Chapter ten: down the tunnel

Harry spent as little time as possible in their, now demolished, room. Most of all, he tried to avoid looking at the assassin's body, which still lay crumpled in the corner. Luna was waiting for them when they arrived. Like Harry and Ron, she had changed into an outfit more suitable for creeping down ancient tunnels.

"Stay behind me," said Harry, taking up the post of leader without thought. "And touch nothing." Harry led the way, realizing that out of the three of them, he had the most experience with this sort of thing.

The stonewalls of the tunnel flickered under their wand light. Luna, bringing up the rear, unconsciously used her hand to guide herself along the wall. Until, after she leaned on a certain section, the stone wall crumble inward, to reveal a small room. Laying spread out on the floor were two skeletons, dressed in rags, picked clean by the years.

"You're just as bad as Ginny! Didn't I say not to touch anything?" said Harry behind her.

"Sorry, what do you think happened to them?" she said, much more interested in the uncovered skeletons then in apologizing.

"Buried alive, I think. Back when the Thuggee were active."

"Look, are we going to follow the tunnel or not?" asked Ron. The group moved on.

After the tunnel turned to the right, it evened out a bit, and grew less well kept. Slime dripped down the walls, and something crunched beneath their feet at every step. Harry glanced down to see that, in the fain light of his wand, it appeared that the floor was moving.

"What…" he crouched, to get a closer look. The floor of the tunnel was covered with insects. All kinds of insects, all of them huge. Centipedes that were nearly a foot long, beetles the size of his thumb, all mixing with creatures he didn't even recognize.

"Fascinating," Luna whispered, "I thought fanged Tonsil beetles were extinct." Ron, however, made a sound somewhat like a lawn mower giving up the ghost. From a look back, Harry discerned that his childhood fear of spiders extended to similar creatures. Ron retreated to the turn of the tunnel, kicking off the bugs that had climbed onto his boots.

Bugs swarmed over Harry's feet, crawling up his legs. He beat them off with his hands, but more rushed up to take their place. Beside him, Luna was having much the same problem, stamping her feet in an odd sort of dance that was fairly effective at displacing the insects.

Harry stepped forward, and was surprised at how difficult it was. The insects began swarming him in earnest. If he were to fall now, they would completely cover him, devouring him alive.

Harry realized that if they spent much more time in the tunnel, they would never leave. Ahead of them was a doorway. Checking to make sure that Luna was following him, Harry sprinted for it, flinging bugs away from him as he went, crunching many more under his feet.

He, with Luna close behind, made it through the doorway, trailing bugs behind him. They were in a circular room, which, oddly enough, was free of insects, discounting those they had brought with them. What the chamber did have was a skeleton; a skeleton that had been flattened.

"Odd," Luna whispered, brushing her fingers along the stone. The instant she connected with it, a stone slab slid down at the far end of the chamber, blocking the way forward. Harry darted back the way they had come, but another stone wall fell into place, blocking the way back. Harry beat at it, but it held fast.

"I don't like the look of this," said Luna.

Harry laughed without humor, "It's going to get a lot worse."

He was right, of course. After a moment's pause, the grinding began. Moving on hidden tracks, the roof of the chamber began to slowly inch downward. But simply crushing the intruders was not enough. From small holes in the floor and ceiling, long, metal spikes rose. The skeleton was pulled into a sitting position as a spike protruded through its ribcage. Luna dodged out of the way, as one rose beneath her, cutting into her leg. She joined Harry at the edge of the chamber, where the spikes were fewer.

Harry shot a spell at the far exit, but instead of shattering the rock, as it was intended to, it rebounded, deflected off the magically protected stones, bouncing about the chamber, almost hitting Harry.

There was no way out, no way of surviving. But the Thuggee must have had at least on way of escape built, right?

"Ron," Harry shouted through the doorway.

"You go on ahead, I'll go see if there's anything back in the palace."

"We need you. The room's closing in, with spikes."

"That's not good."

"Exactly, come over here. There's got to be a release lever just outside."

"But-"

"They're not spiders, Ron" said Harry, though he guessed that there probably were some arachnids mixed in. "We're going to die."

"Alright, I'm coming." Steeling himself, Ron ran thought he bug-filled tunnel as fast as he could, crunching hundreds underfoot. At the end he took a moment to brush the insects from his legs, shuddering.

Inside the spike room, Luna reached out between the spikes, grabbing the flattened skull. Harry took it from her, and jammed into the crack around the edge of the ceiling. The ceiling slowed for a moment, then returned to its normal speed as the human skull was crushed beneath its massive rollers.

"Hurry up," Harry shouted, much to anxious to be polite.

Ron took this advice to heart. Before him, in the wall beside the slab of stone, were two holes drilled into the stone. Ron took the cleaner one, on the left, his finger closed around a small lever. Ron pulled it, and it clicked with finality.

Inside, the roof doubled its pace. Harry and Luna were forced to their knees, as the ceiling pressed down on them. Harry found himself forced lower and lower as he tried to hold up the ceiling with all his strength.

"Wrong one," Luna shouted out to Ron. He nodded, and turned his attention to the other hole, one that seemed much less free of insects. By now, Ron was covered with bugs; they crawled up his legs, over his shoulders, into his hair.

After knocking a beetle from his face, Ron gritted his teeth. He plunged his arm up to the shoulder into the hole. More insects, nested inside, crawled over his hand and arm, sinking their fangs into it in desperate bid to save their homes. Swearing, Ron found another lever. Rusted from age, it took all his strength to pull it down. It did so, with another click.

The effect was immediate. Inside the spike room, the ceiling returned to its original height. The metal spikes receded into the floor and ceiling. Lastly, the stone barriers at both the entrance and exit of the room slid back where they came from. Harry got to his feet, panting; he took care not to touch the walls.

Ron stumbled into the room, shaking of the hundreds of insects that still clung to him. As he tried to rid himself of them, he hurled a long centipede away, where it hit the wall. With a grinding of gears, the ceiling began to drop, the spikes began to rise, to whole process was restarted.

Harry darted after Ron and Luna. He was the last one out, as the stone slab at the chambers exit slammed into the floor.

"No way back through there," he said, getting to his feet.

"Still, we made it. Because of you," Luna made a move to hug Ron, seeing that he was still covered with insects, she hugged Harry instead. And then used her wand to heal the cut she had received in the spike chamber, which had been dripping blood down her leg through the whole ordeal.

"Thanks Ron," Harry sighed. Now he saw that they were in another tunnel. This one was natural, stalactites and stalactites hanging down and up around them. There was no sign of more traps or insects. However, from far down the tunnel, there came a faint flickering light. Accompanied by the sound of drumming.

"Only one way to go now," said Harry. "We'll just have to find another way out."

Though he didn't say it aloud, Harry had a distinct feeling that the missing children, the Sankara stones, and the Thuggee were all waiting for him at the end of this tunnel.

He was right.