The rule for solving a maze is this: put your shoulder to a wall and walk. This works less well for a maze with doors in it, but Aldous knows better than to try mapmaking. The rooms here don’t play fair.
The library, for instance, is stalking her. She keeps smelling it behind her, dust and wood acid and the cruel alchemy of glue. She doesn’t trust it, but it must be trying to tell her something.
She enters, finally, and pulls a book down expecting blank pages. Instead it’s full of handwritten names: Cording, Cordovan, Corey, Corinna, Corinne, Corwin, Cosette.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Telomir pulls the fabric and the surface of the world rushes by: trees, hills, a cliff. Corinna’s white-shock hair stands out against the horizon.
“Found you,” he grins, touching the rune in his belt called Zoom In. The veil blurs, and he’s there.
“Corinna,” he starts. She glares at him and spits: tentacles with teeth boil out of the rock. He touches Edit This Page and turns them to butter. She’s already flickering; when he gets to the edge she’s flapping away, a monstrous bat.
Telomir breathes deep, whispers “true name of the hawk,” touches I’m Feeling Lucky, and jumps.