Labyrinth Wall (9780991531219) (11 page)

Reality demands my return with more of Sir Riddles’ obnoxious growling speech.

There are so many things

We can’t explain,

Yet it is so true.

If we open our eyes, they are so very plain.

What’s he going on about now? I have to question if he, himself, knows what he’s saying. Done with his meal, he goes back over to his bed and slides on the extra robe he took off the night before. Now he works his way across the room and stands in front of his “pets.”

He pauses and looks over at me.

No chance you’ve decided to be good,

I would venture to guess.

So I’ll give you more time to observe your options,

And let your mind really assess.

He turns his attention back to the prisoners. Again, he makes hand gestures, and they all seem to know what they mean. One arm stretches up, next straight forward. He rotates his palm up and wiggles his fingers. Following the demands closely, the people sit, lay, roll, and even beg. After he’s content with their cooperation, he feeds them all.

My stomach growls at me, angrily begging for food. I’d rather starve than give in. I fight the pain in my body and sit up straight. Hunger is an enemy I’m far too acquainted with so I know how to push it away.

My good little pets,

I hate to leave you.

I’d love to stay and play,

But I’ve got things to attend to.

Right, things to attend to. He’s out looking for more people to kidnap, I’m sure.

He leaves three mutts watching me and the other prisoners. Today, only one sits directly across from me. Another takes a nap in the bed, and the third makes his rounds, drinking out of the prisoners’ water bowls.

Another ten minutes pass, and my bottom is getting sore from sitting in the chair. If Korun survived, he would have come by now. If I want to live, I need to get myself out of this.

Getting out of this chair isn’t possible. If I don’t escape before I end up chained to the wall, it will never happen. It’s painful, but the answer is to agree to his terms. He’ll have to release me from the chair before moving me to the wall. That will be my only chance.

The chair is nailed down, so it won’t be useful for defense. There’s a junk pile in the back left corner where my bag has been tossed. If my bag is there, chances are my dagger is too.

Once he unties me, my best bet is to get a forceful kick at his head, hopefully knocking him out. After that, I run for the tote. I’ll jump through the window and be rid of him. That’s the best I’ve got. Realistically, I’m going to end up dog food during my feeble attempt at freedom, but it’s better than living out my life in these conditions.

Now all that’s left to do is wait until I can play along with Sir Riddles’ game.

Chapter 12
Attempting an Escape

I must have faded off again. I awaken to the loud bang of the door swinging open. The prisoners cling to the wall and whimper loudly. He must be home.

I inhale deeply. “Sir Riddles, I’m ready to be good.”

The saber tooth mutts start growling. Their eyes narrow as they begin to charge toward the door. A knife flies into one of their skulls before blood splatters across the dirt. The dog drops dead at my feet. The others disappear from my sight, attacking someone behind me. I hear a struggle and a grunt followed by a chopping sound and a whimper. A thump on the ground causes me to jump. I whip my head around to observe. A saber tooth mutt lies on the floor with a gaping hole in its head. The other mutt is running away.

“That’s too bad,” a familiar voice answers my previous statement. “Let’s see, I don’t think Mr. Riddles is going to get to hear that.” Korun appears in front of me.

I exhale with relief. “It’s Sir Riddles.”

“Haven’t lost your spunk, have you?” He laughs as he dislodges the knife from the dog’s head. He cuts off my restraints.

I can’t help but to swing my arms around his neck with gratitude. “Did you kill him?”

“That ghoulish thing? No. I’ve been waiting for him to leave. Think he’ll be mad I killed his dogs?”

“We’ve got to get out of here. He’s absolutely crazy and has twenty-two saber tooth mutts at his command.”

“Twenty, now.” Korun points with his bloody axe at the two dead mutts.

He starts to lead me out the door when I remember my bag.

“Wait.” Frantically I run toward the back of the house to find my bag, but my dagger’s missing. “Damn it.” I turn around to face Korun.

He’s left my side, distracted by Sir Riddles’ “pets.” Horror screams in his eyes as he looks them over. Having seen the skinny bruised bodies multiple times already, I’m still shaken. I can’t even imagine what he’s thinking. He pulls his knife back out.

“There’s no time. He could be back any second.”

He glances at me shamefully. “We can’t leave them like this.”

When he reaches to cut off a woman’s collar, she snarls and bites his hand. He jerks back, and we move away from the wall as they all start growling. We almost reach the bed before we stop. “What did he do to them?” he questions.

“I told you, he’s completely crazy.”

At that moment, I hear Sir Riddles’ low growl

It’s not very nice

To talk bad about your owner.

And do my eyes play tricks,

Or are you running off with a stranger?

Korun and I both whirl around to face him.

He stands at the doorway. Drool drips from his sagging lips. His eyes get big at the sight of his dead mutts. He begins to howl.

Korun and I look at each other with frightened eyes. Tree branches shuffle outside, and loud pattering clamors in our ears.

“The other mutts!” I exclaim.

Three are already emerging from the tree line outside, swiftly approaching the open door.

Sir Riddles snarls at us, revealing nasty canine teeth, then leaps high into the air, headed our direction.

In a panic, I jerk Korun over toward the fireplace. My fingers get slightly burned extracting a lit log from the fire and launching it toward our attacker.

His robes light up instantly, causing him to whimper. He drops midair, letting out his awful loud cackle. A sharp cracking noise cuts the air as he hits the ground. Rolling around in his attempt to put out the flames, he manages to set his bed on fire.

Korun takes his axe to the only mutt that’s made it inside so far. In two strikes, he kills the thing. The flames and mutts have us backed into the house. Fire is spreading to the walls. We’re across the house from the door, the exit.

Another reaches me. It’s jumping at me, ears back and mouth struggling to tear at my skin. The mutt takes a full bite out of my baggy pants but only barely scrapes my skin with its teeth.

