The Daughter of Death- *RAYOR*

Chapter 17: Ask Us No Questions

It was all going well until I crashed into Blake.

There was a tumble, a scream, and silence. We called out her name, but my throat seemed to constrict, my voice growing fainter, echoing eerily off the walls. Fear gripped at my heart. I felt a hand and screamed.

"Arielle!" Willow shushed. "It's me!"

My breath shook as I took in a rattling breath. "Oh, Willow- I thought- the gorgon-"

"Stick close," he said, his breath tickling my skin.

I felt a screaming start up in my head.

"Don't think that," said Willow.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm your twin, Ari. I always know what you're thinking."

I walked forwards, trying to keep my thoughts straight. "Blake will find us," I said, still touching the brambles lightly.

"Yeah," said Willow. I could hear his tone; unconvinced.

An odd churning began in my stomach, and I felt sick. "The-the gorgon," I said, very quietly. "Will it come?"

"Probably not," said Willow.

I held his hand tightly, feeling my way through the maze. It was so dark that when I closed my eyes, I still couldn't see anything.

I felt sleepiness dull the pain in my calves. I had hardly slept compared to how much I used to sleep. I wished to be back in the lazy heat of Egypt, or the beautiful, deadly winters of Russia, anywhere but here.

And then I stumbled and fell, and the wall of shrubs to my left seemed to open up. I fell to the ground with a bang. Panicking, I wailed, my arm throbbing, feeling to my right for the opening.

But it was gone.

Terror turned to dread, a coldness that swept through me. Through it, a sharp pain split my head and brambles curled thorny briars around my arms. I slipped into memory.

"No! Don't!"

Someone was screaming. Someone was sobbing. It wasn't just me.

"Willow!" I whimpered. But he wouldn't turn around and smile at me. He was blocking me, from someone who I had never seen clearly in my life. I never remembered this much in waking- only in dreams.

"What are you doing?!" A new, female voice cut across Willow's shouts of horror and awful sounds, harsh sounds, shouting, crying, started. I covered my ears and whispered, "Everything's fine. Everything's fine. Everything's fine."

But it wasn't.

I felt a stab at my elbow and jerked back to reality. Two boys with dirty blonde hair who looked identical were in front of me, gleaming scythes piercing the gloom. "Who are you?" I gasped.

"We're friends," said one, who seemed to be the dominant twin. "Cor!" he said, when he saw my face. "You're right, Lev."

"Didn't I say," sniffed the twin.

At that moment, I looked round and saw vines, spiked and spiteful, reeling me in. "HELP!" I screamed.

"I'm Nicco," said the dominant twin, and he grabbed my arm. "Hold still," he said, bossily, and sliced through the vines with the scythe. A moment later, the other boy, Lev, had sliced off the other.

"I'm Levy, and we've come to save you!" said Levy.

"How can you? You're young!" I sobbed.

"Hey, hey," said Levy, who seemed to be softer than Nicco. "Calm down. We'll find Blake for you!"

"Wait! Don't leave me!" I grabbed at him blindly.

"Huh?"

"There's a gorgon," I whispered.

Nicco exchanged a glance with Levy, who sighed. "Well," said one twin.

"Well," said the other.

"We'll have to kill it, won't we!" Nicco smacked his hands together. I jumped at how the sound seemed magnified in this small space.

"Not so loud!" chided Levy, "You're scaring her!"

Nicco sighed. "Levy, you're no fun. We're Aster's brothers," he elaborated.

At the mention of Aster, some weight seemed to lift off of my chest. "Aster?" I said breathlessly. "Did he come with you?"

"No," said Nicco.

"He kinda sorta doesn't know we're here," said Levy. "Because of Nicco, see."

"Sorry," said Nicco. "Hey, we'll wander with you, lady!"

"Arielle," I said faintly.

"Arielle," said Levy.

"Oh wait- you can't die, can you?" I brightened. "That means you can fight the gorgon!"

Nicco shook his head. "We can't, because we'd be incapacitated if we saw it."

"Do you know what 'incapacitated' means?" asked Levy skeptically.

"Of course!" Nicco looked affronted. "Come on, Lev. Come on, Arielle."

I walked with them, very quietly. I jumped at every rustle, interpretating it as a hiss, and felt nausea rise up in me every time a vine reached out to snag my ankle.

"You have to be careful, here," said Nicco.

"I know," I said. "I guess. I'm scared."

Nicco nudged Levy. Levy shrugged. "Don't look for trouble and trouble won't look for you," he intoned wisely.

I laughed, my voice coming out a bit high in the process. "Hey, where did you get the scythes? I think you're too young for them."

They exchanged mischievous looks. "Ask us no questions, and we'll tell you no lies," they said in unison.