Chapter 11
T heir path became more linear with less branches and turns. “The entrance,” Aelrie said, spying dim white light ahead different from the orange light of the torches on the walls. “It is before us.”
“Then we run,” Shikra told her. Aelrie nodded to him, and they ran beside one another.
The path was long and a straight shot forward.
There were fewer dead littering the floor.
Probably because the labyrinth was so sprawling and expansive that the ones who braved the maze met with the minotaur sometime after they entered, more toward the middle section where they’d found the majority of the dead, not here at its entrance.
Not seeing the dead near the entrance would have given the intruders a false sense of security, prompting them to venture further in and not run away at the sight of it.
Once they were deeper into the bowels of the labyrinth and could not easily turn back, the minotaur prowling the maze, as was its duty, waylaid its unsuspecting victims, chopping and hacking them with its axe or crushing their bodies against the walls with its horns .
As they approached the entrance, which was a wide and high square cut into stone, they stopped dead in their tracks.
The minotaur waited for them, emerging from its hiding spot along the wall.
With its mighty axe in hand, a white beam of daylight shined down behind it, illuminating a path of rough-cut stone stairs, their way out, but they could not see much of it past the girth of the beast. They nearly missed it too, because the minotaur had blended into the wall so well, hiding behind a shadow in the corner.
“How?” Aelrie questioned, trying to work it out in her mind. “How did it not pass us in the maze?”
“It must have a secret passage,” Shikra answered. “One that makes it easy to travel through the labyrinth.”
“It knew we had to end up here, and it lay in wait for us this whole time.”
“There is no way around it. We must cut through it.”
She silently agreed with him, giving a long stare at the minotaur unmoving by the entrance, waiting for them to come to it.
“We need a tactic.” She turned to Shikra.
“It uses an axe, which is long and has range. We carry naught but daggers, and they will not pierce its foul hide. Not without your flame magic. Even so,” she sighed, looking at the minotaur again, “getting close enough to use them again will prove difficult.”
“I will distract it,” he told her. “Then you can get to safety. The minotaur cannot leave the labyrinth. As legend goes with labyrinths, minotaurs are bound to protect their secrets for eternity. Once we pass the barrier, we should be free.”
“If I escape, what happens to you?” His valor surprised her, even left her in awe.
She thought assassins had no honor. “While it is refreshingly kind of you to take on a minotaur by yourself, I doubt you can do so alone. And I need you. I’m not out of this Evergloom yet. I can’t have you die on me.”
“Don’t worry about me.” It was his only answer.
“No.” She grabbed his arm, trying to stop him from making a rash decision. “You’re going to tell me what you intend to do. We must act as one. Disaster happens when one acts on impulse rather than with carefully planned attacks.”
“I live on impulse. It’s saved me, and you, more times than once.”
“But this situation doesn’t demand impulse!” She showed her exasperation by throwing up her arms. “We need to form a plan before we attack.”
“Sounds like the soldier in you is talking.”
“Yes,” she admitted. “I have no shame in that. Being a soldier taught me order and discipline, that these things control fear, and that carefully laid plans bring about victory.”
“I never thought I’d live to see the day, but your soldier’s honor has motivated me.” He put his hand to his heart and gave her a half-hearted bow. “Very well, Commander, what do you suggest?”
She crossed her arms, narrowing her gaze on the minotaur to inspect it. Shikra stood beside her and copied her. The minotaur posed no threat now. It remained passive, holding its axe in both hands, not moving, waiting for them to make the first move instead.
“It has the advantage,” she said. “It merely has to react to our attack, which it will see coming and be able to prepare for. It has a weapon it can use to block and counter, quite effectively, I might add. The weapon is heavy, but the beast is adept at its use, as we’ve seen in our previous fight in the cave.
Despite its weight, the axe carries no difficulties for the minotaur.
The only defect is when it misses, and the axe has to be picked up off the ground again.
That takes seconds and gives us a window. ”
She eyed its horns. “Its other weapon, its horns. We need to be aware of where we are at all times during our assault and make sure our backs are never to the wall.”
