by Isabel Wroth
“Spend my days lounging on the beach in absolute luxury on a world where no one knew my family. I was so eager to get here and win I didn't even bother to read the fine print of that contract you sent out. I wasn't expecting this. You."
Dhega had patiently listened, he didn't let her go, but his expression remained remote and emotionless enough for her to sweat, wondering if she'd made a fatal mistake by confessing the truth about who she was to him.
His gaze was unwavering, penetrating when she fell silent. Just when she was about to start apologizing, maybe consider begging for her life, he spoke.
"I've never heard of your family," he stated calmly. "You're aware that Minos is not part of the Universal Coalition?"
"Yes." Jalia braced for a reaction more...more, but it didn't come.
He gave a satisfied sound and spun around again slowly. "Good. Now, lie back and learn to float. I won't let the waves consume you."
"But I just—"
"Jalia, lie back. I told you, you can't be a queen of Minos and not know how to swim."
*****
By the time she and Dhega walked from the ocean, Jalia was shaking with fatigue. She was confident she could paddle her way through the rising water of the labyrinth enough to get her out of the maze before it completely filled, but Jalia was so exhausted she wasn't sure she could physically make the trek back up to the palace.
She got as far as halfway up the beach before turning to collapse down onto the sand. Dhega's enormous bulk towered above her, cast entirely in shadow with the light of the suns behind him, his hands planted on his lean hips, the fabric of his loose trousers stuck to his skin, leaving Jalia with little to imagine as far as what lie beneath, but she was too tired to give his gorgeous body the attention it deserved.
"Just leave me here. I'll come up when I catch my breath," she panted, unable to do more than give a weak wave of her hand.
Closing her eyes, she felt the light on her face as he moved away. She didn't hear his footfalls in the sand, but he'd gone, and a soft sigh of sadness and uncertainty huffed out of her.
He hadn't said anything about her admission of not being who he thought she was. Neither had he punished her by taking his hands away during the swim lesson and letting her struggle on her own.
As she learned to float along the ebb and flow of the ocean waves, Dhega's hands had supported her. One cradling her nape, the other spread across her low back.
Slowly, as she had gotten used to the feeling and able to relax, he had lowered his hands until only his fingertips remained, and only when she was totally at ease, smiling as the waves gently rocked her, did he take his hands away.
He'd held her again, his palm spread beneath her belly while she had awkwardly kicked and paddled in a circle around him until she was able to keep her head above water on her own. Treading water was the hardest, but he insisted she learn that too.
"If you can float and tread water, you will survive," he'd told her firmly, refusing to let her stop until he was satisfied she could do both.
The mighty, ferocious king of Minos was a patient teacher. He did not berate her or call her out on her bumbling attempts. He was stern, a hard-ass, determined to teach her to swim—
"You'll have to bring back a treasure from the center of each labyrinth from now on." Dhega's voice beside her startled her so badly she yelped, jerking the arm she'd thrown over her eyes down to find him seated on the sand beside her, his arms clasped loosely around his knees.
He glanced sideways at her, that handsome, slightly cruel smirk of his twisting his lips. Why was that damn nose ring so sexy?
"Going all the way in to fetch it and coming all the way back out with your life and your prize. In the Vanishing Labyrinth, if you find yourself trapped in the tide, the only hope you have is to reach the center. There is a way, a place you can wait for the water to recede."
Jalia pushed up on her elbows, feeling the sand clinging to her body like an itchy second skin. "Why would you give me this chance, stack the odds in my favor after everything I just told you? Isn't it like a death sentence to speak about the secrets of the labyrinths?"
"I told you why."
"No, you told me you'd prefer it if I win," she pressed, wincing when she sat up and her still healing palm pressed down on something sharp.
"I'm not a Marchesa; I'm a compulsive gambler who came here under the impression this contest was about money. Not exactly the best candidate for something as important as a queen."
Dhega nodded slowly, turning his gaze out to sea. "The people thought differently yesterday."
"What?"
The corner of his lips kicked up, he glanced her way and waved his hand at the ocean in front of him. "You didn't look out at their faces?"
Jalia started to say of course she had, but after a beat realized she had been so focused on Iscarion and the princesses that no, she hadn't. "I wasn't concerned with their thoughts, just yours."
She could tell he liked that, a lot. "The way you spoke to the boy, how you treated the princesses, the people were pleased."
"Were you? I pushed pretty hard."
"You did," Dhega agreed with a slight nod. "But I was not displeased. I did ask Nivir to bring royal women of wealth and status as potential queens, but on Minos, the title of queen isn't given because of birth. You'll earn it, just like all the others before you."
"So, you want me to win because your people prefer the way I react to the injustices of your world?"
"It certainly helps, but no."
"Then why?"
His expression turned thoughtful, and for a while, Jalia got lost in staring at his profile. The wind played in his hair, the light winked off the gold-capped tips of his horns, made the drops of water sliding down his arms sparkle.
She braced her elbow on her knee, chin in hand to sit and stare, stirring her fingers around in the sand.
He finally smirked and looked her way. "The day you become my queen, I will tell you."
