Book Five: Chapter 6

Once she had finished her visit, Beth left the Labyrinth, feeling the lingering chill of the stone corridors brushing against her arms as she walked. A rat, small but purposeful, scurried ahead and paused, glancing back at her as if beckoning. It darted into a narrow alcove, and she followed, marveling at how the rats had chewed a neat portal in the wall. The hole led her directly to the servant’s quarters on the second floor of the house. The wall was indistinguishable from the rest of the room, a perfectly seamless barrier that could only be opened by the creatures within. She paused for a moment, pressing a hand to the smooth surface, imagining the secret mechanisms the rats must have devised to manipulate it from the other side.

While this was a perfectly serviceable shortcut into and out of the Labyrinth, Beth still preferred the magical door in her closet. The ritual of stepping into the corridor fascinated her: the f