A woman follows us, plump and pretty. I slow, waiting for her to catch us, but within a dozen turns she is lost to the maze.
“I c-can’t… I can’t keep… up,” Kari gasps, straining behind me. Her floral perfume heavily scents the air, heated by her sweat-stained efforts to run. The pretty red flowers in her hair have begun to droop.
She’s right. I’ve pushed her, using fear as my whip, but if we don’t have a brief rest then she’s likely to collapse.
Light forms an arch ahead of us. It’s the first time I’ve seen a glimpse of the outside since we plunged into the dark tunnels, and I didn’t realize how much I yearned for the sight of it. Hope flutters in my chest.
“Just a little further. As soon as we reach the outside, we can catch our breath for a second.”
“Oh Goddess,” she groans, bending over with her hands on her thighs. “I can climb… four hundred… stairs with a stack of scrolls in my arms, but I was… not made forthis.”
Fresh air bursts over us in a wave as we stumble into some sort of garden maze. Pristine hedges circle us, cut so precisely I have to wonder how they’ve done it. A statue looms over us, a pair of lovers tangled together beneath the blood moon, every delicate line of them carved of some exquisite marble that would probably be beautiful beneath silvery starlight.
Instead, the hand around the female’s throat seems menacing in the light of the blood moon, and the gasp on her lips is stained red.
Beneath the statue stands a fountain.
Water.
I plunge to my knees before it, cupping it eagerly before sniffing. Kari doesn’t bother to wait, she simply shoves her face into the water and gulps it down greedily.
Smells normal. Appears clean. I swiftly drink my fill.
There’s food and drink to be found here, Mariam told me, though it’s scarce and sometimes one often has to barter to gain it.
Kari slumps against the fountain. Getting her to move again is going to be a problem. Her soft curves, gentle ink-smudged hands and the lustrous timbre to her red hair speak of good health and home. She must be a scholar or a scribe, and I’d be surprised if she’s known a single moment of struggle.
A little pang fills me. Gods, that would have been nice. A life without struggle. I can’t begrudge her that, though I envy it. Some part of me wants to keep that feeling safe for her.
“What did that man mean?” she whispers. “Back there in the chambers? A bride hunt? What is?—?”
Noise intrudes. I shove my hand over her mouth, capturing her words.
We’re not alone.
“This way,” I breathe, hauling her to her feet and toward the nearest exit.
We pull up short when a hideous creature strolls out of the maze, his reptilian features set close together over his long, lizard-like nose. I’ve seen the laboratories at the keep of the Knights of Malus—their magic-fused monstrous experiments trapped in cages—but I’ve never seen something so clearly reptilian fused with a human’s body. A tail lashes behind him, thrusting through his tight woolen trousers, and a pair of suspenders cross his broad chest. His skin is silvery-blue, hints of scales blending into soft flesh.
“Well,” says the creature, his long tongue flickering out to test the air, “thissss iss a pleasssant surprissse.”
I turn, but another man steps out of the far corners of the maze.
“Good hunting,” he tells the lizard man. “Thought I could smell something sweet.”
Kari’s perfume. They can smell Kari’s perfume.
“One each,” says the lizardman, his gaze sliding between me and Kari. They light upon her soft skin. “Thisss one isss mine.”
“Hold,” protests the taller, bearded man, striding toward us. “We haven’t even flipped a dagger for it.”
“I called it firssst.”
“You promised. If we found one, then we’d take turns once we flipped for first rights. If we find two, then we flip for choice.”
“I changed my mind, Rigor,” hisses the lizardman, darting forward to grab Kari’s arm. “I know sssoft, fertile flesssh when I sssee it. This one will breed many younglingsss. I call claim on her.”
Kari wrenches away, hammering a clenched fist at his nose. Surprise gains her distance, but I really need to teach her how to throw a punch.
