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Edored’s scowl at the forest didn’t bode well. ‘You’re saying that as if I’m an unpleasant person, Nosebreaker.’
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Tared muttered, exchanging a look with Lyn and Beyla. He’d heard my stories of the Labyrinth defending itself, of its long history of unexplained deaths and disappearances. If Zera’s woods were at all similar … ‘Do we have to send you back home?’
That didn’t sound like a terrible idea to me, if only because it would leave us with one less chaperone to glower at Creon wherever he went. But Edored scoffed something about not being an idiot and watching his words, and Beyla shrugged, a gesture that said she wasn’t volunteering to chain him to his bedroom in the Underground.
‘Let’s just try,’ Naxi said merrily. ‘There’s an unusual feel to it, but it doesn’t seem unhappy at the moment.’
‘Yet,’ Lyn grumbled with a last warning look at Edored.
Want to go first, Em?Creon signed, ignoring Edored’s aggrieved sputtering with deliberate cool.You handled the Labyrinth rather easily.
There was no sense of a compliment in his gestures, no flicker of pride. If I’d known him just a little less well, I might have believed he was simply sending me first to test the waters and take the heaviest blow of whatever magic the woods might fling at us.
He wasn’t going to suggest coming with me? Healwayscame with me.
‘Any of us could go first,’ Tared said sharply before I could make that point, his glare at Creon a knife stab. ‘Why should Em be the one to take that risk, exactly?’
Oh, damn it. I could talk with Creon about whatever he was doing later; Tared’s bad opinion of him would be harder to undo. Forcing a breezy laugh, I shrugged and said, ‘Do you really think I would let any of you go first when you have no idea what you’re dealing with?’
‘Em,’ Lyn said quietly. ‘Please be careful.’
But I was past the point of no return now and too agitated to care. Two more steps and I stood at that invisible line between the mortal world and whatever waited in this forest, my feet still in the drab grass on this side, my eyes aimed at the ethereal twinkling and shimmering of the moss beyond.
I stepped forward.
Cool, invigorating air enveloped me as I passed that unseen barrier, a sensation like the spray of waves but without any wetness to it – the breath of something alive, somethingenlivening. The smell of the forest grew stronger, a fragrance of bursting ripe berries and blooming birchwood. But nothing moved around me, not the faintest rustle in the shrubbery.
My mouth remained dry even as I swallowed once, twice. ‘Good morning?’
No reaction.
I thought of the Labyrinth slumbering deep below the earth, desperate for company, desperate for friendship. This place felt a little different, a little calmer and more dignified … but how long had it been since it had last received guests?
Pushing away the gnawing doubt, I slowly added, ‘I hope you don’t mind us paying you a visit? We’ve read a lot about you back at home. And since obviously no one has been around this area for a while … well, we thought it would be worth some danger to actually make the trip ourselves.’
A faint autumn breeze picked up between the branches, brushing past me, leaving tingling goosebumps over my arms and shoulders. I stifled the shiver about to run down my spine. Was that a warning? A sign of approval? Or just a breeze?
‘If you’d prefer for us to leave,’ I managed, and somehow my voice held steady, ‘please just let us know. We won’t bother you. But it really would be a shame if we couldn’t see a little more of this very lovely—’
Something moved below the ferns and the moss.
My mouth snapped shut.
Behind me, his voice oddly muffled by whatever barrier separated the forest and the rest of the world, Tared was saying something, urging me to get the hell out of this place. Naxi was telling him not to be such a spoilsport. Edored was cursing. But I stood frozen in my spot, and before me …
The shrubbery parted like arms opening wide, shaping a narrow, winding path that ran deeper into the trees.
A welcome.
The others abruptly stopped talking behind me.
I let out a breathless laugh, wishing my hands weren’t shaking so ridiculously. Sentient, indeed. Did Agenor know? Or had the odder characteristics of the forest always been blamed on vague divine magic, just like the true nature of the Labyrinth had remained hidden for centuries?
‘Do you mind if my friends join me here?’ I said. ‘We’re all very excited about this trip. Lyn gathered half a library about you before we came here.’ That sounded like believable enough flattery. ‘There’s only seven of us, so hopefully we won’t be too disruptive?’
The path grew subtly broader.
‘Oh.’ I gave another laugh. ‘Thank you so much. In that case …’
