Yann came to his senses lying on a cold, damp, stone slab. He struggled to sit up and shivered when he saw where he was. He lay on a shelf of rock sticking out over a vast, cold ocean tossed with pelting wind, stinging rain, and whitecaps churning on the coal-grey sea.

  Wind and rain lashed his face, soaked his hair and uniform, and battered an ancient stone tower not far away.

  It sat at the very farthest point of the shelf where the peninsula ended and the ocean began. The tower’s far wall melded with the cliffs dropping to the waves below.

  Yann struggled to get to his feet. His blood ran cold when he searched the area. He was completely alone. His father, Eliska, Marine, Anríq, and all the rest of the Watchmen—they were all gone.

  At least he was on solid ground. This Island looked stable—for now.

  It really did look like an island instead of just some Coil landscape lost in countless Layers of other landscapes.

  The rock shelf met up with stony hills behind him. The others probably wouldn’t be up there and he sure as hell didn’t want to climb those mountains in the rain.

  He started forward heading for the only place left—the tower.

  Not a single light shone in its windows. He didn’t hear any voices or any other sound coming from the place. It sounded hollow and deserted.

  At least he would be able to get out of the rain there. He might even find something to eat or some other resources he could use. Anything was better than nothing.

  He no longer had a weapon, either. He would have cursed Marine for that, but he couldn’t do that considering how distraught she was over Brother Matherus’s death.

  Yann tried to put all of that out of his mind. Marine wasn’t here. No one was here.

  He headed for a small, cramped wooden door indented in the tower’s outer wall. He didn’t see any other entrance to the tower.

  Heavy, wrought-iron bars and huge knobbed bolts held the door together. It looked sturdy enough—and it also looked locked. Yann would have to come up with another plan if it was.

  He tried the handle and it opened for him easily. He stepped into a low, narrow hallway built of the same black stone.

  The structure echoed when he shut the door behind him and shook the rain out of his hair. The still air inside felt warm compared to the cruel wind outside.

  Rooms lined the hall on both sides. Dim light shone through windows in each room and cast out onto the hallway floor through the open doors.

  He headed down the hall. Maybe he would be able to find a kitchen or maybe a fireplace with some wood near it, but he didn’t hold out much hope for that. This tower didn’t look like anyone had lived here for a long time.

  Every room he passed contained the same roughly built wooden bedframe with no mattress or blankets or any other furnishings. He didn’t see any other furniture in the place. This didn’t look good.

  He made it twenty feet down the passage when he heard his father call him from behind. “Over here, son!”

  Yann spun around fast and spotted his father standing at the far end of the hall. Yvan stood up straight and his clear eyes made contact with Yann from that distance.

  Yvan wore the same expression Yann remembered. His father didn’t jump away or try to fight off Darklings who weren’t there. He even smiled at Yann.

  Yann turned around and strode down the hall to rejoin his father, but before Yann got there, Yvan sidestepped into a different passage where Yann couldn’t see him.

  Yann sped up, but when he made it to the spot where Yvan had been standing, Yann discovered a blank stone wall there instead of a side passage. Yvan couldn’t have gone that way.

  Yann looked around him in all directions. A side passage went off to his right—in the opposite direction Yvan just went.

  Yann didn’t see anything unusual about this side passage except that more light seemed to come from the far end of it.

  He headed for it for lack of anything better to do. He made it halfway down that passage when he passed another side hallway leading somewhere else.

  He didn’t plan to go down there or even look down it. He drew level with it and stopped in his tracks when Anríq stepped out of one of the rooms down there.

  “This way, Yann!” Anríq called.

  Yann hesitated. Something weird was going on, but he went that way anyway. The temptation to meet up with someone he knew overruled everything else.

  He headed for Anríq, but the same thing happened. He sidestepped into a different room and disappeared before Yann got near him.

  When Yann found the room, it was completely empty. No other doors communicated with any other part of the tower.

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  Yann had the only doorway in sight the whole time. Anríq couldn’t have gotten out any other way.

  Now Yann knew something weird was going on. It must be something magical, but he didn’t plan to play any more games.

  He retraced his steps, followed the hallway with more light at the end, and came out in an interior courtyard.

  His view of the tower from the outside didn’t show that the structure was big enough to have an interior courtyard. One solid stone cylinder stood at the end of that peninsula. The whole tower looked fifty feet across at the most.

  It only had one roof over the top of it—at the very top of the tower. This courtyard must have been an illusion, but it sure looked real.

  The wind howled through multiple arched porticos on all four sides of the courtyard. Each arch led to another passageway leading to a different part of the structure.

  The rain lashed down from the cold grey sky.

  Yann stepped out into the courtyard and looked up at a high parapet wall surrounding four wings that formed this courtyard. The structure he’d seen outside definitely couldn’t be the same one.

  He ducked back into the same corridor to get out of the rain. He planned to go back outside by the same route he used to enter this place. He didn’t want to get trapped in a magical maze. He might die of starvation before he found a way out.

  He started on his way back and turned at the corner where he’d seen his father. The instant he got there, Omer appeared behind him near the courtyard entrance.

  Omer called, “This way, boy!”

