The Hidden Oracle

Apollo and Meg find themselves in a dark tunnel supported by oak beams. Meg draws Apollo’s attention to a glowing golden apple 30 yards away, but Apollo warns her it may be a trap. Confirming Apollo’s suspicion, another team is hit and chased away by sparking cannonballs as they approach the apple. Apollo and Meg lumber away in the other direction. Moving through the labyrinth, Apollo observes that the maze doesn’t seem as evil as it did in ancient times when its creator Daedalus was alive. Reaching a Y in the corridor, Apollo senses a sulfurous smell from the right side and a sawing sound from the left. Meg chooses to go in the direction of the smell, pulling Apollo along. The tunnel joins a narrow, long cavern that rises up like a volcanic vent, reminding Apollo of a claw mark made by a creature from Tartarus. Apollo urges Meg to turn back, but she insists she can see and smell a golden apple in the cavern. With Meg dragging him forward to a narrow shelf at the end of a tunnel, Apollo realizes the cavern is “omphalos—the navel of the ancient world” (163). Afraid, Apollo tells Meg to be quiet, since they are right under Delphi, the chamber of the Oracle, seized by the monster Python.