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

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“What do you mean?” I said. “Of course I’m coming back!”
Hephaestus studied me skeptically. He fished something out of his pocket—a metal disk the size of an
iPod . He clicked a button and it expanded into a miniature bronze TV. On the screen was news footage
of Mount St. Helens, a huge plume of fire and ash trailing into the sky.
“Still uncertain about further eruptions,”the newscaster was saying.“Authorities have ordered the
evacuation of almost half a million people as a precaution. Meanwhile, ash has fallen as far away
as Lake Tahoe and Vancouver, and the entire Mount St. Helens area is closed to traffic within a
hundred-mile radius. While no deaths have been reported, minor injuries and illnesses include—”
Hephaestus switched it off. “You caused quite an explosion.”
I stared at the blank bronze screen. Half a million people evacuated?Injuries.Illness. What had I done?
“Thetelekhines were scattered,” the god told me. “Some vaporized. Some got away, no doubt. I don’t
think they’ll be using my forge any time soon. On the other hand, neitherwill I. the explosion caused
Typon to stir in his sleep. We’ll have to wait and see—”
“I couldn’t release him, could I? I mean, I’m not that powerful!”
The god grunted.“Not that powerful, eh?Could have fooled me. You’re the son of theEarthshaker , lad.
You don’t know your own strength.”
That’s the last thing I wanted him to say. I hadn’t been in control of myself in that mountain. I’d released
so much energy I’d almost vaporized myself, drained all the life out of me. Now I found out I’d nearly
destroyed the Northwest U.S. and almost woken the most horrible monster ever imprisoned by the gods.
Maybe I was too dangerous. Maybe it was safer for my friends to think I was dead.
“What about Grover and Tyson?” I asked.
Hephaestus shook his head. “No word, I’m afraid. I suppose the labyrinth has them.”
“So what am I supposed to do?”
Hephaestus winced. “Don’t ever ask an old cripple for advice, lad. But I’ll tell you this. You’ve met my
wife?”
“Aphrodite.”
“That’s her. She’s a tricky one, ad. Be careful of love. It’ll twist your brain around and leave you
thinking up is down and right is wrong.”
I thought about my meeting with Aphrodite, in the back of a white Cadillac in the desert last winter.
She’d told me that she had taken a special interest in me, and she’d be making things hard for me in the
romance department, just because she liked me.
“Is this part of her plan?” I asked. “Did she land me here?”
“Possibly.Hard to say with her.But if you decide to leave this place—and I don’t say what’s right or
wrong—then I promised you an answer to your quest. I promised you the way to Daedalus. Well now,