Secrets of Moth (The Moth Saga, Book 3) by Arenson Daniel

Author:Arenson, Daniel [Arenson, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Moonclipse
Published: 2014-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:

LABYRINTHS

As soon as they stepped through the archway into the ziggurat, the desert sunlight vanished. Cam spun around, frowning. The archway still loomed wide open—only a foot away—and he could see the land outside: blue sky, bright sun, and golden dunes rolling toward the distant green haze of an oasis city. And yet no light fell upon him. He couldn't see his own hands when he raised them, and he could only hear Linee breathing beside him but not see her.

"Why doesn't the light enter?" she whispered, and he felt her hand grab his arm.

"I don't know. But we still have our lanterns from Eloria. They're in my pack."

"Our lanterns from where?" Linee sounded miserably confused. "Who's Loria?"

Cam groaned. "Eloria! You know . . . Nightside."

"It's called Eloria?"

With a groan, Cam lowered his pack off his shoulders, rummaged blindly, and found his oil lantern and tinderbox. He worked by sense of touch, seeing nothing. He could have stepped back outside the ziggurat to work in the daylight, but somehow, entering the ziggurat had felt like a great accomplishment, one he dared not undo. If this place was truly cursed and he stepped outside, who knew if he'd find his way in again?

Within a moment or two, he had filled his lantern with oil and lit the wick. Light flickered to life, falling upon a craggy hallway and a shivering Linee. He lit her lantern for her; it trembled in her hand.

"Do you think there are more monsters in here?" The light only illuminated several feet of the hallway. Beyond lay darkness. "I'm frightened."

With his finger, Cam drew a half-sun upon the dusty wall—the symbol of Idarism, same as the amulet he wore around his neck. Seeing the rune soothed him, and perhaps it would bless the building.

"That was a trap, not a monster, and there might be more, yes." He took a step forward. "So let's walk carefully and be ready to leap back from any springing knives."

They walked down the corridor. The bricks were craggy and sandy at first, but the farther they walked, the smoother they became; less sand and wind had pummeled them over the millennia. After walking for about a hundred yards, Cam frowned. From outside, the top of the ziggurat—a square of stone rising above the triangular base—was not much larger than his cottage back home. They should have reached the opposite wall by now, but the corridor kept stretching forward.

"This doesn't make sense. We should be . . . by Idar, we should be outside the ziggurat and hovering in the air."

Linee shrugged and stamped her feet. "Well, this feels like real stone to me. And look—stairs!"

After walking a few more steps, they indeed reached a stairway that plunged down into a chasm. When Cam stood upon its edge, he looked down and gasped. Dozens of stairways rose, fell, and crisscrossed in the shadows below. Firelight illuminated the dizzying scene, its source hidden. Cam could see no logic to the architecture. The stairways, all carved of the same craggy rock, stretched out in a bundle like a pile of discarded sticks.

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