Kiya and the God of Chaos

by Philippa Bower

  Chapter Sixty Six: The Maze

  The next morning Vitane was crying again.

  “Cheer up,” said Kiya as she woke to the sound of sobs.

  “Father did not come and rescue us,” wailed Vitane, “and now it is too late.”

  “Then we must be as brave as possible,” said Kiya.

  “I don’t want to be brave,” wept Vitane. “I want to be saved.”

  She was sitting on the side of the bed with her head in her hands. Kiya went over and sat beside her.

  “Don’t cry, Vitane.” She rubbed the girl’s shoulders comfortingly. “All mortals have to die sometime. We cannot dictate how we will leave this life, but we can choose the manner of our passing. You want your father to be proud of you?” Vitane nodded. “Then die bravely and with dignity.”

  “I will try,” said Vitane and stopped sobbing.

  “Together we can get through the maze and then we will give them the best bull dance they have ever seen. How do you do it, by the way?”

  “You wait until the bull charges, then you run towards it and jump as high as you can. The speed of the bull should make it pass under you.”

  “Is that all? I thought you were meant to somersault over its horns,” said Kiya.

  Despite her distress, Vitane managed a smile. “Oh no, only professional dancers do that – it’s going to be hard enough for us to do the jumping. Remember to keep to the middle of the arena so the bull charges with enough speed. If it runs too slowly you may land on its back.”

  There was a knock on the door and the guard entered with a tray. “Good morning ladies,” he said and put the tray on the table. “Here is your breakfast. How are you feeling, Princess?”

  Vitane’s face bore traces of tears but she smiled at him bravely. “Well, thank you, Duripi. Will you be watching the ceremony?”

  He looked embarrassed and said. “I usually do.”

  “Then Kiya and I will make you proud of us,” she said.

  “I am proud of you already,” Duripi said and left the room with a bow.

  “What a nice man,” said Kiya as she helped herself to porridge. There was a dish of spiced pears on the tray. Vitane added some to her porridge and so Kiya did the same. The combination was pleasant enough but Kiya yearned for the honeyed porridge she had at home.

  After breakfast, they were taken to the wash room and then back to their cell for the long wait before they were summoned to the ceremony. Kiya learned about Vitane’s childhood in the palace of Phaistos. How she swam with the smiling fish and played on the beach with her many brothers and sisters. It was an idyllic life and as Vitane spoke her eyes shone and she became happy with her memories.

  Kiya let her friend prattle on, knowing that reliving her life was a distraction from the challenge that lay before them. She must have heard about Vitane’s collection of seashells three times before there was a knock on the door.

  “It is time to go,” said the guard, Duripi.

  He led them down the corridor and then along several more. Vitane slid an arm around Kiya’s waist and leant against her as they walked. Kiya could feel her tremble and returned her embrace. They stopped in front of a decorated wall.

  “We will wait here for the others,” said Duripi.

  Kiya looked at the wall. Painted on it was a strange design resembling half a wheel. A complex pattern of lines and squares ran around the border of the semicircle but the inside, where the axle of a wheel might be, was blank. Kiya realised that she was looking at a map of the maze. Had Duripi led them here so they could see it? She glanced at the guard, but he was looking in another direction.

  Kiya returned to the map. There a single entrance to the maze, but multiple exits into the central arena. She tried to remember a way through the interlacing corridors and little rooms. She could see that the rooms were traps. Once in, there was no way out except though the entry point. They must stick to the corridors and always try to head in the direction of the arena.

  Kiya looked at her friend, but Vitane had not recognised the significance of the wall decoration and was gazing down the corridor. “Here come the others,” she said.

  Four girls were walking towards them accompanied by guards. One was a tall, blonde Aegean-looking girl, another was a Hittite with dark eyes and a long nose. The other two looked Egyptian and, when Kiya spoke to them, they confirmed that they had been captured from Gesem.

  There was no time for further conversation as they were escorted down the corridor and stopped at a great barred gateway beyond which they could hear the roar of a crowd.

  “Good luck,” said Duripi.

  The gates were swung open, the girls were pushed through and the gates clanged shut behind them.

  Kiya blinked in the brilliant sunshine and saw that they were standing in an anteroom from which led many corridors. There was no roof - the entire maze was open to the sky. Dark shadows inside the corridors made it difficult to see what might be lurking. Kiya lifted her head to smell the ka of the Minotaur. The rank aroma of silage wafted down one of the corridors. He was coming their way.

  “Run,” she shouted. She hitched up her shift, grabbed Vitane’s hand, and raced down another corridor. The crowd roared. Kiya looked up and saw a multitude of people sitting in tiers upon the terrace above her.

  “Let us hide in here,” said Vitane, pointing to a little room.

  “No, we must keep running,” said Kiya.

  They came to an intersection and Kiya hesitated, which way to go? She looked behind her, but there was nobody there. She thought the other girls would follow her and wondered where they had gone. She did not have to wonder long. There was a scream of blood-curdling terror and the crowd rose to its feet cheering. The Minotaur had claimed its first victim.

  Kiya desperately tried to remember the diagram of the maze. The only way out was to reach the central arena but which of the two corridors led in the right direction? She chose one but soon realised that she had chosen badly. The corridor turned two corners, and they were heading back in the direction they had come. Ahead of them lay a T-junction. Kiya caught a whiff of silage and held out her hand to stop Vitane.

  “Shhh,” Kiya cautioned her friend to silence and pulled her back into the shadow of the wall. A figure stalked past the entrance of their corridor. It was the Minotaur. He stared straight ahead, his eyes fixed on something beyond their view.

  The monster’s powerful body was that of a man but he moved with a strange, mincing gate, like an animal forced to walk upon its hind legs. His bull head had no neck but merged with muscular shoulders, so he appeared hunched.

  “Wait here,” Kiya whispered to Vitane.

  The girl looked at her with frightened eyes. “Why? Where are you going?”

  “I am going to try to talk with him,” said Kiya and hurried towards the junction.

  “No! Don’t leave me!” Vitane cried, but she made no attempt to follow.

  Kiya looked in the direction the Minotaur had gone and saw that the corridor ended in a wall, where the path took a right angle. One of the Egyptian girls stood, pressed against the wall, and stared at the approaching Minotaur, her eyes round and her jaw slack with terror.

  “Hey!” shouted Kiya. The Minotaur stopped. Above their heads the crowd became silent. “I am Kiya. I think you must be one of the immortals.”

  Slowly the Minotaur turned and faced her. Kiya stared at him, horrified to see that he hefted a huge, double-headed axe.

  “Er, I’m a friend of Hathor. You might know her. She is part cow. I am sure she would love to meet you.”

  The Minotaur stared at her without a glimmer of understanding and Kiya realised that he was devoid of humanity. Behind him the girl did not try to escape but slumped down against the wall, half-fainting in her fear.

  “Run,” Kiya called out to her. The Minotaur roared, revealing the teeth of a carnivore, but still he hesitated, his meagre brain unable to decide which girl to pursue.

  “Would you like to go back to the
gold mine in Nubia?” asked Kiya in one last desperate attempt to connect with him. “I’m sure your friends are missing you.”

  The Minotaur roared again and this time he raised his axe and took a step towards her. Kiya turned and fled.

  As she passed Vitane she grabbed her hand and pulled the terrified girl after her. The Minotaur did not follow. He must have returned to his original prey for seconds later they heard the crunch of an axe hitting a skull. The crowd roared with excitement and Kiya knew the Minotaur had claimed his second victim.