Korun spins around, swinging the axe up into its midsection, flinging it across the room.

“Come on.” I grab his arm and charge for the back of the cabin.

He catches up with me. At the same time, we launch our bodies through the air at the huge window. Glass sprays on our impact. I close my eyes, afraid of being blinded.

We hit the ground hard, descending on the rotten flesh of dead bodies. Our rough landing isn’t great, but as I notice the many sharp pointed rib cage bones a few feet away, I count us lucky. The smell is atrocious.

Korun’s on his feet first, pulling me up beside him. “Go, go!” he yells.

My dagger’s in a pile of weapons behind the house. “Wait!” I insist.

I backtrack a couple feet. Just as I reach the pile, a mutt jumps through the window at me, knocking me to the ground again.

“I’m coming,” I hear Korun yell.

“I’ve got this,” I assure him as I grasp the dagger in my hand, slamming it into the angry dog’s eye. It whimpers as it runs off, tail between its legs.

Once again, Korun helps me to my feet. We take off running. I situate the dagger in my hair like it should be.

“Think we could move faster?” Korun urges. Faster would be ideal, but we’re headed uphill and my empty body needs food. “Don’t look back. Just keep going.”

What if Sir Riddles is behind us? And those mutts, how many are on our trail?
We reach the top of the small hill behind the cabin, and I can’t resist any longer. Briefly, my gaze travels behind us to see the condition of the fire. The whole house is in flames now. There can’t be any way Sir Riddles or his prisoners escaped. His prisoners
—
I’m torn between guilt of their deaths and frustration at their refusal to accept our help.

Despite the smoke brought on by the fire, some of the mutts picked up on our scent. They chase us a good ten minutes before Korun pushes me at a tree. He gives me a quick boost before pulling himself up about the time the dogs catch us. They bark ferociously from the ground and scratch at the trunk.

“We could have outrun them,” I state as he points for me to continue crawling upward.

“We could have, but we need to get Rase.”

Somehow, she slipped my mind during all the chaos. It’s amazing she didn’t escape or die between the gas and the mutts.

“Smart choice to leave her tied up in a tree.”

“Didn’t have much of an option. You know how she likes to make everything difficult. I didn’t think it was worth bringing her along just to cause problems. Couldn’t take that kind of risk.” His hand brushes mine as we grab for the same branch.

“I’m sorry I got us into all this,” I offer as we advance upwards.

“It’s not like you had a choice. If you hadn’t brought us here, the guards would have killed us.”

“I meant I’m sorry for setting off the gas and nearly killing us all… then going and letting myself get captured.”

He pauses for a minute and indicates for me to do the same. After placing his hand on my cheek, his thumb brushes away dirt from under my eye. “Don’t be sorry for anything, Araina. I’m sorry that happened to you. Did he hurt you?”

“No. I don’t think he really intended to injure me. I can’t be sure, but he would have let me starve to death if I didn’t obey him.”

Korun shakes his head.

It’s actually helpful to vent. Saying things out loud rather than only in my head feels freeing. “He had them trained, Korun, like animals. I really thought I was going to die in that house.”

“Were you really going to give in?” His tone isn’t condescending but instead one of concern. Sadness manages to speak not through his voice but the look in his eyes.

“No, I had decided I would try to make a run for it after I pretended to cooperate. I thought he would have to unbind me at some point. Then maybe I could find my dagger in my bag. I knew it probably wasn’t going to work.” I shiver and shake out my hands, like I’m shooing away Sir Riddles and his mutts.

“Let’s see, she’s right there.” Korun points up at Rase, who is sleeping through my hysterics and the barking dogs. That makes me smile a bit.

We finish our climb, and Korun jostles her awake.

“You took long enough,” she scolds. “I figured I was going to starve up here.”

“Quit being dramatic,” I reply. “If you weren’t such a pain, he could have brought you with him.”

Korun releases her from the tree. Once again, I take her rope.

“Sounds like trouble,” Rase remarks, when she finally hears the barking dogs.

“She’s right,” I tell Korun, “and I doubt they’ll let up.”

“I’ve already considered that. This canopy is pretty thick, don’t you think?”

“Sure” I answer, unsure of what he’s thinking.

He looks both directions. “We climb the rest of the way. Probably just as fast, but a lot safer.”

“Safer as long as we don’t fall,” I point out. His idea has merit though. “Really there isn’t any other option aside from trying to wait the mutts out, but there’s probably around twelve of them, so they’ll be keeping an eye on the tree for a while. I think it could work.”

He nods.

“I’m desperate for food though. I’ve got to eat something.” Nothing edible remains in my bag. Sir Riddles swipes food from his victims. I huff at the realization that I’ve got no food or water left on me.

Korun graciously offers me a potato. My angry stomach would be glad to consume the whole thing, but self-control equals survival. This is going to be an issue though. The three of us are going to have difficulty finding enough food the next few days or, more importantly, water. We could swipe those items from other Mahk, but we have to find some first. My eyes catch Korun watching me, maybe even admiring me. Scrats… He won’t have us stealing even if it would save our lives.

“We’re really going to have to move as fast as possible,” I tell him. “That food isn’t going to last the three of us long. If we can make it to my hiding spot, we’ll have access to some fresh water as well as vegetation.” Our hiding location makes me think of Blue. Who knows if Darith’s on his way to kill her as we speak?

“Sounds like you’ve got a pretty nice setup at your spot,” he observes.

“I didn’t even realize that until a couple days ago. Most water around the labyrinth is acidic, so when I found the water pool at the bottom of the wall, I thought it was too. Blue showed me I was wrong, and it’s all thanks to her I found the food. All because of her I found the wall.”