Bound in Darkness (23 page)

“The answer is yes, all right?” she said quietly, looking away from him and grateful for the darkness the dying fire left. “But that doesn't make a difference here and now. This isn't the time or the place.”

“No. It isn't. But the time will come,” he vowed. “And it will come soon. Make certain you are ready for it.”

“I already am,” she confessed softly.

The admission surprised Maxum. As had his fear when he'd found himself unable to figure out which way to go when he'd been returned to the labyrinth. As he had suspected, the labyrinth had repaired itself…but it had not repaired itself in the same way as before. He had arrived at a totally different landscape. If not for seeking out the fire, he would have lost them entirely. It had been a close call.

Now he got up and crossed to her, holding out a hand. She took it and he helped her to her feet and, for a moment, he drew her up against his body. The feel of all of her soft curves coming against him was grounding. They had to make it to the center of the labyrinth tomorrow. They couldn't afford another close call like this. He couldn't afford it.

Because he knew one thing and one thing clearly. He would not die without having known her. His quest could wait. He would put it aside for a short time just to have the time to be with her. Then he would continue onward to his destined battle.

With this in his mind, he took her mouth. He kissed her slowly and deeply. Heat blossomed between them and hunger reared its head. Of its own volition his hand reached out and cupped her breast. His thumb brushed the top of it where it swelled above her corset. Frustrated by the item of clothing he reached for her laces and untied them. She let him. Let him loosen the ties and draw the corset up over her head, leaving her in the black linen shirt. He dropped the corset to the ground, the puff of air it released blowing out the last of the fire. In the utter darkness he reached to cup her breast again and this time his thumb stroked over the turgid peak of her nipple. She sighed softly and leaned her weight against him.

He wanted to draw her shirt down, exposing her breasts to the cold night air. He wanted to take her nipple in his mouth and feel it against his tongue…between his teeth. He wanted to suckle her until she moaned. And, as if he had done all of those things…as if he had his mouth on her, she did moan. As if she read his thoughts and knew what he was thinking.

“Not here. Not tonight,” he said hoarsely.

She nodded, he could feel it. He then led her over to their bedrolls and lifting the blankets he tucked her in tightly against him, his chest to her back, her bottom nestled against the evidence of how much he wanted her.

Like that, they fell asleep.

W
hen they woke the next morning the sun was shining brightly, warming their cold bones. The stone had leeched the warmth from their bodies in spite of their close sleeping arrangements.

There was no way to start a fire and no way to cook, so they broke their fast with crackers and hard cheese. And a little bit of cured meat. They were stingy with it, not knowing when they'd next be able to build a fire. Airi found a place to climb up and reorient herself to where they would next be going and she led them around the tricky portal. Then she brought them into a section of the labyrinth where things completely changed. The spikes were set on the tops of the walls, the stone became red brick. The ground became wavy and uneven, making the walls equally so. When they reached the end of what she had plotted out for them, she rubbed her hands together and turned to them.

“Okay. This is it. This is where I've lost the map. We're doing this blind from here on out.”

“We'll do a right left right left pattern. That should take us in deeper. Let's try and stay oriented. Keep the sun to the west as it sets,” Maxum said.

“We have to get there soon,” Kyno said.

“We do. This place isn't as big as all that…just tricky,” Maxum said.

No sooner had he finished speaking than an unholy screech filled the air. Instantly on guard everyone drew a weapon and they all put their backs to a center point against one another, as though they had practiced the move a hundred times. Suddenly from over the wall came a creature like nothing Airi had ever even heard of, never mind seen. It was shaped like an eye that had been plucked from someone's skull, only a thousand times bigger. It had to be at least three feet in diameter. It had a large iris in its center, a black pupil in the middle of that. The iris was a sickly shade of yellow and the orb itself was pale yellow like a jaundiced eye and shot through with bloody veins. Beneath the iris was what looked like a mouth full of jagged teeth.

