Page 32 of A Tempest of Shadows

We were exactly like that grape… little bites he toyed with before destroying us. Those who went into the labyrinth were the weaker ones, desperate for money, and the ones he could play with the most.

King Ivan clapped his hands. “Tut-tut now. Run along, my friends, because you will encounter obstacles and only have three hours to complete your mission. If no one has succeeded by then, the game is off.”

Three hours? I eyed the endless maze again. Even without obstacles, would it be possible to get to the center in three hours?

I had no idea, but I was going to find out. I looked at my mother, who had settled on a bench ten feet away. When she started to rise, I waved her down.

We needed the money, but I wouldn’t risk her life for it. She hesitated before sitting again; we both knew that out of the two of us, I was the one who could handle whatever lay within.

Whatever was in there would be determined to stop me from getting the prize. They wouldn’t succeed.

Walking past one of the many carts of food spread out for the day, I stopped to eat some of the meat while surreptitiously slipping the carving knife from the table. I wasn’t about to go into the unknown without a weapon.

Throwing my shoulders back, I slipped the knife into my pocket and smiled as I followed the throng into the maze.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Ryker

I had no doubt Ivan had made the labyrinth an obstacle of misery, but I was bored, and sitting outside with Ivan, my father, and all the other assholes gathered around them wasn’t an option. It was bad enough that I’d spent this much time with them; I wasn’t going to waste any more of it.

So, I clasped my hands behind my back and strolled down the hill to the entrance of the thick green hedges with the crush of amsirah. I felt my father’s eyes boring into my back and the waves of animosity radiating off him.

He didn’t want me mingling with the peasants… even if they weren’t peasants. They just didn’t possess as much wealth as him and the other aristocrats who hung back to enjoy the show.

He wouldn’t stop me from entering the maze; it would only cause a scene if he tried, but he also didn’t want anyone thinking we might need the money. After the castle he’d built, I doubted anyone would believe that, but they would be amused to watch me walk away from him… and he wouldn’t like that either.

I smiled as I wandered into the shadowed maze and through the thick hedges crowding the stone path. Many of the other guests had funneled in ahead of me, but the wealthier ones remained behind, as Ivan had anticipated.

This was a game to him, and he’d turned his mice loose in the labyrinth to see which ones would eat the others. And he’d kept all his very fat cats by his side.

Though, I didn’t see what kind of entertainment they would get out of this, considering they couldn’t see those inside the maze. Their laughter followed me around a curve where I encountered the first split in the hedges.

Two pathways diverged to each side of me while one also continued straight. I didn’t care about the prize, but since I was here, I might as well try to solve this thing.

Turning to the left, I traversed that path as I searched for differences amid the thick, green bushes and stones lining the way. No matter how closely I inspected the hedges and paths, I detected no difference from one section of the labyrinth to another.

The trail twisted and turned as I progressed through the maze; it split off in numerous directions. I’d lost sight of anyone else soon after entering, but sometimes, on the other side of the bushes, voices drifted to me, as well as nervous laughter.

For the most part, the maze remained oddly hushed. As the sun crept higher, it lengthened the shadows through the hedges and cast darkness over the pathway.

I rounded another bend as someone started screaming. The high-pitched wails came from my left and were coming straight at me as the screamer fled.

My father and the others who had remained behind would laugh at the amsirahs as they raced toward an exit. Meredith Marian, Ellery’s mother, and some of the others wouldn’t be laughing as they awaited the return of their loved ones.

The screams moved further away from me as the woman turned a corner on the other side of the bushes. I waited for whatever had terrified her to barrel through the hedge and into me, but nothing stirred.

My hands fisted as I willed whatever was out there to come at me. I didn’t think I had any fight left in me after the Ghoul War and the ophidians, but after being at this coronation for a couple of days, I was itching to beat the shit out of something.

After another minute, nothing happened, so I turned and continued on the path. On my right, someone else started screaming, but this wasn’t one of terror… it was pain.

My brow furrowed, and I took a step closer to the hedges. I rested my hand against one while waiting for more, but nothing came. I recalled Ellery blending into the crowd ahead of me with her shoulders back and her chin high.

It had been a man screaming, but did Ivan put something in here that would kill off his subjects? Many of those who entered weren’t high-ranking aristocrats and didn’t hold much power in the realm, but he still required them to help keep Tempest running.

What is out there?

When no more screams came, I moved away from the hedges and rounded another corner, where I nearly walked into a wall of bushes as I encountered a dead end. “Fuck.”