Original: "Trafalgar and Boone," Chapter Seventeen
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Chapter Seventeen
Beatrice was sweating, both from exertion and the effort of keeping part of her mind on the airship slowly making its way to Knossos. Leola had driven past the ancient site to a remote location south of the palace to be sure they wouldn’t run into any Society goons who had been left to stand guard. Now they were cutting through a field of overgrown weeds, the tall yellow stalks to her right seemingly collapsing of their own volition as Ivy made her way forward. Beatrice had a mental image of the Skylarker with the appropriate insignia on the side. She hoped it would be enough to convince the Society, however briefly, that they were being watched.
Ivy was walking ahead of them as a lookout. They were within a quarter mile of the site when Ivy whistled for them to stop. Beatrice and Leola both crouched as their invisible companion moved back to join them.
“Three guards standing watch, about thirty yards apart.” She broke off a handful of grass so they could see where she was pointing. “There, there, and there. Plenty of room between them, but they’ll have at least two pairs of eyes on you no matter where you try to go through.”
“Can you take them out?”
Ivy said, “One, sure. But then the other two will know something peculiar is happening. They might just start firing blindly.”
Leola said, “Beatrice and I can be in position when you make your move. It would offer them a false sense of security, to think their fellow soldier is far enough away to protect them if we make a move.”
Beatrice said, “Or you could approach them alone. Feign wounded, then Ivy takes out one while I take out the other from afar.”
Leola set her lips in a tight line and met Beatrice’s eye. It was incredibly risky; to expose herself to the guards and trust that two women she’d never worked with before would protect her. A week earlier she would have considered Beatrice her enemy. She hadn’t forgotten the fact that this entire misadventure had begun with the two of them brawling in the street. But Trafalgar needed her help, and Lady Boone was in similarly dire straits.
“I trust you. That plan would have the best chance to succeed. I will approach the guard in the center, Ivy will disable the eastern guard while Beatrice will take the one to the west.”
Beatrice nodded. “We’ll give Ivy time to get into position and then Leola, you can make your move. Five minutes.”
“Should be enough,” Ivy said. “I’ll wait until you’re in position before I make a move.”
“Then let’s not delay any further.”
Ivy took off at a slow trot, moving horizontally so the path she cut through the tall grass would be less obvious. Leola and Beatrice moved furtively to take position behind a tree with a tri-forked trunk. Beatrice pointed out the guard she would target, and Leola nodded her understanding. Beatrice held her hand by her side, clenching and unclenching a fist to build up the energy necessary for two simultaneous attacks. The ship needed its insignia to remain intact - she could envision it now, a gleaming icon emblazoned on both sides of the gondola, flashing just enough red and gold to make anyone on the ground question what they were seeing.
“Ready?” Leola asked.
“When you are.”
Leola slipped out from behind cover. She had a baton tucked in the back of her belt, two blades up her sleeves, and had proven herself adept at self-defense even if she had been completely unarmed. If they hadn’t been enemies she would have admitted she was starting to be a little attracted to the stoic woman. Although if she was completely honest, the fact they were enemies was actually sweetening the pot a little. She would have to see where things ended up once the Society had been dealt with.
“Excuse me,” Leola called. “I was hoping you could help me.”
The guard stepped forward. “You’re not allowed to be here. Please turn around and go back the way you came.”
“I was supposed to meet with my tour group at a parking lot near here. I stepped into the woods, you know... the call of nature... and I found myself turned around.”
The guard hoisted his gun. “You can’t be here, miss. Leave now or you’ll be taken into custody.”
Leola stopped and looked at him. “Are you police? What is this place?”
“I won’t ask you again, ma’am.”
The guard Ivy had chosen suddenly lifted both arms in the air and bent forward at the waist. He backpedaled as if he’d been kicked in the stomach, fumbling to keep hold of the gun as it was torn from his hands. Leola threw herself at the guard she’d been speaking to while the third man brought up his rifle to fire at her. Beatrice mimed throwing a baseball and sent a concentrated burst of energy at the shooter’s head. The man reacted as if hit by lightning, throwing his gun and landing hard on his back. He twitched briefly but did not get back up. Leola dispatched her man with a final blow, stooping to relieve him of his weapons before she checked to make sure everyone else was safe.
