Assassin's Maze

by Everly Frost

  I release my power and it springs from me so easily, coursing through my hands, a liquid fire that smokes against his cheeks and steals his breath.

  I meet his eyes and take his life.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  My power fades. I remain leaning over Gareth as my wings fold and disappear.

  Tears drip down my cheeks, cold in the fading sun.

  Cain shouts my name, appearing beside me, dragging me upright. “We have to go!”

  “No! Vlad is hurt…”

  Slade runs toward me, leaping over Gareth and scooping me up at the same time, throwing me over his shoulder and running toward the gate. We punch through, and I sense the ripple of his power as he fights the urge to release his wings.

  I gasp a breath. Inhale mist. “No—”

  Cain charges along behind us, carrying three packs, but his left arm is outstretched, holding onto Archer.

  She runs behind him. The light from her wings is still blinding as I lift my head, trying to see back into the clearing. I need to know what is happening to Tansy and Vlad.

  Archer bursts through the gate, crashing into Cain’s arms as he pulls her through. They drop together onto the bridge, arms and legs tangled, her wings curling around them both for a moment before they snap closed, finally disappearing. She slumps in Cain’s arms, leaning into him, her chest heaving.

  Slade skids to a halt and hurries to put me down, racing to grab a bag from Cain from which he quickly pulls out a blanket, wrapping it around both Archer and Cain.

  He says to Cain, “Keep Archer warm. She could go into shock.”

  Knowing Archer is safe, I race toward the gate, shouting, “What about Vlad?”

  The gate is closing, fading, turning into mist. I can’t see Tansy or Vlad!

  Slade’s pounding footsteps catch up to me and his strong arms wrap around me, pulling me away from the opening. “We can’t help him.”

  “No… let me go back!” I fight him, struggling and hitting at his arms, trying to pry them open. Damn him for being as strong as me.

  “Hunter! Listen to me. Tansy will heal him. She needed us gone so she could try. She couldn’t heal Vlad while she was helping Archer. The longer we stayed, the less time he had.”

  Slade spins me around to see his face but I’m still fighting him, panic raging through me. “I need to go back! I need to go… back…”

  He takes my face in his hands, his voice lowering. “You have to trust Tansy. She won’t let him die.”

  “But what if… what if she can’t save him… and now she’s alone in that forest…?”

  He levels his gaze with mine. “She’s strong, Hunter. It was the only way. She told us to go.” The barest smile ghosts his lips. “I wasn’t going to argue with an angry witch. If she heals him—and I know she will—she might just kill him herself.”

  He’s trying to make me feel better but it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know if Vlad is alive or not. I don’t know if Tansy is okay or not. They have both been a part of my life for long enough that I can’t imagine my life without them.

  I turn within the circle of Slade’s arms, allowing him to hug me as I shiver, forcing myself to take a deep breath. Not knowing what is happening outside the gate is killing me, but what’s waiting for us in the maze could be far worse. The message in the Coda warned that this place is filled with monsters. We’re about to walk a very dangerous path.

  I force myself to relax. “You’re right. Now that the coven is destroyed, she’s safer out there. We don’t know what’s waiting for us in here.”

  “We need to get off this bridge as quickly as we can,” Slade says. “I don’t want to push Archer, but we don’t have much light left.”

  The bridge we are standing on could be a walkway or it could literally be a stone slab floating in space. It’s difficult to place our location or judge the true nature of the stone beneath our feet given that thick mist surrounds us on all sides. The only similarity between the real world and this one is that the light is fading at the same rate as it was in the outside world. We only have an hour of twilight left before night falls.

  I drop my head against his neck for a moment. “Do you really believe that Vlad is okay?”

  He nods. “I have to believe he is. I might have tried to kill him once but he and Cain are the closest I have to brothers.”

  I tip my head back to consider the seriousness of Slade’s statement. He lost his older brother when he was young. Vlad and Cain have fought beside him the same way they have fought beside me. Their interests haven’t always aligned but they would fight to the death for each other.

