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

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I smelled barbecue before I reached the house, and that made me madder than ever, because I really
love barbecue.
The deck was set up for a party. Streamers and balloons decorated the railing. Geryon was flipping
burgers on a huge barbecue cooker made from an oil drum. Eurytion lounged at a picnic table, picking
his fingernails with a knife. The two-headed dog sniffed the ribs and burgers that were frying on the grill.
And then I saw my friends: Tyson, Grover, Annabeth, and Nico all tossed in a corner, tied up like rodeo
animals, with their ankles and wrists roped together and their mouths gagged.
“Let them go!” I yelled, still out of breath from running up the steps. “I cleaned the stables!”
Geryon turned. He wore an apron on each chest, with one word on each, so together they spelled out:
KISS—THE—CHEF. “Did you, now? How’d you manage it?”
I was pretty impatient, but I told him.
He nodded appreciatively.“Very ingenious. It would’ve been better if you’d poisoned that pesky naiad,
but no matter.”
“Let my friends go,” I said. “We had a deal.”
“Ah, I’ve been thinking about that. The problem is,if I let them go, I don’t get paid.”
“You promised!”
Geryon made atsk-tsk noise. “But did you make me swear on the River Styx? No you didn’t. So it’s
not binding. When you’re conducting business, sonny, you should always get a binding oath.”
I drew my sword.Orthus growled. One head leaned down next to Grover’s ear and bared its fangs.
“Eurytion,” Geryon said, “the boy is starting to annoy me. Kill him.”
Eurytion studied me. I didn’t like my odds against him and that huge club.
“Kill him yourself,” Eurytion said.
Geryon raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Eurytion grumbled. “You keep sending me out to do your dirty work. You pick fights
for no good reason, and I’m getting tired of dying for you. You want to fight the kid,do it yourself.”
It was the most un-Areslikething I’d ever heard son of Ares say.
Geryon threw down his spatula. “You dare defy me? I should fire you right now!”
“And who’d take care of your cattle?Orthus , heel.”
The dog immediately stopped growling at Grover and came to sit by the cowherd’s feet.