FICTION
To Keep the Stars Alight
The shriek sliced through the labyrinth.
‘Gorgons,’ Maya said. ‘Quick! Close your eyes, they could be anywhere. One look at them, and you would turn to stone.’
I closed my eyes, clasping the handle of my sword, fearing the monster would spring on us at any moment. I had fought gorgons before, but all of those times I was accompanied by around twenty highly-trained knights, and we had a carefully thought-out plan of attack, it was never like this.
Everything went deadly silent, and the air had grown thick. It was getting hard to breathe. There had not been a second shriek though.
‘It sounds like we have gotten lucky, I think there is only one of them,’ Daveth said.
‘Lucky you say, I do not feel lucky,’ Jakob interrupted.
Daveth went on. ‘All we need to do is make it to the other side of this labyrinth, gorgons cannot bear the sunlight, so once we are outside, it cannot follow us. As long as we stick together, we should be alright. There are seven of us and only one of them, so it is unlikely that it will attack us head-on. Be on your guard though, gorgons are clever, they know many tricks, many incantations, it will try to catch us out. Once you open your eyes, try to look to the floor as much as possible, and try not to let your gaze…
