Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood while the campers are performing a funeral ceremony for him. Percy tells Annabeth and Chiron his plan, and Annabeth becomes upset about having to ask a mortal for help. Tyson and Grover are still missing, but the Council decides Grover will be put into exile whenever he returns. While Percy was gone, Quintus disappeared from camp, leaving Mrs. O’Leary behind. Clarisse warns Percy not to trust Daedalus whenever they find him because “anybody who can make something like the Labyrinth […] is evil” (233).

Percy dreams of King Minos tricking Daedalus into solving a riddle and thus revealing his hiding place at King Cocalus’s court. Cocalus hands Daedalus over, not wanting to risk making Minos an enemy. Then, Cocalus’s daughters offer Minos a meal and a bath. While he bathes, the daughters ensnare Minos in bronze wires that strangle him to death. Minos threatens to punish Daedalus in the Underworld, but Daedalus has no intention of dying. Daedalus leaves to hide in the Labyrinth. Percy them dreams of Luke, who talks about Ariadne’s String, a passage through Antaeus’s arena, Quintus’s spying, and a half-blood found wandering the maze.

Eurytion messages Annabeth that Nico went back into the Labyrinth.