by James Frey
“You sound like one of my trainers,” I tell him.
“And you get this.” He steps forward and hands me something. It’s made of some kind of bronze-colored metal and looks like an orange slice. The surface is etched with designs, and there are raised dots all over it.
“What is this?”
“A key,” Doruk says. “Or part of one. You each have been given a part. But only together will the key work.”
“So someone needs to get all four parts,” I say.
“Or work together and combine them,” he suggests.
I laugh. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Doruk says nothing to this, so I say, “When does this race start?”
Doruk looks at the man who brought me to the mountain. “Give the sign,” he says.
The man draws a flare gun from inside his cübbe, and aims it skyward. He pulls the trigger, and a flare shoots into the night with a shriek. A moment later, it bursts in a shower of sparks. Shortly after that, there are answering whistles from around the mountain.
“And so it begins,” Doruk says. “You may enter.”
He steps aside, and I approach the doorway in the side of the mountain. For a moment it looks like a mouth waiting to close around me. I stand there, peering inside. I’m exhausted and annoyed, tired of searching for a weapon that always seems to be just out of reach. If it even exists at all. I don’t know who set all this up, but I wonder what would happen if I refused to play this latest game. Would I be allowed to leave? Somehow I don’t think so. And I won’t find out, because I’m going to Play. Not just because I want to see if there really is a weapon, but because it might be the only way I’ll get to see Ari again. And if Hicks is one of the other people Playing, I’m sure as hell not going to let him win. Him or Cassandra.
I walk straight into the mouth of the mountain, daring it to eat me. Almost immediately, a stone door descends, sealing me inside. But it’s not dark. There are torches mounted on the walls, and they provide light to see by. Almost everything that I had in my pockets has been taken from me, so I look around for anything that might be useful as I face whatever is ahead of me. There is nothing.
With only one way to go, I walk forward. The corridor goes on for 10 yards or so, straight into the mountain. Then it ends abruptly, and I am standing at the mouth of a cavernous space. It’s as if the mountain has been hollowed out. Torches flicker all over the place, but there is not enough light to see exactly how large the space is. I can’t see all the way up or all the way down, but it looks as if there could be hundreds of feet of empty space in both directions.
In front of me is what looks like a narrow bridge made of wood slats. Rope handrails stretch out into the darkness, attached to poles on either side. I go back and take up one of the torches, then start to step onto the bridge, when a voice calls out, “Don’t.” The echo in the hall distorts it, but I would know it anywhere.
“Ari?” I call back.
“It’s not anchored to anything,” she calls back. “If you step on the end, it will tip down and you’ll fall.”
I put my foot on the first slat and press down. Just as Ari said, it tips.
“Where are you?” I ask Ari.
A light flares directly across from me, and I see Ari’s face illuminated by the flame of a torch. She is about 50 feet away. Seeing her, my heart jumps in my chest, and I want to run across the bridge to her.
“How do we get across?” I call.
“I’m guessing there are four bridges,” she says.
“That would be correct,” says a voice to my right. I turn and see Cassandra standing on a ledge.
Hicks appears on my left, also holding a torch. “I bet something is holding them up in the center,” he says. “Like that time the trainers made us balance on the ends of a board on top of a rock. Only here there are two of them. They’re like the blades of a fan, or a weird crossed teeter-totter. The only way to get to the middle is for the four bridges to be equally weighted. That will balance the whole thing.”
“And what happens when we get to the center?” I say.
“Only one way to find out,” Hicks shouts back.
I shine my torch around, trying to better assess the situation. I’m assuming that the doors the other three came through are shut like mine is. And there’s no way to climb up or down. We have to go out onto the bridges.
“Hicks and I weigh more than you do,” I call to Cassandra and Ari.
“We need to be closer to the center. Are we all agreed on that?”
“Agreed,” Ari says.
“Cassandra?” I ask when there’s no answer from her.
“We go on three,” she says, ignoring me. “One. Two. Three.”
I’ve barely had time to think about it, but she’s not waiting for anyone else. I see her torch move as she darts onto her bridge. We all have to scramble to do the same. I step onto the walkway and feel it start to dip under my weight. I quickly take some steps toward the middle, and it corrects itself. But the others are moving as well, making it difficult to know how far I need to go. I feel the whole apparatus start to move like a Tilt-A-Whirl at the county fair. I drop the torch I’m holding in order to grab the handrails, and it tumbles away into the darkness. I can see it falling end over end. Then there’s a splash, and it goes out.
At least now I know what’s beneath us, and water is better than rocks. But that’s not my immediate worry. The platform is still tipping. Ari’s end is rising, while mine is falling. I have to get closer to the center. Holding the ropes, I propel myself forward enough that it evens out. But Hicks has had the same idea, and now the platform swings the other way.
“Everybody stop!” I shout. “We need to work together!”
To my surprise, the others listen. The bridges are now more or less even, but the smallest movement will cause them to tilt. To make things more difficult, three of us have dropped our torches. Only Hicks has managed to hang on to his.
“We all need to move toward the center,” I say. “One at a time. Hicks, you go first. See if you can tell what we’re working toward here.”
