by J. F. Penn
A piano stood against one wall. She touched a key, and a dull note echoed in the room. A skittering noise came from within the instrument. She backed away and turned towards the end of the ballroom where another door led away from the main corridor. Sienna walked on into the heart of the institution.
In the middle of the next room, a dentist's chair sat, fully reclinable, but with thick leather straps for the wrists, ankles and head. A sink in the corner overflowed with ferns and moss, verdant life in the ruins. Next to it, a metal table with drawers covered in thick cobwebs. Sienna used her sleeve to brush them away and pulled the drawer open. A syringe with a thick needle lay next to a series of scalpels, the blades glinting in the light. The edges still looked sharp enough. She picked one up and wrapped the end in a piece of rag, slipping it into her pack before walking on. It made her feel better to have a makeshift weapon.
The next room had once been a morgue, the thick doors open wide to display racks of shelving behind. There were nine slots tapering into darkness and Sienna couldn't help thinking of who might have lain here last. They must have been important to avoid the grave pits outside.
Around the walls, there were racks of shelving with glass jars and test-tubes arrayed upon them. The jars were covered in dust, but there were shadows inside. Sienna reached up and brushed the front of one then recoiled as the side of a diseased face turned towards her in the liquid.
A rustling sound came from behind her.
She turned as a rat burst out from the shadows, running across the floor towards her. Sienna jumped, a gasp escaping her throat. The rat was big as a dog, its teeth bared as it approached, red eyes fixed on her.
Then out of the shadows, more emerged.
They moved as a pack, black-bristled fur over muscled bodies and thick pink tails like rope. The biggest rat darted in, teeth snapping. Sienna backed away and climbed quickly onto a gurney against the wall, pulling her feet out of its way just in time.
The pack ran forward, furry bodies clustering around the gurney, moving it on squeaky wheels as they swirled around the metal legs. A stench of feces and rotting flesh rose up from the pack and Sienna gagged as she looked down into the vortex of bodies. They looked up at her with the fixation of hungry animals desperate for a meal.
"Help!" she cried. "Finn! Mila? Anyone?"
She thumped on the gurney sending a metallic ringing sound out into the corridor. But there was no sound of running feet, no voices. She had wandered too far.
She was alone.
Sienna thought back to how she had sat in the stacks of the Bodleian, lost in the books, not knowing which way to go. Back then, she had to use someone else's map to escape, but Mila had said anything could be a map for a Blood Cartographer. She could create her own map and walk through it.
She looked down at the stinking rats with their sharp yellow teeth.
It was worth a try.
Sienna pulled the scalpel from her pack and looked at the blade, then down at the rats. She could use it as a weapon and try to get out of here. She could wait for someone to rescue her, or she could see what she was capable of.
She winced in anticipation of the pain. "It won't hurt, it won't hurt," she whispered, then sliced into her forearm.
It did hurt, and she didn't even want to consider the diseases she might have given herself with the dirty blade. But it was better than getting eaten by giant rats.
As blood welled up, she used the fingertips of her other hand to dab a little of the liquid and then started to paint on the wall. She visualized the asylum and the corridors she had walked through, sketching the lines of the area where the team waited.
She drew the dimensions of the room and the pathway to the outside where skeletons lay in their eternal rest. She sensed the orientation of the building on the earth beneath and drew her compass rose beside the sketch, with its true north an echo of what she felt inside. It was like a magnet pulling her closer and Sienna gasped as she glimpsed the intoxicating power of her blood.
But would it be enough? What if she couldn't make it work?
The rats snarled below, bumping against the gurney. As she rocked from side to side, she closed her eyes and placed her hand in the middle of the rough, bloody map.
17
Sienna's fingers tingled as she thought of Perry and his kettle of tea, Finn whittling his running horse, Xander sketching and Mila staring into the flames. She brought life to the map in her mind and felt a lifting inside, the world as three-dimensional space below her.
