat. Did that make Mari just as bad as he was? Did it make her worse? She lowered the cup.
"I did not push him." Daedalus scowled. "I simply-"
"Made him lose his balance," Percy said. "Let him die."
I'm sorry, Mari thought.
"I regret what I did, Percy. I was angry and bitter. But I cannot take it back, and Athena never lets me forget. As Perdix died, she turned him into a small bird - a partridge. She branded the bird's shape onto my back as a reminder. No matter what body I take, the brand appears on my skin. As if I needed help remembering. The memory is something that lingers, no matter what you do to try to forget. Of course, I am not the only one here who understands such an experience. Wouldn't you agree, M-"
Daedalus didn't get to finish his sentence. Mari darted towards him and tipped the hot coffee into his face. "Shut. Up," she snarled, stepping back.
She'd thought Daedalus would screech and collapse on the floor, helpless like a tamer version of the wicked witch of the west. After all, he was an automaton, and electronics and liquid did not mix. But he merely gasped, rubbing the liquid out of his eyes and glaring. "You could have simply interrupted me, my dear. I may be machina but it's still boiling liquid - it does hurt. And I've become rather fond of your Camp Half-Blood shirt. It's very comfortable. There aren't many good places to wash clothes in the maze."
As he spoke, the coffee dripped from his face and onto the floor, as if his skin was a waterproof coat. Daedalus smiled at her confusion.
"It is as I said, this is my fifth body. I have had four attempts to perfect the mechanics of the thing. Do you really think I wouldn't find a solution to an inconvenient little problem like liquid? I actually quite enjoy the rain, you know."
Mari stumbled back, empty coffee cup falling to the floor. Annabeth pulled her the rest of the way, and angled herself so that she was standing in front of Mari.
"You really are Daedalus," Percy said. "But why did you come to camp? Why spy on us?"
"To see if your camp was really worth saving. Luke had given me one story. I preferred to come to my own conclusions."
"So you've seen the camp!" Annabeth insisted. "You know we need your help. You can't let Luke get through the maze!"
"The maze is no longer mine to control, Annabeth. I created it, yes. In fact, it is tied to my life force. But I have allowed it to live and grow on its own. That is the price I paid for privacy."
"Privacy?" Mari asked. "From what?"
"Impulsive girls who steal my coffee. But I suppose you have a reason to be angry. The truth is that I'm hiding, my dear. From the gods, and from death. I've been alive for two millennia. A clever man can hide quite a long time, and I've buried myself very deep. Only my greatest enemy has kept after me, and even him I have thwarted."
"You mean Minos," Percy said.
Mari frowned. If it was Minos the tyrant who sent Athenians to their deaths versus Daedalus the obsessive inventor who murdered his nephew, then she had half a mind to leave them both to it. They deserved each other.
Daedalus nodded. "He hunts for me relentlessly. Now that he is a judge of the dead, he would like nothing better than to punish me for my crimes. I-"
A loud THUMP cut Daedalus off before he could continue speaking. Another sounded after it, like something very big was bounding towards them. The door burst open, and Mrs. O'Leary the Hellhound burst through. Mari hid behind Annabeth. She was not getting near that thing's jaws again. The hellhound skidded over to Percy and licked his face. Then it bounced towards Daedalus and tackled him to the ground. Mari shuddered.
"There's my old friend!" Daedalus smiled, giving the terror-puppy a couple of scritches around the ears. "My only companion all these long and lonely years."
"You had her save us," Percy said. "That whistle actually worked."
"Of course it did, Percy." Daedalus rubbed the hellhound's nose. "You have a good heart. And I knew Mrs. O'Leary liked you. I wanted to help you. Perhaps I - I felt guilty, as well."
"Guilty about what?" Percy asked.
"I can think of a few things," Mari muttered.
"That your quest would be in vain."
