Walking with Shadows
--- Chapter XXIX ---
--- Chapter XXIX ---
Chapter I - Chapter II - Chapter III - Chapter IV - Chapter V - Chapter VI - Chapter VII – Chapter VIII – Chapter IX – Chapter X
Chapter XI – Chapter XII – Chapter XIII – Chapter XIV – Chapter XV – Chapter XVI – Chapter XVII – Chapter XVIII – Chapter XIX – Chapter XX
Chapter XXI – Chapter XXII – Chapter XXIII – Chapter XXIV – Chapter XXV – Chapter XXVI – Chapter XXVII – Chapter XXVIII
The next few hours pass by in a flash, James’ mind a flurry of thoughts darting into every which direction, be it how to access the hole, what they might find in the hole, the weather getting worse, potential dangers, Sophia and the dangers he had put her into already, but nothing in any sort of constructive manner, rather a mad dash to the left and the right and back again. As hypnotic as the constant drone of the rain is, his mind is so wound up that it barely registers and by the time he realizes that it is almost seven o’clock in the morning, he already feels drained.
The moment he opens the van door, however, any thoughts of tiredness are very quickly wiped out by the crisp, cold air assaulting him, making him realize the altitude they are at, leaving him wondering if there’d be an actual chance for snow instead of rain. As he turns on the camp stove, he hears some stirrings from the tents, including a “Get off, Nurisema!”, which automatically makes him smile. A few minutes later Sophia emerges from the tent, just to turn on her heel and go right back in, re-emerging with a thicker coat against the cold.
“Problems?”
“I could barely feel my legs…”
“It is a lot of dog.”
“Tell me about it. He still thinks he is a puppy sometimes.”
James points at the van. “There’s coffee in there, if you want.”
She smiles. “Thank you, I definitely need that.”
In a big pan James cracks eggs and puts out bacon while watching Sophia cling to her mug and looking out over the ruined village ahead, the clouds feeling even lower than the day before, creating an almost claustrophobic feeling. Her hair is bound together into a loose ponytail, but she clearly missed several strands that are stubbornly sticking out. The sound of the rest of the party waking up tears him away from his thoughts as one by one they peel out of their tent, likely attracted by the scent of bacon wafting through the immediate vicinity.
“Ah, best alarm clock there is!” Sanford exclaims as he stretches to full height.
*****
A little over half an hour later, they have all congregated at the entrance to the monastery. After over breakfast several discussions had erupted over what would be the best method to see how deep the hole was, Sophia had stormed off, returning with her bow now.
“Arrow, fire, solution.”
After carefully checking the solidity of the remaining floor of the grand entrance hall, James reluctantly agrees to allow Sophia to advance towards the edge to fire her arrow after everybody but her admits that they have never used a bow like hers, even less so with a burning arrow. While she had protested against a rope around her waist, James made it clear that it was the only way he would agree. As she inches forward, he double and triple checks the length of rope tied around himself and through two carabiner hooks, while Sanford stands outside of the monastery with the end around him to act as final counterweight. Inches away from the drop she ignites the diesel soaked rag that they had tied around the arrow, turns to give James a nod and fires the arrow, following its progress.
“What’s wrong?” James asks with concern as he sees the look on Sophia’s face change.
“Alright, good and bad news. Good news, it looks like it’s about three or four stories deep and has wooden stairs leading down along the walls and they look in pretty good shape. Bad news—I may have set something on fire at the bottom.”
“Oh shit. How bad is it?”
“There are some flames and have I mentioned that it’s wooden stairs?”
“OK, let’s move quick then.”
Quickly untying the rope, James moves forward, his flashlight trying to find where the stairs begin while checking for the fire. For now, it seems like a small dot of flickering flames, but like Sophia had mentioned, centuries old wood and fire usually do not go together well.
“Let’s hope that with all the rain the dampness has gone down far enough not to have it all go up in flames while we’re going down!”
Without another word he advances towards the south end of the hall, where a double set of wooden doors has rotted off its hinges, revealing the entrance to the stairs leading down. Carefully resting the strength before putting his full weight, he takes two steps in. Satisfied with how solid the footing is, he motions for the others to move forward. Skarsgaard has been assigned to stay at the top to keep an eye out for anybody potential coming and for the case they might need help, while Crowe is bringing up the rear of the party for the same reason.
Despite the urgency of the situation, James can’t help but marvel at the intricate construction of the whole set of stairs circling around the large hole, hugging the wall, leading from platform to platform, and how solid it is. He makes sure to keep an eye on the flames at the bottom, which seem to be spreading slowly, but surely.
“Alright, it is not spreading too fast, but once we get down there, we’ll have to figure out a way to stop it, otherwise this’ll get ugly quickly.”
Even though they manage to descend at a decent speed, it feels like forever and the thought of getting trapped down there is not the most assuring one. Eventually they get to the bottom and a quick look around shows that there are four corridors leading out of the landing area, each looking exactly the same, the floor packed dirt.
“Looks like we brought just the right number of people.” Sanford jokes.
“Aren’t we lucky. But first we need to get this fire out, it’s getting a little big for my tastes and the sprinkler system doesn’t quite seem up to code.” James looks around frantically, hoping to find something, anything to help, but there is nothing but wood, which does not seem like a good idea to use to deploy against a spreading fire.
