Notfae.
Yet if I do this, if I emerge from this labyrinth a killer, I’ll be no different than one. I’ll have let this place change me. Maybe even cut me off from Ishanna forever.
Bitterness floods my throat. My fingers open, my hands easing back from the rope. From taking a life.
On the far side of the ravine, the creature reaches safety. He launches himself onto solid ground, wailing like a newborn.
My heart rate steadies to a reassuring thump. With my pursuer safe, I hack through the last strands holding the bridge together. It plummets away, boards crashing and splintering against the far cliff. Debris rains down and bursts against the rocks.
I breathe deep. I’m safe, and I didn’t kill anyone. I honored my goddess.
Somepart of me still holds faith.
The thought wraps warm hands around me. I scoot back from the edge, alone here on my island, the thrill of my close call dissolving into exhaustion and relief.
The toad-creatures hurl threats, promising death and retribution and all kinds of sordid punishments, but I ignore them.
I did the right thing. I can go home and take my vows and not have blood on my hands when I do it.
Maybethisis Ishanna’s true test for me. The path to earn my Grace.
I turn from the creatures, no longer listening to their tirade. In the distance, the castle glows against the morning. The Shadow must besearching by now. Hunting me. But even when he inevitably tracks me through the hedge maze, he can’t reach me here.
Nothing can.
My gaze drops to the tree—a massive, sprawling oak with a recessed door in its trunk. This one looks almost welcoming, made of blue lacquered wood with an ornate golden handle. But on the other side lies my next challenge. Another maze, another monster, another narrow escape.
I drift closer, my steps weighted by fatigue. My eyelids grow heavy, begging to close.
I have no way of knowing what comes next, or how much it will demand from me. Maybe I should stay here for a bit. Rest.
I glance down at my orb bracelet. Sand lines the bottom of the hourglass, but only barely. I’ve used an eighth of my time, at most.
What harm can come from sleeping for an hour or two?
In the end, my body makes the decision for me. My legs give out, and I sink onto the grassy ground, tucked into the oak tree’s shadows.
I’ll doze for just a little while. Until the Shadow wakes me with his inevitable roaring.
Sleep pulls me down into its embrace. As my eyelids drift closed, I reach for my pendant. Or maybe I only dream that I do.
But it’s a good dream, because the metal warms in my hand.
As if Ishanna has remembered me at last.
Chapter 15
Some time later, a roar yanks me from sleep.
I jerk into a sit and scrub at my eyes. Scrub at my eyes some more.
Another roar splits the air. My bleary gaze swings to the ravine.
The toad-creatures have gone. Now the Shadow paces along the far edge, clods of dirt falling away beneath his claws. He roars again, the lines of his body vibrating with energy, his eyes dull with mindless rage.
I shake my head to clear the muzziness of sleep. My hunter has found me, as expected, but…it’s bright. Midday bright. Maybe even early afternoon.
Oh, goddess.
