Keepers of the Labyrinth (13 page)

19

L
il blinked her eyes open, and her hand automatically dropped to the edge of her bed, feeling for her sneakers. When they weren't there, she realized where she was. Her mind took a moment to let go of dreams and fast-forward to reality. She jolted up in bed and checked her watch: 11:55. She grappled for the matchbox and candle on her bedside table, struck a match and held it to the wick. It crackled to life, and Lil forced herself from bed, pulling on a dark T-shirt and a pair of jeans. She deposited the box of matches into her pocket in case she needed to relight her candle later and yanked her sneakers on, tying them quickly. She went to the door, opened it and looked out into the hallway, first one way and then the other. She heard a shuffle and a crash. Charlie must have upended a chair—or Kat dropped something? Lil eased out of her room and shut her door behind her. She crossed the hall and knocked lightly on Sydney's door. They hadn't exactly had any luck getting Sydney to agree to come, but she hadn't directly said no, either. Lil waited for a few seconds. Drew up her hand again. There was another muffled crash from Charlie's room. Or was it the kitchen? Lil peered into the shadows beyond her candle, searching the darkness.

The door in front of her swung open and Lil jumped, nearly dropping her candle. She struggled to regain control and righted it before it sputtered out. Sydney appeared in front of her. “I told you I was
no
t
coming.”

“But you're awake?” Lil said.

Sydney rolled her eyes. Hinges squeaked and they both looked down the hall. Charlie came out of her room, holding a candle in one hand and smoothing her hair with the other. Kat entered from the other side of the hallway. They had all decided to wear dark clothes, and Kat was in her black pants with the embroidered legs. She pulled a black cardi-wrap over her arms and secured it at the waist. Charlie adjusted the sleeve of a cabled black sweater over her right shoulder.

“Were you moving furniture down there?” Lil hissed as they walked toward her.

Charlie frowned. “Moving furniture?”

“Yeah, the clothes aren't going to conceal us if we make a big racket just getting out of bed.”

Kat and Charlie looked at each other as they stopped in front of Lil. “What are you talking about?” Kat asked.

As if on cue, a louder crash echoed up from the kitchen. Sydney's eyes shot wide, and she disappeared back into the shadows of her room.

“Oh,” Lil said, her voice just a wisp of what it usually was. “It wasn't you?”

A clatter erupted from below, like pots and pans had spun off their handles and smashed along the stone floor. Lil stepped between Kat and Charlie and headed for the end of the hall. Could it be Atticus or Aestos? No, there was something else, some other noise barely audible over the rain on the rooftop.

“It's probably just—” Kat began, but a muffled yell sounded from the same area. A low strangled cry.

“Back, back, back,” Sydney hissed from behind Lil.

Lil stepped toward the stairwell. The light of her candle stretched, an orange pool overtaking shadow in a smooth sweep. It inched its way up the wall, hugging the corners of the stones, and curved toward the top stairs. And as the light climbed down the first step, her voice caught in her throat. Glistening with blood was a hand, shaking and reaching, as if asking for help before it fell loosely against the stairs. Fingers splayed as if releasing a soul.

Lil ran forward, candlelight spilling down the other steps. There in front of her was a figure, lying prone, neck twisted strangely.

“Are you okay?” She lowered the candle to survey the damage and gasped when it illuminated the side of a face she didn't recognize. She drew back her hand, startled, and someone grabbed her shoulder. She whirled. It was Charlie.

“Peut-être q
ue nous devri—”

Lil lifted the candle, the light shaking in her hand. She heard a grunt and another crash. She backed up, the sound of her heart pulsing into her ears.

“Hide,” Charlie whispered, her eyes wide and searching.

Lil nodded, catching Kat's frozen expression in the shadows.

Footsteps came toward them and Lil turned, her candle wavering in her shaking hand. A stooped figure rounded the corner and staggered up the steps, lurching over the body. Lil fell back, but the silver hair. The tawny limbs.

“Bente?” Lil whispered, pulling free from Charlie's grasp. She ran toward her. God, Bente. She had told them to stay in the dormitories. She had stressed that it was for their safety. Lil caught her as she staggered forward.

“What's going—?” Lil started, but before she could finish, Bente covered her mouth, heaved herself off the wall and yanked Lil away from the stairs. Lil stumbled, trying to keep her footing. She could see Kat and Charlie by her side as they ran. Was she dreaming? Bente stopped in front of Lil's door, and Lil hurried to extract her key. She jammed it into the lock with shaking hands.

