Keepers of the Labyrinth (5 page)

Lil looked up to catch Athenia's gaze fall on her once more as she left the podium. Lil stared back, locking eyes with the older woman as the dining hall erupted into applause and a clatter of dishes and utensils took over.

6

T
he clock on the dining room wall wound its way toward nine as the plates began to empty and the stomachs began to fill. A large dog strode between the tables, sniffing, consuming crumbs and leaving large gobs of drool wherever a savory morsel had been found.

Lil lifted the tag on the dog's collar.

“Her name's Crumbsy,” a girl with long dark hair that was gathered at the left side of her neck said. “The grand counselor has a weak spot for street dogs. Do you mind if I join you?”

“Not at all,” Lil said, lifting a scrap of chicken off her plate. She gave it to Crumbsy, who accepted it with drooling jowls.

“That's disgusting,” Sydney said from across the table as she placed her empty bowl in the center of her empty plate.

“What's your name?” Lil asked the newcomer.

“I'm Katrina Andrande. I heard you three are in Hall D, too.”

“Oh.” Charlie pulled her napkin out of her lap and set it beside her plate. “Are you across the hall from me?”

“1D,” Kat said, nodding. “Oooohhh, who's that?” she said, looking over Charlie's shoulder. Lil followed her gaze. A boy about their age was making his way toward the table with a tray of copper cups with shiny, long stems. The boy had dark hair that had been lightened by the sun. His face was tan except for around his eyes, as though he was used to wearing sunglasses all the time.

“Hello, my name is Atticus. I will be serving tea and dessert,” he said, coming to their table.

He plucked a bowl of strawberries from the center of his tray and lowered it between the four girls. “Freshly picked this morning.”

Kat nabbed one of the berries before the bowl hit the table and popped it into her mouth.

“Can I interest you in any tea before you return to your dormitories?” he asked, gesturing to the copper cups on his tray. Up close now, Lil could see that they were bigger than regular cups, more like small, long-handled saucepans. They were each filled to the brim with liquid that varied in hue.

“We have mountain tea for clarity, sage for digestion, mint to cleanse the palette and celery leaf to calm jittery nerves.”

They each chose one, except for Sydney, who placed her hand over the top of her mug definitively. Atticus began pouring the steaming liquid.

“Are you just working here for the summer?” Kat asked as Charlie lifted her mug and Atticus poured more tea.

“No, I live here. My father—” He stopped and placed the cup back down. “My father and I run the kitchen. I also tend to the sheep.”

“You're a shepherd?” Lil asked, picturing the turbaned person she saw slipping through the trees earlier in the day. It must have been Atticus.

He nodded, lifting the mint infusion and pouring it into her mug.

“Thank you.
Ee
fcharisto.
”

He looked up and smiled at her.
“Parakal
ó
,”
he said, then moved down the table.

Aestos appeared on the other side of them with another tray of tea and fruit. “No
raki
for the youths. Would you like mountain herbs instead? Freshly harvested this morning and steeped to perfection.” He questioned the other conference attendees as he walked down the opposite side of the table, filling Atticus' silence with his jovial chatter.

Lil sipped the tea and put the mug up to her cheek, comforted by the warm cup.

“He's cute, isn't he?” Kat said, looking at the opposite end of the table, where Atticus was lowering another bowl of berries.

“Easy, Juliet,” Charlie said.

“Yeah,” Sydney said, grimacing. “Is
that
what you're here for?”

“No.” Kat looked serious as she placed her mug back down on the table. “I am here for the seminars on arts and culture. Athenia is one of my father's mentors. He works at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo.”

“São Paulo?” Lil asked. “In Spain?”

Charlie laughed as she sipped from her mug. “Try Brazil.”

“Yes, Brazil. Where I'm from,” Kat said.

“Sorry,” Lil said, feeling her face flush. Everyone here seemed so well traveled, or had parents who traveled. They each were able to speak at least two languages and seemed so cultured. Her few Greek phrases felt even more inadequate now.

“You okay?” Kat said.

“Oh yes,” Lil said. “Sorry. I'm just embarrassed.”

“Not to worry. I don't know much about America. That's where you're from, right?”

“Yes,” Lil said. “Vermont.” She paused, realizing it would be a real task for anyone who was not an American to know all the states in the United States. Just like she didn't know the provinces of Canada or the counties of the United Kingdom. “New England.”

Kat stared at her blankly.

“Northeast,” Lil said.

Charlie shook her head.

“Near Boston,” Lil added.

“Ohhhhh.” The girls nodded.

“That's a very important American city,” Charlie said. “I got a quill pen from there in 2005.”