“Miss Sever?”
“I’m in one piece,” Ivy said, although a floating blossom of blood somewhere near her shoulder revealed that her victory hadn’t been as complete as the others. “Come on. There will be others, and these three will be missed sooner rather than later.”
Beatrice and Leola split their new weapons between themselves before they continued up the hill to the palace.
#
“What do you know about the Minotaur?” Dorothy asked. They were standing between the Weeks brothers and the interior of the labyrinth. The beast hadn’t repeated its awakening grumble but they could sense it deep in the heart of its prison. Something was definitely awake and moving around somewhere in the warren of winding corridors.
Trafalgar shook her head. “Not nothing, but certainly not much more. You?”
“Bullish fellow, stands erect like a man. Unpleasant in every regard. I seem to remember the true difficulty in killing it was finding it. They sent children into the maze as an offering, and children couldn’t very well stand against the beast. The only magical item Theseus required was the string that showed him how to get out again.”
“I doubt we’ll have trouble finding the Minotaur,” Trafalgar said. “From the sound of things, he is looking for us.”
“Lucky us,” Dorothy muttered. She looked at Orville. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let us have some weapons considering the threat we’re likely to face.”
Orville said, “When the time comes, if you need a weapon...”
She rolled her eyes. “This should be fun.”
“Lead the way,” Trafalgar said.
Dorothy glared at her.
“You have the flashlight.”
“So I do.” She took a breath and, against her better judgment, continued into the labyrinth.
The floor was indeed canted at a very subtle downward angle. When they reached the first branch she paused and shone the light inside. The ground seemed to rise and curve to the right. She passed the door and continued forward. “Always forward, always down.” The path had a slight angle to it, and soon she became aware that they were skirting the outer edge of a wide circle. She could hear Orville’s breathing even though he was bringing up the rear, and she looked back to see him running one hand along the wall.
“Everything all right back there, Mr. Weeks?”
“Just get us to the blasted stone,” he snapped.
Dorothy said, “The instructions seem simple enough. We’ll simply reverse them once we get to the bottom.”
“Bottom...?”
“Oh, yes. Always down. We’re descending even deeper. We must be half a kilometer underground by now. We’re only going to go deeper.”
Daniel said, “I know what you’re doing, Lady Boone. You’d be well-advised to stop.”
Trafalgar said, “There must be something more to the labyrinth than a simple memory device. Why would such a simple solution prevent the Minotaur’s escape? Why would Theseus require a string to find his way out again?”
“Perhaps he got dizzy from walking around in circles.” Trafalgar frowned at her and Dorothy shook her head. “I don’t believe in borrowing stress. Either we’ll discover further security measures or we won’t. Whatever happens we probably can’t predict it. No sense distracting ourselves before we have to.”
As if to punctuate her point, the roar came again. This time it seemed closer, amplified by the curve of the walls until it echoed around them all. Orville seemed less concerned by the beast than by his awareness of how far under the earth they were. Daniel eyed his brother as he used the blade of his knife to score the wall. He used the tip to motion Dorothy onward.
“Go. We’ve waited long enough for this.”
“Patience, Mr. Weeks. Treasures have been lost for sillier things than eagerness. We must do this properly.” She continued forward. “We are the first human beings to set foot in this maze since pre-history. Empires have risen and collapsed since this air was last breathed. We have traveled back in time, gentlemen. Do you not understand how magnificent that is?”
Daniel said, “Forgotten kings in forgotten castles. Dust that our forefathers blew off the world before remaking it for themselves. We shall be the next to rule this world.”
“‘Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair’,” Dorothy said. “‘This mighty City shows the wonders of my hand.’”
Orville breathlessly laughed. “Yes. I quite like that. I like that very much.”
Dorothy looked at Trafalgar in disbelief. “Yes. Perhaps instead of Felix Quintel you could name your ruler Ozymandias.”
Daniel said, “I have the feeling you’re mocking us, but I don’t know why.”
“Ozymandias.” Orville exhaled sharply, puffing out his lips and wiping the sweat from his brow. “It is a damned good name.”
Daniel snorted and shook his head. Trafalgar actually laughed, nudging Dorothy with her elbow to show she had gotten the joke. Dorothy shared the laugh with her as they took the next gentle curve and found themselves standing in front of a solid wall. The smiles faded as Orville and Daniel joined them in the alcove.
