28

Lil stared into the fire. The blaze was sucked back like it might be contained inside the wall, but then it snaked out, climbing into the ceiling in fiery paths.

“Do you think that’s supposed to work like that?” Lil said as she watched the reed tapestry light, curl and fall off the wall. A billow of smoke filled the air, and she covered her nose. She searched the room for an open door, another passageway leading out, but the mechanism hadn’t opened anything else.

“No, I don’t think so,” Kat said, doing the same with the top of her cardi-wrap.

Lil’s heart raced as she watched the fire continue, grasping cobwebs and lighting debris. They were going to be smoked to death. She turned toward Charlie.

“Any ideas?” she shouted. “We’re in an oven.”

Charlie was half off her seat, staring into the flame and then back at the other side of the machine.

“It’s a wood-fired oven of some sort!” Sydney shouted, indicating a long-handled paddle leaning against the wall. “My uncle built one of those in his backyard for cooking flatbreads.” She yanked the collar of her shirt over her face, too.

“No, no, no,” Kat said, shaking her head. “It’s a forno—how do you say it in English—you fire the sculpture to make it strong?”

“A kiln?” Lil coughed.

“Yes,” Kat said, nodding. “It’s a kiln.” She turned and gestured toward the tablets on the shelves. She pulled the nearest one off and held it out, flicking the corner. “See their colors? See how hard they are?”

Lil stared at the tablet. It was black and charred. They would be just like that if they didn’t start moving soon. They had to douse the flames, put them out. She stared around the room, toward the bed. But there were no blankets, only hay. No fabric, anywhere. The path of flame scattered ash down to the floor as it sailed toward the outer alcove.

She turned back toward Charlie, her gaze landing on a spout to her right. A shelf of urns sat above it. She rushed around the desk, twisting the handle. A landslide of muddy water descended, splashing into the large urn at her feet.

“We have to put out the fire,” Sydney shouted. She grabbed a small urn from the shelf while Lil filled another and handed it to Kat.

“Of course!” Charlie shouted as Lil filled yet another to the brim and threw its contents at the nearest patch of fire. The flames hissed and sizzled back, then regrouped. More smoke billowed up.

“Of course what?” Sydney wheezed, filling her urn and doing the same.

Kat flew across the room to a spot in the corner where the flame seemed to be attempting to light stone, dousing it, stomping on it. Lil went after the flames that hung in the ceiling like an upside-down grill.

“It’s only partly a kiln. This whole thing is one giant machine. Don’t you see?” Charlie said. Without hesitating, she reached over Lil’s shoulder, thrusting her hand into the base of the urn that was secured to the floor. “It’s a printing press!” She yanked and pulled until her hand came up out of the abyss with a loud schlaaap. “It’s clay,” she said, mashing the clay into the frame, completing the tablet. Without hesitation she hit the fourth lever. It burst forward, slapping into the wet clay, then came away, leaving the symbol etched into the glossy surface. Charlie hit the next key, embedding the fifth symbol in the tablet, and then the last. She cranked a lever as Lil exchanged urns with Sydney, handing her a full one and taking an empty one.

“I don’t think it’s helping!” Kat said as she reached them. She held her elbow over her nose, her eyes circled with red. Lil watched the flame as it stopped momentarily, then danced toward the alcove with the small hay-filled mattress.

“Hurry!” Lil shouted, sloshing half the water onto the ground as she handed an urn to Kat and turned to Charlie.

Charlie cranked the lever on the side and the frame flipped up, depositing the tablet on a revolving paddle. It slid toward the fire as the frame settled back into place.

Lil glanced around the room, looking for a door. Looking for the secret passageway.

“It’s still not doing anything!” Lil shouted as smoke billowed toward her. Her eyes burned as she tried to see Sydney in the distance. She heard a cough and a gasp. Charlie swiveled to look into the room, shielding her face with her arm. The flames tore steadily now, diving into the alcove with the bed and causing a patch of fire to erupt along the mattress.

Lil’s mind raced. Her throat grew raw and strangled. Her eyes blurred and her head buzzed. “Everyone get down low!” She coughed.

Charlie was on the floor next to her, clutching the tablet. Her eyes darted from corner to corner. “Maybe we need to archive it? Put it on the shelf.”

“I can barely see anything,” Kat said.

“I can barely breathe,” Sydney wheezed.

“Look for spaces on the shelves,” Lil said. “We’re running out of time.” She looked up, counting spaces in the wall in front of her where the tablet might belong. There were perhaps eight.

“I have one, two, three,” Sydney said.

“I have several,” Kat said.

Lil turned, surveying the walls. “There are over two dozen empty spaces, at least,” she shouted.

“Too many options,” Sydney coughed.

“Over here,” Charlie called to them from the final alcove.

Through gasps and coughs, the girls made their way to the opposite side of the room. Lil could just see Charlie by the blaze of the mattress fire.

She could hear Sydney, her breath a strange whistle.

“Where?” Lil shouted frantically.

“There,” Charlie said, pointing to the other side of the bed.

In the wall on the other side of the flames was a rectangular indentation. One that would allow the tablet to fit perfectly.

“Oh God,” Kat said.

“I can get to it,” Charlie said, grasping Lil’s shoulder and pushing herself up before Lil could object.

Charlie landed on the other side, but the flames were hot. Surely they would burn her. The flickering flame, Charlie, the bed and Sydney and Kat began to fade around her, almost like she was seeing them through a tunnel.

“Hurry!” she gasped as Sydney fell into her.

“Oxygen deprivation,” Sydney wheezed. “We have three . . . minutes . . .”

Charlie embedded the tablet into the indentation. A grinding noise rose from the chamber, and a door in front of them opened. The smoke was sucked forward like a thick zephyr around them. The flames on the bed blew back, for a moment decreasing. “GO!” Lil said, pushing Sydney. She lurched forward, tripping over the mattress into the far wall. Kat dove next, and Lil jumped up last, grabbing for the wall to steady herself.

“Hurry!” Charlie took her hand as they stumbled into the stairwell.

“Wait,” Lil said, reaching back. There was the brick, jutting out just as it had in the previous chamber. Like a little drawer that had been hidden in the wall. When Lil bent over it, she saw that this time it contained a different charm. She grasped the leather thong, pulling it from its resting place. A miniature rectangular tablet hung from the end of it.

Underneath it she could just see the symbol of the labrys through the encroaching cloud of smoke. “Okay,” she said, her voice coming out hoarse now. “This is right.” Though nothing about it seemed right to her at all. She threw the talisman to Charlie, and they ran into the shelter of the tunnel.