“Give me the redhead,” hisses the lizard-faced monster, turning to grab Kari once more. She tumbles onto the ground.
Rage unleashes within me, like fuel poured onto a smoldering fire. It’s a torrent that’s been building for years, focused on my ancient enemy, and now these two pricks are going to pay for it. I spin, slashing across lizard face’s gut with the tip of the spear, then spinning it up under my arm before driving the haft into his face. He goes down with a scream, and I follow up with a heel to his throat. The resounding choking gurgle eases some of the fury within me.
“Get up,” I tell Kari.
The girl shoves to her feet, wide blue eyes frightened as they dart around the clearing. “What’s going on?”
No time to talk. It isn’t safe to stay here, and I don’t like the way Slaith’s eyeing her. Or the fact that he seems to have barely noticed the way I cut his face open. “We have one chance to run. Keep close to me and do everything I say.”
Without the others, we’re no longer cornered and Slaith’s already proven that he’s built for power and not speed.
“This way,” I yell, hauling Kari in the direction where the Beast flew.
“Isn’t this the way that enormous… creature went?” she gasps.
Precisely. “The hunters seem to be avoiding it. That will give us some breathing space to make a plan.”
And I can’t lose him. Not now. Not when I’m so close to finding my sister.
“Come back!” Slaith bellows as we dart into one of the maze’s paths. “Back to Slaith!”
We sprint until Kari can no longer run. Another clearing opens up ahead of us, this one filled with a pool draped with lily pads and stark black waters. The water doesn’t move. Not a single ripple. Unlike the fountain, I have no desire to go near it and right now I could drink an entire tavern dry.
But there’s a stone bench along the hedges and Kari collapses onto it, whilst I check the other three exits. This time we’re alone.
“What’s your name?” asks Kari breathlessly. “What’s going on? What is this place?”
“You don’t know?”
“I was in my father’s library!” she half shrieks, holding up her ink-stained hands as if to prove it. “I’m the Keeper of the Scrolls. I had three hours left of transcribing before the Sage was due to arrive. And then this shadow swirled into a circular gate behind me, sucking at the world. I was pulled through it backwards, along with my scrolls and that’s the last thing I remember.”
A scream echoes through the maze to my right and I spin that way, eyes darting as I search the depths of the maze before I realize the sound is growing distant. My instincts were right. Nobody’s going to be hunting in the section of the maze where the Beast stalks.
“My name is Zyla,” I reply. “You’re no longer in your world. And this…? This is the Bride Hunt.”
Chapter 3
Zyla
Hearth and home is what every dutiful Daughter of Malus must aspire to. One must be demure, and respect their husband’s wishes. One must obey. And one must never, ever defy their husband and master.”
—SERMON BY GRAND MASTER VAEMON OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALUS
“Idon’t understand what a… a… cursed bride hunt is!” Kari shakes, as if, now that we’ve finally escaped from danger, the shock of the situation has surfaced. “Another world? How do we return to our own worlds? How do I get home? Who are these men? These monsters? What?—”
“Easy.” I kneel before her, squeezing her knee and lowering my voice. “I know it’s a shock to consider.” It’s easier for me because I was expecting to find this exact situation. My heart squeezes. Did my sister, Aylin, feel like this when she arrived here? Had she felt as lost and alone?
“This is a world where females are few, and their Laughing God imports them from other worlds in order to give his menfolk brides.”
Good.She’s listening to me. I can’t have her giving into shock.
“Did you hear that God back there? In the chambers we arrived in?
She shakes her head. “He just said I had to be a good girl and I would be rewarded.”
I frown. And then it strikes me—Kasaros is a God of Mischief and Chaos. Perhaps we all saw and heard different things when we arrived?
“This is a game,” I tell her slowly, repeating what Mariam told me all those years ago. “Long ago, the feminine Goddess of this world was lost to the people here and with her loss began an era of barrenness. Sons were born, but rarely females. And ultimately, the world fell into imbalance. Wars were waged as females grew scarcer, and in order to stop the world from tearing itself apart, Kasaros, the Trickster God, offered the people here a chance. Once a year, he hosts the Bride Hunt, pulling fertile brides from his and other worlds. The males of this world can bid or fight for the chance to become hunters. Each kingdom is allowed to send its allotment of champions in order to steal or seduce a bride for their own. I don’t know how, exactly, they’re chosen. But I do know there are never enough brides for all the hunters. It’s a fight to the death for few resources.”
