Richard glanced over his shoulder before unrolling his map.
I studied it. “This is good. Looks right to me.”
“I walked around this whole place seeing what was in every room,” he said. “If the rooms were locked or we’re not allowed to go into that area, I just counted those as locked.”
The map looked crazy when you saw it all at once. The inside ring of six rooms looked almost like an eye, with the centre room the pupil of the eye. The garden itself was comprised of hexagonal spaces. A ring of twenty-four rooms surrounded the garden, and then there was an outside ring of another twenty-four rooms.
“We should go check out why there’s all that empty space between the rooms.” Richard quickly stowed the map away again.
“Ourselves? I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Look at it this way. The mentors haven’t done a good job of keeping us safe so far, have they?”
“Nope.” One of us was dead. Another of us had come close to drowning. Harrington had copped a wound to his shoulder. “I remember something. The night of the first challenge, I thought I saw a monk right behind me. But when I stepped back to look into the alcove that he ran inside, he’d vanished. I thought I must have imagined seeing him.”
His eyes grew intent, his voice closing down to a whisper. “Have you told anyone else that?”
“No.”
“Bet a thousand bucks you weren’t mistaken. Why don’t we start there?”
Lowering my voice to match his, I nodded. “Guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a look.” I told Richard where to find the alcove.
Pulling myself to my feet, I dusted off my hands, letting the crumpled leaf fall to the ground.
“Wait,” he said. “I’m also going to lay bets that Ruth is watching everything we do. Might look more suspicious if we go off somewhere together. How about I’ll go first and you follow?”
“Okay. Done.”
It felt all very cloak and dagger as I stood waiting in the garden and then made my way to the cloister. It also felt wrong. We should be going to the mentors with this. But I’d told them about the eyes and the noises, and nothing had been done. They hadn’t discovered the man that would later kill Saul. It wouldn’t hurt for us to take precautions, I told myself.
The cool air of the hallway enveloped me. No one was around. Good. I walked along to the alcove. Richard was there, next to the statue.
I frowned. “What are we going to say we’re doing if someone comes along and sees us?”
Richard smirked, taking my face in his hands and smacking a kiss on my cheek. “That.”
I inhaled a quick breath. “How’s that going to work? I’m married and you’re gay.”
“People believe whatever they see. And do you have anything better?”
“No,” I admitted.
Richard glanced upwards at the larger-than-life statue. “He’s an ugly S.O.B., isn’t he?”
“Very.”
We examined the statue and the surrounding walls then stepped behind the statue. Beyond the statue was just a religious frieze framed by an arch. I tried pushing on the frieze and gasped as it moved back smoothly. The black space that opened up was just big enough to be able to slide inside.
Richard prodded my back. “You did it, girl.”
Holding my breath tight, I stepped in.
Richard gave a low whistle as he moved in behind me. “We’re in the belly of the beast.” He pushed the door shut.
An immediate wave of claustrophobia washed through me. “It’s damned dark in here.”
“Stick with me, honey, and you’ll be fine.”
My mouth went dry as we walked along the passage. I wanted out of here already.
Up ahead, tiny pinpricks of light were the only salvation from the oppressive darkness and isolation. Where was the light coming from? Running up to the first of the specks of light, I pressed my eye to it. “Oh my God, Richard, look! Peepholes . . .” I peered out into the hallway that we’d just left.
“That’s insanely weird,” Richard muttered, taking a look for himself. “I wonder if Saul’s killer made these holes? Probably not, right? An electric drill would make a hell of a racket.”
I turned to peer into the dark tunnel ahead. “Maybe we should go back and get a lamp or something.”
“We’re here now,” said Richard. “Might as well keep going. Hey, get behind me, kid. I’ll keep you safe.”
“Oh yeah? What are you going to do if a man comes at us with a knife?” I’d been joking, but the words sounded too real and possible in this strange, closed space.