Keepers of the Labyrinth (22 page)

39

H
oratio hesitated at the edge of the tunnel. It was darker than the others and somehow louder. On the other side, he could see a flickering of light. He looked up toward the ceiling.

“Put me down here, 'Ratio. You'll have to go without me.”

“No, Fe, we'll finish this together. Do you see the lightning?” He turned slightly so Felice could peer down the darkened hallway. It flickered, like a wink from heaven. “That's the end. We're near the chamber. We're near the truth. We're near destiny.”

“That's what I am afraid of,” Felice whispered, her weight becoming heavier on his arm.

“We'll be fine. Just a few more chambers. This one doesn't even look so bad. Then we'll be out and we'll be heroes.”

Felice removed her arm from his shoulder and sank toward the ground. “The plan is not as simple as Ares made it out to be.”

“Ares wouldn't lie to us.”

“You believe in his word more than I do.”

Horatio shook his head and crouched in front of his little sister. “Listen, sister, your doubt has been poisoning you. You're just tired.” He reached into his satchel and pulled out a kerchief, wiping her brow with it. “Let me see what's ahead of us, and then I'll carry you through. We'll go out the other side together.”

Felice's eyes shuddered closed and then open. She heaved a sigh. Sweat dripped from her brow, and she trembled from head to foot. Horatio turned his eyes away. What was it? he wondered. Internal bleeding? He would have to move quickly to get them out. Then back down the mountain. Would he be able to do it in time? His stomach clenched, and he turned toward the passage, thrusting the torch forward. A rat jolted to his hind legs, as if studying Horatio, before he skittered toward the shadows.

Horatio turned to an oil well on his right-hand side. Like all the torches, he thought, it was run by Greek fire, an ancient concoction used in battle—and for practical purposes—that was similar to lighter fluid. He placed the flame against the liquid. Spires of fire rose toward the ceiling and revealed that they weren't in a corridor, but in a tall, narrow room. About halfway up the chamber were six stone doors in the walls. Horatio spun, looking at each of them. They were unmarked.

Just as the fire reached the belly of the mountain far above them, the ground shook, and Horatio hurried to Felice. Rock and soil flew from the ceiling and they began to rise toward it, turning as though they had landed on a spinning pedestal. He crouched over her as rocks tumbled toward them. One lurched into his shoulder as they rose ever higher.

Horatio reminded himself that each passage past the Ariadne chamber was a challenge, for purification, letting only those most honorable toward the interior chamber. How many times had Ares told the story of their ancient brethren fighting their way through the purity challenges? How many times had Horatio tested his own strengths in preparation for them? He had to focus on keeping his head clear and getting them through one of the doors above. He looked up as they approached, picking up speed.

The spire of flame reached the ceiling, revealing javelins and sharp arrowheads, glinting like rows of teeth.

Another rock careened down, and he covered his head, crouching over Felice to protect her. The rock smarted as it hit his shoulder. He winced, and when he opened his eyes once more, he could see Felice, her eyes closed, her breath ragged.

“Get ready to jump into the next door,” Horatio said, noticing that the platform was turning fast now. His vision blurred as he tried to keep his eyes steady on the approaching door. He knelt to stand. “Put your arm over my shoulder.”

Felice smiled and raised her hand to his face. She shook her head, weakly. Reached toward the strap of her bag and pulled it from her shoulder. Her hand seemed to quake uncontrollably as she set the pistol down on the platform and laid the satchel next to it. What was she doing?

“FeFe, please, now's not the time. You must listen.”

She leaned up, gasping. “I'll tell Byron . . . and Mom you made . . . it,” she said. Her eyes perked to life with tears. “You fulfilled your destiny.”

Then, before Horatio could move to grasp her, she rolled to the edge of the platform.

“Felice, no!” He scrambled toward her, invisible hands squeezing his throat as he watched her tip over the edge and plunge from sight.

“Noooooooooooo!” Horatio scrambled back, covering his eyes with his arm. He wiped away the tears, tried to clear his vision. The doors. He was nearing the doors. He gulped past the lump in his throat.

“Felice,” he said, clutching the pendant at his neck. He stumbled to his feet. Grasped the bags and the pistol. He clutched them in his shaking hand and dove into the nearest archway, crumpling into the shadows.