“Inside,” Bente hissed. “Everyone.”

Sydney darted out of the shadows of her own room as they all dove into Lil's.

“The door,” Bente wheezed.

Charlie slammed it shut while Lil moved Bente to the wicker chair, lowering her into it.

“What's going on?” Sydney whispered from the bed, where she and Kat now huddled.

Bente pressed her fingers to her lips and reached for the candle in Lil's hand. She blew it out. She gestured to the others to do the same. They plunged the room into shadows. The only light came from the embers of the dying fire, and Lil wondered if she should rush to smother them, but before she could move, footsteps echoed in the distance.

Lil strained to hear the words being spoken, but despite her best efforts, she couldn't understand them. The footfalls stopped before they reached her door and Lil heard a pounding fist on the door of another room. Was it Kat's or was it Charlie's? Would they duck into one of those instead of pursuing them?

Bente slid down to the floor and Lil dropped onto one knee.

“What's going on?” she whispered, barely audible. “Where are you hurt?”

Bente reached for her stomach, and as Lil squinted in the dim light, she saw the dark color staining Bente's already dark shirt. She reached down, felt her fingers grow sticky with blood.

“She's been cut,” Lil said to the others, her heart kicking at her ribs.

“Listen,” Bente said, pushing her hand away. Sydney, Kat and Charlie appeared next to her, and Charlie pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, trying to stop the blood. “Listen to me,” Bente said, stilling her arm. “They'll come for me in just a moment . . .”

She sucked in a shuddering breath and grabbed Lil's shirt, knotting it into a ball in her fist.

“You must be gone . . . Take . . .” Her hand drifted to the cord at her throat, and with shaking hands Lil helped her lift the key from her neck. It swung for a moment in front of her as Bente gasped and Lil's eyes blurred, seeing her mom there for just a moment.

“Wha-what is it?” Lil said.

Bente coughed and sucked in a breath, inhaling a wisp of gray hair that hung around her face. She locked eyes with Lil. “Climb out the window . . . Go and alert Athenia and the others. Go quickly. Tell her there . . . are two left.”

Lil's arms shook.

“Use the bedsheets,” Bente whispered.

The footsteps echoed on stonework once more and Lil froze as she heard them come to a standstill outside her door. Her hair stood on end.

“We'll, we'll get—get—get the bedsheets,” Sydney said, voice shaking. Charlie tried to stop the flow of blood that continued to erupt from Bente's stomach. Bente pushed her hand away. “It is no use. You must go. They will not spare you.”

An angry fist banged on the door, and Lil watched the latch quake against the frame.

“They're here,” Lil whispered, her body feeling as though it were full of needles.

Bente grabbed her wrist. She sucked in one final time and Lil could see the old woman strain to speak.

“He-He-Helene,” she gasped, and she squeezed Lil's arm with bloody fingers. Lil's heart nearly stopped at her mother's name.

“Bente, Bente, what is this—”

But Bente's hand dropped away and her head rolled to the side, hanging loose and lifeless.

“She's gone,” Charlie said. “That's all.” She got up, shaking her head. “We have to go.”

Sydney and Kat hurried to the balcony door with a bundle of sheets. Lil heard glass break, and turned to see pieces of stained glass fly from above the interior door. A hand with a machete clutched in its fist followed. Lil scrambled to her feet, placing the disk around her neck just as Bente had done, and hurried to the balcony where Kat, Sydney and Charlie were pulling sheets together.

“It's not even remotely long enough,” Sydney said. Her hands were shaking as she tied a knot between the blanket and a sheet.

Another crash echoed inside, and Lil looked back to the door. She shook her head, trying to clear it. “We have to buy some time.”

She looked to Charlie, who deposited the bloody handkerchief into her pocket. The timbers of the door strained and cracked. “Dresser? Desk?” Charlie asked.

“Both?” Lil said. They sprinted back inside, grabbing the desk by the corner. Lil pushed while Charlie pulled until it slid in front of the door. She felt little pinpricks of glass fall down around her shoulders and pierce her skin as the machete reappeared in the window. Her shoulders stung with small cuts, and all of a sudden Lil's mind became sharp. If they had killed Bente for this disk . . . had they killed her mother, too? She felt her breathing go ragged. Lil spotted candles on the floor. She picked them up, reaching momentarily for the matches in her pocket, but decided that the embers in the dying fire would be faster. She placed the wicks to them.