Mari's fists clenched. He couldn't be saying that. He just couldn't. Not when Mason was dead at the bottom of Tartarus by now, or worse, his body torn apart by hungry monsters on the way down. If not for this quest, he'd probably be on the Princess Andromeda, planning how to kill them all with Luke. It would be awful but this was a hundred times more awful. Daedalus couldn't be telling her that it was all for nothing. It wasn't fair.
"But you can still help us," Annabeth said. "Last winter the string was severed. the larger part went to you. You have to give it to us so Luke can't get it."
"Yes, the string." Daedalus sighed.
"I told Luke that the eyes of a clear-sighted mortal are the best guide, but he didn't trust me. He was so focused on the idea of a magic item. And the string works. It's not as accurate as your red haired mortal friend here, perhaps. Only slightly more efficient than Marion Carter."
He turned to her with the same look that he'd given Rachel, like she was some kind of science experiment.
"You, my dear, truly are an excellent backup plan. Imperfect, but good enough. Good enough."
"Piss off." Mari spat. "I'm not a backup plan."
"Where is it?" Annabeth asked. "Where's Ariadne's string?!"
"With Luke," Daedalus said.
Mari was pretty sure she felt her heart stop right then and there. They were too late. Luke had the string. Mari remembered something. Back in the arena, with Antaeus, Luke had left right before the fight started, hadn't he? And he'd come back in a much better mood. Mari had assumed he'd just been excited to watch all the bloodshed, but now she wasn't so sure. Quintus. Or Daedalus. He'd held up his end of Luke's deal, and Luke had been going to meet him. Which meant that Luke had been in possession of Ariadne's string in the arena, and... gods. The only thing stopping him from getting to camp was Antaeus. Who Percy had killed. They'd practically handed him an invasion route on a celestial bronze platter. He was on his way to Camp Half-Blood. Where her friends were. Where Adela was.
Where her siblings were.
She might throw up.
"Kronos promised me freedom in exchange for the string and the girl."
Daedalus nodded towards Mari. "Once Hades is overthrown, he will set me over the Underworld. I will reclaim my son Icarus. I will make things right with poor young Perdix. I will see Minos's soul cast into Tartarus, where it cannot bother me again. And I will no longer have to run from death."
Mari's breath stalled. A sense of deja vu filled her, and for a second she could almost see Mason standing in Daedalus's place. She could, in a really fucked up way, understand the appeal. If she just got one more minute to talk to Mason, to tell him how sorry she was... but not at the price of more innocent lives. And that kind of thinking was exactly the kind of thinking that had gotten Mason calling her Frankie in the first place.
"That's your brilliant idea?!" Annabeth shouted. "You're going to let Luke destroy our camp, kill hundreds of demigods and then attack Olympus? You're going to bring down the entire world so you can get what you want?"
"Your cause is doomed, my dear." Daedalus shrugged. "I saw that as soon as I began to work at your camp. There is no way you can hold back the light of Kronos."
"That's not true!" Annabeth protested.
"I'm doing what I must. The offer was too sweet to refuse. I'm sorry."
"It's not gonna work," Mari said. "Kronos isn't gonna give you what you want. Luke won't, either. They're both arseholes who lie to people to get their own way. As soon as they get what they need they'll happily throw you under the bus. Luke will do it for his own convenience. Kronos will probably do it for fun. You've been played for a fool, Daedalus."
"And what would you know of it?" the inventor asked.
"Simple." Mari's voice shook. "Luke made my brother the exact same deal."
Annabeth's stormy brown eyes blazed. She stalked over to an easel and tugged it to the floor, sending paintings toppling everywhere. "I used to respect you." She spat. "You were my hero! You - you built amazing things. You solved problems. Now... I don't know what you are. Children of Athena are supposed to be wise, not just clever. Maybe you are just a machine. You should have died two thousand years ago."
Daedalus had no argument. He hung his head.
