“I’m sorry to, um, interrupt,” I glanced between them. The physician blushed while the lady rolled her eyes and pulled a loose dress over her frame.
“What is it then?” he shouted at me. The lines in his forehead wrinkled in frustration.
“I need you to come with me, it’s Yuri, the cobbler. He was stabbed,” I stammered. The physician’s eyes rolled, and he grabbed his medicine pouch next to his door.
“Let yourself out,” he said to the lady as he hurried out.
When we reached our street, Leo was still there holding his father, who was now grey with death. The physician exchanged a look with Leo.
“There is nothing for me to do here, you should have gone to the constable instead.” He huffed. He knelt down and put a finger to Yuri’s neck to feel for a pulse.
“He’s dead, I’m sorry, son. You best have the constable get here soon, as this was clearly a murder,” he stood up and straightened himself. He gave a quick nod of his head to Leo and walked away, shooting me a disgusted look.
Leo laid his father back down and stood up. His arms and chest now covered in blood.
“Where were you? I thought you were home?” I asked Leo.
“I went out. My dad was still at his meeting and he hadn’t come home yet when I left. Where were you?” he questioned, “I thought you were ‘tired and going to bed’?” He threw the words at me accusingly. My shoulders sagged. I suppose that is what I told him.
“I just went to the river, I’m sorry.” Although, if I had been here, whoever had done this would probably have not appreciated a witness. I swallowed down my fear, tugging at my shirt hem to steady myself.
It took hours for the constable to evaluate the body and clean up the mess. He asked us a thousand questions, mostly wondering if his father had any debts unpaid, but neither of us had answers. By the time it was finished, my mind was numb.
Leo looked over at me with sad eyes. “Do you want to come in for a drink?”
“Sure.” There were no more consequences to avoid, I guess.
I realized the truth of his father’s death. With him gone, there was no reason for me to live in the alley or to continue denying Leo. I could easily settle into this house, this life with Leo. Settle in, have children, and then eventually die here too. I could feel the chains around my wrists, the tethers that would keep me here forever wrapping around me, mere centimeters away from closing.
Nausea crashed over me.
Leo pulled off his blood soaked shirt, tossing it into the sink to be washed later. He took a wash cloth and began scrubbing his father’s blood off of his chest and arms. He was silent as he worked. I sat down, watching him as the water cascaded down him.
He finished and pulled out a decanter of whiskey from the cabinet. He poured and then handed me a glass before sitting across from me at the tiny table. His eyes still glistened with tears.
He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself. Instead, he threw back his glass of whiskey and swished it in his mouth. Numbness spread over him as the liquor settled in his blood. His face became blank as he stared out the window.
I had no words of sentiment, nothing reassuring to tell him. His father had been an evil man, a nuisance to us both. The shock of his death was great, but it was also an opportunity. An opportunity to leave or to stay.
“Leo, I’m going into the Labyrinth tomorrow when it opens.”
He blinked at me and looked around the small house.
“No one who goes in ever comes back, Val,” he said half-heartedly.
“That doesn’t mean they are dead, there could be a whole other world in there, a different life. I could have a different life,” I said, looking at him as he stared at his whiskey glass.
“It would never be enough of a life for you here, would it? Even now with him gone, you could live here now, we could have a life here. It’s still not enough?” he asked, his eyes glued to the glass in his hand.
I looked down at my glass, my eyes sad. “It’s not. I’m sorry. There’s just…. there’s just something else for me, I can feel it. This person… he knows something…. he speaks as if he is from the inside. I can’t just stay here. If there is even the smallest sliver of hope for a better life, then I have to try.”
Leo wouldn’t understand, couldn’t understand, why I needed this adventure so desperately. Why I would risk everything, even my life, for this small chance.
He nodded and set the glass down. “I’ll go with you then, if you’ll let me.”
He raised his eyes to meet mine. I hesitated for a second. Did I want him to come?
I thought back to Alder’s warning. Go alone.
But then I looked into Leo’s eyes. His sweet face, his perpetually shining eyes. He had just lost his father, and now I was telling him I too was leaving. He would be alone.
I knew how it felt to be alone, how it ripped at your soul and left you gasping for air. How it ate away at your humanity and made you willing to do anything, be anyone, for a little interaction.
I also knew how it felt to be an orphan, alone in this world. Not a single soul to care if you lived or died. No one to love you. But he did. He had always loved me.
I shouldn’t have said it, should have told him no. But I couldn’t be the one to break the remnants of his heart.
“You can come with me,” I murmured, still unsure.
He stood up from the table and came around to me. He cupped my face gently in his hands.
“Let’s find that life you so desperately want. Let’s find it for both of us.” He leaned down and kissed me, softly at first, but then harder. A flame lit between us and I could feel his need, his desire to forget today.
A part of me thought it was wrong. Wrong to do this when his father had so suddenly passed. So suddenly murdered.
Another part of me thought about Alder, about the heat between us. The flame between Leo and I an ember compared to the ocean of fire with Alder. I pushed the thought away. It was wrong to think of him while kissing Leo.
