They didn’t have to wait long. Torrell and his captor appeared from the opposite direction. Torrell looked miserable and frightened which blew away her apprehensions and reinforced her resolve.

  The men descended the stairs, enabling Kaddie and Glen to follow at a discreet distance. It seemed to take forever to reach their former hiding place on the shallow balcony, and she breathed a sigh of relief when they were safely hidden and able to look down on the party below. Also, she had to admit, she was curious. What did Torrell know about this particular place, and why was it so important?

  Mercantiler Harrow towered over everyone else, inspiring her memory of him in Robles’ study with a stuffy, officious look on his face. Was he wearing that expression, now? She fully expected he was.

  “Well?” she heard the man say.

  All heads turned toward Torrell. Kaddie leaned forward. A quick glance at Glen and he seemed as curious as she was.

  His hand trembling, Torrell brought a crumpled sheet of paper from his pocket. He approached a column of symbols at the left side of the wall, studied them for a moment, before approaching the column on the right. “I have no idea what will happen if we do this,” he began. His voice sounded muffled as if his mouth was swollen.

  A man standing alongside Harrow, another whose face she couldn’t see, waved a hand. “Get on with it, boy.”

  Torrell shrugged. He seemed resigned, beaten, like he did after a scolding from Robles. “We need two men. One standing before each column.” Two were volunteered, including the man who’d brought him from the palace. “When I tell you, push.”

  “Why isn’t he doing it?” one of the men grumbled. “What if it’s dangerous?”

  Harrow’s impervious tone floated up toward Kaddie and Glen. “They’re blocks of stone. Do you think they’re going to leap out and bite you?”

  Torrell was running fingers through his hair. “The first one is three horizontal lines cutting through a diagonal grid. They might not be in a corresponding place. You’ll have to look.”

  The man standing alongside the left column pointed. “Found it.”

  “Me, too,” said his companion. “Now what?”

  “Push. It has to be simultaneous.”

  Someone counted to three, the men pushed, and Kaddie heard a soft gasp escape from Glen as both blocks sank into the wall.

  For a moment everyone held their breath. The atmosphere became fraught with tension until Torrell cleared his throat, rustled the paper in his hand and called out the next symbol. “It looks like a fish—tail at the bottom, head at the top—with two small wavy lines, top right.”

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  “Got it,” said the man on his left.

  There was mumbling and cursing from the man on his right, until he discovered the matching block, high up, in a spot he could barely reach. Two of his colleagues stepped forward and lifted him, until he was in the correct position to give the block a hearty push.

  The countdown began, the men pushed, and the next two blocks sank inward.

  “How many more?” Harrow’s voice bore an edge.

  “Three,” Torrell said.

  The man alongside the mercantiler appeared more relaxed. His voice carried an air of authority and Kaddie wondered who he was. “Shall we?”

  “Why not, and let’s hope the ceiling doesn’t fall on our heads.”

  Some of the other men began to whisper. Kaddie and Glen shared a glance.

  “Square within a diamond, inside an egg,” Torrell continued.

  This time the blocks were easy to spot, at approximately waist height for both men. The next, four chevrons below another egg, both lay at the lowest point on either column.

  “The last one looks like a frond of leaves, three leaves on one side of the stem, four on the other.”

  “I’ll call it,” the mysterious man of authority said. He gestured for the other men to step back, including Harrow who readily obliged. Kaddie discovered her mouth was dry and her palms were sweating.

  The final blocks sank inward.

  Nothing happened.

  She could hear the distant sound of running water elsewhere in the tunnels and the low fizz of conorum from the lanterns below. She saw Torrell staring at the wall as if mesmerized, and Mercantiler Harrow’s mouth open, as if about to speak.

  The balcony beneath her feet shuddered, knocking her off balance. Dust and small stones rained down. Those below let out an assortment of curses and their eyes searched the cavern above their heads. Glen pulled her sharply from the balcony and pressed her against the wall. Fear wrapped its arms around Kaddie’s heart. Were they about to be buried alive?

  Another sound, a heavy scraping that rumbled and reverberated through every brick in the entire chamber. A breeze swept through her hair, bringing with it a bitter scent of rotting bracken. She heard Torrell’s voice, reciting.

  “Passing light to the inner chamber. That which is sunk deep rises.”

  “What is he doing?” Harrow demanded.

  “Shh, let him be,” the other man said.

  Once again there was silence. Kaddie and Glen edged forward to the rail and looked down. The wall between the two columns had disappeared, replaced by a dark hole. Lantern light bled over its threshold, painting the beginnings of a perfect square tunnel leading inward. Most of the men were staring at it in horror. Even Harrow appeared nervous. Only Torrell and the authoritative man who’d called the last numbers seemed eager to venture forward.

  She could see Torrell’s face in partial silhouette. His fear had gone. She’d never seen him so enthralled. Some of the men, one of whom had pushed the blocks on the left hand column, had retreated to the stairs, ready to bolt. Everyone was waiting for something terrible to happen, and when it didn’t—

  Harrow was the first to speak. “Take him back upstairs, and get my carriage ready.”

  “He’s not going anywhere, Harrow,” the other man said. “He’s a Terohas citizen. Therefore, I get to keep him.”

  “Not when it comes to something like this.”

  “I’ll slit his throat rather than let you have him.”

  Kaddie’s eyes narrowed, convinced the man would do it, too.

  “Don’t I get to see?” Torrell protested.

  “No, lad. You’ve done enough for now.” The man snapped his fingers and pointed. “You two. Take him back. Lock him in his room. The rest of you, guard this place like your life depends on it. Which it does.”

  Silhouettes waxed and waned as everyone began to move. More orders were barked out. Guard rosters, who was staying, who was leaving. People were crowding the stairs. Kaddie caught a glimpse of Torrell who was being hauled roughly along by his captors.

  “I have a plan,” Glen whispered. “But we’ll have to run like the wind.”