THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH Percy Jackson ... - No one's invited.

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“Mmm,” Kelli said. “That should be interesting. I would hate to see your handsome head on a spike if
you fail.”
“I will not fail. And you, demon, don’t you have other matters to attend to?”
“Oh, yes.” Kelli smiled. “I am bringing despair to your eavesdropping enemies. I am doing that right
now.”
She turned her eyes directly on me, exposed her talons, and ripped through my dream.
Suddenly I was in a different place.
I stood at the top of a stone tower, overlooking rocky cliffs and the ocean below. The old man Daedalus
was hunched over a worktable, wrestling with some kind of navigational instrument, like a huge compass.
He looked years older than when I’d last seen him. He was stooped and his hands were gnarled. He
cursed in Ancient Greek and squinted as if he couldn’t see his work, even though it was a sunny day.
“Uncle!” a voice called.
A smiling boy aboutNico’s age came bounding up the steps, carrying a wooden box.
“Hello,Perdix ,” the old man said, though his tone sounded cold. “Done with your projects already?”
“Yes, Uncle.They were easy!”
Daedalus scowled. “Easy? The problem of moving water uphill without a pump was easy?”
“Oh, yes! Look!”
The boy dumped his box and rummaged through the junk. He came up with a strip of papyrus and
showed the old inventor some diagrams and notes. They didn’t make any sense to me, but Daedalus
nodded grudgingly. “I see. Not bad.”
“The king loved it!”Perdix said. “He said I might be even smarter than you!”
“Did he now?”
“But I don’t believe that. I’m so glad Mother sent me to study with you! I want to know everything you
do.”
“Yes,” Daedalus muttered. “So when I die, you can take my place, eh?”
The boys’ eyes widened.“Oh no, Uncle! But I’ve been thinking…why does a man have to die,
anyway?”
The inventor scowled. “It is the way of things, lad. Everything dies but the gods.”
“Butwhy? ” the boy insisted. “If you could capture theanimus , the soul in another form…well, you’ve
told me about your automatons, Uncle.Bulls, eagles, dragons, horses of bronze. Why not a bronze form
for a man?”