"You should go warn your camp. All of you. If Luke was careless enough to allow Marion here to escape, that is no fault of mine. I only promised a delivery. Not that it matters, now that Luke has the string-"
"Someone's coming!" Rachel warned.
They didn't have time to hide. The workshop doors opened with a CRASH, and Kelli the Empousa strolled in like she owned the place. She was dragging along a struggling Nico Di Angelo, his hands bound in chains. Following her were two Laistrygonians and the whispy form of Minos, Nico's pet ghost. Only, Minos didn't look so whispy anymore.
"There you are." Minos smiled at Daedalus. It wasn't a nice smile. "My old friend."
"What is the meaning of this?!" Daedalus glared at Kelli. The Empousa giggled, which sounded more like a car engine malfunctioning.
"Luke sends his compliments," she said. "He thought you might want to see your old employer, Minos."
"Oh, look." Mari deadpanned. "They're throwing you under the bus. Who could have predicted that?"
"That- that was not part of our agreement," Daedalus said.
"No indeed," Kelli agreed, "But we already have what we want from you, and we have other agreements to honour. Minos required something else from us, in order to turn over this fine young demigod." Kelli ran a finger over Nico's chin like he was a rare kind of exotic dog. "He'll be quite useful. And all Minos asked in return was your head, old man."
"Treachery." Daedalus took a step back but he was already facing the window, so he simply ended up pressed against the glass.
"Get used to it," Kelli said.
"Nico!" Percy called. "Are you okay?"
"I'm sorry, Percy." Nico nodded, looking miserable. "Minos told me you were in danger. He convinced me to go back into the maze."
"You were trying to help us?"
"I was tricked." Nico hung his head. "He tricked all of us."
"Where's Luke?" Percy asked Kelli. "Why isn't he here?"
"Luke is... busy."
Kelli giggled in that same ear-grating way again. "He is preparing for the assault. But don't worry. We have more friends on the way. And in the meantime, I think I'll have a wonderful snack!" Kelli's hands morphed into sharp claws, her hair burst into a blaze of fire and her legs clanked into their real form - one donkey, one metallic.
"Percy," Rachel whispered. "The wings. Do you think-"
"Do it." Percy nodded. "We'll try to buy you time. Mari, help her get them off."
"On it!" Mari grabbed Rachel's hand and dragged her over to the wings, hoping the sounds around her weren't the sounds of her friends getting torn apart. She led Rachel to the first set of wings. Just like the mark of Daedalus, the wings were sealed by a delta that could only be unlocked by the touch of a demigod. Mari sloppily pressed her fingers to the mark. It glowed blue and the seal clicked open. Rachel pulled it out, and they ran to the next. Mari looked back the the others. Kelli and Annabeth were locked in combat, slashing and diving around each other. Percy was trying to get into the fight but every time he got close Kelli would swoop in front of him, forcing him back. Daedalus was squaring off against the Laistrygonians, Mrs. O'Leary gnashing at the giants as a backup. Somehow, someone had spilled a jar of Greek fire and it was quickly setting the place ablaze. Nico Di Angelo was struggling with his chains on the floor, fire creeping up on him. Mari calculated the risk in her head. She was going to have to take the chance of exhausting herself. She couldn't let Nico die. She grabbed onto the mist, using it to create a blade, and slashed at Nico's chains with all her might. Her head instantly started pounding, but Nico was free.
"Hurry!" Rachel tugged at Mari's arm.
Mari raced around the other wing displays, Rachel in tow. They looked like the upgraded versions of the original wings Daedalus had commissioned for himself and his son. Mari hoped they worked the same way, too, because it looked like one nasty fall. Mari and Rachel unlocked five displays, enough for one set of wings each.
Mari caught sight of a small gold tube clipped onto the wall beside the final pair of wings. She didn't have a clue what it was but it looked cool. Fuck it. Daedalus kidnapped her, she could kidnap his gadgets. She snatched it from the wall and shoved it into her pocket as she ran.
