He mentioned the repeating pattern to Jan, who nodded and showed Rich a scroll he kept in a loop on his belt. “I’ve been taking notes. We don’t ever stop long enough for me to the get the entire thing down, but I’m getting a little more every time we pass it. I know I’d like to get out of these halls, but I personally wouldn’t mind another chance or two.”
In the end, Jan got his wish. It took an entire day more to leave that section of the maze, and so they saw the entire story a few times more. Along the way, they found a few rooms that contained fountains with fresh water running down them, just enough for them to keep their strength up. Vines wrapped around the sides of the fountains from which small, tart berries grew, providing a little variety to their bland diet.
Rich smelled and heard the next section of the maze coming before he laid eyes on it. A smell like grease, metal, and grime filled the air, accompanied by rhythmic ticking as though they were approaching an enormous clockmaker’s shop.
As they traveled, the ticking grew louder until they stepped out into a new section of the maze that looked much different from the previous one. It consisted of metal walkways made of a copper-colored metal. Electric lamps hung from the ceiling every so often, creating pools of light along the gangway. Either side of the path fell off into the darkness, but in the places off the path, there was often a tower of machinery, gears and cogs turning relentlessly, creating the clicking sound.
Some machines expelled steam, and a few others smoke. The air felt hot, but it was a much drier heat than that of the jungle.
If the last area had been interesting for Jan, this one was Aaron's fascination. Several times, Rich had to drag him along to keep him from staring at the machines, wondering what exactly they did.
Instead of rooms with chessboard floors, they occasionally had to stop at dead ends where they had to use a control panel to change the direction of the walkways. Rich kept a close eye on his mother, made sure she was always the first one to cross, and that she didn't cross alone, especially when Jezreel was at the controls.
At the end of the first day in the new section, they made camp on the landing of a huge staircase that took them down a few levels. Rich hadn't seen anything else in their travels yet, but the mist had reminded him they needed to keep on top of things, even if they seemed safe.
Rich made sure his mother had found a place to rest as far from Jezreel as possible and looked around toward a high-pitched sound like the barking of a small dog. He motioned for Aaron to come with him. “Do you hear that?” he asked. “Or am I just imagining it?”
They made their way to the railing and peered over. “Only if our imaginations are on the same page. What is it?”
A dog. A metal, mechanical dog run by clockwork. It stared up at them, yapping and jumping around like an actual dachshund. Nothing about it looked threatening, but it was making enough noise to alert things that were.
“Huh,” Rich said. “If I wasn’t so tired and hungry, that might be kind of cool. What do we do with it?”
Aaron stared down at it, grinning. “I think I’d like a souvenir. Do you think we could catch it?”
The thought tempted Rich. The little machine...robot...whatever...looked much more advanced than anything he could order online or get in a store. Still, he didn’t trust this place any more than he trusted the dark knights.
“We’d better not,” Rich said. “Knowing this maze, it’s a trap or something. We’d reach down to pet it, and it would zap us with its laser eyes.”
“Laser eyes?” Aaron said. “I hardly think so.”
Rich managed to pull Aaron away from the banister before he jumped over it. The last thing he needed was for another one of “the good guys” to wander off and get lost.
He finally managed to distract Aaron by helping him start up a conversation with Angela. Aaron launched into a description of the metal mutt, and Rich looked over his shoulder to see if he could find Jan. He was also standing by a railing, looking like he was hypnotized by the clicking gears. He had his notebook in one hand, but he wasn’t looking at it.
“Do the gears tell a story too?”
Jan chuckled, but didn’t turn away from Rich. “If they do, it’s a language I don’t know. No, I’m still thinking about the last one. I think I’ve got it down to a pretty-close version that I could tell you in English. Would you like to hear it?”
Rich nearly had to grip the railing to keep his balance. “Uh, yeah! Where is it?”
Jan handed over the notebook, and Rich opened it to the place Jan’s finger had been saving.
“It’s not perfect,” Jan muttered. “And you can’t quite get everything that’s in the message in a quick translation like this, but I guess it’s enough to get started.”
“I’m sure it’s great. I mean, nobody else here could do this, right? Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Rich leaned in closer, shifting so that the light of one of the hanging lamps illuminated the words.
In ancient times, there lived two powerful princes who each ruled over a large section of their father’s kingdom. Their father, wishing to extend his family line, brought many eligible young women to meet his sons, hoping they would all find a wife. Though dozens of noble women came to meet the sons, it so happened that both sons fell in love with the same princess.
The princes became desperate to win the woman’s affections, and so tried to outshine the other with displays of wealth, extravagance, and ability. They challenged one other to contests to prove their excellence, but they were so equally matched in most things that it seemed to make little difference.
In the end, the princess herself could not decide whom she preferred. She shut herself away in a castle tower to ponder her decision, for she loved them both. She stayed so long in the tower that she became ill and weak, tormented by indecision.
While she was still in the tower, one of the brothers stormed the castle with his armies, taking the woman into custody. The other brother attacked right away and drove his brother out.
