Chapter 28 - Shadows

"Which way do we go from here?" Christie asked, looking around from atop the mound of boulders

"I need to see which direction the token is pulling me," Lydia said.

Freddie stepped up. He fished the mandala from his bag. He held it in one hand and prodded at it with a fingertip. It became a ball, growing in size. Through the silvery lattice work, they saw a glow inside. It was a warm orange hue with sparkles of other colours: red, purple and green. Lydia laid a hand over the top of the filigree ball while Freddie cupped it in both hands. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

The others used the pause as an opportunity to look around the area with their torches. The walls were dark and glistened with wetness. Here and there were patches of milky white, buttresses of pale stone formed, like the stalactites, from the evaporation of lime-laden water. The cavern had the shape of a rough dome. In the middle of its floor stood a cone of fallen rocks, on the tip of which they stood.

"Over there," said Lydia at last. "That's where the token must be."

They looked to where she was pointing. The cave wall was further away and darker in that direction.

"Careful on these rocks," Shona said to the group. "We don't want any injuries if we can't use magic."

They moved off in the direction Lydia showed. The rocks underfoot tumbled and skittered away from them, down the slope, and their feet slipped. They held their arms out to keep their balance. Few spoke, their attention held by the difficulty of their progress.

At length, they reached a near-flat and solid stone floor between the heap of rocks and the wall. The wall was more irregular than it had looked from the peak of the central mound. It had dips and folds and overhangs. Everywhere were the curtains and buttresses and low, conical stalagmites of deposited rock. As they approached the edge of the cavern as directed by the mandala, it was clear there was no geode and no exit.

"It feels like the token's further on," Lydia said.

"Presumably there is a tunnel we must follow," said Oddy. "It won't be a straight path to the token, so it could be anywhere around the outside of this space. We should spread out on either side of here and see if we can find an exit."

Finding an exit was harder than expected. They scrambled around the rocks at the edge of the huge cavern for many frustrating minutes before the whoop of discovery rang out.

"Wahey, lads and lasses! We found it!" Christie's cry echoed around the cavern walls.

The others abandoned their searching and scrabbled their way to where Christie and Shona were jumping and waving in their excitement. Lydia and Oddy were the last to arrive, having searched the furthest in the opposite direction.

"We looked here!" Dean realised. "How come we didn't spot it?"

"Can you see it now?" Sophie asked.

Dean looked left and right along the wall, even behind the milk-white curtain formations of stone. Others joined him.

"No. Where is it?" Dean asked.

Christie led them a short way to their right. With a theatrical flourish, she gestured further up the wall. Partly hidden behind a rippling stalactite, there was a patch of shadow. Sophie shone her flashlight towards it. They could see the arch of a tunnel entrance about a metre above their heads.

"What the hell's it doing up there?" Dean asked.

"One of the wonders of the Anteworld, I suppose," Oddy said.

"I think everything here's designed to be possible but difficult," Lydia said.

"Why?" Corben asked.

Dev, who had accompanied Corben during the search for an exit, answered. "The why of it is easy. It's a test. The real question is 'who?'. If we knew that, we would know something that has puzzled Ambrose for millennia."

"He settled for calling it 'the universe'," Oddy told them. "He lost any faith he might have had in gods when people told him he was their god."

"I would have lost faith in people," Lydia observed. "Though I imagine he already had by then."

"I know he has tricked you a lot, Lydz" Sophie said.

"Oh, you think?" Lydia grumbled.

"But, I was going to say," she continued, "he has tried his best to help. And he has a lot of faith in you, in all of us."

"Sophie's absolutely correct," Oddy said. "He has been in a mental battle against the Watcher for years, at the same time as doing everything else he has had to do. Every time he has seemed silly, he has had these battles, and has been training you, me, Sophie and Freddie — and probably others — for this. Not to mention all the times he has helped Harry and the Ministry. Don't think too harshly of him. You are better than that."

"You're right Oddy. Sorry everyone. I know I'm being miserable. You've been tricked into this, too. It's just… well, I was that one who tricked most of you and I feel guilty."

"It's not like we were doing much else," Jimmy said. "Just revising for exams."

"Quidditch matches," Dean said.

"Exactly!" Jimmy agreed. "Worthless crud."

