Secret of the Labyrinth (The Temple of the Blind #5)

by Brian Harmon

  “I feel strange,” Albert said.

  “Yeah.” Brandy looked back at Nicole, her brow furrowed in curious contemplation. “Strange.”

  “Sort of…” Albert was not sure how to put it.

  “Alone,” Brandy said at last.

  “Yeah.” That was the word Albert had been looking for. “I feel very alone.”

  “What does it mean?” Nicole asked.

  Albert shrugged. Once again, he had no idea.

  They started walking again. Nicole’s thoughts were now scattered. She had not felt a thing, but then again, she was not psychic like her friends apparently were. She considered what they told her about feeling very alone. Somehow that was extremely unsettling to her.

  Chapter 39

  Olivia felt it too, that deep, odd sense that she had suddenly been abandoned, as though something that had been with her, or perhaps inside her, was suddenly gone. She stared down at the floor, feeling somehow more vulnerable than before. She was suddenly and inexplicably sad.

  Neither Wayne nor Andrea seemed to feel it. They both walked on in front of her, both of them looking straight into the darkness ahead of them. They appeared tired and a little apprehensive, but not at all distracted from the yellow line on the wall.

  Perhaps it was nothing. Perhaps it was just some kind of mood swing, brought on by her weariness and the stress of these past two days. But her thoughts drifted back to the Sentinel Queen and the sad, weary song that she sang over her dying son…

  They were approaching the end of the passage and some sort of chamber.

  Wayne felt tense as they emerged into the open darkness. He expected to find more hounds, but instead he found himself looking out over some kind of artificial lake.

  “Where are we?” Andrea asked.

  Wayne’s first thought was of the fountain where he, Albert, Brandy and Nicole first encountered the Sentinel Queen. This was likely a part of whatever served as plumbing here inside the Temple of the Blind.

  Something splashed into the water nearby and the three of them froze.

  “There’s something in here!” Olivia whispered.

  “This place just keeps getting better,” Wayne groaned.

  There was another splash, this one from a much greater distance, perhaps from the other side of the room.

  Wayne glanced at the wall, at Albert’s yellow line, and cautiously began to move in that direction.

  Another splash. Then another.

  He could be wrong, but Wayne did not think that a single creature was making all this noise. There seemed to be many of them.

  If only he could light up the entire chamber somehow. What would he see?

  “What do we do?” Andrea asked.

  “We keep moving,” Wayne decided, shining his light onto the wall and the chalk line that was drawn there. “That’s why we’re here.”

  As long as that line was still visible, he could remain confident that the others had managed to pass through here safely. Given that, there was no reason to jump to the conclusion that they were in any immediate danger.

  Keeping as close to the wall and as far from the water as possible, the three of them hurriedly followed the line deeper into the room. More splashing rose from the water’s edge as something struck the surface ahead of them again and again. But nothing approached them. Nothing attacked them.

  Albert’s line went past one passage after another, not bothering to flee from this chamber, which reinforced Wayne’s hypothesis that Albert hadn’t felt overly threatened when he was here.

  Wayne wished he had some way of communicating with Albert. He’d give anything to know what he had learned about this place.

  “I can’t see them,” Andrea whispered. “What are they?”

  “Who knows,” Wayne replied. “But they’re running away from us.” Just like Albert, he was reminded of frogs leaping into a pond well ahead of approaching feet. Whatever was in here with them, they appeared to be shy. And that was always a good thing.

  “You think they’ll leave us alone?”

  “They might,” replied Wayne. “Let’s try not to get too close.”

  A stone bridge appeared from the darkness and led out over the water. As soon as they were abreast of it, Albert’s yellow line abruptly ended.

  “Where’d it go?” Andrea asked. She shined her flashlight around, frightened. In her mind’s eye, she could see something lunging out of the water and snatching Albert away, chalk and all.

  “Relax,” Wayne assured her. “They probably crossed the bridge. I’m sure the yellow line continues on the other side.”

  But Andrea found it hard to relax. She looked out over the shadowy water and wondered what unthinkable horrors could dwell deep down in the depths.

  “Come on,” Wayne said and started toward the bridge. “Let’s see what’s over there.”

  Chapter 40

  Almost an hour had passed since Albert, Brandy and Nicole left the reservoir and fled the unseen stalker. In that time, they had not heard a single hound. Nor did they return to their territory. In fact, they saw nothing but empty passageways stretching on and on into the darkness. They had not even seen their own chalk line in a long time. It was difficult to tell if they were gaining ground or losing it.

  What they had found was more hills. Currently, they were descending, sinking deeper and deeper into the earth. They had no way of gauging how high or low they were, but Albert thought the hill must have taken them down at least four or five stories before finally leveling out. It was about halfway down this hill that the blue chalk ran out and Albert switched to purple.

  That was another four sticks gone. He hoped the rest of the chalk lasted long enough for them to reach the exit.