“What are you all here to study?” Kat asked. Pulling a piece of string from her pocket, she began to knit with her fingers. Pink and blue bands spun around her knuckles and seemed to grow longer within seconds.

“Attention, ladies!” Athenia said, interrupting their conversation. She made her way to the podium and tapped the microphone. “Before we disband, we have one more matter of business. As was noted in your registration folder, each morning will begin with a unique challenge. The team that wins the majority of these challenges by the end of your two-week stay will win the manor team scholarship.”

Clapping and cheers erupted from around the table, and Sydney dropped her folder and sat up attentively.

Athenia continued. “The first challenge will commence tomorrow morning on our very own ropes course.” A ropes course? Lil sat up, too, suddenly alert. Maybe it was the same one that Mom had done. Maybe she would find herself on the same bluff shown in the picture of Mom and Bente.

“Oh, great,” Sydney muttered.

“And each team will have a mentor.”

A girl with a sweeping blond braid that wrapped elegantly around the back of her head started speaking. “Is this mandatory?”

“No interruptions, please,” Athenia said. “We will split up into our teams now so that you will have time to meet your mentor before your challenge.”

Lil's stomach flipped. Please be Bente, she thought. Please be Bente.

Athenia placed a pair of glasses on her nose and lifted her notepad. “Hall A. Team A. Your mentor is Colleen. Please meet briefly at the left wall.” Cheers erupted, and the four girls from Team A, including Vivi, separated from the table, making their way to Colleen. Each one seemed to walk like she was trying to hold a book on her head.

“Well, we'll definitely beat them,” Lil said. “They're going to hate getting dirty.”

“Don't count on it,” Charlie said. “Vivi's gone to Mouratoglou for three summers.”

“What is a Mouratoglou?” Kat hissed, taking the words right out of Lil's mouth.

“It's a highly competitive tennis academy,” Charlie said.

Lil looked over at Vivi. Sure, she looked fit, toned—perfectly put together, even.

“I won't be able to outrun her,” Sydney said. “I hate running.”

Lil could see that. Sports might not have been one of Sydney's skills, but she seemed fiercely competitive in other pursuits. Surely that would come in handy.

“We'll be fine,” Lil said confidently. “We all have skills. We'll just split up the tasks by strength.”

“Hall B, Team B, you are with me at the opposite wall,” Athenia said, indicating the wall to her right. Team B got up from the table. This included the girl with the wrapped blond hair. She didn't seem to be very motivated, Lil thought. She hoped that meant it would give them more of an edge.

“Hall C, Team C. You'll be working with Trudy,” Athenia said, gesturing toward the third wall.

Trudy got up slowly. “Hup to, girls, lots to do,” she said.

“That means we have Bente,” Lil said.

“And last but not least, Hall D will go with Bente. Please meet beneath the fresco.”

Lil handed her pen back to Charlie, who secured it in her case, and they all made their way to the fresco.

As she neared, Bente rose from her seat and they locked eyes. Lil tried to read her face. She thought the older woman squinted just the slightest bit. Her eyebrows lifted. It was nearly undetectable, but Lil could see the recognition. She stifled the flood of questions that rose in her. The questions she had been waiting all this time to ask.
Did y
ou know my mother we
ll? When did you mee
t? What was she like
? Do you really thin
k she . . .

She forced herself not to reach into the pocket of her jeans and pull out the picture. Now wasn't the time.

Bente smiled and extended her hand to each girl. Lil took it in her grasp, feeling the firm squeeze.

“Lilith Bennette,” Lil said, being sure not to hang on for too long.

“Very good,” Bente said.

Lil moved to the side as the other introductions were made. Then Bente clicked her teeth and secured her hands firmly behind her back once more. “Team D. Tomorrow will be made up of a test of endurance, will and smarts. I suggest you not only make sure you are fresh for the morning, but also review what you know of Cretan history.” Lil watched as Bente paced a few steps to the left, then turned and paced a few steps to her right. “This information may come in handy tomorrow.

“Second,” Bente said, lifting a folded envelope from her back pocket and holding it out in front of them, “is this. Each team has a different clue that will tell you where to go first thing in the morning. Examine it. Figure out what it means. Be observant.” She looked from one face to the other as she placed the envelope on the end of the counselors' table and pulled a canvas jacket off her chair. She wrapped it over her shoulders. “If you decipher the clue correctly and make it to the location indicated, you will find me.” She scanned the room. “The more prompt and alert you are, the more you work together, the more likely your team is to succeed. And it goes without saying, the more chances you have at winning the team scholarship at the end of the program.” She looked from Lil to Sydney to Kat and lastly to Charlie. “I think it's clear that some groups need this scholarship more than others. Let's make sure the right team wins.”

