When they were gone, I exhaled the breath I’d been keeping in my lungs and let my back relax against the cold stone wall. The magic I’d surrounded myself in washed off my body like water, but I was still adrenalized from the rush. I slipped around the corner and dashed across to the fallen prospect, slapping my fingers against his neck as soon as I could. He was still alive, his pulse present, but he wasn’t waking up no matter how hard I tapped him on the face.
Given that I was still pretty new at using magic, I didn’t think trying to heal him was a good idea; the last thing I wanted to do was make things worse. Instead, I slid my arm under his and lifted him up, hauling his dead weight over my shoulder. I was lucky he was a slender guy, otherwise I’d have collapsed as soon as I tried to stand, but all those many hours I’d spent training had given me the strength to do what I needed to do here, and that was to drag this guy’s unconscious body over the finish line.
I didn’t want anyone to get left behind.
“Well, I see you’re clearly handling yourself.” It was Rey. I spun around and saw the little silver tabby sitting just a few feet away from me, his tail curled around his front paws.
“What are you doing down here?” I asked, for some reason whispering harshly instead of raising my voice.
Rey shook his little cat head. “I don’t know why we keep having this discussion, sweetheart. I’m the King, I go where I please. When are you going to accept that?”
“You do realize I’m in the middle of a trial, right?”
“I do, yes, and I thought I’d come in and offer some assistance, but clearly you don’t need any.”
“Assistance? That kind of thing will get me disqualified!”
“Really? Because I don’t remember Aaryn stipulating that help from a furry companion would kick you out of the trial. In fact, I distinctly remember her saying something about the forging of alliances… but if you’re not interested, I’m sure Ferrum would appreciate my help.”
I took a step toward him, reaching out with one hand. “No! I mean, you help that asshole and we’re… not friends anymore.”
“We’re friends?” Rey crooned, “That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day. I can assure you the feelings are one sided, but it’s nice to know where you stand.”
I frowned at him. “You can be a little asshole sometimes, you know that?”
“Yes, it’s part of my charm. Now, you look like you could use a little help navigating this thing—especially considering you’ve got… twenty-seven minutes and fifty-six seconds before that hourglass dissolves, the labyrinth shuts, and you’re locked in here with all these wonderful little curses and beasts.”
“I have less than half an hour to make it out of here?”
“You’ll do it a lot faster if you want to win, but essentially yes.”
“And you can help?”
“Ah, you see, well, yes and no.”
I rolled my eyes, turned around, and started walking. “I don’t have the time for games, Rey! This guy’s getting heavy and the clock’s ticking.”
Rey followed, then bounded in front of me. “No, I don’t know the way to the center, but yes, I can help you find it.”
“How can you help me find it if you don’t know where it is?”
“Well, this place gobbles up magical breadcrumbs, right?”
“Yeah, I saw that.”
Rey pawed at his nose. “People and things leave scent breadcrumbs the labyrinth is too stupid to clear, and cats have a good sense of smell.”
“You’re saying you want to smell your way to the center? How are you gonna do that?”
“Easy, I just have to find it’s scent.”
“Dude, how does the center of a labyrinth have a scent?”
“It doesn’t, but the minotaur does.”
Minotaur? “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”
Rey paused and focused his big blue eyes on me. “This is a labyrinth; why wouldn’t there be a minotaur running around? If you ask me the whole idea of a minotaur is a little on the nose—I’d have gone with a many-headed snake, or a three headed demon dog, myself; basically, something with a lot of heads—but the merry men that run this place aren’t exactly very creative.”
“How the hell am I supposed to get past a minotaur?”
“Good question. I don’t know. I suspect it’ll be a little harder carrying him around. Lucky for you, the other prospects will be asking themselves the same question, so that buys us some time.” Rey stood, turned his nose up, and wiggled it at the air. He spun around, his tail swishing, nose bobbing up and down, until finally he stopped. “It’s this way.”