It floated toward them, screaming again, and Kilon let loose an arrow, catching it below its mouth. He drew again, but it took time and by the time his arrow was nocked the thing was on them. It scattered them, fear and necessity driving them apart. It focused on Kyno and the giant orc swung out with his sword. A second scream rent the air and suddenly there were two of the things. The second focused on Airi, but Maxum was there, swinging Weysa's Champion in a deadly slice that severed the thing in half. The two sides of it fell to the ground with a squishy plop, the mouth seeking out one last garbled scream. The second one was filled with arrows now and Kyno lifted his sword with several mighty thrusts. The thing, whatever it was, went limping off with high-pitched whines.

Breathing hard, the quintet took stock of one another, finding everyone to be unscathed.

“We're getting close,” Maxum said. “The labyrinth is starting to get nervous.”

“You say that as if it is a living thing,” Airi said.

“I think it is. It heals itself. It changes itself. It protects itself. In a way it feeds itself on the bodies of those who came before us. What would you call it?”

“When you put it that way, I'd have to agree. We best stay on our guard from here on out. The next ones might not be so noisy.”

They began to move again and it wasn't such a short time before they came into an open area with a fountain at its center.

“Is this it? Is this the center?” Kyno asked.

“It can't be. All of that to protect a fountain?”

“Fountains can be dangerous things,” Maxum said ominously. Airi gave him a sheepish look. She had forgotten. But he never would.

They approached the fountain cautiously. Kyno reached out and touched the water before Maxum could say, “No don't!”

“It's just water,” Kyno said. He sucked a drop off his fingers. “Tastes like water.”

“Kyno that was very foolish!” Airi scolded. “What if it's poisoned?”

“Didn't taste poisoned. Besides, I'm thirsty.”

“Kyno, don't!” Maxum commanded, grabbing the giant's hand before he could scoop water and drink. “It may not be poisoned but many fountains are the gods work and can come with a price.”

“Or a reward,” Kilon said. “Look.”

He pointed and they all looked. The bottom of the fountain was encrusted with gems. Without another word, Kilon waded into the fountain and using a dagger he knelt and pried up one of the gems. He held it up. It was the size of a small fist.

“Look at that!” he cried.

Doisy and Kyno exchanged a look and then they too were in the water, prying up fabulous stones and stuffing them into their pouches.

“This can't be it,” Maxum said uneasily in a whisper. “Where's the beast? Where's the ring?”

“I don't know,” Airi whispered back.

Right then, Kyno reached out and leaned against a cherub decorating the fountain center. Suddenly there was a rumble and the sound of grinding stone. Abruptly all of the water went rushing out of the fountain as a piece of the fountain fell away and opened into a flight of stairs. The stairs were covered in the stones that the men had been gorging themselves on.

“Come on. It's getting late and we still have work to do,” Maxum said.

“But we've found it! We've found the treasure!” Kilon said.

“Then what are the stairs for?” Maxum argued.

“I don't know and I don't care. It's dark down there and I'm not going down. I'll get my fill of these stones, thank you, and then I'm heading out.”

“You do that, but you head out alone. I'm going down there.”

“Me too,” Airi said. “Just imagine, if this is what's at the
entrance
what will it be like when we reach the real treasure?”

“I'm with Maxum,” Kyno said, hurrying over to his side.

“Guess I am too,” Doisy said breezily as he moved to Maxum's side.

“Fuck the lot of you,” Kilon said grouchily. “Fine. But if we find nothing, I get what I take as my full share. None of this sharing out to those who don't deserve it!” He glared pointedly at Airi.

“If it weren't for her and her memory, you wouldn't have even gotten here,” Maxum drawled. “She gets equal share just like everyone else. Now are you coming or not?”

Kilon stood there like a surly bear for a moment, then he sheathed his dagger and moved to the stairs.

“There's torches down here,” he said uneasily. “And they're lit.”

They all exchanged looks. That told them that some living thing was keeping those torches fresh and lit. Maybe the labyrinth was alive or maybe something else was, but they'd be on their guard either way.

The torches illuminated a long corridor and they slowly went toward the end, where there was an opening.

They heard a screech and stopped dead in their tracks. It was a soft sound, more like a creak that went on for a long while. Then there was a hissing and popping sound. That screech…hissing…popping…it repeated itself, sometimes rising in cadence, sometimes deepening in tone. Whatever it was, it was a living thing making those sounds. They all drew their weapons, Airi filling both her hands with daggers, making sure the god-made one was in her right. She was strong with both hands, but the right was her strongest.

