16 #2
The portal behind us dims, leaving only one way forward. The designing deities would never allow us to retreat.
In the first trial, we all arrived at the start of the race together. “Where are the other contenders?” I ask.
August cranes his neck, using his height. “I can’t see anything.”
“Everyone, look,” Ulani calls from where he crouches.
We huddle around him as he lifts his hands to reveal a coiled strand of string that glows bright gold like it was spun from sunlight, made from the same substance as the portal that carried us here.
“This was on the ground.” He stands and raises the string high, casting light onto the tall stone walls. At the end of the hall, there’s a wall with passages that open to the left and right.
Elias curses. “I think I know what inspired this trial.”
We all turn to him.
“We’re in a labyrinth, I think, and this is Ariadne’s thread,” he explains, his breaths shallow with fear.
My ribs tighten. Theseus only made it out alive because of Ariadne’s ball of gold thread. Everyone who entered it before him died. A beast haunted the middle of that maze. A minotaur. But that was centuries ago.
“Ariadne gave Theseus a spool of thread so he could find his way out of the labyrinth after slaying the minotaur. That is our way out. We need to tie one end to something here so we can follow it back to this portal,” Elias quickly explains, wiping sweat from his brow. “Gods! Why is it so hot?”
Vailea and Niall search around the dull, golden slab for something to secure the string to.
“There’s nothin’ here!” Niall hisses, his accent thickening with his fear. “Nothing but stone.”
“If this is a recreation of the labyrinth, there’ll be a minotaur. And it will already be hunting us,” Koda soberly says.
“Gods,” Niall whispers.
“We don’t know if this is a true recreation.” Vailea peers farther into the maze. “They might have conjured worse.”
From somewhere deep within the darkened twists and turns, mortal screams erupt. Frantic footsteps pound.
“Leave me here,” Koda volunteers. “I’ll hold the end of the string. If I go with you, I’ll only slow you down.”
My heart thunders NO. He can’t stay here alone.
“I won’t move. I’ll hold onto the string so you can find your way back to the portal,” Koda vows, nodding as he stares into my eyes. “I won’t move, and I won’t make a sound.”
“What if the minotaur, or whatever they’ve made, finds you and we’re not here?” I croak.
Koda offers a sweet smile and points at my spear. “You’ll just have to use that to take care of him for me. And until you do, keep him busy. He can’t hunt me if he’s already chasing you.”
A feeling of unease slithers through my stomach. I look to the others, who also seem to be wrestling with the decision to leave him behind.
“It would be safer – for all of us,” Ulani says, nodding his thanks to Koda.
“And we need an anchor if we’re going to get back to this portal.
I’d wager the gods made one for each group or individual who entered.
That would explain why the other contenders and allied groups aren’t near.
I think that to make it to the arena, we’ll have to pass back through this one, and they’ll have strings to use to find the way back to theirs.
” He ties the end of the string to Koda’s wrist, knotting it once, then twice to be sure.
“Thank you for being brave enough to stay.”
Koda’s red-clad chest puffs at the adulation, even as he waves off the words. “My part’s easy. I just want you all to come back safe. I want to hear the crowd roar your names when we win this and see one of you crowned with laurel.”
Ulani and Vailea lead us forward. Barbed trident and sharp, thin sword ready to strike, they set off into the darkness with only the thread to see by. It’s not enough.
Niall’s in the middle with Elias. The Greek lets the golden string unfurl from his hands as we move.
August and I bring up the rear.
Koda raises a hand to wave as we turn the corner.
Even if him staying behind is what we need, I don’t like it.
If this is the way to win this trial, it doesn’t feel right.
Everything in me screams for us to stay together.
And yet, something must anchor the string or we could all die, lost forever in this humid dark hole.
The other teams must be leaving someone at their portals, too.
Ulani sets a faster pace, and we cut through the maze. Instead of pausing, we try our luck when we come to a junction. Sometimes we make the right choice. Sometimes we’re forced to pivot, retrace our steps, and go the other way.
Sweat drips down my face, off my jaw, and splashes my chest.
I’m used to arid heat, not humidity. Here, even my palms sweat. My grip on the spear keeps slipping. Ulani and Vailea must feel the same way because they keep adjusting their holds on their weapons.
The golden string attracts bats, eager for the moths and insects drawn to the light. Niall growls and swats furiously when they swoop too close. August tells him to stop flailing and shut up more than once. Niall doesn’t listen.
