able to manipulate it, or create it. Maybe he saw the future and was able to shape it. I don’t know. He was better at reading my thoughts than I was at reading his. Anyway, he took me down there to sit with him while he did it, and while I was there, a ley portal opened up. It registered on your ley lamp. I fell through it and ended up in the most breathtakingly beautiful place I’ve ever seen-definitely not of this world.”
“The Bone House created the portal?”
“Either that, or the clansmen built the hut there because they sensed the portal was there.”
“Just like the mound builders who made Black Mixen Tump,” concluded Mina. “They knew it was there.”
“Exactly,” agreed Kit. “It seems that primitive humans were far more sensitive to earth energies and things like that than we are.”
“Which is why they marked them,” suggested Wilhelmina, thinking of the standing stones, wells, dolmens, mounds, crosses, cairns, and such scattered willy-nilly across the whole wide world. “Okay, so you fell through the floor of the Bone House and ended up in this amazing place-what happened then?”
“I walked around a little, taking it all in, and I came to a pool of light-I don’t mean an area of sunlight in a shadowy place, I mean an actual pool filled with a sort of liquid light-think of honey made of light, or… or…” Words failed him, so he shrugged. “You’ll just have to see it for yourself to understand. I was standing there looking at it when I heard a noise on the other side of the pool.” Once again Kit’s eyes lost focus as he revisited the memory of a miracle.
“Then what happened?” asked Mina softly.
“I look up, and this man appears, and he’s carrying the body of a woman…” His voice took on the reverent quality of one reporting a marvellous dream. “She was wrapped in a long white robe and had long black hair; her skin was sickly pale, like grey clay. She was obviously dead in his arms. He comes up to the pool and without a second’s hesitation he simply strides into the pool with the dead woman and sinks down into the liquid light. He keeps walking until they are completely submerged in this syrupy liquid.” Kit shook his head in awe at the memory. “They seem to be under for a long time- but it must have been only a few seconds… you know how time stands still? But then when he surfaces again, the woman is alive.”
Wilhelmina gave him a sceptical look. “Are you absolutely certain she was dead? You only saw her across the pond-how do you know she was dead?”
“Mina, she was dead-stone cold dead. You weren’t there. You didn’t see her. But trust me, Arthur was carrying a corpse.”
“How do you know it was Flinders-Petrie?”
“Because,” Kit explained, “when he came up out of the pool with her and put her down on the grassy bank, I saw his chest. It was covered with tattoos-the Man Who Is Map, just like in the tomb painting. He was wearing the Skin Map. Mina, he was the Skin Map.”
“And that’s how you guessed the pool was the Spirit Well?”
“That’s the first thing that popped into my mind. I remember seeing those symbols and thinking, that’s Arthur Flinders-Petrie at the Well of Souls.” He paused. “It is the Spirit Well, I just know it.”
Wilhelmina considered this. “I wonder…”
“You doubt me?” said Kit. “You think I’m making this up?”
“No, no,” Mina countered quickly. “It’s just that since we don’t know exactly what the Well of Souls is supposed to be, we can’t say for certain that is what you saw.”
Kit stood. “Come on, let’s go. I’ll take you there and show you.”
“Right now, this instant?”
“Why not? I can easily find my way back.” He gazed down on her with an intensity Mina had never seen in him. “What are you waiting for? If I’m right, we’re this close to solving the mystery of the Skin Map.”
“Okay, okay,” she said, “just pause a minute and let’s think about this. If we have to travel back to the Stone Age, we should have some equipment. Knocking about in a cave in total darkness is not my idea of fun. We should have torches, at least-maybe ropes too, and… I don’t know-a weapon of some sort in case things get sticky?”
“Sure. Whatever,” agreed Kit. “Then you’ll go with me?”
“Yes, and we’ll take Brother Lazarus with us.”
“Fine.”
“Right. So, as soon as he gets back we’ll start assembling the things we need. It will take a bit of time to get everything, and anyway, if this is as important as we think it is, then it is worth doing right.”
Kit had to admit that she had a point, and in any case there was nothing to be gained by arguing about it, so he let it slide. “There’s something I haven’t told you,” he said, taking his seat again. “I saw Baby-the cave lion? — I saw it in the cave. In fact, it sort of led me out.”
“You followed it?” Mina regarded him askance. “Brave man.”
“I didn’t know I was following it at the time,” conceded Kit. “I lost my light and then heard the chink of the chain and moved towards the sound.”
“You’re sure it was Baby?”
“Positive. That chain.”
“All the more reason to take a weapon with us,” Mina concluded. She thought for a moment, then asked, “These cave paintings-are you sure you can find them again?”
“Pretty sure. Why?”
“Because we can copy the symbols in the cave and test them against those on our piece of the map.”
“But we may not need the map anymore,” Kit pointed out. “I can find the Spirit Well again without the Skin Map.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Mina said. “I’m all for it. But we don’t know that the Spirit Well is the great treasure Cosimo and Sir Henry were looking for. It might be something else, something even bigger. In any case, it won’t hurt to spend a few minutes copying the symbols.”
“So we’ll stop off on the way and make a copy. No problem.”
Wilhelmina nodded. “Do you think Arthur Flinders-Petrie was really there?”
“He must have been. How else did those marks get on the wall of that cave?” said Kit. “Either our old buddy Arthur was there and drew them himself, or somebody copied them off his skin.”
“We still don’t know how to read them,” Wilhelmina pointed out.
“True,” agreed Kit. “But we may not need them anymore.”
They talked a little longer, and then Wilhelmina went in to make some more coffee. She was just pouring the first cups when Brother Lazarus returned with the news that he had been granted leave to accompany Wilhelmina and Kit down the mountain to explore the cave.
“How soon can we leave?” asked Mina.
“As soon as we have gathered the necessary supplies and equipment,” replied the priest.
Wilhelmina translated for Kit, who observed, “We don’t need all that much equipment. How long will it take to gather a few torches, some rope, and some drawing paper and pencils?” He thought for a moment, then added, “Can Brother Lazarus get his hands on a camera of any kind? We would need a flash too.”
Mina and Lazarus exchanged a word. “He says he thinks Brother Michael at the library might have a camera we can borrow. The rest of the equipment shouldn’t take more than a couple hours to scrape together. What kind of weapon are we looking for?”
Kit considered this. “Nothing fancy. A hunting rifle-something like that.”
Mina spoke to Brother Lazarus, then said, “We won’t be able to get our hands on one of those at the monastery.”
“Then we can try in the town,” said Kit. He stretched and stood.
“It’s nearly eleven,” Mina told him. “I’ve got prayers in an hour, and I am in charge of setting out the service books for vespers this evening.”
Kit regarded her with a quizzical look. “What are you saying, Wilhelmina? Are you really a nun?”
“No,” she said, dismissing the comment with a laugh. “But I do try to fit in while I’m here. I have duties.” She rose and faced Kit. “That said, I do find the daily office very meaningful. I don’t like to miss it.”
“Okay, but-”
“Listen, let’s take the rest of the day, get all the gear together, and then set out tomorrow morning after Matins and breakfast-how’s that?”
“Well, if you insist…”