Then she was back, sucked into the room where the fire burned and the team sat waiting. Sienna opened her eyes to see them all staring at her.
"Holy crap, you gave me a fright," Mila said. "Thought you were a ghost or something." She grinned. "Guess you're getting better at Mapwalking then."
Sienna nodded. "I … I got a bit lost." Her voice shook as the intensity of the experience rocked through her. Her breath came fast, and she sat down heavily by the fire.
Perry held out a mug of tea. "You look like you had a scare. This will help."
Sienna took it and sipped for a moment. She felt their eyes upon her.
"There were giant rats," Sienna said when she got her breath back.
Finn jumped up. "Mutant cloud rats." He began to pull the bed frames in front of the door. "Quickly, help me." Perry and Mila stacked the gaps with broken furniture as Finn explained. "Supposedly, they escaped from some experimental lab on Earth-side, and they've found plenty to eat in the Borderlands. There are stories of them ravaging villages, swarming and devouring anything in their path. There can't be too many of them here though as there's not enough food to support a colony."
"There were enough of them," Sienna said.
Finn turned and met her eyes, nodding at her unspoken horror. "We'll watch in pairs while the others get some sleep. It's a few hours until dawn, and then we can be on our way when the rats sleep."
Xander yawned. "Wake me when it's my shift." He pulled his sleeping bag around himself and rolled over with his back to the fire.
Mila put a hand on Sienna's shoulder. "Get some rest. I'll take first watch with Finn."
Bristled bodies pinned her down and sharp teeth ripped at her flesh as she screamed for help. Sienna sat up sharply, gasping for breath.
"It's okay." Perry put a hand on her arm. "Must be a nightmare. You're safe."
His voice was calming, and he reached for the kettle, pouring her a steaming cup of tea. "Here you go."
"Is tea your answer to everything?" Sienna took a sip.
Perry gave a wry smile. "I have more questions than answers, to be honest, but I find tea helps me live with them."
Dawn filtered through the barred windows, casting a sickly pale light over the team. Mila lay curled next to the fire, sleeping bag pulled up over her head. Finn lay resting on his back, hand on his sword. His eyes were open, and he looked ready to spring into action. Xander sat on the pile of broken furniture, sketching.
"You should have woken me," Sienna said. "I would have taken my turn."
Perry shook his head. "Oh, don't worry. You're new, and Mapwalking takes it out of you. Surely Bridget told you about it?"
"She didn't tell me much really. It all happened so fast. What do you mean?"
Xander stopped sketching and looked over at her, his eyes wide. "You don't know?"
Mila turned inside her sleeping bag and sat up, rubbing her eyes. "I should have told you, but I thought we'd have more time before you used it properly." She took a deep breath. "Mapwalking comes with a cost. Every time you use it in the Borderlands, you exchange your blood for a drop of shadow and you begin to change. If you use it too much, you can't cross back into Earth-side."
Perry stirred the embers of the fire, his face troubled. "That's how Shadow Cartographers are born."
Mila continued. "And it's why Bridget can't come through anymore, or some of the older Mapwalkers. They can't risk it."
Her words echoed through Sienna's mind, and
she imagined the taint of darkness seeping through her veins. Her skin prickled at the thought, and the cut throbbed on her arm. "How many times can I use it safely?"
"There's no way of knowing." Xander's hazel eyes fixed on hers. "Every Mapwalker is different, and the amount of blood needed depends on the journey … and the number of people you carry with you."
"It's why we can't just use our magic all the time," Mila said. "And why we let you rest. We need you for the next part of the journey." She took a deep breath, looking at Sienna with an apology in her eyes. "You might as well know this too. The most powerful maps are all made from the skin of Blood Cartographers. They are most effective if they are used without a drop of shadow in them. Those are the master maps, the ones protecting the border."
"The younger the skin, the less traveled, the better the map," Xander said. "Your flesh and blood are the most precious thing we have."