For years and years, the brothers fought over the tower, winning it and losing it over and over again. All the while, the princess grew weaker, driven to grief and madness over the scenes outside her window. Because she had not made her decision, she felt that all these terrible things were her fault.
In the end, she died from grief, leaving the brothers as embittered enemies and their kingdom in shambles. In disgust, their father took their lands from them and cast his sons into the deepest dungeon to pay for their crimes, where they stayed for many ages. They only saw the light of day again when their father was about to die, and so brought his sons to his bedside. With his dying words, he allowed them a second chance, given that they would split the kingdom with their younger sister. He entrusted them each with a stone, a symbol of power and authority to rule. And so these three—Palad, Nemes, and Temperance—rule unto this day.
Reverently, Rich handed the notebook back to Jan. “All that really happened?”
Jan accepted the book, thumbing absently through its pages. “Well, at least that’s the legend. That’s one of the greatest mysteries in all of paladin lore. We don’t know who the king is—the one who gave Palad, Nemes, and Temperance their power. Most of the time, we simply refer to him as the Knight Father. This text says more about him than most. I can’t help but thinking after reading this that he wouldn’t be too happy, seeing what his family has become. Dividing the three stones among the three siblings was supposed to be a way to keep balance in the world. Along the way, things have gone very wrong.”
Rich looked around the room and realized how much he agreed.
Jan and Rich ran through their exercises and Rich was able to attempt creating a magical servant when the barking started up again. He tu
rned his head, listening as the sound approached. This time, it didn’t sound like a single dog, but a whole pack of them heading in their direction. A dark, anxious feeling filled Rich to the top of his head. Something was wrong.
“Jezreel,” he cried, spinning about to face her. “Do you know what direction to go next?”
She glanced down at her amulet and then pointed off to her right. “It’s that way. Why?”
Rich swallowed hard, already moving in that direction. “Because I think we need to run.”
CHAPTER 14: DEADLY DOGS
Nadia grabbed Angela’s hand and ran in the direction Jezreel had pointed. It sounded like they were being chased by an army of wiener dogs. Though that didn’t seem nearly as scary as shadow jaguars, it would be bad enough, especially if the dogs had numbers on their side. Aaron ran not too far behind them, glancing back over and over.
“Who made this place up?” Nadia asked, feeling a bit out of breath. “Because whoever he is has serious issues.”
“I don’t know,” Angela said, “but I hope we’re almost done. This place is driving me crazy.”
Crazy. Nadia wasn’t sure this place wasn’t literally driving her that way. No one else had reported seeing the ghostly faces anymore, but they still haunted her in every dream and during many of her waking moments. She felt all the time as though she were walking about underwater, with her senses doing strange things. More than anything, she hoped the strange dreams would all go away once they were out. If they ever got out.
They ran as fast as they could up and down stairways, though winding metal paths, and even down a long chute. They reached a dead end with a whole line of control levers along the edge of a huge pit. Nadia could see various platforms in the empty space that might come together to form a bridge, but they were all facing the wrong directions. She ran to the first set of controls, wrenching the levers around and watching what they did.
“I can’t do this alone!” she cried, surprised at how menacing her voice came out. “Get over here and help me!”
She spotted which ledge her controls could move and cranked the lever so it started to spin clockwise with a loud scraping sound of metal on metal. It spun slowly, and nothing she did could make it spin faster. When she had it about where she wanted it, she tried to slow it, but found that she hadn’t started soon enough, and so it stopped still at an angle. With a grunt, she slammed the lever back in the other direction, but overshot that way as well. This was taking much too long.
The yipping behind her sounded much closer now, and she looked over her shoulder to see the pack in the distance. There must have been a hundred clockwork hounds of all kinds and sizes, led at the front by what looked like a beefy St. Bernard.
Knowing she needed to hurry, Nadia returned to tapping the levers back and forth, not slamming them as she had before, so the platforms only moved slightly. Finally, she managed to get her gangway to fit straight on with the edge of their platform. “Run across! I’ll get the others!”
Bruno, Jezreel, Rich, and Maria had already been working on the remaining platforms and had gotten them into a nearly straight pathway with a few large gaps in between. Nadia edged Rich off the second set of controls and motioned for him to run. He took his mother and Angela and started out across the first platform while Nadia wrestled with the second. It clicked into place just as Rich and Maria reached it, and Nadia grinned. She could make it, as long as she worked fast enough.
Jan, Mallory, and Bruno ran onto the platforms, leaving only Jezreel to help Nadia. “Go ahead,” Nadia shouted. “I’ve got this.”
Jezreel walked toward her, raking her nails along the metal of the control panels, making a horrible sound and leaving deep gashes. “Oh, I’m sure, my dear. I’ll see you on the other side.” She suddenly increased her speed, dashing past Nadia out onto the ledges.
The cries of the dogs were almost deafening now, and Nadia’s hands trembled. She forced herself to the next one and righted it with a few quick motions. As she reached the fourth panel, a clockwork Chihuahua leaped in front of her, baring its tiny metal teeth. Nadia went for her sword, but as the dog stepped forward, it hit the place on the panel where Jezreel had scraped with her nails, leaving long, dark-colored gashes. In an instant, the dog simply fell apart, clattering to the ground in a collection of springs, cogs, and gears.
