We walked down the long corridor. And we walked. And we walked. Thomas gave a nervous chuckle. ‘It didn’t feel this far before.’
Mmm. I held the witchlight higher but there was nothing to see except the stone walls. We kept going, one foot after another – until She Without An Ear dug her claws into my flesh and hissed.
Thomas jumped. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
Thane saw it first. ‘A gap in thewall ahead.’
‘But there’ssupposedto be a gap. We entered this corridor through a gap.’
‘The gap is on the wrong side,’ he said darkly. A moment later, I saw that he was right.
Thomas shook his head. ‘We must have missed the doorway leading to the first corridor by the entrance.’
‘We didn’t miss anything,’ Thane growled. ‘And we can’t all be confused or hallucinating the same thing. The original doorway has gone and there’s a different doorway leading in the opposite direction.’
‘That’s impossible!’ Thomas argued.
I didn’t say anything. Thane looked at me. ‘Kit?’
I sighed heavily. ‘The loud noise we heard before. The tracking spell. The way so few vampires have penetrated this maze in the past and managed to escape. It all fits.’
Thomas’s exasperation grew. ‘Fits with what?’
‘The walls move,’ I said simply.
‘Preposterous!’ Thomas said.
Thane was nodding. ‘It’s the logical conclusion.’
‘But that doesn’t make any sense!’
‘It’s theonlything that makes sense.’ I looked at him. ‘This maze is imbued with ancient magic either to keep people out or,’ I paused for a moment, ‘to keep something in.’
‘If the latter is true, the magic is failing,’ Thane muttered. Indeed.
Thomas didn’t panic; in fact, his response was the opposite to panic. His shoulders slumped and his eyes dulled. ‘So we’re trapped. Penelope is dead and we’re trapped inside a maze. We’re absolutely fucked.’
‘On the contrary,’ I told him. ‘This is good.’
‘What?’
‘If we’re lost and we don’t know where we are, there’s a chance that bastard monster can’t find us and it doesn’t knowwhere we are. We keep going. We find the fucker. And then we win,’ I said.
‘You sound very sure,’ Thomas quavered.
‘I am.’
He stared at me for a long moment and I saw a glimmer of the original Thomas return to his eyes, a flash of the cheeky, brash vampire whom I’d first met. ‘We will beat that thing. And this maze.’
I nodded. ‘Absolutely.’
He raised his head then marched ahead and took the new turn which led to the right.
‘What do you really think our chances are of surviving this?’ Thane murmured.
I took his hand. ‘Fifty-fifty,’ I said. ‘At best.’
‘You’re more optimistic than I am.’
