Page 10 of No Greater Sorrow

“It’s the first Trial. I chose you as my weapon,” she told him.

“Good,” he said with a sort of gravitas that was strange coming out of a puppy with loose skin and large paws he seemed unsure how to manage.

Aleja’s relief at their reunion was chased away when Violet uncorked her vial and took a sip of water. Violet shuddered, closed her eyes, and wiped her face before putting the vial into her purple backpack.

“That tastes exactly as bad as you think it would,” Violet said.

“How long will it last?” Aleja asked. Already, Violet’s cheeks were fuller, her eyes brighter.

“I have no idea. The well water from the cult’s village usually made me feel better for a few hours.”

Garm trotted ahead of them as they moved into the hallway. The air changed as the slow-moving cave dust was replaced by a scent reminding Aleja of trees and a distant ocean. Above the tall stone walls, the sky appeared complete with a reddish full moon, hovering low and looking too heavy to rise.

“It’s a labyrinth. Can you sense anything, Garm?” Aleja said as they came to a fork in the path. The stone walls were too smooth to propose boosting Violet up so she could scramble atop one and get a look at their surroundings.

“Nothing. It’s very still,” the puppy said.

“Let’s go left,” Aleja said.

The walls blocked sight of any movement apart from the small dog trotting ahead of them, and the sound of his low panting was enough to make Aleja smile despite the nervous buzz around her heart. “What do you think we’re supposed to do?” she asked Violet.

There was no answer.

Aleja whipped around, braids slapping her shoulders, but Violet was no longer behind her.

“Violet? Garm, where is she?” There had been no other turns, nor any boulders or trees for someone to hide behind.

His nose twitched, but he shook his head. “I can’t smell her anymore.”

Aleja doubled back and tried to remember Violet’s lessons on the basics of tracking—a young woman who had a bad habit of hiking alone knew how to look for evidence of bears. But there was no grass to be trampled, no dirt in which to leave tracks.

This is your Trial. If the Second has deemed you do it alone, you have no other choice,said her inner voice.

Aleja didn’t listen. With Garm at her feet, she pushed on, though she soon realized that she should have already passed the hall from which they had come. Aleja broke into a jog as the stone walls took a sharp bank to what must have been north, judging by the moon. “Violet!”

Her own voice echoed back in answer, but before she could call out again, she reached an exit. Ahead lay more mountains, although they were not the jagged cliffs of the Hiding Place. A calm bay surrounded by low green hills reflected the moonlight like thousands of tiny stars. Her boots sunk into damp sand as Garm too struggled on his short legs.

Aleja took her sickle off the belt loop, but as far as she could tell, she was alone. Crickets droned in the rhododendron bushes, undisturbed.

“There’s a path here,” Garm told her, sniffing at the dirt.

“Great. Guess we have no other choice,” she muttered. The trail banked downhill as it turned toward the bay, and she spotted a few unlit cabins.I feel like I’ve been here before, Aleja thought.

You’ve lived many lives, her inner voice said.Perhaps this is a place from one of them.

Can you tell?

Of course not. I only know what you know.

“We should check out those buildings,” Aleja told Garm. Despite the calm, the fire inside her swelled just enough to make her palms warm. The Second wouldn’t have sent her to a place with no danger. The persistent quiet was worse than an outright attack. There had to be something here that could trap or kill her.

“I’m small now. I’ll scout ahead. Wait here,” Garm said.

“But—”

“It’s okay, Aleja. No one will spot me.”

She crouched behind a boulder to wait. Garm was only gone for a few minutes before he reappeared on the trail. “There’s something you should see.”

---