Chapter Text
Tom looked dubiously at the crack in the mountain wall. It was tall enough to allow a man to enter, but he would have to go sideways to get in.
"Are you sure we can get the packs through there?"
Allan was already unbuckling his gear. "Only one way to tell."
Frowning, Tom reluctantly followed Allan's lead. The cold mountain air bit into him with the loss of warmth at his back, although his shoulders were relieved to be unburdened.
Without a word, Allan went first. He had a torch in one hand and his jacket in the other. Almost immediately, Tom couldn't see him. It was like the crack had swallowed him up.
"Let me stow this, and then hand me the first pack," Allan's voice said from inside the crack. "You might have to unpack them first."
"Are we even sure this is the right spot?" Tom said, as he did what Allan asked. He pulled out the two blankets on top, and then squished the first bag to make it taller and thinner.
A hand appeared from the crack, and Tom obediently handed the pack over. "So far Clarke's map has been right at every step, and he said the gateway would be behind a crack in the wall. This looks like the place to me."
Tom knew Allan was right. He just wished he weren't. Something about this place gave him the creeps.
With eerie insight, Allan asked, "Having second thoughts?"
Straightening up, Tom replied tartly, "Of course not. Hurry up, will you? It's cold out here."
Allan's response was a chuckle, which echoed strangely off the rock in the crack and didn't lessen Tom's unease.
It wasn't quick work, but they patiently shoved all of their gear through the crack an item at a time. Last was the most important thing of all. Tom picked up the wooden box that had started the whole thing. For a moment, he was tempted to open it and see what was inside.
But he'd promised Allan he wouldn't so he passed it to Allan and then followed into the mountain.
It was a tight fit, but he managed to wiggle himself through. The crack opened up into a chamber that was bigger than one would expect to find. There was a large gate at the back of the space, but it was hard to see. Allan had wedged the torch near the wall to free his hands as he sorted through their gear, but the light it cast didn't penetrate the deep shadows by the gate.
"Figure this out," Allan said, dumping a handful of equipment at Tom's feet. His gruff voice made Tom smile. Allan was happy to use all of Nemo's gadgets but he had no time for them when they didn't work.
While Tom put together the light-contraption Nemo had lent them, Allan put all their stuff back together into their packs. It didn't take either of them long to be ready to start again, and Tom's unease returned.
"Are there going to be more narrow passages, do you think?" he asked.
Allan shrugged. "Possibly."
He didn't sound concerned, and Tom tried to emulate that. He pulled on his pack and held out Nemo's light-wand so they could see where they were going.
Tom stood by Allan as they looked up at the gate. It was large and imposing. Two columns bracketed the opening, covered in strange shapes and designs that might have been some kind of hieroglyphics or just strange artwork and random shapes. There was a deep crack on the left column, which gave a slight slant to the overhead lintel. It looked old but still solid.
"I'd say Clarke's information continues to be accurate," Allan said.
"Did he say what we'd find at the end of all this?" Tom shivered, the uneasy feeling growing. Something felt very wrong about this place.
Allan glanced over at him. "A tomb."
That didn't ease Tom's mind at all, but he refused to let it show. Unexpectedly, Allan reached out to stop him. "You don't have to go."
"I've come this far. I'm not chickening out," Tom said.
Allan shook his head. "That's not what I'd think. If I had any brains, I would've turned right around on my first expedition. These adventures take pieces out of you. There's no need for you to go through that."
"If you're going, I'm going," Tom said firmly. Disliking arguing with Allan, he smiled to lighten the air. "Besides, I've been reading your books. I want to see how much exaggeration there is."
"It's all exaggeration," Allan grumbled, but he seemed to accept Tom's decision. They entered through the gate and began down a long, inclining tunnel.
After a few minutes of quiet, Tom said, "So, how far down do you suppose we'll need to go?"
"Hard to say. Quite a ways, I'd imagine," Allan said. "Could be we'll have to go all the way beneath the mountain."
Tom frowned. "Seems like a lot of wasted effort. We climb almost to the top of the mountain just to descend all the way down again."
"It's my experience that shortcuts are never as short as they seem," Allan said.
"Yeah?" Tom asked, hoping for more.
But that was all Allan offered, and Tom sighed internally.
With Nemo's light-wand, they had a good view of the tunnel ahead of them, certainly more than they would have with just a torch. There wasn't much to see though. The tunnel just kept going down and down.
There were openings on the sides of the tunnel leading to more tunnels, and Tom realized how easy it would be to get lost in here. "How do we know which way to go?"
"So long as we're going down, we should be good."
"Surely you must have a better way of navigating than that," Tom said.
Allan shrugged. "Once you're away from the sun and sky, it's tricky business. Sometimes, I think it's better to assume you don't have any markers than to think you do and disorient yourself by thinking you know where you are when you really don't. These mountain expeditions are always difficult, but mountains don't just have man-sized tunnels that go on for miles without some human intervention. If it's natural, it will lead to a dead-end."
"That's not very reassuring," Tom muttered.
"It wasn't meant to be."
Tom didn't bother to hide his sigh this time.