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

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shield. Desperately, I threw it at the monster’s face.
SMACK!The shield hit her in the face and she faltered just long enough for Tyson to dive past me into
the maze. I was right behind him.
Kampêcharged, but she was too late. The stone door closed and its magic sealed us in. I could feel the
whole tunnel shake asKampê pounded against it, roaring furiously. We didn’t stick around to play knock,
knock with her, though. We raced into the darkness, and for the first time (and the last) I was glad to be
back in the Labyrinth.
EIGHT
WE VISIT THE DEMON DUDE RANCH
We finally stopped in a room full of waterfalls. The floor was one big pit, ringed by a slippery stone
walkway. Around us, on all four walls, water tumbled from huge pipes. The water spilled down into the
pit, and even when I shined a light, I couldn’t see the bottom.
Briares slumped against the wall. He scooped up water in a dozen hands and washed his face. “This pit
goes straight toTartarus ,” he murmured. “I should jump in and save you trouble.”
“Don’t talk that way,” Annabeth told him. “You can come back to camp with us. You can help us
prepare. You know more about fighting Titans than anybody.”
“I have nothing to offer,” Briares said. “I have lost everything.”
“What about your brothers?” Tyson asked. “The other two must stand tall as mountains! We can take
you to them.”
Briares’sexpression morphed to something even sadder: his grieving face. “They are no more. They
faded.”
The waterfalls thundered. Tyson stared into the pit and blinked tears out of his eye.
“What exactly do you mean,they faded ?” I asked. “I thought monsters were immortal, like the gods.”
“Percy,” Grover said weakly, “even immortality has limits. Sometimes…sometimes monsters get
forgotten and they lose their will to stay immortal.”
Looking at Grover’s face, I wondered if he was thinking of Pan. I remembered something Medusa had
told us once: how her sisters, the other two gorgons, had passed on and left her alone. Then last year
Apollo said something about the old god Helios disappearing and leaving him with the duties of the sun
god. I’d never thought about it too much, but now, looking at Briares, I realized how terrible it would be
to be so old—thousands and thousands of years old—and totally alone.
“I must go,” Briares said.