  I kiss his lips, accepting that I have no choice but to move forward. “Then let’s get through the maze.”

  When we return to Archer, she has pulled on her protective suit again but she is still wrapped in the blanket, taking the possibility of shock seriously—especially since Tansy isn’t here to help her now.

  Archer laughs self-consciously. “I’ve never been butt-naked in front of a bunch of people before.”

  Slade gives her an honest smile. “For what it’s worth, we couldn’t see anything. Your wings were too bright.”

  “Thanks,” she says, accepting his word for it.

  I quickly check my bag before I hoist it onto my back again. Everything is where it should be, including the verdan and my katana. I’m grateful that Cain was able to grab my things before he ran through.

  I ask Slade and Cain, “Can you use your assassin’s magic here?”

  Cain clenches his fist, a copper glow building around it, the light swirling in the air as he moves his hand. “It looks like it.”

  Slade, on the other hand, is frowning. He turns his fist in different directions, taking a moment to answer, his gaze becoming unfocused before he returns his attention to me.

  Silver light glows around his body but he says, “My assassin’s magic feels normal, but I can’t create Realms here. The magic in this place is probably protecting itself.”

  I say, “I guess we’ll discover what else is different as we go along.”

  Cain nods and tucks the blanket closer around Archer’s shoulders. “We’re ready to move.”

  Cautiously approaching the end of the bridge, I try to see through the mire, but the fog obscures everything in every direction. Talk about a literal leap of faith.

  “Okay,” I say. “I’m going first. If it’s a drop, I can release my wings.”

  I slide my foot out from the ledge. Finding nothing beneath it, I carefully lower my boot, and am relieved to find a solid object beneath it. The mist suddenly clears around the step I took. I take another and the fog clears again but only around my location. I still can’t see beyond it.

  “It’s stairs,” I shout. “I don’t know where they’re going, but it’s all we’ve got…”

  The others follow cautiously behind me. Half an hour later, I take another step and the mist suddenly clears around us, revealing a clear night sky, a bright round moon filling the space with light. I stare behind us at the mist that still lingers over the top of the staircase, obscuring them high up. I’m stunned to realize that we have literally walked out of the clouds.

  The staircase spirals toward the ground hundreds of feet below. Beyond its base is the maze, a labyrinth of rock hundreds of feet wide and deep, consisting of twisting and turning pathways, all visible from this height. It looks like a puzzle: the kind with dead ends and deceptive entrances, a place where you could get lost and never find your way out. The pathways are also made of rock. So far, there is no sign of any monsters. No sign of Amalia, either. No life at all.

  In the far distance, at the end of the maze, an island floats in the air. A castle rises up from the middle of it that appears to be made out of something reflective—maybe glass—its surface glinting in the moonlight.

  Archer edges up to me. “That’s where we need to go.”

  “Are you sure?” I ask.

  She nods. “I don’t know why, but I
can sense it.”

  Her eyes glow in the dark. This place might be still and quiet but Archer’s body hasn’t stopped coming alive ever since we arrived. Her eyes appeared otherworldly outside the Realm but here… they are breathtaking.

  I ask, “What are the chances we could fly to it?”

  “Given the protective mechanisms around the gate just now, I would say slim.”

  I grimace. “I don’t see Amalia anywhere.”

  Archer squints. “The maze can’t be what it appears… I’m not sure if my mother ever came here. Her job was to guard the gate, but I sense this place has layers, maybe even realms within realms. Amalia could have gone in already. Once you go in… who knows what really happens.”

  I shiver but Archer continues, “Do you think you and Slade could fly us down the stairway? We’ve already lost daylight.”

  I swallow a sudden grin. “I’m not sure if Cain will appreciate being carried.”

  Archer glances back at the two men, several paces behind us.

