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Not a sound I’d expected to hear in this place.
Ash turned and stared at my foot. “Ignore the laughter. It just means the Labyrinth is testing you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You mean you’re testing me.”
He huffed in annoyance. “Your history books told you all you need to know about me, is that right?”
“Yes.”
He rolled his eyes. “I'm sure the king enjoyed commissioning those books. For now, we need to keep moving. Can you run?”
I set my injured foot down and winced.
“Climb on.”
“What?” My mouth hung open as he turned his back toward me and lifted his arms. “Never in a million years.”
“Think touching me will rub my wicked ways into your virtuous skin?”
I balked and marched past him, shoving my pain aside.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “You can choose to believe what the king’s version of history told you about me. It’s this way,” he added, storming off to the left.
As we picked our way through the trees, I pondered his words. The king had defeated Henry Asher eighty years ago, banishing him and his dark magic into this dreadful prison. The villain we’d learned about was ruthless and power hungry and vile. Not the type to spare lives or offer piggyback rides to ladies with sore feet. But if this place was designed to drive me mad, I wasn’t about to trust its maker.
I darted my eyes back and forth so often, scanning for lurking monsters, that I was nearly getting dizzy. I pinched my lips and tried to snuff the fear that wafted off of me like candle smoke. It was no use. The creature from the water had terrified me, and nearly drowning had left its mark on my mental state. I wanted to find water without murderous monsters in it. And a place to hide. And a new outfit. And a way out. And an entire cake wouldn’t hurt either.
One thing at a time.
We walked for what felt like an hour without anything attacking. My feet hurt so badly—each step was a hobble that almost ended in me falling to the ground. But I was too proud to admit this to Ash.
I concentrated on the feel of the ground beneath me, forcing my awareness away from the pain in my feet. If a monster chased after me right now, I’d be hopeless if I couldn’t run.
Years ago, I’d cut my hand with a kitchen knife while peeling potatoes for Mother, and I’d learned that I could ignore pain by shoving it out of the forefront of my mind and locking it away. After several breaths, the pain diminished, and I sighed.
Ash eyed me with a raised brow and looked me up and down. “Already getting comfortable here?”
“No,” I huffed.
The silvery mist appeared like rain, falling toward the earth in little rivulets that sank into the ground. Now that I’d gotten a handle on my pain, I could focus on our surroundings. Vines hung innocently from trees and birds fluttered away in fear. At a glance, this forest was no different from any other I’d seen—and that made the anticipation so much worse.
As I stepped over a fallen tree, my dress caught and a ripping sound accompanied my fall.
“Excellent.”
Ash turned around so fast, blade drawn, that I flinched. His eyes flicked from me to the forest and back to me.
“Oh,” he said, stepping toward me as he tucked the blade back into his boot.
Lifting my damp, leaf-encrusted skirts, my hand bumped something hard. I shifted and saw a small stone opening in the ground—a well.
I’d knocked off the flat rock that had covered the well, and my dress had snagged on the rough-cut edge of one of the stones. Sitting beside the well was a small cup attached to a long string. For a second, I stared dumbly. The well hadn’t been there a moment before.
Ash chuckled. “Ah, the well.” He turned in a circle, his hand slipping around the knife hilt once again.
I spun in the leaves and stared at the tiny structure. Something was etched into the edge of the well. Smearing some of the lichen and dirt off the stones, I scooted around until I found the beginning of the phrase. “To take a drink, you must pay the price,” I read aloud.
“Yes, and I expect the payment will be due soon.”
