being and a symbol.'
'Good! Good! I like this. I think I am almost there! Give me another clue.'
'Tell me what you learned from the Brother and Sister of Dragons.'
'I learned that they are vicious beasts, and that everything they say about their own nature is a lie!'
The Hortha began to lower Callow's head back into the water.
'Wait! Wait! You want information! I understand. A valuable nugget, something that will help you to find them, perhaps? Or… Ah, I have it! Something that will give you power over them. Knowledge is power! Yes, indeed.'
'Continue.'
'They carry a lantern that is not a lantern. Within it is one of their own kind, a genie in the lamp, one who has two faces like yourself — a man and a blue flame! And he is the key to everything they do. Not just their guide, but also a manifestation of that sickening Pendragon Spirit,' Callow gabbled. 'Is that the kind of thing you want?'
'Yes. It is.'
'Then bring me down, my good man!'
Once again, the Hortha began to lower Callow into the water.
'Wait! My reward!'
'You have your reward. You have crossed my path and still you survive. Others, in a similar situation, would not have survived. On this occasion, the great forces of all there is have shifted around you and moved on.'
'No!' Callow shouted.
'You still do not understand your good fortune. That, in itself, is unfortunate.'
Allowing Callow's head to drop back into the water, the Hortha moved on. The razor-worms returned to their eternal task, and Callow to his screams.
7
Alone in the stifling heat of the room, Church worked at the rope around his wrists fastening him to the chair. Blood slicked the fibres and a deep ache jabbed towards his elbows, but he ignored the pain, focusing instead on Ruth and everything she meant to him.
The Libertarian had grown bored with tormenting him long ago, but that only made Church more anxious, for now his other self might be with Ruth, exacting his promise of torture. Church couldn't think about that, nor his other doubts: did the Libertarian's departure mean his future-self knew Church would not escape, or was this another of his memory blank spots? Where was his sword? Was Veitch already saving Ruth, while he was trapped there impotently? Was that a scream he had heard echoing through the wall, or just his imagination? If he allowed himself, he could get lost in the questions and the infinite permutations.
Focus on the now, he told himself. He used the pain in his wrists to clear his head.
The lamps and candles fizzed as they attempted to keep the dark at bay. Sweat coated his body. But still the rope would not give.
8
'Shouldn't we have a rope or something, or chalk so we can scribble some arrows, or some other shit like they have in all those old stories?' Veitch asked uneasily as they picked their way through the twists and turns of the dusty tunnels beneath the queen's palace. Bearskin and Shadow John had found two torches to light their way, but they revealed no distinguishing features on the stone walls.
'My nose will lead us back out,' Bearskin said, before adding with a hesitance that masked a touch of distaste, 'Fragile Creatures have a distinct aroma.'
'You can smell the woman?' Shavi asked.
'Not yet. But when our paths cross…'
Shavi's hand jerked to his alien eye.
'Seeing things?' Veitch asked.
'Just flashes… flickers on the edge of my vision. It happens like that sometimes. I cannot tell what they are until they come into focus.'
Bearskin held up a hand to bring them to a halt. 'I smell… something. ' He listened intently. 'The beast still roams this place, but not near, not yet.'
As if in response to his words, a low, mournful growl echoed along the tunnels from deep within the Labyrinth, but Veitch understood that the odd acoustics of the place could mean it was much closer than it sounded. He drew his sword in readiness. 'How do we know it hasn't already eaten the girl?' he asked.
'We do not,' Bearskin replied.
Stooping to avoid scraping his top hat along the tunnel roof, Shadow John peered nervously into the dark. ''Pon my soul, this place is dismal. Can you smell the rotting bodies of the recently departed, Bearskin? How far am I from the parlours I usually inhabit. How very disturbing this all is. At least we have two Brothers of Dragons to save us.'
Veitch and Shavi exchanged a don't count on it look.
For the next hour they stumbled around the maze of branching tunnels and dead ends, clambering over piles of rubble or wading through ankle-deep pools of water. Occasionally blasts of warm air threatened to extinguish their torches and Bearskin and Shadow John fought to shield them with their bodies. The origins of the air currents were unknown, but suggested some shift in the Labyrinth's structure, or the opening and closing of doors to the outside.
At every junction, Bearskin's nostrils flared as he searched for telltale scents, and at one he let out a low growl. 'More of those skull-headed warriors have entered the Labyrinth,' he said, one hand unconsciously going to his blunderbuss.
Their journey was repeatedly punctuated by the low, mournful sound of the beast that lived there, sometimes so distant it was barely audible, sometimes unnervingly close at hand making Shadow John jump and shiver, his long fingers folding into claws.
Finally the endless blur of grey tunnels gave way to a hexagonal area about twenty-five feet across. In the centre of the space was a pile of yellowing human bones arranged in a circular pattern with a hollow at the centre.
Bearskin plucked a thighbone from the heap and gave it a cursory examination before tossing it over his shoulder. 'A nest,' he said.
Shavi spun swiftly. 'Something is here.' He came to a halt before one of the six tunnels that led away from the nest. 'Gone now.'
The mournful growl of the beast issued from another tunnel, so close it raised the hairs on Veitch's neck.
'Hurry, now!' Bearskin insisted. At a rapid pace, he led the way into the opposite tunnel, before a crash of bones and the sound of pursuit echoed behind them. Though the echoes were disorienting, Veitch was sure the beast moved on four feet, but it occasionally issued a rasping laugh that was eerily human. It was fast, drawing closer.
'We're going to have to stand and fight,' Veitch gasped.
'Not advisable,' Bearskin shouted back. The flames of his torch trailed behind him as he loped, and to Veitch he now looked more animal than man.
Somehow they avoided dead ends as they ducked this way and that down the many tunnel options presented to them, but the beast at their back never slowed. The rasping laugh came faster, accompanied now by the gnashing of teeth.
'Get set now,' Bearskin roared furiously, 'and run as fast as you can!'
As they raced past the point where another tunnel crossed their path, Veitch glimpsed the pale forms of the