"To me!" Minos, the tyrant ghost cried. "Spirits of the dead!"
"No!" Nico stood, shackle-free.
"You do not control me, young fool!" Minos jeered. "All this time, I have been controlling you! A soul for a soul, yes. But is not your sister who shall return from the dead. It is I, as soon as I slay the inventor!"
"Come on, get them on!" Rachel told Mari, handing her a pair of shimmering gold wings. Mari shoved her arms through the shoulder straps, fastening the buckles at her waist and securing the harness.
She looked back at the fight. Spirits began morphing into existence around Minos, soldiers in Ancient Cretan armour.
"I am the son of Hades!" Nico yelled. "Begone!"
"You have no power over me!" Minos laughed. "I am the lord of spirits! I am the ghost king!"
"No!" Nico sunk his Stygian Iron sword into the floor. "I am."
"Never!" Minos's form started to look more translucent, and from the sudden panic in his eyes, he knew it. "I will not-"
The ground rumbled and Mari had to cling to a workbench that Kelli hadn't knocked over. The windows shattered. Mari lunged at Rachel, shielding the mortal from the broken glass with her own body. She gasped. It hurt like Hades, but Mari could handle it. Rachel was a mortal. If she got hit by that she could end up dead. When Mari looked up again, a huge fissure had opened up in the middle of Daedalus's carefully polished floor. Minos didn't have time to react. He and all his ghostly buddies were enveloped by the Cthonic sinkhole, leaving nothing but an eerie wail behind.
"T-thanks," Rachel said as Mari helped her up. "I'm going to help Nico."
Rachel dumped two sets of wings into Mari's arms. "You get these to the others!"
Mari nodded, but when she looked back at the fight, Percy had collapsed on the ground without his sword. Kelli was standing over him, a hungry expression on her face. "You will taste wonderful!"
Mari started to run over, but her arms were full of wing, so there was nothing she could do. It turned out that Mari didn't have to worry. Kelli's eyes went wide as saucers and her body froze up. "No...school...spirit..." she gasped.
Then she melted into dust. Annabeth stood behind her, sword raised above her head, piercing the air where Kelli had been standing a second before.
Mari finally reached them, handing out a pair of wings each. "On, on!" She demanded.
"We have to help Daedalus!" Percy said, hauling his wings on.
"No time!" Rachel called from the other side of the room, where she was nearly done helping an exhausted-looking Nico with his shoulder straps. "Too many coming!"
Annabeth and Percy finally got the wings on and the five of them sprinted for the destroyed window, broken glass crunching under their feet. Mari had to duck around the rapidly spreading Greek fire and scrap metal being thrown at them like projectiles by angry monsters. "Daedalus!" Percy shouted, turning back even as Annabeth grabbed his arm to force him to continue running. "Come on!"
"No!" Daedalus looked to be in bad shape. He was covered in cuts, leaking oil instead of blood, and the shield he had been keeping strapped to his back was gone - he was using the smashed part of a table instead. "I won't leave Mrs. O'Leary! Go!"
They didn't have another choice. Mari clung to the window, staring out at the landscape below. Pretty as it was, it was also a very long way down.
"None of us know how to fly!" Nico appeared on her other side, face white.
"Great time to find out." Percy was grim. Mari steeled herself, and they all vaulted out of Daedalus's workshop and into the open air.
➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶
On instinct, Mari stuck her arms out like she was T-posing and opened her eyes. Oh. She wasn't falling to her death. That was cool.
She flapped her arms like a discombobulated chicken and the wings did the rest of the work. She soared upwards, coming to a stop when she stuck her arms out again. It was... nice. Really nice. Mari looked up at the sun. It just looked like a glowing ball in the sky, but she still knew it was her Dad. Mari couldn't help but wave a little bit. Maybe he'd appreciate it. Mari wasn't sure if she was imagining things or not, but the feeling of sunlight against her back seemed to get just a little warmer.
