The Nadir of the Labyrinth

by Christopher DeRosa

Table of Contents

Part 7: The Nadir

conclusion

“So there. Now you know,” Sophia said as she finished her story. Her tears had stopped. “I needed to hate you; what else could I do?” her eyes were fixed on the stone floor, hands balled into fists.

“We’ve all lost someone dear to us,” I said.

“I see their faces whenever I close my eyes.” She looked up at me and met my eyes for the first time.

“Aye, it is hard to go on. Sometimes it can’t be done,” Adrian grumbled. Penelope was silent, she still turned the glowing gem over in her hands.

“I’m glad you told me, though, and I still intend to get us out of here. All of us,” I looked around, but Adrian’s and Penelope’s eyes were downcast.

“Hopefully, we’ll find the source of the stream soon,” said Penelope.

“And I still want another shot at that thing,” Adrian mumbled. I couldn’t refute him. I knew that somewhere below us, Andreas waited, suffering as he had for the past ten long years. I felt responsible still, unabsolved of any sins despite the words of my friends. I had to confront my past, here at the bottom of the world where the River Styx flows.

We slept in the corridor of light. It was hard to fall asleep with the light of the place, but at least the glow kept the walls from creeping closer in the night. This time, when I awoke, it was without panic. We gathered ourselves and continued to follow the stream which was now only a vague trickle. The caves beyond the glowing stones grew narrower and tighter, though in the distance, we began to hear the sound of rushing water. After a sharp bend, the tunnel opened into a deep basin in the ground.

Penelope dimmed her magelight and gasped at the sight before us. Bones were strewn across the basin, skulls grinned from the ground and ribs jutted up like teeth. At the bottom of the basin ran a river, fast enough to paint the tips of the waves with foam. Droplets of water, caught by the magic of the place floated upwards into a veritable lake formed on the roof of the basin. It flowed in thin, glimmering streams out the many tunnels around the room.

This was the bottom of the mountain, the lowest point where the weight of everything bore down on us. I could not tell if the river would indeed carry us out of the mountain or if we had instead found a bank of the Styx, which would carry us deeper into the underworld.

Last of all, I saw him. Andreas was there. No horns or hooves, but a man as I had known him. He sat naked on a rock, and drank water from the stream with his cupped hands.

Beside me, I felt Adrian tense. He unwrapped his father’s rusted dagger from its cloth sheath and a voice in my mind pleaded with him not to hurt my Andreas. Adrian took a step forward, and the sound echoed around the basin.

“Are you mad?” Penelope hissed, and Sophia hid behind her. At the sound, Andreas changed. His head whipped around, his eyes glowed red, face contorted in rage. From his head erupted a crown of horns, gnarled like a bull’s. He shrieked, the sound at once reminiscent of the roar of a beast and a desperate sob. He ran towards us on cloven feet, thick, matted hair now lined his body.

Adrian leapt to meet the onrushing mass of horns and hooves. The horns caught him in the gut and sent a wave of crimson up towards the ceiling like a startled flock of cardinals. I heard Adrian yell as, even while impaled on the horns, he swung his father’s blade down, and buried it between the ribs of my beloved. Both beasts screamed as they went down, sprawled on the stone.

Penelope tugged at my arm and then the three of us were running, around and down another slope. We put a jagged row of stalagmites between us and Andreas. There was a roar, and the sound of cloven feet against the ground followed by a horrible squelching. We were close to the river now as the thing bore down on us. Andreas was more bull than man now, the tatters of Adrian still dangled in a gory mess from his horns. The river was close, the spray stung our faces with freezing water.

Penelope tripped, a rib lurched from the boneyard, ensnared her ankle. She went down without noise, and then Andreas was on her. He tore at her with teeth far too sharp for a bull. Sophia screamed, halfway between a shriek and a sob. Andreas bit down hard and another flock of scarlet birds took flight. Penelope, nearly rent in two, raised the glowing gem. The blood that swirled around them ignited in magefire as it flew.

Andreas lurched back, his fur singed, he yelled like an animal shocked by a bolt of lightning. The light dimmed in his eyes, and I threw myself at him. Sophia yelled something behind me, but I couldn’t hear. The bull reared back, it grunted and kicked at the flaming blood that floated up around it and ignited it. He became a flaming effigy like those that the priests sacrifice to the gods at harvest time. Flames tore across his body, and a rain of burning blood streaked towards the top of the cavern.

I ran to him and Andreas looked up at me. His face was no longer that of a bull but a man, his feral body shrunk even as new horns bristled from his head. I threw my arms around his neck, and we tumbled into the scattered bones.

I heard him gasp and felt his body heave as something jabbed into him from behind. Ribs now protruding slightly from the front of his chest were streaked with blood, which danced towards the firmament, lapped at my cheeks. His body was burnt, charred, and Adrian’s knife stuck gruesomely from his side, but he was my Andreas again. His eyes were blue once more.

“Elena?” he rasped. A trickle of blood floated from his open mouth.

“Andreas.” I sobbed, and tears welled up from deep within me. I hugged him deeply, held his ravaged body against mine.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

I pulled back and stared at him. “What?”

“I tried to hurt you.” His voice grew softer, it fluttered away with his lifeblood.

“No! No! I should be sorry! I did this to you!” I was sobbing despairingly now, and my tears mingled with blood in the air above us.

“No, you didn’t. I’m just glad I was able to see you again.” He smiled, his face smeared with blood, the light in his eyes dimmed, Andreas smiled. He died as the ghost of that smile still shone on his face.

I lay there, unable to move. Tears rolled up my cheeks. Everything hurt. It was done now, he was free. His curse gone. But I could not stand. I knew I would lie there and starve amongst all those other bones. The bones of Adrian and Penelope and...

“Elena?” Sophia knelt down next to me. “Please, are you all right?” Her face was streaked with worry.

Slowly, I pushed myself up to look at her. “I’m... I’m not hurt,” I said, though I could hardly tear my eyes away from Andreas.

Sophia hugged me, pulled me close. “They’re dead, Penelope and Adrian. I thought you were, too, Elena.” Her voice was wracked with pain.

It brought me back, pulled me up out of myself. They were gone, both of them. I hugged Sophia back and we stayed there a moment, both too overwrought to move. “We should say some words for them,” I managed to say at last.

“We don’t even have any coins so they can pay the ferryman,” Sophia said.

“They’ll find their way across. I wish they could leave here with us.” I choked on the last words. “We wouldn’t have lived without them. We owe it to their memories to try to escape.”

Sophia nodded. “When we get out, we need to make gravestones and bury coins for them, and for the silent one, too.”

I nodded in agreement, and we turned towards the river that ran wide and deep and fast through the basin.

“This will take us out?” Sophia asked as we waded into the freezing water.

“Yes, it will,” I said.

“Even if we get out, where will we go? We can’t go back to Knossos.” Sophia stopped, ankle-deep in the water, and looked up at me.

“We can leave to find another kingdom,” I said as I held her hand tight. “We’ll build a raft. There are other places we can go. But the important thing is that we have to live now.

“Now close your eyes, hold your breath and don’t let go of me.” I hugged her close as we stepped into the current and were swept away, out of the Underworld.

Copyright © 2022 by Christopher DeRosa

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