Labyrinth by Shane Lee

Author:Shane Lee [Lee, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Nine

If I had grabbed her first, if I had wrapped my hand around her arm, what would have happened? Would I have held on, or would I have let go? Either could have killed her. Holding on could have killed me.

But that doesn’t matter, because I wasn't fast enough.

Something burst from the water and took her. It was almost too fast to see, a crash of sound and blackness in the blackness. It snaked out a fingerless limb that was thin like a flapping, black ribbon, and it snaked up her arm in a spiral. It all happened in an instant. Her eyes went wide, she reached for me as I reached for her, and then it yanked her through the air and down into the water.

“Atell!” I scrambled, pushing into the water and wading in until I was up to my waist. But what could I do? I couldn’t swim. I couldn’t fight some kind of water beast. I was stuck. I watched the water for something, anything, but it was as quiet as it ever was. One moment, one second, and she was just gone.

“Atell,” I said, almost pleaded, holding my hands above the water, very aware that I could be taken just the same at any moment. The gem was lit and it was hot against me; I barely registered it. It would protect me or it wouldn't. Was everything completely out of my control?

A minute passed.

Then two.

Then five.

I left the lake half-soaked and bewildered. I knew time was dragging on, that I could be walking into a field of monsters, and I felt a lot like what I imagined Atell felt like as she sat on the ground and stared at the water.

Hopeless. Alone.

Iyes was empty. Dead. The same as Cartha, just that it hadn’t been dismantled yet. And just like in Cartha, I had to watch the only person I cared about die in front of me.

I pulled my boots off, dumped the water out of them, and slung my socks over my shoulder. They would take some time to dry. I marched forward barefoot. The grass felt good on my bare feet, and the sensation practically made me retch. Why did I deserve to have grass between my toes, to be breathing the cool air while Atell’s lungs were filled with water?

I bit the inside of my lip.

When the grass thinned and my feet grew dirty, I was grateful. I would walk barefoot in the Walls, too, and let half-buried rocks slice into the bottoms of my feet. I would bleed into the dirt. If the black claws could smell blood, let them come. I had plenty more to give.

I came across my dagger where Atell must have dropped it as she ran. Thin blades of grass sprouted up around it; some were crushed underneath. My blood had dried to gummy stiffness on the tip. I picked it up from the ground and wiped the blade out of habit before re-sheathing it.

I walked past empty houses, some with doors hanging open.

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