"That's why the Shadow Cartographers are breeding Halbrasse." Finn sat up, his face contorted with anger. "They skin the children and use rare blood to make new maps."
"It's true." Mila nodded. "And we can't keep up on Earth-side because we don't countenance breeding programs. They will soon outnumber us."
Finn looked at Sienna. "You have to leave the Borderlands. If they take you, they will –"
"I'm here for my father." She thought of him held captive, bled for the ink that the Shadow Cartographers would tattoo on the skins of half-breed children. Nausea churned her stomach. She stood up. "We need to go. It's light outside and time to move on."
"Wait, I think we might be back on charted territory now, so I might be able to navigate better." Mila unrolled a skin map from her bag and pointed to the labyrinth drawn upon it. "Bridget gave me this. When it was made, the labyrinth pushed right up against Poveglia. It can't have moved too far from here."
Sienna touched the edge of the map, finally understanding the pedigree of the leather. "Whose is it?" she said, softly.
"It's old." Mila stroked the edges. "But Bridget said it was given willingly." She looked up at Sienna. "It is the fate of Blood Cartographers to become the maps that guide us."
Sienna looked down at the twisting lines of the labyrinth, and for a moment, she felt like running. She could use her magic one last time, use the star map to get back to Bath, sell the shop to Sir Douglas Mercator and move to London. Live a normal life. But would she really be able to live with the knowledge of the Borderlands out here? And could she leave her father to be bled dry in a shadowy dungeon?
Finn bent to the map and traced a line to the side of Poveglia Island. "The greater part of the jungle is new in this area, pushed through recently, but if this is accurate, I think its incursion would have pushed the labyrinth to the south-west. Here." He pointed to an area of swampland, marked on the map by reed symbols. "It's a few hours on foot."
They packed up and walked into the dawn, silent except for the tread of their feet on the hard earth. Sienna looked up as the sun broke through the clouds, turning her face to the warmth of the rays. It was strange to think the same sun shone down on Earth-side and the Borderlands alike when so much was different over here.
This land was off the edge of the maps she had studied at school, its lines inverse to the borders she knew by heart. As a child, Sienna had learned the capital cities of every country, testing herself against the map of the world on her bedroom wall. After her father had disappeared, her mother tore it down and removed every atlas from the house. But the color-coded countries were so fixed in her brain she could recall them even now.
The Borderlands were on the other side, the fifth point of the compass, and as places from Earth-side were pushed through, they ended up here crushed up against each other, pushing older places towards the Uncharted. Its very name called to something in her, a desire to go deeper into this untamed land. She was starting to understand why the Shadow Cartographers fell so far.
"What's the difference between a labyrinth and a maze?" Perry asked, breaking the silence as they walked. "I mean, what are we expecting to find?"
"Technically, a labyrinth has only one way in and one way out," Mila said. "And one way to reach the center. It's not meant to be difficult to navigate."
Perry frowned. "What's the point then?"
"Most labyrinths are ritualistic or spiritually significant," Sienna explained. "So the path may be winding, but there is only one route to the center, or to God. The faithful walk to the middle of the labyrinth to ritually kill Satan in a triumph over death."
"Or the monster at the heart of the labyrinth," Xander noted. "Like the Minotaur, half-bull, half-man who devoured the tribute of young men and women in ancient Crete."
Sienna remembered going with her father to visit Chartres Cathedral one summer years ago, part of a father-daughter field trip to see some of France. But now she wondered what he was really doing there since clearly, he had kept so much about his life a secret.
They had stood in front of the rose labyrinth, set into the flagstones of the nave in the Gothic cathedral. Her father explained that pilgrims had walked this labyrinth for a thousand years. The site had originally been dedicated to a fertility goddess and the Church built upon it to honor the Virgin Mary, who gave birth to a god who would save mankind. Perhaps the obsession of the Shadow Cartographers stemmed from this myth, the birth of a powerful Mapwalker who would enable them to reshape the border.