“What are you doing?” Charlie whispered.

“Well, it's not like they don't know we're here,” she said through gritted teeth as the wicks lit. She moved back toward the door, watching the bloody knuckles dance along the glass.

Sydney raced into the room. “We need T-shirts and pants, whatever you have.”

Lil pointed toward the duffel bag, then climbed up onto the desk chair. She steadied herself against the wall as she brought the candle flame to meet the hairy knuckles above her. The hand withdrew with a start, but she pressed her lips together and moved the flame closer. A snarl echoed outside and the machete swung. Lil arched back, the blade just missing her jaw. She felt her foot tip on the chair, tilt away from the wall. The dresser quaked as a body hit the door.

“Harder, Felice. You must hit it hard,” a deep voice growled.

Lil, trying to keep her balance, reached for the iron sconce that decorated the wall next to the stained glass. She fell back. To her surprise the sconce loosened in her hand and tipped downward. The window frame flipped, landing upside down with a
thwak.
A yanking sound, like roots being torn from earth, came from behind her. The smell of soil filled the room, and Lil turned to see Kat and Sydney freeze—arms overflowing with clothes. She followed their gazes to a gaping shadow on the opposite side of the bed. Charlie reached up, taking one of the candles from her. Lil released the sconce and leaped off the chair. The dresser bucked again and tumbled, nearly clipping her heels as she hit the floor.

“Yes. There,” the deep voice growled again as another crash echoed from behind her.

Lil sprang up. Sydney and Kat were already dropping the clothes. A breeze tore into the room as the door behind them opened. Kat, Charlie and Sydney jumped over the bed, into the hole in the wall. Was it a second exit? Was it a panic room? Why hadn't Bente sent them that way? Lil grasped the disk that hung around her neck as a shadow loomed over her. She dove through the doorway, following the others into the darkness. She ran a few feet, pivoting to see behind her. Her foot caught on something. The candle flew from her grasp. She clutched the disk to her chest. The room dipped. The floor shifted. And they were falling.

20

T
he disk jammed into Lil's ribs, knocking the air from her lungs, as she tumbled head over heels. She collided with roots and limbs, and gasped for breath as she held the disk tightly. She crashed and slid and finally came to an abrupt stop, elbow erupting with pain as it ran into something hard. She tried to stumble up, only to be thrown back down by the others in the chute. As she sprawled sideways, her face met the ground, and pain ricocheted through her jaw. The taste of dirt filled her mouth. She let the disk swing free as she propped herself up on hands and knees, spitting.

“I-is everyone okay?” Lil sputtered, wiping her chin with a shaking hand. There was a moment's pause, and she only heard shifting around her. Someone coughed and another person moaned. Lil strained to see, opening her hand in front of her face and closing it. It was nearly pitch black.

“Is everyone okay?” Lil asked again, reaching out.

“I'm okay,” came Kat's voice from in front of her.

“Me too. Just bruised up,” Sydney said.

“Charlie?” Lil said, trying to detect her in the shadows.

“Ah,
oui,
okay. Can anyone see anything?” Charlie asked.

“I have no idea where my candle is,” Kat said.

“Me neither,” Lil said.

The sound of squeaky hinges echoed above them. Then voices and the dull glow of a distant flashlight wound its way through dirt and dust, like a ghostly, swirling hand reaching toward them. It illuminated the spot where they had landed just enough for Lil to see. Kat, Charlie and Sydney's faces appeared, dazed and dirt-covered in front of her. The ground they sat on was dirt, the walls around them stone. Lil peered past the pool of light into the yawning dark. There was no way to tell how far it went in either direction.

The beam brightened in the shaft.

“Well, we're going to have to move.” Lil got to her feet. “They're coming after us whether we can see anything or not.”

Sydney looked both ways. “I think the mountain is to our left and the front of the building is to our right.”

“Then we should go right,” Charlie said. “Maybe this tunnel leads into the basement or out to one of the caves.”

The disk weighed heavy on Lil's neck. Too many unanswered questions swirled in her head, but she forced them back, watching the shaft of light get brighter. A booted foot appeared in the tunnel, loosening dirt that rained down as their predators began to slide toward them. Lil grasped Sydney's hand and pulled her up. Kat and Charlie leaped up, too.

“Okay, let's go to the right.” Lil put her left hand against the stone wall. “Keep one hand on the wall,” she said, plunging into the darkness.

