“I have to point something out,” Jes calls, examining the wall at one side of the pit while I check out the other. “Depending on how we get across, this might be a one-way trip.”

  With the other side so much lower, it looks like that is by design. It would be far harder to come back and go up ten feet in elevation than down.

  I peer into the pit, making sure my footing is stable. “Sadie, throw a fireball down the pit, would you?”

  “More bucks down there?” she teases, casually tossing what seems to be a bright charcoal briquette into the chasm.

  We all watch the fire fade in the distance below.

  “That’s not just far,” Jes comments. “That’s far far. We don’t have climbing gear, we don’t have a hang glider. I say we find another way.”

  “There is no other way,” I grumble. “Unless we go back a day and try to find another path. I have a sneaking suspicion we will end up right here. This looks like the literal point of no return.”

  Jes pauses. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’d rather try to backtrack.”

  “If there are people,” I start, still staring at what might actually be a bottomless pit, “Including family. Then the sooner we get out, the sooner we can try and determine if they’re in the maze or not.”

  “If they’re in the maze, going other ways might find them faster,” Jes counters.

  “We have to get past the minotaur sooner or later,” I state.

  “I vote later,” Jes snaps. “If we go back, we get new skills, go up levels, maybe rescue some people.”

  More people would be amazing. I don’t know if there’s any possibility of finding Jes’ mother, but if that’s what keeps us moving along, great. If we actually find her, even better.

  Sadie slowly raises her hand.

  “You have something to say, Sadie?” I ask.

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  “I go up levels in skills,” Sadie announces.

  Jes looks at me and glares at Sadie. “So?”

  Sadie kind of twists her mouth and looks away. “So does the minotaur.”

  Holy crap. Everything is getting progressively stronger. Every moment we rest, every satyr in the labyrinth is levelling up. A huge timer just appeared.

  Not really. I don’t actually see a timer like a notification. But things just got a little more imperative. Maybe a lot.

  “Wait,” Jes starts pacing near the edge of the pit. “We know you gain skills faster at lower levels. You can see it happen when you get a new skill and it levels the next fight but not again for a while. The minotaur is probably a real high level in his skills. So we would level up faster than he would, given the same time.”

  “That’s a theory I don’t want to test,” I say. “We’ve been walking for hours, he might have been clearing out rooms of sirens. I vote we proceed past the pit.”

  “Seconding the vote,” Sadie adds, raising her hand.

  “Unfair,” Jes declares.

  “Fair,” Sadie counters. “We already went over that Dom and I disagree on things. I’m my own vote. We just have to figure how to get Dom over the pit and we continue.”

  “What?” I ask, completely involuntarily. “What about you guys? How did I become the problem?”

  Sadie crosses her arms and taps a hoof. She then sighs and leaps clean across the chasm. Satyrs jump. Right.

  “It’s not just me,” I indicate Baco and Jes.

  “If we’re actually going that way,” Jes mumbles. “I can get there pretty easy. I just didn’t want to encourage going that way.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Jes closes her eyes and steps out toward the empty air over the chasm. There’s a sizzle and she somehow skips the space of the chasm, stepping out on the far side next to Sadie.

  “You could do that all along?” I shout.

  “Telemete,” Sadie declares.

  Jes shrugs. “Didn’t want to. I’m still not sure it’s the best option, but it’s a better option than going back alone if every monster in the caves is getting stronger.”

  I have a feeling Jes went over just to one-up me. If that’s the way to get her to go along with the plan, it will have to do.

  “What about me and Baco?” I say.

  Sadie reaches into a belt pouch and pulls out a strip of dried meat. “Hey, Baco!”

  I swear to God, the stupid pig actually says the word “Huh?” and looks up from snuffling for worms. He sees Sadie and his feet start bouncing excitedly.

  Then Baco goes into charge mode, leaping the chasm with purple flaming eyes to land on the other side for his snack from Sadie’s hand.

  “What the hell?” I yell. “If you guys could all just do this whenever you wanted, why was there ever any problem?”

  “The problem would be you,” Jes shouts back. Sadie nods enthusiastically. I’m starting to get the feeling that the only thing the two of them will ever agree on is somehow making me the butt of a joke.

  “I didn’t want you upset,” Sadie calls.

  I’m not sure if she’s teasing me or actually deferring. All I’m sure about is that I will not be bested by my own satyr, the new girl and a boar. I’m trying to be the glue that holds this group together. I can’t be the one stymied by a stupid pit in the way. I bring up my skill list.

  Oh. Got it.