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

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I looked up at the cells above us, wondering how something as tall as the sky could fit in a tiny cell, and
why he was crying.
“I guess we should check it out,” Annabeth said, “beforeKampê comes back.”
***
As we approached the cell, the weeping got louder. When I first saw the creature inside, I wasn’t sure
what I was looking at. He was human-size and his skin was very pale, the color of milk. He wore a
loincloth like a big diaper. His feet seemed too big for his body, with cracked dirty toenails, eight toes on
each foot. But the top half of his body was the weird part. He madeJanus look downright normal. His
chest sprouted more arms than I could count, in rows, all around his body. The arms looked like normal
arms, but there were so many ofthem, all tangled together, that his chest looked kind of like a forkful of
spaghetti somebody had twirled together. Several of his hands were covering his face as he sobbed.
“Either the sky isn’t as tall as it used to be,” I muttered, “or he’s short.”
Tyson didn’t pay any attention. He fell to his knees.
“Briares!” he called.
The sobbing stopped.
“Great Hundred-Handed One!” Tyson said. “Help us!”
Briars looked up. His face was long and sad, with a crooked nose and bad teeth. He had deep brown
eyes—I mean completely brown with no whites or black pupils, like eyes formed out of clay.
“Run while you can, Cyclops,” Briares said miserably. “I cannot even help myself.”
“You are a Hundred-Handed One!” Tyson insisted. “You can do anything!”
Briars wiped his nose with five or six hands. Several others were fidgeting with little pieces of metal and
wood from a broken bed, the way Tyson always played with spare parts. It was amazing to watch. The
hands seemed to have a mind of their own. They built a toy boat out of wood,then disassembled it just as
fast. Other hands were scratching at the cement floor for no apparent reason. Others were playing rock,
paper,scissors . A few others were making ducky and doggie shadow puppets against the wall.
“I cannot,” Briares moaned. “Kampêis back! The Titans will rise and throw us back intoTartarus .”
“Put on your brave face!” Tyson said.
ImmediatelyBriares’s face morphed into something else.Same brown eyes, but otherwise totally different
features. He had an upturned nose, arched eyebrows, and a weird smile, like he was trying to act brave.
But then his face turned back to what it had been before.
“No good,” he said. “My scared face keeps coming back.”
“How did you do that?” I asked.