“Crumbs.” Dorothy aimed the light up even though she didn’t relish the idea of trying to climb over the obstacle. The wall had no gap before reaching the ceiling of the cavern. “We’ll have to turn back.”
“No! The rhyme said always down, never left or right.”
“Then we must be at the treasure!” Dorothy said. She swept the light over the floor. “We shall be set for life with all of these riches.”
Orville reached out and slapped her hard enough that she fell back against the wall. She dropped the torch and the light in the dead-end swirled. Dorothy remained where she had fallen for a moment, her hand flat against the stone with her face hidden in shadow. Her cheek was red and stinging when she finally turned to face Orville again. Her features were composed and her voice was calm, and no trace of emotion betrayed her voice as she said, “The next time you raise a hand to me, the fight won’t end until one of us lies bleeding at the other’s feet. Am I clear, Mr. Weeks?”
He started forward but his brother stopped him with a hand on his chest. “We still need her, Or.”
“For now,” Orville said.
Dorothy set her jaw and held his gaze until he turned to look back the way they’d come. “Now what do we do? Go back? Disregard the clue?”
“We have no other option. At this point we can only turn left, going into the labyrinth. We’re still on the outside edge, which means this wall gives us no other option. But once we go through the door we’ll be a level deeper and the chances for a fatal error will be even greater. I have to ask if you’re certain this is the action you want to take. Is the prize honestly worth the risk that the four of us will die down here?”
“We’re destined to have the stone,” Orville said. “We’ve come this far. We cannot turn back.”
Dorothy sighed. “Very well then.” She stooped to pick up the torch and walked past their captors. The last door they’d passed was twenty yards back along the curve, and Dorothy stopped in the opening until Trafalgar could join her. She shone the light in both directions as another echoing roar filled the air. The sound had become like the rumble of a thunderstorm, obvious but easy to ignore after a few times. Dorothy said, “What say you?”
Trafalgar shrugged. “I believe your guess is as good as mine. I also believe we will all die down here.”
Dorothy sniffed and reached up to brush a hair out of her face. “Optimistic. I like it. Gods, do I look as disheveled as I feel?”
“There’s stone dust on your cheekbones, your hair is completely unkempt, and your clothing is filthy.” She smiled. “It’s the first time since we met that you’ve actually looked like you deserve your job. You look like an archaeologist, Dorothy.”
“I don’t know if you’ve ever called me Dorothy before.”
“Well you certainly don’t look like any lady I’ve ever seen.”
Dorothy laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” She turned and saw Daniel speaking quietly to Orville. The handsome Weeks brother was hugging himself, his head hanging low, his fingers trembling slightly. The man was obviously terrified. “Mr. Weeks. We should go forward now. We’re going... left.”
The Minotaur roared again, and Trafalgar touched Dorothy’s elbow. “Wait.” She lifted her head and listened. “What if the clue is part of the trap? If it was as simple as always forward, always down, why would Theseus require the extra cheat of the thread?”
“Okay. We’ve already determined it’s impossible to follow the clues to the letter. Perhaps the thread was to prevent him from becoming disoriented.”
Trafalgar said, “But he would still have to navigate to the center of the maze. He would have to know where to look for the Minotaur.”
“Well, if this one is anything like his ancestors, that shouldn’t have been too difficult. You can hear the blasted thing from the moment you...” She trailed off, realization widening her eyes. “Of course. We follow the sound of the Minotaur. It wouldn’t leave its treasure unprotected. So we just have to follow the roars and we should be able to find our goal.”
They waited in anxious anticipation until the Minotaur’s rumble came again. Trafalgar and Dorothy both pointed to the right, smiling when they saw they were in sync, and Dorothy motioned with the torch.
“Come along, Mr. Weeks.”
Daniel followed them into the secondary corridor, with Orville reluctantly trailing behind.
#
Milena and Mircea stood a few feet apart, arms behind their back and their feet planted shoulder-width apart. They still wore their glasses even though the tinted lenses made it nearly impossible to see now that the torch was gone. It didn’t matter to them. When they were girls, the people in charge of the orphanage where they grew up often locked them in cupboards to keep them out of sight. After several days shivering in the dark together they learned to keep their mouths shut. No matter what they saw in someone else’s head, no matter what hidden shame they knew about, they wouldn’t speak it aloud. Standing in a wide, dark room was nothing new to them.
