“Hello?” Aldora called out again. The continued silence made her nervous, and the longer it lasted, the more she doubted ever hearing a voice on the other side. All she knew was that if she was on the other side of the wall, and she had survived long enough to catch someone’s attention, she’d hope they would try to help her as well.
The warnings and tales of monsters were one thing, but it was the powerful men and women that ruled the last remaining land of sunlight that frightened her the most. Savadon. They had dominion over Thetras, controlled by the town’s Master, Nithers Emen, who followed the orders of the Master of the Western Region.
The Masters had the power to pick you out of a crowd and kill you, and those that fought back, the families and friends, were often sacrificed next.
Aldora and her younger sisters had grown up watching the events as children and were taught early on to blend into the crowd, always be pleasant, always make other people need you, and to never allow yourself to stand out.
Because to be noticed... The innocent, the pure, the beautiful and coy often made the best sacrifices to the world maze. It was why Aldora tried to be anything but.
She swallowed and looked up. A canopy of brush and vines half shielded the night sky and she craned her neck to find the top of the wall. Firebugs twinkled in the darkest parts.
“I heard you,” she called out one last time, wiping her hands against her leggings. “I hopeyourspark reaches the light and your body remains untouched...”
“Human.” A guttural voice filled her ears, startling her anew. “Woman. You give me burial rights and I am not yet dead.”
That voice...Her mouth parted in shock. It was dark and wicked. “I didn’t know. They seemed like a kind sentiment,” she responded quickly, her skin prickling with gooseflesh. “But if you were giving them...”
“If I were giving them then it means that there’s a corpse at my feet,” he finished for her, his voice deepening still.
She paused.Who had he killed?“Was it a beast?”
“Woman, I am the beast.”
Her gaze zeroed in on the thickly shrouded hedge before her.
I am safe. Nothing that was not human has ever made it across.“I never knew the monsters in the maze could speak our tongue.”His voice ishuman. It was rich and mesmerizing, and tickled her ears. Aldora shivered despite herself. She frowned slightly. But then again she’d never heard anything but howls and hisses coming from the labyrinth, and she had walked the border road countless times, on countless days, throughout her whole life.
“Have you met many of us, female?”
“Only you,” she whispered.
“That explains your courage in giving me your voice. If you knew us, you’d flee to your woolen pallet and sing through the night that we would not come after you,” he taunted with a hint of sinister glee.
I should go.Her fingers twitched. She glanced down at her bag. “You cannot breach the walls. There’ll be no fleeing on my part, from you nor the other monsters. You can’t chase me down.”
There was a momentary silence. Aldora shifted on her feet uneasily.
“Ah, and I yearn to do so.”
A warm thrill bloomed. It started as a blush that spread to her core, lower still to the tips of her toes. She clenched them in the confines of her shoes. She was not as afraid as she should be. Any sane person would’ve run home the moment they heard a sound from the other side, but she found herself intrigued. Maybe because she knew so little about what existed in the labyrinth, and the little bit of knowledge she gained from this interaction could help her in the future.
Maybe because she detested and feared the sacrifices made to it and the night terrors of her youth.
“I have frightened you. Good. But if only I could smell you. There is nothing like the smell of fear.”
“I’m not frightened.” The more he spoke, the less she was.
“No, which is unusual for a human. If you are so fearless, why not breach the labyrinth and face me? Test the limits of your courage and face your opponent?” The beast laughed, the chill in it slithered over her flesh. “I am willing.”
Aldora ignored his goading. “I won’t be tricked by you.”
“Who’s there!?” A new voice filled the twilight.
She twisted around and backed up into the heavy, half-dead foliage of the labyrinth as footsteps approached. The creature at her back had gone quiet. “I heard you, lass! Come out now or pay the price.”A path guard.
Aldora clamped her mouth shut and gripped the handle of her dagger.I can’t get caught.A sudden wave of nausea churned her stomach.
She pressed quietly, slowly, for the second time that evening, back into the deepening shade of the trees.