"Mari, get down here!" Annabeth called, slightly lower in the air.
Oh, right. She had things to do. Bye, Dad, she thought. Thanks for saving us from Geryon. I promise that picture is in the works.
Now, how to get down?
It turned out to be simple. All Mari had to do was gently tip her head forwards, and she was floating down to meet the others, wings positively glowing in the bright afternoon sun as she went. From up here, the view was even more breath-taking than from Daedalus's window. She could do this forever. Unfortunately, the wings couldn't. A golden feather fell from the wing strapped to her left arm, and Mari felt a drop of hot wax sear the fine hairs on her arm. Maybe she shouldn't have flown that high up.
"Land!" Annabeth yelled. "These wings won't last forever!"
Mari didn't need to be told twice. Relying on instinct again, she stretched both of her arms in front of her head and arched her body like she was taking a swan dive out of the sky. She sped towards the ground in a controlled plummet, leaving the others behind as they turned to spots in the air above her. "Mari!" She heard Percy call.
"M'fine!" she tried to yell, but she wasn't sure if it was lost in the wind.
Mari sped over a road and between the high orange rocks, hoping she didn't give any stray tourists spontaneous heart attacks. Maybe the mist was making her look like a particularly barmy pigeon or something. As she got closer to the ground, she aimed for the front deck of the visitor centre, mentally thanking the gods that it seemed mostly abandoned. Then, she relaxed her body and spread her arms out again as best she could.
She didn't stick the landing.
It wasn't her fault. She was on track to gracefully reach the ground, but a stray gust of wind blew her away, sending her spiralling into the concrete with an unpleasant crash.
"Ow," Mari muttered, rolling over and staring up at the sky. The others swooped down next to her, and she gave them a thumbs up. Annabeth grabbed that hand with both of hers and pulled her into a standing position.
"Your wings," she said. "They're almost completely gone."
"Oh," Mari said, folding over one of the wings to see what Annabeth was talking about. Melted wax was dripping down the sides, feathers spilling everywhere. They were more of a frame at this point. It was a sorry state, but the feathers were still beautiful.
"Yeah, I guess I got a bit carried away up there. Sorry about tearing off like that. I had to get down fast."
Mari may have done the most damage, but all of their wings were broken beyond repair. The five of them ended up ditching the wings in the bins outside the canteen, where hopefully the mortals wouldn't find them.
Percy tried to spot Deadalus's lab with the tourist binoculars, but there was nothing to see. There wasn't even smoke rising from the fire.
"The workshop moved," Annabeth said. "There's no telling where."
"So what do we do now?" Percy's said. "Go back in the maze?"
"Maybe we can't," said Annabeth, eyes not leaving the mountain peak. "If Daedalus died... he said his life force was tied to the Labyrinth. The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop Luke's invasion."
"But Grover and Tyson are still in there! You said you guys separated after the ranch!" Mari protested. "We can't just leave them behind!"
"Even if they were safe, it doesn't matter," Nico said. "Daedalus isn't dead."
"How can you be sure?" Percy asked.
"I know when people die," Nico explained. "It's this feeling I get. Like a buzzing in my ears."
His eyes fell on Mari as he spoke and her heart dropped. Mason. He was talking about Mason too, wasn't he? Which meant that he knew. Mari couldn't hold his gaze, so she just looked away.
"What about Tyson and Grover, then?" Percy asked. "Are they okay?"
"That's harder," Nico said. "They're not humans or half-bloods. They don't have mortal souls."
"We have to get into town," Annabeth said. "Our chances of finding an entrance to the labyrinth are much better. We have to make it back to camp before Luke and his army. We need a car back into the city."
Rachel glanced across the car park, looking very apprehensive all of a sudden. "I'll take care of it," she said.
"How?" asked Annabeth.
"Just trust me." Rachel's face was as red as her hair, as if she were embarrassed.
