by Tom Lloyd
He opened his eyes again. ‘We’re about halfway to the central column I’d guess, more towards the middle of the nearer side. But do we want to go in or straight down?’
‘Down’s no good,’ Torril piped up, joining them. ‘All the good stuff is at the bottom in Duegar cities, remember?’
‘Surely going down’s a good thing then?’ Ulestim said.
‘Aye, but a bit fucking obvious.’
‘First step in a labyrinth isn’t likely to be in the right direction,’ Bade agreed. ‘A double bluff works in the favour of idiots and anyone with the brains to construct all this probably wasn’t on the side o’ the stupid.’
‘Thirty-three or seventeen then?’
Bade sighed. ‘Shattered gods and little fishes, guesswork’ll be the death of us.’
‘Thirty-three,’ Torril said. ‘This is a cube, innit?’
None of the others spoke for a while as they exchanged looks, taking long enough that Torril started to look worried that he’d said something particularly stupid.
‘I can see it,’ Bade said eventually. ‘Always thought Hopper had a sense of humour, could be it’s one o’ his little jokes even. Anyone got any other ideas?’
When no one spoke up Torril looked relieved and they all turned towards the doorway on the left-hand wall.
‘Thirty-three it is. Fork – you’re up this time.’
The woman timidly approached the door before pausing to glance back at them. ‘Are you sure?’
‘’Course we are,’ Bade snapped loudly, ‘we’re the fucking experts so stop arguing and open the bastard door!’
She reached out and placed her palm on the centre plate, closing her eyes and wincing as she let her magic surge out.
Chapter 26
Everyone held their breath. There was a moment of complete silence then the door swung open on its own and they all flinched. There was only dark in the chamber beyond, black enough that Toil could see nothing at all. For a horrible moment she imagined herself stepping through on to nothing and falling silently into the dark. Aside from Lastani and Sitain the rest hung well back, clustered around the mouth of the tunnel they’d walked down into this cube-shaped tomb. In the light of the Monarch’s Duegar lamp, she could see that most were watching her with a strange grimace on their faces, clearly expecting something terrible to happen very soon.
Toil shook her head and beckoned Sitain forward.
‘You’re up, girly.’
Lastani, who had opened the door with a burst of magic, edged aside for Sitain who peered forward into the next chamber of the labyrinth. The night mage had described what she could see of the labyrinth below as they descended the stair, providing plenty of incentive for Toil and Lastani to get the above doors open in a matter of minutes. A massive cube-shaped room on the other side, empty but for three doorways, had been something of a disappointment, but Toil had taken it as a sign they really were in the labyrinth now and the game had properly begun.
‘Well?’ Toil demanded.
‘It’s dark,’ Sitain replied after a few moments. ‘Dark and empty.’
‘Is that good?’ someone behind asked. Lynx.
Toil turned to look at Lastani, who made a non-committal face. Toil shrugged. ‘Of course it’s good news, we’re not dead, are we?’
‘You ain’t stepped through the door yet,’ Lynx pointed out. ‘I’m just saying.’
‘Yeah, well, thought I gave you all instructions about saying too much.’
Toil hung the metal handle of her Duegar lamp from a notch on the end of her staff and held it out over the chamber threshold.
‘It’s empty,’ Sitain confirmed. ‘Just doorways—No, wait. There’s something on the floor. A circle I think.’
Toil checked the floor was solid then took a breath and stepped through into the room. With her lamp held high she looked all around, pausing when she spotted something above the doorway she’d just entered through. ‘There’s another number here, a two,’ she pointed out. ‘That follows on nicely from the “one” above the tunnel we came out of. Mebbe we did choose the right door after all.’
‘And the others?’ Lastani followed her through, advancing a few steps further into the room.
There was one doorway on the far wall, a second on the right-hand wall and a trapdoor in the floor, identical to the other doors, bar its orientation, right down to the shining disc inscribed with a Duegar symbol. Just before the trapdoor there was indeed a circle – or rather, a ring of Duegar glyphs almost ten yards across. They were inscribed on small squares of stone raised up on the inner edge so each glyph was angled slightly outward.