Shikra hummed in agreement and brought his hand to his chin in contemplation. “Then a full-frontal assault won’t work. Neither will a flank for that matter, on account of our backs being to the wall.”
“We need to somehow attack it from behind,” she answered what they’d both been thinking, and turned to look at him, giving a pause to let him know what she was about to say next was serious. “Now you will tell me your secret, how you disappear in one spot and reappear in another.”
“Oh?” His brow hiked along with his voice. “Like this?” He gave her a devious smirk and stood before her one moment only to disappear the next in a flash of black shadow.
She sighed when she felt his body press against her back and his breath on her ear. “Little flower wants to know my secret?”
She didn’t respond to his cheekiness but turned to face him sternly. “Yes. But there won’t be any deal-making now. I need to know for us to win this fight.”
“It’s shadow magic,” he answered nonchalantly as if he’d never been evasive about it when she asked before.
“Shadow magic,” she repeated. “That’s dark magic.”
She’d heard of shadow magic but didn’t know exactly what it was.
From what she did know, it was a very high level of dark magic.
Light Elves had light magic, but Dark Elves had dark magic: darkness, a spell to blind enemies; manipulate and charm spells to control one’s enemies and make them do one's bidding; and shadow magic, which she learned just now was the ability to disappear in darkness and warp to another location.
“Well, I am Dark Elf.”
That was an oversimplification. Like holy magic, shadow magic was the highest form of dark magic, which not just any Dark Elf could wield.
This ability must have served him well as an assassin, able to strike from the shadows only to disappear back into them.
Just who was Shikra? They wouldn’t have sent any common assassin to kill the high priestess.
He was highly skilled. Deadly. Effective.
She stared at him, growing more wary by the moment, no matter the innocuous look he gave her, and closed her mouth, realizing just now it had been agape.
“Well then.” She cleared her throat. “We will use that and plan a rear assault. I will distract the enemy from the front while you warp from behind and deliver a devastating blow. Enchant my dagger. ”
He followed her orders dutifully, saying the sacred word and adding flame to their daggers. They turned to face the minotaur together.
Aelrie started with a charge. The minotaur braced itself, tightening its stance and grip on its axe.
She knew Shikra was behind her, so she had to keep the minotaur’s attention only on her.
When she got close enough to the minotaur to be within axe-striking range, the minotaur did as she expected, it went for the attack.
She did a feint left, flame dagger out to strike, and the minotaur took the bait, swinging its axe down while she pivoted right.
The minotaur’s axe slammed on the ground, rattling her from the impact.
She was vulnerable now to a follow-up attack.
But at that moment, Shikra appeared. He jumped onto the back of the minotaur and stabbed his flame dagger into its neck.
The fiery blade slipped all the way into the minotaur’s thick, furred neck with ease.
He removed his dagger with a swift pull, first dragging it across the minotaur’s neck, and jumped off the beast as a spray of blood shot out.
He landed nimbly behind the minotaur as it dropped to the ground, dead.
They looked at each other from opposite sides of the minotaur’s body, now lying in a pool of its own blood. His actions were commendable. Expertly executed on both ends. “We did it.” His smile back at her after she said this made her pride swell at a job well done.
“You killed my guardian.” A disembodied voice came from above them.
She flinched, looking above her for an attack, but saw nothing but darkness. “Where did that voice come from? ”
“You killed one as two. No matter. Let us see how you stand against three.”
Ominous. But what did it mean?
“Let us be rid of this place,” Shikra said, mirroring her own thoughts.
“Gladly.”
They passed the dead minotaur and came up to the entrance to the labyrinth, a smooth square cut into the rock. Aelrie walked through first and heard Shikra make a sound of dismay behind her. She turned to see him standing there, unmoving.
She was about to ask what he was doing, but he answered her before she had the chance. “I can go no further,” he said. “Something prevents my exit.”
“What?” She walked over to him but stopped just at the entrance. Try as she may, her body would make no move forward to return to the labyrinth, which Shikra was still trapped inside. “And I cannot enter. What is this?”
The voice came from above again. “The one who did the killing must pay the price.”