Though it didn’t hurt too bad, I pretty much hobbled my way down the passage in an attempt to not put too much weight on my sore ankle—I’d learned from my treks that strains healed faster that way, and my enhanced healing should make it happen even quicker.
Many of my earlier wounds were likely almost fully healed at this point. I just kept gaining new ones, unfortunately.
The ground bucked again minutes later. I staggered into the wall, wincing as my hip banged into a fist of stone.Mother—
Right now, I really wanted to punch someone. I didn’t even care who. Though I would prefer it to be whoever had created the labyrinth, or the Sovereigns for possibly sending a little boy down here.
Again grateful that I hadn’t bumped the burned side of my body, I walked on. Well, hobbled. I dodged more obstacles, ducked under dips in the ceiling, and braced myself against more ground tremors.
I halted when I came upon a huge and very deep trench. Peering over the edge, I swallowed hard. At the bottom was a bed of spikes.
Yes, spikes.
There was a way to cross the trench, of course. Not a bridge or spires or ledges this time, though. A long, iron tube rested above the middle of the trench and spanned its entire length. A tube big enough for a person to fit in, but not big enough for them tocrawlthrough. I’d have to lie flat on my stomach andshufflemy way along it using my elbows, knees, and toes.
How perfect.
Well, it could be worse. Right?
Hunching my shoulders, I squeezed my way into the tunnel, pausing only when the entire front of my body was pressed against the bottom of it.
I edged forward on my elbows—
The tunnel moved. Skidded to the left.Rolled.
Terror clattered in my system as I tumbled and slid and bashed against the inside of the tunnel. It stopped on hitting the wall, and I crashed onto my belly, almost banging my chin.
Breathing hard, I blinked. Several parts of me ached and pulsed from having been tossed all over the place. I’d earlier had the thought that this obstacle could be worse. Itwasworse.
Okay, maybe if I inched forward very, very slowly it would stay still.
I inched forward very, very slowly.
It didn’t stay still.
It rolled again—making me skid, lurch, and flop—not stopping until it made contact with the other wall.
Anger gripped my gut. How the hell was I supposed to reach the end of the tunnel if it rolled every time I moved?
With great difficulty. That was how.
Scrapping the inching-slowly-forward plan, I shoved myself as far along the tube as possible before it could start spinning. Again and again, I repeated the move, creeping closer and closer to the end. I occasionally had to pause, since the entire thing shook whenever a quake came along. Not fun.
Finally, I got to the end of the tunnel. I worried it would move again once I began to edge out of it—which would leave my upper body dangling as it rolled—but the tube remained in position, just as it had when I was first lodged myself inside it.
Once back on my feet, I groaned. Every part of me felt battered and bruised. My burns hurt even worse than before, and I was pretty certain that some of my scabbed-over wounds were now once more bleeding.
Two circuits left. You’re almost done.
With that thought in mind, I hobbled to the end of the passage, followed the sharp turn, shoved aside the hanging moss, and slammed into a wall of cold. That’s what it felt like. The change in temperature wasthatdrastic.
The stone walls were covered in a sheet of ice. Snow blanketed the uneven ground. Icicles dangled from the arched ceiling. Small, sporadic bunches of hardy grass stuck out of the snow. A thick carpet of white topped the spires, totems, crumbled walls, and statues.
It would have been a pretty sight if the air wasn’t arctic.
What made the bitterly low temperature even worse was the shrieking, powerful wind. It whistled over the walls, ruffled the tufts of grass, and blew around snow so that it peppered the air like dust motes. As such, visibility wasn’t great.
I shivered, clasping my hands together. The only pleasant thing I could say about this circuit was that there were no awful scents here. Only the clean smell of fresh snow.
