Chapter 7 Chapter 6 The Man's Trap

On the second day, as soon as Arha finished his duties in the halls and taught the apprentices the sacred dance lessons, he immediately slipped back to the hut, turned off the lights in the room, opened the peephole, and peeked down.There is no light underneath.he's gone.She didn't think he would stay in front of the iron door that he couldn't open, but this was the only peeping place she knew.Now, he is probably lost, how can I find him? According to Saar's description and Arha's personal experience during his lifetime, the total length of the tunnels in the Great Labyrinth is more than twenty miles, including windings, branches, spirals, dead alleys, etc.In terms of a straight line, the farthest dead end may not be more than a mile from the mausoleum, but there is no straight road underground. The end-to-end road network of is equal to having no beginning and no end.Even if you walk in it for a long time, you may not go anywhere at all, because it leads to nowhere at all.This tunnel network has no center, no core, once the iron door is locked, it will lose its end, and no one direction is correct.

Although Aerha has already kept in mind the passages and turns to go to each room and section, if she wants to explore a longer distance, she will also carry a ball of yarn, loosen it along the way, and take it up when she returns. Backtracking along the lines.She knew that if she missed a calculated turn and passage, even she would get lost.There are no signposts here at all, and if you get lost, even the lights won't help you.All corridors, openings, entrances and exits are all in the same shape. He might have walked miles by now, but he was not even forty feet from the red rock door by which he had entered the Great Labyrinth.

She went to the Throne Hall, the Temple of the Two Temples, and the cellar under the kitchen, and when no one was around, she looked down at the cold and gloomy darkness underground from various spy holes.After the night fell, she braved the severe cold and stomped the twinkling stars to several places on the hill, turned over the stones, swept away the soil, and peered down, but what she saw was still the underground darkness without starlight. He was inside, he must be inside, just avoiding her.He'll die of thirst before she finds him.If it was certain that he was dead, she would send Manan into the tunnel network to find him.But this kind of result is unbearable just thinking about it.Under the starlight, she knelt on the rough slope, her eyes filled with angry tears.

She walked towards the ramped walkway leading to the Temple of the King.The carvings on the capitals of the pillars of the temple are covered with frost, shining white under the starlight, resembling the pillars of phosphorous bones.She knocked on the back door of the temple, and Ke Xiu answered the door and let her in. "What wind brings my mistress here?" The stout woman said with a cold and wary expression. "Priest, there is a man in the Great Labyrinth." It was rare for something unexpected to happen, and Ke Xiu was so shocked that he dropped his guard.She stood there staring blankly, her eyes seemed to protrude a bit.Ah Erha suddenly felt that Pan Si's imitation of Ke Xiu was really lifelike; at this thought, she couldn't help but want to laugh out loud, and after a lot of restraint, the smile finally faded away.

"A man? Inside the Great Labyrinth?" "A man, a stranger." Since Ke Xiu still stared at her incredulously, she said again: "Although I have seen very few men, at least I can recognize the appearance of a man." Ke Xiu ignored Arha's ridicule. "Why is there a man in there?" "He got in by witchcraft, I think. He was dark-skinned, probably from the Inner Isles, and came here to rob graves. At first I found him in the tomb directly under the tombstone. As soon as he noticed me, he ran towards the Great Labyrinth." I locked the iron gate after he went in. He could cast spells, but he failed to open the door. This morning he entered the network of tunnels, and now I cannot find him."

"Did he bring a lamp?" "Have." "Where's the water?" "A small jug, not full." "His candle must have burned out." Ke Xiu pondered, "After four or five days, maybe six days, you can send my steward down and drag his body out. His blood should be sprinkled on the throne, Then……" "No," Arha suddenly screamed fiercely, "I want to capture him alive." The bulky priestess looked down on the girl. "why?" "So that... so that his death... could be prolonged. He committed the crime of blasphemy against the unknown, he defiled the mausoleum with light, and he came to the mausoleum to steal treasures. These are serious crimes, and they must be It would be too cheap to impose a harsher sentence and leave him to die alone in a tunnel."

"That's right." Ke Xiu said, his expression seemed to be thinking carefully: "But how do you capture him alive, Mistress? The method of capturing him alive is unreliable, and there is no danger in letting him die. Isn't there a place in the big maze where bones are piled up? Is it? Those are the bones of a man who never left after entering the Great Labyrinth...Let the underground spirits use the dark methods of the Great Labyrinth to punish him, no matter it is one or many kinds. Death by thirst is a cruel way of death .” "I know." The girl finished, turned and stepped into the night, pulling up her hood to protect against the freezing winter wind.Doesn't she know?

