Alex, Jeff, and Matt quietly exited the car—or rather, Alex snuck away hunched over with all the apparent gravitas of breaking into a national bank, Jeff walked upright shortly behind with his smartphone flashlight lighting the way on full brightness, and Matt took up the rear chatting loudly about what he planned to do with all the ‘old rich guy stuff’ he planned to steal.
“Would you two cut that out?!” Alex snapped at the entrance to the hedge maze, glancing around as if guards might spring from the bushes at any moment. “You’re going to get us all caught!”
“Relax, dude,” Matt chuckled. “I don’t even see any cameras, and if there were any guards, we’d have seen them by now.”
“Kind of makes me wonder if whatever’s here is worth stealing,” grumbled Matt. “And why are we breaking in through the garden? The old man have golden statues in there or something?”
“It’s not a garden, it’s a hedge maze,” Alex sighed as he pulled out an amateur locksmith toolkit, really a few Bobby pins and screwdrivers in a plastic bag, and set to work on the old gate entryway. “Legend has it that it’s one of the most likely hiding places of... never mind. You two wouldn’t believe me anyway. I don’t believe it myself, I just... I have to know, you know?”
“No,” Jeff admitted. “What on earth are you taking about?”
“Something worth more than any family jewels or bank bonds,” Alex huffed, not seeing the other two’s eyes light up at the remark.
By the time Alex managed to pry a satisfying ‘click’ from the lock, Matt and Jeff were already on the other side to pull it all the way open for him, having climbed the fence. Alex bit his tongue; why should he complain? If two tag-a-longs who couldn’t tell a first edition from a reprint could help him find T. H. E. Author’s true secret, then why shouldn’t he let them follow their delusions of riches, at least for now?
“Where’s the ‘big secret’ hidden?” Matt asked.
“The center of the maze,” Alex said with his first genuine smile since arriving, setting off into the topiary labyrinth.
Alex managed to make it a full four turns into the winding leafy halls before Jeff abruptly stopped him with a rough tug on the back of his shirt.
“If the secret is in the center, then what’s this?” Jeff asked, pointing Alex in the direction of what should’ve just been another split in the path, but... Wasn’t.
Through an unassuming archway of leaves and white wicker framework, the light of mid morning shone into the nearly-midnight darkness surrounding the trio. A grassy hill extended to a lone tree covered in multi-colored berries, a sprawling forest beyond, a truly gargantuan castle beyond that. Tiny human-like figures with feathery wings and bows and quivers full of heart-tipped arrows wandered on the breeze. Little blue and pink bundles of light flit to and fro like dragonflies. A distant ruby-red bundle of scales and wings and fire that could only have been an actual dragon flew over it all.
“The Centuria Cycle, Book Two, Chapter Three,” Alex said almost instinctively. “This is where Azalea Swift-Hoof gets her quest from Mother Dryad and meets the other protagonist, Jaw-Cracker the Minotauress.”
Before either of the others could stop him, Alex walked forward into the hole in the world.