A soft, insistent wind blew into the chamber.The dry leaves in the corners stirred, quietly dancing.
“I’m not sure there’s anything here,” Ellie concluded reluctantly.
Adam leaned against the wall as he continued to recover from his vertigo.“Maybe we should try the other door.”
Constance’s attention sharpened.“The other door?”
Adam jerked his head toward the deeper shadows at the back of the chamber.
Constance hurried over and realized that one of the shadows wasn’t a shadow at all.Instead, the wall of the cave bent sharply to reveal a set of stairs carved into a tunnel that descended deeper into the cliff.Soft gray light painted the red stone at the bottom.
“There’s something else down there,” Constance said wonderingly.
Neil pressed closer to peer over her shoulder.“What is it?”
His chest brushed against her back as he forgot to keep his distance in his excitement at the discovery.Constance felt a less sacred sort of tingle at his proximity.
Goodness—was he going to have that effect on her all the time from now on?
“Ladies first,” Adam offered with a wave.
The sound of the waterfall faded as they descended, replaced by the scrape of boots on stone and the soft whisper of grass in the breeze.
Constance stepped outside to find herself someplace impossible.Walls of mossy red stone rose up to a circular opening forty feet above that framed a patch of stormy gray clouds.The level ground was grown over with softly whispering grass and flowering herbs that scented the air with basil and mint.Vines tumbled down from above and shade-loving creepers climbed up the walls.
“It’s a sinkhole,” Adam said, his voice numb with surprise.
“But what’s that building?”
Constance pointed at the structure that stood in the center of the natural enclosure.It consisted of a single story, octagonal in shape, with a flat roof.The exterior stonework was carved with false pillars that lent a timeless grace to the building.
The entrance faced them.There was just enough light in the interior that Constance could make out the shape of shadowy columns.
“I think it’s another temple,” Ellie answered softly.
Wind gusted through the space, gracefully tossing the grass and flowers.The building looked like something from beyond time, as though they had stumbled into one of Neil’s visions.
Constance was consumed by the odd sense that a single step forward would break some sort of spell and send ancient, inevitable gears spinning forward.
They fell into a quietly reverent line as they faced the building.Adam stood at the end, bare-chested and battered.Ellie was beside him, the knot of her bun falling into tendrils, her cheeks smudged with dirt.
Constance couldn’t be looking any better, with her hair tangled and her shirt open to her corset.
Neil stepped into place beside her, his sword strapped across his back, his spectacles glinting over the scrape on his cheek.
“We probably don’t want to waste too much time,” he noted nervously.
Another low roll of thunder rumbled from above.
“Then what are we waiting for?”Constance demanded and strode inside.
?
Thirty-Eight
Ellie gazed atthe softly shadowed interior of the temple with quiet wonder.
Up in the cave, she had found it hard to absorb that she stood in a space that had once been inhabited by a legend.The chamber had simply been a fascinating archaeological discovery in its own right, promising to reveal more knowledge of ancient Hindu ascetic practices.
