Keepers of the Labyrinth (23 page)

“Place the book in the bag,” Horatio said.

Lil leaned into the wall as she reached down and lifted the cover of the satchel. She held the edges of the book, the pages wavering before her eyes. They were split into four columns, and Lil drew her arm across her eyes, trying to clear them. The first one was filled with symbols, just like the ones they had seen on the plaques throughout the labyrinth. The second was a similar type, but made up of more lines. In the third column, she recognized a few Greek letters. And in the far right column there was English. Lil's throat tightened, and she gasped for breath. The air seemed as thick as soup. Her fingers met the bottom of the page, leaving a dirt smudge under the final line. Under the last name listed in the last column.

Helene (Panag
akos) Bennette. Exti
nguished 2012.

“Mom,” she gasped.

“Let's go!” the man shouted from below.

Lil jerked, the book in her hand sliding free of its pedestal. Her fingers buzzed as shooting pains stabbed down from her shoulder, and she reached for a better grip. She lurched too far, her foot slipping free from the ledge. She scrambled for a handhold, but could not find one. The book slipped away from her fingers and plummeted.

Lil followed.

42

L
il could feel water on her face. Soft and cool, it tapped into her forehead and drizzled down her nose. She felt a rumble in her shoulder blades and heard a crash of thunder. She winced, trying to pull her eyes open. Everything hurt. Her lungs. Her arms. Her legs. Her shoulder pulsed with pain, and her foot echoed it. She pried her eyes open and stared up into the rib cage of the mountain. The ceiling, high above, seemed to blink. Several heavenly eyes, snapping open and shut. She tilted her head, trying to understand what she was seeing. She squinted past a stalagmite. A drop of water sailed down onto her forehead as more little eyes blinked open. Lil felt the water land on her lips. Her hand leaped involuntarily to her face. She felt the soft water against her skin and smelled the earthy aroma. Rain? She stared back up to the ceiling. It was lightning winking through holes in the mountaintop. Outside. Freedom.

Lil swallowed hard, trying to find strength to stand.

Then she heard the man's voice. “Help me move her.”

Sydney's dirt-smudged face appeared above Lil. And she suddenly became aware of her breathing. It was ragged, and it hurt to take in a breath. How many broken ribs did she have? she wondered. Lil could see the distance she had fallen from. She must have rolled back down the rocks. The lightning flashed, illuminating the empty pedestal.
Extin
guished.
The word danced in front of her face once more. She yelped as her back spasmed. She was moving, being pulled across the cave floor.

“Never mind, sweet,” the man said softly. “It'll all be over soon.”

The wall switched with the ceiling as she was propped up against something cold and hard. Something soft moved beside her, and she turned to see Kat, pressed up in the same way. And Charlie on the opposite side of her. Lil tilted her head, looking up. They sat against the potbellied stove at the center of the mountain, the wheel, stationary, just above their heads. “What are you doing?” Lil growled.

Horatio knelt down and Sydney landed beside him. He tucked the book under his arm.

“Why don't you take the book,” Lil said, struggling for breath. “Take the book and just leave us here.”

Her captor clutched the ancient book to his chest. “Because, you see, Father Zeus needs a sacrifice from the messenger in order to reveal the location of the folio.” He looked up at the ceiling. “I understand now. A sacrifice, and I will know where to look.” He knocked on the cover of the book as if trying to summon the answer to the top with his fist.

Lil's stomach twisted as he made the lightning bolt sign over his heart and then tapped his chest twice. She had never seen a prayer like this. He had to be in some sort of a cult. He clasped his hands together.

“Father, I thank you for your guidance. I thank you for the privilege of fulfilling my destiny. I thank you for your strength through spirit. And most of all I thank you for accepting my kin, Byron and Felice, into your arms this day.”

He paused and Lil watched his face tense. He swallowed. “For all of this, I pay you homage with life, that you may reveal to me the location of the Icarus Folio and all of its secrets to immortality.”

Lil's head spun as his words echoed in her ears. She glanced at Sydney, but she would not meet Lil's eyes.

The man reached above Lil's head, and a moment later his hand appeared holding one of the bronze rods that had been secured to the machine.

“Our father Zeus loves a sacrifice,” he said, appearing at eye level once more. He pulled a rope from a satchel, the very satchel that Lil had been wearing moments before she fell. This was it, then: they were going to die. Lil felt the blood rush to her face, and she lashed out. He deflected the strike easily with a wave of his forearm. She looked to her right. Sydney stood leaning into the huge turbine. Why wasn't she being secured like the rest of them?

