The Maze

“Stop! Come back!”

The warning calls came too late.

Patrick watched as William Tyndale stepped onto the main road. The sun shined on his charcoal cloak for just a moment. Then several men in gold tunics appeared. Two men grabbed William’s arms.

Harry shouted, “There’s another Reformer for you! This way!” The law student turned and lunged at Patrick.

Patrick zigzagged as if avoiding a soccer opponent.

Harry rushed at Patrick again, but the man’s foot caught on a cobblestone. He fell face down into a pile of rotting corncobs.

Suddenly Peter was at Patrick’s side. “Come with me,” he said.

“You followed us,” Patrick said. “You shouted the warning.”

“Of course,” Peter said. “Now hurry.”

Peter yanked Patrick’s arm, and off the boys ran.

At the second corner, Patrick turned. He looked back. Three men in gold tunics and knee-high boots were running after them. The red feathers in their brown hats bobbed with each step the men took.

“We’re being followed,” Patrick said. “Let’s go to your house.”

“Yes!” Peter said. “We shall lock the door and then hide Mr. Tyndale’s papers! Run!”

The boys turned two more corners. They were much faster than the middle-aged guards.

Suddenly the Poyntz girls bolted out of a connecting alley. “Some of the emperor’s guardsmen are already inside our house,” Addie said. “They do seek Mr. Tyndale’s papers.”

Patrick gasped. All that work gone! He turned pale.

Margaret giggled. “Fear not,” she said. “Mother hid them under the potatoes in the root cellar.”

Addie looked to her older brother and Patrick. “Where should we go?”

Patrick needed help. “What about the print shop? Mert will hide me.”

“Aye. But let us not tarry,” Peter said. “The men will soon be upon us.”

The children ran again. Patrick had thought Margaret would slow them down. But her little legs whirled with effort. She wasn’t far behind.

Patrick stopped at the shop’s back door. He twisted the doorknob. It was locked. He pounded on the door.

“No one is there,” Peter said.

Addie was keeping a lookout for the men in gold tunics. She said, “They do approach. We must shake them off.”

Patrick wished Whit would come back. He needed him most right now. Then he got an idea. He said, “Does your friend Mr. Whittaker live near here? Can we go there?”

“His house is all closed up.” Margaret sounded upset again. “We haven’t seen him in a while.”

“Can we check there?” Patrick asked.

“’Tis our only chance,” Peter said. “This way.”

Peter led them out of the alley. It was brighter and cleaner on the wider street, but Patrick thought the soldiers could spot the children more easily.

He noticed there were few windows. If a shop had them, they were small and high. The children passed the open doors of a bakery and a bookstore. They whizzed by shops that sold wine or jewelry or spices.

Patrick paused in front of a drapery store on a corner spot. He looked inside. Large bolts of fabric lay on tables. They made a solid wall in the back of the shop.

“Quickly, let’s hide in here!” he called to the Poyntz children. He slipped inside the door.

Addie, Peter, and Margaret followed. All four children ducked behind the mounds of cloth.

The shop’s clerk was in the back helping a woman buy fabric. The translation earbud let Patrick understand their conversation. The lady was a merchant’s wife. She needed some velvet to cover her chairs. She seemed picky about the shade of orange. Patrick hoped the clerk wouldn’t notice them.

“Margaret,” Peter said, “you are the smallest. The guards probably did not see you. Will you please hide near the door and peek outside? Let us know when the emperor’s soldiers pass by.”

Margaret nodded several times. She took her job seriously. She crouched behind the open door. She peered through the crack between the wall and the door.

Patrick peeked under the table. He watched Margaret as she kept a lookout.

Several minutes passed.

The customer left after ordering pumpkin-colored velvet. The clerk began putting bolts of fabric back on a nearby table.

Suddenly Margaret turned around. Her eyes bulged like ping-pong balls. She mouthed something, but Patrick didn’t understand.

Then he saw the light-brown boots of three soldiers step inside the fabric store.

Patrick’s heart pounded. All the air emptied out of his lungs. Time stood still.

Addie closed her eyes. Her mouth moved silently in prayer.

Patrick prayed to God for help.

Footsteps moved toward the front of the shop.

“Doth the emperor require fabric?” It was the clerk. He added, “’Twould bring me pleasure to assist you on his behalf.”

“No, no,” one soldier said. “We seek criminals. Children.”

“No criminals here,” the clerk said. “Be off. Or you shall frighten my customers.”

Patrick heard the soldiers in gold tunics leave. One of them grumbled, “Let us go different ways. You search the bookstall while I look in the wine shop. They could not have gone far.”

Patrick finally relaxed. He sucked in air. Margaret was the first to move. She rushed toward the clerk. She hugged his leg. “Thank you, Mr. De Smet.”

Peter came out from behind the table next. “You lied for us!” he said.

The clerk shook his head. “There be no criminals here. Only the Poyntz children and their new friend.”

Addie stood next to Patrick. She was still praying.

“We’re safe,” Patrick said to her. “You can stop praying.”

She opened her eyes. Her expression seemed perplexed. “I was thanking God that the mean soldiers left us alone. Aren’t we supposed to always be giving thanks?”

Patrick felt a flush of embarrassment creep up his neck. “You’re right,” he said. “I forget to do that. Thanks for the reminder.”

