I gawked at the dome and the radiance it emanated while I tried to understand what I saw. It was like glass as it reflected the labyrinth in the smooth silvery surface. Flames consumed more than half the maze.
Back toward the entrance, green bushes remained, but the fire was spreading toward them. The smoke drifting across the surface of the dome made it difficult to see everything about the labyrinth, but I could make out enough of it.
“What the…?” Hawk’s voice trailed off as the question died on his lips.
“I don’t understand,” one of the humans said.
“Is it a map?” I asked.
“It’s something,” Lix said.
There had to be something important about it, but I couldn’t figure out what. Closing my eyes, I rubbed at my temples while I tried to puzzle out what the mirror image of the maze could mean.
Opening my eyes, I studied the ceiling version of the labyrinth more intently as a yellow, magical sun shone down on the maze. That mirror sun illuminated our labyrinth; I didn’t know how, but a lot of the impossible had proven to be possible since the gateway opened.
As I studied the reflection more closely, I discovered the entrance to the minotaur’s cave, but that didn’t make it easier to locate where we were in the labyrinth.
“Look,” Corson said and pointed at the maze above us. “There’s the minotaur.”
It took me a minute to see where he was pointing, and then I spotted the hulking creature smashing through the hedges. The minotaur was cutting through a section that wasn’t yet on fire, but it was only a matter of minutes before the fire reached it. If I could see the minotaur, then we had to be somewhere on there too.
My eyes narrowed as excitement pulsed through my veins; it was like a giant game of Where’s Waldo, except we were Waldo. Then I spotted the pile of bones and straight ahead of that…
Therewe were!
The height of the bushes made seeing us difficult, but a cluster of what looked like ants grouped near a dead end only twenty feet away from the encroaching fire. I searched for the man and woman the minotaur brought into the maze, but I didn’t see them anywhere. I hoped they managed to avoid the flames.
“There!” Wren shouted and pointed at the dome. “It’s the exit!”
I followed her finger and saw the opening of another tunnel carved into the other side of the mountain. Ithadto be the exit, and it was only a hundred yards to our left.
“Why is there a map on the ceiling?” Hawk asked.
“Maybe it’s a reward for those who made it this far,” Randy suggested. “Because I doubt many do.”
“The minotaur doesn’t strike me as the type to reward anyone.”
“He’s right,” Corson said.
He was right, but I couldn’t think of why else a mirror image of the maze would be on the ceiling. And then, it hit me.
If itwasa mirror image, then it was reversed.
And suddenly, I understood why the minotaur rewarded its prey for making it this far; it wasn’t rewarding them at all. Worried that if its prey made it this far, it might break free, the beast added this little trick to the labyrinth so it could confuse them and ensure they didn’t make it out alive.
The creature probably added the sun not only to offer light in the maze but also to get its prey excited by the possibility of almost being free of this place. This mirror maze and the sun was meant to distract them from thinking about what they were seeing.
“The exit isn’t over there,” I said and pointed to our right. “It’s over there. It’s a mirror, and it’s meant to disorient the minotaur’s captives if they make it this far. It’s just one more trap.”
“What makes you say that?” Lix asked.
“It’s a mirror image, which means everything is reversed. So instead of the exit being to our left, it’s actually to our right.”
Their heads went from the dome to the left and then to the right as they tried to decide what to believe.
“I think she’s right,” Wren said.
“So do I,” Hawk said. “If someone made it this far, the minotaur is going to do everything it can to keep them from escaping. And giving them the hope of freedom, only to tear it away, is one more cruelty the minotaur can deliver.”