Jalia's fear he would punish her faded away in an instant as he threw her own sassy remark back in her face.
"Fair enough."
The sensual intensity in his gaze intensified, the tension she felt fluttering in her belly built to a fever pitch. Jalia had to look away to think clearly.
Unsteady, needing something to occupy her hands, she scooped up handfuls of sand and let them play through her fingers, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.
"So...Cockgobbler is gone. The smell aside, how bad was it?"
Deadpan, without any inflection whatsoever, Dhega said, "The worst thing I've ever witnessed in my life. I gave the order as soon as it was over; no Disher will ever step foot on Minos again.
“If he weren't on his way to Bull Island, I'd have made Nivir clean up the mess for having dared bring her here."
Jalia's face hurt from smiling, tracing circles around the pretty rock she'd uncovered. It was a milky pink stone, rough, not like the smooth grains of sand.
It had a bit of a shimmer to it, and she knew a male like Dhega wouldn't find it appealing, but she offered it to him anyway.
His surprise was plain in the way his lashes fluttered, and a frown pulled between his brows as he accepted the rock.
"It's almost sunset. We should get back for dinner." Jalia stood up and clapped the sand from her hands, wondering if anyone had every given Dhega a little trinket just because.
"Do you know what this is?"
Jalia looked at the chunk of rock held between Dhega's thumb and forefinger, shrugging while he stared at her like he was transfixed by what he saw.
"A pink rock. It reminded me of you."
"What?" he guffawed, that bare hint of a smile warming his eyes for a moment.
Jalia shrugged, stepping away to shake the sand from her damp shift. "It's hard and rough on the outside, different from the other rocks out here, but if you look close enough, there's some shine beneath it all."
Dhega seemed bemused, standing up to hold
the stone up between them, rolling it back and forth in his fingers. "It's called Hecthyst. At first glance, it looks like a piece of coral or stone.
“Once the rough edges are polished, and the mineral deposits from the sea cleaned away, what lies inside is the most valuable gem found on Minos. My people sometimes go their whole lives without ever laying eyes on one."
Croft would have killed her to know she'd ignorantly given something so valuable away as a silly gift. Not knowing what to say, Jalia shrugged and offered him her most charming smile.
"I'm lucky like that."
Dhega made a noncommittal grunt, falling into step beside her to head back for the palace. They were halfway up the stairs when he spoke again, his fist closed tightly around the Specter stone.
"It was a reckless thing you did, drinking all three cups."
"One in three odds aren't very good, and I figured the water and antidote would dilute the poison enough to survive.
“Besides, I threw it all up as soon as I got outside in the fresh air. I've never smelled anything so terrible in my whole life."
"You should be more careful," he warned, a hint of censure in his tone.
Jalia scoffed, playfully bumping her shoulder against his. "Were you careful when you ran the labyrinths?"
"I am alive, aren't I?"
"Exactly."
CHAPTER NINE
Jalia stood with the others at the edge of the ancient crater. Below her was a huge, gaping black maw; rough-hewn steps were carved into the side like jagged, yellowed teeth, leading down...down into all that darkness.
Dhega led the way down, two of his guard following, two more behind Jalia, Akeyko, Axtasusa, and Entayta.
The sound of the ocean and the roar of the wind was so loud, the steps so narrow, Jalia couldn't help feeling an overwhelming sense of dread.
It seemed to take hours to reach the large sandy beach at the bottom, and when Jalia looked back up the way they'd come, she was shocked by how much light reached them.
"Welcome, to the Vanishing Labyrinth." Kalphius' voice echoed in the enormous cavern like he was hooked up to a thousand modulators.
"To win this challenge, you must find your way to the heart of the maze, retrieve a pearl, and bring it back to us. It is low tide now.
“When the sun is directly overhead, the tide will begin to rise, and the tunnels will flood and vanish behind you. If you do not find your way out in time, you will drown.
“If you do not return with a pearl, you will have failed this challenge. You may enter when ready."
Kalphius gave a dramatic wave of his arm, and after the others had all disappeared behind the twisted stone archway, Jalia looked back to Dhega one last time.
His stare was intense, but the look in his eyes gave her the courage she needed to walk into the ragged black opening.
The tunnels were lower than she had expected, lined with razor-sharp fingers of stone reaching down towards her, green seaweed, and all manner of spiny creatures fused to the walls.
Jalia tried to imagine Dhega walking down the same twisting paths, having to stoop forward so his horns didn't rake along the roof of the cave. Kalphius would have had to walk sideways.
How had Iscarion managed to swim through these white and gray striated tunnels and find air up there in all those knife-like stalactites?
It was cooler down here, and from the way the water trickled downward, Jalia could tell there was a gentle slope to the path. If she was caught in here when the water reached the top...there would be no way for her to escape without shredding herself open.
As she walked, Jalia saw holes in the roof of the tunnel, holes no bigger than her fist that allowed enough light to see, and when she came to the first fork in the path, Jalia saw the footprints of the others going both ways.
There were treasures pressed into the stone of both archways, pearls to the left, gems straight ahead, broken seashells to the right.