"Okay." Annabeth sounded hesitant. "I'm going to buy a prism from the gift shop, try to make a rainbow and send an Iris-message to camp."
"I'll go with you," Nico said. "I'm hungry."
"I'll go too." Mari nodded. "I want to ask Chiron to pass on a message for my siblings."
"I'll stick with Rachel, then," Percy agreed. "Meet you guys in the parking lot."
Annabeth looked annoyed at Percy's choice, but Percy evidently didn't notice. Leaving him and Rachel behind, the three of them walked into the gift shop. The smell of sugar at the till assaulted Mari's nose, and her stomach did a forward roll. She had half a mind to follow Nico over to the food, but she had more important things to do. Annabeth spotted a stand of knick-knacks and the two of them headed over, plucking up a glass prism. They hid behind a magazine display to avoid the watchful eyes of the employee at the till.
"Make a light?" Annabeth asked, handing her the prism.
Mari nodded, lighting up her hand under the glass. A small rainbow formed in the refraction, and Annabeth tossed a coin at the light.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow," she said. "Please accept my offering. Show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood."
Chiron's face shimmered into view. He was sitting at the ping pong table in the Rec room, eating Dolmades and studying what looked like a battle plan. He looked tired. Sitting next to him with a plate of her own was...
"Adela!" Mari blurted out, her chest feeling a thousand times lighter at the sight of the girl.
Adela's head snapped up. She cried out and leapt over the table, scattering papers and stationery all over the table. In her momentum she nearly careened through the rainbow, which would have ended the Iris-Message, but she looked like she managed to stop herself just in time.
"Adela."
Chiron sounded exasperated as he rose from the table and trotted over. "You nearly spilled orange juice all over Clarisse La Rue's phalanx plans. I promise you that hiding here will not protect you if she loses her temper."
"You're okay."
Adela stared at Mari through the Iris-message. She looked like she hadn't been sleeping. "You didn't knock on the door asking to see me, and then Chiron said you were gone."
"Sorry," Mari said. "I was a little busy."
"We've been a little busy," Annabeth interrupted. "Chiron, Daedalus is Quintus."
Chiron sucked in a breath. "You're certain?"
"He gave us an interactive presentation on his automaton body," Mari said. "We're certain."
"Chiron, we were too late," Annabeth said. "Daedalus already gave Luke the string."
"Then we must prepare for battle."
Chiron's face was grim.
"I will sound the alarm. Get here as fast as you can. We shall need all the help we can get."
"I'm sorry," said Annabeth. "It was my quest. I failed."
"You didn't fail, " Mari told her. "It was out of your control."
"Marion is right," Chiron said. "You did the best you could, my dear. Now, we must focus on what comes next."
The Iris-message began to fade.
"Can you tell my siblings I'm okay? And that I'll be back soon?"
Mari had to speed-talk to get the words in.
"Of course." Chiron nodded.
"Wait!" Adela said. "Marion-"
The Iris-message disappeared. Mari's heart sank. "Can we IM them again?" she asked.
"I'm out of drachma." Annabeth grabbed her elbow. "And we're out of time. Let's go. Hopefully Rachel Dare managed to actually get us a ride."
"Hey!" The shopkeeper scowled at them from across the store. "You kids break it, you buy it. Where are your parents?"
Instead of answering the shopkeeper, Annabeth tugged Mari's garish golden jacket and they hightailed it out of there. They caught up to Nico, who was waiting for them out front. The three of them raced out of the souvenir shop and into the car park, where Rachel Dare and Percy were already waiting.
"We talked to Chiron, " Annabeth said. They're doing their best to prepare for battle, but he wants us back. They're going to need every hero they can get. Did we find a car?"
"The driver's ready when you are," Rachel said. She sounded miserable.
"You alright?" Mari asked. "This is probably a lot to take in."