It helped that they were together. They turned their minds inward with tendrils sneaking out to meet their sister. The third Petric daughter, the unnamed, the one they had never met in person. When they reached out to her she always welcomed them in. To be together was to feel whole again. The Watershed Society had offered them the opportunity of searching the world and its hidden places. The possibility of finding their lost sister was too great. They would follow the Society to the ends of the world to find their missing third.
The perfect unity was disturbed by a sharp interruption. If either of you bald freaks can hear this, you better get outside. Now. We have problems.
Milena and Mircea looked at each other and decided without conferring. Mircea turned and ascended the stairs two at a time while her sister remained to await word from the Weeks.
The sun was painfully bright against her eyes as she returned to the surface, but she adjusted as she weaved back through the shattered rooms to the exterior of the palace. A shadow had fallen over the central courtyard and she knew what she would see as soon as she looked up. The massive airship was hanging heavily a few dozen yards above the stone slab, the wind from its engines kicking up dust in all directions. Eight of the guards who had taken up watch in a perimeter around the site were standing on the courtyard gazing up at the ship. She saw the insignia of the AAC on the gondola, but it had a glimmer on it that she couldn’t quite trust.
Mircea reached out mentally to the ship. A small crew, which was curious for a Committee vessel. They were nervous, anxious, and... hopeful? They were hoping for success. That hardly made sense unless there was a reason they might fail. She cupped one hand over her eyes as a guard hurried over to stand beside her. She ignored the words coming out of his mouth. Everyone was so quick to voice their thoughts, unaware of the editing and obfuscation they did to themselves as soon as they opened their mouths. She instead listened to his thoughts and heard a less biased version of events.
He had been flirting with one of the other guards, a handsome but married man who had hinted at similar proclivities in the past, when the alarm went up. Three of their members had gone missing. They were discussing what to do about the errant members when word came from the other side of the perimeter that an AAC vessel was approaching. They had put down their weapons since even being armed in the presence of a Committee official was grounds to be considered guilty. But now the ship was simply hovering, and none of the men could figure out why.
Mircea dug deeper into the guard’s mind and found a fantasy he harbored about himself and his fellow guard. As she crossed to stand under the ship she found the object of the first guard’s affection and sent the image to him without context. She saw his face grow pale but forgot about him soon after he was out of her sight. She stopped beneath the wide gondola and looked up at the vessel. The insignia was wrong. It was draped like cloth against the side of the ship, or... perhaps it was...
She turned and looked into the woods. There was power out there, and she had a feeling it would account for the missing guards. She closed her eyes behind her glasses and focused on the illusion flying above her head. She imagined it as the end of a fuse, which she lit on fire. The flame traced back along its trail back to the source, and Mircea began walking before it had reached its destination.
#
Beatrice stopped in her tracks and swayed as if drunk. Leola stopped and looked back at her, and Ivy placed an invisible man on Beatrice’s shoulder.
“Trix? Are you okay?”
“I...” Beatrice gasped. Her head flew back, blood gushing from both nostrils in a crimson cascade. Ivy grabbed her, preventing her from falling and making it look as if Beatrice was defying gravity. Leola cried out in anguish, unable to stop herself, momentarily thinking that Beatrice had just suffered the same fate as Adeline. She ran back to her new acquaintance and gestured for Leola to place her on the grass. Beatrice was shuddering and pale, but alive. The lower half of her face was slick with fresh blood, which had dripped down onto her neck and the collar of her shirt.
“What happened?”
Beatrice grabbed the chest of Leola’s shirt. “Run.”
Leola looked toward the palace and saw something utterly bizarre stalking toward them: a bald woman in a leather jacket, her eyes hidden behind glasses, her arms out to either side with her fingers spread wide. Blue light danced around her forearms and collected in spheres over her palms. They could hear the energy crackling even from thirty yards away.
“Run!” Beatrice said again.
This time Ivy and Leola heeded her warning and ran. Beatrice pushed herself up on bloody hands and watched the bald woman approaching.
“Let’s see how good you are when you’re not sucker punching me.”
