Alchemy, Book Two of the Mercian Trilogy Read Free Page B

into the gloom. But that didn’t stop him expecting to meet something, didn’t stop his increasing concern that he shouldn’t have brought Eloise here until he’d explored these tunnels himself.
    Despite her unease, Eloise seemed less concerned than Will, and rather than look ahead, she was transfixed by the walls, so vivid that they looked in places as if the artists had only recently left off their work. Her faith in Will was total, so much so that it didn’t seem to occur to her that he might be out of his depth too.
    Eventually they turned into a passage that curved and then delivered them into a small pentagonal chamber. The chamber had four other passages leading off it, but for some reason, one of those four exits led into darkness. Will’s eyes were drawn automatically to that dark tunnel, but his attention was pulled away by Eloise.
    “There are no decorations in here.” It was true; the walls of this chamber were bare. “Oh, except for this.”
    Will followed her to the centre of the chamber. Embedded flat into the floor were four swords, their hilts outermost, their points meeting in the middle around a large medallion. All five pieces appeared to be cast in bronze. They looked down at the plate-sized medallion, the relief on its surface as clearly visible as if it had been cast that morning.
    “Oh my God,” said Eloise. She dropped to her knees to look closer and said, “What do you think it means?”
    “I don’t know,” said Will and looked round the chamber. He saw now that the walls were not completely bare, that in four places, following the line of the swords out past their hilts to the walls, were brief inscriptions in the same runic writing that was to be found everywhere else. “There are four inscriptions on the walls, perhaps names, perhaps each relating to one of the swords. The swords could represent people.”
    Eloise looked up at him, slightly exasperated as she said, “But what about this, Will?”
    He looked again at the circular bronze relief, the four sword tips almost appearing to hold it in place. It was the boar’s head, his family’s crest, and a larger but identical version of the broken medallion they wore between them.
    “I don’t know. Except that in some way it confirms we’re looking in the right place.”
    As he spoke, he felt a slight breeze brush across his face and turned to look at the darkened tunnel. It had come from there, he was certain of it. Eloise had felt it too and stood again.
    “A breeze – that means it leads to the open air, doesn’t it?”
    “Not necessarily.” Will took a couple of steps forward, into the mouth of the passageway, and once away from the lights of the chamber, he could see some way along it. There was nothing different about it, the same abundance of decoration. And in fact, he could see light fittings dotted along it in much the same way.
    “There are light fittings here too. I think they’ve fused, no more than that.” Yet now, for the first time since they’d entered the tunnels, Will actually felt the hairs rise on his neck, a shiver running through him. There was something there, beyond the edge of even his night vision, and it was something he did not want to face, not now, not without weapons, not with Eloise.
    He stepped backwards into the chamber and tried to look casual while keeping an eye on the darkened tunnel. Eloise didn’t seem suspicious and was staring at the pattern of bronzes in the floor.
    “I’ve seen this before somewhere. I wish I could remember where, but I know I’ve seen it.”
    “You don’t just mean the medallion?”
    “No, I mean the pattern, the circle in the middle, the four swords surrounding it, forming a sort of cross.”
    “Of course, now that you mention it, it is a cross – perhaps that’s why it’s familiar.” Once again Will felt his eyes drawn to the darkness of the tunnel. There seemed no immediate threat, nothing he could hear or smell, and yet something about it was