wide by five foot tall opening.
He brings the orb close and discovers the opened door has revealed a narrow passage which looks to have been carved out of the mountain.
As James stands there looking down the passage, the door slowly begins to swing closed. Finding no way to keep it open, he backs out of the way and lets the door close. Turning back to Miko, he says, “Let’s go back up and get our things from the horses.”
“You mean we’re leaving them up there?” Miko asks incredulously.
“Our way lies through there,” James says, pointing toward the secret door. “And I seriously doubt if the horses will be able to make it. Besides, can you think of a way to get them safely down that broken flight of steps?”
“No, I can’t,” Miko admits as he glances over to the steps in question.
“Okay then, so let’s go and get what we are really going to need and hide the rest, just in case we manage to come back this way again.” He walks over and carefully climbs back up the stairs, trying to place his weight evenly so as not to cause another step to break. Miko waits until he has made it to the top before following.
They walk back through the hallway, past the corpse and through the front door. Around back they find their horses and mule just where they had left them. James grabs the jackets, throwing Miko’s over to him who grabs it and puts it on. They take everything off the horses and mules, tying them loosely so that if they don’t return, they will be able to break free.
In several trips, they manage to haul all their equipment and the tack down into the little room at the bottom of the stairs, secreting it under the steps. As they are bringing in the last load, James sees the supply caravan they had passed the day before trundling past along the road on its way to the refugee camp.
He stashes the last of the equipment under the steps and says, “Unless someone comes down here, our stuff should be safe.”
Miko nods agreement, “It’s too bad we have to lose the horses.”
“I know, but we have money to buy new ones and we’re pressed for time,” he says. Taking out his traveling scribe case, he places it on the stairs and opens it.
“You’re not taking that with us are you?” Miko asks.
“No,” James responds, “I just want to take the notes I have written.” He removes the note filled parchment and rolls them into a tight roll, placing them in his backpack. Closing the case, he places it with the rest of the equipment under the steps. He turns to Miko and asks, “Did you get the money?”
Miko pats one of the bags he has over his shoulder and says, “Right here.”
“Okay, looks like we’re ready,” he says. “Go push the circle by the stairs and we’ll get going.”
Miko climbs up the stairs and pushes the circle on the wall, James again uses his makeshift stick and pushes the double circle on the ceiling, then goes over and steps on the triple circle on the floor. The secret door swings open and James takes the lead, holding the glowing orb in his hand as he passes through the doorway and into the tunnel.
Chapter Twenty Two
The tunnel they find themselves in is quite narrow, wide enough to accommodate them side by side and barely tall enough to allow them to pass without ducking. Once through the door, it begins to swing closed again until finally shutting tight. The orb gives them sufficient light to see, illuminating the tunnel as it continues deeper into the mountain.
James hands his things to Miko and then begins searching the area near the door in an attempt to find the hidden mechanism that will allow them to reopen the door from this side. After several minutes of fruitless searching, he gives up, unable to locate the trigger mechanism. “Let’s hope that we don’t need to come back this way in a hurry,” he says to Miko while he takes his things back.
“Yeah,” agrees Miko nervously, “let’s hope that.”
When his packs are situated properly about his person, James again takes the lead and heads off down the tunnel. Ten feet or so from the door, they come across a bundle of torches. Miko removes his knife and cuts the ties holding the bundle together. Taking several of the torches, he places them in one of his bags.
James looks at him questioningly and Miko just shrugs and says, “You never know.”
Nodding his approval, James turns and leads them further into the mountain. The tunnel continues for some time before opening onto a subterranean cavern. The orb’s light reveals many stalactites and stalagmites, the play of shadows as they pass through gives the cavern an eerie feeling. From all around comes the steady drip, drip, drip of water coming off the stalactites.
“Wow,” Miko says, in awe of the extraordinary rock formations revealed by the orb’s light. After a brief pause to marvel at the rock formations, they continue on. The orb’s light reveals further marvelous, breath taking sights as they wend their way through the cavern, some being quite brilliant with many contrasting colors. Miko stops briefly to touch one.
“Pretty impressive isn’t it?” James asks, coming up behind him.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” he replies. “How did all this get to be here?”
James indicates one of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling, “Water drips through cracks in the ceiling and runs down one of those stalactites.”
Miko looks at him, confused.
“Stalactites are what the ones from the ceiling are called and stalagmites are the ones rising up from the floor,” he explains. “Over a very long time, hundreds and thousands of years, the continual passage of water leaves minerals behind. Over time, they harden to form the structures you see here.”
“Amazing,” Miko says as he rubs one, “it’s as hard as rock.”
“It is rock,” James explains. “Over time the minerals come together and form the rock.”
“Hard to believe,” Miko says in wonder. “Wouldn’t have if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
“Come on, we need to get going.” James hurries Miko along and they make their way further through the cavern.
In pools and scurrying among the rock formation they encounter many strange animals in this subterranean world, most being pale in color. In one large pool of water, Miko notices little dots of light moving below the surface.
“James,” he hollers, “come here, you gotta see this.”
James comes over to where Miko has again stopped and kneels down, looking into the water. Seeing the little dots moving around, he says, “It’s probably just small fish.”
“Fish?” Miko asks incredulously. “With lights?”
Feeling like a school teacher out on a field trip, James explains, “When there is a total absence of light, fish and other animals will often produce their own.”
“How?” Miko asks.
“That I don’t know,” he admits. “I just know they do.”
“That is so weird,” Miko says, continuing to watch the dots flitter around.
“Yes it is,” James says. “Now, can we please hurry through here without all the stops?” He gets up and continues on, making Miko rush to catch up or be left behind in the dark.
The cavern continues on for another several hundred feet before they reach an open chasm cleaving the cavern in two. It looks as if the mountain had pulled apart some time in the past, leaving a rift over a hundred feet wide. A wooden bridge in poor repair spans the gap, some of the boards are missing and others are badly cracked, altogether looking as if it wouldn’t support their weight.
James checks his compass which indicates that their path continues across the chasm. He shows it to Miko.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Miko exclaims. “There’s no way that’s going to hold when we cross. We’ll be dropped into whatever is down there.” He moves to the edge and looks down, but only sees blackness within the chasm. “We’ll die!”
“There’s no other way to go,” James tells him. “We can’t go back, so we have to go forward. Besides, I