The bald woman only smiled and kept coming.
Chapter Seventeen
Beatrice was sweating, both from exertion and the effort of keeping part of her mind on the airship slowly making its way to Knossos. Leola had driven past the ancient site to a remote location south of the palace to be sure they wouldn’t run into any Society goons who had been left to stand guard. Now they were cutting through a field of overgrown weeds, the tall yellow stalks to her right seemingly collapsing of their own volition as Ivy made her way forward. Beatrice had a mental image of the Skylarker with the appropriate insignia on the side. She hoped it would be enough to convince the Society, however briefly, that they were being watched.
Ivy was walking ahead of them as a lookout. They were within a quarter mile of the site when Ivy whistled for them to stop. Beatrice and Leola both crouched as their invisible companion moved back to join them.
“Three guards standing watch, about thirty yards apart.” She broke off a handful of grass so they could see where she was pointing. “There, there, and there. Plenty of room between them, but they’ll have at least two pairs of eyes on you no matter where you try to go through.”
“Can you take them out?”
Ivy said, “One, sure. But then the other two will know something peculiar is happening. They might just start firing blindly.”
Leola said, “Beatrice and I can be in position when you make your move. It would offer them a false sense of security, to think their fellow soldier is far enough away to protect them if we make a move.”
Beatrice said, “Or you could approach them alone. Feign wounded, then Ivy takes out one while I take out the other from afar.”
Leola set her lips in a tight line and met Beatrice’s eye. It was incredibly risky; to expose herself to the guards and trust that two women she’d never worked with before would protect her. A week earlier she would have considered Beatrice her enemy. She hadn’t forgotten the fact that this entire misadventure had begun with the two of them brawling in the street. But Trafalgar needed her help, and Lady Boone was in similarly dire straits.
“I trust you. That plan would have the best chance to succeed. I will approach the guard in the center, Ivy will disable the eastern guard while Beatrice will take the one to the west.”
Beatrice nodded. “We’ll give Ivy time to get into position and then Leola, you can make your move. Five minutes.”
“Should be enough,” Ivy said. “I’ll wait until you’re in position before I make a move.”
“Then let’s not delay any further.”
Ivy took off at a slow trot, moving horizontally so the path she cut through the tall grass would be less obvious. Leola and Beatrice moved furtively to take position behind a tree with a tri-forked trunk. Beatrice pointed out the guard she would target, and Leola nodded her understanding. Beatrice held her hand by her side, clenching and unclenching a fist to build up the energy necessary for two simultaneous attacks. The ship needed its insignia to remain intact - she could envision it now, a gleaming icon emblazoned on both sides of the gondola, flashing just enough red and gold to make anyone on the ground question what they were seeing.
“Ready?” Leola asked.
“When you are.”
Leola slipped out from behind cover. She had a baton tucked in the back of her belt, two blades up her sleeves, and had proven herself adept at self-defense even if she had been completely unarmed. If they hadn’t been enemies she would have admitted she was starting to be a little attracted to the stoic woman. Although if she was completely honest, the fact they were enemies was actually sweetening the pot a little. She would have to see where things ended up once the Society had been dealt with.
“Excuse me,” Leola called. “I was hoping you could help me.”
The guard stepped forward. “You’re not allowed to be here. Please turn around and go back the way you came.”
“I was supposed to meet with my tour group at a parking lot near here. I stepped into the woods, you know... the call of nature... and I found myself turned around.”
The guard hoisted his gun. “You can’t be here, miss. Leave now or you’ll be taken into custody.”
Leola stopped and looked at him. “Are you police? What is this place?”
“I won’t ask you again, ma’am.”
The guard Ivy had chosen suddenly lifted both arms in the air and bent forward at the waist. He backpedaled as if he’d been kicked in the stomach, fumbling to keep hold of the gun as it was torn from his hands. Leola threw herself at the guard she’d been speaking to while the third man brought up his rifle to fire at her. Beatrice mimed throwing a baseball and sent a concentrated burst of energy at the shooter’s head. The man reacted as if hit by lightning, throwing his gun and landing hard on his back. He twitched briefly but did not get back up. Leola dispatched her man with a final blow, stooping to relieve him of his weapons before she checked to make sure everyone else was safe.
“Miss Sever?”