"So what about a maze?" Perry asked. "Is it just more complicated?"
"There are multiple ways in and out, dead ends and choices where you might end up trapped." Mila looked at the map again. "I think where we're going is a labyrinth, so it should be simple enough."
Finn turned at her words. "My father has sent people here before. Two commanders who betrayed him were given the choice of the fire sacrifice or the labyrinth. They chose this way, but they never returned."
They walked on in silence. The sun rose higher in the sky, and the mist burned off. Before them, a vast wall of bright green stretched across the horizon.
"More jungle?" Mila asked. "Have we come the wrong way?"
Finn shook his head. "Look at the height. It's exactly the same all the way across. It has to be a man-made barrier."
They walked on and soon they could see a giant hedge rising above them with thick, impenetrable foliage stretching as far as the eye could see in either direction. Branches and leaves intertwined in layers, so it would take an age to hack their way through. Each branch had hooked thorns, like a barbed wire fence preventing anyone from passing.
Finn looked along the hedge in both directions. "I can't see where an entrance might be. Is it marked on your map, Mila?"
As they bent over to examine it, Sienna walked up close to the hedge. There was not a leaf out of place, and the top of it was neatly trimmed. She tried to imagine whose job it might be to keep it so pristine, but then again, things worked differently over here. It smelled of the wild highlands and native herbs but underneath, an animal note of musk.
There was something, perhaps someone, alive inside.
18
Sienna raised her hand and pressed it against the hedge, feeling the prickle of branches against her palm. Suddenly, she felt a pulse of energy from within the labyrinth, something pulling her forward.
Blood answering to blood.
This had to be the right direction. She pressed her palm more firmly and felt the prick of a thorn pierce her skin. She pulled her hand away sharply to see a trickle of blood running down the center.
But where the drop of ruby liquid touched them, the branches started unraveling, twisting away from each other with a creaking and rustling sound, opening up a hole in the wall. The others turned to watch as the space grew until there was an arch big enough for them to walk through in single file.
"If in doubt, bleed on it." Xander raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, rubbing at the tiny wound in her palm.
Finn stepped through the thick tangle of branches fir
st, his sword raised, eyes darting to either side as he scouted for danger. He nodded back to them, and the others followed him inside. The animal smell was almost overpowering.
"Careful now," he whispered. "There's something here. Keep your voices low." He looked at Sienna. "Which way?"
She glanced in either direction. Both ways were exactly the same, long corridors of green with towering hedges boxing both sides. How was she supposed to decide?
Her palm throbbed. Mila's words echoed back to her, about how each use of blood magic let a little shadow inside to take its place. But the minutes ticked by and she couldn't think of any other way, so she placed her palm against the hedge directly in front of the entrance they had made. Perhaps the maze itself would lead the way.
Once again, the branches untwisted, opening a space into the next corridor. But this time, the sound of breaking branches and a soft huffing noise came from beyond.
Xander poked his head around the corner before anyone could stop him and then ducked back quickly, his eyes bright with excitement. "Gigantopithecus," he whispered. "A giant ape. Extinct on Earth-side but this one looks like drawings I've seen."
Sienna walked into the gap in the hedge and peered around the side, Finn close behind her.
A giant ape stood on its hind legs picking off foliage from the top of the hedge, displaying its full height of over ten feet. Its meaty hands were the size of giant baseball mitts and its thigh muscles the width of tree trunks. It grabbed a handful of leaves and put them in its mouth, chewing as it dropped back onto its knuckles. Then it looked in their direction. Sienna felt a jolt of adrenalin as it met her eyes.
"Look down," Finn breathed. "Back away slowly."
They edged their way back into the branches as the ape lumbered along the corridor towards them, the thump of its great fists shaking the earth. Sienna's mind raced as she considered how in hell she was meant to shut the opening she had made. Her blood opened a path, but she couldn't take it back.