“And the other out in front,” Charlie said from behind her.

They moved as quickly as they could. Lil and Sydney stayed close, and Lil could feel Sydney shaking against her arm beside her.

“Maybe if we get closer to the outside, we'll see a light,” Kat said.

The sound of a mini landslide caught Lil's ears, and the passageway brightened. They were coming. Lil stumbled as the girls' shadows spilled out in front of them, the beam of the flashlight hitting their backs.

“'Ratio, over here,” the woman's voice called.

Lil could see in front of her as the flashlight beam bounced. There was a turn, just a few yards away. “Around this corner!” she shouted.

Her hand caught on something sharp, jamming it flat into the wall as she rounded the corner. As if a switch had been flipped, light flooded down the passageway in front of them. Torches fired to life, filling the black passage with pools of orange.

“Whoa,” Charlie gasped.

Lil watched the torches stretch endlessly ahead. Where were they?

“In here!” Kat hissed.

Lil swung to the right. There was a small wooden door. It was low and arched and had cast-iron strapping for hinges. Lil ran for the door, helping Kat push it open. She winced as it echoed loudly. They dove inside and pulled the door behind them.

This chamber was only lit by one torch, and Lil grasped it from the wall, spinning around. They needed something—a barricade, anything. Her eyes landed on a huge pile of rocks, with a large boulder at the base of it just to the left of the door.

“Quick!” She hurried over, pressing her shoulder into it. It was big and heavy and felt unmovable. Kat, Sydney and Charlie ran over and gave it a heave along with Lil. The boulder groaned free of its spot, and they rolled it in front of the door. Sydney came back with a branch in her hand and wedged it hard between the ground and the edge of the rock, locking it in place as the door shook with a thump.

“Damn it!” a muffled voice said from the other side.

Lil gulped, looking around. She wasn't sure if they were all shaking or if it was the effects of the torchlight, but the whole room seemed to tremble. She tried to still her breathing.

“Do you hear that?” Sydney asked, inching toward the pile of rocks on one end.

Lil couldn't hear anything over her breathing.

“It's rain,” Sydney said.

She stepped onto the pile of rocks. Lil heard it now, too. There was a sliver of diffused light shining in the crevices between rocks in the enormous pile. There was the smell of mountain soil. Lil reached the torch up to light Sydney's way as she climbed. A ribbon of fog had found its way to them.

“Yes!” Kat said, readjusting her cardi-wrap, which had loosened and come untied during the fall. She joined Sydney on the hill of rocks. “We just need to move . . . all of these.”

Charlie reached up, dislodging a small fist-sized rock from the space. A few others skittered downward.

Lil heard a shuffle from outside, and then the boulder jammed against the stick. There were only two attackers, and it had taken all four girls to move that boulder, plus Sydney had wedged it in place with the stick. Lil was pretty sure it would hold, but she moved back to the entrance just in case. The two seemed determined and, though Lil had only seen them for a moment before she fell, they were bigger, older.

“I'll guard the door,” Lil whispered, hoping she could at least keep an eye on the branch while the others moved the rocks. Her torchlight stretched to the other side of the small chamber as she made her way to the boulder, and Lil caught her breath.

She squinted. Had she seen it right?

She lifted her torch and stepped forward. Bente's words from that morning on the mountaintop echoed in her ears: “The labrys was a directional tool. The wall would be marked with it to indicate a correct path to the main quarters. A guide. A compass. A clue, if you will.”

There, in the center of what she now saw was an old stone door, was a double-headed ax. A labrys.

Lil moved to it as if pulled by an invisible thread. The marking was indented. A perfect sphere. She looked down at the disk that hung around her neck. A perfect fit. A long, smooth, rectangular slab next to the door caught her attention. She reached out and brushed her hand across its surface. Dust filtered from beneath her fingertips, unveiling a large plaque, the top etched with symbols. Most of them were new to her, but some of them looked familiar. In the very top line was a skull and next to it a few squiggly lines side by side. She yanked the disk to eye level, looking from one to the other. Many of the symbols were the same. What did they mean? She glanced back at the plaque, wiping her hand downward, shuttling more dirt to the ground. There was another script, something that ran in lines like tally marks. Next was Greek. Next perhaps Italian? And at the very bottom, she found words she recognized. She knelt down in front of it, pulling the torchlight to her. Her breath loosened the remaining dust from the crevices as she read the familiar English.