"Meanwhile, back in the Anteworld," Freddie butted in. "How do we get up to the doorway… that isn't really a doorway because there isn't a door, but, y'know?"

"We could trip Jimmy up," Corben said. "Then Sophie would rescue him on her broom before he hit the floor. She could fly him up there and deposit him lovingly in the tunnel."

"Yeah. Or we could just lift each other up," Jimmy said. "Getting on and off a broom isn't as easy as I make it look."

Shona stepped forward. "Dean should probably go first, to make sure we can all fit. If that's OK with you, Dean?"

"Am I always going to go first?" Dean asked. "Jimmy's got shoulders at least as wide as mine. Don't they say that if you can get your head and one shoulder through a hole, you can get your whole body through?"

"I have heard that, Dean," Dev confirmed.

"Fair enough, Deano," said Jimmy. "I'll have to climb up on your shoulders, though."

Dean muttered what may well have been obscenities to himself, but, with help from others, he hoisted Jimmy onto his shoulders. From there, Jimmy could reach the edge of the tunnel. He peered in with his torch.

"Hurry up, Jimmy," Dean grunted. "Your bloody boots feel really uncomfortable."

"Nah, mate," Jimmy said. "They're right snug and cosy on my feet. A lovely fit. But thanks for your concern."

"I meant on my sodding shoulders, you bag of arse."

"Ah, I see what you mean. Sorry, you weren't completely unambiguous."

As the others sniggered at the exchange, Jimmy put his elbows inside the tunnel entrance and pulled himself up.

"I'll go next, Dean, if you'll lift me up," said Lydia. "I really ought to be leading the way to the token. Freddie should come up too, with the mandala."

Once the Companions had passed through the entrance, there was plenty of room in the tunnel beyond, as far as they could see. The others joined them one-by-one until only Dean remained in the cavern.

"Sorry, mate," Jimmy called down to him. "Looks like we'll have to leave you behind. Nobody down there to boost you and you're too heavy for us to haul up."

"Yeah, get real, Jimmy," Dean laughed.

"Nah, he's right, man," Christie called. "Wait here 'til we've finished the quest, like, and we'll come back for you, if we remember."

A length of rope snaked out from behind Christie and the end flopped at Dean's feet.

"Aw, Shones. You're too nice to him," Jimmy complained. "We had him going for a minute, there."

"Lydia's ready to go," Shona explained. "We don't have forever. Come on, pull him up!"

"Pfft!" Jimmy scoffed. "Who made Lydia the boss?"

"Ambrose did," Corben said, grabbing the rope with Jimmy.

They pulled Dean up once Sophie had reminded him to bring his rucksack. Lydia and Freddie had consulted the mandala once more. Lydia was keen for them to move on.

The tunnel wound onward through the rock. In places, it opened out so they could walk four abreast. In others, the ceiling came down so low that they had to crawl on hands and knees over shattered shards of stone. The tunnel wound left and right, up and down. At one point, the tunnel shrank to little more than a crack between two pillars of black and shining stone. Dean stepped forward, but Jimmy waved him aside.

"Head and shoulders through, we said," Jimmy reminded him. "This might call for muscle, lardy lad."

"Cheeky sod!" protested Dean, who was far more muscle than lard, but Jimmy was already squeezing into the gap.

A moment later, Jimmy called back, "Not as bad as it looks. Just have to bob down a bit after the first crush."

The others followed. Both Shona and Dev were unhappy with squeezing through such a small gap, but neither was large enough to have any trouble. Dean brought up the rear, determined to prove he was right to let Jimmy go first. He was sweating by the time his face emerged on the far side. He paused for a moment, his brow glistening in the torchlight.

"Ow! Shit!" he cried.

"'Sup, lad?" Jimmy asked, smirking. "Crushed your…"

"Something bit my leg!" he shouted, tumbling out of the gap and onto the rough floor.

The others helped him to his feet with varying degrees of concern. He rolled up his trouser leg and examined his calf.

"Can you see anything round the back?" he asked Shona.

She focused her torch on his skin and inspected it.

"It is red," she said. "And there are tiny spots of blood."

"It looks like a spider bite," Dev added.

"You'll survive, Dean," Oddy said.

The rest muttered in mock disappointment. Dean stood up and shook his trouser leg back into place.

"Thanks for the sympathy, you bunch of gits," he said. "Why would there be spiders down here? What do they live on?"