  Yann spun around automatically, and as soon as he saw Omer, Omer took two steps to the side and vanished.

  Yann stayed where he was. Every instinct told him to follow Omer, but Yann knew better now. This was all some kind of trick. He didn’t know who was playing it, but he wouldn’t fall for it.

  Maybe someone cursed the tower to make it this impenetrable maze—or maybe the Coil’s instability turned it into this.

  He turned away again and headed down the last hall. Just a few more steps and he would make it back to the door through which he entered this hall. Then he would go back outside and…..do something else.

  He would have to travel through the rain to get anywhere. He might just stay there right inside the door until the weather let up—if it ever let up.

  Going out into the rain would probably be better than starving in this death trap.

  Then again, if his father and the others were trapped in here, maybe he should stick around and try to find a way to get them out, too.

  He didn’t know how he would do that. He wouldn’t be able to if this tower was a magical trap. He wouldn’t be able to break the spell.

  He made it ten feet before Eliska dove out of one of the side rooms. She rushed him so fast he startled back in alarm.

  She grabbed his arm and held on. “Yann!” she gasped. “Thank goodness I found you!”

  “Eliska! What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “I’ve been wandering around in this maze for hours! We all have. The rest of the Watch is trapped in here, too. They keep appearing, telling me to go with them, and then vanishing.”

  “The same thing happened to me—but I just got here.” He frowned at her. “What do you mean—you’ve been here for hours?”

  Her eyes fell out of their sockets. “You just got here?! Like—just now?!”

  “I just woke up on the rock shelf outside. I came in here to get out of the rain. I didn’t know any of you were in here until I saw my father and Anríq and Omer just now.”

  She waved that away, but she wouldn’t let go of his arm. “Never mind. This Island must be under a magical spell and I have my magic back. That’s how I found you. We can find the others.”

  Yann didn’t answer. This was the most she’d spoken to him in a week and definitely the most she’d acted like she cared if she got back with anyone from the Watch.

  He didn’t comment that nor did he tell her to let go of his arm. The feeling of her holding onto him so they wouldn’t get separated—he liked that feeling. He didn’t want to lose it when they left this place.

  Did getting her magic back somehow erase the Darkness inside her—or was she just relieved to find someone she knew?

  She pulled him away and they headed back down the hall toward the side passage leading to the courtyard.

  “Let’s go back to that side hallway,” she suggested. “We can find someone there. They always appear there.”

  “How did you find me?” he asked.

  “I laid a trap outside that bedroom and waited for someone to walk through it. From what I can tell, this building enchants people so they both wander the halls looking for people who aren’t there at the same time that they appear to other people without being aware of it.”

  He frowned at her. “I don’t understand. How can they do both?”

  “That’s the enchantment. Here. I’ll show you.”

  They came to the intersection where Yann saw Anríq. Eliska stopped in the side hall. “Let’s say I was walking along this hall from there to there.”

  She pointed at the intersection where Yann had seen his father. Then she pointed at the other end of the hall where it joined up with the courtyard.

  “Let’s say I passed this hall at the same time you passed the same hall down there.” She pointed at the far end of the hall where Anríq disappeared. “I would see you and you would see me at the same time—the same way we would see each other in real life.”

  “Yeah?” he asked.

  “So you would see me calling out to you to come this way and I would see you calling out to me to follow you, but neither of us would be aware that the other was seeing the other call out. See?”

  “No, I don’t. If that was the case, we would walk toward each other to meet up. Wouldn’t we bump into each other? Then there would be no illusion because we would be together.”

  “That’s the enchantment. Each person sees the other disappear before they get to meet up with the other.”

  “But wouldn’t each of them notice if they magically wound up in a completely different part of the tower?”

  “I don’t exactly understand it myself.” She turned away. “Let’s go find the others. I don’t want to stay in here any longer. Oh, by the way. Here. Take this.”

  She stuck her hand into the bag hanging by her side, pulled out what looked like a pebble, and held it out to him.

  As soon as she opened her hand, the pebble expanded and turned back into his glaive.

  He gasped when he saw it. “How did you get this?! I thought I lost it!”

  “You would have, but the Layer shattered when Marine threw it at the Voyant. My magic came back immediately and the glaive fell through into the next Layer along with the rest of us. I magicked it so it wouldn’t get lost. I’ve been carrying it around ever since so I could give it back to you if I ever met back up with you. Here. Take it.”

  She pushed it into his hands. He stared at it—and then his eyes snapped up to her face.

  She really did care. He knew that now—as if he ever doubted it. He didn’t doubt it. He just let her behavior make him doubt it.

  She must have been thinking of essentially nothing else when Marine threw his glaive at the Voyant and the Layer shattered. Eliska must have been thinking of nothing but his safety.

  She had the magic to find anyone in the group in this maze, but she came for him first.

  He already knew she felt that way about him. He let his own doubts and insecurities confuse him.

  Knowing how she felt about him didn’t change the decision he had to make, but it did change something.

  He had her back. Whatever happened between them and the rest of the Watch, he never had to doubt her again.

  End of Chapter 20.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

  I post new chapters of The Corrupted Coil series on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday PST.

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