“Sydney—” Lil gasped, trying to get up, but gaining no ground.

“The short one will come with me. The only able-bodied one left. I think she prefers me over you, anyway.” His face glowed like a jack-o'-lantern in the torchlight. “But you shall serve a greater purpose.”

The man took Lil's hand and pressed her knuckles closed around the metal rod. “When I open that door”—he gestured to the labrys on the far wall—“and go on my way, the center oculus will open up and let in the lightning.” He wrapped the rope around her fingers, pressing the rod into her hand, so that she couldn't loosen it from her grasp. Her fingers bent around it despite her best efforts. “It will find its mark and your pain will be over.”

Lil's body filled with rage as he turned to Sydney. As lightning flashed, Lil could see Sydney's hair trembling in the night. How could she just stand there? “I may have led you in,” Lil said through gritted teeth, “but you stand idly by, leaving the rest of us to die.”

Lil saw Sydney glance at her, and tried to read her expression in the dark. There was something in the way she propped herself against the machine. The way she was leaning heavily to one side. The lightning flashed from the portals in the ceiling, and light flickered into the chamber. She could see Sydney's gaze move skyward.

Horatio aimed his gun at her. “Let's move.”

Sydney looked at Lil. Then at the bronze shaft she held in her hand, and then at Lil again. Lil watched as Sydney shifted, removing her arm from the machine. Lil felt a vibration against her back. It started as a dull thrum and picked up strength and speed. Before she could process what she was doing, Lil swung the bronze as hard as she could. The strike landed neatly across the man's neck. He tumbled sideways, the gun falling from his grasp. Lil scrambled toward it, the rod clattering along the stone, an unruly extension of her arm. Sydney jumped out of the way.

“Sydney, help!” Lil shouted, struggling to free the rod from her grasp, to shake loose the rope that secured it there.

But Sydney crawled out of sight around the machine.

“Sydney, please,” Lil gasped as she raced across the floor after the gun. It sped to the wall, stopped and spun in place. She crawled toward it, but the man dove on top of her, crushing her beneath him. Lil's body screamed in pain, her broken ribs crunching. Her fingers extended, but were short of the barrel. His calloused hands twisted around her neck like raw ropes.

Lil struck out once more, trying to free the rod from her hand, or at least to get it to an angle where she could use it as an effective weapon. The man's weight shifted just enough for her to flip, and she grasped the rope, unwrapping it from her palm. She searched for Sydney. Lil jabbed him with her elbow, feeling the satisfying thud of a lip against teeth.

The hold on her windpipe weakened, and Lil crawled toward the wall. But the man redoubled in strength, lunging over her. His hand reached the gun first. She bit at his biceps, and he cried out, pulling his arm back. He struck Lil with the back of the barrel, and a crack resounded through her head as her vision swam.

“It's less glorious, but we can do it this way, too,” he said hoarsely, cocking the gun. She slowly raised her hands as he leveled the barrel against her temple. She looked up to the ceiling, her gaze landing on the blinking portholes far above. Then she closed her eyes. Shutting out the nightmare around her.

She heard a crack of thunder. A flash cascaded just beyond her eyelids. The rain cooled her brow. Then a wave of heat met her face, blowing back her hair. Was this what it felt like to die? Lil wondered, waiting for the pain. Sparks flashed against the backs of her eyelids like fireworks. Had Mom felt like this when she died?

A scream met her ears and Lil grabbed at her chest. Had she made the sound? She peeled her eyes open. Lightning was firing through the chamber, arcing from a spout leading off the stove to the back of the man's neck. For a moment he was frozen in midflight, the electricity holding him with a tight arm. The gold pendant around his neck was stiff and shaking as if alive. Then he dropped toward the ground. Flat on his stomach. The arm of lightning dissipated immediately, and Sydney appeared behind him, holding one of the machine's nozzles in her hand. She dropped it and ran around to the opposite side. Lil hurried to her, seeing a wooden crank spin. Sydney pressed a wedge of wood, trying to lock it into place, and Lil held the handle with her, rotating it up. Sydney jammed the wedge in, and the crank slammed to a halt, the winding slowed and then it stopped.

Sydney's face was covered in dirt and tears, and she blinked quickly, stuttering as she rose to a shaking stand. “It's the—it's the—” She shook her head. “Charged ash—” She gestured toward the soot-covered door on the potbellied stove. “And pressure.” She gulped. “Makes lightning.” She ran a shaking arm across her face. The curls in her hair sprang as she rested her hands on her knees and closed her eyes. “Zeus?”