“You know, your help would’ve been handy when I first stepped into this place.”
“I know, but I had… more interesting things to do. Then when I was done and I realized you were still in here, I decided I couldn’t bear to watch you squirm, so I thought I’d come in and speed things up. Now, are we going or not?”
Without waiting for my reply, Rey started quickly trotting down the hallway, pausing at the first turn to the left and waiting for me. I followed, trying to get a good hold on the prospect thrown across my shoulders as I went. He’d slow me down, of that I was sure, but if Rey was going to show me the way to the center of the labyrinth, then I had an advantage over the others at least.
I could only hope Felice was okay, wherever she was.
As the seconds passed, I started to get the impression that the labyrinth was getting darker. The glowing orbs in the sky weren’t lending nearly as much illumination to the ground below as they had been when we’d first arrived in this place, but I had a feeling that was intentional. If Rey’s estimation was accurate, we had precious few minutes left inside the labyrinth, and maybe the lights dimming was just another part of the trial, just another way to make it harder for prospects to reach the end.
I did not want to be in here when those lights went completely out because there was absolutely no other form of lighting that would let me see. The whole place would be pitch-black, I’d be surrounded by beasts and curses, as Rey had put it, and there’d be no one to pull me out. If I didn’t make it to the center, I was going to die in here, and then I’d be so furious at Draven.
He had promised. He had promised he would reconsider the Obsidian Order’s whole death by trial policy, that he would waive it considering they were bringing in so many new prospects ever since the day the singing stone almost put a hole in New York City. People had heard of what we had done, word had gotten out that we had helped protect the city, and all of a sudden people wanted to join us. Draven still wanted soldiers to help fight the wars, but those who couldn’t fight would be given other jobs to do; cooks, maintenance workers, anything.
But prospects were dying in this labyrinth. Already at least one had been killed, but for all I knew, more had died since this trial started. It was senseless, reckless, and cruel, and even though I was a nobody here—literally nobody—I couldn’t help but feel outraged at what was happening around me.
Outraged and terrified.
Rey stopped walking at an intersection ahead of us. His back stiffened, his ears turned back, and his tail went low. “If you don’t want to die in the next couple of seconds,” Rey whispered, “Stop breathing.”
I took a deep breath and held it, then I pressed my body against the nearest wall to me as best I could and waited. Rey made no attempt at hiding. In fact, he lifted his tail and continued moving across the intersection, sauntering along with a little swagger in his stride.
I could hear my heart thrashing in my chest, and the prospect I was carrying wasn’t getting any lighter. These were factors that were going to make sure I couldn’t hold my breath too long, but I’d learned to trust Rey’s words, so I made sure to keep as still as possible.
Something was coming. Its slow, deliberate foot-stomps made my insides tremble, a feeling that only worsened as the second passed. The beast was huge, easily as tall as the labyrinth’s walls, every inch of i
t covered in black fur and muscles like I’d never seen before. It walked slowly and deliberately on two massive, cloven hooves, its hands at its side, palms clenched into fists.
It snorted, and steam billowed from its bull-like snout, the gold ring hanging between its nostrils trembling slightly. Its horns were also black, and sleek; what little light there was left touching the labyrinth reached their tips, making them shine like deadly little points.
It stopped when it reached the center of the intersection, snorted loudly, then started slowly turning its head in my direction. I wasn’t sure how it hadn’t seen me yet considering I was standing in the middle of the path, but I had a feeling that was because maybe it couldn’t see very well.
Something to remember, Seline.
Precious seconds passed, and Rey wasn’t doing anything; not even as the minotaur began turning its head in my direction. My anxiety levels shot up, panic lowering my body temperature by several degrees. I was about to kneel and let the prospect rest on the floor, a motion that would probably give me away, when Rey spoke.
“How’s it going, Clarence?” he asked.
Clarence?
