"I think we've found it," Karag replied.
Shandiph lowered the glass from his eye and stared at the lintel in puzzlement. "I still see the pentacle, though," he said. "Don't you see it?"
"There is nothing there, Shandiph," Karag replied.
"We see nothing but bare stone," Deriam added.
Shandiph looked at the glass, then back at the stone. "I thought I had to look through it," he said. "It appears I was wrong." With a shrug, he led the way through the door and into the passage beyond.
The passage was more of the dull gray stone, huge blocks of it stacked together without mortar, forming a corridor ten feet wide and twelve feet high. It sloped downward for a hundred yards or so and then ended in a T-shaped intersection. Karag had moved into the lead and now stopped, unsure which way to turn.
"The pentagram is on the left," Shandiph said as he came up. Karag immediately turned left, and the party advanced.
Following Shandiph's directions, the foursome made their way deeper and deeper into the crypts, through corridors and rooms that ranged from mere cubicles to vast caverns, up and down ramps and stairs, across bridges that spanned seemingly bottomless chasms, and past doors of wood, iron, and brass that stood ajar or were tightly sealed, with no discernable pattern. The first torches burned down to uselessness and were discarded, and the lanterns dimmed and died as they wound onward. There was no light save what they carried, and the only sounds were their own footsteps, their own breath, and occasionally the distant dripping of water. In one room they found a spot where drops of water fell and saw that it ran from the tip of a five-inch stalactite clinging to the low ceiling, to land with the smallest of splashes on a stubby projection from the floor. The chamber they were in was not a natural cave, but man-made; the water came through a crack between the stones of the ceiling.
The second set of torches died, and the third was lit; Deriam began complaining of the stupidity Shandiph had displayed in not bringing food and drink. Karag came to the Chairman's defense, pointing out that he had no way of knowing how long the search would take, while Thetheru remained silent. When Deriam demanded that the Amagite choose a side, he ended the argument by saying, "I'm too busy trying to remember our route."
"I hadn't thought of that," Deriam said after a moment of silence.
"I've been too busy finding our way forward," Shandiph said.
"Can you lead us back out?" Karag asked.
"I'm not sure," Thetheru admitted.
"Maybe we should turn back. Do we even know what we're looking for?" Deriam asked. "How will we know these wonders when we find them? Have they really survived for three hundred years in this damp darkness?"
"Darkness wouldn't hurt anything," Karag retorted.
"But we don't even know what we're looking for," Thetheru said.
"I assume that we'll find a few chests somewhere," Shandiph said, "and perhaps a shelf of books."
"I hope so," Deriam answered.
They were discarding the last of the fourth set of torches when Shandiph, who had moved on ahead while Karag lit the new torch from the stub of his old one, called out, "I've found something."
"What is it?" Karag called.
"This door has the pentagram sign on it, and another pentagram inside the first."
"Is it open?"
"No. It's locked."
The other three came up to join him and found that the Chairman was standing before a large oaken door bound in rusty iron; he was pulling and pushing at the great iron handle. The door did not move.
"Whatever we're looking for must be in there," Karag said.
"How do we get in?" Deriam asked.
"Break it down," Karag suggested.
Shandiph and Deriam looked at each other; Deriam shrugged, "Let him try; he's the strongest of us."
The other three stepped back, and Karag took a short run toward the door, slamming his shoulder against it.
Immediately, he was flung back against the far wall of the corridor in a shower of pure white sparks.
He lay stunned on the dusty stone. Thetheru said unnecessarily, "It must have a warding spell on it."
"I never saw a ward like that," Deriam replied. He was blinking, trying to help his eyes readjust to the dim yellow torchlight after the vivid brilliance of the sparks.
Shandiph looked at the door for a moment and then said, "I suppose they wanted to be sure that no one who just happened along could get in. We are the rightful heirs, though, so there must be some way we can annuli the wards."
"There was no mention of this in your directions?"
"No. You have to understand, I know very little more than you do. When I became Chairman I was given the seal of office and a box of charms, and taught a spell that would tell me what each charm was for when the need arose; that spell told me that the yellow glass would show me the way through the crypts, but it said nothing of this door."
"Did you bring the other charms?"
"No. That shouldn't matter, though; I know what almost all of them do. Besides, if one was needed here, the spell should have told me before I left Kholis."
"Perhaps the spell has become muddled over the years."
"Aal and Amera, I hope not!"
"Is there some hidden instruction in the pentacle, perhaps?" Thetheru asked.
Karag was climbing to his feet once again. He said nothing, but stood unsteadily, staring at the door.
"Did you bring any magic besides the yellow glass?" Deriam asked Shandiph.
Before the Chairman could answer, Karag said, "I can see the pentagram now."
"What?" The others turned toward him in surprise.
"I can see the pentagram. But you said there was another pentagram within it, Shandiph, and it's not a pentagram, it's the Council seal."
"It is?" Shandiph also stared at the door; to him it still appeared to be a pentacle inside a pentacle. A possibility occurred to him, and he reached inside the neck of his tunic to pull forth the golden medallion that he as Chairman of the Council of the Most High, wore at all times. He placed it against the center of the pentagram and announced, "I am Shandiph, heir to Hemmaron, Chairman of the Council of the Most High, chief among the wise and first among equals!"
Nothing happened.
In desperation, Shandiph reached out and pushed once more at the iron handle. The door swung open.
The chamber beyond was utterly black, and the light of the torches did not penetrate. The four wizards stared into it for a long moment, none daring to step into the unnatural darkness.
"I think that magic is called for," Deriam said at last.
Shandiph nodded. "Hoi, khiri! I'a angarosye t'aryo ansuyen, o mi alekye i zhure Leuk!" he called. "Hear me, spirits! I am an agent of the lords of demons, and with this talisman I invoke Leuk!"
The room was suddenly flooded with golden light, and the four stared in astonishment.
The chamber was perhaps thirty feet wide, but so long that its far end could not be seen in the conjured light. The walls were lined with shelves of books, row after row of chests, hundreds of pegs from which hung amulets and talismans of every sort, and racks which held scepters, staves, orbs, jewels, swords, daggers, cups, plates, goblets, spears, stones, carvings, statues, sacks, pouches, jars, phials, and a hundred other implements and objects. More chests were lined up down the center of the room. Many objects glowed or glittered, and soft rustlings could be heard.