  At the bottom of the hill, the tunnel merged with two others, all three joining into a single path, and the tunnel he chose led to yet another steep descent, taking them even lower into the labyrinth. There were no intersections, but unlike the other hills, this one began to turn as they descended, twisting to the right, so that they were spiraling down into the mysterious darkness. When they finally reached the bottom of the hill, the floor leveled off and they were greeted with another six-way intersection.

  He chose the first passage to his left and began to follow it.

  They had taken less than a dozen steps into this newest passage when the Caggo suddenly shrieked somewhere in the labyrinth, its terrible voice freezing them in their tracks.

  It was closer than it was the first time they heard it. Albert tried to tell which direction it was coming from, but it was impossible to tell in these twisting corridors.

  Brandy and Nicole had each grabbed onto Albert’s arms when the shriek began, and they clung to him long after it had quieted.

  “God, I hate that,” Albert growled when he was able to catch his breath again. He wasn’t sure how many more of those his poor heart could take.

  “I really hope we find the way out soon,” Nicole whimpered. “I really don’t want to meet that thing.”

  “Definitely,” agreed Brandy.

  They pushed on, past one intersection and then another. He glanced down each of these other tunnels as they passed and in the second he spied a yellow line leading away into the darkness. They had crossed their own path again. And an old line, at that.

  Hours ago, they had crossed that same intersection. He could have chosen to turn right instead of left, and he would have been in the same place he was now, after all the walking they had done.

  The thought was terribly discouraging.

  The tunnel forked ahead of them and Albert chose left as the Caggo’s shriek filled the labyrinth once again, its voice seeming to drift right through the solid stone and into their very souls.

  Chapter 41

  Wayne stood frozen in the empty corridor as Olivia clung to his arm and Andrea forced down the scream that was struggling up from inside her.

  “What the living hell was that?” Wayne stammered as the still silence of the labyrinth ret
urned. The first time they heard it, they had been startled, frightened so badly they had been unable to push forward for a moment. It had sounded almost human, and Wayne was almost sick with the fear that it had been the voice of a woman, either Brandy or Nicole, suffering some unimaginable fate elsewhere in the tunnels, but this time he was certain that it was not them. No amount of pain or terror could make a human being sound like that.

  “I’m scared, guys,” Andrea said. She was scanning the tunnel behind them, half expecting the thing that had made the noise to come barreling out of the shadows after them.

  “It’d probably be weird if you weren’t,” Wayne said, starting forward again. “That was terrifying.”

  Olivia followed reluctantly. “How much farther ahead do you think they are?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Wayne confessed. “Probably a long ways.”

  Ahead of them, the passage broke off in three directions. Down one of them, the yellow line had been drawn on both walls, indicating a dead end. That was a little bit closer. And every little bit helped.

  “I don’t like this,” Andrea groaned. She swung her light back and forth, afraid of the darkness on either side of her. “I feel like I’m going to puke.”

  “It’ll be okay,” Olivia assured her. “It can’t be worse than what we’ve already been through.”

  “What you’ve already been through. Not me. If I see a zombie down here I’m going to pee myself.”

  Olivia gave her a reassuring smile. “That’s okay,” she said. “Me too.”

  Andrea giggled in spite of her fear.

  “The zombies weren’t so bad, really,” Wayne said. “They were kind of fragile. It was the horde part that was freaking scary. It was like Dawn of the Dead out there.”

  Olivia shuddered at the memory. She wouldn’t be surprised if she had nightmares every night for the rest of her life after that experience.

  “You guys are like action heroes now. You know that, right?”

  Wayne laughed. “I don’t really remember it that way. I remember a lot of running and screaming.”

  “That’s right,” agreed Olivia. “I think I cried through the whole thing.”

  “I don’t care,” Andrea said. “I’m just glad you guys are with me.”

  Olivia reached out and squeezed her hand.

  “Let’s just hope we can find Albert before whatever made that noise finds us. If I have to fight another monster, I’d rather there be six of us instead of three.”

  They pushed on, ever deeper into the darkness, their lights swinging back and forth, paranoid that whatever made that dreadful noise would lunge from the shadows at any moment.

  Albert’s yellow line led them left and then right and then right again, the endless passages unfolding from the gloom ahead of them until at last they stepped out of the tunnel and onto a stone bridge. Around them, the same chasm they’d crossed before they reached the lake of mud stretched into a dark oblivion. More bridges crossed over and below them and on each side, each one identical to the next.

  Andrea peered down into the infinite darkness beneath them. This place was so big.

  “It’s enormous,” said Olivia. “Impossible. We’ll never find our way through here.”

  Wayne was staring up at the bridges above him. “I wonder how many times the labyrinth crosses.”

  Olivia understood what he was thinking. “If we stay here long enough, do you think we’ll see the others?”

  “Maybe,” Wayne said, looking out into the impossible darkness. “But we still wouldn’t have any quick way of reaching them. We’d still have to follow the same chalk line to get to them.” And there was also whatever made that scream. He didn’t want to be here in plain sight if that should wander out into this chasm. “We’d be better off to keep moving, keep closing the gap.”

