A man stepped through the arch. He was wearing a long coat, a homburg hat and black gloves, and he was carrying a cane.
'Von Stralick!' Aubrey cried.
The Holmland spy moved quickly, swinging his walking stick. Aubrey leapt to one side and collided with the marble pillar. He hit his head, hard, and stars jumped around in his brain. His legs felt like jelly.
With a shout, George launched himself from his hiding place. Von Stralick had been staring at Aubrey, but lashed out, backhanded, at this new assailant.
George ducked, took the blow on his upper arm, then launched a tremendous uppercut.
Von Stralick's feet lifted off the floor. His eyes rolled up in his head and he toppled.
George stood over the spy. He unclenched his fists and rubbed his knuckles. 'Aubrey. Are you all right?'
'Head's ringing like a bell, but not too bad otherwise.'
'I didn't see who it was. I just saw him attack you.'
'It was a mistake, I think. He was on a short fuse, obviously expecting danger.'
Von Stralick groaned, opened his eyes and sat up. George fetched the Holmlander's hat from where it had rolled some yards away.
'Fitzwilliam. Doyle.' Von Stralick prodded his jaw and flinched. 'You beat me here. How did you find it?'
'Do you think I'm going to reveal my methods, von Stralick?'
Von Stralick eyed George. 'You caught me by surprise, Doyle, otherwise you wouldn't have touched me.'
'No doubt,' George said. 'But I'm willing to give you a chance in the ring, any time you'd like.'
'Ach, I've no time for such indulgences,' von Stralick said after a moment, waving George away. 'And we don't have much time, either, to find what we've come for.'
'There's nothing here,' George protested.
'Yes there is,' Aubrey said. He put his hand in his jacket pocket and took out some brick pieces. He had to hold them tightly to prevent them from flying through the air. His hand was pulled down toward the tessellated floor. 'The Heart of Gold must be down there somewhere.'
'How'd you find this place, von Stralick?' George demanded as he extended a hand and helped the Holmlander to his feet.
'My methods are less mysterious than Fitzwilliam's.' He brushed off his coat and took his hat. 'My superiors told me about it. It's a long-time Holmlander refuge, for use in emergencies.'
'Like during a blockade of the city?' Aubrey asked. 'And which superiors would this be? The ones who know what's going on, or the ones who don't?'
'I don't trust any of them,' von Stralick said bitterly.
'Probably a good idea, that,' George said. He glanced through the door. 'Hello. Looks as if we have company.'
'Furtive or otherwise?' Aubrey asked.
'Otherwise, this time. Both of them.'
Aubrey went to the entrance. Striding along the path were two men Aubrey had seen before, in unpleasant circumstances. He backed away from the entrance. 'Two people,' he told von Stralick. 'A fake police captain and one of the men who stole the Heart of Gold.'
Von Stralick took a quick look and grimaced. 'Muller and Schnagel. The two rogue Holmland agents.'
'Friends of yours?' George asked.
'Renegades. Very, very bad men.' Von Stralick scowled. 'They were the ones who tried to kill me at the airfield the other night.'
'Why?' Aubrey asked.
'They felt my presence was not helpful.' Von Stralick frowned. 'I do not want to be found by them.'
'Nor do we,' Aubrey said.
AUBREY, GEORGE AND VON STRALICK HELD THEIR BREATH as Muller and Schnagel entered the temple.
Muller had abandoned his police uniform. He wore a round, flat cap over his grizzled hair, and a long black coat. His eye-patch gave him a suitably sinister appearance. Schnagel had a broad face and hands that seemed oversized for his stocky body.
They watched as the Holmlanders glanced around the empty space. Muller peered into the shadowed recesses between the pillars, checking for intruders, while Schnagel walked around the perimeter.
Aubrey held tight and refused to acknowledge the tickle in his upper lip. There's no reason for them to look up, he thought fervently. No reason at all.
Levitation spells had never been his specialty, but he found it was true that the prospect of imminent death concentrated the mind wonderfully. He'd managed to cobble together a spell that solidified the shafts of light streaming from the windows in the dome. He, George and von Stralick were able to clamber up them – despite the fragments of brick that pulled Aubrey in the wrong direction – and perch on the ledge just above the tops of the pillars. Aubrey was barely able to cancel the spell before Muller and Schnagel entered.
If the Holmlanders glanced up, they'd see three figures clinging to the interior of the dome, grasping at corbels and pilasters. Fortunately for Aubrey and his friends, the two Holmlanders were much more concerned with looking down than up.
While he desperately tried to hang on while not making a sound, he found himself staring at the pattern on the floor. The more he stared, the more intrigued he became until it resolved itself into a giant, many-pointed star reaching right to the walls. It was entirely made of red, black and white tiles, mostly triangles, but with carefully placed squares to keep the pattern regular.
Aubrey soon realised that Muller and Schnagel were paying just as much attention to the pattern as he was. After some discussion and pointing, Muller stood back against the wall as Schnagel went into a bizarre, skipping dance.
The Holmlander lifted his knees high, hopping, turning, swivelling and hopping again. He moved backward and forward, sometimes three steps backward for every forward step. His general direction was in a large circuit around the array. His face was serious, his lips moving slightly. Muller was watching keenly, and his lips were moving as well, in time with Schnagel's dance.
Patterns, Aubrey told himself. It's all in the patterns. Schnagel's dance was not random – he was stepping on specific points of the star pattern.
The Holmlander finished with a flourish: a double step on a black point, then a leap over a red one to land, with both feet, on another black point. He stood there, panting, and nodded. 'Done,' he said in Holmlandish.
'Good,' Muller replied.
A deep, grinding sound came from the bowels of the temple. Schnagel wiped his brow. Muller nodded and touched his eye-patch.
Aubrey felt a surge of magic. His fingers tingled, then – for an alarming moment – went numb. He clutched at his handholds, and was grateful when the numbness receded.
Below, the middle circle of the pattern trembled. With a grating rumble, it began to descend, slowly. Soon, Aubrey could see a ladder leading into the depths. A low growl came from the darkness below the floor, which caused some consternation in the Holmlanders. Muller took a revolver from under his coat and gestured to the ladder.