‘What is it? A test?’
‘Paranil?’ Toil called back, the man looking rather more assured in a long plain coat and tunic than he ever had in his Lighthouse Guard uniform. ‘Thoughts?’
Paranil joined them ahead of the rest of the group. ‘Fire,’ he said.
‘What? Where?’ Sitain demanded, whirling in alarm.
‘Written on the floor.’
‘Ah. Oh.’ Though there wasn’t much light to see, by the set of her shoulders Toil was pretty certain Sitain was blushing.
‘Don’t worry, Sitain,’ she said. ‘Any mistake that doesn’t kill you doesn’t count and there’re huge holes in every Duegar expert’s knowledge.’
She approached the ring but stopped well short and held a hand out to make it clear she wanted the others to keep clear.
‘What do you think, boss?’ Aben asked, joining her.
Toil glanced back. ‘Are we all through?’
He did a quick head count. ‘Aye.’
‘I think we might have made a mistake picking that door after all.’
‘Shit, really? How do you know?’
‘Looks like a firetrap to me, one they’re not even trying to hide.’
‘So mebbe it’s another test?’
‘Let’s hope so.’
‘You want to go back?’
‘You can’t!’ Lastani broke in. ‘I mean, you really shouldn’t.’
‘I know, I know.’
Aben blinked at her. ‘Well I don’t, why not?’
‘’Cos it’s a test,’ Lynx said from behind them. ‘You make your choices and you take the consequences.’
Toil managed a small laugh at that and looked back at him. ‘The labyrinth of your life, eh?’
He scowled at her. ‘Oh, funny.’
‘He’s right,’ Lastani insisted. ‘It is a test – the riddle of the Fountain made that clear. The labyrinth is a test for the worthy. Deciding to backtrack could prove just as dangerous as a wrong choice.’
‘That’s comforting,’ Aben said. ‘Think I prefer Lynx’s way of looking at it.’
‘Either way, we press on.’
Toil held her lamp high and took a lap around the perimeter, looking for anything of note on the smooth, plain stone walls. Eventually she came back to where the rest were waiting.
‘Three exits, just like that first room.’ She pointed to the door directly opposite where they’d entered. ‘Twenty-two above that one, sixteen on the right-hand wall.’
‘And thirty-nine on the floor,’ Lastani finished, skirting the circle as she returned from looking.
The chamber was the same proportions as the one they had just left – forty yards in each direction. Toil realised it didn’t echo as much as she would have expected. With stone on all sides and nothing to absorb the sound, to her ears it didn’t sound quite right, as though the Duegar had done something to the rock to dull the sound.
Or maybe to stop you hearing the screams from your competitors, a treacherous voice at the back of her head added.
‘None of those mean anything special to me,’ Toil said. ‘Right now I want to work out if we can keep that door open as we choose.’
‘It’s a risk,’ Lastani said.
‘I know,’ she admitted. ‘But how much of one? You’re our expert on the riddle. Do you think this puzzle-box is one that’ll allow us to learn its
rules or expect us to know them from the start?’
‘I, ah, I don’t know. You mean some sort of cultural context?’
‘I guess so. Who was this puzzle designed for? Other Duegar, right? I’ve never seen or heard of anything like the labyrinth before. We don’t have much to compare it to, but it could be they all knew what they were getting into before they opened it up. Maybe some sort of priesthood on the surface to warn them they’ll die if they make a mistake, die if they try to open one door without shutting the first or something.’
Toil pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling her thoughts turning full circle upon themselves and never nearing any part that looked like a conclusion.
‘What sort o’ dumbshit don’t want the option?’ Deern broke in. ‘That glyph says fire, woman. If this whole box fills up with fire, we need a way out.’
‘You really think leaving yourself a way out will help if this place wants to kill you?’ Lynx replied scornfully. ‘You think it’ll just let you have another try?’
Deern sneered. ‘Poor convict Lynx. No matter how far you run or how much you eat, you’ll always be that broken little prisoner, eh?’