“I’m in one piece,” Ivy said, although a floating blossom of blood somewhere near her shoulder revealed that her victory hadn’t been as complete as the others. “Come on. There will be others, and these three will be missed sooner rather than later.”
Beatrice and Leola split their new weapons between themselves before they continued up the hill to the palace.
#
“What do you know about the Minotaur?” Dorothy asked. They were standing between the Weeks brothers and the interior of the labyrinth. The beast hadn’t repeated its awakening grumble but they could sense it deep in the heart of its prison. Something was definitely awake and moving around somewhere in the warren of winding corridors.
Trafalgar shook her head. “Not nothing, but certainly not much more. You?”
“Bullish fellow, stands erect like a man. Unpleasant in every regard. I seem to remember the true difficulty in killing it was finding it. They sent children into the maze as an offering, and children couldn’t very well stand against the beast. The only magical item Theseus required was the string that showed him how to get out again.”
“I doubt we’ll have trouble finding the Minotaur,” Trafalgar said. “From the sound of things, he is looking for us.”
“Lucky us,” Dorothy muttered. She looked at Orville. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let us have some weapons considering the threat we’re likely to face.”
Orville said, “When the time comes, if you need a weapon...”
She rolled her eyes. “This should be fun.”
“Lead the way,” Trafalgar said.
Dorothy glared at her.
“You have the flashlight.”
“So I do.” She took a breath and, against her better judgment, continued into the labyrinth.
The floor was indeed canted at a very subtle downward angle. When they reached the first branch she paused and shone the light inside. The ground seemed to rise and curve to the right. She passed the door and continued forward. “Always forward, always down.” The path had a slight angle to it, and soon she became aware that they were skirting the outer edge of a wide circle. She could hear Orville’s breathing even though he was bringing up the rear, and she looked back to see him running one hand along the wall.
“Everything all right back there, Mr. Weeks?”
“Just get us to the blasted stone,” he snapped.
Dorothy said, “The instructions seem simple enough. We’ll simply reverse them once we get to the bottom.”
“Bottom...?”
“Oh, yes. Always down. We’re descending even deeper. We must be half a kilometer underground by now. We’re only going to go deeper.”
Daniel said, “I know what you’re doing, Lady Boone. You’d be well-advised to stop.”
Trafalgar said, “There must be something more to the labyrinth than a simple memory device. Why would such a simple solution prevent the Minotaur’s escape? Why would Theseus require a string to find his way out again?”
“Perhaps he got dizzy from walking around in circles.” Trafalgar frowned at her and Dorothy shook her head. “I don’t believe in borrowing stress. Either we’ll discover further security measures or we won’t. Whatever happens we probably can’t predict it. No sense distracting ourselves before we have to.”
As if to punctuate her point, the roar came again. This time it seemed closer, amplified by the curve of the walls until it echoed around them all. Orville seemed less concerned by the beast than by his awareness of how far under the earth they were. Daniel eyed his brother as he used the blade of his knife to score the wall. He used the tip to motion Dorothy onward.
“Go. We’ve waited long enough for this.”
“Patience, Mr. Weeks. Treasures have been lost for sillier things than eagerness. We must do this properly.” She continued forward. “We are the first human beings to set foot in this maze since pre-history. Empires have risen and collapsed since this air was last breathed. We have traveled back in time, gentlemen. Do you not understand how magnificent that is?”
Daniel said, “Forgotten kings in forgotten castles. Dust that our forefathers blew off the world before remaking it for themselves. We shall be the next to rule this world.”
“‘Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair’,” Dorothy said. “‘This mighty City shows the wonders of my hand.’”
Orville breathlessly laughed. “Yes. I quite like that. I like that very much.”
Dorothy looked at Trafalgar in disbelief. “Yes. Perhaps instead of Felix Quintel you could name your ruler Ozymandias.”
Daniel said, “I have the feeling you’re mocking us, but I don’t know why.”
“Ozymandias.” Orville exhaled sharply, puffing out his lips and wiping the sweat from his brow. “It is a damned good name.”
Daniel snorted and shook his head. Trafalgar actually laughed, nudging Dorothy with her elbow to show she had gotten the joke. Dorothy shared the laugh with her as they took the next gentle curve and found themselves standing in front of a solid wall. The smiles faded as Orville and Daniel joined them in the alcove.