They edged up to the room and came around the door.

And there, sitting in the center of the room, was a hydra—a gigantic beast with many heads on many long necks. Airi's quick count brought up ten. Each head was of a different size and a different type of ugliness. There seemed to be a central head and the others were more like satellites around it. All of the heads had mouths full of teeth and all of them had very large eyes.

And all those eyes spied them and swung around to face them. The thing screeched angrily and charged at them.

“Airi, the chest!”

Airi was readying for battle, so she ignored Maxum's cry at first. There were ten heads and five in their group—that meant each of them had to take out two heads and she planned to do her part.

Maxum went for the central head, somehow hoping that if he cut it off the thing would die. But one slice with his sword was not going to do the trick he realized when his sword stuck into the tough hide of its neck. But at least he had made it a third of the way through and the beast was bleeding profusely. He yanked back the sword, releasing a plume of blood that drenched him down the front of his body. He hacked at the neck again this time cutting it nearly through. One more hack and the central head went flying.

Three of the other heads suddenly targeted him and he found himself in the center of gnashing, violent teeth and fetid, moist breath. He couldn't be harmed, but that didn't keep the mouths from clamping down on him and trying to rend him in two. One bit down into his shoulder, another bit into his legs and then they pulled in opposing directions. Roaring with fury, Maxum began to hack at the head clamped on his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Kyno's sword was not god-made, so it was taking a great deal more work for him to make any impact on the head that was focusing on him. A second head came down on him from the other side and just as it was about to clamp onto his head an arrow thunked into the middle of its forehead, making it jerk back and scream in pain and rage. The arrowed head turned to glare at Kilon, who was reloading. Kyno had told Airi that Kilon used several kinds of arrows, some more deadly than others. Some tipped in fast-acting poisons. Airi could only pray that that was exactly what he was using. Maybe they could poison the thing to death. But somehow she knew it would not be so easy. And, unlike Maxum, they were going to get hurt.

Airi dodged one head, then another, teeth snapping at her heels. She bounced herself off a wall and leapt on the back of the neck of one of the heads and with all of her strength she plunged both daggers into the thing's skull. It screamed and flung her off, sending her slamming into a wall with a bone-jarring, head-ringing strike. She fell to the ground in a dazed heap, watching as the head she'd attacked suddenly went limp, seemingly lifeless. Ears humming, she struggled to get her feet back under herself. As she did this she saw Kilon send another head dropping with a series of arrows shot straight into its brainpan.

Doisy fought with a staff, so he had very little effect on the heads that were attacking them. Still he tried to do his part. When he saw Airi was down he hurried over to her, grabbed her hand, and closed his eyes. The healing he provided washed over her immediately and her brain finally righted itself.

“Thanks!” she said, getting up and leaping back into the fray.

By the time she got back in the fight there were five heads down, Maxum having taken another out and Kyno having done his in. Airi leapt onto the back of another head and did the same as before, only this time she entered its brain via daggers in its eyes. She stuck her daggers in and swirled them around, scrambling the soft tissue. The head dropped down dead. That was half the monster's heads down and something was happening to it. It seemed to be staggering around. That was when Airi noticed what Maxum had been trying to point out before. A huge chest, about six feet in length and in height was nestled between its legs, of which it had six.

She knew then that Maxum had wanted her to go after the chest…to look for the ring while they distracted the beast. But if she did that it would leave only Maxum, Kyno, and Kilon to do any damage because Doisy was only useful in battle to a point. He proved his value though as he dodged heads in order to heal a wound Kilon had taken on his bowing arm. After he was healed, Kilon took the opportunity to fall back against a wall just beneath a torch. He pulled a heavy tipped arrow and stuck it in the fire. The tip of the arrow blazed hungrily to life and he sent it soaring into the nearest head. The arrow extinguished the minute it hit the creature's slick skin. Airi sighed with disappointment and hesitated as she tried to think of what would be the best thing to do. She decided to ignore the chest and focus on defeating the beast. Once they killed the beast they would have time to find the ring.