“Exactly,” replied Marco.
“Me, too,” said Ian. “But I hardly dared tell you. I thought it was just my own cowardice.”
Nataniel smiled almost imperceptibly. “Hardly! Whatever you are, Ian, you’re definitely not a coward!”
“You don’t know that.”
“It doesn’t hurt to be slightly scared. If not, you’re stupid. How are you feeling, Gabriel?”
The boy started. “Me? I’ve been afraid of wetting my trousers ever since we stepped out of that glade.”
“So we all feel the same. An almost frantic sense of anxiety.”
“So we should,” said Marco. “It’s very obvious that this is Tengel the Evil’s ‘other place’. What Sunniva the Elder described. But what did he hide here? What did he hide under this block of stone?”
Tova didn’t reply. She thought she knew what was hidden under the slab, and the thought made her feel extremely ill at ease.
It looked very much like a gravestone ...
Tova could tell by the faces of the others that they felt the same way.
“We need to move the stone,” said Marco sadly.
“Yes,” answered Nataniel.
They all squatted and touched the edge of the stone.
It was Ian who found the solution.
“Here,” he said. “There’s something here.”
Nataniel copied him. “Yes, you’re right. There’s a mechanism here. Primitive but ... Tova, see if you can feel another one where you’re standing. On the same side.”
Tova fumbled with her hand under the ice-cold stone.
“Yes. The slab is resting on something.”
Marco stood next to Tova. His sensitive fingers had discovered a detail. “It’s as if the slab is clinging onto the surface. It’s very simple, Nataniel. If you and Ian lift over there, Tova and I will do likewise here.”
They tried.
Gabriel, who was lying on his stomach and had a better perspective, said: “No, push the slab backwards. Move it in the opposite direction of what you think!”
They did so, lifting at the same time – and with a natural movement, the stone slid down on its side.
Ian said, matter-of-fact: “That was simple, wasn’t it? When you know the trick.”
A dark hole had appeared. Automatically, all five took out their torches. Gabriel was pleased to see that they all had good-quality searchlights.
It was so dark outside that they needed some light. Together, they let the cones of light shine down into the opening.
It wasn’t exactly a staircase. Only naturally placed stones, so that it was possible, with some difficulty, to get down into a chamber that was tall enough for a person to stand upright.
“What do you see?” asked Tova.
“Nothing,” replied Marco. “Certainly not a burial chamber.”
Nataniel was somewhat nervous and said: “Let’s go down. My intuition tells me that it’s not safe up in the glade anymore.”
Gabriel looked over his shoulder. Perhaps he was imagining things, but he thought he saw the tall dark shadows of evil creatures all around the glade.
“Yes, let’s get down there,” he said.
Anything seemed better than the glade, with its creeping, invisible horror.
Very quickly, all five were down.
Ian asked: “Ought we to put the slab back on top?”
“No,” said Nataniel. “I think we should leave that route open. Besides, I don’t think we can manoeuvre it from here.”
They found that they didn’t need light down there because Nataniel was now radiating so much strong, blue light that it was more than enough.
That had to be a legacy from the black angels. It said in the chronicles that Imre had once appeared with a bluish glow about him.
Imre ... that had been Marco. Of course.
Nataniel was still fascinated by the blue, dancing flames around his arms and hands. His clothes also shone.
The crypt was so cramped that they couldn’t see anything at all.
“A rectangular, empty room,” muttered Marco. “This couldn’t have been it.”
“Perhaps what was once here has turned into earth,” said Tova quietly.
Their expressions showed that they understood what she meant. If so, all they had done had been in vain. If it was simply a grave that contained nothing at all.
But they couldn’t give up that easily!
Suddenly, Nataniel said: “Shine your torches here. Here, on this wall!”
All the torches were directed onto an area on the short wall. Marco followed a small crack in the wall with his finger.
Then he said: “There’s something here. Unless I’m mistaken, it’s a kind of door or gate.”
In the blue light that he had created himself, Nataniel said: “That’s exactly what I thought. But there are no hinges here.”
Marco answered: “There’s nothing here. Nothing at all.”
Tova’s face became almost visionary. “There’s an entrance ... leading to what?”
Nataniel made a calculation. “From what I gather, it leads straight into the mountain.”
“Yes,” said Ian. “The mountain wall is directly above us.”
Tova decided the matter. “Then we must go inside, no matter what!”
“Careful with your promises now,” Nataniel admonished her. But Tova’s face still glowed with the visions that were working away in her subconscious mind. The others gave her a questioning look. They realized that she was picking up something.
Gabriel broke their concentration. “Can you hear something?” he whispered breathlessly.
They listened.
“Yes,” Marco answered. “Do you mean that quiet whirring?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean.”
“It’s coming from inside the mountain,” said Nataniel. “Behind this wall.”
“Could it be a brook?” Ian asked, his eyes showing that he was disappointed.
“No, I don’t think so,” replied Marco slowly. “It sounds somehow ... roaring. But from so far away that it turns into a whirr.”
After a long silence, Nataniel said: “How are you, Tova?”
“I’m picking up something. Can you help me, please? Somebody wants to get in touch with us!”
“Ian and Gabriel, please remain silent,” said Nataniel.
He and Marco took Tova’s hands and they all concentrated on picking up the message that Tova sensed.
As they stood there without a word, they could hear the whirring from inside the mountain much more clearly. In addition, another far more frightening sound could be heard. All five of them picked it up. The glade was now populated. Whispering creatures were coming closer.
Gabriel had an inkling of who it was. He didn’t like it at all, and looking at Ian’s scared face he understood that he wasn’t the only one who