Aymes eventually snaps, grabbing Niall by the collar. “You’re going to get us all killed!” he hisses into Niall’s ear. “If there’s a minotaur ahead, he’s listening.”
Niall stays quiet after that.
The string in Elias’s hand is getting short. Soon, it’ll be gone.
Just then, a bellowing roar trembles the stone walls around us. Shrill, mortal screams erupt and are abruptly severed. My heart thunders. The passage narrows.
Which group was that?
Ulani waves for us to hurry. With each step, we push ahead and move farther away from Koda.
Vailea and Ulani come to a thick wall. Before they start to turn left, something enormous plows into the other side. Stone breaks and mortar crumbles. We hear its beastly panting and huffing. Hooves scuff the ground.
We take off running as fast as we’re able, trying to stay together. August and I try to keep watch behind us as we flee.
Ulani takes a left, but another few strides and he comes to a corner. We turn around. Retrace the path. Take the right. Another corridor appears.
Is the gods damned labyrinth changing while we’re in it?
We twist and turn and fumble as the creature follows our movements, slamming into the wall dividing us from it again, and again, and again.
Soft light flickers at the end of the corridor as the string in Elias’s hand runs out.
Ulani and Vailea inch with their backs against the wall, facing the opening, weapons ready. Ulani leans forward and describes what he sees in a hushed voice.
The center is dimly lit by a single hanging lamp. At least twenty passages empty into it. All of them look identical. If we’re going to get back to Koda, we need to find this entrance and this string.
“One of us ought to remain here,” Niall suggests. “How else will we know where our string is?”
“You,” August insists. “You stay here and keep quiet. I swear if you run…”
“I won’t,” Niall vows.
Koda stayed behind as our anchor, and so we wouldn’t have to carry him if something went terribly wrong. He was brave. Niall, however, is only afraid for himself.
When the creature in the center roars, I take advantage of the noise to score the filthy stone beside Niall’s head with my spear. If he stays behind, I don’t trust him not to run to save his own hide, and he’s certainly not someone I want to trust my life with.
Ulani holds up a fist. We stop.
The creature who’d been going berserk suddenly goes quiet. Everything does. Bats don’t even dare to fly. All I can hear is my own shallow breathing. My blood whooshing in my ears. I wipe my palms on my skirt one at a time and grip my spear again, tighter this time.
“Where did it go?” Vailea breathes, carefully leaning forward to search for the monster who has been slamming into the other side of the wall we’re plastered to.
“Wherever it is, it’s not in the center of the maze. Maybe we should run out into the open,” Ulani suggests. “We don’t want to fight it in this hallway.”
He’s right. If the thing is as large as it sounds, it could pin or trample us here. If it finds our string, the glow will lead it right to Koda.
Elias nods. August and I do, too.
We ease around Niall, who crouches against the inner wall, hiding in the shadows. As if whatever creature the gods carved for this trial won’t find him, won’t be perfectly adapted to its environment.
Ulani and Vailea burst forward, and Elias, August, and I follow. We form a tight circle, keeping our backs to one another, surprised that there’s no monstrous beast waiting to devour or tear us apart. But near the interior wall stands a man I recognize well.
Blood pours from wounds on his head. The crimson drips, forking into rivers that flow down his face, beard, stomach, and thighs.
He’s naked save for a loincloth and covered in dirt and filth where trails of sweat haven’t dragged it away.
His knees tremble and without his cane, he sways on his feet like he’s dazed. His glasses are missing.
“Daedalus?” My voice breaks.
He doesn’t lift his head at the sound of his name. Doesn’t seem to hear me at all. Did the screams we heard come from him?
August catches my arm. “The man who made your prosthesis?”
I nod, overwhelmed and unsure what to do next. I want to go to him. I should go help him, but I can’t. And not because August is still holding my bicep, watching Daedalus with fear in his eyes, but because some intense, primal feeling in my gut warns me not to move an inch.
We’re in danger.
“Where’s the beast?” Elias asks, scanning the maze’s openings for any sign of where it may be hiding.
Vailea grips her sword tighter.
Ulani gestures to the damage visible around us. “Look at the floor and walls.”
Deep gouges and cracked stone, scuffs on the algae-slickened ground under our feet. The entire center space is covered in evidence that it’s here somewhere.
Is the damned thing invisible? Is it using Daedalus as bait?
Daedalus lets out a groan and sways again. His bowed knees look like they’ll buckle.