The Mad Apprentice Page 6

  The girl narrowed her eyes, but nodded. Alice led her back toward Ellen’s light, which was shifting and brightening as she continued her argument with Garret. The raised voices made Soranna hesitate, and Alice encouraged her with a smile.

  “Sister Alice!” Dex said. “I see that you have retrieved our wayward lamb.”

  Soranna gave Dex an alarmed look, but held her ground.

  “Her name’s Soranna,” Alice said.

  Ellen looked the little girl over, clearly unimpressed. She sniffed and turned away.

  “Little Sora,” Garret said, with an affected joviality. “Good to meet you.”

  “Soranna,” said Soranna sharply. “Not Sora.”

  Garret blinked. “All right. Soranna it is.”

  “Is this everyone?” Ellen said. “I’d like to get on with it.”

  “My master told me to expect five others,” Garret said. “Maybe someone’s running late.”

  “Well, I certainly don’t plan on waiting around here all day,” Ellen said. “I say we give it another five minutes.”

  “There is strength in numbers,” Dex said. “Better not to venture forth unprepared.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Ellen said. “I’m sure the three of us can handle whatever is in there.” Then, as an afterthought, she added, “And Alice and Sora will help too, of course.”

  “Soranna,” Soranna said. “Not Sora.”

  “Ellen’s right,” Garret said. “I’m not worried. But if we leave without someone, the masters might not like it.”

  “Then his master should have gotten him here on time,” Ellen said. “I think—”

  “I’m here,” said a familiar voice from the darkness. A boy stepped forward, swathed in an ancient, battered trench coat.

  “Isaac!” Alice took a half step forward, then stopped when he refused to meet her eyes. He brushed right past her and took up a slouching position beside Garret.

  “Isaac,” Garret said. “Good to see you again. You’re looking—”

  “I’m here,” Isaac repeated, keeping his eyes on the ground. “Let’s go.”

  Garret glanced at Ellen, who shrugged dismissively.

  “That appears to complete our company!” Dex said brightly. “May the most favorable of portents attend our journey.”

  Ellen made a face, but said nothing. Garret beckoned everyone over to the nearest boulder, which Alice now saw was inscribed with the name Esau-of-the-Waters.

  “All right,” Garret said. “For those of you who haven’t done this before, just stay close and keep your heads down. We’re not expecting any active opposition, but some nasty things may have already gotten loose from Esau’s archives. Follow me and watch the sides—”

  “Who exactly put you in charge?” Ellen snapped.

  “Follow Ellen and me”—Garret amended. Ellen sniffed and crossed her arms—“who will be out in front in case something happens. Dex, you bring up the rear.”

  Alice cleared her throat. “What about when we find Jacob?”

  Garret shrugged, and cracked his knuckles ostentatiously. “That depends on whether he feels like coming along quietly.”

  Ellen rolled her eyes. “Leave him to us. We’ll handle it.”

  Alice thought she saw Isaac flinch. She tried to catch his eye, but he looked away.

  “Okay!” Garret said. “Everybody join hands. We’ll all go through together.”

  He held out his hand, and Isaac took it, reluctantly. Alice ended up between Ellen and Soranna, the former barely touching her fingers, the latter squeezing as hard as if she were afraid of falling. Soranna’s fingers were rough and calloused.

  Garret flipped open the book that sat on the boulder, a fat, narrow tome with an ancient leather binding. Alice was too far away to read it, but she could feel the meaning flow through her, down the line of linked hands. The words swam into their vision.

  Alice found herself outside, under a night sky ablaze with starlight . . .

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ESAU’S FORTRESS

  ALICE FOUND HERSELF OUTSIDE, under a night sky ablaze with starlight. There were more stars than she’d ever seen, more even than were in the sky at the Library, far from the glow of civilization. In every direction except above, there was only darkness, black and absolute. The shadows of huge mountain peaks were visible where they blotted out chunks of the sky, a set of jagged, sharp-edged shapes like a row of shark’s teeth. They surrounded her on all sides, as though she stood in the center of a giant pair of earthen jaws preparing to take a bite out of the heavens.