Off to my left, Hicks’s torch advances a little. The platform tilts, but not much.
“There’s something in the middle,” Hicks says. “A kind of wooden post with things sticking out of it. I can’t tell what they are. I need to get closer.”
“Everybody take three steps in,” I say.
Again the platform bobbles a little, but remains steady.
“Can you tell what it is now?” I ask Hicks.
“It’s knives,” he says. “Knives stuck in a piece of wood.”
Suddenly my end of the platform starts to tip down. I realize too late that Cassandra is running across her bridge. At the same time, Hicks realizes what’s happening and tries to beat her to the weapons. The entire platform sways as the distribution of weight changes dramatically.
“Stop!” I shout. But it’s too late. The platform lurches. I grab on to the rope handrails, but my feet slip, and I’m hanging out over empty space. I hear Hicks yell as he falls. There’s a splash, and then a second one.
“Ari?” I call out.
There’s no answer. The platform tilts even more, so it’s now almost vertical. I try to wrap my leg around the rope handrail, but I can’t swing myself up enough to reach it. Then I hear a chopping sound coming from above me, and the rope gives way. Someone has cut it.
I tumble into the darkness. I try to remain vertical, so that I enter the water feet first and minimize the impact. When I do, I immediately curl into a ball, slowing my downward motion. The water is surprisingly warm, but it also stings my eyes more than water should. As I swim for the surface, it occurs to me that minerals from the rock have probably dissolved in it, making it more alkaline.
My head breaks the surface. Torches on the surrounding walls throw flickers of light over the water, but it’s still difficult to see. I hear splashing nearby, and turn toward the sound, ready to fight if need be. But it’s Ari.
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“Water again,” I say, thinking about how often I’ve been wet while searching for the weapon. “At least this time it’s warm.”
“The water isn’t the problem,” she says. “We’re not the only things in here.”
CHAPTER 8
Ariadne
I don’t know what is in the water with us, but I know that it’s large.
“Some kind of fish, I think,” I tell Boone.
“Fish?” he says. “Inside a mountain?”
“I’ve seen all kinds of things in the caves in Crete.”
“Well, I don’t want to wait around to find out what it is,” he says. “Let’s get out of here.”
“And go where?” I say. “We have no idea how large this lake is.”
“Is there any sign of the others?” he asks.
In answer, there is splashing to our right. Someone is swimming. I’m guessing it’s the other man, the one Boone called Hicks, as Cassandra would never make so much noise. I still don’t know who he is, and would like to ask Boone about him, but there are more pressing matters.
“The tower the bridges are attached to is over there,” I say. “Maybe we could at least get out of the water.”
It’s as much of a plan as I have at the moment. I wish I knew where Cassandra was, as my bet is that she’s more dangerous than anything lurking in the water. “Do you know what happened to my sister?” I ask Boone.
“Last time I saw her, she was trying to kill me,” he says. “She got her hands on at least one of the knives.”
“That’s one knife too many,” I say as we begin to swim.
We don’t get very far before I feel something pass by my leg.
“I think we need to swim faster,” Boone says, and I know he’s felt it as well.
We increase our pace. The stone tower that is our goal is not far ahead. Then I again feel something beneath me. This time I receive a hard bump, as if whatever it is has hit me with its head. I’m lifted from the water a little bit. I think of dolphins, and how they investigate objects with their snouts. But I’m sure this is no dolphin.
“What the hell?” Boone says.
I look over in time to see him thrown into the air. He rises at least two meters, then splashes down again. As he does, I see something white slithering just above the water. Before I can make out exactly what it is, it sinks below the surface again.
“I really wish we had one of those knives,” Boone says, treading water beside me.
I am about to tell him to keep swimming when a scream issues from the darkness, accompanied by frenzied thrashing. Something is attacking Hicks, and it’s happening just out of our sight. All my instincts tell me to swim away from it, but I can’t.
“We can’t let it get him,” I tell Boone. “We need his part of the key.”
I start swimming. Boone is right beside me, matching me stroke for stroke. We follow the screams. I try not to think about what might be attacking him.
I find out soon enough. Suddenly the screams are cut off. As Boone and I pause, looking around, the water right in front of us erupts like a geyser. A beast emerges, pale white and slick with slime that glistens in the firelight. Its huge head is fishlike in appearance, and its eyes have the telltale milky appearance that indicates blindness. It opens its mouth, revealing translucent teeth that hang like icicles in the cavernous maw.
Just as quickly as it appears, it dives again. The water underneath me surges as it passes directly below where Boone and I are floating, helpless, with nothing to protect ourselves but our bare hands. Then the water breaks again, and Hicks appears. He gasps for air and claws at the water. He flails, trying to get to me and Boone, more afraid of the thing that pulled him under than he is of us.
He’s almost to us when the beast rises again behind him. He turns, sees it, and screams in fear and rage. “Get away from me, you goddamn bastard!” he yells.
The thing seems to obey him, ducking down. But it’s only toying with him. It strikes, pulling him under by the legs. His arms fly up as he’s sucked down, his hands waving frantically for a moment before the water closes over them.
“Jesus Christ,” Boone says. “We can’t fight that thing.”
