damaged heart, perfect swooping hair, and false jawline, and no. Just no.
The pressure lightened as he hauled himself off me.
We both climbed to the edge. Grigfen was only halfway across. His health percentage was fading fast with all the magic he was using. Only a few floating bones still hovered for him to make his way across on.
I couldn’t hold them up for him.
“Grig!” I shouted, my voice raw. He had to make it. He had to be okay.
“I know you can do this!” Ryo shouted by my side. “I need your help, and as your prince, I command you to jump!”
Grig looked at us and nodded, the purple aura marking his loyalty growing brighter. His healing slowed its drain, and he leapt onto the last bone—a skull that didn’t seem quite human, some seven feet away from the edge where we waited.
I was not going to let my brother die. “Grab my waist,” I said. Ryo locked his arms around my stomach. “Jump, Grig!”
I threw myself forward as Grig took a mighty leap, his hands extended behind him, shooting a green mist of ghostlight back, propelling him to me. Ryo’s arms restrained me as I grabbed on to any part of Grig’s clothes I could hold. My tired arms rebelled, and his robes slipped out of my grasp. He flung his arm around my neck. Ryo roared and rocked us all backward, dragging us into a tangled pile of limbs and cloaks and heaving breaths on the safety of the other side.
I threw both hands in the air. “We did it.”
Ryo exhaled. “And may we never have to do it again.”
“Amen, brother,” Grig whimpered.
I gripped Grig’s shoulder and sighed. He was okay. We were all okay.
What would those punks at school say if they saw me now? Huddled with two of the most handsome boys I’d ever seen, though my memories as Lady Dagney wanted me to stab my eyes with her knitting needles for thinking our brother was attractive.
I pressed myself up and shook off the dust.
Across the pit, the Devout argued about what to do with us, half already walking around the pit. I offered my hand to Ryo to help him up.
I checked their health. Leveling up had raised them both to almost full bars.
“Come on,” I said. “We need to get Grig his seer water.”
We walked inside a bone-walled tunnel. Grig summoned a ball of green ghostlight, which kept the mood remarkably spooky, especially as the labyrinth soundtrack started again.
“Have you both had the seer water?” Grig asked.
Ryo sighed. “Don’t get her started.”
“I have,” I said. Ryo gave a half smile.
The arrow behind my eyes spun left so I gestured, and Ryo followed after me.
Grig hesitated then followed my lead. “What did you see in the—Ah!”
My heart clenched. A Historian stood at the end of the tunnel, where the pathways forked. A woman Historian, judging by the way her raven-feather cloak curved around the small set of her shoulders. The green light lit her silver mask and sent shadows where the eyes should have been. She raised a spindly finger to the left.
My arrow pointed right.
“The placement of the bones indicates we should turn right,” Grigfen said. “If you get lost, pay attention to the stacking of the bones; there’s always an arrow point showing which way to turn.”
The Historian shook her head and pointed left again. There was nothing down the hall. Was she warning us against something?
Ryo’s forehead creased as he met my eye, and then he shrugged.
“What are Historians?” I studied the Historian as we crept closer. Her aura betrayed no sign of her loyalties, and no player indicator hovered over her head. “Can we trust her?”
“I don’t know if we can,” Ryo answered. His arm was warm next to mine. “They’ve always stayed out of the Crown’s business. I’ve never seen one help anyone before.”
Grig’s back bumped against mine. He guarded our backs, ready to pull at the bones if the priests or the Devout caught us.
“I think we should go right,” I said.
The Historian shook her head, the silver mask waving back and forth. She pointed again to the left.
“They’re Whirligigs.” Ryo’s lower lip disappeared behind his teeth.
“What?” Grig screwed up his face. “But they look so human.”
Ryo brushed his chin with his index finger. “I believe they are a combination of Devani magic and Mechani skill. They were made to watch and record our history in the great book.”
Interesting. “They watch, but don’t interact.” This was a video game.