ꜱᴄᴀʀ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋᴇʏꜱ

Chapter 37: Cazzlyn

Cazzlyn stood in front of the hedges of the maze. She was thinking over her options. Left, right, or straight. Pink roses blocked the view of the other hedges, blocking her escape. Somehow she had woken up here. In the middle of a maze. Instead she ran her hand over the leaves. Rheton had told her about the mazes in Retano. Usually a thorn would snag on your finger if you were going the right way.

"You can do this," Cazzlyn shook out her free hand and narrowed her eyes at the thick hedges in front of her. "Don't think of Castilla, this wasn't the maze she died in," Follow Rheton's tips. Snag the thorn. She was one hundred percent sure she was in the middle of the maze, the circle part. At least she had somewhere to go if she messed this up. Suddenly there was laughing from the left. A chill ran up her spine. Cazzlyn fidgeted with her hair.

"Surprised the maze hasn't shifted,"

"There not planning on shifting it till someone triggers the censor,"

Cazzlyn leaned her ear closer to the sounds of the voices. They were talking about the directions of the maze. Bad idea for them. Good for her.

"Have you heard? Both royal families caught three of those fugitives," Her heart sank a bit at that comment. Was Rheton alive? "One of the guys made it out."

A dark chuckle echoed through the hedge. "You have to learn to be a sneak when you're labeled a criminal in every single one of the kingdoms."

A slight hum from the other voice. "They haven't found any traces of the wind girl. The one with the white hair, sneak."

Cazzlyn raised her eyebrows in amusement at the sneak comment. She was definitely feeling like a sneak. "I can sense someone listening, Ethan. I feel it,"

She froze momentarily in her spot as she heard shuffling of feet.

"Your senses are off, promise you, Nadine," Cazzlyn's gut churned as she recognized the voice. Ethan from the ball.

Nadine grunted angrily. "Reylyn would tell me my senses are not off, why do you always doubt me?"

"She wasn't always right, was she?"

Nadine's voice faltered slightly. "No. But she believed in me more then you do,"

Cazzlyn's hand caught on a thorn as she felt blood trickle down her hand. The maze shifted suddenly, trapping her. The breeze's temperature dropped ice cold. She shivered at her own breeze.

"The maze," Nadine's voice snapped Cazzlyn out of her trance. "It shifted, someone set off the sensor,"

Cazzlyn straightened out her now ripped leggings, though there wasn't much fixing she could do. Her upper thigh was burning in pain.

"I'm going to check it out," Ethan grumbled. "There probably panicking, unless there some great escapist with no feel for pain,"

Cazzlyn took a deep breath and gripped onto the hedges leaves as if there was a chance they could hold her weight. She plummeted to the ground. Her head began to spin, she barely made out the faint line of the maze shifting. Cazzlyn willed herself up to follow the shadows of the maze. She held herself up by placing her hand on the hedges and gripping onto the vines.

It shifted left as she limped over to it, then right. She followed it determinedly. Her eyes caught on a smoking hedge. Near the top rested a roll of bandages and a crisped paper, along with something metal. The piece of metal was a silver feather necklace. Seeing metal was surely a trend near Retano, wasn't it?

Cazzlyn dismissed the burning hedge, and followed the direction of where the maze was leading to her. To her surprise, the ledge led her to the smoking one. "How is this relevant to getting out of this maze?" she scoffed at the magical hedge, but she clipped the necklace around her neck. She reached up to grab the bandage and the paper, but the middle of the burning hedge shifted into a mirror.

Rheton was kneeling in front of the king, his wrists tied tight behind his back. His head was bowed down. King Basil smirked down at the struggling Rheton.

"You're lucky we don't execute you right now, this very minute," he laughed darkly. "And Cazzlyn won't be able to save you from your misery, will she?"

Tears welled in Cazzlyn's eyes. She swallowed them back and watched fearfully.

Rheton raised his head to the king and glared. His cheeks were stained with dirt and blood. Probably from the king's information abuse. "She might not know what you're doing right now," his jaw clenched. "But the moment she finds out, you might not be fine by the next time you wake up. She won't hesitate to hurt you, she's too kind to kill you."

The image of Rheton cleared to the fading sunrise of her kingdom. Suddenly a hand reached out for her.

Cazzlyn let out a relieved sigh at the end. This was her chance to save someone, not let them die at the king's mercy.