Keepers of the Labyrinth (10 page)

13

T
hat's exactly six minutes and fifty-seven seconds,” Sydney said, staring at her watch. “Is that a good time?” she asked, turning to Lil.

Lil watched as Vivi disappeared at the end of the zip line, landing perfectly and running out of sight into the trees. “It's good,” Lil nodded, gulping. Good? It was nearly flawless.

“She still has to answer the riddle correctly and get to the right destination, remember?” Charlie said.

They waited, the wind shifting through the trees, making the flags on the course billow and flap. Just then a green flare went up, and the rest of Team A started cheering. Bente, who was standing at the base of the rock wall with her belay on, clapped and then sent up a whistle by sticking two of her fingers in her mouth.

“Nice work, Team A!” She leaned into her walkie-talkie and then turned back to the others. “Seven thirteen is the time to beat. I hope you still have your legs, ladies!”

Lil's mouth went dry, and the sun felt hotter now than when they had been running up the hill. She pulled her water bottle from her waist and took a long sip.

“Team B, you're up!”

Lil watched as they prepared themselves for the rope swing. They had the same technique that Lil would use, hooking a knee to keep all appendages off the ground.

“Watch closely,” Lil said, leaning toward Sydney and Kat. “We want to do that exactly.”

They nodded and watched.

“They're not all fast,” Kat said. “But Sudha”—she jutted her chin toward the girl with brown skin and dark hair who had just come to land on the other side of the gauntlet—“we arrived together. She is a good runner. She plays field hockey, so she is in great shape.”

Team B finished the rope swing and darted toward the balance log. This one would only work if everyone worked together, lifting one another up and arranging their weight along the log until it balanced evenly. Then they would have to make a pendulum swing to land in the right place. Sudha was up first, her side of the log swinging dangerously close to the ground. The one with a complicated braid and
HILDA
written on her shirt jumped onto the other side, evening the log out for a moment, but then she lost her balance and dropped off.

“Yes,” Sydney muttered.

Lil took a deep breath in agreement and eyed Bente. She was watching intently as Sudha encouraged her to jump up again.

“They're already lagging ten seconds behind Team A,” Sydney whispered. “If they want to win this, they are going to have to really step it up.”

Hilda tried to climb onto the log again, and again it swung erratically, bucking her off.

“You can do it!” Kat shouted, clapping her hands so her bangle bracelets hit together.

“Are you kidding me?” Sydney hissed.

“What?” Kat said. “Good sportsmanship must count for something. Plus, they deserve to at least get to the other side.”

Sydney rolled her eyes.

Apparently encouragement was all that Hilda had needed, because the next time she jumped, she landed, balanced and spread her feet so that her weight was evenly matching Sudha on the other side.

“Nice work,” Sudha shouted. “Next up!”

The other two had it easy, just jumping onto the center and balancing their weight so no one else could fall. Then they got into a rhythm, swinging the log until they jumped off the right side one at a time, adjusting in between every time the log swung. They hurried toward the initiative wall and climbed, then struggled on the high course.

“They're looking at at least nine fifty, maybe ten.
If
they even get to the destination,” Sydney said.

“You know what?” Charlie said. “You're very competitive right now. I would hate to come up against you in your area of expertise.”

Sydney gave her a smug look. “Google Science Fair finalist two years in a row.”

“Only two?” Lil said, joking as she watched Sudha reach the other side and head toward the trees.

“Supply budget. You know how it goes.”

“But don't you get scholarships for that?” Kat asked.

Sydney dropped her wrist. “Yes, other things had to be paid for, thank you for asking.”

Like what? Lil wondered, but before she could ask, she saw a smoky flare fly up into the blue sky. It was green.

“They made it!” Kat shouted, clapping. Sydney groaned.

“Team D!” Bente shouted. “You're up, ladies. Seven minutes, thirteen seconds is still the time to beat!”

Lil grasped her watch and placed her hands on the timer button.

“Get ready!”

The rest of Teams A and B gathered at the edge of the course.

“Get set,” Bente shouted.

“You know what our plan is,” Lil said.

Kat, Sydney and Charlie all nodded.

“Go!” Bente shouted. Lil pressed the button on her stopwatch and ran.

14

T
hey swung across the gauntlet, and Lil glanced at her watch. Thirty seconds. Then they darted, in a pack, toward the balance log. Lil hoisted herself onto it, grabbing the ropes and spreading her feet out wide to get it as parallel to the ground as she could. Charlie jumped up second, doing the same. Kat climbed on more cautiously, and Sydney centered herself between Kat and Lil.

“Everybody ready?” Lil said. “To the right.”

Sydney's eyes popped wide as the log jerked to the right, but she maintained her footing. “Oscillations frequency,” Lil heard her whisper. “Galileo Galilei.”

Lil wondered what she was talking about as she said it again. “Oscillations frequency. Galileo Galilei.”

Whatever it was, it was helping her get a steady rhythm. Keeping the log in motion, they disembarked one by one.

“One minute,” Lil warned as they hit the initiative wall. It shot straight up with a rope hanging down to aid the climbers. Kat dove for it, grasping the rope in her fist and planting a foot at the base.

“Climb high and climb fast!” Lil shouted as she and Charlie darted away to the ladder of the raiders' bridge. Charlie stopped at the ladder and eyed the flimsy bridge above. Bente appeared with a harness and quickly helped Charlie into it as Lil continued alone to the rock wall. As she reached it, she checked her watch. One thirty. Kat's hands came over the top of the initiative wall, and she watched her scramble down the other side.

