The Maze The Lost Labyrinth

CHAPTER 18



The battle with Cerberus left me feeling drained, light-headed, and sick, and Midnight didn’t fare much better. He had more than enough wounds to lick; Cerberus had bitten him in more places than I realized. The three-headed dog had injured me extensively too. Two of my ribs felt bruised, possibly even broken. My shoulder felt like it might have been dislocated, and my skin was on fire from the numerous bites. More than anything else, I wanted to lie down and rest, but there wasn’t time for that.

“Your next test awaits up ahead.” Asterion vanished into an open tunnel. “This is not a place of leisure.”

I looked at Midnight and sighed. “I’m not sure I can go on.”

I tried to lift my head off of the ground, but it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. My eyelids felt heavy too.

Midnight barked and got to his feet, urging me to stop whining and stand up. With a considerable amount of effort and a lot of groaning, I did so.

“I guess we should see where this leads. After all, the minotaur says so. I wonder if it would make any difference if I pointed out that he didn‘t say Simon Says.”

Midnight barked again and led the way into darkness. Although I would have felt better with a million-candle spotlight and an automatic weapon, I felt a certain amount of safety with Midnight at my side. He hadn’t deserted me yet, and I can safely say that I wouldn’t have defeated Cerberus without his help.

I just hoped he didn’t decide to ditch me before I found the way out. I wasn’t sure what I would do if forced to roam these dark hallways alone again.

We had only walked a mile or so when I felt something brush lightly against my face. I swatted it away only to have something else linger for just a second on my neck like an exhalation of breath. My immediate fear was that we were trapped in a room with insects. I could almost imagine the gossamer kiss of wings against my skin or the slight hairy touch of antennae. The thought gave me chills, and I would have given anything at that moment for a light. Instead, all I had was the residual glow of the numerals and symbols on the walls.

Without warning, a torch burst into flames at the end of a long passageway, flooding the room with illumination. What the flames revealed, however, was not what I expected.

“A greenhouse?” Flowers of every imaginable color grew underfoot like a carpet woven from rainbows. Hanging vines draped down from the ceiling, adorning the hall with blooms and greenery. Plant species that were alien to me grew in six foot stalks, climbed the walls and intertwined with drooping ivy.

Every available square inch of this place was covered in lush, thick plant life. The air was redolent with the fragrances of a hundred different varieties of flower. I inhaled deeply and found that, despite the pain in my ribs, the familiar aroma of honeysuckle, jasmine, and hyacinth had a calming effect on me.

The peaceful feeling lasted until I took a step forward and felt something slice into my ankle. I cried out. Midnight moved toward me in response and was cut as well.

Without taking another step, I knelt carefully and touched the yellow petal of a daisy and yelped in surprise as the flower nicked my finger and drew blood.

“Don’t move a muscle.”

Midnight did as he was told. I touched another flower and then another, being careful not to run my finger along the foliage. They weren’t pliable like normal plants, but rigid and sharp. It was like I was trapped in a field full of razor blades.

I tried to lift my leg without brushing up against any of the other potentially lethal flowers, but it was impossible to do. All I got for my efforts were several more lacerations on my ankles that bled more copiously than I expected. In fact, there wasn’t a single way I could move a muscle without touching the leaves of these razor-plants and hurting myself.

“What kind of test is this?” I wondered if Asterion could hear me. “You put me in a hallway filled with razor-blade flowers and want to see how I’ll get out without cutting myself to shreds? Is that it?”

I didn’t really expect the minotaur to be nearby, but he answered me.

“You don’t feel any real pain yet for the things you’ve done. You still haven’t learned that there are consequences. That’s what this room is for. You hurt your wife, and now you’re going to endure some of her pain. ”

“I never did anything to physically harm her!”

“Then you’re getting off lightly. Flesh and blood injuries can be treated, but there isn’t a medicine on the market designed to treat a broken heart.”

“I didn’t do anything! What am I going to have to do to prove it to you?”

“You’re still lying to yourself too, it seems,” Asterion said. “But you’ll eventually realize the value in truth.”

“So what happens if I fail this test?”

“You die,” Asterion spoke as if that should have been plainly obvious. “And I expect you’ll die painfully.”

“And if I do happen to escape?”

“Let’s not get carried away. You beat Cerberus, true enough, but this test will be much, much harder. Cerberus was an obstacle. This is a situation.”

“Care to shed any light on this---situation?”

“Sometimes the most beautiful things are the things that will harm us the most.”

“Anything else, Confucius?”

“These are your trials and tribulations. Not mine.”

And with that he left.