Jalia bit into her lip and huffed as she smiled, understanding now why at the end of their climb up the beach stairs, Dhega had silently pressed a seashell into her hand with an intense look.
Jalia turned right.
Confident now she would reach the heart of the Vanishing Labyrinth before the tide began to rise, she picked up the pace until she was jogging, splashing through the shallow puddles, screaming as she was suddenly falling.
She tripped over something, the path angled down, and end over end Jalia tumbled and slid. Fire tore up her arm, and when she finally came to a jarring thud at the bottom, she could barely breathe for the agony.
Her whimper echoed all around her as she looked at her left arm, at the jagged tears that ran from her wrist to her bicep, soaking her white clothing in bright red blood.
Her head swam, she broke out in chills, hot and cold tremors shook her as she knelt there trying to catch her breath. Trying to focus enough to get up, to keep moving forward.
She fell to her knees twice more, staggering back and forth like a drunk by the third try. It was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other, to pay attention to where she was going, to look for any signs of the shells above the arched doorways.
It was a shock to her when she finally stumbled into a round room with only one door, facing a black statue of a four-legged animal with horns like Dhega's.
It stared at her almost mockingly, glimmering softly in the low light. There was a hole in the ceiling right above it, large enough to crawl out of if she had been able to climb the curved walls.
The heart of the maze.
Hurt, losing blood, it took her a minute to realize why Dhega had been so adamant about her learning to float and tread water.
When the tide came in and filled the tunnels, she would be able to swim and find purchase up there, assuming the water didn't reach higher than the top of the vaulted chamber.
But it wouldn't matter if she bled to death first. It was awkward and excruciating, but she got her tunic off and was able to use her feet and good arm to tear it into strips, winding them around her wounds in crude bandages, making a weak sling, but by the time she got it done, there was a steady flow of water coming down through the doorway.
The tide was rising.
Pearls, where were the pearls?
She walked a circle around the room looking for them and finally noticed the shine on the statue. The knobby looking hide with pockmarks...the pearls were attached to the statue.
Frustrated, in pain, her pulse starting to kick up as more water began to fill the cavern and pumping more blood out of her wounds, she clawed and prodded at each pearl, looking for one that was loose enough to take.
"Poisoned, nearly gagged to death by shit-stink, high probability of death by drowning..." Jalia grumbled as she thumped up against the statue, her blood slick fingers fumbling to pry just one farking pearl free.
"He better be the best lay in the universe. What was I thinking? Shoulda read the fine print."
The water was up to her ankles by the time she finally pulled a fat, shiny black pearl from the statue, and more water was coming in, faster and faster as the minutes ticked by.
With the downward angle of the tunnels and her injury, there was no way she could get out of the labyrinth in time.
She was going to have to wait.
"Shit."
*****
With his heart lodged firmly in his throat, Dhega watched the churning water give up the last remaining pockets of air from within the labyrinth. Entayta and Axtasusa had come out moments before, swimming with all their might to get ahead of the vicious undertow that would have sucked them back inside.
He paced at the landing halfway up the stairs, his eyes glued to the spot where he knew the entrance was.
He waited, not caring there was no sign of Akeyko. Dhega knew Jalia would be smart enough to understand the significance of the shell he'd pressed into her hand, to follow the signs and get to the heart of the labyrinth before the tide got too high, but he and everyone else waitin
g for the prospective queens to emerge had heard a scream echo up from the bowels of the maze.
Was it Akeyko, or Jalia who had been in such agony as to have made that sound?
Entayta and Axtasusa dragged themselves out of the water, struggling to catch their breath as they climbed up high enough to get out of the water.
Dhega paused only long enough to ask them if they had seen either of the others when in truth he only cared about Jalia.
"I didn't see either of them." Axtasusa rasped, coughing and spitting out the water she'd inhaled. "I couldn't find the center, and when I heard the water start to come in, I followed my footsteps back the way I'd come as fast as I could before they disappeared. I saw smaller prints heading the opposite way, ran into this one, and kept going."
Entayta said the same, and Dhega resumed his pacing, counting his steps, his brow twitching with the helpless rage that boiled within him.
Jalia couldn't swim.
One lesson wasn't enough to gain strength and confidence enough to survive the underground tunnel system.
If Jalia hadn't found the center, right now she was dying beneath the waves, and there was nothing he could do.
*****
Jalia's first instinct was to scream, but if she opened her mouth, she knew it would be the last sound she ever made. Her toes scrabbled at the smooth, rounded back of the bull statue she had climbed, trying for one more moment of solid ground beneath her feet but the current was too strong.
The water just kept pouring in.
The sound was deafening, like the hull of a ship being depressurized, all the oxygen being sucked out into the vacuum of space in a roaring gale.
The salt water in her wounds made every movement feel ten times as excruciating, made spots dance across her vision as the pain threatened to overwhelm her.
If she lost consciousness, if she stopped fighting, she would die. Somehow in the middle of her panicked struggles to find purchase with her feet, she heard Dhega's voice in her ear,
"Relax, Jalia. If you can float, you can stay alive."
The waves splashed over her face, cold, a shock to her system that jerked her out of that calm place Dhega's voice brought her to.