The minotaur turned its head and angled its body to face Rey, who looked like an insect in comparison to the massive beast standing between us. The minotaur grunted, splaying its fingertips then clenching its fists, repeating the motion several times. Wickedly long and sharp, black nails gleamed like knives.
“What are you doing here?” the minotaur—Clarence—bellowed with a booming voice. I could’ve laughed, I wanted to, I almost did. My whole body was shaking now, and not just because of the weight of the guy across my shoulders, but because I was at the point breaking out into hysterics. Its name is Clarence!
“Oh, you know me,” Rey said, “Just minding my own business.”
“More like meddling, you little shit. How many times have I told you not to help the prospects? It makes this whole thing unfair on the rest of us!”
“You seem unusually grouchy today. You feeling okay, sweet-cheeks?”
The minotaur lunged and went to slam one of its fists onto Rey’s head, but the silver tabby was way too quick and was able to quickly hop out of the attack’s path. “Get out!” the minotaur roared, and suddenly all of my giggles went away. This thing was pissed, it was powerful, and I wasn’t sure I stood a chance if I tried to take it head-on, but I had to try because I couldn’t see another way past it.
Now that the minotaur’s back was to me, I was able to carefully set the prospect carefully on the floor. Jansen. That was his name. I remembered him, now. I’d seen him in the gymnasium before, and in the galley, but we’d never spoken because he also didn’t like socializing with other people much. He always kept to himself, and always had a book in his hand.
It was my mission to make sure his reading days weren’t over.
Turning my attention back to the minotaur, I pulled my dagger out of its sheath. The blade was like a thorn compared to minotaur’s size, but if I managed to dig it deep enough, maybe, it would just pierce the thing’s thick, furry hide and do some damage. I had to be careful, though, because this dagger was the only way I had of doing magic with relatively little pain to pay for it.
“Okay, now I’m really sensing some animosity between us,” Rey said, “Why don’t you go back home? Have a bubble bath, or maybe a flea-bath? You like those.”
“Flea bath?” Clarence yelled, “I am the minotaur of this labyrinth, the guardian at the gate, a many thousands of years old spirit! If I have fleas it’s because we haven’t figured out how to keep you out of this place yet!”
As the minotaur spoke, its fists tried to snatch Rey up from wherever he happened to be standing. The cat was light on its paws, ducking and dodging, weaving this way and that, its tail swishing as it went. For all I knew, Rey could keep this up all day, but I didn’t have all day. It was time to act.
I held the dagger tightly in my hand, timed my moment, and sprinted across to where the monster was standing. The beast gave off a mighty roar and threw its fist into a solid wall, making it crack and sending a tremor running through the floor beneath my feet.
The closer I got, the more intensely this thing’s stench hit me; it was like walking into a sauna filled with fifty sweaty guys, all wearing nothing but leather jackets. I tried not to let it distract me as I searched for a weak spot behind the minotaur’s knees and, like a viper, I struck.
My dagger moved swiftly and precisely, the tip of the blade entering through the softer flesh behind the minotaur’s knee. The beast screamed and collapsed, sticking its hands out to stop from hitting the floor with its face.
I went to pull the dagger out, but the blade was stuck and wouldn’t budge. The minotaur turned its furious eyes, now glowing red, toward me, and I saw myself in them—a little white dot against all that red, helpless and unarmed.
Well, not helpless.
Clarence roared, and I could feel the heat of its breath on my body from where I was standing. It lashed out with a fist, but its range of motion had been cut and I was able to jump away from it easily enough. As long as the dagger was in its leg it wouldn’t be able to move properly, but I would be left without a weapon and without magic.
Deciding whether to make do without the dagger or try and wrest it from the minotaur’s knee was a tough choice to make, but I decided to go at it the old-fashioned way. Clarence turned, spinning around on his one good knee, and took a swipe at me, its nails hungry to taste my flesh. I made a run for the nearest wall, leapt toward it, and then vaulted away from it with my foot, performing an aerial backflip that kept me from becoming mince-meat.
