The Door in the Mountain
Page 24
“Daughter? Ariadne? Little Queen?”
She was curled on her side. She heard whimpering and knew it had to be from her, because Theseus’s voice was silent and Minos was talking—talking, talking as his godfire lapped at her skin. She didn’t open her eyes, which were full of wavering, dying lines that might have been a pillar or a horn.
“Princess? Ariadne? Can you hear me, little love? I heard you—heard you cry out and fall—Ariadne?”
I must get into the labyrinth, she thought. I commanded Theseus to kill Asterion and he hasn’t—he may fail. So I must save the great Athenian hero, because only he can save me. He promised to take me away with him. He promised. I need him. I need to get in—and I need to get up, right now.
She opened her eyes as she pulled herself to her knees. The world tipped and steadied. Sickness bubbled into her throat when she stood, but she swallowed it down. Her father gazed up at her with his black, unblinking eyes; Hypatos and the bowman gazed at her.
“I am fine,” she said loudly, so that they would all hear her. “It was just the heat, making me weak. Your godmark, Father—it is a powerful thing. You know this.”
No, she thought, oh, no indeed: I was listening to Theseus. Theseus, son of Aegeus, king of Athens, whom you blame for your own son’s murder. Theseus, who will get me off this island. Would you kill me, if you knew? Would you burn me to ash, then yourself?
“Yes,” Minos said gently. “I know this. I have hurt you in so many ways, and do not deserve your forgiveness. When I am gone, you will no longer have to endure it. The gods will soon grant all of us peace.”
I’ll be gone long before then, you miserable man, she thought. “Yes,” she said. “I am sure they will.” She smiled at him, though he wouldn’t be able to see this, and she smiled at Hypatos, who would, and then she walked away from them.
COPYRIGHT
The Door in the Mountain © 2014 by Caitlin Sweet
Cover artwork © 2014 by Erik Mohr
Interior design © 2014 by Erik Mohr
All rights reserved.
Published by ChiZine Publications
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
EPub Edition MAY 2014 ISBN: 978-1-77148-192-2
All rights reserved under all applicable International Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen.
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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
CHIZINE PUBLICATIONS
Toronto, Canada
www.chizinepub.com
info@chizinepub.com
Edited by Sandra Kasturi
Copyedited and proofread by Christie DiIorio
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada.
Published with the generous assistance of the Ontario Arts Council.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caitlin Sweet has written three other novels: A Telling of Stars (2003), The Silences of Home (2005), and The Pattern Scars (2011). The Door in the Mountain is her first book for young adults. Its yet-to-be-named sequel will be published in 2015.
When not writing, Caitlin teaches writing at U of T’s School of Continuing Studies. When not writing or teaching, she works for the Ontario Government. She lives with her family in a Magic Bungalow, which (in addition to cats, fish, a disabled rabbit, a hamster and a mouse) supports an enormous number of raccoons, a couple of opossums and one large groundhog.
Find her online at www.caitlinsweet.com.
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