the others were still taken up with the harvest, but there were laborers enough for the remaining tasks, and the guests of the house could no longer be allowed to take part in the work. Corson and Nyctasia had the whole of Honeycomb Hill to themselves. They explored the interior of the cave with lanterns and candles, but found only the sign of the Cymvelan Circle, crudely scratched in stone.
There was nothing for it but to dig.
The cave was too small to allow Corson to swing a pick, and she could barely stand upright to put her full weight behind a spade. There was not room for two to dig, but Nyctasia knelt and troweled the dirt and loose stones out of the way, sifting through them for clues, “Don’t stay too long in one spot,” she advised. “If there’s anything here, it shouldn’t be too well hidden. They expected children to find it.”
“Probably only children can find it,” Corson grunted. “I should have brought
’Lorin along instead of you.”
It was slow work, but they had not been at it long when Corson’s spade struck with a hollow thud against something unexpected. “Wait!” Nyctasia scraped a space around the edge of the spade. “This is wood.”
They both set to, clearing the shallow layer of soil from the planks beneath.
“I think it’s a chest.”
“It’s not a coffin, is it?”
It was neither. Before long they had uncovered most of the wooden flooring of the cave, and in the center was a small trapdoor. When they tugged it open, a cold wind came rushing up from the blackness below to strike their faces with a disconcerting chill. A lantern lowered into the hole revealed stairs cut into the stone, leading down into darkness.
“It’s a doorway for children, that’s certain,” said Nyctasia. “I might squeeze through, but you couldn’t possibly.”
For answer, Corson thrust the edge of her spade between two of the old boards and stamped it down with all her strength until the plank next to the open trapway began to break loose. Gripping the free side, she pulled up on the loosened board and tore it out with a crack of outraged joinery. Nyctasia stepped cautiously down the stairway far enough to push up on the next board while Corson wrenched it free from above. Corson tossed it aside and grinned down at her. “Now it’s wide enough for someone of a decent size, eh?”
“Yes, and even for a monstrous creature like you.” Nyctasia took up her lantern again and started slowly down the stairs.
Corson seized the other lamp and hastened to follow her. “Out of my way, mite, or I’ll step on you.”