Rachel didn't say anything. Mari was going to press her further, but then she caught sight of the car Rachel had been referring to, and her jaw dropped. It the kind of huge, sleek thing that Mari had only ever seen the kids with rich parents at her primary schools climbing into at the end of the day. This one car was probably worth more money than Mari had seen in her entire life. Definitely not the kind of thing any normal person could get in the span of five years, let alone five minutes. Her head turned from Rachel, to the car, to Rachel, then back again. Just how rich was Rachel Dare?
"Come on," Rachel muttered. She climbed into the back, and the rest of them followed her example.
The car was even cooler on the inside. It had that fresh leather car smell. There were TVs on the back seats, colour-changing lights on the ceilings and even a mini fridge, full of snacks. They all dug in, savouring the taste of something other than stale instant noodles. Mari was halfway through inhaling a stack of ready salted Pringles when the driver spoke.
"Where to, Miss Dare?"
"I'm not sure yet, Robert," Rachel told him. "We just need to drive through town and, uh, look around."
"Whatever you say, miss." The driver nodded, eyes on the road.
"You know this guy?" Percy asked.
"No." Rachel looked away, fists clenched.
They drove for Colorado Springs for less than an hour, but even that felt like too much. Luke was still in the Labyrinth. He didn't have to waste time trying to find an entrance again. And he was making a beeline for camp right this second. For all they knew, he was already there and everyone was getting slaughtered. Mari lost her appetite at the thought, pushing the vegan jelly worms away. After they'd been driving an hour, Annabeth suggested heading north towards Denver, under the rationale that a bigger city would have a higher likelihood of containing a Labyrinth entrance. Mari was still bouncing in her seat from nerves. She couldn't let her siblings die, she just couldn't.
No more loss, please, she thought. Please.
Just as they were leaving Colorado Springs, Rachel shot up and pointed out of the window.
"There!" she cried. "Get off the highway!"
"...Miss?"
"I saw something, I think. Get off here."
The chauffer swerved across the motorway, earning a series of honks from annoyed drivers. One guy spewed a string of profanities that would make Mari want to cover her ears. The guy also made a rude gesture as they drove off.
"What did you see?" Percy asked.
"See that sign, the one that says 'Western Museum of Mining and Industry'?"
Rachel pointed.
Mari followed the gesture, seeing a rickety old house with a bunch of drilling tools on display in the window box instead of flowers. They made for horrible decorations, but the Hephaestus cabin would probably enjoy it.
"There."
Rachel pointed again, this time to a hole in the side of the hill, covered in wooden planks and chains. "An old mine entrance."
"A door to the labyrinth?" Annabeth asked. "How can you be sure?"
"She just is," Mari said, before Rachel could. She wasn't sure why she'd answered. But her mouth knew what to say before her brain did. Odd. It was usually the other way around.
They got out and raced up the hill, past the old museum and towards the mine shaft. The mark of Daedalus was carved onto a rusty padlock. Percy brushed his hand against it and the chains rattled to the ground. Mari's stomach churned. That meant Nico had been right - Daedalus was alive.
"I don't like this," Mari said. "I've got a bad feeling."
"You mean we should find another entrance?" Annabeth asked. "We don't have time."
"No, not to do with navigation," Mari said. "Just a bad feeling."
But Annabeth was right. They had to get back to Camp Half-Blood and they had to do it fast. Instincts or not, they didn't have a choice. The five of them kicked the wooden planks out of the way and peered inside, greeted by the sight of damp dirt tunnels. Mari sucked in a breath. She did not want to go in there. The five of them stepped into the tunnel, and the entrance closed up behind them on its own, sealing them in like the maze's mouth was swallowing a meal. They were back in the death maze, and Mari couldn't shake the feeling that this was not going to end well.
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Hannah Murray as Marion Carter
Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase
Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson
Erin Kellyman as Rachel Elizabeth Dare
Dylan Schmid as Nico Di Angelo
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