  She released Ellen’s hand and tried to disentangle herself from Soranna, but the girl seemed reluctant. Alice gave her a reassuring squeeze.

  “Where are we?” she said.

  Ellen’s halo brightened, enough to show that they stood on a small stone platform surrounded by an iron railing. A single gate led onto a narrow stone walkway that stretched off into the darkness. When Alice squinted, she could see that there were lights in that direction, faint and flickering, like the glow of a distant campfire.

  “Somewhere in the Alps,” Ellen said. “My master said Esau carved out a valley between the mountains and built his fortress in it, then wrapped it around with wards so the mortals would never find it.” She glanced up at the sky. “And it’s always night here, no matter what happens outside.”

  “I wonder how long that will keep working,” Garret said. “Now that he’s dead, I mean. It depends on the power draw—”

  Ellen pointed to the distant lights. “That must be the fortress. If this is his front door, it makes sense that he’d keep it at a safe distance.”

  Alice walked to the edge of the platform and put her hands on the railing. She was glad she’d worn something warm; the air was thin and chill, and the metal cold against her skin. She pulled on the devilfish thread and summoned the luminescent green glow.

  An involuntary gasp escaped her, and her hands tightened on the iron. Beyond the rail was a sheer cliff that extended down for hundreds of feet. She couldn’t see the bottom, and a dizzy sense of vertigo roiled her stomach and pricked at the soles of her feet. Slowly, Alice released the railing and took a careful step backward.

  Garret had apparently made a similar discovery. “Nobody is to fall off,” he said. “Unless you can fly. Come on, let’s get moving.”

  He strode out onto the walkway, and Ellen fell in behind him. Her halo threw long, twisting shadows. Isaac hurried after them, leaving Alice in the rear with Dex and Soranna.

  Dex edged to the side of the platform, looked down, and whistled.

  “Don’t fall off, Brother Garret says. Good advice indeed.” She waved Alice forward. “Proceed, sisters. I will watch behind us.”

  Soranna looked miserable in the green devilfish light. Alice hesitated a moment, then held out her hand again, and the girl took it gratefully. Together they stepped out onto the walkway. It was comfortably wide, but there were no railings along its sides, and the thought of that awful drop made Alice keep to the very center.

  The stone path seemed to go on forever. The platform behind them soon vanished into darkness, leaving only the light of Dex’s lantern, Alice’s hand, and Ellen’s halo bobbing ahead. The lights of the fortress, if that’s what they were, weren’t getting any closer. Soranna’s hand was warm in Alice’s.

  Alice found herself wrestling with her feelings. On the one hand she was relieved, as it seemed unlikely she would have to make any decision about Jacob after all. It felt a bit cowardly to simply let Garret or Ellen handle everything, but it wasn’t like they’d given her a choice in the matter. Ashes was right. Geryon sent me here just to . . . show the flag, I suppose, and make sure none of the others get away with anything.

  On the other hand, just going along with the group grated, in a way she had a hard time explaining. She’d usually followed the rules,
because they were good rules, set down by people who cared for her and knew better than she did. Part of the reason she and her father had gotten along so well was that he’d never demanded anything of her that she couldn’t see the sense in.

  She was certain Garret didn’t care for her, and she wasn’t at all sure he knew better than she did. Alice bridled at his cocksure attitude, but she couldn’t see what she could do other than follow. And be extra careful.

  And then, on the other other hand—

  If I’m going to find out what happened to my father, I can’t just trail behind Garret and Ellen. My best chance is to find a way to talk to Jacob alone, and make him tell me if he knows anything. Or maybe Esau kept some kind of records?

  She fixed her eyes on Ellen’s light. Isaac was a shadowy figure, just behind it. And what’s wrong with him, anyway? I know we didn’t exactly part on the best of terms—she found herself unaccountably blushing—but if anything, I should be angry with him! He’s the one who stole the Dragon book.

