Page 233 of The Mortal Trials

Is the gods damned labyrinth changing while we’re in it?

We twist and turn and fumble as the creature follows our movements, slamming into the wall dividing us from it again, and again, and again.

Soft light flickers at the end of the corridor as the string in Elias’s hand runs out.

Ulani and Vailea inch with their backs against the wall, facing the opening, weapons ready. Ulani leans forward and describes what he sees in a hushed voice.

The center is dimly lit by a single hanging lamp. At least twenty passages empty into it. All of them look identical. If we’re going to get back to Koda, we need to find this entrance and this string.

“One of us ought to remain here,” Niall suggests. “How else will we know where our string is?”

“You,” August insists. “You stay here and keep quiet. I swear if you run…”

“I won’t,” Niall vows.

Koda stayed behind as our anchor, and so we wouldn’t have to carry him if something went terribly wrong. He was brave. Niall, however, is only afraid for himself.

When the creature in the center roars, I take advantage of the noise to score the filthy stone beside Niall’s head with my spear. If he stays behind, I don’t trust him not to run to save his own hide, and he’s certainly not someone I want to trust my life with.

Ulani holds up a fist. We stop.

The creature who’d been going berserk suddenly goes quiet. Everything does. Bats don’t even dare to fly. All I can hear is my own shallow breathing. My blood whooshing in my ears. I wipe my palms on my skirt one at a time and grip my spear again, tighter this time.

“Where did it go?” Vailea breathes, carefully leaning forward to search for the monster who has been slamming into the other side of the wall we’re plastered to.

“Wherever it is, it’s not in the center of the maze. Maybe we should run out into the open,” Ulani suggests. “We don’t want to fight it in this hallway.”

He’s right. If the thing is as large as it sounds, it could pin or trample us here. If it finds our string, the glow will lead it right to Koda.

Elias nods. August and I do, too.

We ease around Niall, who crouches against the inner wall, hiding in the shadows. As if whatever creature the gods carved for this trial won’t find him, won’t be perfectly adapted to its environment.

Ulani and Vailea burst forward, and Elias, August, and I follow. We form a tight circle, keeping our backs to one another, surprised that there’s no monstrous beast waiting to devour or tear us apart. But near the interior wall stands a man I recognize well.

Blood pours from wounds on his head. The crimson drips, forking into rivers that flow down his face, beard, stomach, and thighs. He’s naked save for a loincloth and covered in dirt and filth where trails of sweat haven’t dragged it away. His knees tremble and without his cane, he sways on his feet like he’s dazed. His glasses are missing.

“Daedalus?” My voice breaks.

He doesn’t lift his head at the sound of his name. Doesn’t seem to hear me at all. Did the screams we heard come from him?

August catches my arm. “The man who made your prosthesis?”

I nod, overwhelmed and unsure what to do next. I want to go to him. I should go help him, but I can’t. And not because August is still holding my bicep, watching Daedalus with fear in his eyes, but because some intense, primal feeling in my gut warns me not to move an inch.

We’re in danger.

“Where’s the beast?” Elias asks, scanning the maze’s openings for any sign of where it may be hiding.

Vailea grips her sword tighter.

Ulani gestures to the damage visible around us. “Look at the floor and walls.”

Deep gouges and cracked stone, scuffs on the algae-slickened ground under our feet. The entire center space is covered in evidence that it’s here somewhere.

Is the damned thing invisible? Is it using Daedalus as bait?

Daedalus lets out a groan and sways again. His bowed knees look like they’ll buckle.