No light came through from anywhere to help them, but the priest
climbed on, as though he were accustomed to the stair and knew the
way from constant use. After five minutes of steady climbing the
stone grew gradually dry. The steps became smaller, too, and deeper,
and not so hard to climb. Suddenly the priest reached out his arm
and pulled at something or other that hung down in the darkness.
A stone in the wall rolled open. A flood of light burst in and nearly
blinded them.
"We are below Kharvani's temple!" announced the priest.
He led them through the opening into a four-square room hewn from
the rock below the foundations of the temple some time in the dawn
of history. The light that had blinded them when they first emerged
proved to be nothing but the flicker of two small oil lamps that hung
suspended by brass chains from the painted ceiling. The only furniture
was mats spread on the cut-stone floor.
"By which way did we come?" asked the Risaldar, staring in amazement
round the walls. There was not a door nor crack, nor any sign of one,
except that a wooden ladder in one corner led to a trapdoor overhead,
and they had certainly not entered by the ladder.
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