  Maybe that was it, she reflected. He thinks I’m furious with him, so he’s staying away from me. She certainly had every right to be. But this isn’t the time to be petty. We have to work together. When she finally cornered him, she’d have to give him a fair chance to apologize.

  Slowly, the constellation of lights ahead grew clearer, flickering on and off in a strange pattern. When they were close enough to see the softer glow of starlight reflecting on stone, it suddenly snapped into focus, and Alice gasped and pulled up short.

  It was a castle. But not like any castle Alice had ever seen, even in a book of fairy tales. It was composed of a series of tall, flat-roofed towers, connected by long walkways. They spread out, up and down, staircases, ramps, and slides connecting each tower to its neighbors and other, more distant towers in a dozen ways. The paths curled over and under one another, crisscrossing like the web of an insane spider cast in stone.

  Torches hung in the many windows of the towers and along the walkways. But it was the starlight that revealed the most surprising thing: Each tower rested on a single rock spire, stretching up from the black depths of the crevasse below. The entire castle was perched on hundreds of these pillars, like a bed of needles.

  In the center of the mass of towers, a single huge building rose, round and dome-roofed. More torches shone in a ring around it, like a crown of fire sitting on a bald stone head, and a hundred bridges stretched away from it to every level of the surrounding towers.

  Alice became aware that the others had halted too. The six of them stood quietly for a moment, staring at the huge complex.

  “Well,” Garret said, “it’s pretty obvious where we have to go.” He pointed at the big central building. “That must be Esau’s stronghold.”

  “That doesn’t mean Jacob is in there,” Ellen said. “If he has any brains at all, he’d hide in one of the outlying towers. Searching this place would take years!”

  “I can help with that, Sister Ellen,” Dex said. “Auguries and finding are my specialty.”

  Ellen sniffed. “Your last augury led us into a swamp.”

  “We did find what we sought.”

  “And nearly lost your arm.”

  Dex shrugged. “The signs tell me where the road leads, not what troubles we will face along the way.”

  “In any case,” Garret broke in, “we should investigate the stronghold first. If he’s not there, we’ll widen our search.”

  “We’ll have to get there first,” Ellen said. “Look at this place. It’s a maze.”

  A labyrinth.

  This last was not spoken aloud. It was a low, resonant voice that echoed around Alice’s skull and down to the pit of her stomach. It was a deeper, louder voice than any human’s, but Alice recognized it, even after six months of silence. That’s not a day I’m ever likely to forget.

  The Dragon hadn’t spoken a word since the day it had submitted to her, inside the prison-book. She’d never been able to pull its thread toward the world to summon or control it. It just sat there, deep in her mind, like a toad at the bottom of a pond.

  Now she took hold of the thread. Can you hear me? she thought at it.

  I can hear you, little sister.

  A dozen questions came to mind. Why haven’t you spoken to me before now? Can Isaac hear you too?

  No. His mind is closed to me. And there was never a need before. But now you are in great danger.

  Danger? She looked up at the castle. Here?

  Yes. You are entering a labyrinth. If you continue, you are lost.

  It might be hard to find our way through, but I’m sure we can remember the way out. Even as she thought it, though, she knew that wasn’t what the Dragon meant.

  This is no simple maze. It is a labyrinth. The lair of one of the labyrinthine, the maze-demons. The Dragon paused. You know such a creature yourself.

  Ending. You mean Ending.

  Yes. She serves Geryon, as all her kind must serve the Readers. They imprison the books of magic. Inside their labyrinth, they see all and control all.

  Geryon said that all Esau’s contracts would dissolve when he died, so we’d be safe.

  They should have. But the labyrinthine remains at his post. I do not know why. But if you continue, you will be at his mercy.

  Alice paused. Garret and Ellen had started forward again, toward the tower.

  What should I do?

  Turn back.

  I don’t think the others will want to.

