A small, silent and mutual regard teased out between the two of them then, but it twisted upon itself and became uncomfortable. Caewen felt self-conscious. She looked away, down at her feet, at the wet, dewy grass and the places where the night’s spiderwebs lay like jewelled nets over it. When she had gathered her thoughts sufficiently to meet Samarkarantha in the eye, she did, briefly, and found that he had not broken off his gaze. He was looking at her levelly, as if trying to study the details of her face, jaw, neck. Now squirming with discomfit, she coughed and waved to Keri and Keru. “Hey there. Shouldn’t we be going?”
They stopped trying to give each other welts for long enough to turn to her. Keru was clearly still slow and uneasy on his feet after the poisoning and yesterday’s close call. Although the bruises didn’t show strongly against his nut brown skin, there were still quite a few purplish lines visible against the dark tan of his bare chest and arms. Caewen wasn’t sure if the bruising was from yesterday’s dealings with the wurum or today’s dealing with sparring. His sister looked comparatively unscathed. Even as Keru replied, full-voiced, “Finally! Yes. Let’s go!”, a sweep of his sister’s short spear caught him on the back leg and clipped him neatly into a fall that landed him rump-in-mud. “Ow. That was not fair,” he muttered.
“All is fair in battle, little brother.” She shook her head, and placed a hand on hip, frowning at him. “You are too distractible. Keep your mind on your opponent, or you will end up with a knife in the gut or an axe in the skull. Get it?”
“Yeah, if you say.”
When she reached down to help him up, he made a quick jolt of a movement and tried to pull her into the wet grass. She was too quick, stepping lithe to one side, and he was back in the mud again. Instead of being offended he laughed, raucously, loud and long.
With a shake of the head, Keri muttered, “Well, at least you’ve a good humour about your repeated comeuppance from your big sister. Caewen’s right though. We should be going.”
He got himself up to his feet. “Sounds good to me. Better than another hiding from you.”
“Will you come too?” Caewen asked Samarkaratha. “We could both use the moral support I expect.”
“No. I have other matters to attend to. Pel is already out in the market making inquiries on my behalf. She will be back soon and we will have things to discuss. Go with grace and good fortune, Lady Caewen, and you too young warriors Keri and Keru. Peace be upon you, and peace go with you.”
“Thank you,” said Caewen, rising. “I hope it is, and it does.”
-oOo-
Keri led them to the maze entrance by memory, with only a couple digressions up the wrong slope, or down some blind laneway of tents. She strode half a pace out in front, animatedly talking about what she remembered of the labyrinth. Evidentially, there was no rule against describing the maze, as remembered, although Keri hedged her advice. “But keep in mind that everyone remembers it differently. The maze changes and twists on itself. In some places, the air is so thick with magic, it almost sparkles. You can feel it like a thrumming on the skin. The ground shifts as you walk. The pathways are inconstant… mutable.”
Caewen arranged questions in her head and brought them to bear, one after another. “Keri, did you meet anything in the maze? Are there… I don’t know… creatures? Spirits? Are we likely to run into other people walking the maze? Does everyone go in at once?”
It was actually Keru who gave the first response. He and his sister had clearly gone over this many times, and he spoke with an assumed, half-casual authority. “They send you in one at a time. I don’t know about creatures though. There are stories of visions and things, but not anything like, well you know, a boggart or a wurum” He glanced over at his sister. “You never saw anything like that did you?”
“No.” Keri shrugged. “Some people do tell stories about phantoms in the ways. But maybe that’s just tricks of the eye. Or harmless illusions? Or lies and boasts?” A shrug. “I didn’t see anything besides endless grey walls.” After a moment, she did add, stretching out her words, “I guess I should say… I did hear things. Voices in the walls. Far off singing, the words not altogether human. But the voices never grew loud, never drew close, and I didn’t go looking for them.” As if remembering her brother, she added, “And Keru, if you are thinking about chasing phantom voices: do not. I know you’d think it would be a bit of fun, but the maze is not a child’s plaything. Just walk the paths, find a way out, leave. Don’t linger or tempt the maze to act against you.”
“Dull,” said Keru.
“And that’s all there is to it?” Caewen thought this over. It didn’t sound so terrible, but walkers in the maze did go missing. So there had to be something more threatening that voices and rumours. “Really, Keri, that can’t be all there is to it. People vanish in there.”