It was naive and foolish to run to Ke Xiu, and I couldn't get help from her at all.Ke Xiu didn't understand anything, all he knew was to wait calmly, until he died by himself.She didn't understand, not only did this man have to be found out, but he couldn't be dealt with like other people.Arha couldn't stand that kind of treatment this time.Since he must die, let him be killed in broad daylight.This man is the first person who has dared to rob a tomb in hundreds of years, so it is definitely more appropriate for him to die at the sword's edge.He doesn't even have a mortal soul, so he is not qualified to be reborn at all.It was absolutely impossible to leave him to die of thirst alone in the dark, with his ghost wandering the underground passages.

Arha slept very little that night.Since there were a series of ceremonies and duties to be busy the next day, she had to take advantage of the darkness alone at night (without a lantern) to quietly check one spy hole after another until she had seen everything in every building and on the hill. spyhole.After being busy for most of the night, I returned to the hut for bed two or three hours before dawn, but it was still difficult to sleep.On the evening of the third day, she walked alone into the desert, toward the creek.The water level of the stream was extremely low due to the winter drought, and the reeds beside the river were frozen.She decided to come to the stream, because she remembered that one time in the autumn, as she went deeper into the Great Maze, passed the Six Forks, and followed a long bend, when she heard the sound of running water behind the rock wall.If a thirsty man goes there, won't he stay?There was a spyhole here, too, by the creek, but she had to look for it.Saar had shown her every spy hole last year, so it didn't take long to find it.Arha's way of recalling places and shapes was like a blind person's, as if groping for each hidden hole by feeling instead of looking for it with eyes.At the spyhole farthest from the mausoleum, she pulled up her hood to shade it, then moved her eyes closer to the small hole cut in the rock face; for a moment she saw a dim gleam of witchcraft light below.

He was there, but half out of her sight.The spyhole overlooked the end of the dead-end alley, and all she could see was his back, the nape of his neck with his head bowed, and his right arm.He was sitting near a corner, prying stones with a knife.His knife was a steel dagger with a jeweled hilt, and the blade had been broken off; the broken piece lay directly under the spyhole.He kept stabbing with the dagger in his hand, trying to pry open the stone so that he could get water to drink.On the other side of the impenetrable stone wall he heard the murmur of water, which was so clear in the dead silence below.

