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“Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat.” He raised his goblet. “To the gods!”
    We all raised our glasses and repeated the blessing.
    Tyson and I took our plates to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of our food into the flames. I hoped the gods liked raisin toast and Froot Loops.
    “Poseidon,” I said. Then I whispered, “Help me with Nico, and Luke, and Grover’s problem . . .”
    There was so much to worry about I could’ve stood there all morning, but I headed back to my table.
    Once everyone was eating, Chiron and Grover came over to visit. Grover was bleary-eyed. His shirt was inside out. He slid his plate onto the table and slumped next to me.
    Tyson shifted uncomfortably. “I will go . . . um . . . polish my fish ponies.”
    He lumbered off, leaving his breakfast half eaten.
    Chiron tried for a smile. He probably wanted to look reassuring, but in centaur form he towered over me, casting a shadow across the table. “Well, Percy, how did you sleep?”
    “Uh, fine.” I wondered why he asked that. Was it possible he knew something about the weird Iris-message I’d gotten?
    “I brought Grover over,” Chiron said, “because I thought you two might want to, ah, discuss matters. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some Iris-messages to send. I’ll see you later in the day.” He gave Grover a meaningful look, then trotted out of the pavilion.
    “What’s he talking about?” I asked Grover.
    Grover chewed his eggs. I could tell he was distracted, because he bit off the tines of his fork and chewed those down, too. “He wants you to convince me,” he mumbled.
    Somebody else slid next to me on the bench: Annabeth.
    “I’ll tell you what it’s about,” she said. “The Labyrinth.”
    It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying, because everybody in the dining pavilion was stealing glances at us and whispering. And Annabeth was right next to me. I mean right next to me.
    “You’re not supposed to be here,” I said.
    “We need to talk,” she insisted.
    “But the rules . . .”
    She knew as well as I did that campers weren’t allowed to switch tables. Satyrs were different. They weren’t really demigods. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. I wasn’t even sure what the punishment was for switching tables. I’d never seen it happen. If Mr. D had been here, he probably would’ve strangled Annabeth with magical grapevines or something, but Mr. D wasn’t here. Chiron had already left the pavilion. Quintus looked over and raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything.
    “Look,” Annabeth said, “Grover is in trouble. There’s only one way we can figure to help him. It’s the Labyrinth. That’s what Clarisse and I have been investigating.”
    I shifted my weight, trying to think clearly. “You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?”
    “Exactly,” Annabeth said.
    “So . . . it’s not under the king’s palace in Crete anymore,” I guessed. “The Labyrinth is under some building in America.”
    See? It only took me a few years to figure things out. I knew that important places moved around with Western Civilization, like Mount Olympus being over the Empire State Building, and the Underworld entrance being in Los Angeles. I was feeling pretty proud of myself.
    Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Under a building? Please, Percy. The Labyrinth is huge . It wouldn’t fit under a single city, much less a single building.”
    I thought about my dream of Nico at the River Styx. “So . . . is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?”
    “No.” Annabeth frowned. “Well, there may be passages from the Labyrinth down into the Underworld. I’m not sure. But the Underworld is way, way down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second skin. It’s been growing for thousands of years, lacing its way under Western cities, connecting everything together underground. You can get anywhere through