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“How long did I sleep?”
“A full day. We decided to let you sleep.”
My eyes bulged a little. The twilight falling around us meant I’d missed an entire night and the following day.
“And no monsters came while I slept?”
“Oh, one did,” Edith said, a little too nonchalantly, pulling the extra dress from around her neck, where she’d draped it to climb the rope. “Giant snake this time.”
My heart seized up a moment.
“Fortunately, Nan’s spells can’t break, and Ash stuck around. He’s almost too good at killing the monsters. He hasn’t stayed this long in…well, since we built this place. He’s usually in and out, bringing something we need, then gone again.”
Edith’s eyes bored into me, like she was trying to pry out hidden information. Did she think Ash had stayed for me? The idea made my cheeks flush, but I shook the preposterous thought away. He’d gotten me safely to the fort, so why had he stayed?
Edith held out the dress. “The Labyrinth hath provided.”
I took the clean, simple, homespun dress and clutched it to my chest. “I can finally get out of this wretched wedding dress. Where’d you find this, anyway?”
Edith shrugged. “We search for food or water, herbs or knives, or what have you. We find what we need, so long as we don’t succumb to the fear. Sometimes it takes a day or two, but we always find it.” She leveled a warning look at me. “But whatever items this place gives, it’s taken them from someone else. At least we can say the Labyrinth doesn’t waste. And the person who wore that clearly didn’t last long, given how few rips are in it.”
My hands released the dress. I wanted to scoot out from under it, but I was already too close to the platform's edge.
Edith picked up the dress. “It’s just the way of things here. When someone dies, the Labyrinth sends the valuable items to the next worthy person. There’s a sentience here, and it scares me to my bones.” She held the dress out, and I took it back more reluctantly. “Don’t worry, I washed it. And it’s mostly dry already. Every time the Labyrinth helps, it’s only drawing us in, making us think we can trust it.” She shook her head violently. “Never trust it. Take the dress. Be thankful for it. But never—never—think this maze is on your side.”
Ash stoked the fire below, which hissed and snapped. Fresh waves of delightful smelling meat rose into the air. My heart tripped as I caught sight of him. Edith was right, Ash wasn’t on my side. I couldn’t let his actions change what I knew to be true of him.
Edith moved toward the middle level. “Up here, honey,” she said, pulling back the makeshift curtain to reveal Nan, sitting upright and reading a tiny book in the light of a glowing orb that hovered over her head. I’d only seen that kind of magical light in one other place: outside the Guild. My eyes widened, impressed.
Nan smiled at me, and the weight in my chest lessened.
Forcing myself not to look down, I crawled onto the higher level. The makeshift curtain fell, and I knew no one from below could watch me changing clothes.
“I’m glad you were able to sleep so long,” Nan said, setting her book aside.
Edith helped me out of the tattered lace dress, clicking her tongue at the sight of the reddened puncture wounds on my stomach and leg. She slipped behind the curtain to retrieve the tin of healing ointment, which she reported was now down by the fire—Ash had needed it after battling the large snake.
“How did you get a book?” I asked once Edith left.
She lovingly pressed her hands to the sides of the small book. “I brought it with me.”
“They let you keep it?” I settled down beside Nan.
“They didn’t know I had it. Their spells couldn’t detect the locked spell I’d used to conceal this in the folds of my dress.”
I smirked at Nan. “You’re full of surprises.”
“And so are you.” Her large knuckles twitched back and forth over the edge of the book. Her constant little twitches and shakes were so familiar, so comforting. “I think he knows you’re a key, or suspects it.”
I hugged my arms around my chest, not needing to ask who she meant. “He knows,” I whispered. “It’s why he brought me here, so I could learn to control my magic—magic I didn’t even know I was doing. But he said he would leave once he brought me here safely.” By now I was fairly certain Nan’s mental state could handle the truth about Ash, and I was bursting to tell her, so I leaned over and whispered, “Did he ever tell you his full name?”
Before Nan had a chance to respond, however, the rope wriggled, indicating Edith was on her way back up. The truth about Ash would have to wait. Edith scrambled onto the platform and hurried to my side, carrying the tin of healing ointment. I took the ointment with a smile, shimmied out of the sleeves of the dress once more, and dabbed the salve onto my wounds.
When I finished, my wounds were cool from the healing ointment, and I felt cleaner than if I’d just climbed out of a hot bath. But I couldn’t stop rubbing my hands down the dress, as if I could rub away the knowledge that this dress had recently been on a dead woman. I was alive, and my very alive body was now in this dress.
Would this dress soon be worn by yet another?
I shook off the awful thought and followed Edith to the edge of the platform, where I could see Ash eating a hunk of meat with his bare hands.
