Page 33 of Quarter Labyrinth

He would have killed Clark. That was why I’d done it.

And that was why I couldn’t find it in me to shed a tear.

But it didn’t mean my body didn’t shake with the memory of his eyes going dark or his body hitting the ground at such an angle. The way he crumpled in on himself like I’d taken the bones from inside his skin. How his friend had screamed.

I pulled away from Clark to fill my lungs with air. “I’ll forget about it if we keep going.”

He looked at me as if he wanted to say something, but thought better of it. “Okay. Which way?” We were in a hedge maze, and I already felt too lost to remember which way we’d come. I lifted my chin to see the sky.

“There’s a star in the east that will guide us.”

Clark looked up. Not even he, who was unused to the ways of the stars, could miss the sign in the sky. And if he could see it, others would too. They’d soon follow.

With a direction in sight, we headed whichever path led east, just to pause as the sound of a clocktower cleaved the night.

A voice rang out as clear as if it were in the labyrinth with us.

“Midnight falls, and a new dawn stirs. The gates now lock, the maze demurs. Sealed for the wanderers who strayed onto paths where shadows danced and played. When nights grow dark and blood paints the day, you’re free to turn and walk away. Cast your white stone to the heavens high, and seek your solace in the sky.

“Good luck. May you find yourself in the labyrinth.”

SIXTEEN

Seek your solace in the sky.

The voice might as well have begged everyone to look up and see the shining light in the east, guiding us to victory. But I still had one thing they did not. Others sought the center for the chance to captain ships.

I sought the vision my father had for me.

My determination could outlast everyone else’s, if only I moved quickly enough.

The rain picked up when the clock tower stopped chiming. We’d long ago abandoned hope of beingdry. But it made the ground harder to walk on and masked the sound of others who might be around.

Clark and I kept close to one another as we navigated the maze. Left here. Right there. Around the bend, over the bridge. Hedges everywhere we looked, and each appeared just as all those before them.

Had we gone this way already? If we go that way, it sends us west, not east. Are those voices we hear?

We moved slowly sometimes, when we heard competitors nearby. Other times we ran. All the while, the rain poured.

As the sun began to rise, we paused at an intersection. The way ahead split into three identical corridors. A faint breeze whispered from the eastern one, carrying a trace of something sweet, almost floral. A moment’s hesitation, then a step forward—east. The walls seemed to close in, the air turning thick with the scent of turned soil.

Somewhere far off, a faint chime echoed, the sound bouncing eerily through the maze. It was followed by a girl’s shouts. We quickened our pace, the path narrowing further, the temperature growing colder. A creeping sense of being watched prickled at the hairs of my neck, but turning back was no longer an option. Voices drifted from that way.

Around the next corner, the moonlight pooled unexpectedly, and the rain halted.

I tilted back my head. A shining glass dome rose above us, keeping us safe from the rain. It sat atop the hedges, forming a small, circular clearing. At its center stood a marble fountain, its water eerily still. We approached cautiously, the sound of theirbreathing louder now, mingling with the faint, persistent rustle of unseen movement within the maze.

Clark approached the fountain slowly, before kneeling in the mud to dip his hands in. “It’s fresh water, by the looks of it.”

“Or poison.”

“I don’t think so. Something about it feels safe.”

I knelt beside him to dip my hands in the clear water. My mouth watered at the sight of it. It’d been too long since we had a drink. Could this be a gift, or a test?

If it brought harm, it wouldn’t be to Clark. I scooped the water in my palm and lifted to my lips.

“Wait—” Clark started, but I’d already drank.

---