Page 35 of From the Mouths of Sirens

“Only one of us can take this route,” Aurelia observed, her eyebrows lowered in thought. “We must each take a different way, it seems.”

Sune and Saoirse rose from the sand in defeat, giving her affirmative nods of dismay. Gone were the promises that they’d stick together. Sune sprinted to the next entrance, entering the shadowed passage without resistance.

“She’s right. We have to find the end of the labyrinth on our own. I’ll meet you both at the golden circle,” Sune added with one last look over his shoulder. Then he hurried down the path and vanished around the corner.

Saoirse was all alone.

Already, strange noises and terrified screams rose above the maze, echoing through the arena as tributes wove their way through the labyrinth. Fear tore through Saoirse as she waited on the edge of the maze, her feet refusing to step foot into the tangle of stone and vines. Her stomach twisted into knots, she selected a path and forced herself to stride forward. As she passed through the invisible barrier, a hum whispered across her skin and tingled in her chest.

And just like that, she was on the other side. Blood pounded in her ears as she stood in the empty corridor. Whatever enchantment that had settled over the maze seemed to act as a shield from the outside world. The raucouscrowd outside seemed to dim to a dull, muted roar. The sound was similar to how voices above the sea warped underwater, distant and muffled. Saoirse pushed back against the translucent blockade to no avail.

She had no choice but to continue onward.

The eerie silence of the maze was bewildering, and the feeling like she was being watched prickled over Saoirse’s skin as she jogged down the stone passage. Every so often, the numb silence of the labyrinth was broken by a scream or an explosion. But Saoirse didn’t stop to listen, refusing to slow for even a moment as she turned corner after corner, sweat pooling on her forehead. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally slowed down and gasped for air. Even after several days of being on the surface, her lungs still burned with the effort to inhale the air on land.

As Saoirse lowered her head and caught her breath, she felt a stirring from one of the paths to her right. Her head snapped up and her gaze shot to the empty corridor. She heard a distant thump on the sand, and she clutched her javelin tighter. Squinting at the passageway, she watched as a single brick fell to the ground, a cloud of sand rising as it thudded down.

Instinct told her to run, but she took a step toward the path, narrowing her eyes as another stone fell from the opposite wall. Another stone leapt from the wall, almost like someone had pushed it from the other side. Another fell, and then another. The wall shuddered. Soon, bricks tumbled down like a torrent of rain, moving down the path and heading straight toward her. Saoirse turned on her heel and ran, the sound of collapsing walls and hurling stones nipping at her heels. Clouds of sand and dust rose behind her as she careened down the passageways, the ground rumbling as the stones hit the earth in a rain of rock. The walls disintegrated around her, forcing her forward as the stones flung violently.

She kept running, her legs burning as she tore around corners and stumbled through the maze, fear singing in her blood with each stride. She could feel the collapsing walls tumbling behind her, suffocating anything caughtbeneath them in a cascade of rock and rubble. As she barreled through the labyrinth, Saoirse dared to look to her left, watching as several parallel corridors collapsed beside her own pathway. But farther down, she could see that more stone walls stood intact, seemingly unaltered as random ones caved in. She realized that each portion of the maze contained different challenges, threatening the tributes in their own torturous ways.

A stray rock pitched from behind her, slamming into her right shoulder with agonizing force. Saoirse bit back a cry as pain rippled through her body. She forced herself to keep running, summoning strength from deep within herself. Threads of white-hot pain lanced through her back and arm as she leaped over fallen piles of rock, her shoulder screaming with every jostle.

And then as quickly as it had began, the shower of stones abruptly halted, leaving her in a cloud of loose sand and dust. She leaned against the wall and looked up at the sky above, now framed by thick rain clouds. She wondered if the crowd outside considered her survival a display of great skill, or dumb luck.

With a grunt, she pushed the bone back into its socket, hissing through her teeth. Her eyes stung with tears as searing pain burned through her. She pushed off the wall, forcing herself to continue down the path.

It felt like she ran in circles, constantly backtracking and retracing her steps. All the while, anxiety hung over her like a fog, knowing that at any moment the maze could erupt into chaos around her. A desperate plea for help echoed down the pathway towards her. She continued pushing forward, the tribute’s cries growing louder as she rounded every corner. Her shoulder burned, and she could hardly lift her spear, but she had no choice but to continue towards the other tribute.