“C'mon, Sydney,” Lil shouted. “You've got this!”

She couldn't see the opposite side of the wall from this angle, and it seemed a century as she waited for Sydney's hands to grasp the top edge. A few Team B members clapped and shouted. Bente landed next to her once more, checked her stopwatch and scribbled on the clipboard in her hand. “C'mon, Sydney, you can do it!” Lil shouted again. She glanced at her watch. Two fifteen . . . two thirty. Sydney's hands finally appeared over the wall, and Lil let out a breath. Sydney yanked herself up and tumbled down the other side, landing awkwardly on the ground. Kat reached down and helped her to her feet.

“Over here!” Charlie shouted from the bottom of the ladder. They ran to her, Kat reaching out to tag.

“We're at three minutes!” Lil shouted as Charlie grasped the ladder and started climbing. Sydney collapsed against the bottom of it.

“Good climber,” Bente said as Charlie reached the top. Yes, she was a good climber, but Lil couldn't help but feel a little pang of jealousy at the words. She wondered what Bente had on her clipboard about her, if anything. Charlie snapped her carabiner to the safety line and began to make her way across the wooden planks.

“Harness up?” Bente said, peeling her eyes away from Charlie long enough to hand Lil a green harness. Lil jumped into it, pulling it up around her waist. She adjusted the strap and accepted the rope that Bente handed her.

“Close time,” Bente said as Charlie wavered midway across the bridge. “Three forty-five. Nearly neck and neck, in fact.”

“We're doing good!” Lil shouted. She could make up the time on her own, as long as Charlie could get to her. She was sure of it. She watched as Charlie regained her balance and continued a bit more swiftly over the next half of the bridge. When she reached the end, she unclipped her carabiner and tumbled down the cargo net.

“Nice!” Lil shouted. Charlie raced toward her and, a moment later, tagged Lil. She turned toward the wall.

Bente dropped her clipboard. “On belay,” she shouted.

“Climber ready,” Lil said, grasping a handhold.

“Climb on.”

“Climbing,” Lil said.

And then just as she started to step away, she heard one more line. One line that was never in the climbing commands.
“Z
eis tolmira,”
Bente whispered.

Lil faltered only for a moment at her mother's phrase. Then, as if lifted by it, she shot upward. The hand- and footholds were close compared with what she was used to, her stretch never reaching its max. She didn't have to swing or jump to awkward positions. It might as well be a ladder, Lil thought. She heard Kat and Charlie and Sydney cheering from below as she reached the top. Colleen's short hair swung into view as she climbed over the upper edge.

“Very well done,” Colleen said, unclipping Lil's carabiner and securing her to the removable trolley. “Here's your brake if you need to slow down,” she said, gesturing to the outer edge of the T-bar. She clipped everything back to the line. “Ready to fly?”

“Neck and neck,” Sydney shouted. “We're only three seconds ahead!” Lil grasped the T-bar, making sure not to squeeze the brake.

“Ready,” she said to Colleen. Colleen nodded, and a second later, Lil was off the rock wall, flying into the treetops. She curled tight, willing her weight to make the line move faster. She felt the breeze getting stronger, the leaves and variety of greens blurring around her and below her. She glanced up and laid her eyes on the end of the line.

“Go, go, go,” she heard Sydney shout from below.

She neared the end. She saw Vivi. She saw Sudha. And Athenia. Then just a flash between the trees. Barely noticeable at all. A rock, a cave opening, a double-headed ax, the labrys. But she was past it so quickly. She craned her neck. Had she imagined it? Her eyes searched the terrain, body twisting. The line suddenly ending. The wind being knocked out of her. Her feet scraped the ledge, and she bounced back, treading the wrong way. She felt her face flush as everyone behind her went silent. She tried to still the wobble in the line and push it smoothly forward. Athenia grasped a rope and pulled her. She stumbled onto the ledge and ripped the carabiner from the trolley. Athenia handed her the envelope and she tore it open, trying not to see the time on her watch tick by. Maybe, just maybe, if she was a faster runner. Her mind skittered away and her eyes involuntarily flicked to the hillside. She couldn't. Not now. She had to focus. She blinked and read the swimming letters.

In the lab
yrinth dark and deep

A lonely girl did o
ften weep.

She knew
every path ahead

And
lent her love a gui
ding thread.

Athenia gestured to the signs. One read
ARIADNE
and the other read
PASIPHAE
. Of course, the thread. Sydney was right.

She scrambled up the hillside to the Ariadne cave. There, she grasped a box of flares that was sitting next to the flare gun. She grabbed a flare and jammed it into the chamber, snapping it securely into place. Trying to steady her hands, she aimed it high and pulled the trigger. It flew, a tail of smoke choking her as it climbed.

“Seven minutes, fifteen seconds for Team D,” Athenia shouted. “Valiant effort. Second place.”

Lil crumpled, the extra flares spilling across the rock. Team A erupted in cheers, and Lil looked away as Vivi shrieked. She couldn't look over to Sydney and Charlie and Kat down below. She took a deep breath. The day was so hot now. If they had started earlier or— Her eyes flicked to the path on the right. Had she really seen it? The same spot as in the picture. She stood up, feeling the outline of the photograph in her pocket. Perhaps she had made it up. There was only one way to know for sure. She stacked the flares back into the box, checked over her shoulder—Athenia was busy making marks on her clipboard—and darted up the path.