him.
âWhat are you doing?â a voice asked him, making him jump.
He twisted around, his eyes wide.
âFreya!â he exclaimed in a whisper. âFlip! Donât sneak up on people like that!â
âSorry,â Freya answered automatically. âWhat are you doing?â
âNothing,â Daniel said, moving his pencil carefully across the page. âWhat does it look like Iâm doing?â
âYouâll get in trouble for wandering off,â Freya said, coming to stand behind Daniel.
âYeah? Then so will you. Why are you hanging around me so much?â
She ignored him. âNot bad,â Freya complimented. âYouâre good at that.â
âIâm not, really,â Daniel said. âItâs just that I like knights. I draw them all the time.â
âYouâve got the arm wrong just there.â
âItâs fine, just a little long, thatâs all,â he said, reaching for his eraser. âAnyway, thatâs what it looks like on the arch.â
Freya sniffed and straightened up. âWhere does the tunnel lead to?â
âWhat tunnel?â
âHavenât you looked down it?â
âWhat are you talking about?â
âThat tunnel, there.â She pointed. âWhere does it go?â
âThereâs noââ Daniel looked up and then jerked his head back in surprise. There was a tunnel underneath the arch. âThat wasnât there before.â
âGood artists need to notice everything,â Freya said crisply. She walked up and poked her head through the arch. âThe wallâs curved, I canât see around it. Itâs odd, though, usually churches from this period donât have catacombs. We should ask Miss. I wonder if it may have been madeâwait.â
Daniel brushed past her, having packed up his sketchbook, and walked into the tunnel.
âWhere are you going?â
âIt sort of spirals downwards,â he said, stopping a short distance in. âThereâs some kind of light coming from farther on. A glow.â He took a couple more steps forward.
âI donât think we should go down there. It donât think itâs allowed.â
âI donât care,â Daniel said. âI want to explore.â He took a few more steps and put his hand up to the cold stony wall.
âDaniel, stop,â Freya said, moving towards the dusty archway. âItâs getting darkâweâll be leaving soon.â
âOne more reason to check it outâwhen are we ever going to come back?â Daniel said. He turned to Freya and saw her worried expression. âCome on, itâll just take a second.â
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.
âWeâve been slowly circling around,â he said when they had been walking for a while. âIf we go much farther, weâll end up right underneath the church.â
âIt doesnât smell old or musty,â said Freya. âItâs sort of cool and fresh.â
âThe ceilingâs getting higher,â Daniel said. âAnd the walls are moving out. Feels like weâre shrinking.â
Freya forced a short laugh. âCome on, letâs go back.â
âBut we donât even knowâhey, look at that.â
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. âWhereâs its fuel?â
âItâs electric.â
âNo, thereâs no cord.â
âBattery then. Come on, thereâs an archway up ahead.â
âThereâs writing on it,â Freya said.
Daniel tilted his head back and saw carved above the archway the words:
Ic
Ruthie Knox, Mary Ann Rivers