Lil stood up, trying to comprehend. She looked from the turbine, to Sydney, to the spout that fell from her hands, to the man who lay unmoving on the ground, to this ancient machine that had somehow produced a bolt of lightning.

“You're a genius,” Lil said, her voice shaking. “You're a goddamn genius.”

“Thanks,” Sydney said. “Now let's get the hell out of here.”

Lil hurried around the other side of the machine. She yanked the disk from the man's lifeless body. Then she grabbed the book from where it lay now, by his side. Kat attempted to rise onto one knee. Lil reached her, tucking her shoulder under Kat's arm. Sydney did the same with Charlie, slapping at her face.

“We've lost her,” Sydney said. “I think we've really lost her.”

“Hang on,” Lil said. “We're there. We're nearly there.” Though she wasn't sure. They could end up in another chamber. They could end up in endless chambers. She ran as quickly as she could to the door. Then lifted the disk, lining the labrys up just as she had done so long ago at the entrance to the labyrinth. She pressed the disk into place. The room wailed. The torches went out. Lightning split the chamber in jagged beams.

A door slid open.

43

L
il careened up a set of steep stairs, dragging Kat with her. The way was dark and a moment later she felt her head hit the ceiling. It smarted with pain and she crumpled into a crouch on what seemed to be the top step. She reached frantically in front of her, a small handle fitting into her palm. She said a silent prayer and twisted it to the side. A short door swung open. The air seemed different, fresher somehow, and she yanked Kat through. As Sydney pulled Charlie out, Lil ran blindly forward. She slammed into what felt like the edge of a table or a chair. She stumbled to her knees.

“Help!” she shouted, wondering if they had come out of the mountain or if they would end up at another test. “Help, someone!”

She spun in the darkness as Kat moaned next to her. Lil's heart pounded in her ears. She felt the wall and ran her hands along it, feeling for cool air. Feeling for an exit. But before she could, a door was opening in her hand. She was stepping back. A small light entered the chamber. A silhouette of a person in a cloak stood before her.

“Oh, thank heaven,” a woman's voice said. Was it Athenia or was Lil dreaming?

She rubbed her eyes. A creak came from the other side of the antechamber and Lil jumped, moving back the other way.

She stopped halfway across the room as she saw two figures enter from another door. It was Trudy—she could see her silhouetted hair in the moonlight—and by her side, Colleen. The counselors.

“A light,” Athenia said from behind her. “Flip the light!”

Trudy lit a match and held it to a wick next to the door. The antechamber burst with candlelight. Lil shielded her stinging eyes.

She looked up at Athenia. “Help,” she said, grabbing at her sleeve.

“Get Aestos and Atticus up here, now!” Athenia shouted.

Lil watched Colleen disappear into the dormitory.

Athenia slammed a hand under the table, and hinges yawned. Lil turned to see the door that they had just come through, a small square at the base of the wall, close. And as she looked just above it, she found herself staring into a set of familiar eyes. A picture of her mother's face. She shook her head and blinked, reaching to it.

“Lilith, I need you to stay calm,” Athenia said, pushing her arm down by her side.

“Mom,” Lil said, but she couldn't find her breath. Her heart was moving too fast. Her head spun. The picture faded. The room melted into darkness.

• • •

Lil slept like the dead and dreamed she was among them. Deep in the caverns of her mind she ran the labyrinth again. Arrows flew. Monsters of times past erupted from the walls. Assassins waited in the shadows. Flashes of lightning shattered the chamber. Dead eyes stared at her. Blood ran from the walls. She woke to light. Aestos' face. Then plunged into darkness. Woke again to light. Athenia sat by her side. Then she again plunged into darkness. Woke to Atticus' kind eyes. Then darkness.

The sheets twisted around her. Hugging her waist, shoulders. The neck of her shirt wound itself into a noose and squeezed her throat. She gasped for breath, clawing at it until her fingernails dripped with blood, sending rivers down her chest. The rivers bled together and became the corpse sea, and everyone was in it. She saw herself, her mom, Sydney, Charlie, Kat, Bente. The disk spun in front of her. A coin with a side made of fire and a side made of soot. The spiral sucked her in. The labrys chopped her to pieces. A rope circled her waist. And she ran through endless corridors, looking for her mother's face. That man's voice rang through her dreams.
A
tribe of murderers.
She pushed her hands over her ears. But the farther she plunged into the depths, the louder it got. Soon the walls faded and she reached a pit, where she leaned against a wall and thought of nothing.