Lynx made to storm forward, but Teshen grabbed him. ‘Hey, stow it! You too, Deern!’
‘I ain’t startin’ nothin’,’ Deern said, pistol drawn and levelled. ‘But if fat-boy does, I’ll finish it.’
‘And I’ll finish you,’ Teshen snapped. ‘Either o’ you. One of you pulls a weapon without cause again while I’m stuck inside a stone box with you, I’ll kill you before you even fucking see me coming.’
‘Sure, sure,’ Deern said, a small smile on his lips. With a deliberate movement he turned his mage-pistol aside and made the hammer safe. ‘Mebbe you can keep hefty o’ Tempest on a leash since Toil clearly won’t.’
‘Merciful gods,’ Lastani gasped. ‘I’m stuck in here with madmen. You’re going to get us all killed!’
‘No they’re not,’ Toil said firmly. She took a few steps forward and laid a hand on Lynx’s shoulder as Teshen released him.
‘Lynx, keep it together. I know you’re scratchy in the dark, but we can’t keep having this conversation. You’re right, though. We’re not going back and there’s no point not playing the game sensibly. Either the first door needs to be shut or it doesn’t matter – either way, leaving it open does us no good.’
Lynx grunted and reluctantly unpeeled his fingers from around his sword hilt. He went to shut the door, giving Deern the evil eye as he passed. The door itself took little effort to shut and with a soft grind of stone, it closed behind them.
‘There’s a panel on the back of this door too,’ he reported, pointing at the shining disc with the glyph ‘gift’ inscribed.
‘Maybe there is some going back after all,’ Toil said, looking at Lastani. ‘But we’re not for the moment, so let’s move on. Which door do you fancy?’
‘What about the circle?’ Sitain pointed out. ‘We can’t just ignore that, can we?’
‘Another offering?’
From the back of the group, Atieno cleared his throat. The ageing mage stepped stiffly forward, a glass ball tinted faintly orange between finger and thumb. ‘Perhaps another gift?’ he suggested.
‘Seems a bit big for that,’ Toil pointed out. ‘How many have you got?’
‘Of fire? Two.’
‘Go on then, might as well give it a try.’
They all stepped well back before Atieno tossed the glass ball into the centre of the ring. It broke as it landed and a gout of flame washed over the stone floor. It spread like a pail of spilled water before winking out again – starved of fuel once the modest spark of magic had been consumed. The glass balls were far less powerful than burners, having been created without a God Fragment to focus the magic, but the fire extended far enough for Toil to see something important.
‘It stopped at the glyphs,’ she exclaimed, pointing. ‘Look, the flame went up to the edge but never crossed it.’
‘How does that help us?’ Lynx said.
‘It’s more information than we had before. Now we just need to work out what it means.’
She walked around the circle once more, checking all the glyphs were the same. That done, Toil reached out with one end of her staff and pushed it through the boundary. She felt no resistance and nothing happened, but a sixth sense made her set it down on the floor rather than pull it out again.
‘Two choices,’ she announced. ‘We pick a door and try it. Or we all get in the circle and then one of us leaves it to pick a door.’
‘Why?’
‘Magic didn’t get past the circle,’ she explained, ‘but pushing something in was no effort, so it’s not a physical barrier. I think it’s like a test of faith – you have to step inside before you go any further.’
‘And then what happens? You step out and get burned, or only when you try a door?’
‘Doesn’t a little mystery add spice to your life, Lynx?’
‘Reckon I’ve got enough to be going on with,’ he replied grumpily.
Teshen stepped forward, clearly having reminded himself that he was the senior Card there alongside Safir, Toil’s unusual appointment notwithstanding.
‘Vote on it then, mages and relic hunters. What’s your best bet?’
‘Vote?’ Toil said. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Vote,’ Teshen said firmly. ‘Let’s see how everyone who matters thinks before we talk about whether this is a democracy.’
