Two
Raithe had disappeared again.
I blinked, gazing around the rock cleft. A few feet away, Halek dozed with his chin on his chest, a dice cup held loosely
in his fingers. From the angle of the light and the faintly cooler temperatures, I could tell Demon Hour was starting to wane.
Kysa stood beside Rhyne, tightening saddle straps, making sure everything was in place. Frowning, I rose to my feet and walked
over. Ratuk huffed at me as I approached, and I patted his nose horn.
“Where’s Raithe?” I asked the insect rider. I hadn’t been asleep for long, a few minutes at most. Had the iylvahn waited until
I was unconscious before he’d slipped away? Or was I being paranoid again?
“He said he was going to scout ahead to make sure the path was clear,” Kysa replied without looking up. “I expect he’ll return
when his task is done.” She did pause then, glancing over her shoulder with dark eyes, as if knowing what I was thinking.
“If you are planning to look for him, I would suggest not going far,” she told me in a firm voice. “This place is called the
Maze, after all.”
I nodded. “I won’t be long,” I promised, and slipped into the narrow crevices of the Maze.
I almost didn’t see him
Rounding a rocky corner, I spotted movement in the passage beyond and instinctively ducked back, pressing myself to the stone.
Raithe’s loose white and gray clothes blended almost perfectly into the stony walls of the Maze; if I hadn’t caught that flicker
of motion, I wouldn’t have seen him until it was too late.
He wasn’t alone.
Something shifted above him on the canyon walls, the ripple of movement that had caught my eye. For a moment, it looked like
a section of the canyon wall had detached itself from the whole and was crawling toward him. As it moved, it changed color,
resolving itself into an enormous lizard with a broad head, splayed feet, and huge orange eyes. A rider sat atop the lizard’s
back, also dressed in mottled gray and white, perfectly camouflaged against the stones.
A second lizard and rider appeared opposite the first one, seeming to melt out of the stones. The pair of huge creatures crawled
down the vertical walls as easily as a spider, until they were perched only a few feet away from Raithe.
My mouth went dry, but Raithe didn’t react, except to nod to both riders. Words were spoken, but the snatches of conversation
I caught were in a strange, lyrical language I didn’t recognize. One of the riders pointed in the direction of our camp, and
Raithe shook his head.
As I peered around the stone, trying to see everything while still remaining hidden, a loose rock slipped under my boot.
Instantly, I jerked back, pressing myself to the cliff wall, my heart roaring in my ears, as I listened for indications that I had been discovered.
The conversation in the passageway stilled for several terrifying heartbeats, and I held my breath.
Finally, the voices in the corridor began again, though they didn’t last long. I heard a slithering sound and dared peek around
the corner to catch the lizards and their riders crawling up the cliff walls. The last thing I saw was their thick tails vanishing
over the rim before they were lost from sight.
Raithe was no longer in the passageway.
I straightened, my heart squeezing in my chest. The place where the iylvahn had stood moments before was empty. I didn’t know
where he’d gone, where he was now, but I knew I had to get out of here.
I slipped quietly down the narrow passage, took the first turn on the left . . . and ran right into him.
“Sparrow.”
His tone wasn’t angry, but it wasn’t exactly amused. Those pale eyes peered down from the shadows of his hood, the gaze expressionless.
“I told Kysa I would be back. You didn’t have to come after me.”
“Who were those people?”
Raithe hesitated, as if reluctant to say anything, then sighed.
“Ellel Dorei,” he answered. “Scouts of the Maze. They patrol the walls and take note of everything that enters or leaves the labyrinth. They have permission from the queen to deal with potential threats as they see fit.” He scanned the walls above us, as if he could sense invisible eyes watching us from the cliffs.
“I knew they’d spotted us earlier. I wanted to make sure there would be no misunderstandings when we entered Irrikah. ”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because outsiders are not supposed to know the Ellel Dorei are there,” Raithe said. “They are the ghosts of the Maze, invisible
yet seeing all. They are the first line of protection for the city—their effectiveness comes from people not knowing they’re
being watched.”
“Oh.”
Raithe sighed. “There are many things I cannot tell you about Irrikah, Sparrow,” he said. “We are a very secretive people,
and the queen wishes for us to remain that way. For now, trust that everything I do is for the safety of the group. Once we
get to Irrikah and you meet the queen, you’ll understand.”
