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

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“Wait a moment,” Silenus demanded. “What of the search for Pan? You are almost three weeks
overdue, Grover Underwood! Your searcher’s license is revoked!”
Grover took a deep breath. He stood up straight and looked Silenus in the eye. “Searcher’s licenses
don’t matter any more. The great god Pan is dead. He has passed on and left us his spirit.”
“What?”Silenus’sface turned bright red.“Sacrilege and lies! Grover Underwood, I will have you exiled
for speaking thus!”
“It’s true,” I said. “We were there when he died. All of us.”
“Impossible! You are all liars!Nature-destroyers!”
Chiron studied Grover’s face. “We will speak of this later.”
“We will speak of it now!” Silenus said. “We must deal with this—”
“Silenus,” Chiron cut in. “My camp is under attack. The matter of Pan has waited two thousand years. I
fear it will have to wait a bit longer. Assuming we are still here this evening.”
And on that happy note, he readied his bow and galloped toward the woods, leaving us to follow as
best we could.
***
It was the biggest military operation I’d ever seen at camp. Everyone was at the clearing, dressed in full
battle armor, but this time it wasn’t for capture the flag. The Hephaestus cabin had set up traps around
the entrance to the Labyrinth—razor wire, pits filled with pots of Greek fire, rows of sharpened sticks to
deflect a charge.Beckendorf was manning two catapults the size of pickup trucks, already primed and
aimed at Zeus’s Fist. The Ares cabin was on the front line, drilling in phalanx formation with Clarisse
calling orders. Apollo’s and Hermes’s cabins were scattered in the woods with bows ready. Many had
taken up positions in the trees. Even the dryads were armed with bows, and the satyrs trotted around
with wooden cudgels and shields made of rough tree bark.
Annabeth went to join her brethren from the Athena cabin, who had set up a command tent and were
directing operations. A gray banner with an owl fluttered outside the tent. Our security chief, Argus,
stood guard at the door. Aphrodite’s children were running around straightening everybody’s armor and
offering to comb the tangles out of our horsehair plumes. Even Dionysus’s kids had found something to
do. The god himself was still nowhere to be seen, but his two blond twin sons were running around
providing all the sweaty warriors with water bottles and juice boxes.
It looked like a pretty good setup, but Chiron muttered next to me. “It isn’t enough.”
I thought about what I’d seen in the Labyrinth, all the monsters inAntaeus’s stadium, and the power of
Kronos I’d felt of Mt. Tam. My heart sank. Chiron was right, but it was all we could muster. For once I
wished Dionysus was here, but even if he had been, I didn’t know if he could do anything. When it came
to war, gods were forbidden to interfere directly. Apparently, the Titans didn’t believe in restrictions like
that.
Over at the edge of the clearing, Grover was talking to Juniper. She held his hands while he told her our
story. Green tears formed in her eyes as he delivered the news about Pan.