To add weight to his words, Safir took a small pace forward to stand beside Teshen. The easterner said nothing, but he didn’t need to. Toil didn’t bother trying to glare them down. She’d browbeaten lords and hard-bitten veterans in her time, but she knew Teshen was a stone-cold killer, trained and tempered in the Mage Islands if her guess was correct. It was rare she came up against someone like that and she wasn’t going to risk wasting her breath or life starting a confrontation.
‘You heard the Knight of Tempest,’ she said, inclining her head very slightly to the man. ‘Cast your votes. After that we can have a lively discussion about democracy in Anatin’s Mercenary Deck.’
She heard Kas give a snort, but ignored her as she looked to the mages for comment.
‘Circle,’ Atieno said first. ‘It’s there for a reason.’
‘One of us tries the door,’ Sitain countered. ‘Either it works or it doesn’t. A mage is harder to kill with magic anyway, you’ve all seen that, and we don’t know the circle isn’t a trap either.’
‘I would prefer to test every option,’ Lastani said cautiously. ‘The gift to enter the room was modest; to channel it into a weapon and kill the mage it came from is unlikely.’
‘Paranil?’ Toil asked. ‘Aben, Barra?’
‘I agree with Atieno,’ Paranil said with a nervous cough. ‘Perhaps it’s a ruse, perhaps it’s a lure, but there is nothing else in this room. I would expect some sort of indication if the circle was anything other than integral.’
‘I’m with you, boss,’ Aben added loyally, Barra just grunting in agreement.
‘I’m for the circle,’ Toil confirmed. ‘Anyone – anyone other than Deern – got an opinion I might be interested in?’
No one spoke up.
‘How about you, Teshen?’
The burly man grinned and swept back a lock of hair that had escaped his topknot. ‘Not me, Princess, you’re in command here.’
‘Oh, you remembered that, eh?’ she said and patted the badge sewn on to her jacket. ‘Thought I’d lost this for a while there.’
‘So which door?’
‘Buggered if I know.’
General Derjain Faril of the Knights-Charnel of the Long Dusk stood on the top deck of her command barge and surveyed the camp around her with one lip caught under her front teeth. It was an old habit dating back to her childhood, one she hated but somehow could not shake when she was lost in thought.
‘Casualties?’
‘Ah, unclear at present, general. Limited, I’m led to believe.
’
‘Because they were after the supplies?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Faril was quiet a long moment. The east flank of her camp still burned, and she could see that the supplies were gone from there. The pickets had been taken unawares. Sloppy, that. Someone would be punished, but right now she had more important things to deal with.
‘How many horsemen?’
The captain hesitated, standing a little more stiffly to attention as though regulation order would improve matters. ‘Reports are unclear also,’ he said, ‘or rather, wildly mixed. I would expect it to be between four and five hundred cavalry given what the survivors claimed.’
‘Five hundred cavalry,’ she repeated slowly. ‘Under Crown-Prince Tylom’s banner? I thought the man was supposed to be a weakling whose wife ruled him? No soldier.’
‘That was the intelligence we received.’
‘And yet he leads slash and burn raids on our lines like an experienced campaigner. Raids we cannot easily counter given our lack of horse.’
‘Yes, sir.’
They had only just broken the city line an hour or so before. All had been going to plan; a precise, efficient drive into the city. The breach had been consolidated, the great artillery unable to strike targets on the corridor her regiments had marched down. The fight at the crater had been surprisingly fierce it was true, mostly for the determination of the city’s response.
But her superior troops and numbers had taken their toll and the Jarraziran soldiers were in full retreat – fighting street to street but only buying time. They had withdrawn all the way to the palace, Faril had been informed, and she knew they wouldn’t stop there. The only question had been how long they could delay, how slow they could make the fight. How much blood they were willing to shed.
How much are they willing to bear? she thought. They must know our resolve; they must know we will endure horrors in the service of our god. Will they see the whole city burn to resist, or salvage what they can?
‘Bring the camp closer to the walls; make it harder for them to raid. Dig fixed positions there, there and there – force him into the heavy ground if he wants to attack further. I will write orders for the regiment colonels, have runners ready.’