His movements seemed weak.After being forced for two days and three nights, he has changed a lot, he is very different from the man who stood softly and calmly by the iron gate and laughed at his failure before.Although he still looks tenacious, his strength is gone.He no longer has the magic to push away the stones, so he has to rely on a useless broken knife.Even his wizard light was fading, becoming dim and hazy.While Arha was watching, the light trembled slightly, the man turned his head and dropped the dagger in his hand.After a while, he stubbornly picked up the short sword again, and tried to thrust the broken blade into the crevice of the stone. Arha crawled among the frozen reeds on the bank, gradually forgetting where he was and what he was doing.She cupped her hands close to her mouth, leaned into the hole and shouted: "Wizard!" The voice slid down the narrow path of the rock and whispered coldly in the underground tunnel. The man was taken aback, stood up hastily, and left Arha's sight.She approached the spyhole again, and said: "Go back along the stone wall by the river to the second turning, and go in. Turn right at the first fork, skip a turning and turn right again. At the six forks Turn right after the road, then turn left, turn right, turn left, turn right again, enter the painting room and wait." As she moved to look in again, thinking for a moment to let daylight filter through the spyhole into the tunnel, she found him back within the circle of her vision, looking up at the opening.She saw that there seemed to be scars on his face, and his expression was anxious and expectant.His lips were parched, but his eyes were bright.He raised his staff and slowly moved the light closer to her eyes.She backed away in fright, quickly pulled back the rock cover, pushed back the covered pebbles, got up and quickly returned to the location of the mausoleum.She noticed that her hands were shaking, and she occasionally felt dizzy when she walked.She didn't know what to do. If he followed her instructions, he would go back in the direction leading to the iron door, to the Painted Room.There was no treasure in the painting room, and he had no reason to be there.But there was a nice peephole in the ceiling of the Painted Room, leading into the "treasure room" of the Twin Temples, and maybe that was why she thought of the Painted Room.She didn't know, and she didn't know why she spoke to him just now? She could use one of the spyholes to send some water down the tunnel and tell him to get it, so he could live longer.Live as long as she wants him to live as long as she likes.If she occasionally puts some water and a little food down, he will wander in the maze day after day, month after month; and she can watch him through the peephole and tell him where to find water At the time, the instructions were deliberately wrong, so that he would run in vain, but he would go anyway.Surely this would teach him what it would be to laugh at the nameless, to boast of ridiculous masculinity, where the immortal were buried! But as long as he was inside, she would never be able to enter the Great Labyrinth.why?She asked herself and answered: I must leave the iron gate open after I go in, and he may take the opportunity to escape...but at most he can only escape to the Great Tomb.So the truth is: she's afraid to face him, she's afraid of his power, the tricks he uses to get into the tomb, the sorcery that keeps the light on.However, are those things so scary?The power that rules this dark place protects her, not him.Facts are clear, in the realm of the unknown for many lifetimes, he can't do much.He didn't open the iron gate, he didn't summon magic food, he didn't go through the wall to get water, he didn't summon the monster to bring down the stone wall, all the things she feared he might do, he didn't do one of them.Even after he walked around for three days, he still hadn't found the way to the great treasure room that he must have been looking for all along, and Arha himself hadn't followed Sar's instructions to go there. Based on a certain awe and resistance, she put This expedition was postponed and postponed, and she vaguely felt that the time had not come. Now she thought: why not just let him go instead of her?He can see all the treasures in the mausoleum he wants to see.How useful they are to him!Then she could tease him and tell him to eat gold and drink diamonds. With the restlessness and nervous excitement that had occupied her for the past two days, she ran to the Temple of the Two Temples, opened the small treasure room in the vault of the temple, and opened the spy hole that was cleverly concealed in the floor. Below is the painting room, but it is completely dark inside.She forgot that the man was walking underground in a network of tunnels, winding passages that might have been miles longer than the distance on the surface.And he was definitely weak and couldn't walk fast.He may also not remember the directions she gave and take a wrong turn.Few people can remember the direction after listening to it once like her.Maybe he didn't understand her language at all.If so, let him go down in the dark and die.This fool, foreigner, godless fellow, let his ghost whine along the downhill stone path of the Atuan Mausoleum until the darkness swallowed it... In the early morning of the next day, she hurried back to the spy hole of the twin temples after two sleepless nights full of nightmares.She looked down and could see nothing but darkness.She lowered the little tin lantern hanging on the chain: yes, he was in the painting room.Through the light of the candle she saw his legs and a limp hand.This spy hole was not small, about