“Crumbs.” Dorothy aimed the light up even though she didn’t relish the idea of trying to climb over the obstacle. The wall had no gap before reaching the ceiling of the cavern. “We’ll have to turn back.”
“No! The rhyme said always down, never left or right.”
“Then we must be at the treasure!” Dorothy said. She swept the light over the floor. “We shall be set for life with all of these riches.”
Orville reached out and slapped her hard enough that she fell back against the wall. She dropped the torch and the light in the dead-end swirled. Dorothy remained where she had fallen for a moment, her hand flat against the stone with her face hidden in shadow. Her cheek was red and stinging when she finally turned to face Orville again. Her features were composed and her voice was calm, and no trace of emotion betrayed her voice as she said, “The next time you raise a hand to me, the fight won’t end until one of us lies bleeding at the other’s feet. Am I clear, Mr. Weeks?”
He started forward but his brother stopped him with a hand on his chest. “We still need her, Or.”
“For now,” Orville said.
Dorothy set her jaw and held his gaze until he turned to look back the way they’d come. “Now what do we do? Go back? Disregard the clue?”
“We have no other option. At this point we can only turn left, going into the labyrinth. We’re still on the outside edge, which means this wall gives us no other option. But once we go through the door we’ll be a level deeper and the chances for a fatal error will be even greater. I have to ask if you’re certain this is the action you want to take. Is the prize honestly worth the risk that the four of us will die down here?”
“We’re destined to have the stone,” Orville said. “We’ve come this far. We cannot turn back.”
Dorothy sighed. “Very well then.” She stooped to pick up the torch and walked past their captors. The last door they’d passed was twenty yards back along the curve, and Dorothy stopped in the opening until Trafalgar could join her. She shone the light in both directions as another echoing roar filled the air. The sound had become like the rumble of a thunderstorm, obvious but easy to ignore after a few times. Dorothy said, “What say you?”
Trafalgar shrugged. “I believe your guess is as good as mine. I also believe we will all die down here.”
Dorothy sniffed and reached up to brush a hair out of her face. “Optimistic. I like it. Gods, do I look as disheveled as I feel?”
“There’s stone dust on your cheekbones, your hair is completely unkempt, and your clothing is filthy.” She smiled. “It’s the first time since we met that you’ve actually looked like you deserve your job. You look like an archaeologist, Dorothy.”
“I don’t know if you’ve ever called me Dorothy before.”
“Well you certainly don’t look like any lady I’ve ever seen.”
Dorothy laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” She turned and saw Daniel speaking quietly to Orville. The handsome Weeks brother was hugging himself, his head hanging low, his fingers trembling slightly. The man was obviously terrified. “Mr. Weeks. We should go forward now. We’re going... left.”
The Minotaur roared again, and Trafalgar touched Dorothy’s elbow. “Wait.” She lifted her head and listened. “What if the clue is part of the trap? If it was as simple as always forward, always down, why would Theseus require the extra cheat of the thread?”
“Okay. We’ve already determined it’s impossible to follow the clues to the letter. Perhaps the thread was to prevent him from becoming disoriented.”
Trafalgar said, “But he would still have to navigate to the center of the maze. He would have to know where to look for the Minotaur.”
“Well, if this one is anything like his ancestors, that shouldn’t have been too difficult. You can hear the blasted thing from the moment you...” She trailed off, realization widening her eyes. “Of course. We follow the sound of the Minotaur. It wouldn’t leave its treasure unprotected. So we just have to follow the roars and we should be able to find our goal.”
They waited in anxious anticipation until the Minotaur’s rumble came again. Trafalgar and Dorothy both pointed to the right, smiling when they saw they were in sync, and Dorothy motioned with the torch.
“Come along, Mr. Weeks.”
Daniel followed them into the secondary corridor, with Orville reluctantly trailing behind.
#
Milena and Mircea stood a few feet apart, arms behind their back and their feet planted shoulder-width apart. They still wore their glasses even though the tinted lenses made it nearly impossible to see now that the torch was gone. It didn’t matter to them. When they were girls, the people in charge of the orphanage where they grew up often locked them in cupboards to keep them out of sight. After several days shivering in the dark together they learned to keep their mouths shut. No matter what they saw in someone else’s head, no matter what hidden shame they knew about, they wouldn’t speak it aloud. Standing in a wide, dark room was nothing new to them.