  Olivia nodded. He was right, of course. If they were ever going to catch them, they’d have to keep moving.

  But looking around at the enormity of the Temple of the Blind, it was difficult to believe they would ever find their way out again.

  Chapter 42

  Albert chose right at what felt like the thousandth four-way intersection and led his companions down another steep hill that seemed to go on for half a mile before finally leveling off. A short while later, he finally heard the hounds again.

  “I hate those things,” Brandy grumbled.

  Albert felt a pang in his heart for her. She was scared, and rightly so. The hounds had turned out to be significantly more deadly than he’d ever imagined. And he had a bad feeling about those terrifying shrieks they’d heard. If that was really the voice of the Caggo, and there was no reason to doubt that it was, what was the purpose of those shrieks? Was it a warning? A battle cry of some sort? A simple expression of rage or bloodlust? It wasn’t a very stealthy thing to do, whatever it was. It must have known that such a cry would spook its prey. So why risk frightening them away?

  Something wasn’t right.

  Ahead of them, the passage forked. Albert realized that the noise of the hounds was originating from somewhere down the right corridor. He still felt a strong compulsion to go toward the hounds, and he followed this feeling, hoping it would lead them out of here before the Caggo found them.

  Neither Nicole nor Brandy argued with his decision. At least they had a plan. It was better than turning blindly down one passage after another until they stumbled across either the exit or the Caggo. (More likely it would be the latter.)

  And besides, it wasn’t as if the hounds were an immediate threat. Their sunken passageways kept them safely out of reach. And it didn’t seem likely that this was something that would change.

  The noise grew steadily louder as they walked, and soon they found themselves at another intersection. Again, the hounds were to the right. Albert continued to follow his ears and the noise continued to grow louder.

  Now that he knew what the sound was, he could hardly help associating it with the sound of sharpening knives, making it seem all the more menacing.

  At last, the tunnel ended and they found themselves on a wide ledge overlooking an enormous blackness. The noise of the hounds was coming from somewhere below them in the chamber.

  Albert walked out toward the edge and shined his light down. He could just see the floor directly below them, but nothing more.

  “What is this place?” asked Brandy.

  There was a corner just visible on their right but the rest of the room was lost in the darkness. For all they knew, the room might have been as big as the City of the Blind, literally thousands of feet across the blackness.

  “Let’s see how far this ledge goes,” Albert said, returning to the mouth of the passage they’d just exited and pressing the chalk to the wall again. They went left, keeping the purple line on that side as he had always done, and began to circle the room.

  Another passageway led back into the labyrinth about forty feet beyond the one from which they had entered, and another about forty feet beyond that one. As they walked, they found dozens more. The room was as enormous as any other they had encountered, perhaps even as large as the City of the Blind, Albert thought, though it was impossible to know for sure. It had four corners, but whether it was square or rectangular, none of them could say. It was simply too big and their visibility was far too short to allow any real estimate.

  Below them, the hounds droned on, the noise echoing across the room. There were many more here than there had been in the last room, dozens of them, by the sound of it, and all of them considerably more agitated than the others. It was distracting.

  By the time they came all the way around to their purple line again, Albert had begun to realize that there was something in the middle of the chamber, something big, something significant. He could not see it, but it was there. He could almost feel it.

  “I think we need to get down there,” he said, staring down into the darkness where the hounds made their eerie noise.

  “How?” asked Nicole, peering
over the ledge. It was too far down to jump.

  He pressed the chalk to the wall and began a second line that led to the next passage. “Some of these led down,” he recalled. “Maybe one of them will take us where we need to be.”

  Chapter 43

  Wayne stopped as he approached the next intersection and stared at the walls of the adjoining tunnel. A chalk line had been drawn along the wall, just as before, but this line was purple instead of yellow.

  “What does it mean?” asked Andrea.

  “It means they ran out of the yellow chalk,” replied Olivia.

  Wayne turned and looked right. Facing this way, the blue line was on the left wall. If Albert had remained consistent, this meant that this was the direction they had gone. “It means that this path is fresher than the yellow path. Maybe a lot fresher.”

  “Do you think we’re close?” asked Andrea.

  “I hope so.” Wayne turned and started down this tunnel, his pace quickened. With any luck, they would see flashlight beams before they saw whatever had made that terrible noise.

  Chapter 44

  Albert followed his ears. By the time they had reached the bottom of the slope that led away from the mysterious chamber, the roar of the hounds had diminished into a muffled hum. It was the sound of death, literally the sound of thousands of razor-like blades slashing together, perpetually ready to rend the flesh from his bones at any opportunity, a biological killing machine like nothing he had ever imagined before, but it was also the sound of their escape. The Keeper told them when they first entered the labyrinth that they would know what they were looking for when they saw it, and Albert felt that he had just seen it…although he had actually “seen” very little of anything in the inky darkness of that enormous chamber. It simply felt right somehow.

  When they reached the first intersection, Albert peered down each path with his flashlight, listening. Although it was difficult to tell, it seemed that the roar was a little louder from the left tunnel than from the right.