Labyrinth Wall (9780991531219) (29 page)

It would be a lot to expect a smile from her at the moment, but she nods.

“Are you ready to go back over there and tell the truth? I’ll be right by your side.”

A small hint of confidence returns to her icy blue eyes. She steps away, headed back toward the others. Her head gestures me to follow.

“Hear her out,” I tell the group as we near them.

Soll doesn’t even wait for an explanation before he’s yelling again, “What are you, a Creator spy?” He’s grinding his teeth with aggravation. “Traitor!”

“Soll! She’s not a spy. Darith and I saw Grol threatening her in the castle. Whatever she did, it wasn’t voluntary. Let’s hear her out.”

Everyone stands quietly. Silence grips us for a moment. Finally, Saige shatters the silence. “I was captured by the guards as I was turning in my obsidian taxes. When I told them my name and number, they escorted me away from the crowds then locked me in a castle room. That’s when Grol showed up.” Her breathing shallows again. “He told me they knew about the colony. There were rumors, and my name had been turned in. They knew I was a member.”

I’m examining everyone’s faces as she goes on. Keelie’s compassion is already starting to appear in her eyes, but Soll’s body language is fierce. His stance is like that of a coiled snake ready to strike.

“I didn’t even speak to them at first. They didn’t feed me or give me any water for many hours. I sat alone, staring out the barred window, wishing I wasn’t there.” She pauses, her face contorting, as if she were extracting blood from her own veins. “Finally Grol started making bigger threats.”

She turns around and asks for me to remove her shrug then lift her shirt. Keelie steps back with a shriek. Vickon looks away saddened, and I think I even see some compassion in Darith’s expression. Her back is completely disfigured.

“Grol started whipping me. When that didn’t work, he used his fire to burn me during every interrogation.” She barely forces out her words. She’s fighting desperately not to cry again. I let her shirt drop and pull her back around to face us all. “I’m so sorry,” she conveys earnestly. “I never did actually tell them how to get there though. After all the torture, I agreed to lead them there.”

Soll scoffs heartlessly. A twinge of pain pulses through me at his insensitivity. I can’t even fathom how his reaction is hurting Saige.

“I only told them that to try and make an escape. I never intended to lead them there, and I didn’t. Or if I did, it wasn’t purposeful. I was able to get away, but apparently someone followed me. I’m so sorry,” she pleads for forgiveness.

Soll turns and walks away, pounding his fist at the wall then perching off by himself. Keelie’s eyes glisten, but she holds back tears. She isn’t able to verbalize an apology, but she nods silently before following him.

“Give it time.” Vickon looks at Saige.

“Not to be a pain, but we shouldn’t rest here long. I’m thinkin’ we should find cover,” Darith chimes in. The whole argument hasn’t remotely fazed him, but he’s right.

“You okay now?” I ask Saige.

“As I can be,” she conveys.

We disband for a short time, collecting ourselves.

Small critters chirp in the tall light gray trees that lurk around us. Trying to let my feet dry, I’ve inched toward the wall to the driest ground I can locate. Puddles are scattered about, and portions of the corridors we have traveled have no dry ground at all. I prop myself against the ashen color wall as I sit with my legs crossed. My eyes follow small bugs dancing across the mud. They skip over the puddles nearby, barely touching the surface, creating delicate ripples. About twenty minutes pass as my thoughts replay the last couple days before Darith urges us all to get moving.

Together, we navigate this new place, absorbing humid air and fighting away pesky mosquitoes. It’s anyone’s best guess what the next turn will reveal or what creatures we may discover. Screeching sounds hang above us, high in the trees. My eyes shift upward, looking past the tree tops at the towering walls, the same insurmountable walls I’ve seen my whole life.

Our bags are still stuffed with supplies from the den. We briefly stop to eat after a couple hours. Being conservative isn’t the concern it was before, now that plants and animals are all around us. Vickon asks more questions about the colony as we eat, but I find it difficult to listen, my attention stolen by the constant sounds and sights of nature.

Soll’s still pushing our exploration forward, hoping to find shelter, so we’re up and moving within an hour.

I hang toward the back of the group, walking alongside Saige. Her bravery and resilience are extraordinary. We have both been found out: her for what happened with the colony and me for lying about this side of the wall. If anyone here can have pity on her, it’s me.

“That’s incredible.” Keelie’s words interrupt my thoughts.

My eyes jolt up, discovering widespread open water stretching out past the labyrinth corridor in which we stand. Scattered throughout the open water are occasional bits of land, some barely big enough to hold a tree and others miles wide.

Blue happily squawks as a bird soars nearby.

Cautiously, Darith and Soll step out beyond the corridor, ankle deep in water. My gut jolts every time one of us makes contact with the water before I remember this water isn’t acidic. We all wait quietly a few moments.

“We can’t go back,” I finally say.

“Think one of those little islands might make for good hiding? We should investigate,” Korun expresses.

Soll signals us to continue into the water. We inch through. Sometimes the water is shallow enough we crouch, keeping our heads low near the surface to avoid standing out in the exposed landscape.

Blue beats us all to the first little island, her beak lapping up a fish before we arrive. We stop and rest, taking the opportunity to snack after the exertion.

“That big one.” Keelie points. “Right, that’s it.”

Saige’s spear soars through the air but misses the fish.

We eventually catch a couple. Who knew the smell of dirty water and dead fish would ever make us all so happy. A wave of tingling washes through me. For the first time, the Creators aren’t controlling what we’re eating.

We’re only there about an hour. The island is too small and not a long-term solution for shelter. Hours pass as we continue searching the little isles. Moving from one to the next, we lose count of them. Beginning to tire, I wonder if this will be a fruitless venture.

“That one.” Soll points.

“It’s huge,” Keelie responds hopefully.