It helped that they were together. They turned their minds inward with tendrils sneaking out to meet their sister. The third Petric daughter, the unnamed, the one they had never met in person. When they reached out to her she always welcomed them in. To be together was to feel whole again. The Watershed Society had offered them the opportunity of searching the world and its hidden places. The possibility of finding their lost sister was too great. They would follow the Society to the ends of the world to find their missing third.
The perfect unity was disturbed by a sharp interruption. If either of you bald freaks can hear this, you better get outside. Now. We have problems.
Milena and Mircea looked at each other and decided without conferring. Mircea turned and ascended the stairs two at a time while her sister remained to await word from the Weeks.
The sun was painfully bright against her eyes as she returned to the surface, but she adjusted as she weaved back through the shattered rooms to the exterior of the palace. A shadow had fallen over the central courtyard and she knew what she would see as soon as she looked up. The massive airship was hanging heavily a few dozen yards above the stone slab, the wind from its engines kicking up dust in all directions. Eight of the guards who had taken up watch in a perimeter around the site were standing on the courtyard gazing up at the ship. She saw the insignia of the AAC on the gondola, but it had a glimmer on it that she couldn’t quite trust.
Mircea reached out mentally to the ship. A small crew, which was curious for a Committee vessel. They were nervous, anxious, and... hopeful? They were hoping for success. That hardly made sense unless there was a reason they might fail. She cupped one hand over her eyes as a guard hurried over to stand beside her. She ignored the words coming out of his mouth. Everyone was so quick to voice their thoughts, unaware of the editing and obfuscation they did to themselves as soon as they opened their mouths. She instead listened to his thoughts and heard a less biased version of events.
He had been flirting with one of the other guards, a handsome but married man who had hinted at similar proclivities in the past, when the alarm went up. Three of their members had gone missing. They were discussing what to do about the errant members when word came from the other side of the perimeter that an AAC vessel was approaching. They had put down their weapons since even being armed in the presence of a Committee official was grounds to be considered guilty. But now the ship was simply hovering, and none of the men could figure out why.
Mircea dug deeper into the guard’s mind and found a fantasy he harbored about himself and his fellow guard. As she crossed to stand under the ship she found the object of the first guard’s affection and sent the image to him without context. She saw his face grow pale but forgot about him soon after he was out of her sight. She stopped beneath the wide gondola and looked up at the vessel. The insignia was wrong. It was draped like cloth against the side of the ship, or... perhaps it was...
She turned and looked into the woods. There was power out there, and she had a feeling it would account for the missing guards. She closed her eyes behind her glasses and focused on the illusion flying above her head. She imagined it as the end of a fuse, which she lit on fire. The flame traced back along its trail back to the source, and Mircea began walking before it had reached its destination.
#
Beatrice stopped in her tracks and swayed as if drunk. Leola stopped and looked back at her, and Ivy placed an invisible man on Beatrice’s shoulder.
“Trix? Are you okay?”
“I...” Beatrice gasped. Her head flew back, blood gushing from both nostrils in a crimson cascade. Ivy grabbed her, preventing her from falling and making it look as if Beatrice was defying gravity. Leola cried out in anguish, unable to stop herself, momentarily thinking that Beatrice had just suffered the same fate as Adeline. She ran back to her new acquaintance and gestured for Leola to place her on the grass. Beatrice was shuddering and pale, but alive. The lower half of her face was slick with fresh blood, which had dripped down onto her neck and the collar of her shirt.
“What happened?”
Beatrice grabbed the chest of Leola’s shirt. “Run.”
Leola looked toward the palace and saw something utterly bizarre stalking toward them: a bald woman in a leather jacket, her eyes hidden behind glasses, her arms out to either side with her fingers spread wide. Blue light danced around her forearms and collected in spheres over her palms. They could hear the energy crackling even from thirty yards away.
“Run!” Beatrice said again.
This time Ivy and Leola heeded her warning and ran. Beatrice pushed herself up on bloody hands and watched the bald woman approaching.
“Let’s see how good you are when you’re not sucker punching me.”
The bald woman only smiled and kept coming.