The minotaur’s nails collided with the solid stone wall, sending sparks flying in all directions and making the beast shriek from the pain. I grabbed hold of its arm, flung myself around it, and leapt onto the beast’s back, pressing my feet against the back of its head and grabbing hold of its horns. The minotaur tried to stand, but the dagger embedded in its knee was making that impossible.
It crouched and tried to dislodge the dagger, and I took the opportunity to kick it in the back of the head again, and again, and again. After the third kick, the minotaur gave up on trying to pull the small dagger out of its knee and then tried to reach for me. I felt it rise beneath me, roaring, grunting from the pain of trying to get upright. Then it jerked its back, it groaned loudly, and a small metal object clattered to the floor.
The beast didn’t need a second to recover. It tried to grab my leg but I was quick enough to jump out of its reach. I could not, however, grab hold of its horns again, and I went rolling down its back and crashing onto my elbow and shoulder.
Gritting my teeth against the pain, knowing full well this thing was about to crush my head under one of its hooves, I rolled onto my side, scrambled to get back to my feet, and made a mad dash for my dagger which was covered in red gore.
The minotaur came charging after me, but I managed to grab the dagger and turn around in time to catch the furious look on its face as one of its hands descended upon me. “Lune!” I yelled, and a beam of blinding, golden light erupted from the dagger in my hand and shot directly into the minotaur’s face, my magic working through me, electrifying my skin.
The minotaur’s swing went wide, and I charged, aiming for the creature’s throat. It reared, pulling its hands up to its eyes to shield them from the light while I leapt into the air and plunged my dagger into its throat. Hot blood sprayed out of the minotaur’s neck and covered my hand, face, and arm as I fell away from the beast, tucking into a forward roll to avoid getting hurt again.
Clarence fumbled with the dagger at its throat, its huge, fumbling fingers unable to grip the handle which was not only tiny, but now slippery with red blood, too. It gargled, snorting and grunting, then fell onto its front. I watched the creature heave once, twice… then it burst into a cloud of black mist that disappeared into the darkness around us, leaving my dagger behind on the spot in which it had fallen.
An instant
later the blood covering me also started to disperse into the air, and Rey appeared, bounding into view. “Good job,” he said. “That’ll teach him to be a little less hospitable to his old friends.”
I stared at the cat, my eyes wide. “Old friends?” I asked, my voice pitched high. “Are you going to tell me what the hell that was?”
“A minotaur,” Rey said. “It’s gone, now.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Where is it?”
“Respawning for the next prospect. You’d better hurry unless you want to have to fight him again. He seemed extra pissed off tonight.”
“What the hell are you?” I had to ask the question again, because right now I had no idea.
“Am I really expected to go into that when the center of the labyrinth is right there? I don’t have to remind you that the hourglass is draining fast…”
Crap. I dashed over to the prospect lying on the floor, picked him up as fast as I could, and then started moving quickly in the direction Rey had told me to go. Unlike all of the other hallways I’d been through, there was light at the end of this one; a soft, inviting blue light that felt like freedom the closer I got to it.
As I approached, a number of shadowy figures started manifesting from within the labyrinth’s bright center. They were indistinguishable at first, but as I got closer, I realized one of them was Ferrum. My heart sank into the pit of my stomach.
He’d beaten me to the center somehow, and he’d brought his two goons with him. All three of them had their hands buried inside of a glowing, sky blue orb that was floating in mid-air. A renewed sense of dread filled me with every step that I took, but then I saw Felice, and relief flooded my body in a soothing wave.
I picked up the pace, rushing closer to the opening that would take me to the center. As I reached the end of the hallway, I noticed a field of blue light stood between me and the end. Deciding I hadn’t come this far only to be stopped by a wall of light, I picked up the pace, put my head down, and rushed through it, but my balance was immediately thrown off once I reached the other side and I toppled to the floor, rolling over myself.
The Obsidian Order Boxed Set Page 30