Sinner by Sara Douglass. Book One of The Wayfarer Redemption

SpikeFeather hurried down the street indicated. Now that he knew what was happening he did not hesitate. He felt rejuvenated, excited. How much longer before he completed the pattern – the enchantment – that would show him the Maze?

As it turned out, not long. Three more symbols, three more turns, and the enchantment slipped into place.

SpikeFeather walked into a large rectangular stone-flagged market area, an area he had crossed four times already in his quest for the Maze. But this time there was something different. This time almost all the stone flagging had disappeared to make way for a massive set of stairs leading down, down, down.

“Down,” SpikeFeather whispered, and began his descent.

He climbed down the wide, winding stairwell until his legs screamed in protest. This was longer and more arduous than any of the stairwells SpikeFeather had travelled in order to reach the waterways from the Overworld. The incline of the stairwell was deceptively mild, but after hours of travelling and turning, SpikeFeather had learned to curse it.

He stopped, paused, and laughed wryly to himself. What was he doing? Had his years with Orr fuddled him so completely he’d forgotten his wings?

Still smiling ruefully, SpikeFeather spread his almost-forgotten wings and spiralled down the stairwell.

In two turns he came to the end, and he wondered if he’d passed some kind of test.

There was a high corridor, extending perhaps some hundred paces before him. It was lined with columns carved with strange picture symbols that SpikeFeather glanced at but did not pause to investigate. He strode down the corridor, through the archway at its end, and stopped… stunned into complete immobility.

He stood at the lip of yet another staircase, but he could well see where this one led. Before him spread a city – but it was more than a city. It was also a maze. A labyrinth. And it was massive beyond comprehension.

There was a wall, some thirty paces high, that ran about it, but directly before SpikeFeather, at the foot of the staircase, was a gate.

SpikeFeather walked slowly down the stairs. Like everything else associated with this Maze, the gate was huge. It stood twenty paces high, and ten across. It was arched with great blocks of stone guarding twin closed doors of solid wood. There were no handles, no locks. SpikeFeather cautiously laid a hand on one of the doors and pushed.

It did not budge… but the instant that he’d laid his hand on the wood SpikeFeather had felt rather than heard a distant tinkle.

As if glass had broken.

SpikeFeather was no fool, and Orr had taught him well. He knew what that was. These gates had been warded. An enchantment had been laid over them to warn someone if they were touched.

Warn who?

Warn of what?

SpikeFeather spun about, unsure what to do. Should he run? Get out? Should he –

“Well, well. I always thought it would be Caelum who found this Maze,” said a voice, “or at the very least Axis.”

WolfStar SunSoar stepped down from the arch of the corridor. “But, no. It is SpikeFeather TrueSong. The Ferryman’s apprentice. A birdman with no business here at all. What do you do here, birdman?”

The Maze Gate’s Message H >ow did you find this place?” Wolf Star said, walking down the steps.

“The Lake Guard drew me a diagram.”

WolfStar stopped on the last step and raised his eyebrows. “The Lake Guard? But they were ever sworn to secrecy regarding this place.”

“They are afraid that the Grail King stirs.”

“What?”

WolfStar rocked badly enough to make him almost lose his balance. Then, in a movement so fast it was a blur, he was on top of SpikeFeather, a hand buried in the cloth of his tunic, another in SpikeFeather’s hair. ” What?”

“The Grail King in the Maze,” SpikeFeather forced out between teeth clenched in fear. “Qeteb. The Maze. That is all I know.”

Qeteb? he wondered amid his fear. Was that the name of the Grail King? Of whatever was trapped in the Maze?

“And how is it that you know these things, SpikeFeather TrueSong? You are an apprentice Ferryman,” WolfStar spat the phrase with unconcealed disgust, “and not even an Enchanter. You have no right to know these things, nor to be standing before the Maze itself!”

As briefly and as quickly as he could, SpikeFeather told WolfStar of the message – and the terror – Orr had passed across to him.

“I have been looking for Orr as much as the Maze, WolfStar. Do… do you think he might be in there?”

Despite WolfStar’s still fierce grip, SpikeFeather managed to tilt his head slightly towards the Maze.

