Page 179 of Quicksilver

“Why have we stopped?” Carrion shrieked.

“The walls keep shifting,” I bit out. “Which means the path keeps changing. I need to make sure we're going the right way, but ifyouwant to take the lead, then be my guest.”

The thief held up his hands. “You're right. I apologize. I'm just a little on edge right now. I'm not my best self.”

I shut him out, trying to make the decision. It was a simple choice: left, right, or straight. The passageways seemed to stretch forever into the distance, and my nerves got the better of me.

What happens if we stumble into one of those other enclosures?I asked Fisher in private.

Very bad things,he replied.But don't overthink it, Saeris. You can do this. Just focus on getting us to the center of the labyrinth. If we run into any other problems on the way, we'll handle it.

‘Very bad things’ wasn't what I'd wanted to hear, but I took a deep breath and plunged forward. “It's this way.” We went right. Four seconds later, the walls started moving, the obsidian scraping as it cut off the passage ahead of us.

“Damn it.” I took the next left, following the tugging in the pit of my stomach, and no sooner had we done that, the walls changed again, faster this time, sliding across the path in front of us like a doorway being closed.

“It's never done that before,” Fisher said. “Malcolm's trying to block our way, which means we're on the right path. Keep going, Saeris.”

And as we picked up speed, so did the moving walls. They started slamming in front of us, barring our way, but it was as if there was a thread, connecting me to the quicksilver, drawing me toward it, and every time the thread was cut, a new one formed, showing me a different way. My heart was a hammer, pounding against my ribs. It quit beating when Fisher caught me by the shirt collar, pulling me back just in time to prevent me from being crushed by a huge slab of obsidian, but there was no time to stop and let the adrenalin pass.

“We're getting close,” Fisher said, gulping down a breath. “I can tell by the collapsed...stand there.” He pointed up into the walls of the amphitheater, which were still visible over the topsof the labyrinth walls. Where he pointed, one of the sections of the stands had, indeed, collapsed. “It isn't much...further.”

The quicksilver was louder in my head, too. Every time we hurled ourselves around a corner and sprinted for the next, I felt the thread connecting me to it strengthening. It wouldn't be much further now. Only a couple more turns.

“Left! No,right!”

All four of us pushed harder. The quicksilver wasn't chanting along with the crowd anymore. It was whispering, its interest piqued.She comes. She comes. This way, Alchemist. Come and find us.

“Right!”

Glittering black obsidian blocked our way.

“Right again!”

We barreled around another corner, my feet slipping on the slick floor, and then...

“Ooof!”I hit the ground hard. Ground that was no longer black glass but something silver and cold. I cried out a second time as a heavy weight crashed down on me, and then Carrion landed next to me.

“Sorry,” he groaned.

My ribs were already broken, I was sure of that. I'd hit that water so hard that it was a miracle the impact hadn't liquified my insides. I should have been screaming in agony, but the Widow’s Bane was still in effect and cycling through my system, thank the gods.

Fisher's justice rune filled my vision. I took the hand he offered me and let him help me up. I didn't notice his grim expression right away. I was too shocked by the mountain of coins that loomed before us. Because that's what we had landed on.Coins.

They were tiny, the size of my thumbnail. Brilliant silver, they flashed like fish scales. In steep hills that resembled sanddunes, they filled the center of the labyrinth. There must have been millions of them.

This was the hell that Fisher had faced when he'd finally reached the center of the labyrinth. For eight years, he'd existed here, trying to find the specific coin that Belikon had flipped in their bet. It was no wonder he hadn't found it. His dark hair blew on a cold wind as he surveyed the place, his expression complicated.

“So many years, trapped here, Brother. Where did you sleep?” Lorreth whispered. “What did you eat? How did yousurvive?”

Fisher hung his head. Now that he could talk about this place and everything that had happened here, he didn't seem to know how to. He opened his mouth and took a deep, grounding breath. “I—”

“He didn't, did you, my love?” The voice bounced off the walls, come from every direction. A section of one of the closest dunes started to slide, coins rattling and crashing as they tumbled down to the ground. Malcolm's head appeared over the top of the pile first, then his shoulders, and then the rest of him as he summited the stack. He smiled benevolently down at us like a father, proud of his children's accomplishments.

“I may be a vampire, but I was once Fae. The magic I was born with still sings a dark chorus in my veins. I used it to craft this place especially for our Kingfisher so that he wouldn't be plagued with such tiresome requirements as rest and sustenance. So long as he remained within the bounds of my playground, he needed neither. Thoughtful of me, no?”

“More than a century, enduring this shithole without even the escape of sleep as a reprieve? Yeah, very thoughtful,” Lorreth snapped.

Malcolm chuckled humorlessly under his breath. “Oh, but I could have made it so much worse. You have no idea, Lorrethof the Broken Spire. Even now, I could have made your journey here infinitely more horrific. I actually thought Morthil had your little group for a second there. I'm pleased that you made it, though. We were getting a little bored.”