the size of a whole floor tile; leaning against the hole, she called out, "Wizard!" no movement.is he deadIs that all he has in his body?She sneered secretly, but her heart was pounding. "Wizard!" she called, echoing in the empty room below.He moved, stood up slowly, and looked around, confused.After a while, he looked up and caught a glimpse of the little lantern shaking above his head.His face looked terrible, swollen and black, like a mummy's face. He reached for the staff lying on the ground beside him, but no light came out.There was no strength left in him. "Wizard, do you want to see the treasures in the Etuan Mausoleum?" He looked up wearily, squinting at the light of her lantern, the only thing he could see.For a moment, he winces, probably trying to force a smile, and then he nods. "Get out of this room, turn left, turn and go down when you come across the first passage on the left..." She talked about a series of directions without stopping, and then said: "In there you can find The treasure you are looking for may even find water. Now, treasure or water, which one do you want, wizard?" Leaning on the stick, he straightened his body, looked up with those eyes that could not see her, and wanted to say something, but his extremely thirsty throat could not make a sound.He shrugged slightly and left the painting room. She didn't give him water, not at all.He'd never find his way to the treasure room anyway.The journey guide was too long for him to remember.Besides, there are "giant pits" on the way, if he goes that far.With no light to use now, he was bound to get lost, then collapse, and end up dead somewhere in a narrow, dry, dry passageway.Then Manan would go find him, drag him out, and that would be the end of the matter.Arha grasped the cover of the peephole tightly with both hands, and kept rocking her crouching body back and forth. She bit her lip tightly, as if enduring terrible pain.She won't give him any water, she won't give him any water, she will give him death, death, death, death, death. At this dark moment in her life, Ke Xiu came.Wearing a winter black robe, she walked into the treasure room with heavy steps. "Is that man dead?" Alha looked up.There were no tears in her eyes, no need to hide. "Dead, I think." She replied, standing up at the same time, brushing the dust off her skirt. "His light is gone." "He may be deceitful. Those soulless fellows are very cunning." "I'll wait another day and see." "Yeah, or two days. Then send Dolby down and drag the body out. He's stronger than old Manan." "But it is Manan who serves the Nameless One, not Dolby. There are some places in the Great Labyrinth that Dolby shouldn't go into. The thief is in this kind of place now." "What does it matter, anyway, the Great Labyrinth has been defaced..." "His death can cleanse the Great Labyrinth," Arha said.From Ke Xiu's expression, she could tell that her expression must be a little weird. "Priest, this is my domain. I must take care of it according to the order of my mistress. I already know a lot about death, so don't teach me." Ke Xiu shrunk her face into the black hood, like a desert tortoise shrunk into its shell, and she replied slowly and indifferently: "Very well, mistress." The two parted at the altar of the Temple of the Twins.Now that she had told Ke Xiu that she knew what to do, Arha walked towards the hut calmly, called Manan, and asked him to accompany him. She climbed the hill with Manan, entered the throne room, and entered the great tomb.The two pulled the long doorknob hard together, and opened the iron door of the Great Labyrinth.They lighted the lanterns and went inside. Arha led the way to the painting room, and then from the painting room to the big treasure room. The thief didn't go far.She and Manan hadn't walked more than five hundred steps in the winding tunnel before they met him; he was slumped in the narrow tunnel, thrown to the ground like a rag.Before he fell down, the cane fell to the ground first, and landed on the ground a little distance from him.His lips were bloody and his eyes were half-closed. "He's still alive." Manan knelt down, placing his big yellow hand on the man's throat to feel for his pulse. "Shall I strangle him, mistress?" "No, I want him alive. Pick him up and follow me." "You want him to live?" Manan was puzzled: "Why, little mistress?" "Make him a slave of the mausoleum! Don't ask too much, just do as I say." Manan's face was more sad than before, but he followed the instructions.With a bit of effort, he lifted the young man onto his shoulders like a long sack, and staggered forward following Arha.Under such a load, Manan could not go too far at a time. In order to let him catch his breath, he rested a total of more than a dozen times on the return trip.Every time I stop, the corridor looks the same: the gray-yellow stones are tightly stacked into a vault, the stone ground is uneven, and the air is stagnant.Manan was groaning and panting, the stranger on his shoulders was lying still, the two lanterns illuminated a dim circle of light, which became thinner and thinner as it went out, and finally sank into the darkness in front of and behind the corridor.Every time there was a timeout, Arha would pick up the water bottle he brought and pour some water into the man's parched mouth, a little bit at a time, lest he would be killed if the resurrection was too hasty. "To the Chamber of Chains?" Manan asked as they reached the passage to the iron gate.As soon as Arha heard this, he began to think about where to take this prisoner.She doesn't know where to go. "No, not the Chamber of Chains," she said, suddenly disturbed by the memory of the thick smoke, the stench, and