"We appear to be alone."
Jayk groaned. "Yes. The wall, it is finished. Now we are trapped."
"Trapped?" Keeping a wary eye on the tiefling, Tessali rose. "That can't be!"
A shadowy sneer creased Jayk's lips. "Why not? The Lady, she never sends Bleakers to the mazes?"
Tessali scowled. "Of course she does." He studied the stone wall, as though considering what lay on the other side. His face suddenly seemed to light, then he said, "In fact, I've been in the mazes several times myself."
The Amnesian Hero raised his brow. "The Bleakers play at mazes?"
"Not play." Tessali's expression was guarded. "But people sometimes find themselves caught in a labyrinth through no fault of their own. The Bleak Cabal tries to help them find their way."
"And the Bleak Cabal does not become lost?" the Thrasson demanded.
Tessali shook his head. "We have freed our minds of delusion; we are not fooled by false paths." The elf's expression was smug. "If you will let me, I will guide you out of the mazes."
"And straight into one of your cells, no?"
Tessali received Jayk's skepticism with a smile. "Surely, that is better than remaining lost in the mazes?" He gestured at the dim walls around them. "And your constraint would not be permanent. You will be released when we have freed you of delusion."
"When we are barmy as you, yes?" Jayk shook her head violently, flinging golden drops of venom from her fang tips. "You do not even know when you have hit the blinds. You are such a berk!"
Tessali received this insult with a look of infinite patience. He turned to the Amnesian Hero, spreading his hands in entreaty.
"You two are the ones who have hit the blinds. Won't you let me show you the way out?"
The Amnesian Hero pointed at the wall the dabus had built. "That looks real to me."
"It is real, but not every wall is a maze wall. Some are just walls."
"Why would the dabus build a new wall here?" The Thrasson asked.
Tessali pulled a stone loose and tossed it on the ground. "This wall does not look so new to me."
"It is. The dabus built it as I tried to present Poseidon's gift to the Lady of Pain."
Tessali's brow arched in compassion. "There were no dabus."
"I saw them." The Amnesian Hero pointed at Jayk. "As did she."
The elf shook his head sadly. "But I didn't. When two troubled people spend time together, they often feed off each other's delusions."
The Amnesian Hero cast a questioning glance at Jayk, who was quick to explain, "He did not see the dabus. They were gone before he came."
Tessali gave her a patronizing smile. "You can fashion an explanation for everything. That is the nature of delusions."
The Amnesian Hero pointed at his crumpled corselet. "What of that? Did I imagine the Lady of Pain crushing that, too?"
The elf glanced at the armor, but his smug expression wavered only slightly. "Bronze does not make the sturdiest armor. In this district, there are any number of denizens who could crush if
"Not that armor, Tessali. You are the one who is fashioning explanations." The Thrasson kneeled beside the cracked amphora. "You can lead us nowhere but into more trouble."
"Tessali was trying to trick us." Jayk slipped to the elf's side. "Now I make kiss with him, yes?"
"No. Let him go." The Amnesian Hero picked up a piece of slashed barmy net "If Tessali can find his helpers, then we should go with him."
Tessali's jaw dropped, but he was quick to start up the wall. "I shall hold you to that, you know."
The Amnesian Hero did not even look up. "I am a man of my word, Tessali."
The Thrasson cut a length of rope from the barmy net and wrapped it around the amphora neck, then used the rest of the mesh to fashion a sling so he could cany the jar on his back. Even in the simplest maze, it was wise to keep both hands free.
By the time the Amnesian Hero finished, Tessali was sitting atop the stone wall, staring in gape-mouthed astonishment at whatever lay on the other side.
"What say you, elf?" The Amnesian Hero grinned at Jayk, who had recovered the spool of golden thread and was busy untangling the slack. "Will we be going back to a nice warm cell in your Gatehouse?"
Tessali's head slowly turned toward them. "Sign's gone! There's nothing there, not even the ground!"
"Then we would be wise to stay within the boundaries of the maze, would we not?" The Amnesian Hero slipped the amphora sling over his shoulder. "If you can't see anything, come down from there and stop wasting time."
The elf made no move to obey. "What have you done?" His eyes were wild with fear. "Your madness has doomed us all!"
"By the One Death, be quiet or I silence you myself!" Jayk's threat was an idle one, for her fangs had finally folded into the top other mouth. "Zoombee will get us out."
"Get us out?" Tessali screeched. "These are the Lady's mazes! Nobody can get us out!"
"Zoombee can." Jayk placed the spool in the hands of the Amnesian Hero. Save for a single strand leading into a dark comer, the golden thread was neatly coiled about its barrel. "Zoombee has a plan."
Ignoring Tessali, the Amnesian Hero turned his full attention to Jayk. "You anchored the other end outside?" He had little doubt that she had, but he thought it wise to be certain. "It is tied securely?"
"But of course, Zoombee." Jayk's reply was light-hearted and merry, as though being lost in the Lady's mazes was little more than an afternoon diversion. "I ran it down the seam between the wall and the hut, where nobody sees it, yes? Then I tie it twice around a stone in the bottom."
"You did well. We should be back in Sigil in no time." The Thrasson waved Tessali down from the wall. "Come along. We won't hurt you, and you can tell me about the Lady of Pain. I'd like to know more about her before I present Poseidon's gift again."
Tessali's wild-eyed fear gave way to gape-mouthed incredulity. "You're barmy as a dretch in Cania." He climbed down from the wall, shaking his head slowly. "And I must be an addle-cove for keeping your company."
Rewinding as he walked, the Amnesian Hero followed the thread into the dim comer. As he and his companions moved, the darkness seemed to thin ahead and swallow everything behind. It took only a few steps to reach the corner and discover that the wall no longer abutted the hut Instead, a long narrow passage had opened between the two. The golden thread ran straight down this corridor and disappeared into the silent gloom ahead.
"This can't be right," Tessali whispered. "There should be a busy street here."
"There should be a wall." Jayk was standing beside the hut, looking down a gloomy side passage that ran along what had once been the front of the building. Now it was simply a long wall of unmortared stone, similar to the one down which the golden thread ran. She kneeled and began scraping at a stone with her fingers. "This is where I tied the thread."
"That is the trick of mazes," the Amnesian Hero said. "You cannot trust what you remember. You must place your faith in the thread, no matter how strange its course may seem."
Tessali shook his head emphatically. "I climbed over only one wall before I found you, and it was no thicker than my foot is long. We must be going in the wrong direction."
"By that thinking, when you climbed the wall, you would have seen the street on the other side." The Amnesian Hero continued to rewind the thread. "Did you?"
"I saw nothing but… nothing."
"Then trust to the thread. This place makes no sense, and only the thread can lead us back to the world we know."
With that advice, the Amnesian Hero started down the passage, his frozen foot clumping bluntly on the rock-hard ground. He had forgotten all about it during his audience with the Lady of Pain, but now he recalled that he needed to find a healer before it thawed. He redoubled his pace, wrapping the thread around the spool so furiously that his wrist began to tire. They passed several more side passages before following the thread down one, then began a zigzagging course through the murky corridors. The Thrasson did not ask Jayk how long her spell would last; even if he had truly wanted to know, the knowledge was no use to him. Aside from walking faster, he could do little to speed their escape.