As she turned down the path, she halted abruptly in her tracks. There, the familiar torso of a Terradrin warrior flailed in the sand. The rest of his body was consumed in the earth, wet sand clinging to his body as he writhed against its pull.

Diru Balran, she recognized. She remembered the white-haired warrior from the Aerial armory. With every second that passed by, the sand crept up Diru’s body and sucked him under. The shiny metal tip of his spear melted into the earth, pulled under by the quicksand.

“Help me!” Diru screamed, his huge colorless eyes wide with fear. His fingers dug into the sand around him as he clawed at the ground. “Pull me free!”

Saoirse was frozen, her eyes locked onto the struggling man. She should let him be sucked under, never to be seen again. He was a rival for the Crown. But Saoirse’s heart stirred at the rawness in his voice. For a brief second, she turned around, making for the other direction.

One less competitor to worry about, she told herself.

“Titans,” Saoirse cursed, spinning back to face Diru. The sand had crept up to his shoulders so that only one of his arms was visible. She sprinted over to him and kneeled just before the dark sand, stretching out her hand. But she was too far away from him, her fingers just out of reach. His eyes flared with panic as the sand continued to pull him, his free hand flailing helplessly above ground. Saoirse stretched out her javelin, offering the end to Diru. He wrapped a pale hand around the spear and tucked his arm around it.

“Stop moving and relax,” Saoirse ordered, putting both hands around the javelin and pulling up. “You have to stop struggling.”

She tugged on the spear, groaning with pain as it pressed into her sore shoulder. Diru complied, letting his body go limp as she dragged him out of the sand.

It was a long and slow effort to pull him from the clinging grip of the sand pit. For a moment, the resistance felt too great and Saoirse nearly lost her grip on the javelin. But gradually, the sand loosened on his body and he slowly emerged from the quicksand. Saoirse’s feet dug into the earth as she pulled up, her legs trembling. The spear gave way as Diru fully escaped the sand, an ugly slurp of liquid gurgling into release. Saoirse collapsed backward onto the ground, gasping.

Beside her, Diru scrambled to his feet.“Why did you save me?” He pressed his back to the wall, keeping as much distance from Saoirse as possible. “You should’ve let me die.”

“I don’t know,” Saoirse answered. She pulled herself up from the ground and picked up her spear. “Just go,” she urged Diru. “Just find the end of this bloody thing.”

Without another word, the Terradrin warrior pushed off the wall and sprinted away. With an exhausted sigh, Saoirse turned from the quicksand and took another path.

She guessed that an hour passed as she wove her way through the maze, though it was impossible to know for sure. At every curve in the path, she imagined the finish line. Every corner she passed felt closer, and yet she continuously hit dead ends. She trudged through the sand numbly, the sun bearing down on her. Her scales and skin ached with dryness, her lungs burning with dust and hot air. But she pushed onward, praying that Sune and Aurelia had found the gold hoop without harm.

A yowling beast cried from somewhere further down the maze, something so inhumane it made Saoirse’s skin crawl. She wondered who the unlucky tribute was that had stumbled on the creature. What if it was Rook? She hated the way she felt a twinge of fear when she thought of him between the jaws of some bloodthirsty monster. She forced herself to close off that part of her mind. She couldn’t think about Rook right now. All she could do was concentrate on surviving this trial.

Saoirse gasped as she turned her hundredth corner and glimpsed the golden hoop glimmering in the center of the path ahead. The ring shone beyond the maze, hanging on the internal wall of the arena. Her heart began to race with anticipation. She had made it to the end. But just as relief flooded her senses, her frail hope collapsed in an instant. There, at the end of the passage, a figure stood guarding the exit. She stopped dead in her tracks, unsheathing her sword. She slowly stepped toward the figure, silhouetted in the light at the end of the path. Saoirse felt a droplet hit her cheek, sliding down her face in a cool trail. Another drop kissed her shoulder, instantly cooling her dry scales. The rain began tumbling down from the sky, soaking her clothes as she stood in the pathway. Sweet relief hummed through her body as the water soothed her. A crack of lightning burst through the sky, illuminating the maze.

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