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London gardens weren’t anything like this She had the fleeting sensation that this lected for years, and she fancied it was a sort ofto consume her

She shook her head as if that could dispense with the fear that suddenly gripped her Lily wanted to prove to herself that she wasn ’t afraid If she were to make a fresh start in her personal life, she would need to eured, what better sketching opportunity than the bizarre Escher-esqueand was thrust into a co sed up, beco one with the plant itself She hadn’t noticed the birdsong that had ridden along the rustling breeze until its sudden absence left only the sound of her own breath echoing around her

She was standing in a sreen leaves, dark fruits, and flowers fores offered the into eways

Momentarily hypnotized by the effect, Lily took a tentative step through one of the passages Alarulped back the now-consistent throb of unease with the thought that she ’d go just a few feet to grab a peek around the first corner or two and then turn i her steps exactly

She took her first left and then her first left again--just enough to be co Everywhere she looked there were shades of green and openings into reen shadows

Abruptly, claustrophobia seized Lily’s chest and she decided it was tiet out i that she would dash off once back outside the labyrinth , then confidently took her first right, then first right again But instead of taking her back to where she started, that placed her in another green alcove, which opened up to three other intersecting corridors

Fighting back a wave of panic, Lilyher in the now deafening silence "I ht is all " Lily backtracked left and left again to return to what she thought was her first stopping point

Now she was alarht she ’d retraced her steps exactly, but she was standing in another, larger alcove for shrub She studied the space--could this have been her original starting point? Were there only three openings in the first rooain This time she knew she was completely lost as she peeked her head into as to be her second left only to see aonto just two other passage s She jerked her head back out of the alcove--she knew she hadn’t seen that rooet even deeper into this maze than she already was

"Think, Lily, think" Wasn’t there some sort of law of physics she could turn to in this situation? Like, a law of the universe stating that, if you keep turning left, you’ll eventually get back to where you started? Okay, she thought, so I’m no scientist, but there h this

She remembered the mazes that she loved to do as a kid This damnedcould it be, anyhen she hadn ’t even seen it froy, she decided, would be to plow bravely forward, leaving some sort of trail as she went Surely, eventually, she would find her way back out

Another hour passed, and Lily’s le -h theevery first right until she hit a dead end, then retrace her steps and start the pattern over again taking every second right, and so on She scuffed her heel into the path as she went to mark her trail

Lily ca in as the only entrance to the smallest alcove yet Directly across fro a pale gray stone carving about three feet by three feet square Lily couldn ’t fight the artist in her and, transfixed, slowly approached for a better look The niche itself had long since becoet a good look at the carving, shuddering as a cluainst her hand

It had been done in very hard rock, Lily thought probably granite, which surprised her since it would ’ve taken soet lines this delicate into rock that hard Even the ancient Egyptians hadn’t figured that one out It had a surprisingly s continually exposed to the elee of the square, re Lily of the chevron motif popular in ancient Greek sculpture Every four inches or so, though, the chevron pattern was interrupted by one of ht were runic characters like the kind found on Celtic knickknacks at the Glasgow airport tourist shop

The center, though, hat really captured her attention:lines carved in rudimentary shapes, interspersed with deeply carved points Blurring her eyes, she iined she could see simple human and animal shapes represented in the foruess, she would say that she had discovered an ancient star chart, but surely so of that nature would be in some museum somewhere, not all the way out here No, this had to have once belonged to soet away from him It was just the sort of lawn orna sold side by side with those silly gargoyles that had becoet over how smooth and cold the stone was The clean quality of the lines suggested to her that this had to be arden statue She slowly traced her finger along each line, all the while wondering in the back of her mind what kind of tools an artisan would need to carve with this kind of precision Smooth line Point S in the upper left corner, Lily ran her finger slowly over the outlining edge of the carving, feeling the chevron pattern flow into a runic character then back to the chevron pattern again A randoht onder how it is that the blind can learn to read Braille She sensed that her own finger was beco more sensitive to the rhythm of the pattern, and that if she were only to concentrate a bit more, she too would be able to close her eyes and take in the entirety of the ier returned to the upper left corner of the carving, she slowly and systean to trace each line and each point in the center of the stone Lily was torn froer in the last point at the end of the last line, the ground beneath her feet jolted She bit back a shriek as herThe earth heaved again A crooked half smile somewhere between amusement and terror quirked her features as Lily’s last conscious thought was how ironic it was to die in an earthquake while on vacation outside San Francisco