  Cain arches an eyebrow at her, making her smile.

  She says, “You’re right. It’s better to go cautiously anyway. The steps it is, then.”

  By the time we reach the bottom, the moon is full and high in the sky and Archer has confidently removed her blanket. It’s a blessing that we can see clearly in every direction but our surroundings are overlaid with an unsettling silver sheen.

  The front of the maze stands fifty paces away. It has two openings, each situated ten feet apart. As we draw nearer, they both appear identical: yawning gaps in the rock wall. Behind each, the path leads left or right, depending on which entry we choose. It’s impossible to make out anything else.

  Slade takes my elbow, saying, “I also sense multiple realms in this place. We could step into one without warning.”

  I say, “We need to stay close and stick together. First things first… which entry do we choose?”

  Slade checks the entrance on the right and I step left. I attempt to peer around the corner to get a sense of where it leads, then the rock shifts beneath my hand.

  I leap back at the same time as Slade does, both of us jumping away from the entrances.

  Chunks of stone lift off each side, big slabs of misshapen rock creaking and groaning as they rise and spin, pulling together to form two giant humanoid shapes, one standing in front of Slade and the other in front of me. At least ten feet tall, the rock giants take a step to block and stand guard at each entrance. Glowing silver eyes appear like moonlight through slits in their heads.

  While the one in front of Slade remains silent and still, the one in front of me bends down, its eyes narrowed, a mouth forming between chunks of rock.

  Its voice is a soft rumble, “Who are you?”

  “My name…” I frown at the giant. Cain had asked me the same thing and I’d told him everything I was and could be, but this place… nothing is the same here.

  So far the rock giant hasn’t made any aggressive moves, but I’m wary of any sudden hostility. I answer its question with a question. “What are you?”

  It says, “I am rock.”

  “How do you have a voice?”

  The rock giant’s face contorts into an expression that might be a grin. “All creatures in this place have a voice. It is your decision whose voice you listen to. You must choose wisely.”

  “What is inside this maze?”

  The giant’s moonlit eyes swivel to the other giant. “She asks a lot of questions.”

  The other one rumbles, “She is Silver Wings. You must answer.”

  The first giant doesn’t seem perturbed, its rocky features taking on a curious frown. It gives me a faint smile as it returns its attention to me. “Inside this maze are more worlds than you could ever imagine. Worlds above you. Worlds beneath your feet. Worlds within the air you breathe.”

  Its face contorts into a definite grin this time. “Be careful what you inhale.”

  I plant my feet. “How do we get through it?”

  “You will face three gates and three challenges. If you survive each one, you will ascend to the castle. But what awaits you may not be what you seek.”

  Damn riddles.

  Its face descends closer to mine. “Now… who are you?”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I reply, simply, “I am me.”

  “So you are.” The giant leans back. “This is the first gate. You must choose which entry to take. I am Conflict.” He indicates the other giant. “My brother is Combat. Which do you choose?”

  Conflict or Combat? I turn to the others. “Neither sounds good.”

  “We should choose Conflict,” Archer says. “Conflict can be resolved. Combat only ends when one side wins or the other surrenders.”

  I smile inwardly. I would have chosen Combat because that’s how I tend to resolve my conflicts but I have to trust Archer’s instincts. When both Slade and Cain give their agreement, I say to the rock giant, “We choose Conflict.”

  The giant nods and angles sideways, opening the way for us. “Very well. You may pass.”

  As we stride past him, I pause. “Which door did the other Silver Wings choose?”

  The rock giant raises its head. “She chose Combat.”

  That doesn’t surprise me. Amalia and I are similar in many ways—and completely different in others. “Thank you.”

  It seems surprised. “I have never been thanked.”

  Before I can take another step, a rock hand lands on my shoulder, heavy enough to weigh me down. The giant leans in again, close enough that its eyes become enormous in my field of view. “I have also never seen anyone return from the maze alive. Remember what I said about voices.”

