Secret Novel Chapter 9: What Now? (Patreon)

Birds chirped in the midday sun. Their songs filled the often silent air of the Maze as they danced along the top of the hedge. Their wings fluttered as they move from one wall to the next. Chasing one another without a care in the world. Below the birds laid a large fountain square, and in the square sat a woman.

Madeline continued to look down at her now clean hands, her head rested up against the side of the large ornate fountain. It had been over a day since she killed Marcus. After leaving his body behind, Madeline had run for hours, taking random turns and following any path, not caring where she went. She had to get far away from the body. Madeline finally collapsed in this fountain square as the sun was starting to rise. Since then she hadn’t moved. Hadn’t tried to keep running. Hadn’t eaten. She only washed her hands over and over again, but no matter how many times she did it she could still feel the warm sticky blood on them.

Somewhere in the back of her mind Madeline wondered why she hadn’t been found by the mages yet. She hadn’t run any further than she had while being chased by Marcus, and it’s not like they couldn’t find her if they wanted to. Marcus had, and he was a novice. A novice who had his life cut short. So why hadn’t they come for her? Did they actually honor the promise that if she escaped capture past midnight she could try to find her way home? She had killed Marcus though. She had killed one of their own. Didn’t they care? Care that Marcus was dead by her hands?

Madeline finally looked away from her hands for the first time in hours. She didn’t want to keep thinking about the blood on her hands, but there wasn’t much else to look at besides hedge and the fountain. A fountain that was actually working with clean water flowing out. How it stayed working in the middle of a maze that presumably had no one tending to it for centuries, Madeline didn’t know. Well she could take a good educated guess. Magic.

Madeline looked at the flowing water and licked her dry lips. She hadn’t eaten or drunk at all yesterday, and she was feeling it now. It wasn’t the first time she hadn’t eaten or drunk for a day. During some of her depressive episodes, mostly brought on by the emotional pain her own body gave her, she had a tendency to not eat. During those times when her mom had noticed, she would put food in front of Madeline and wouldn’t leave till the young woman had finished her plate. Madeline let out a small smile for the first time in weeks at the memory of her mom. Emma did her best to make sure her daughter was alright. That she was eating enough. That she was being treated as the woman she was.

What would her mom think of her now though? Sitting here in the middle of the Maze. Two packs with food. A fountain with probably the cleanest drinking water she has ever seen, and not using any of it. She would be upset, but not upset with Madeline. Upset at the hard feelings making her daughter upset. She would make Madeline eat her food and wouldn’t leave till she was full to the point of bursting.

Looking down at her packs, Madeline could feel her mom looking down at her and telling her to eat already. Slowly, but surely, Madeline emptied the contents of both packs and started to sort through the food. There was a decent amount of food in the second pack. Mostly dried food, like the spicy salted meat, but there were also sweets and treats. Apparently giving those going into the Maze treats was a thing elsewhere, too. Madeline did wonder why there was so much food left inside. Had the owner not eaten any or did they just bring a lot? Then Madeline remembered who she thought the owner was. The noble offering standing at the end of the line. If the mages treated him nicely, because of course they would, he was a noble and they were openly hypocritical about him having a nasty limp, then maybe they had him in the carriage and gave him food, so he didn’t need any he brought. Well there was no point in wondering, she would never find the answer, so she just ate the good but spicy food.

Though she brought herself to eat, the young woman didn’t scarf it down. She took her time, savoring the flavorful meat as she looked around the fountain square and the Maze. In an odd way, Madeline found it kind of beautiful here. The hedge was lush and green. Flowers spotted the hedge as well, in a nice variety of color. The stone floor was a mosaic of different colored flat stones. The stone benches spotted around the square were ornately carved and free from weathering. The fountain was also beautifully carved with the base sporting dozens of carved lilies. That all combined with the singing birds made the whole area almost perfect, if it wasn’t for the fact that this was in the middle of the most deadly place in the world.

Taking the last few bites of the salted meat, Madeline looked at all the food supplies she had left. Of actual food that were not sweets, she had a good week's worth, maybe more. If she stretched it and filled in the gaps with all the sweets she would easily have two weeks worth of food. Maybe even three weeks if she really pushed it. Would that be enough food to make it home? There would only be one way to find out. With that Madeline started packing all the food into the bigger and nicer pack, having finally found the resolve to at least attempt to find her way home.

Looking back at all the other items on the ground, Madeline took stock. Three pairs of her clothes, including the ones she was currently wearing. Another four sets of clothes, most of which would need to be altered to fit her frame. A rather nice cloak, though it was made from a thinner material. More of a show piece than actual needed wear. A number of trinkets, something that looked like face powder, though Madeline has never seen any in person and only heard of it, the one book and a small journal. Of course, there was also her knife…

She packed up the clothes that would fit her and put the rest in the smaller pack, as well as all of the trinkets. She did take the book and the other cloak with her in the larger pack, seeing as there was enough room, and her tailor brain really wanted to keep the nice cloak. All that was left was her knife. As she stared at it Madeline couldn’t help but relive killing Marcus. Before the feelings that consumed her not an hour ago could come back up, Madeline tucked the knife, back in the mostly crumbling sheath, into her belt.

Madeline climbed to her feet and hefted the large heavy pack onto her back, leaving the smaller one where it lay. Looking around, she did her best to get orientated. The square had many openings into the Maze beyond in nearly all directions except the back of the square. The back was just one long wall of hedge that went on for a ways into the Maze in both directions. Taking a look at the sky, Madeline got her bearings, and was glad to find that the large flat wall was to the east, not where she was going. Picking an opening at random, Madeline headed off west into the Maze.

[This was a short chapter but I still hope it was good. I think I will start posting two chapters at a time because they are pretty short for a good while.]