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

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“Hey!” she protested, but the guy was twice her size and he’d already confiscated her knife and my
sword.
Kelli laughed. She still had her claws at Rachel’s neck.“Go on, Percy. Entertain us. We’ll wait here with
your friends to make sure you behave.”
I looked at Rachel. “I’m sorry. I’ll get you out of this.”
She nodded as much as she could with a demon at her throat. “That would be nice.”
Thedracaenae prodded me toward the doorway at javelin-point, and I walked out onto the floor of an
arena.
***
I guess it wasn’t the largest arena I’d ever been in, but it seemed pretty spacious considering the whole
place was underground. The dirt floor was circular, just big enough that you could drive a car around the
rim if you pulled it really tight. In the center of the arena, a fight was going on between a giant and a
centaur. The centaur looked panicked. He was galloping around his enemy, using sword and shield, while
the giant swing a javelin the size of a telephone pole and the crowd cheered.
The first tier of seats was twelve feet above the arena floor. Plain stone benches wrapped all the way
around, and every seat was full. There were giants,dracaenae, demigods,telekhines , and stranger things:
bat-winged demons and creatures that seemed half human and half you name it—bird, reptile, insect,
mammal.
But the creepiest things were the skulls. The arena was full of them. They ringed the edge of the railing.
Three-foot-high piles of them decorated the steps between the benches. They grinned from pikes at the
back of the stands and hung on chains from the ceiling like horrible chandeliers. Some of them looked
very old—nothing but bleached-white bone. Others looked a lot fresher. I’m not going to describe them.
Believe me, you don’t want me to.
In the middle of all this, proudly displayed on the side of the spectator’s wall, was something that made
no sense to me—a green banner with the trident of Poseidon in the center. What wasthat doing in a
horrible place like this?
Above the banner, sitting in a seat of honor, was an old enemy.
“Luke,” I said.
I’m not sure he could hear me over the roar of the crowd, but he smiled coldly. He was wearing
camouflage pants, a white T-shirt, and bronze breastplate, just like I’d seen in my dream. But he still
wasn’t wearing his sword, which I thought was strange. Next to him sat the largest giant I’d ever seen,
much larger than the one on the floor fighting the centaur. The giant next to Luke must’ve been fifteen feet
tall, easy, and so wide he took up three seats. He wore only a loincloth, like a sumo wrestler. His skin
was dark red and tattooed with blue wave designs. I figured he must be Luke’s new bodyguard or
something.
There was a cry from the arena floor, and I jumped back as the centaur crashed to the dirt beside me.