Bente walked away, without any departing words.

“She is so intense,” Sydney whispered, looking at her for just a moment as she exited the dining hall.

“What did she mean by that?” Kat said. “That others don't need the scholarship?”

Charlie looked at the other groups. “It's not obvious? I guess they're rich.”

Lil knew that the different dormitories had different fees. And she knew that she and her dad had picked the cheapest. That meant that Kat, Sydney and Charlie had all done the same. Vivi was right when she scoffed. They were in the servants' quarters, so to speak. Lil looked around at her group. Kat and Sydney both hung their heads, and Charlie fidgeted with the tattered leather strapping on her fountain pen case.

“Let's go and figure out our clue,” Lil said. “We need to take every opportunity to heighten our chances of winning.”

“Agreed,” Sydney said, flipping her flashlight on and heading for the door.

7

W
e can use my room,” Kat said, coming to the first door on the left, just across from Charlie's. Lil looked up at the top of Kat's door. Half man, half bull. She recognized the legendary Minotaur.

Kat turned the key in the lock and pushed the dormitory door open. As they piled in, a warm glow illuminated Kat's room. It seemed much cozier than Lil's, like she had taken the time to make herself at home. The stone had been decorated with a few colorful sarongs. On her desk was a set of knitting needles with a long section of ribbonlike yarn flowing from them like a river. But the most beautiful was the small tabletop easel with a charcoal drawing of a girl holding a puppy. Kat pulled a chair over toward the bench that ran along one wall as Lil stared at the picture. “This is beautiful. Did you do this today?”

“No,” Kat said, coming to stand next to her. “I came in yesterday. It was so peaceful to work while the place was quiet.”

“Who is it?” Lil asked as she stared at the large, round, yet sorrowful eyes of the girl in the drawing.

“This is Gabriela,” Kat said, tilting her head to the side. “On Sundays, we hold an art workshop for the kids in Paraisópolis. Some of my friends from the International School come, too.”

Lil tripped over the word. “Paris-opolis?” she asked.

“It's a favela.”

Lil wasn't exactly sure what it meant, but she thought she'd heard that word before.

“What's a favela?” Sydney asked, lifting the charcoal from the table and setting it neatly into the container. She lined the charcoal up so that the tip was the exact same height as the ones next to it.

“A favela?” Kat paused. “A slum,” she said, and then, shrugging, added, “but home to many. My aunt and uncle do programs with the kids there. I always bring art supplies from the museum and we have them draw their passions. Sometimes, their faces stick in my mind. Like Gabriela's.”

“She looks sad,” Lil said, taking in the large watery eyes. Lil couldn't draw so much as a stick figure.

“She is sad sometimes.” Kat flipped the page, displaying a new piece of art. “Not all my pictures are so sad.”

The next one was charcoal, but lit with colorful pastels. It was a woman with gray rags on one sleeve that melted into a beautiful flowing quilt on the other side. It expanded over her shoulder and twisted into a tornado of color behind her.

“A blank page is a place where you can dream endlessly.” Kat picked up an orange pastel and moved it back and forth, filling in a little blank dot in the quilt.

“That's beautiful,” Charlie said, joining them. “I'm sure the kids learn a lot from you.”

“We don't make it too formal, but I love it.” Kat set the pastel on the table and went to her balcony while Sydney placed the pastel back in its container once more. Lil watched her as she leveled the top of the pastel with the top of the others. When she turned, Kat was reappearing from the shadows of the balcony, holding a pitcher.

“
Chá
? Tea? Aestos let me borrow an infuser.” She held it up.

“Yes, please,” Charlie said, sitting down on the window seat.

Sydney pulled out the chair next to the desk and sat down on it, and Lil made her way to the window seat as well. They arranged the candles so that the space between them was well lit as Kat poured tea into mugs that she dug out of the bottom of her desk.

“Strange, isn't it?” Sydney said, accepting a mug from Kat.

“What is?” Charlie asked, pulling her notepad from her pocket. She looked around the room and started taking notes.

Lil accepted a mug of tea as well and took a small sip. It was still warm from the sun, and it made her think of her dad all of a sudden. She wondered how he was doing. If he was lonely. He'd sounded tired and slightly wistful when she had called him from the airport.

“What do you think?” Kat said, pulling her from her thoughts.

“It's delicious!” Lil said.

“No.” Kat nodded toward Sydney. “What do you think of what Sydney said?”

Lil tried to recover, but Sydney had already jumped in again. “I said, don't you think it's strange that they only have stained-glass windows in a solar-powered building? I mean, I understand the eco-tourism experience requires self-sufficiency—that's part of it—but it seems like the building would be more modernized in some ways.”

