“You were wearing that?” asked Wilhelmina with a laugh.
“I’ll have you know this is the height of fashion,” Kit replied. “I made it myself.”
“You’re lucky the hunters didn’t shoot you,” she said.
Kit rolled up the shirt and stuffed it into his pack. “This way,” he said, and led them into the yawning dark. They followed the tunnel deeper into the mountain, their lights playing on the rough surface of the walls. Brother Lazarus took a keen scientific interest in the tunnel shape and rock formation, pausing now and again to examine a particularly interesting feature.
They reached the place where the winding passageway straightened out. Here Kit stopped and flashed his torch along the path he identified as containing the ley line. He had not previously seen it in such clear light, and it appeared different than he remembered. In his mind he had pictured the cave ley as a corridor of straight lines and right angles. But, although the floor of the tunnel was straight and even enough, the walls bulged and wobbled along a length whose end was quickly lost in the darkness beyond.
“Is this the place?” asked Mina, adding her light to his.
“I think so,” replied Kit. “It seems about right.” He produced his ley lamp and held it out. Not so much as a flicker of light emanated from the device. “Does your lamp show anything?”
Wilhelmina brought hers out and waved it around. “Still nothing,” she said. “What do you want to do now?”
“Wait, I guess,” said Kit.
The priest, who had been examining a large crystalline seam in the wall, joined them. “We have to wait a bit,” she told him in German. “The ley isn’t active yet.”
“No?” he asked, gazing at the object in her hand.
Mina glanced down. A faint blue sheen was visible in the tiny openings. Before she could open her mouth to tell Kit, the fickle glint faded and died. She stared at the gizmo, willing it to wake up again. “Come on,” she whispered. “Glow.”
“What are you doing?” asked Kit.
“Shh!” she said. “Watch.”
Even as she spoke, the row of lights flickered to life. Kit dug out his ley lamp and held it up. The device remained dark.
“There is definitely something here,” said Mina. “Keep watching.”
The indigo gleam deepened, strengthening by the second. Kit’s ley lamp, however, remained dead, the carapace a cold lump of metal. Mina’s ley lamp grew brighter.
“How are you doing that?” Kit asked.
“I’m not doing anything,” she said. “It’s just that this new lamp is more powerful than the old one. Upgrades, my friend.”
The priest reached out and moved Kit’s hand until the two devices were side by side. Slowly, the lights in Kit’s ley lamp began to glowa wavering gleam that gradually took hold and intensified until it matched the brightness of Mina’s device.
“Now, that’s interesting,” said Kit. He glanced at Mina’s face, her features bathed in the cool blue glow.
Brother Lazarus tapped his temple with a forefinger. “ S ehr interessant.”
“He says yes, it’s very interesting,” Mina translated.
“I got that,” said Kit. “Thanks.” He flicked his flashlight down the passage. “Well? This is the place. Let’s go.”
Wilhelmina held out her hand to him. “And let’s try to stay together for once, shall we?”
“Good idea.” Kit took her hand, and Brother Lazarus put a hand on her pack and gave Kit a nod.
“Right,” said Kit. “Forward, march.”
He started off with slow, measured strides; when he judged the others were in step, he increased his pace slightly. After a few metres he felt a flutter in the air, a light exhalation of breeze on his skin as from an unseen vent. At the same time he felt the ley lamp in his hand grow warm, and the lights burned with a fierce intensity. He shoved the device into his pocket and readied himself for the jump.
It came a few paces later, and when it did it was so gentle as to be almost imperceptible. The cavern floor shifted under his feet, and the air shivered-as if someone had closed a door in another room. Suddenly he sensed he was standing in a much larger passageway. The jump was complete.
Kit slowed and then stopped to look around, shining his torch over the grey stone walls. The passage opened up a few metres ahead. He stepped through the opening and found himself in a large gallery, the extent of which his flashlight could not illuminate.
“Everyone okay?” he asked.
“Never better,” replied Mina. “You can let go of my hand now.”
“Brother Lazarus? You okay?”
“Molto bene,” came the reply. The priest, lapsing into Italian in his excitement, gazed around the room, shining his torch at a hanging cluster of pale stalactites dripping water like icicles from the roof. “Fantastico!”
“We go on,” said Kit. “There’s a side passage up along here somewhere that leads to another chamber. That’s where the paintings are.”
Kit led his little team into the gallery, staying close to the wall until they came to a gap where the tunnel branched off; the opening was smaller than he remembered. “I think this is the place,” he said. “It’s a tight squeeze, but it opens up a little farther on.”
“After you,” said Wilhelmina.
Kit shrugged through the breach and squeezed along the undulating corridor. As predicted, the channel grew wider by degrees until they could walk without touching either side. They came to a sort of anteroom where Kit paused. “I remember this place. This is where I heard the clinky-clink sound. I thought it was water, but it turned out to be the end of Baby’s chain.”
While Mina explained this to Brother Lazarus, Kit examined the walls with his torchlight. The beam swept the uneven surface of the stone, causing the dips and bulges to leap into sharp relief. “The markings are low down on the wall,” he told them, moving farther into the chamber.
Mina and Brother Lazarus likewise began searching, sweeping the walls with their flashlights. Brother Lazarus moved to the other side, shining his light a few feet off the floor. “Achtung! Sie sind hier!” he called, waving them over.
“He’s found them,” said Mina, hurrying to the place where the priest was kneeling.
Kit joined them and quickly confirmed that, sure enough, there they were-a cluster of enigmatic symbols, just as he had seen them on his first visit to the cave. “Am I right, or am I right?” he asked.
“Let’s check.” Removing her pack, Wilhelmina opened it and brought out a short cardboard tube from which she extracted a roll of paper, which she opened and held up against the nearest symbols. Several seemed to form an identical match, but most, while similar, were entirely different.
“Well,” he said after a moment, “what do you think?”
“I think you may have hit the jackpot here,” declared Wilhelmina. “It certainly seems to be the real thing. I wonder how they got there?”
“Arthur himself maybe? No way to tell.”
“Bene… bene… ” sighed Brother Lazarus. He put down his pack and extracted a beautifully crafted Leica. With exaggerated care he removed the lens cap and dusted the lens with a soft cloth, then fitted a flash hood. He directed Mina to train her torch on the nearest symbols, took a light reading, set the aperture, then created a human tripod by turning the camera upside down and bracing the bottom against his forehead as he knelt. He refocused the lens and triggered the shutter. There was a silky click, and the flashbulb popped, illuminating the entire chamber with brilliant white light that seared their eyes, blinding them and causing large purple dots to obscure their field of vision. “Einen Moment,” he said. Then, fitting another flashbulb, he counted off three and snapped another picture.
Each section of the wall was duly photographed and the camera stowed before continuing on. The next chamber they visited was larger still, and it contained the animals Kit had seen. “I give you the Hall of Extinct Animals,” he announced, shining his torch onto a row of chubby horses. Below them was a grumpy-looking rhinoceros, and farther down a bison with forward-swept horns and a young one protected beneath its mother’s belly; a pair of delicate antelope leapt on the adjacent wall, together with a bear on hind legs, its claws extended.