40

L
il's mouth was as dry as clay as she watched the rope swing. Her mind flashed to the kitchen as she crept to pick up the garlic skins and to turn off the burner under the pot of blackening soup. Her eyes had followed the slant of light spilling from Mom's office. And Lil could see the bottoms of her feet where they were not supposed to be. Back and forth. Back and forth. Swinging just like the rope in front of her.

Lil blinked her eyes clear of tears. It wasn't the same, she told herself, even though death surrounded her. It was just like running through the trees. She rubbed her hands together. She knelt down with one foot in front of her and adjusted the tongue of her sneaker, flipped feet and readjusted her other one. She stood and took the disk that Bente had given her and tucked it into the waist of her pants.

“Listen, this is crazy,” Sydney said, wringing her hands. “If you land in there . . .”

“I'll be dead,” Lil said. “I'll be riddled with arrows.”

Sydney swallowed.

“We don't have a choice,” Lil said. “Anyway, you're right. It's my fault we're down here. And you're right. I have no answers.”

“No—” Sydney said. “Just listen. We can find some armor or something. A shield.”

Lil looked around. “There's nothing to make it out of. This is the only way. I want to get us out of here alive. And if I don't go, this is where we'll end up.” She looked around at the bones. The cavernous eye sockets, the shattered ankles of older eras.

“You can't just jump and get that,” Sydney said. “Let's be serious.”

“Well, not like this,” Lil agreed. “We need to clear a path. Make a short runway. Then I'll jump off this wall.” She nodded. “And I'll twist and catch it.”

They made their way back to the door, pushing the bones to the side. Moving them with their feet until a black path led to the head of the arrow canal.

Lil examined the trail. Run straight, curve to wall, step on fire well with left foot, leap off wall with right, angle, catch rope. She ran through it again in her mind, then went over to the fire well and did a mini step on it with her left foot. “Turn and catch rope,” she said quietly.

“What if the rope isn't secured?” Kat said weakly. “What if it breaks and falls?”

Lil looked at the rope, swaying in the breeze. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “It won't. I'm sure it will hold steady.”

Lil felt the charm from the Ariadne chamber sitting on her chest. Just like the way its metallic twin had sat on Mom's. She closed her eyes and pictured Mom holding the necklace, rubbing it as though it would grant her a magical answer. She clutched it and pictured her mother on the opposite side of the counter, her eyes clearing as her thumb twisted around the spiral. Lil tucked it safely under her shirt, then lowered herself into a runner's stance. She pictured the woods out behind the airfield. The ropes course, the challenges, the logs to jump over, the walls to push off, the trapeze to fly to. The balance beam, the vertical ropes, the rock wall. She'd done them all. Over and over she'd done them all. Unharnessed. This was the same. This was basically the same. Just run hard, jump high, aim.

“M
in zeis aplos. Zeis
tolmira,”
she whispered, hearing her mom's voice in her ears.

Lil flexed her back heel. Licked her lips. Tensed her muscles. Charged forward. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Her feet hit the ground. Her muscles expanded and contracted as if they breathed on their own. Her eyes landed on the fire well. Her foot met its mark, her hamstrings tightened, her left foot hit the wall hard. She sprang. The charm weighed against her chest as she turned. The cord twisted across her neck.

She aimed.

Reached.

Abs squeezing.

Fingers extending.

Lungs expanding.

The walls around her spun.

She grabbed the rope.

Knuckles clenching fast.

Weight dropping.

Swung.

Her shoulder screamed in pain and her eyes blurred with tears. She stared at the bones below, wondering how many had attempted this before falling to their deaths.

The rope extended to the end of the canal, and Lil's feet sailed over the last of the bodies. She released the rope and landed, stumbling forward until she could steady herself. She knew she had made it past the lever, but she still waited for an arrow to zip free and sever her ankle. When nothing happened, she turned. Grabbed the handle of the lever and pulled. She watched as the shafts in the wall retracted. Disappearing into the stone. She stared down the passageway and saw Sydney helping Charlie up.

“Wait!” Lil said. She searched the ground until she found a heavy rock, grabbed it and tossed it into the center of the passage. It landed with a
thunk.
Nothing happened.