Then a final part of me thought, what if we die tomorrow when we enter the Labyrinth?
And with that lingering on my mind, I kissed him back and stood up. I leaned into his kiss and let his hands graze my back. I reached for the dagger at my thigh and placed it away on the table. My arms wrapped around his hard back and I pulled him tightly to me with a sudden urgency. His mouth was hard against mine as we crashed backwards against the kitchen wall.
In the past, when we had done this, it had always been with a tone of quiet secrecy to keep his father from waking. A few times it had been done quickly, rushed for fear of his father returning from the tavern. And every time, I had been sure to make him understand it was not a promise of love, but simply out of need.
Tonight was different. There was no secret or rush. No promise of anything. Nothing but the need to forget mixed with the urgency of looming death.
Chapter 6
My eyes opened to the wooden ceiling above me. It was probably right before dawn, my body used to waking up before the sun. Leo stayed sleeping next to me, only his bottom half covered by the thin sheet of a blanket. His chest rose and fell with gentle inhales and exhales. His abs shone in the firelight from the nearby hearth.
I recalled the night before. He had touched me as if it was both our first time and our last time. There had been sadness mixed into the want, and it made me question if I should just leave without him.
I did not want to uproot his life. He could find another woman to love, someone easier to love than me. But I also did not want to make that choice for him. If this was what he chose, this unknown we were venturing into, who was I to tell him no? Who was I to force him to be alone?
As I stared up at the ceiling, Alder’s dark green eyes seemed to stare back at me. I wondered what it would be like with him. Was his flirtation just a ploy? A means of manipulation similar to how I use men? I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t deny the raw chemistry we seemed to have. I know he felt it too.
I pushed myself off the small bed and tiptoed downstairs. My clothes were crumpled on the floor from last night. I grabbed them and quickly dressed. If we were leaving for the Labyrinth today, we had a lot to get done first.
I took no extra time than necessary to bathe and wash my clothes, resisting the urge to look at the Labyrinth as I scrubbed away the dirt from myself and my clothes. I could feel its eyes on my back, that pull tugging on me.
“Give me a damn minute,” I said to it, as if it could hear me. I swear I could feel its stone walls rustle with laughter. When I finished, I headed back to the house to discuss what needed to be done before we left.
Leo was awake when I walked through the door. He was collecting a pile of leather, hides, and other random goods into a large basket.
“What are you doing?” I asked, inspecting the small mountain of raw materials.
“I’m taking all that I can down to the marketplace, of course, I will sell it all and get us what we’ll need. Money, food, supplies.” He smiled, and my heart leapt. I hadn’t expected him to be so… actively involved.
I’m not sure why, but I half expected him to back out of his offer this morning. When the whiskey had worn off and the weight of the decision truly hit him.
“That’s almost the entire house. Are you sure?”
“Well, it’s not like we will be coming back,” he laughed. I gave him a smile and walked over to him. I raised myself up on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you, for everything,” I said. And I meant it. “I’m going to the library, to see if I can find anything useful. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Be careful, don’t tell anyone of our plans,” he warned. I nodded, grabbing a piece of bread on the table before walking out the door, trying to ignore the guilt gnawing at me as I did.
The library was empty. It was a small, one room building with about four shelves of books. An elder had once told me that Cognitonis had libraries the size of arenas, with thousands of shelves and hundreds of thousands of books. I suppose these books were all that remained after a hundred years of closed borders.
I did not see the librarian anywhere, so I started perusing the tomes. Most of the books were on farming or fishing manuals and how to guides. One book was on the Great War that occurred a thousand years ago. A war that occurred when a great warlock enslaved the four towns but blessedly ended with their revolt and his defeat. An interesting history but hardly useful to my current predicament. I kept searching until I came across a small leather-bound book with a large iron lock. It’s cover simply read The Labyrinth. I grabbed it and sat down at the tiny table.
The lock looked simple enough. I glanced around, checking for a librarian, they were still nowhere to be found. I pulled out a pin I kept on me at all times. It was always handy to have a lock pick. It took about two minutes of wiggling, an anxious sweat dripping down me the entire time, for the lock to open with a satisfying pop. I opened the small, pristine book and noted it was only a few pages long in total.
I started to read, thankful that I had retained my literacy skills they taught me at the orphanage. The first few pages detailed several myths of the curse, and I noted they were basically the same as what I had heard from the Elders. The third page made me stop.
The Labyrinth King it was titled. I read on.
The Labyrinth King is an unnamed man who is presumed to live in the tower at the center of the Labyrinth. A few months after the Labyrinth was formed, the Labyrinth King placed a note on the wall of the Labyrinth, demanding taxes begin to be paid seasonally to him. He insisted every person give 30% of their crops, goods, or earnings each season or be subject to a steep penalty. Elder Gerald Freidman recommended we not give in to the Labyrinth King’s demands. The town’s people agreed and as a whole chose to ignore the note. The first lowering of the bridge at the beginning of that fall caused quite a stir, but the majority of the town stayed true and did not give taxes. Some did choose to pay anyway, fearing the mysterious consequences.