Those who se
ek knowledge, knock

At the door that lie
s herein,

But only o
nes with fierceness

Will find a common k
in.

Beware folly and
weak footfall.

Bewa
re your mortal sins.

A simple word of ad
vice

Before you do b
egin:

Everything you
think you know

Aban
dons you within.

And
if you do not let i
t,

Then you will fin
d your end.

Lil squinted at the final line. It was written in Greek, but she could read it. It was the one phrase she could recognize. She twisted the torchlight lower, her breath catching in her throat.

Min zeis aplos.
Zeis tolmira.

She could hear her mother's voice echoing through the chamber, saying the phrase over and over again. First in Greek. Then in English. Her mind spun. There it was on the playground. Before a test. At a soccer game. When Lil was afraid to try the ropes course for the first time.
Do not
just live. Live bold
ly.
The phrase was the embodiment of strength, the embodiment of her mother.

Lil's throat tightened, and she backed into the wall behind her. Why would her mother's favorite expression be here? Why would Bente bring her the disk? Had her mother been beyond this door? Were there answers in there, about how a woman who lived her life so boldly could give up? Could end it?

Lil spun around with the torch in hand. “I have to go this way,” she said, sparks flicking down around her as she waved toward the group.

“I think we can clear this,” Charlie said. “We should be able to climb out once we figure out how to move the bigger boulders.”

“No,” Lil said, shaking her head. “I'm not—I can't go that way.”

Kat and Charlie stared at each other, looking confused. Sydney dropped the rock she was holding and hurried toward Lil.

Lil swallowed hard. She gestured toward the indentation. The symbol. “I have to figure out what this means.”

Charlie's eyes went big as she saw the indentation and inscription.

“Didn't Bente say it was a guide?” Kat said in a hushed voice.

Lil nodded.

A crash came from the opposite side of the door, and a gruff voice followed. “Shoot it, Felice. Shatter the rock.”

“It's a bit narrow . . . if it ricochets—” a voice replied.

Lil's heart kicked. Whatever they were going to do, they had to do it quickly. “Well?”

Sydney shook her head. “No, this is irrational. We need to keep dismantling that pile. We need to go and get the police.”

“We don't even know if we'll be able to move those stones. They're huge,” Lil said. She held up the disk. “And I have to know what this means. Where it goes.”

Lil pictured Bente, dying to protect it. Had her mother died to protect it, too?

“I just think it might be a clue,” she said. “To my mom. To what happened . . .”

“There's got to be another way for you to figure this out,” Sydney hissed.

Lil saw Charlie's eyes land on the disk and flick to the wall. “You have to admit that it appears to be an artifact with an interesting history,” she whispered. “One longing to be discovered.”

“Listen,” Lil said, stepping away from the others and pulling the disk from her neck. “You three can work on that pile, figure out how to move the rocks. Tell Athenia. Call the police. Let them know someone's in here and that we've trapped the people who killed Bente behind a boulder. I need to do this. I need to know.”

Kat shook her head, a long dark curl coming loose from her ear. “We stick together. It's safer.”

Charlie nodded. “We're a team,” she said.

Lil took a breath. “You don't have to. We have no idea what's in there.” She knew she had to do this, but she didn't want to endanger everyone else. She was used to going it alone. She could handle it.

The boulder barricading them in shifted and groaned, but stayed in place.

“I highly object to this,” Sydney said. She cast her eyes toward the stones, as if calculating their size, then peered at the labrys on the wall, then back at the stones. “We have no idea—there's no way of—” She let out a breath as the branch jolted and shuddered with the compressed weight of another push on the exterior. “Fine,” she said.

Lil looked at all three girls. They met her gaze. “You really don't have to . . . ,” she said as she lined up the labrys on the disk with the labrys in the door.

“I'm sure,” Charlie and Kat answered at the same time.

“I said fine, didn't I?” Sydney said, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

“Then here we go.” Lil pressed the disk into place.

The door swung, noiselessly craning open like a mouth filled with rotted moths. A breeze blew toward them, old, soft and decomposing. And Lil looked in. The passage was dark, shadowed and littered with stones, and though she knew her eyes were playing tricks on her, she could swear she saw the flash of the soles of her mother's feet flicking off into the distance, her black hair aswirl, disappearing down the passage. Ahead and away from her, always. Even if there was just a chance of finding out more—somewhere in the shadows—she had to try. Lil retrieved the disk from the door, took a breath and stepped into the labyrinth.