CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stepping into the cavern was like walking out of a toasty warm house straight into a winter’s night.
Looking around, I felt my skin pebble at the chill.
Stalactites hung from the arched high ceiling.
Tree roots poked out of the stone curved walls that boasted patches of moss and lichen.
Small clumps of hard foliage were dotted around the debris-ridden ground.
There was a deathly quiet here. One that made my nape prickle. Occasional droplets of water pierced the silence as they seeped from the ceiling cracks and pattered the ground. Other than that, there was only the occasional low whistle of air coming through the fissures in the walls.
My pulse beating a little too fast, I rolled back my shoulders and dragged in a steadying breath. I could do this. I could. To prove it, I started walking, my boots scuffing the dirt and dead leaves underfoot.
I froze as I heard the flutter of leather wings. Bats. I barely held back a shudder.
Just keep moving.
I took slow, purposeful steps along the uneven ground. And I quickly learned that striving for stealth was going to be beyond difficult when the floor was littered with debris. Every step scraped stone, crunched leaves, or crushed little pebbles. Worse, every sound echoed and carried.
Cursing in my head, I kept moving. The further I walked, the stronger the scents of moist stone, rotting greenery, and stagnant water became.
It was dark, but not so much that I couldn’t see well.
There seemed to be a preternatural source of faint light.
Still, there were too many pockets of thick shadows; too many places where something could hide.
There were also some surprising things lying around.
Headless statues, crumbling spires, animal totems, and the remains of broken walls.
It was like walking through the ruins of an ancient cave-city. I wondered if maybe whoever created the labyrinth had initially made it look quite pleasing to the eye; wondered if it had all been bashed to hell by the minotaur. I’d sure bash every cavern in an attempt to find a way out.
As I weaved in and out of a cluster of stalagmites protruding from the ground, something caught my eye. A shed snake skin. I went utterly still, my entire system recoiling. Freaking fantastic.
So, let’s review. The place was dark. Cold. Creepy. A home to snakes … and a godsdamn minotaur.
It was officially my least favorite place in the world.
Passing the stalagmites, I frowned at the sight ahead of me.
The path … it didn’t exactly split, but there were two ways to continue down the cave.
You could either climb a set of visibly unstable steps that led up to a narrow, tunnel-like passage and then venture through it.
Or you could walk through a slimmer opening …
right beneath a nest of overly big buzzing hornets.
Yeah, scrap the hornets.
I crossed to the pitted steps. They were spaced a little too widely apart. Licking my lips, I planted my foot on the first step. It wobbled, making my gut clench in panic.
I eyed the hornets.
No. No, it had to be the tunnel.
I fixed my attention back on the steps. Each swayed slightly beneath me as I carefully clambered up them—my heart in my throat the entire time. Ducking into the tunnel, I wrinkled my nose at the tickle of dangling tatters of a spider web.
Shudder.
I crawled along the tunnel, grateful that I had no fear of tight spaces—a gratitude I’d felt many times in the last forty days. Something popped into view as I neared the mouth of the narrow passage.
And I found myself looking at a freaking jumping spider.
Oh, it’s a ‘hell-to-the-no’ from me.
Without thought, I zapped it with a crackle of moonlight that sent it zooming backwards. My pulse going nuts, I blew out a long breath. I hoped the same thing hadn’t happened to Lear—she had a real fear of spiders.
Exiting the tunnel, I found myself on a rocky ledge. There were more worn steps here. I descended them carefully, pausing each time one wobbled. Once I reached the base of them safely, the warm glow of relief filled my chest and tugged my lips into a shaky smile.
I wiped the chalky dust from my hands onto my breeches as I glanced around. It was then that I noticed a dip in the ground at the end of the hornet-filled path. Basically, anyone who thought to run through it would likely earn themselves a twisted ankle. Ruthless.
Facing forward, I walked along the passage. A drop of water plopped onto my head. Nice, I inwardly griped as I rubbed at my hair—
The toe of my boot caught on a tree root.
I landed hard on one knee—a knee that slammed down directly on a sharp stone. I sucked in a pained breath, unable to bite back a cry. I froze, my heart accelerating at the mere thought that the noise could have attracted the minotaur’s attention if he was close by.
There was a flutter of wings. A squeak. A heavy silence. And then I was dive-bombed by a crap-load of bats.
