Well played, Riordan.
Daedalus is found at long last, Nico gets to kick some ass, and I turn out to be so very wrong about something. All this and a wee bit more in Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth, Chapter 15, known by some as…
We Steal Some Slightly Used Wings
After a quick flight out of the arena from last chapter, Annabeth and company bid farewell to Ethan, have a quick camp-and-talk, and then wind up face to face with Daedalus–after a quick glimpse of Grover and Tyson via dream-vision. And then all Hades breaks loose.
Before I get to the big reveal, though, a quick aside about Annabeth sniping at Rachel with increasing vitriol at the camp. Now Annabeth, I like you, but you need to stop being such a snot lately. Percy seems to agree:
“Annabeth’s usually not like this,” I told her.
“I don’t know what her problem is.” Rachel raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure you don’t know?”
“What do you mean?”
“Boys,” she muttered. “Totally blind.”
This makes me think Annabeth might be acting that way out of jealousy, but I’m not sure if it’s jealousy about her quest being usurped or jealousy about thinking there’s something between Percy and Rachel. The former makes more sense to me, but something about how Rachel intimated that Percy should know feels like she’s indicating the latter.
Or maybe I’m misinterpreting. I have been known to make mistakes. From time to time. (Also, I am a boy.) But now, let’s move ahead to just after Rachel leads them successfully into Daedalus’s workshop, and we get this moment where it’s revealed that, well…
Quintus stared at me. “My boy, you need lessons from your friend on seeing clearly. I am Daedalus.”
OH! Well. That I did not see coming.
Okay, so I’m sure you’ve been waiting for me to get to this point and have been laughing at my staunch assertions that Quintus would turn out to be a good guy after all. I admit, I totally missed the mark on this, and I’m really quite pleased about that. I like being surprised like this, and the way Riordan set it up really does make sense to me. I think I said before that Quintus had to be a good guy because otherwise there’s no twist? Yeah, I kind of borked up thinking the twist could only come in one flavor, didn’t I? 😀
So that was pretty awesome. I also loved Nico managing to come to his senses and being out to help Percy, even if it did get him caught. Plus he got to show Minos who’s boss (and yet seemed intensely drained for it–use of power taking its toll is a motif that I like, too), which satisfied me greatly.
So now the halfbloods (and Rachel) are escaping on borrowed wings while Daedalus and Mrs. O’Leary fight to what might possibly be their deaths. But if they do die, I wonder: will that stop Luke’s invasion? Daedalus does mention that the Labyrinth is tied to his life force, after all…
Well, being so very wrong is what you get for all that snugness over the last chapter.