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“As a kid, I always wanted a treehouse,” I said. “I guess I’ve got one now.”
His lips twitched, but he didn’t respond.
“Now you tell me something.”
He sighed. “Vera, go to sleep.”
“One thing. Just tell me one thing.”
“Fine,” he huffed, raking a hand through his hair. “I always wanted to become a professor.”
My face lit with a smile. “Like at the university?”
He nodded. “I wanted to teach mathematics.” He shook his head. “Useless dream.”
“No,” I blurted, a little too loudly. I flinched and quieted my voice. “It’s a great dream.”
“The only dream I have now is to help as many people survive their first day in here as I can. But the madness takes them all, eventually.” He stood, stepped to the other side of the platform, which wasn’t very far, and lay down. He never glanced back my way, and within a few seconds, his deep breathing indicated he was already asleep.
That night, I dreamed of Ash running through the Labyrinth in a professor’s robe—but as he ran, the robe reached up and wrapped around his throat, choking him.
11
Ash kept his word and left the following day.
An unexpected hollowness formed in his absence. I’d slept easier with him nearby, but after two more days living in constant fear of another attack, I once again fell asleep quickly.
“If the Labyrinth is pleased with him leaving us, we might even have a day or two of rest,” Edith said on the second day after Ash’s departure.
Her words provided little comfort.
I found that the routine of waking, finding food and water, practicing magic, and sleeping became a rhythm that kept the fear at bay. But each day that Ash did not reappear, dread pooled in my gut. I couldn’t stop my mind from reinventing the way his hands had doctored my wound or steadied me when I’d come down the rope. Perhaps it was the adrenaline surging in my veins at all times, but in such a short time, he’d burned his place in my memory, and there was no forgetting him.
“This time, see if you can stop my control from ever taking root in your mind,” Edith suggested as we picked blueberries from a wild bush. These bushes didn’t sit in one place, but every day, a fruit-bearing bush or tree would appear somewhere in the Labyrinth, and it was a mad dash to find it before any of the Nameless discovered it. Edith admitted that most days they never found it before having to return to the fort.
I dropped the fat berries into the apron tied to my waist. I’d worn Ferrier’s boots today, as we’d been alternating who wore them. My feet were so tiny, though, that even her boots were too large. My feet slipped around inside them, rubbing blisters in several places. But blisters were better than stepping on rocks.
Edith’s magic latched onto my mind. I cringed and concentrated on not letting the berries scatter to the grassy forest floor. We were in a small clearing where early morning sunshine lit the sparkling mist, creating a deceptively beautiful scene.
I ground my teeth and pushed against Edith’s mental hold, but my moment of distraction trying to save the berries had been enough for her magic to fully sink in. She shared a quick memory with me, of her and Ferrier riding horses through a field of wildflowers. I practiced what Nan had told me, and I pictured the scene dissolving like smoke. According to Nan, I had the ability to stop any spell.
The scene dissipated, and Edith’s mental hold relaxed. “I sensed it that time. That was better.” She smiled. “I always loved that field in the summertime.”
My lips quirked, but instead of smiling, a weight sank in my chest. Her memory was a happy one, but it reminded me of my brothers. Of my goal to escape. “I want to look for the wall again,” I admitted.
Edith pinched the edges of her blueberry-laden apron together and glared at me. “Don’t start that talk again.”
Shoulders sinking, I resigned myself to having to search for a way out on my own, though I hated the idea of leaving my friends. I would wait until my magic was stronger, and then I would go. A few more days. But I would come back for them. For Nan.
My eyes scanned the forest all around. Oddly, now that Ash was gone, every time I glanced about, a mixture of fear and hope filled my lungs as I held my breath, searching for signs of movement.
Perhaps the Labyrinth was finished merging our paths and now was preventing him from returning. Or perhaps it was silly of me to think he wanted to return.
I popped a berry into my mouth, relishing its sweetness.
“Do you hear that?” asked Edith, her eyes wide.
Every muscle in my body tensed.