“The key,” I remind him. “We can’t lose it.”
There is another splash, this time as something falls from above.
Cassandra. I see her body, not more than a shadow, as it slips beneath the water and disappears.
“Things just got worse, didn’t they?” Boone says.
“Maybe not,” I tell him. “If she has a knife, that creature will feel it pierce its heart.”
“And she’ll also get Hicks’s piece of the key,” Boone reminds me.
There’s nothing I can do about that at the moment, so I wait to see what happens next. I don’t have to wait long. Moments later, the water parts as the monster comes back up. This time, Cassandra is clinging to its side, like Perseus battling the sea serpent. Her knife is buried in its flesh, and she’s hanging on to it. Something—blood, or whatever pumps through this creature—flows from several wounds in its side.
Even though we are enemies now, I have to become her ally, at least for this battle. I dive down, kicking hard in the direction of where they are. I can see the thing’s body coiled below the surface, thick and ghostly. It’s even larger than I thought, at least 10 meters long. Its strength must be enormous. I have no idea what I can do against it.
There is something else there as well. Hicks. He floats in the water, facedown and unmoving. His limbs are splayed out and lifeless. I change course and head for him. If I can find the piece of the key he was given, I don’t need to help Cassandra fight the beast. Although if it takes her, then her piece of the key will be lost. No, we need to work together. We have already failed at that on the bridges above. We can’t fail again.
I decide to go for the key first. Something knocks against me, and I startle, thinking it’s another creature. But it’s Boone. He points in the direction of the monster. I understand. He will go try to help kill it, while I go to Hicks. He disappears, moving with strong strokes away from me, and I turn back to the body in the water.
I reach Hicks and hold him by the belt, searching his pockets as quickly as I can. There is nothing in the pocket of his shirt, or in the ones in his pants. Also, I am running out of breath. I need to surface soon. I make one last try, running my hands over as much of his body as I can cover. This time, my hand finds something inside one of his boots, a bump that feels out of place. I fumble for the laces, trying to untie them as the last of the air in my lungs runs out. I manage it, and slip my fingers inside the upper part of his boot. There is something there.
Before I can pull out what I’m sure is the piece of the key, there is a violent tug and Hicks is ripped away from me. Off in the distance, I see the creature that Cassandra and, presumably, Boone are still wrestling with. This means there is another one. At least one.
I push for the surface, breaking through and taking a breath. “There are more!” I call, not knowing if Cassandra and Boone can even hear me.
While the presence of more eel-like things is worrisome, I am more concerned about not getting the piece of the key that was secreted inside Hicks’s boot. Although I fear it will be futile, I dive down again, scanning the water for any sign of him. I see nothing at first. Then there is a flash of white beneath me, deeper down. I turn and head for it. Something is swimming away from me. Then it circles back, heading directly for me.
I hover in the water, waiting for it. As it nears, I see that it has Hicks’s body in its mouth. His head is thrown back, his legs flapping in the water. His boots are still on, which gives me hope. If I can grab on to him, maybe I can still get the piece of the key. And as long as he remains in the creature’s mouth, it won’t be able to bite me.
Not that its teeth are its only weapon. Its size alone could be deadly, as could the tail that writhes and coils behind it. It’s just a beast, I tell myself as it hurtles toward me. And beasts
can be killed.
As it nears, it rises above the water, intending to swim over me, perhaps to crush me with its tail. I reach out and manage to grab Hicks’s limp hand, as if he has extended it in help. My fingers interlock with his, and I am pulled along beneath the monstrous fish. Water surges up my nose, and I start to choke. I cannot see. I cling to Hicks like I would a lover, and am lifted up and up.
The creature breaches. As it does, it emits a horrible shriek, as if it’s communicating with its companion. I’ve never heard such a peculiar, awful cry. The other monster answers, and its reply is even worse, filled with pain and rage. Although my thoughts are focused on not losing my grip on Hicks’s body, I recognize the sound as one of a wounded animal. Whatever Cassandra and Boone are doing, it seems to be working.
I suck in air right before we dive again and the water closes over my head. The beast heads down, most likely in an attempt to drown me. We pass through a cloud of something dark, and I realize that it’s the blood of the other animal. The one holding Hicks in its mouth suddenly opens its jaws, and Hicks falls out. I fall with him, both of us sinking. The creature passes over us, and as it leaves, it flicks its tail, which hits me with great force, pushing me even farther down.
I wrap my arms around Hicks and we spin away. I can see nothing, and now I don’t even know which way is up and which is down. My lungs ache, and there is a pounding in my head that makes it difficult to think. The rough skin of the fish has scraped my arm raw, and it stings badly.
I ignore all of this and work my way down Hicks’s body to his feet, where I find the boot still in place. I reach inside and pull out the piece of the key. Gripping it tightly in my hand, I swim away from Hicks, glad to leave his corpse to its watery grave and return to the surface.
On the surface, everything is still. In the distance I hear the same keening cry I heard the animals make before, moving farther away. There is the gentle splashing of someone swimming. Then Boone is there.
“Where’s Cassandra?” I ask.
“She swam off,” he says. “I don’t know where.”
