Page 52 of A Tribute of Fire

“Let me do your braids,” she said. This was not only because our hair had become so dirty, but we had planned to put it up as a safety precaution.

I sat down on the floor in front of her while she rummaged through her pack. While I had made sure to bring weapons, bribes, and food, Quynh had brought a comb and hairpins.

Now I was glad for it—our long hair would put us at a disadvantage as we ran. It would be too easy to grab and yank. We’d decided yesterday to create braids that we would pin against our scalps so that we wouldn’t be offering any kind of loop for anyone to hold on to.

“We will stay in the shadows,” I told her. “If we get a chance to steal some cloaks or change our clothing, we will do it.”

I hadn’t accounted for having to wear something that would make us easier targets.

But instead of agreeing or saying anything in response, Quynh began humming a tune I hadn’t heard in years. It was one my mother had sung to us when we were little, about how we had no reason to fear the dark, that we were safe, that she would watch over us.

We were no longer safe.

My mother wasn’t here to watch over us.

And we had every reason to fear the dark.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The captain had personally come down to escort us from our cell, asking us to join him above. Given the two armed guards behind him, I understood that it was not a request. Quynh and I held hands as we walked up the stairs until we reached the top deck.

We were taken to a spot at the front of the ship. TheNikoshad just entered the Troas Harbor. There were so many ships—hundreds. All carrying precious cargo to trade.

Quynh and I were being shown off as the rarest of cargo.

And we captured the attention of every ship and boat we passed on our way in.

The city of Troas came into view and I realized two things simultaneously.

First, we were headed for the docks. I had assumed that the trierarch would let down the anchor and we would wait for nightfall, arriving at the docks then.

The second and even more alarming one was that my map was wrong. I had so carefully constructed it, but it had either been full of lies or mistakes. I thought of all the bribes I’d paid to sailors and traders, and how I had been led completely astray.

The temple of the goddess was supposed to be in the center of the maze, but there was no center.

My confidence evaporated and was replaced by a crushing terror that made it so I couldn’t breathe.

I knew that I couldn’t let myself give in to the absolute panic I was feeling. Nothing that I’d planned for or had anticipated was happening.

We would be running and I would have no idea which way to go.

There was at least one thing I might be able to control. I whirled to face the captain. “We are supposed to arrive at nighttime.”

He sounded sympathetic. “The people won’t wait. They will row out to the harbor and claim you here if we try. We should have arrived last night but were delayed because of the pirate attack.”

We needed the darkness and shadows as cover.

Quynh had been vomiting all morning and now I was the one fighting off the desire to throw up last night’s feast over the side of the ship.

We were going to die.

It seemed totally inevitable.

The city was massive, bigger than any I’d ever seen. It spread out in front of us, as if to mock me and my plans. The palace was at the farthest point and there was nothing beyond it. It stood on a hill, above the rest of the city, encircled by labyrinth walls, with cliffs on the far side.

But that was the only identifiable building. The labyrinth walls were sand-colored, narrow, and intertwined. And there were large openings crammed full of buildings. Hundreds of pockets interspersed throughout the maze. The temple of the goddess could have been in any one of them.

I saw only tiled and flat roofs everywhere I searched. How would I ever locate it?

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