gateway to the labyrinth was wide open. The Ephebians had never seen the point of stopping people entering. Up a short side-tunnel the guide for the first sixth of the way slumbered on a bench, a candle guttering beside him. Above his alcove hung the bronze bell that would-be traversers of the maze used to summon him. Brutha slipped past.
"Brutha?"
"Yes, lord?"
"Lead the way through the labyrinth. I know you can."
"Lord-”. .
He let his sleeping mind take control. The way through the labyrinth unrolled in his head like a glowing wire .
. . . diagonally forward and right three and-a-half paces, and left sixty-three paces, pause two secondswhere a steely swish in the darkness suggested that one of the guardians had devised something that won him a prize-and up three steps . . .
I could run forward, he thought. I could hide"This is an order, Brutha," said Vorbis, pleasantly.There is no hope for it, Brutha thought. It is an order."Then tread where I tread, lord," he whispered. "Not more than one step behind me.""Yes, Brutha.""If I step around a place on the floor for no reason, you step around it too.""Yes, Brutha."Brutha thought: perhaps I could do it wrong. No. I took vows and things. You can't just disobey. The whole world ends if you start thinking like that .
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