“In there?” WolfStar let SpikeFeather go and the birdman relaxed. “In the Maze? No, I do not think so. He would not be able to enter. Caelum is the only one who can.”

“Caelum?”

WolfStar ignored the question. “I need to retrieve the memory of the night Orr sent you that message, SpikeFeather. Be still… this will not hurt.”

WolfStar buried his hand in SpikeFeather’s hair again, holding him still. The Enchanter initiated the Song of Recall, faltered, then recovered, and SpikeFeather felt the memory of Orr’s terror and words sear up through his mind.

Strangely, for SpikeFeather had thought WolfStar lied, the enchantment did not pain him in the slightest. The sensation was unusual, but not unpleasant. The memory of Orr’s words and emotions tumbled through his mind, and he could feel WolfStar playing with them, reviewing them from every angle and, SpikeFeather shivered, travelling back down the memory to its source.

To the Star Chamber.

“Stars!” WolfStar cried, and again let SpikeFeather go.

SpikeFeather stumbled, but as he caught his balance WolfStar cried, “Look!”

Before them the grey haze of the vision appeared. In it Orr struggled at the very lip of the Star Gate with Drago SunSoar. Both were shouting, struggling for possession of something wrapped about with an old cloth of strange shifting colours…

WolfStar groaned and sank to his knees. SpikeFeather, dragging his eyes away from the vision for an instant, could not believe the horror on the Enchanter’s face. What was it that so terrified On and WolfStar alike?

“He has the Rainbow Sceptre,” WolfStar mumbled. “That carrion bastard Drago has the Sceptre!”

Orr had his hand about the smooth wood of the rod.

“It speaks to Orr,” WolfStar said tonelessly. “The Sceptre acted as a conduit for the power of the Maze. The Maze was the source of the knowledge and the words, SpikeFeather. Not Orr. Orr knew nothing of this place or what it contained.”

“The Sceptre spoke to -?”

“It must be terrified. Look, see how they struggle! The Sceptre has passed the terror to Orr, and he to you. Oh, mercy! Drago, I should have killed you myself!” WolfStar lowered himself into a crouch, almost as if he thought to spring into the vision itself.

Now Drago had pushed Orr away, and he spun the Sceptre about his head. The cloths had fallen off it, and rainbow light spun about the chamber.

Then, amid the violent struggle, the Sceptre came crashing down on Orr’s head, and the Ferryman collapsed on the floor.

“No!” SpikeFeather cried, and reached uselessly into the vision.

“Yes!” WolfStar said. “See how practised Drago has become at murder? He tried with Caelum, succeeded with RiverStar and see how he now does Orr to death!”

Orr breathed his last, and with that the vision faded.

But not before WolfStar had caught a glimpse of the red doe watching from the pillars. Faraday?

WolfStar slowly straightened from his crouch. Had Faraday seen what happened next?

“Did Drago step through the Star Gate with that Sceptre?” WolfStar asked no-one in particular. “Did he?”

“WolfStar, what is happening? Is Orr dead? What is this Maze? WolfStar, tell me what is happening!”

WolfStar’s eyes slowly focused on SpikeFeather’s face. “Well, why not. The Maze itself seemed to want you to find it. Perhaps the Lake Guard were right to trust you. Yes, Orr is dead -”

SpikeFeather wailed.

“Oh, stop your grieving! He had outlived his time and has at least performed one valuable service in relaying the Sceptre’s warning.”

“WolfStar! Tell me what is -”

“If you will be quiet for more than one moment then I will!” WolfStar took a deep breath. “Good. Now, this Maze has stood here for many thousands of years. Tens of thousands of years. Until I told the children who have grown into the Lake Guard, none knew about it save I. Not even Orr or any other Charonite.”

“Did you learn of it beyond the Star Gate? Is it one of the mysteries you brought back with you from the dead?”

WolfStar thought about again rebuking SpikeFeather for the interruption, but decided against it. “In a sense you are right, for I first learned of the Maze beyond the Star Gate. The Maze itself managed to reach me – I know not how – and inducted me into certain knowledges. Largely it was the Maze’s power that enabled me to come back.”