I nodded. I still didn’t like it; Vahn had told me the same thing once: There were things about the guild that he couldn’t
share. I’d accepted it back then; the Guildmaster had his secrets, and it wasn’t any of my business. Except, it was. He’d
been lying to me my whole life, and when his secrets had finally come out, the Deathless King had destroyed the city.
We returned to the others, and found that Kysa had already saddled both Rhyne and Ratuk. Solasti had finally moved on, leaving
the skies to her sister, Namaia, who was casting long shadows over the cliff walls.
“We are ready to continue,” Kysa told Raithe as we ducked beneath the rock ledge.
“However, I don’t believe it is a sound idea to fly inside the Maze.
From what I can see, the passages are narrow, and there are many sharp turns.
Walking will be slower, but I would rather do that than have either of our mounts slam into a wall or clip a wing on a sharp curve.
Crashing your beetle is not a pleasant experience. ”
“Ah.” Halek grimaced. “I can imagine. Not that I’m suggesting this, but I’m guessing walking along the top of the Maze is
a no-no.”
“You’ll never find Irrikah if you go that route,” Raithe said. “The magic over the city makes it impossible for anyone, even
its citizens, to enter from above. Not to mention, you’ll draw the ire of certain people who might see such actions as an
attack. To reach Irrikah, we must go through the Maze.”
“No shortcuts, then.” Halek sighed. “Fair enough.”
“Also,” Raithe added, and his pale eyes flickered to me, “once we’re inside, it is vitally important to stay together. The
Maze is dangerous on many levels. Not only is it easy to get lost, but there are things in the labyrinth that you don’t want
to run into. Generally, the paths we’ll be taking are safe enough, but I want you to be prepared in case we do meet something
wandering the Maze.”
“Just out of curiosity, what type of ‘something’ are we talking about, exactly?” Halek wanted to know. “Are we talking angry
ghosts, the souls of those who became lost in the Maze and are now cursed to wander it for all time? Or are these more flesh-and-blood-type
creatures with large fangs and claws, who love to snack on lost travelers?”
“I have never met a spirit within the Maze,” Raithe answered, much to my relief.
“However, there are stories of iylvahn who swear they have seen figures in the passageways or following them through the labyrinth. There is a rather famous story of a kahjai who met a wounded brother lying against the rocks not far from the city. He offered help, but the wounded man begged him to first retrieve his ancestral blade from a creature he had killed. He had struck the creature a mortal blow, and it had fled with his sword between its ribs. Its lair was just around the corner, but when the kahjai went to retrieve the blade, he found the sword lying in the skeleton of some massive beast. And when he returned with the blade, the wounded man was gone. All he found of him was a long-corroded dagger lying in the rocks.”
Raithe paused, as if he knew his story was causing my skin to prickle, before a faint smile crossed his face. “But, like I
said, I have never met any kind of spirit within the Maze. The things we have to be worried about are the ones with large
teeth and claws. But we shouldn’t see them. The most dangerous creatures wander the deepest parts of the labyrinth and are
never seen except by those unlucky enough to become lost. We won’t have that problem. Still, stay together and be on your
guard. We should reach Irrikah by nightfall.”
We entered the Maze, Raithe leading, the rest of us on foot as well.
Rhyne and Ratuk plodded quietly behind us as we slipped into the narrow, looming corridors of stone and rock.
More often than not, the passages were large enough to allow the beetles to traverse them side by side.
Sometimes, however, we had to walk single file through tight crannies and crags that scraped the beetles’ shells.
At least it was cooler in the Maze than out on the steppes.
The walls were so steep, the light rarely penetrated to the ground, cloaking us in shadows that grew darker the farther we traveled into the labyrinth.
I kept my eyes trained on the cliff faces, searching the walls for movement.
But if we were being followed or tracked by mysterious lizard riders, I never saw them.
“You know, when I was in the village of Jihbel, there was this popular pastime called weasel running.” Halek’s voice bounced
off the cliff walls and reverberated through the passageways. “Two handlers would send their sand weasels through opposite
ends of a maze, and there would be a dead chicken or a piece of meat or something in the very center. People would bet to
see which weasel reached the center first, and when they did, they would bet on which weasel would tear the other apart. It
was a rather bloody sport. Sand weasels are vicious.”