  If you continue, you will be trapped in the labyrinth. Most likely you will all die. The labyrinthine are not pleasant creatures, on the whole.

  Ending seems nice enough, Alice thought defensively. Sometimes, anyway.

  Something echoed from her mind, like a distant snort from vast nostrils. Then the Dragon’s presence was gone. Alice kept her grip on the thread, but it was once again as hard as rock, and unresponsive to any of her entreaties.

  Wait. I need to know . . .

  But she could tell it was pointless, even without waiting for an answer.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  INTO THE MAZE

  THE WALKWAY LED TO an arched doorway in a gloomy-looking tower near the edge of the castle. A few torches cast weak pools of radiance out the windows, throwing long shadows. Inside, Alice could see a stone-floored chamber, with a long spiral stair winding around the inside of the wall. In the center was a messy heap of—

  “Books?” Alice said aloud.

  “Of course,” Dex said. “Every master must have his library.”

  Geryon’s books were at least shelved, even if they weren’t sorted or organized. Here the volumes had simply been dumped in a pile like so much dross. Alice, looking at the folded pages and cracked spines, couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for them.

  “No one is to touch anything,” Garret said. “You know how it is. Our masters will send people to clean this place up, that’s not our job. Besides, it could be dangerous.”

  Alice took a deep breath. She wasn’t optimistic that Garret would heed her warning, but she couldn’t just do nothing. Isaac might have listened, given his history with the Dragon, but Isaac was apparently not speaking to her.

  “Garret?” she said as they paused just outside the doorway. “Can I have a word?”

  Garret raised an eyebrow, but gestured her over to the side of the walkway, away from the others. Ellen followed without being invited.

  “I’ve had . . .” Alice hesitated. “A warning. A sort of feeling, from one of my bound creatures. It says the labyrinth we’re walking into is still active.”

  “An active labyrinth?” Garret looked up at the tower, and the maze of passages beyond. “Here?”

  “That’s not possible,” Ellen said primly. “Esau’s guardian would have left when he was killed. And an active labyrinth requires a guardian.”

 
“I hate to say it, but Ellen’s right,” Garret said. “Our masters wouldn’t have sent us here if the labyrinth was still functioning. It’d be suicide.”

  Alice shrugged lamely. “I just have a feeling, is all.”

  “Maybe some trace of the guardian lingers for a while?” Garret said. “A . . . scent, or something.”

  Ellen gave him a withering look. “An active labyrinth is a kind of tightly folded space. It doesn’t have a scent.” She paused, looking reflective. “I suppose there could be some kind of backup power source. That might keep it going for a while, even without a guardian.”

  “Maybe,” Garret said. “But regardless, without a guardian, it’s just a harmless set of confusing passageways. All we have to do is find our way through.”

  “Still,” Ellen said. “We should be careful.”

  “I’m always careful.”

  Garret addressed the rest of the group. “All right, in we go. Ellen and I out front, Dex bringing up the rear. Stick close together.”

  “Which way are we going?” Ellen said, eyeing the room inside the tower. There were no other doorways on this level, only the staircase leading up and down.

  “Up,” Garret declared confidently. “I saw a bridge near the top. We should get as high as possible, it’ll be easier to see where we’re going.”

  And a longer fall, Alice thought, but she didn’t argue. She hadn’t really expected Garret to turn back, and in all honesty she wasn’t sure they ought to. He has a point, after all. Geryon wouldn’t have sent me here if it were as dangerous as the Dragon thinks. And Ending would have warned me. But something about Garret’s attitude made her uncomfortable. He’s too . . . confident. Her own explorations of Geryon’s library had taught her to never be too certain of her assumptions.

  In single file, the apprentices passed through the doorway and into the tower, giving the pile of books a wide berth. Soranna maintained her place beside Alice, while Isaac stayed as far behind her as he could, huddled inside his trench coat as though he’d much rather be anywhere else. Garret led the way up the stairs, big stone things dished in the middle by centuries of wear, and they began to climb.