Bael’s hand slides down my arm as he turns his body to put himself between me and the source of that rumbling. “The Labyrinth is going to rearrange itself. This one feels stronger though. Hold on to me.”
I squeeze his hand.
Ahead of us, the walls of the Labyrinth begin to tremble.
“Run!” Bael bellows.
A crevice snakes through the Labyrinth, stone tumbling from the walls and plummeting within the bottomless crack. It creates a domino effect, walls slamming into each other.Crack. Crack. Crack.
I scream, hands shielding my head as Bael shoves me along in front of him. There’s a clearing ahead, but the walls begin to shudder. We’ll never make it. We’re going to be crushed?—
“Go!” Bael bellows, slamming into me.
I stagger into the clearing.
“There!” Bael points to a small mountainous peak rising out of the maze. A set of ruins sits atop it. “We need higher ground.”
Stairs circle the peak. Hammering up them, thighs burning, I don’t look at the Labyrinth surrounding us until I reach the top.
The nearby walls lie in ruins, dust rising from the rubble. The chaos spreads in a perfect circle around us for perhaps half a mile. Nothing remains.
The ground stops shaking.
“Well,” I whisper, “at least if someone was following us, they’re no longer an issue.”
Bael staggers to a halt at my side, bending over.
I catch a glimpse of the blood dripping down his arm. “You’re hurt!”
“I’m fine,” he growls, surveying the ruins around us. “A rock smashed into me.”
“Sit,” I tell him. “I’ll fetch some water.” There’s a well nearby.
Hauling up a bucket full of water, I cup my hand and scoop it up, reaching forward to sniff at the waters.
“No!” Bael yells, grabbing my wrist and snatching me away from the well.
“What’s wrong? I can’t smell any poison.”
“It’s not poison.” He trails his fingers along the roses engraved into the stone that encircles the well. “This is… a joke. It has to be a joke.”
“I fail to understand?”
“It is said,” Bael growls, stabbing a finger toward the roses, “that any well that was encircled by Amara’s mark was a safe haven from the savagery of this world. The water within is the coolest, freshest water you’ll find, but one taste and you shall find the lies struck from your tongue, the violence from your heart. I’ve seen a man babble for hours about a woman he loved after he took one sip from such a well. We could hardly shut himup about it, and he’d been professing his undying hatred of her for years.”
“Then how is it a joke?”
“Because the Goddess vanished centuries ago, and the wells with her.” He shoves away from the well, stalking down the circled stairs that lead away from it. “This shouldn’t be here, and if it is, then it was created by Kasaros as a trap. Who knows what it does. Don’t touch it.”
I wait long seconds until he’s nearly out of sight, then slip the small waterskin he gave me from around my shoulder and fill it swiftly from the well.
With one last look at the roses, I hurry after him.
“Well,” Bael says. “I hope you’re not afraid of heights.”
The world drops out from under us, an enormous cavern gaping across the landscape. A narrow bridge stretches across it, rickety timbers swaying in the breeze. I swallow, because how do I reply when the answer is yes?
Kari is across this ravine.
