“How did you do that?” asked Eli. “That’s impressive.”
“Hey, not all of us are as compatible with magic as you are.”
“Well, at least you aren’t bleeding anymore.” This was the closest Eli could get to an apology.
“I’ll take that as your version of ‘Oh Cam, I was so worried. I’m glad you’re alive.’”
“Oh Cam, I was so worried. I’m glad you’re alive,” she repeated in a monotone.
“Very funny. Are you going to get me out of here, or what? You can, can’t you?” His voice was strained.
“We’ll get you out,” said Tav, raising an eyebrow at Eli. “Right?”
“I have no idea.” Eli stared admiringly at the way stone flowed easily into flesh. “You look good like this.”
“I always look good, and I’m ready for you to do your magic-girl thing anytime.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. There aren’t rules, just agreements. Sometimes those agreements are based on force — you can make a lion jump through a hoop if you scare and hurt him enough. You can do the same thing here. Other agreements are based on mutual respect, and those tend to be more powerful. But they take longer.”
“You want me to make an agreement with the wall?”
“I can’t negotiate on your behalf. Look, I’ll turn around and give you privacy.”
“Umm … thanks?”
Eli moved away a few steps and crossed her arms. Tav was still staring openly. Eli grabbed their elbow and pulled them to the side. “It’s rude to stare at the wall,” said Eli. “Let them talk.”
“Um … if you say so.”
“Eli?! Eli!”
“What?” She didn’t turn around.
“It’s not working! Now my neck is covered in stone, too. It’s getting harder to breathe.”
“That’s because you’re panicking.” Eli knew that saying this wasn’t helpful, but she didn’t have a lot of experience with people panicking. Unless she was about to kill them. And there was only one way she solved that problem.
“It doesn’t want to be left behind,” said Cam. “What does that mean? And how do I know that?”
“Maybe you can move through the wall beside me?”
“No, that won’t work.”
A few minutes of wheezing and swearing later, Eli heard a loud thud as Cam stumbled out of the wall.
“You did it! Congrats. I thought I’d have to leave you here and come back with a witch or something,” said Eli.
“Kind of.” Cam’s voice was heavy and strange. “It kind of worked.” Eli finally turned around and burst out laughing.
“Oh my god.”
“Stop it.”
“Oh my god.”
“It’s not funny.”
“It’s very funny, Cam.”
“Okay. It’s a little funny.” He offered up a half smile.
From Cam’s feet to his shoulders, his body was covered in stones. Not a few solid plates like armour, but tiny pebbles and sharp rocks, clumps of splotchy granite and smooth freckled stones. There were flecks of agate on his knuckles and kneecaps. His T-shirt was already shredding.
Tav grinned. “The punk rock look you always wanted.”
Cam gave them a dirty look. “It wanted to come with me.”
“It must know something we don’t,” said Eli, electrical currents humming through her arms and legs. “Maybe it wants to help.”
“You think?”
“No. I think it just got bored being down here. Looks like no one’s been in this spot for ages — doesn’t it feel dead to you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is that why I can’t see the magic anymore?” asked Tav.
“Could be. It’s weaker here.”
Cam moved closer to Eli, picking at a piece of limestone on his elbow. “So where are we, exactly?”
“Oh, lost again.”
“You don’t sound too worried.”
Somewhere overhead, the sounds of a great monster crying out for vengeance echoed across the Labyrinth and shook the walls of the cavern.
“Better than being found,” she said grimly. Blackness pooled in her eyes, blotting out the reptilian irises. Now she could see every glimmer of magic. She found the golden thread. “Let’s keep going.”
They made their way through the under-labyrinth. The tunnels were dimly lit by patches of phosphorescent moss and a few torches that burned with an eerie constancy, never flickering or fading.
“Hey, at least now you can tell the boys you’ll really rock their world,” said Tav.
He groaned. “How can I go home like this?”
Eli wondered that, too, but kept her worries to herself.
“Who put these here?” Tav asked, stopping before a steady white flame.
“I’m wondering why,” replied Eli. “A labyrinth underneath the Labyrinth? I don’t think even the children know about this. It was just a legend, a story we told sometimes.”
“Maybe they just didn’t tell you,” Cam said.
The thought disturbed Eli so much that she fell silent, trudging along with her aching feet. She was running on adrenalin and caffeine and wondered how much longer her body would hold out.
The tunnel widened, and a draft whipped around their hair and shoulders. The pebbles on Cam’s arms rattled faintly. “Maybe we’re getting close to an exit!”
“I don’t know. Wind doesn’t work logically here, remember?”
Cam shrugged. “Even magic winds can’t be trapped underground forever, Eli.”
Eli stopped and stared at him. “That’s the smartest thing you’ve ever said.”
“Rude!” Cam pretended to be offended, but a small smile slipped out. The stones on Cam’s body rubbed against each other as he moved, making a sound like rainfall on a roof.
Their footsteps echoed now, thunderous, like the beginning of an earthquake. With each step, Eli felt they were moving further away from the world she knew and deeper into a world of nightmares and rumours, magical echoes and forgotten powers. She was colder than she had ever been. She felt cold deep in her finger bones and obsidian-speckled veins. She felt cold the way a human feels cold in the winter.
“I’ll never take you for granite,” Tav was saying, flicking a pebble on Cam’s shoulder.
“One more, White, you get one more.”
Eli froze. “What did you just say?”
“I said they get one more.”
“He can’t handle the pun-ishment.” Tav winked at Eli.
“Your surname is White?”
“Yes, Eli. Most humans have two names.”
Eli stared at the ground, watching her feet moving one after the other. Getting lost in the rhythm.
It was a common last name. It was just a coincidence, nothing more.
Her blades trembled at her hips. She ignored them.
She looked up. Cam was watching her, his eyes clouded with mistrust.
“Hey, now you can start over and have a blank slate — is there slate on you?” Tav was still light and energy, oblivious to the tension that was rising like steam between Cam and Eli.