Feeling lucky, Nadia slid the final platform into place and turned to run, knowing the metal dogs were about to catch up with her. She was halfway there when she heard a loud grinding of metal. Her head snapped back to see that the last lever had flown back all the way to the other side and then broken off completely. She heard a distant cry and looked to see Rich and his mother being flung around on a ledge now in constant motion.
A second later, the first platform’s controls did the same, sending it into a spin. Jan had been crossing from the first ledge to the second and completely lost his footing and caught the rim of the spinning ledge. Nadia rushed to the edge, ready to make a jump for it as soon as she could, but then felt something nipping at the back of her legs. The dogs had reached her, jumping onto her, slashing with their claws and picking at her with their teeth. She could feel blood trickling down her legs and back, the pain getting worse by the second.
She didn’t know what else to do but pull out her grandfather’s sword. She couldn’t make her way through the mass of metal animals, and the platform hadn’t spun around close enough yet for her to jump. With a yell, she twisted the cap off and felt a surge of energy as the dark blade appeared in her hand. Almost without thinking about it, she slashed the sword across the front row of creatures.
Their leader, the St. Bernard, jumped with its jaws wide open, flames flickering from its belly, and Nadia brought her sword down hard on its head. The massive creature exploded, sending superheated shrapnel all over the ground. The rest of the canines retreated, obviously seeing her as the new alpha female.
She turned to see the progress of the platform and found it almost ready to jump onto. Jan still dangled from the other end, and she didn’t have time to think twice about this. Getting a running start, she used the sword to vault herself forward and landed hard on the metal ledge. Ignoring the pain from the hard impact, she rushed toward Jan, who was hanging on by one hand. As she reached him, his other hand appeared over the edge, gripping a notebook. His slid this forward hard so it came to a stop in front of Nadia. “Give that to Rich!” he called. “He’ll need it!”
Nadia snagged the notebook, and in a horrible instant, she watched as Jan failed to catch the edge of the second platform as it came by. He fell silently through the darkness and out of sight.
Nadia cried out and rushed forward, but it was too late. She stared for a moment into the deep blackness below before she realized she needed to jump onto the second ledge before it was too late.
Still feeling numb from shock, she leaped again, making the edge just in time. The second and third platforms were still locked in place, so she made good time reaching the end. The dogs still yipped behind her, and it sounded like some of them were attempting to follow.
Rich knelt with his mother at the end of the spinning forth platform with Bruno and Jezreel standing in the middle. At seeing Nadia, Rich jumped to his feet, running to meet her. “Where’s Jan? Weren’t you the last one?”
Nadia let her sword fall to her side, bowing her head. “He didn’t make it. He fell, and I couldn’t hear if he hit the bottom.”
The words appeared to hit Rich like a blow across the chest. He crumpled, his face twisted in pain. “How did this happen? Why did the platforms start spinning again?”
It didn’t take long for Nadia to work that one out. Jezreel had sabotaged the controls with her dark knight powers when she scraped them with her nails. It was no mistake that it
had been Maria and Jan who had been the ones to stumble. Nadia opened her mouth to make her accusation, but the words died in her throat. Mallory still held power over her. If she accused Jezreel, Mallory would make her suffer, and her cover would be blown. Then Rich’s captured family members wouldn’t have a chance. Instead, she cleared her throat and shook her head. “I don’t know. They just exploded on me. I...I’m so sorry!”
Rich looked from his mother to Nadia and motioned her forward. “Come on,” he said. “I’m not going to lose you too. Can you get across?”
Nadia looked back over her shoulder to see a large group of the dogs who had made it onto the first platform and looked ready to pounce onto the second. “Yeah, I think so. But I think they can too.”
Jezreel advanced on Rich, Angela, and Maria, letting her sword hang to one side. Bruno stepped in front of her, holding out a hand. “Don’t even think about it, Jezzy. If anyone’s going to toss her off into a bottomless pit, it’s going to be me. I’m her nemesis, remember? Not my fault if your paladin ran away.”
Flames flickering around her, Jezreel pushed hard against Bruno’s chest. “Back off, Bruno. I’ll do what I like.”
The push didn’t send Bruno very far, and instead of looking scared, he arched an eyebrow and grinned like it had been amusing. “You know what? So will I.” With a perfectly planted fist, he hit Jezreel square in the face, sending her flat on her back, unconscious. Then he picked her up by the ankles, swung her around, and threw her across onto the other side. She landed in a heap, but on solid ground.
He pumped his fist in the air, grinning like a hyena. “Can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
Nadia blinked hard, barely able to believe what she had seen. Her platform was almost in line, with only a bit of a gap to jump. She made the leap and turned to see a mass of dogs running after her. A few of them jumped in time to reach the forth platform, including a few of what looked like mechanical bulldogs. One of these clamped onto her leg and wouldn’t let go. She screamed out in pain, and even when she sliced off the rest of its body with her blade, the jaws remained clenched tight. She tried to limp away, fending off the other dogs with her sword.
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