Lil saw Kat push against the wall and stand. She stepped toward them, but they stopped in their tracks, faces frozen, staring at her. She stopped, too, wondering if she had been hit and hadn't sensed it. She scanned her body. No arrows. Nothing. Then she felt a hand come down hard on her shoulder. The room wobbled as a knife-sharp pain cut into her neck and the cold end of a barrel pressed against her temple.

“You three. Come here,” a gruff voice said. Lil looked out the corner of her eye. She could see his hairy knuckles wrapped around the gun's grip. Something like the smell of stale bread and wine met her nose. She watched as Sydney helped Charlie over the valley of bones. Kat leaned against the wall with her good arm and pushed herself forward, looking as if she might pass out. Lil moved to help, but a meaty hand gripped her. He pushed the barrel into Lil's head, turning her face to the wall. “Take that torch.” She grasped the torch and pulled it off. “Give it to the short one.”

Lil turned, catching Sydney's eyes. She took the torch with a shaking hand as Charlie bowed against her. Eyes closing and opening slowly.

“You'll lead the way,” he said to Sydney. “And the others will follow nicely. And if they can't, they will remain here and die. That is the way of the labyrinth.”

“I'll help you,” Kat said, settling her good arm under Charlie's shoulder. Charlie opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. It had to be the cut, Lil thought. Blood poisoning? They were losing her.

“Move,” Horatio said, grasping the back of the necklace draped around Lil's neck. It rose sharply against her windpipe. “This way.”

41

L
il choked as they plunged down a long passageway, following Sydney through the darkness. She could hear Kat breathing heavily behind her, the slight rustle of her loose pants keeping up with them, somehow, but she didn't dare turn to see how she or Charlie were managing. She couldn't have if she had wanted to, the way the leather cut into her, making her dizzy.

“Please,” Lil gasped, attempting to swallow.

Sydney came to an abrupt stop, and the torch revealed a large wooden door. The top rounded into the ceiling. Carved into it was a picture of a man with a Mohawk and a ring through his nose. A bolt of lightning ran across his chest. Just as she had seen on the necklaces on so many of the corpses. A boot hit the back of her knee, sending her buckling to the ground. Suddenly, the leather loosened from her neck and Lil sucked in a greedy breath.

The man pulled the necklace from her neck and tossed the charm in front of her. He whirled to the others. “Virtues down.” There was the word again. Why did he keep calling them virtues? What did it mean? Sydney pulled the one from the Daedalus chamber from her neck and threw it into the pile. Kat appeared next to her, leaning against the wall, and took a moment to get the one from the Minotaur chamber from her neck. Then she helped Charlie remove the charm from the Europa chamber. They plunked to the ground. “Thank you for collecting the four virtues,” he said, shoving Lil toward them.

“What do you mean?” Lil said. “The four virtues?”

The man squatted down to her height. This was her first time seeing his face, which she thought looked surprisingly sad. Her eyes flicked to a golden chain around his neck. As he tilted his head, a pendant he was wearing slipped to the center of his chest, and Lil could see that it matched the door. One lightning bolt cut across it diagonally. One side of his lips curled up in a smile.

“But you jumped in so readily. Surely you know.”

“No,” Sydney said, turning from the door. “We don't know anything, and we don't want to. We'll do whatever you ask. Just let us go.”

The man shook his head, wiping his hand across his mouth, and stared up at her. “A bit late for that, I'm afraid.”

“Then tell us,” Lil said. “What are the four virtues?”

Sydney shook her head in the torchlight. Her jaw twitched as she glared at Lil.

“You heard him,” Lil said. “He's going to kill us anyway.”

“You're observant,” he said, standing up and waving the barrel of the gun toward the door. He looked down at the virtues. His eyes darkening. He sniffed and wiped at his face. “They're the symbols of an evil group. Murderers all. Isn't it obvious?” He gestured around him.

“I don't believe you,” Lil said, her voice coming out in a low growl.

“No?” He pointed his gun at her. “Look around you. Smell the death in the air.”

He pointed to Charlie and to Kat. “Not even you have escaped its clutches.”

Lil's eyes landed on the ground once more. It couldn't possibly be true. Why would Mom have— She banished the thought.

“Pick up the virtues and stand,” Horatio whispered.