Lil glanced once more at the Minotaur. Like in her room, the frame was cast iron, ornamented on the right with a sconce. “I hadn't even thought of that. I thought it was just decorative.”

“Weird décor,” Sydney said. She yawned, but stifled it quickly with a wave of her hand. “I mean, wouldn't you want as much outside light as possible in a building that doesn't use electricity?”

“I don't know,” Charlie said, shaking her head. “Perhaps this was some sort of holy building.” She looked up at the stained-glass window as well. “You know how buildings have their histories. Our bookshop used to be part of a medieval prison.”

“Where are you from again?” Lil asked, wondering how it was she had anything medieval in her town.

“Ah, Villefranche de Conflent. It is mostly a tourist town now.”

“But your shop, do you think it is haunted?” Kat said, setting the pitcher down and joining the group.

Sydney rolled her eyes and picked at the chair momentarily.

“Margo says it's the floors that creak, but I know better,” Charlie said. “When she's gone, the floors creak more. Like they wait for her to leave, and then the ghosts come out to play.”

Lil felt a cool breeze slide in through the open balcony door, and she shivered in spite of herself.

“Actually,” Charlie said, sitting up straight, “I did do a bit of research when I first got our packet. They said this building was originally an olive mill. Its foundations are from the seventeenth century, but the stones that make up the rest of it are even older. Culled from ancient villages, even. In fact, this quarter”—she indicated the dormitory around her—“is the oldest. My guess is the other dormitories probably aren't quite the same.”

“Maybe we can investigate?” Kat said, lighting onto a bench. She crossed her legs pretzel-style and pulled her skirt over the top of her knees so it hung down to the floor.

“Speaking of investigations,” Lil said, pulling the note card from her pocket. “We better figure out this clue before we have to turn in for the night.”

“We've idled away our time. We have exactly ten minutes left until lights out,” Sydney said, looking at her watch.

Lil peeled back the seal of the envelope and drew out a cream-colored note card.

At the top was a map of the manor and surrounding area. At the bottom was a simple riddle.

To the trail
you'll head. In a ti
mely manner go.

Find
the Minoans. Buried
high or low?

“The Minoans?” Sydney said. “Who are the Minoans?”

“Ancient people from Crete,” Charlie said without blinking. “Though I'm not sure of the rest of it.”

“What I would give for my iPad right now,” Sydney sighed.

They all leaned in and looked at the riddle and the map once more. Charlie shook her head. “No iPad, but there
is
a library. Shall we take a trip?”

Sydney's head shot up. “The guidelines explicitly said that we need to be in our dormitories by ten o'clock.” She looked down at her watch. “That's five minutes from now.”

“What if we just go quickly,” Lil said. “That'd make us the most prepared, and still well rested. We'll grab a book on Minoans and come back downstairs.”

The girls looked from one to the other. Kat set her mug down. “I'm always up for a bit of adventure.”

A mischievous smile crept across Charlie's face. “Sneaking through an old haunted manor at night? Absolutely.”

Lil looked from the girls to the map. The alternative was to return to her room, to think about Mom. To obsess over the late hours. It would be nice to have a small distraction. “I'm game.” She looked to Sydney. “We can always have just a few of us go.”

Sydney rolled her eyes. “Oh, c'mon.” She shook her head, stared at the ceiling, then looked back at the others. Then back at the ceiling and around again. “Okay, fine, I'll go. Let's just make it quick.”

Lil jumped up and turned the note card diagonally, so the layout was in alignment with their position.

“So we need to make our way back downstairs to the foyer staircase, then take that up to the third floor. It looks like it splits Hall A and”—she squinted at the tiny print—“and the counselors' chambers.”

“Oh, perfect,” Sydney said. “Not only are we out of bed later than we're supposed to be, but we're actually walking straight into the counselors' quarters? What about this sounds like a good idea to you? What if we get caught? Could we get disqualified?”

They hesitated. Lil flipped the card over. No one had said anything about
when
they needed to solve the riddle. Nothing on the card indicated that they should wait, or would get sanctioned or be disqualified. “If it was off-limits until morning,” Lil said, “why would we all have gotten our clues tonight?”

“Fair point,” Charlie said.

“I think it's risky,” Sydney said.

Kat and Charlie needed no encouragement, hurrying to the door. Sydney grumbled but pressed the button on her flashlight. The light went on for just a second and then flickered and died. “Oh, great,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Macy—my little sister—must have unplugged my charger. Dumb kid.”

Lil picked up a candle from Kat's desk, held the wick to hers until it lit and handed it to Sydney.

Then they entered the hallway, their candle flames the only light in the darkened manor.