Oddy sighed. "I'm not sure the Anteworld works like that, Dean. It's a construct. Look at this tunnel. It hasn't been formed by the action of water or lava or any normal process. It has been placed here for a reason."

"So, the spiders have been put here for a reason?" Corben asked.

"That would be my guess," Oddy said. "Though they might just be window dressing — here to make it look like a real world."

"So I'm just lucky?" Dean groaned. "Bitten at random by a made-up spider in a weird place."

"There are weirder places to get bitten than on the back of your leg," Jimmy said. "Just be thankful it hadn't climbed higher up!"

"Aye," Christie said. "Nobody would volunteer to suck out the venom."

"I hardly think a little spider bite would have much venom, Christie," Oddy said.

"Looking at the spacing of the marks," Shona said, "it might not have been that small."

"Come on, you lot," Lydia put in. "It feels like we're getting close. Let's move."

They formed a line and filed along the tunnel, following Lydia.

"So, if the spiders are big, how come we haven't seen any?" Dean asked.

"We haven't been looking for them," Oddy suggested. "They might be camouflaged. This might have been the only one. I'm sure you can generate as many possibilities as I can, Dean."

"The question was semi-rhetorical, mate," Dean said. "My leg feels like it's on fire. I'm suggesting we should start looking out for them."

"That's not as stupid as you look," Oddy noted.

"Thanks for the abuse," Dean said.

"Seriously, everyone," Oddy called out along the line of companions. "Dean's suggested we watch out for spiders, or whatever bit him. If we are getting close to the token, there might be obstacles like spiders or other things. Keep alert, all of you."

"He's right," Lydia called back. "Good thinking, Oddy. Though I don't know what else we would expect — it is Oddy, after all."

Oddy grinned. Shona, turning to smile at him, thought she noticed a hint of a blush. It was hard to tell in the torchlight.

"By the way, does anyone know how long these torch batteries last?" Shona asked.

"Ambrose gave us the torches," Dev said. "I suspect we won't have to worry about the batteries running down."

From the back of the line, Dean could see the torchlights flashing up and down, left and right. With every other step, he turned to check the tunnel behind them for signs of movement.

"We're close now," Lydia said. "I can feel it without the mandala."

Only steps later, they rounded a corner in the tunnel and found themselves in a tall chamber. The muddy floor sloped down away from them. The chamber was only a couple of metres wide, but twenty metres long. Looking up, the walls met in a jagged arch four or five metres above their heads. What struck their gaze most forcefully was the condition of the walls. Vertical cracks which ran from floor to vaulted apex made them look like they had been rent by the claws of a gigantic beast. The edges of the shattered rock glistened with trickling water.

"This is the plan," Lydia told them. "I can feel something. I don't know where, but…"

"Try it with the mandala, babes," Freddie suggested.

The rest of the Companions had entered. They milled around the chamber, churning up the mud as they peered into the cracks in the walls.

"Dean! Something on your neck!" Shona warned. "Oh, no. It's just a shadow. Sorry."

Dean grinned, then his face contorted with pain.

"Ow! You bastard," he snarled, grabbing his neck.

"It was a shadow!" Shona insisted.

She shone her torch on Dean's neck to examine it.

"Another spider bite," she said. "Just like the one on your leg."

"I know!" Dean snapped. "I can feel it bloody burning."

"The mandala's not helping," Lydia called out. "Can you all look in these fissures? See if you can find the token. It's a ball of crystals, but it might look a bit like a pineapple on the outside."

"Be careful, everyone," Oddy added. "Dean's been…"

"Bugger!" Dean shouted. "Another one. I've been bitten again, on my hand. I saw it. It was a shadow!"

"Watch out for these shadow spiders," Oddy told them all. "Keep your torches moving. The light should keep shadows away."

Oddy spoke in a low aside to Shona. "Do you have any potions to treat Dean's bites?"

"How would I know?" she asked. "I can give him dittany for the wounds and feverfew for the inflammation. But if the Watcher has sent these things, their bites could be cursed."

"Oh, great," Dean moaned. "They bloody gang up on me. Why me? What's this Watcher got against me?"

"We can see shadows moving about over here," Corben called from further into the chamber. "There are loads of them. I'm not sure…"

"Lydia, is this the token?" Christie asked.