Free The Labyrinth of the Dead by Sara M. Harvey

pale as marble and glimmering like an opal as it reached up into
a sky that was the perfect shade of rich, wintertime blue. Portia sank slowly
from the sky, hovering within the shrouding fog as the veiled women exited the
hedge maze below her. One by one they emerged into the serenity of daylight and
roses. Several of them had lifted their veils and were coaxing a group of
newcomers to drink from a silver cup of water fetched up from the well. The
newcomers were all female and dressed in motley rags. They took the water
gratefully.
    "Intractable moppet," the
brandy-skinned woman growled up at Portia.
     Portia blinked in the feigned sunlight. She did not
see Imogen among the women at the well. "You bring in souls from outside your
precious walls. Surely you can offer me hospitality as well?"
    "To stay, they must earn their keep by
making daily forays into the city of Salus to search for innocents before the
queen scents them," the woman replied. "You have no intention of doing so."
    "Are there any men among you?"
    "No." She shrugged and waved her hand
dismissively. "We give them what they need to fight their way out of Salus."
    "That’s hardly charitable."
    "’Tis a good
thing this is no charity then, isn’t it?"
    "Madame," Portia drew closer to the
ground, "you must understand my purpose here. I have come to reclaim my
beloved, whose body lies living still and needs the soul returned to it."
    "Noble," the woman said, nodding. "But
quite impossible."
    Portia made to step down onto the
silken grass when the woman brought a fiery sword from midair, holding it like
a warrior long trained.
    "You will not so much as lay a toe on
this hallowed ground. You bring a curse with you." The woman nodded toward the
axe. "And I will not have this forgotten tower so easily remembered. Perhaps
the rest of the souls here pale in comparison to the one you love, but they are
each precious to me. Do not make me kill you."
    "If you could, I’d be impressed."
Portia folded her arms and hovered with annoyed snaps of her wings.
    The woman below her drew back her veil.
Her eyes were as amber as her flesh and her ebony hair was bound up in a series
of elaborate braids. "Then come down here and we shall see who will perish,
little half-angel."
    "More than half." Portia lifted the axe
and the coin swung in feverish circles.
    "Portia!" Kanika’s
shrieking voice carried through the sheets of fog. "Portia, come quick! They’re
here!"
    The woman’s eyes
widened. "The queen’s dark armies have tracked you to this place—they have
found you here." She swore to herself. "I knew you would be trouble. You have
brought death here."
    "I wouldn’t have thought that death was
so frightening to the dead ."
    "Obviously, you do not think often."
    "I’ll tell you what. I get rid of the
problem and you let me into your ivory tower."
    The woman seemed amused by the
proposition. "If you survive, mayhap I will speak to you again. If you return,
call out for Celestine. But do not let that baggage you travel with come within
the span of my arms. She is not welcomed."
    Portia nodded. "As you wish. I will
return and I will hold you to your word." She turned and crossed back through
the shrouding mists to find a horde of shadows encroaching on the garden gate
beyond the bridge. She landed firmly on her feet beside Kanika. "I thought you
said they wouldn’t follow us here."
    The girl shrugged helplessly. "They
aren’t supposed to be able to come in here."
    "Well, we have some time to think.
There is a ward up, after all."
    "I wouldn’t count on that."
    "Why not?"
    Kanika pointed and shrank back,
pressing herself into the hollow of Portia’s wings.
    The first herder had returned to the
gate, its hand outstretched with fleshless fingers splayed. It took in a deep
breath that whined around the holes in its mouth plate. Then it waved the other
hand. From out of the enveloping darkness, they came forward: hulking creatures
with studded armor barely containing their