Ross Lawhead

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Book: Read Ross Lawhead for Free Online
Authors: The Realms Thereunder
Tags: Ebook, book
him.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” a voice asked him, making him jump.
    He twisted around, his eyes wide.
    â€œFreya!” he exclaimed in a whisper. “Flip! Don’t sneak up on people like that!”
    â€œSorry,” Freya answered automatically. “What are you doing?”
    â€œNothing,” Daniel said, moving his pencil carefully across the page. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
    â€œYou’ll get in trouble for wandering off,” Freya said, coming to stand behind Daniel.
    â€œYeah? Then so will you. Why are you hanging around me so much?”
    She ignored him. “Not bad,” Freya complimented. “You’re good at that.”
    â€œI’m not, really,” Daniel said. “It’s just that I like knights. I draw them all the time.”
    â€œYou’ve got the arm wrong just there.”
    â€œIt’s fine, just a little long, that’s all,” he said, reaching for his eraser. “Anyway, that’s what it looks like on the arch.”
    Freya sniffed and straightened up. “Where does the tunnel lead to?”
    â€œWhat tunnel?”
    â€œHaven’t you looked down it?”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œThat tunnel, there.” She pointed. “Where does it go?”
    â€œThere’s no—” Daniel looked up and then jerked his head back in surprise. There was a tunnel underneath the arch. “That wasn’t there before.”
    â€œGood artists need to notice everything,” Freya said crisply. She walked up and poked her head through the arch. “The wall’s curved, I can’t see around it. It’s odd, though, usually churches from this period don’t have catacombs. We should ask Miss. I wonder if it may have been made—wait.”
    Daniel brushed past her, having packed up his sketchbook, and walked into the tunnel.
    â€œWhere are you going?”
    â€œIt sort of spirals downwards,” he said, stopping a short distance in. “There’s some kind of light coming from farther on. A glow.” He took a couple more steps forward.
    â€œI don’t think we should go down there. It don’t think it’s allowed.”
    â€œI don’t care,” Daniel said. “I want to explore.” He took a few more steps and put his hand up to the cold stony wall.
    â€œDaniel, stop,” Freya said, moving towards the dusty archway. “It’s getting dark—we’ll be leaving soon.”
    â€œOne more reason to check it out—when are we ever going to come back?” Daniel said. He turned to Freya and saw her worried expression. “Come on, it’ll just take a second.”
    Freya ducked under the small archway and they both started down the long sloping tunnel.
    The walls were solid rock with little divots in them, evidence they were made with a chisel.
    â€œWe’ve been slowly circling around,” he said when they had been walking for a while. “If we go much farther, we’ll end up right underneath the church.”
    â€œIt doesn’t smell old or musty,” said Freya. “It’s sort of cool and fresh.”
    â€œThe ceiling’s getting higher,” Daniel said. “And the walls are moving out. Feels like we’re shrinking.”
    Freya forced a short laugh. “Come on, let’s go back.”
    â€œBut we don’t even know—hey, look at that.”
    Freya leaned closer to Daniel to see around the bend. On a ledge on the cave wall was a silver lamp that emitted a pale, bluish light. It was thin and cylindrical with a wide round aperture.
    Freya gave it a tap. “Where’s its fuel?”
    â€œIt’s electric.”
    â€œNo, there’s no cord.”
    â€œBattery then. Come on, there’s an archway up ahead.”
    â€œThere’s writing on it,” Freya said.
    Daniel tilted his head back and saw carved above the archway the words:
    Ic

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