It’s still completely black.
“Lilette?” I whisper, realizing I’m no longer holding her hand.
There’s no response.
“Lilette!” I call louder, panic laced in my voice.
I can’t have lost her, not after all this…
I rise onto my hands and knees and start feeling the ground around me for her body. She must have been knocked unconscious when she landed. I’ll find her…
But even though I search an area at least a dozen feet in each direction, she’s not there.
That’s when I notice the glow in the distance. I can’t tell how far it is, but it’s there, a faint blue just like what had been coming from under the door. Slowly, I get to my feet and start to make my way toward it.
As I move, mist begins to curl around my feet and up my legs. Larger clouds of it float by, becoming thicker and thicker. The deep dark begins to fade, whether because I’m getting closer to the glow, or some other reason. But I begin to make out shapes in the distance.
There appears to be some sort of a wall. A wall that stretches as far as I can see in either direction. As I get closer, I see that it’s a hedge wall, made of thick, dark green foliage. I blink as I stare at it. What in the dark goddess is this place?
When I reach the wall, I can see the glow over the top of it. But I don’t see any way through it. I cast my gaze left and right, and don’t see any openings. My heart pounds as reality begins to settle in. I’m stuck in some sort of magical trap, with no exit in sight, and I’ve lost Lilette. Tears sting at the corners of my eyes, and I wipe them away angrily.
Did I really think it was going to be that easy? I should know by now that nothing ever is.
I pick left on impulse and travel that direction. I need to try to find a way past this wall. That seems clear enough. I need to approach this one step at a time.
My feet carry me what seems a mile, and then, abruptly, I reach a sharp corner where the hedge wall turns away from me. Fighting a growing sense of trepidation, I continue around the corner. I walk for ages, then and come to another corner. Then another. Then another. After what seems hours, I realize I must be back where I started, with no visible way inside.
I can feel a scream forming deep inside me. And maybe it’s because everything has fallen apart. And maybe it’s because I’m terrified I won’t get my powers back and this whole side venture will have wasted the last little bit of time I have before the demon goes free. Or maybe it’s because for years, I lived in this place, under the thumb of this power-hungry man who oppressed everything that was strong and right within me, within all of us, and now I’m trapped in his sick game.
Whatever the reason, or all of them, I let a scream rise out of me with all the fury of a thousand nightmares. It echoes across the misty cavernous space. Then I shove my hand against the hedge wall, calling what magic I can muster.
A glowing hole opens within the wall.
Blinking in surprise, I step through the shimmering archway I’d created. About ten feet in front of me is another hedge wall. My eyes cut left and right, and I can see openings spaced along it. Some are merely open spaces cut within the hedge. Others are wrought iron gates. Others are painted wooden doorways. And others still have swirling mist or colored glowing light.
It’s a labyrinth.
I’d read about these in books when I was a girl. A maze designed with only one way in and out of the center, with numerous false passages that will lead one to wander in the wrong direction. And I have the sinking feeling, this being a magical labyrinth, that there could be more challenges than the average maze. The High Priest clearly doesn’t want anyone to find what lies within the interior of the labyrinth. The missing magic is definitely here, at the heart of this place. He never would have gone to so much trouble otherwise.
A new determination spikes through my veins.
I stride toward the wall in front of me and try another push of magic, but this time it merely dissipates. Looking both ways, I decide to travel right this time. I come to the first door withina hundred feet, a simple slab of black granite hung on silver hinges. After a moment’s hesitation, my instincts tell me to move on. I continue walking.
After another couple hundred feet, I come to an iron gate made of copper-colored metal, unadorned other than the design of a rose set near the apex. I pass that one also. As I’m walking, I hear what sounds like another set of footsteps on the other side of the hedge, along with a sound like the snapping of a branch. “Lilette?” I call, my voice echoing eerily. But no one answers.
The third entrance I come to is made of gold, two huge double doors carved in intricate patterns and inlaid with red jewels. As soon as I set my eyes on it, I know it’s the one, gaudy and dripping with self-importance. I press my hands against the metal and shove inward. It opens soundlessly, with such ease that I stumble forward and almost trip.
On the other side of the golden door is a shadowy forest of dead trees. Their branches stretch upward like frozen snakes, twisted and smooth and pale. I pause for a moment. My hunch had been correct. This maze is far from traditional. A maze designed to hide something far more precious than any other maze, a maze wrought with magic and dark intentions.
I cut at an angle through the trees, careful not to let them touch me. I’m not sure why, but the idea of those smooth, dead branches touching my skin makes me shiver. They look…alivein a way that trees should not. Up ahead, I see another hedge wall a few dozen feet off. I begin to wonder how far this place goes, how deep into this creation I’ll have to travel.
I’m halfway across the unnerving forest when the trees begin to shiver and moan, a strange howling sound as if something is dying inside of them. My heart pounds in my chest, taking off ahead of me. I can’t help it—I run, panic shooting through my veins. Branches reach for me, scraping at my hair, my cheeks.One makes contact, sliding down my face. It’s cold as ice and feels like skin rather than bark.
When I reach the hedge wall on the other side, in my desperation to escape I plunge through the first door I see, an opening with pale orange fog swirling within it. On the other side, I pause, bent over, hands resting on my thighs, sucking in air. My heart begins to slow, but I can still hear the moaning and rustling of the trees on the other side. Sweat begins to bead along the back of my neck.
I straighten and take in my surroundings. I can go left and right, or down a path slightly left of straight ahead. No more doors, just open paths weaving through the hedges. The tightly woven leaves here have taken on a darker color. They’re less green and more deep steel bordering on black, and they look almost as if they’re tipped in metal. A careful touch to one with the tip of my finger confirms.
As I stand there debating which way to go, I feel a prickle up the back of my neck. Turning, I see a dark wall of shadows slowly sweeping toward me from the direction I’d come. It’s already dim in this place, with swirling fog and no perceivable source of light, but this is a darker dark, an ominous presence. As if something is eating all remaining light, slowly and inexorably moving toward me.