“If that one doesn’t work, we’ll at least make camp there and rest,” Soll says.

We reach the island, dragging our feet. Heavy wet clothes weigh us down, and a chill hangs in the air. Darith leads the way now, the only one of us still moving steadily.

“Not real pretty, is it?” He picks up a muddy turtle as we continue walking.

“About as pretty as you,” Soll replies.

Keelie snickers. My left cheek scrunches, holding back laughter.

“What’s that over there?” Saige asks.

Our eyes shift to see something that looks almost structural. Patches of heavy fog obstruct our view, but tall slivers of dark wood peer through. Slowing our pace, we walk closer.

“Trees,” Vickon replies. “Well, roots and trees.”

He’s right. Giant roots protrude out of the ground, forming entangled webs beneath tall standing trees. Each thick root arches above the ground, probably nine feet in the air. The roots meet in the middle, supporting the tall trees above. Several dozen of these trees stretch out into the distance. We’d seen those trees on other islands, but none this tall or this many in number.

“This is it,” Korun interjects. “Think we should stay here for now. We can’t keep running forever.”

Blue croaks as if accepting Korun’s suggestion.

“Blue sure wouldn’t mind staying here, you know?” Keelie responds.

I catch Soll glaring hatefully at Saige, as if the thought of staying anywhere with her is like poison on his tongue.

“Okay,” I say before Soll says something he’ll regret. I’m tired and he’s right. We made it. This may not be some beautiful paradise, but it will do for now. Who knows? It might do forever.

Chapter 30
Tomorrow

I’m the second to emerge from a night of slumber within the giant roots. What looked barely livable to my tired eyes the day before doesn’t seem so terrible today.

“Couldn’t sleep?” I ask Saige, joining her at the edge of the brown water. Colorful dragon flies buzz around us. Even a mild breeze rushes by, breathing peace into my spirit.

“I did. I just didn’t want to keep sleeping.” She sighs. “Reality worked its way into my dreams where it wasn’t welcome.”

“The colony?” I ask.

“All of it. Grol, the burning.” She rubs her back. Korun healed what was left of the open wounds, but permanent scaring remains. “And the colony.”

“There’s only one thing I still don’t understand,” I say to her. “Why didn’t you tell the colony what happened when you got back to the den?”

“I don’t even really know.” She stares down at her own feet. “I guess I was ashamed of what happened. I didn’t think it mattered that much since I got away without revealing our location. Not to mention, by that time, there were blades shooting out of the ground. I had bigger concerns.”

“But they knew about the colony. Someone else was bound to get captured.”

“I did think of that, but there’s something else that happened while I was in the castle. There was a map,” she says.

I’m nodding along as she speaks. I’m tempted to interject questions, but she’s probably getting to the answers if I’m patient. Breaking the stillness of the morning, my fingers snap apart small twigs and toss them at the water as she speaks.

“It was hanging above the bed in the room where I was kept. I only got to see it twice because most of the time I was tied in a chair facing the other direction. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but then I noticed the castle. From there, I saw the field and even the wall, Araina. But it was called a gate on the map.”

I shake my head as I process her words. “So you already knew about the wall before we ran into you.”

“Yes, I knew. After the first labyrinth attack with the blades and the guards all mercilessly murdering the Mahk, I suggested to the colony that they send out a search party. Of course, previous to that, no one had considered there being anything outside our labyrinth. I suggested our little group go looking for a way out of the labyrinth because I already knew there was one. But who could imagine there was anything outside our world? The colony respected my suggestion and let our group go searching, but they only sent us. I know they thought it was a fool’s errand. Everyone else stayed in the den, trying to hide from the Creators. I was determined to get us out. I had to find a way to get everyone to the wall without mentioning my time in the castle. Recalling the map was tricky, it being so fuzzy in my mind, so I wanted to verify I could even find the wall.”

“You were going to try to save them all, not just get your little group to the wall?”

“Of course I was. And when you showed up knowing exactly how to get us there, I was so relieved. Before you came along, I didn’t know how to access the wall, aside from possibly going through Simul’s castle. Once you showed up, I hoped we could get the colony and get out through your secret passage.” She’s all worked up again, her face red as she makes large hand gestures. She’s been through so much in so little time.

“I know,” I reassure her. “But you don’t have to hide secrets anymore and we’re out of the labyrinth now. We’re better off.” I could tell her I’m sorry for all she’s been through, but sometimes silence speaks volumes.

Her breathing settles as a few moments pass. “There’s more,” she goes on. “The map was huge.”

“Sure, it showed the entire labyrinth, right?” I ask.

Her eyes are big as she responds, “Right, the entire labyrinth,” she emphasizes. “It’s gigantic, Araina. That’s another reason I didn’t want to tell everyone the truth. The part we came from is only a segment of the whole thing on the map.”

“Segment two,” I say, repeating what Rase said before we came into the swamp.

Saige nods. “I didn’t want to take away everyone’s hope about this side of the wall. You made it sound so great, and I knew we couldn’t stay where we were. I wasn’t ready to tell everyone. I needed time to figure more out.”

“What were you trying to figure out?”

“I was trying to get more details about the rest of the labyrinth out of Rase.”

“I never saw you talking with Rase.”

She brushes loose hair from her face. “That’s because I only did it when everyone else was sleeping or busy. I was trying to put together all the pieces.”

“You mean from the map?” I ask, trying to picture what a map of the labyrinth might look like.

“The map and other small things: like how Vickon had heard the word Kathar before. I saw Kathar on the map. It’s a place.”

“You think he’s from Kathar,” I deduce. “And I think Korun came from there too.”

She doesn’t question my reasoning for that belief but just nods. “Once I put that together, I didn’t know what to do with all the information. It felt wisest to focus on getting through the wall.”