Lil collected the charms and rose to her feet. She took a moment to peer over her shoulder. She could see Kat leaning up against the wall, crumpling under Charlie's weight. Sweat ran down her face and soaked through her clothes. Blood soaked her right arm, but she still stood. She gazed back into the depths of the labyrinth behind them. They couldn't run, of course, even if they had been able-bodied. There was nowhere to go.

“Place them in the wheel.” The man grasped Sydney's hand roughly and pulled the torch to the side of the door. There under the sconce was a wooden wheel. It had four indentations in it. A place for each of the virtues. Lil's hands shook as she matched the pendants with their keyholes and pressed them in.
Kikpop. Kikpop
. Kikpop. Kikpop.
Each one clicked into place. The man gestured to a crank at the center. “Turn it to the right. Four times,” he said. He placed the barrel of the gun against Sydney's temple and stared at Lil. “Do not mess it up. Turn it a full rotation four times. If you fail, your friend will die.”

Lil grasped the spokes and pushed it to the right. She let it wind once around until the virtues made their way around. She spun it again, listening as something within the door seemed to move, unhitch, creak. She spun it a fourth time, making sure to stop it at just the right moment. It landed with a click, and the door opened.

Lil stared into the dark. Deep within the shadows, the yawn of old wood echoed, like a ship whose masts are bent on breaking.

“Step inside,” Horatio said, pushing the barrel of the gun against Sydney's head. She placed a hand on the door frame, steadying herself only slightly, and stepped forward.

“Find the light,” Horatio said. Did Lil detect a quiver in his voice? Did he know where they were? Sydney turned toward the wall and Lil saw the oil well protruding from the stone. She watched as Sydney set the flame to it. With a click and a pop, torches perked to life around a large cavernous room. Stalagmites and stalactites took shape from the floor and ceiling. A great hall. In the center sat a large wheel. Rising out of it was what looked like a very old potbellied stove. A clay chimney soared toward the ceiling. Several bronze rods hung from hooks around it. A door sat at its center, handle dark with ash. It had multiple spouts winding from it, giving it the look of a long-necked spider with floppy legs.

The man gasped, looking around the room. “It's even grander than I had imagined.” His hand rose to his necklace, and he stroked the gold. “Get in. All of you,” he barked.

Lil fell into step beside Sydney. “The symbols aren't of murderers,” she whispered. “Please don't believe him, Sydney.” Lil tried to meet Sydney's gaze as it circled the room, but despite her best efforts, Sydney would not turn her way. Lil pushed her hand into her pocket, feeling the damp picture of her mother, trying to reassure herself.

“Everyone to the center.” Horatio pushed them to a stalagmite. Kat tipped to the side, and Lil grabbed her arm.

“We're losing her,” Kat whispered. Charlie's head rolled sideways and Kat slowly slid to the floor, lowering her to lean against the stalagmite, her own breathing heavy.

Lil pushed her fingers to Charlie's neck, trying to find her pulse. A small beat rapped against her skin, and Lil breathed a steady sigh of relief. At least she was alive.

“I think she's just passed out,” Lil said. As she lowered her hand, Charlie's eyes fluttered, straining to open. Sydney joined them in the huddle, saying nothing. Kat struggled to get comfortable against the stalagmite. Lil surveyed them, looking from one to the other. Never on the ride up the mountain had she imagined that this was what she would find. That she would race for hours into an ancient labyrinth after—she pulled the water-damaged picture from her pocket—riddles and ghosts. The only people willing to help her, sacrificing everything to do so.

Lil had brought them in. She had to get them out. But as her eyes spun around the room, she saw no door. There was no obvious way out. There was no telling what lay beyond this place, but she had to try.

Lil turned to the man keeping them captive. “You seem to have found what you wanted. Now, why don't you let us go?”

He pulled a decorative satchel open. “Not before we fetch the Icarus Folio. Stand.” He leveled the gun at her.

The Icarus Folio? Lil wondered at the name. Icarus was the one who had flown too close to the sun. “What is it?” she asked as she stepped toward him.

He placed the gun at the back of her neck and pushed her toward the strangely shaped stove in the center of the room. With his other hand he pulled a large leather scroll from his satchel and unrolled it. Lil spotted it out of the corner of her eye. Lines were carved in the hide. It looked like some sort of map.

They stopped in front of the stove, and Lil noticed several small urns around its base. She looked down into one. It looked to be filled with ash, just like they had seen in the Minotaur chamber.