He and Addie then came out from behind the fabric bolts.

Mr. De Smet said, “I’ve heard of you, young Patrick. Mert and the other printers say you’re a boy genius.”

Patrick lifted his palms in protest. “No,” he said. “Mr. Whittaker is the genius.”

That reminded Patrick about finding Mr. Whittaker. “We need to leave now, Mr. De Smet. Thanks again for your help.”

“Anything for the Reformers,” the clerk said. “I hope we’ll meet again. And soon.”

Margaret went out of the shop first. Then she waved the others out. “All’s clear,” she said. Peter, Addie, and Patrick left the shop and walked quickly down the street.

They soon came to a large stone house on a corner. It had two turrets, and the front entrance was a gate. These features made it look like a small castle.

Looks a little bit like Whit’s End in Odyssey, Patrick thought.

Peter shook the gate. “It’s locked.”

“I told you it was closed,” Margaret said. She kicked one of the iron bars. “No one listens to me.”

“You’d better listen to me now,” Addie said. “They’re coming!”

Patrick turned. Four men were approaching the stone house. Three of them were in gold tunics and hats with red feathers. The fourth man was too far away for his face to be seen.

One of the emperor’s soldiers shouted, “There go the children!”

Addie said, “We have been here before. We should go to the garden, fast. We can hide in the maze.” She started to run.

Peter grabbed Margaret’s wrist. The two Poyntzes followed Addie.

Patrick paused to take another look at the group of men. This time he recognized the fourth man’s face. And his courage nearly failed him.

Addie called to Patrick from the maze’s entrance. An arched beech tree marked the entrance. “Are you coming or not?” she shouted.

Patrick ran as quickly as he could. He passed under the beech. The maze walls were made of boxwood bushes. They stood about six feet high and were trimmed neatly. The pathway was barely two feet wide. It seemed to be made for children, not adults.

Addie ran. She practically flew through the twists and turns. Patrick had a difficult time keeping up with the Poyntz children.

He heard the men follow them into the maze.

“There they go! Turn right.” It was Harry Phillips’s voice.

Patrick’s heart sank. Harry was tall enough to see over the hedge.

Patrick heard two of the men yelling. But their angry Flemish words sounded like static. Patrick guessed that the earbud wouldn’t translate cursing.

Addie led them through a dozen zigs and zags. Finally, the children arrived at a pond.

Addie said, “This is where we lose them. Only one exit leads to the door.”

Patrick looked at the pond. It was stocked with large fish. A couple of them swam near the water’s surface. “What kind of fish are those?”

“Don’t ask that,” Margaret said, “or Addie will tell you all about the pike perch and bass.”

“We don’t have time for a fishing lecture,” Peter said. “Which way, Addie?”

Addie turned right and entered a very narrow path. The bushes pinched Patrick’s shoulders. It didn’t seem like a path at all.

But suddenly they were at a dead end.

“There used to be a door right there,” Addie said. “It’s gone. It’s a wall now.”

“You went down the wrong path,” Margaret said.

“I didn’t,” Addie said. “I used to fish here every day. You know that.”

“Well, we can’t climb out,” Peter said. “The wall is too high.”

Harry’s voice came from several rows over. “Give me a boost!” he ordered. Suddenly the traitor’s head popped over one of the bushes. A lump of corn was smeared on his cheek.

“There you are!” Harry said. “You’re trapped! It’s only a matter of time before you’ll be locked up in a deep, dark dungeon. It’s what you and that traitor William Tyndale deserve.”

The words deep and dark reminded Patrick of his first adventure in England. He remembered a secret room in the back of a deep, dark cave.

Patrick pushed on the bricks one by one.

“What are you doing?” Peter asked.

“Looking for a way in. I bet there’s a secret entrance.”

“Mr. Whittaker wanted to make this a fortress,” Peter said. “He wouldn’t leave a way in for the enemy.”

“But he would make a way for a friend,” Patrick said. “Help me.”

“I don’t know a way out of the maze except this one,” Addie said. “Let’s give it a try.”

It was Margaret who found the clue. Her small fingers loosened a stone near the ground. She pulled it out.

“There’s a funny shape where the stone was,” she said.

Patrick squatted and looked at it. It was the shape of a shield. He took the shield trinket out of his pocket. It was the exact same shape and size.

He pushed the gold shield onto the shape behind the stone.

He heard a click. He put the gold shield back in his pocket. “Peter, help me push,” Patrick said.

The boys threw their shoulders against the wall. It creaked and groaned, but it cracked open.

“It’s the same door, just with stones above it now,” Addie said.

“And a secret key,” Margaret said. She was small enough to get in quickly.

Peter and Patrick pushed harder. The door opened farther. Addie slipped inside next. Then Patrick. Peter turned sideways and pushed his way through. One of the buttons on his shirt popped off.

Harry shouted, “There they are! They’re going inside.” He and the three men were fighting the boxwood only ten feet away. The four of them were so large that the bushes scratched and tore at their clothes.

Peter and Patrick pushed on the door. It was closing slowly. Addie and Margaret placed their hands on the door too.

Together, all four forced the door closed until it clicked and locked.

Patrick heard more static in his earbuds. The soldiers and Harry were very angry indeed.