We made it a hundred feet before we were hopelessly lost. The tunnel looked nothing like the one Annabeth and I had stumbled into before. Now it was round likea sewer, constructed of red brick with iron-barred portholes ever ten feet. I shined a light through one ofthe portholes out of curiosity, but I couldn’t see anything. It opened into infinite darkness. I thought Iheard voices on the other side, but it may have been just the cold wind. Annabeth tried her best to guide us. She had this idea that we should stick to the left wall. “If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it, †she said, “we should be able to find our way outagain by reversing course.
†Unfortunately, as soon as she said that, the left wall disappeared. We found ourselves in the middle of acircular chamber with eight tunnels leading out, and no idea how we’d gotten there. “Um, which way did we come in?†Grover said nervously. “Just turn around, †Annabeth said. We each turned toward a different tunnel. It was ridiculous. None of us could decide which way ledback to camp. “Left walls are mean, †Tyson said.
“Which way now?†Annabeth swept her flashlight beam over the archways of the eight tunnels. As far as I could tell, theywere identical. “That way, †she said. “How do you know?†I asked. “Deductive reasoning.
†“So…you’re guessing.
†“Just come on, †she said. The tunnel she’d chosen narrowed quickly. The walls turned to gray cement, and the ceiling got so lowthat pretty soon we were hunching over. Tyson was forced to crawl. Grover’s hyperventilating was the loudest noise in the maze. “I can’t stand it anymore, †he whispered.
“Are we there yet?†“We’ve been down here maybe five minutes, †Annabeth told him. “It’s been longer than that, †Grover insisted. “And why would Pan be down here? This is the opposite ofthe wild!†We kept shuffling forward. Just when I was sure the tunnel would get so narrow it would squish us, itopened into a huge room. I shined my light around the walls and said, “Whoa.
†The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. The pictures were grimy and faded, but I could still makeout the colors—red, blue, green, gold. The frieze showed the Olympian gods at a feast. There was mydad, Poseidon, with his trident, holding out grapes for Dionysus to turn into wine. Zeus was partying withsatyrs, and Hermes was flying through the air on his winged sandals. The pictures were beautiful, but theyweren’t very accurate. I’d seen the gods. Dionysus was not that handsome, and Hermes’s nose wasn’tthat big. In the middle of the room was a three-tiered fountain. It looked like it hadn’t held water in a long time. “What is this place?†I muttered. “It looks—†“Roman, †Annabeth said. “Those mosaics area bout two thousand years old.
†“But how can they be Roman?†I wasn’t that great on ancient history, but I was pretty sure the RomanEmpire never made it as far as Long Island. “The Labyrinth is a patchwork, †Annabeth said. “I told you, it’s always expanding, adding pieces. It’sthe only work of architecture that grows byitself .
†“You make it sound like it’s alive.
†A groaning noise echoed from the tunnel in front of us. “Let’s not talk about it being alive, †Grover whimpered. “Please?†“All right, †Annabeth said. “Forward.
†“Down the hall with the bad sounds?†Tyson said. Even he looked nervous. “Yeah, †Annabeth said. “The architecture is getting older. That’s a good sign.
Daedalus’s workshopwould be in the oldest part.
†That made sense. But soon the maze was toying with us—we went fifty feet and the tunnel turned backto cement, with brass pipes running down the sides. The walls were spray-painted with graffiti. A neontagger sign read MOZ RULZ. “I’m thinking this is not Roman, †I said helpfully. Annabeth took a deep breath, then forged ahead. Every few feet the tunnels twisted and turned and branched off. The floor beneath us changed fromcement to mud to bricks and back again. There was no sense to any of it. We stumbled into a wincecellar—a bunch of dusty bottles in wooden racks—like we were walking through somebody’s basement, only there was no exit above us, just more tunnels leading on. Later the ceiling turned to wooden planks, and I could hear voices above us and the creaking offootsteps, as if we were walking under some kind of bar. It was reassuring to hear people, but thenagain, we couldn’t get to them. We were stuck down here with no way out. Then we found our firstskeleton. He was dressed in white clothes, like some kind of uniform. A wooden crate of glass bottles sat next tohim. “A milkman, †Annabeth said. “What?†I asked. “They used to deliver milk.
†“Yeah, I know what they are, but…that was when my mom was little, like a million years ago. What’she doing here?†“Some people wander in by mistake, †Annabeth said. “Some come exploring on purpose and nevermake it back. A long time ago, the Cretans sent people in here as human sacrifices.
†Grover gulped. “He’s been down here a long time.
†He pointed to the skeleton’s bottles, which werecoated with white dust. The skeleton’s fingers were clawing at the brick wall, like he had died trying toget out. “Only bones, †Tyson said. “Don’t worry, goat boy. The milkman is dead.
†“The milkman doesn’t bother me, †Grover said. “It’s the smell. Monsters. Can’t you smell it?†Tyson nodded. “Lots of monsters. But underground smells like that. Monsters and dead milk people.
†“Oh, good, †Grover whimpered. “I thought maybe I was wrong.
†“We have to get deeper into the maze, †Annabeth said. “There has to be a way to the center.
†She led us to the right, then the left, through a corridor of stainless steel like some kind of air shaft, andwe arrived back in the Roman tile room with the fountain. This time, we weren’t alone.
to be continued....
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