When the bridge closed two days later, the townsfolk and Elders rejoiced. There seemed to be no way for the Labyrinth King to enforce his new rule.
The next morning, the town awoke to see the death of a family member from each house that had not paid their taxes, their throats slit as they laid in their beds.
Elder Gerald did not speak for weeks. When he did, he relayed this information and gave only one warning regarding the Labyrinth King, “Do not trust anyone.”
I re-read the words over again. My blood ran cold at the thought of their deaths. The cost of disobeying him. A mix of anger and fear rose in my chest. What would happen to me if I refused to come? My hands shook as I held the book. I thought I could choose to stay in my simple life, but what if that wasn’t true? What if the cost of staying was just as gruesome a fate?
I flipped to the next page, but it was written in a language I did not understand. It looked ancient, runes of sorts. I looked around. Still no librarian.
I slipped the book into my shirt and casually slipped out of the building. I walked nonchalantly for several paces until I disappeared in the crowd, my heart beating wildly against my chest with each step.
Chapter 7
When I got back to the alley, I went to my hidden hole and reached in to pull out my few worldly possessions. Inside was my bar of soap, two extra shirts, two extra pants, a small amount of savings, the coin purse, and the letter.
The letter I had been found with, the letter that was my only connection to what happened to my parents. The paper was soft and crinkled from years of reading it over and over again. Wet splotches blurring the words from countless tears. I unfolded it and read the tear-stained words again.
Valeria, you are meant for more. I will find you.
That was all the letter said, and it was not signed by anyone. The orphanage said it was tucked into my basket when I was found on their doorstep. They could never tell me anything more than that. I clutched the letter and brought it up to my lips, giving it a slight kiss, before folding it back and tucking it into my breast pocket.
I walked into the house carrying my few belongings. The house felt wrong now, empty without Yuri poisoning its atmosphere with his whiskey breath and sweat. I laid my belongings on the table and looked around. Leo was not back yet, but he would be soon. I grabbed the knapsack he had left and packed what I could, including The Labyrinth book, leaving room for the supplies he would bring back.
For a moment I considered changing my mind, but the moment was brief because as soon as it crossed my mind, I felt a tug on my heart. I couldn’t ignore it anymore than I could ignore a hunger pain. It would be there until it was filled, until I fulfilled whatever destiny awaited.
I heard a rustle upstairs, and my heart raced. I thought Leo wasn’t home…
I grabbed my dagger and held it in a defensive position. It rattled again. I climbed the stairs, holding my breath and quieting my steps. When I reached the top, I peeked around the corner.
Emerald eyes met mine as I took in Alder, lounging across the bed. His leather pants were snug against his waist, and his shirt was off. His chest was tan and broad, sculpted and hard. My mouth watered and my eyes trailed down to his perfect abs and then back up to his chest tattoo, the face of an enormous snake, mouth open over his heart. The tattoo seemed to wrap around to his back. I sheathed my dagger and hissed, pushing against the rising heat in my core.
“What are you doing here?” I said, looking back down the stairs, listening for Leo to be home any second, “and where’s your shirt?”
“My sweet Val, I came to make sure you had everything you
needed before entering today. I also came to inquire of… other needs… but it seems you took care of those last night,” he teased, gesturing to the wrinkled sheets.
I rolled my eyes at him. “What makes you think I would even consider you for those other needs, Alder? After all, you are basically a stranger,” I said. It was a lie. He was absolutely the first person I would go to for those other needs if I had the option. But I was also right. He was a stranger. Though he didn’t feel that way and didn’t act that way either, everything about him felt familiar, as if he had known me my entire life. Heat rose in my cheeks.
He slid off the bed and walked over to me with a sly grin. “I suppose we are strangers, for now. That could be resolved rather quickly though, if you would like,” he said while putting a hand on the doorway arch above me. He leaned over, not touching me, but close enough for me to feel his breath on my lips.
“What do I need from the Labyrinth?” I stammered, the shaking in my voice betraying me. His eyes lit up, noticing the effect he was having on me. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised or satisfied.
“This,” he said, handing me an object. It was a rolled sheet of parchment. I glanced back up to him, unconvinced, then unrolled it. It was blank.
“What am I supposed to do with a blank sheet of paper, write you a love note?” I said, steadying my voice.
I was usually a master of flirtation and manipulating men. Why did my talents waver now? Maybe it had something to do with his strong tanned bicep hovering over me? Or his chiseled chin with an oh so alluring short but thick beard inches from my mouth… I briefly fantasized about biting his jawline. I took in a breath, forcing myself to stop my daydreaming.
He spoke slowly, his eyes staring at my lips, “Just take it, you may find it comes in handy once you are inside,” he emphasized.
The Labyrinth King (The Labyrinth Series Book 1) Page 4