  “I’ll remember,” I whisper, finding myself thinking about worlds not voices, because when I peer closer into its eyes, the bright sparks contain a multitude of tiny shapes. I gasp. Is there a world within each of its eyes?

  It steps away from me, its pieces separating again, spreading out to neatly slide into each other and seal the way behind us. There is now a solid wall at our backs.

  There’s no way out. Only forward.

  Or not.

  Now that I’m inside, I discover that we are walled in on all sides. Only the sky above us is open. “What…?”

  Just as quickly, the wall in front of us separates brick by brick, clunking as it opens to reveal a sunlit plain made of… “What is that? More clouds?”

  “Mist,” Slade says, wading ahead into it. “Step carefully.”

  The sudden sunlight is disorienting, overly bright, and glints across his weapons as he moves.

  As soon as I take a step into the mist, the rock maze disappears completely. There are no longer any walls behind or around us. No sign of the maze at all—or the floating island that we need to get to. The misty plain stretches out as far as I can see, obscured just like the bridge was. At least on the bridge we could see what we were stepping on.

  Slade wobbles ahead of us, quickly regaining his balance. “The ground beneath is solid, but it’s uneven.”

  Cain and Archer venture ahead of me, their hands touching every now and then as they check each other’s position.

  Running my fingers through the mist is like touching water, little droplets clinging to my fingertips when I raise them, but the moisture rapidly evaporates in the sun.

  The silence is oppressive and it’s starting to get to me.

  The rock giant said that there were worlds within worlds in this place. I can’t see anything above us so maybe that means there’s something below—

  With a shout, Slade drops out of sight, disappearing completely through the mist. Closer to him, Archer races forward, taking two steps before she plunges out of sight with a scream that is cut short just like Slade’s.

  I freeze. Did something pull them? Did they fall? “Slade! Archer!”

  Cain crouches close to the ground, sinking so low that the mist rises to his shoulders as he swivels in my direction. “There are holes in the grou
nd! Hunter, you need to—”

  He jolts backward, disappearing a second later. There might be holes in the ground, but something definitely pulled him down.

  I take a deep breath. The rock giant said I should be careful what I inhale. I hold my breath as I lower myself into the mist. I fan my hands across the ground, tracing Slade’s steps and searching for the place where he fell. For all I know they could have fallen into separate tunnels. The ground is rough, oddly woody like… tree bark?

  Branches!

  We’ve been walking on branches and we didn’t know it. I quickly adjust my backpack and release my wings, beating them once so that the gust of wind carries the mist away. The action reveals a branch that is so wide I barely catch sight of the edge of it before the mist closes in again. If this is the size of its topmost branch, this tree’s trunk must be at least seventy paces wide, which would make it astronomically high.

  Slade has wings, but Archer and Cain do not. Unless they managed to catch hold of a branch on the way down… I have to get to them.

  A fork in the branches two steps ahead is where Slade fell. I tuck my wings to my sides and run for it, having memorized the path before the mist returned, and prepare to launch myself off it into the vapor below.

  An enormous shadow passes across me seconds before a screech sounds in my ears and sharp talons pluck at my back. I swivel just in time to catch sight of a giant eagle swooping at me, its wings spread far wider than mine ever could as its massive talons aim to snag me. They are as big as one of my arms.

  I dodge its path, ducking and rolling, narrowly missing the fork in the branches. With a shriek that splits my ears, the bird circles back and flies at me again, plucking at me. Its wings are so black that they appear almost purple, its head covered in creamy feathers and its beak and talons as golden as Archer’s wings.

  I would think it was majestic—if it wasn’t trying to kill me.

  I’m not about to become its dinner. Digging in my heels and spinning, I launch myself upward, crashing into the bird as it speeds toward me. Knocking it off course, I grab hold of its neck, my arms only just reaching all the way around. I spread my wings and wrench down, plunging us both into the mist.