Wanted by the Alphas(13)
He is all protective again. His arm goes around her and the heat of his body once again brushes against her skin. He is nice and warm, like a shielded furnace. She knows she should not be close to him for too long or she will get burned.
The opening to the maze is an arched doorway made out of hedge. The entire maze has walls of hedges towering seven feet high so that anyone inside will be not be able to peer over the top unless he were over seven feet tall.
“I had this designed so that even I won’t be able to peek,” Lucien explains.
“I take it that you know this maze like the back of your palm?”
“That I do. Come in. It’s well-lighted in there and there are surprises to be found at every corner.”
“Really?” She is intrigued.
They enter the maze. The corridors here are narrow, but can be traversed by two people who are walking side to side. Lucien is right. Garden lamps are placed on the ground in every bend and curve to light the way for the maze-crawler.
After the first few bends, the maze starts to branch out into several options. You can go right or left. You take a path. This path further branches into a right or left.
“Look, the first surprise.” Lucien points at the stone statue of a fairy at the turn of a bend. “There are clues carved at the base of every surprise. You’ll have to collect them all to discover what the message is in the end.”
“Clues?” This is getting interesting, she thinks.
“Yes.”
They come up to the fairy. It is a delicate stone sculpture. To her surprise, the fairy is male – naked with a fig leaf covering his privates and wings sprouting behind his back. She is amazed at how exquisitely his face has been crafted. The statue comes up to her breasts. The fairy’s stone orbs are empty and they stare unseeing.
“See if you can find the clue,” Lucien says.
She studies the statue and bends down to look at its base. The statue is lighted by a low lamp on the ground. She supposes the whole maze is wired down there.
“I don’t see anything.”
“Look closer.”
Her eyes scan the base, and then she sees it.
A symbol. It resembles a snail with a long body.
“Is it a snail?” she asks.
“Horned Viper, actually. It is ancient Egyptian.”
“You mean hieroglyphs?” Her excitement mounts.
“Yes.” He laughs at her enthusiasm. “I did tell you I have a creative horticulturist.”
“Wow.” She digs into her purse for her cellphone. “I will have to snap photos of this so that I can remember every clue.”
“Good call. Beats the old pen and notepad.”
He watches her amusedly – taking pleasure in her delight – as she focuses her phone camera aperture at the base of the statue to snap a photo of the horned viper.
“What else is there?” she asks eagerly.
“You lead the way.”
The maze continues, and she feels completely safe in here with Lucien to bail her out should she lose her way. The maze is larger than she thought possible, and she is sure she has not been down any path twice.
The ‘surprises’ come in the form of statues – nymphs, sprites, fauns, satyrs. The ‘clues’ she has collected now form a veritable list:
A leg.
A hand.
A leaf.
Another leaf.
A wave, or at least, a blue wavy line denoting a wave.
Another hand.
An open mouth.
What does it all mean?
“Have I got everything?” she asks Lucien.
“Pretty much. I’m not supposed to be helping you solve this, but there’s one more clue.”
“Then we’ll have to find it,” she says, laughing.
She is the one leading him this time. She figures they must be somewhere at the end of the maze, because she can see the dark forest looming closer than it did before. The sky has gotten considerably darker as well, something she hasn’t noticed because she was so preoccupied with finding the clues. Dark clouds scud across the horizon and a chill descends.
“It’s getting colder,” he remarks. “You want to go in?”
“And not finish the puzzle? No way!”
He grins. In the burgeoning darkness, his face shines like a pale moon – all angles and completely and dazzlingly beautiful.
“All right. But we should be getting in soon. Looks like another storm coming. A big one this time.”
She shivers. “Does it always rain so much here?”
“In this particular region? Yes. This town is situated on a vortex of trade winds and it has its own micro-environment. It’s complicated, but if you are interested to learn more about it, there’s a natural history museum here. It’s not very big, but it contains a lot of interesting things about this region.”