the silent face covered with hair and not saying a word.Besides, Koshun might go to the Room of Chains. "He...he has to stay in the Great Labyrinth so that he can't recover his witch power. Which room has..." "The Painted Room has a door, a lock, and a spyhole, mistress. If you're sure he won't escape through it." "He's got no witchcraft underground. Just take him there, Manan." Carrying a heavy load and walking half way, and now going back, Manan was tired and out of breath, unable to protest at all, he just straightened his back and carried the man back to his shoulders.After returning to the painting room, Arha took off his thick woolen long winter cloak, and spread it on the dusty ground. "Put him on top," she said. After gasping for breath, Manan stared at A'erha with a look of astonishment and melancholy. "Little Mistress..." "I want him alive, Manan. Look at the way he's shaking now. He's going to die of cold." "Your coat will become unclean. This is the coat of the first priestess, and he not only does not believe in God, but is also a man." Manan blurted out, his small eyes narrowed, as if in pain. "I'll burn this cloak afterwards and weave another! Quick, Manan!" Hearing what Arha said, Manan obediently bent down and lowered the prisoner on his shoulders, letting him lie on the black cloak.The man was paralyzed as if dead, but the pulse in his throat was still beating violently, and from time to time a spasm made his body tremble. "He should be in chains," Manan said. "Does he seem like a dangerous person who will cause trouble?" Arha sneered.But when she saw Manan pointing to an iron lock nailed into the rock, indicating that the prisoner could be chained, she sent him to the chain room to get the iron chain and ring.Manan walked down the corridor, muttering and complaining, while reciting the tunnel walk.He had gone back and forth between the Painted Room and the Chain Room, but never alone. In the light of the only remaining lantern, the simple human figures with drooping wings, squatting or standing in the endless silence on the four walls seemed to move and disturb. She knelt down and dripped water from a water bottle into the prisoner's mouth, a little at a time.At last he coughed and raised his hands feebly for the water bottle, which she let him drink.When he lay down after drinking, his face was dirty with water stains, dust and blood.He mumbled something, just a few words, but in a language she didn't understand. Manan finally returned with a long chain, a large shackle for handcuffs, and a ring that fit the prisoner's waist. "The hoop isn't tight enough, he can slip away," murmured Manan as he locked the chain to the hoop on the wall. "No, you see." Arha was less afraid of the prisoner now, she stretched out her hand, and personally demonstrated the thin gap between the iron ring and the man's waist, even her hand couldn't fit it in. "Unless he starves for more than four days." "Little Mistress," said Manan in a mournful tone, "I don't doubt anything, but... what's the use of making him the slave of the Unknown? He's a man, little man." "Manan, you're such an old fool. Well, come on, we're going." The prisoner watched the two with bright but tired eyes. "Manan, where's his cane? It's there. I'm taking it, it's magical. Well, I'm taking this one too." She jumped forward quickly, and grabbed the silver chain around the man's collar, Wrap the chain around the man's head; the man tries to grab her arm to stop her, but Manan kicks her in the back, and Arha flicks the silver chain out of reach. "Is this your amulet, wizard? You treasure it, don't you? It doesn't look worth much. Don't you have the money to buy a better one? Let me keep it safe for you." She hung the silver chain around his own neck, and hid the pendant under the thick collar of his woolen robe. "You don't understand what it's for," said the man, his voice hoarse, and his Kargic pronunciation was incorrect, but the meaning was clearly expressed. Manan kicked him again.With this kick, the prisoner hummed in pain and closed his eyes. "Leave him alone, Manan, let's go." She leaves the painting room, followed by Manan, grunting. That night, when the lights in the place were all extinguished, Arha climbed up the hill alone again.She filled her pitcher with water from the well behind the throne room, and with it, and a large piece of matzo flatbread, she entered the Painted Room of the Great Labyrinth.She placed these two items within the prisoner's reach.He was asleep and didn't move.After putting away her things, she turned around and returned to the hut. That night, she also slept soundly and soundly. In the afternoon, she went to the Great Labyrinth alone.The bread was gone, the water bottle was empty, and the stranger was sitting with his back against the wall, his dusty and scarred face still terribly horrific, but wary. She was standing in the corner directly opposite him, and the man was chained, making it impossible to touch her.She sized him up and turned away, but there was nothing particularly interesting in the room.She refused to speak, as if something was blocking her from speaking.Her heart was pounding, as if frightened.In fact, there was no reason to be afraid of him, he was in her hands. "It's nice to have light." He spoke lightly and deeply, which made her flustered. "What's your name?" She asked arrogantly, feeling that her voice was quite unusual, especially high and thin. "Well, everyone usually calls me Sparrowhawk." "Sparrowhawk? That's your name?" "no." "Then what's your name?" "I can't tell you. Are you the first priestess of the tomb?" "Ok." "What do you guys call you?" "Alha." "'The Devoured One'...does that