But if there was a hell on earth, Tyler had certainly found it.
He and Seth were tucked into an alcove, a hidden recess deep within a tunnel, buried in the bowels of the earth. They had squeezed in here through a tiny crevice in the stonework. The floor and walls, lit only by the tiny, flickering match in Tyler’s fingers, were covered with mold. In the last moment before the match died, Tyler saw that Seth was looking worse than ever today, his cheeks hectic with fever and corneas yellowed with infection. Tyler had not looked at Seth’s wound in several days, but if he did, he knew that he would see the red streaks climbing up Seth’s belly toward his chest. When they had first escaped the Arvath, Tyler had taken Seth to a doctor, using most of the money he had saved. But the man was not a real doctor, and though he had given Seth something to ease his pain for a few days, he had not been able to stop the progress of the infection.
The match guttered, and not a moment too soon, for now Tyler heard the sound of running footsteps, several pairs, in the tunnel outside.
“The east branch!” a man panted. “To the east branch, and we can meet up in the road.”
“They’re Caden, I know it,” another man said, his voice weak with fear. “They’re coming.”
“What would Caden want down here? There’s no money for them.”
“All of you, the east branch, quickly!”
The footsteps took off running again. Tyler leaned back against the wall of the recess, his heart pounding. He and Seth were already in a great deal of trouble, but if there really were Caden down here, their problems would multiply. In the early days of their flight, Tyler had gone up to the surface several times, to trade coin for food and clean water, and it had not taken long to hear the news: the Arvath had placed bounties on them both. Tyler and Seth had long since discarded their Arvath robes, but even in layman’s clothes, they no longer felt safe above ground. Tyler had not been out of the tunnels for more than two weeks, and their food supply was nearly gone.
“Ty?” Seth asked in a whisper. “Do you think they’ve come for us?”
“I don’t know,” Tyler replied. He had thought they were safe down here, but that safety brought its own price. In his trips through the tunnels, Tyler had seen many things, and as he came to understand what this labyrinth really was, he had begun to lapse back into the spiritual darkness that had gripped him during his final few weeks in the Arvath.
God, why do you allow this? This world is yours. Why do you suffer these people to remain?
Not surprisingly, he received no answer.