Part III

The stranger was not lying.

High in the ice-covered mountains, far, far away from the heat-washed valley where Alice and her family lived among the cacti, a low building curled around the bends of a road. A tall tower pointed to the sky with many glass windows and wooden porches on every level, high and low.

Cacti:

Plural for cactus, which is a prickly plant and usually looks fat and green. Sometimes pink blossoms bloom from its branches.