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find the workshop before Luke does. If Daedalus is alive, we convince him to help us, not Luke. If Ariadne’s string still exists, we make sure it never falls into Luke’s hands.”
    “Wait a second,” I said. “If we’re worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?”
    “Great idea!” Grover said. “I’ll get the dynamite!”
    “It’s not so easy, stupid,” Clarisse growled. “We tried that at the entrance we found in Phoenix. It didn’t go well.”
    Annabeth nodded. “The Labyrinth is magical architecture, Percy. It would take huge power to seal even one of its entrances. In Phoenix, Clarisse demolished a whole building with a wrecking ball, and the maze entrance just shifted a few feet. The best we can do is prevent Luke from learning to navigate the Labyrinth.”
    “We could fight,” Lee Fletcher said. “We know where the entrance is now. We can set up a defensive line and wait for them. If an army tries to come through, they’ll find us waiting with our bows.”
    “We will certainly set up defenses,” Chiron agreed. “But I fear Clarisse is right. The magical borders have kept this camp safe for hundreds of years. If Luke manages to get a large army of monsters into the center of camp, bypassing our boundaries…we may not have the strength to defeat them.”
    Nobody looked real happy about that news. Chiron usually tried to be upbeat and optimistic. If he was predicting we couldn’t hold off an attack, that wasn’t good.
    “We have to get to Daedalus’s workshop first,” Annabeth insisted. “Find Ariadne’s string and prevent Luke from using it.”
    “But if nobody can navigate in there,” I said, “what chance do we have?”
    “I’ve been studying architecture for years,” she said. “I know Daedalus’s Labyrinth better than anybody.”
    “From reading about it.”
    “Well, yes.”
    “That’s not enough.”
    “It has to be!”
    “It isn’t!”
    “Are you going to help me or not?”
    I realized everyone was watching Annabeth and me like a tennis match. Mrs. O’Leary’s squeaky yak went EEK! As she ripped off its pink rubber head.
    Chiron cleared his throat. “First things first. We need a quest. Someone must enter the Labyrinth, find the workshop of Daedalus, and prevent Luke from using the maze to invade this camp.”
    “We all know who should lead this,” Clarisse said. “Annabeth.”
    There was a murmur of agreement. I knew Annabeth had been waiting for her own quest since she was a little kid, but she looked uncomfortable.
    “You’ve done as much as I have, Clarisse,” she said. “You should go, too.”
    Clarisse shook her head. “I’m not going back in there.”
    Travis Stoll laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re scared. Clarisse, chicken?”
    Clarisse got to her feet, I thought she was going to pulverize Travis, but she said in a shaky voice: “You don’t understand anything, punk. I’m never going in there again. Never!”
    She stormed out of the arena.
    Travis looked around sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to—”
    Chiron raised his hand. “The poor girl has had a difficult year. Now, do we have agreement that Annabeth should lead the quest?”
    We all nodded except Quintus. He folded his arms and stared at the table, but I wasn’t sure anyone else noticed.
    “Very well,” Chiron turned to Annabeth. “My dear, it’s your time to visit the Oracle. Assuming you return to us in one piece, we shall discuss what to do next.”

    * * *

    Waiting for Annabeth was harder than visiting the Oracle myself. I’d heard it speak prophecies twice before. The first time had been in the dusty attic of the Big House, where the spirit of Delphi slept inside the body of a mummified hippie lady. The second time, the Oracle had come out for a little stroll in the woods. I still had nightmares about that. I’d never felt threatened by the Oracle’s presence, but I’d heard stories: campers who’d gone insane, or who’d seen visions so