Lowering my head, I wrapped my arms protectively around it. What seemed like a hundred wings flapped at my skin, but the bats soon swooped away.
Breathing hard, I plopped my butt on the rough ground and palmed my smarting knee. It was official. I hated this place. With. A. Passion.
Not willing to sit around when the shrieking of the bats might have snagged the minotaur’s interest, I pushed to my feet and walked on.
The air lost more of its chill the deeper I went into the labyrinth. Or maybe I was just getting used to the cold.
I wasn’t sure what sort of animals lived here, but I saw enough scat, rake marks, clumps of fur, and teeth-gnawed bones to know that the minotaur had quite a selection of prey to choose from.
I couldn’t help but wonder who he once was; if he’d been human or godkin; what he’d done to so earn the wrath of Minos that this would be the consequence.
Or maybe he hadn’t done much of anything to deliberately anger the Sovereign. Perhaps Minos simply felt angered by something this man had done. Half-bloods could take offense quite easily, from what I’d observed.
I slowed as stomach-churning scents tainted the stale air. The unmistakable smell of animal dung and … something else. Ugh, what now?
I kept walking, frowning when I realized that the walls narrowed in these parts. Narrowed to the point where I soon had to turn my body sideways in order to squeeze through the gap. There was a low rip as the back of my tunic caught on the rough wall. Great.
Finally, the gap began to gradually expand until the curved walls were once more spaced well apart.
The nauseating stench was strong here, and I soon saw why.
I’d arrived at a shallow trench, and at the bottom of it was a sludgy pile of manure and some kind of pus—I didn’t even want to know what exactly the latter was.
I did know that I wasn’t going to wade through it for anyone.
Biting on my lip, I judged the width of the trench. I could cross it if I timed my jump just right. Probably.
Cursing beneath my breath, I took several steps back. Clenching and unclenching my fists, I heaved in a mound of air. My pulse was racing, and a sense of nervous anticipation waded through my blood.
I took off. I sprinted hard and fast, praying to the gods for aid. Then I jumped.
I went airborne for what seemed like a mere millisecond before landing on the ground. Ground. Ha!
My smile of triumph faded as the shale underfoot abruptly gave way. I dropped downward as the floor disappeared, throwing out my hands to latch onto something. A tree root. I caught hold of a tree root.
Dangling there, I ground my teeth. Gods, it was like the swamp pit all over again. I used my grip on the thick root to haul my body out of the trench and onto the ground. Breathing hard, I flopped onto my back, wincing as my head hit a small rock. “Ow.”
Sitting upright, I rubbed at my now-sore scalp. At least I’d managed to clear the trench. That was something.
I pushed to my feet, determined to go on. Spotting a few dried muddy boot prints, I winced. Either some poor soul had fallen into the trench, or they’d willingly dragged their crazy ass through it. To each their own.
I continued onward, arriving at a sharp U-turn. Wondering if I’d now reached the second circuit of the labyrinth, I pushed my way through a curtain of dangling moss.
And suddenly found myself in a supremely hot and muggy passage.
A dozen smells punched my senses. Overly sweet fruit. Decaying vegetation. Damp earth. Animal musk.
Glancing around, I felt my lips part. Branches with tropical fruit and gleaming leaves winded along the stone walls.
Ropy vines curled around spires and statues and totems. Dead leaves and pebbles were carried along the ground by rivulets of dirty water.
Ants were swarming pieces of fallen rotten fruit, and colorful frogs and lizards were perched on branches.
It was as if this particular cavern was located in a rainforest or something. I could only assume it was the power of either the gods or Sovereigns that had made the temperature switch so abruptly from relatively cool to oh my God, I feel like I could suffocate on this air it’s so thick.
For that reason alone, I was eager to move onto the next circuit. It was genuinely possible that I could pass out in this heat.
Batting away a droning fly, I started walking. Crap, the foliage was thick here. And unfriendly. I steadily barreled through it, gritting my teeth against the stings and scratches of thorns and spines.
I would love to know whose grand idea it was to send those participating in Xalbia down here. Then I could at least imagine how it would feel to choke them.
I wondered if the Sovereigns had ever taken a walk through the labyrinth. Doubtful. They seemed to avoid placing themselves in any form of danger.
Stepping sideways to avoid a twisted tree root, I flinched as something touched my shoulder. Vine. I took a relieved breath and walked on.