mean that?" He looked at her intently with dark eyes, a slight smile on his mouth. "What's your name?" "I don't have a name. Don't ask me questions. Where are you from?" "People from the inner ring islands are in the west." "Havnor?" That was the only city or island name she knew of the Inner Islands. "Yes, I come from Havnor." "What are you doing here?" "Etuan Mausoleum is very famous among our countrymen." "But you're a heretic and don't believe in God." He shook his head. "No, Priestess. I believe in the power of darkness! I have met the 'Unknown One' elsewhere." "where?" "In the archipelago area, it is the Kingdom of the Inner Ring. There are also many places that belong to the ancient power of the earth, and the ancient power is the same as here. It's just that they are not bigger than here, and the ancient power in other places does not have temples and priestesses, and there are no other places. It’s not like being worshiped like this here.” "Are you here to worship?" she teased. "I'm here to steal," he said. She stared at his serious face: "You are too confident!" "I know it's not easy." "Easy? Impossible at all. If you believed in God, you'd know it was impossible. Aeons of Nameless Ones look after what they belong to." "What I'm looking for is not theirs." "Surely it's yours?" "I've come to ask for it back." "In that case, what are you, a god? A king?" She looked him up and down.The man in front of him was sitting on the ground tiredly, his body was chained, and his whole body was dirty. "You're nothing but a thief!" He didn't respond, just looked at her with his eyes. "You are not allowed to look at me directly!" she said loudly. "Miss," he said, "I mean no offense. I am a stranger and an intruder. I don't know your rules here, nor do I know the etiquette required to meet the priestess who guards the tomb. I am nothing but the palm of your hand now." Ant in my heart, please forgive me if I accidentally offend you." She stood where she was and didn't respond.For a moment, she felt the blood rise to her cheeks, hot and ridiculous.But he was no longer looking at her, so he didn't see her blushing.He had already obeyed his orders and looked elsewhere. The two did not speak for a while.Figures on the surrounding walls stared at them with sad, empty eyes. She brought a whole stone altar of water.Seeing his eyes drifting towards it, she said after a while, "If you want to drink water, drink it." He immediately staggered to the stone altar, lifted it as easily as a wine glass, and drank for a long time in one breath.Then, he wet the corner of his sleeve, and wiped as much dirt, blood, cobwebs, etc. from his face and hands as possible.This process took some time, and the girl watched from the sidelines.After wiping, he looked much better, but this care exposed the scar on one cheek. It was an old scar that had healed for a long time. It formed four parallel ridges, extending from the eyes to the jawbone, as if it had been covered by a giant The marks left by the scratches of the claws appeared white on the dark face. "That scar," she asked, "how did it get there?" He didn't answer right away. "It was scratched by the dragon's claw?" she asked, mocking it.Didn't she come down to the Great Labyrinth just to make fun of her victim, to torture him with his helplessness? "No, it wasn't caught by the dragon." "So, at least you are not the Dragon Lord." "No," he confessed rather reluctantly: "I am the Dragon Lord. But the scar was made before I became the Dragon Lord. As I said, I have encountered dark forces in other places in this world before. I This scar on his face is the mark of one of the kinsmen of the Unknown. But he is no longer unknown, and I know his name at last." "What are you talking about? What name?" "I can't tell you," he said, with a serious smile on his face. "It's nonsense, fools talking nonsense, blasphemy. Their name is 'The Nameless Ones'! You don't even know what you are talking about..." "Priest, I know better than you," he said in a deeper voice. "Look again!" He turned his head so that she could see the terrible mark across his cheek. "I don't believe you," she said, her voice trembling. "Priest," he said softly, "you are not old enough to serve the dark and nameless for long." "But I have served a long, long time! I am the First Priestess, the Reborn, and I have served my Mistresses a thousand years ago and a thousand years ago, their servant, their Mouth, their hands. I am also an avenger for those who defile the mausoleum and look at things that should not be seen! Don't talk nonsense, don't talk big, can't you see, just call me, my guard Come and chop off your head? Or, if I leave and lock this door, the matrons I serve will eat your flesh and soul, and leave your bones in this dust?" He nodded silently. Stammering, finding nothing to say, she rushed out of the room, slamming the latch behind her.Just let him think that she will never come back!Make him sweat in the dark, let him swear and tremble, and work his unclean, useless magic like hell! But in her heart and eyes, she saw him sleeping stretched out, just like when he was by the iron gate before: like a sheep lying on the sunny lawn, so peaceful and detached. She spat on the bolted door, drew a mark to remove the uncleanness, and ran back to the tomb as fast as she could. On the winding way back to the trapdoor of the Throne Hall, she ran her fingers over the graceful rock patterns on the wall, feeling them like congealed lace.A rush of longing swept over her, to light the lantern, to see the rocks that time had made, to see the beautiful glint on the walls, just to see it.But she squeezed her eyes shut and continued walking briskly.