The man muttered to himself, then placed a foot on the urn nearest him and pressed it down. For a moment, nothing happened, but a second later, it sank into the floor. Lil risked a look at her captor. His eyes filled with greed as he stared at the floor. Lil turned just as three stones at her feet twisted away from one another. The barrel slammed against her head, and she was forced to her knees.

“Reach in and get it,” he said.

Lil gulped, staring into the dark. She couldn't see anything in the shadows.

She heard the hammer of the gun click. “Reach in and get it,” he said once more.

Lil lifted shaking hands and reached into the darkness. Something, probably cobwebs, she told herself, tickled her fingers. Her knuckles hit stone. She moved her hands sideways and grabbed. Her hands hit stone once more.

She turned, and the man's eyes widened.

“There's nothing there,” she whispered.

He pushed her to the side, but the gun remained pointed at Lil as he scooped a meaty hand into the hole. He grasped at nothing.

“No,” he said. He lurched up, grabbing Lil by the arm. He looked around the room. “The cartograph says it is there.” He looked at the leather map as though it had betrayed him.

His eyes darted up and down. Lil peered around, too, looking at the room from a new angle. There, just opposite her, was a labrys. She gulped. It was in a circle, the exact same size as the one at the entrance. She stifled a gasp, feeling the disk still heavy in the waist of her pants. Where would it lead?

“Ah. Well, look there, now. It's the tome of the order. It will have . . . everything we desire to know. It will show us the location. I am sure of it.” The man's hand tightened like a cinch around her biceps. He gestured toward a ledge above the door. “You. You seem fit enough to climb.” He yanked her toward the wall, gesturing to what looked like an old book, high up on a wooden pedestal. “Fetch it.”

The order? Lil stumbled toward the wall, her eyes flicking from the door with the labrys, then to the book high above it.

“I'll take the key,” he said, gesturing to where the cord had looped and was visible below the hem of her shirt. Lil reluctantly pulled the disk from her waist. The key. They had used it to enter a similar door. Lil licked her lips. Could they use it here, perhaps to exit? Before Lil could stop him, he yanked it from her grasp, the disk spinning away. He replaced it with a plain satchel, the one that had the map inside. “Climb!”

Lil raised her eyes to the old book on the ledge above them. Pieces of broken wood poked out of the rock, as if at one time or another, stairs might have existed there. At the top, the stone leveled off on a tiny platform, and there, the book lay open on the pedestal.

He pushed Lil toward the wall and she slid along the slick ground, hitting it hard. She clamped her hand around the first piece of wood sticking out of the wall. Perhaps if she could climb, she could use the book to distract him, or use it as a bargaining chip. Or . . . something. Get the key. Maybe get them out of here once and for all.

She pushed herself up, her collarbone immediately erupting with pain. She reached with her other hand. Her weight would have to rest on her weak arm.

“Climb, brave one. Do it for your friends,” came the man's voice behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Sydney held fast in his grasp.

“She's not my friend,” Sydney growled.

Lil shook her head. If she could get them out, she could make amends.

“Nevertheless,” he said.

Lil planted a foot, her body fighting her as she reached once more. She closed her eyes, her mind swirling to the first times she had climbed with her mother. She could see her, for a moment, there. The trees in the woods moving with the breeze. Lil had clung helplessly to the side of a rock, wanting to jump down instead of go up, into even more of a snare.

“When you take a moment to embrace your surroundings,” she heard her mother's voice say in her head, “the correct path will reveal itself. Embrace your surroundings.”

Lil opened her eyes. She climbed, feet scrambling for footholds along the stones. Her arm ached and her back smarted. Something in her rib cage burned. But she swung and dipped and rose higher and higher. All muscle groups worked together. And against one another. Like her joints had become coarse rock. But she climbed. “And if you do not see an opening,” her mother's voice came again through memory, “you make one.
Ze
is tolmira.
”

Lil's feet found crevices, and her hands found broken pieces of wood. And her lungs, somehow, found air.

She pulled herself up onto the tiny platform. It was slick with water, or mildew, and she jammed her toe into a crack to keep from sliding. The pain in her shoulder seemed to fill her head with ringing, and she leaned into the wall once more, trying to catch her breath.