‘There are a couple of torch rings, though.’ Kurik went to the front wall and pulled on one of the rusty iron rings. There was a solid-sounding clank. ‘Pull the other one, Sparhawk,’ he suggested. ‘Let’s open this door and see what’s behind it.’

‘Sometimes you’re so clever you make me sick, Kurik,’ Sparhawk said sourly. Then he grinned. ‘Let’s get the others down here first,’ he said. ‘I’d rather not open that door and find half the Zemoch army behind it with only the two of us here to hold them off.’ He went to the stairs and beckoned to his waiting friends, touching one finger to his lips as he did so to signal the need for silence.

They came down quietly to avoid clinking.

‘Kurik found the latches,’ Sparhawk whispered. ‘We don’t know what’s on the other side of the door, so we’d better be ready.’

Kurik motioned to them. ‘The wall isn’t too heavy,’ he said quietly, ‘and the track it slides on seems to be well greased. Berit and I should be able to move it. The rest of you should be ready for anything on the other side.’

Talen moved quickly to the corner on the left side and put his face close to the two intersecting walls. ‘I’ll be able to look through here just as soon as you get it open an inch or so,’ he told his father. ‘If I shout, slam it shut again.’

Kurik nodded. ‘Are we ready?’ he asked.

They all nodded, their weapons in their hands and their muscles tense.

Kurik and Berit pulled out on the torch rings and inched the wall aside slightly. ‘Anything yet?’ Kurik hissed to his son.

‘Nobody’s there,’ Talen replied. ‘It’s a short corridor with just one torch. It seems to go back about twenty paces and then it turns to the left. There’s quite a bit of light coming from beyond that turn.’

‘All right, Berit,’ Kurik said, ‘let’s open it all the way.’

The two of them slid the wall the rest of the way open.

‘Now that is very, very clever,’ Bevier said admiringly. ‘The labyrinth down here doesn’t go anywhere at all. The real route to the temple is up above it.’

‘Let’s find out where we are – in the temple or back at the throne-room,’ Sparhawk said. ‘And let’s be as quiet as we can.’

Talen looked as if he were about to say something.

‘Forget it,’ Kurik told him. ‘It’s too dangerous. You just stay behind the rest of us with Sephrenia.’

They moved out into the short corridor where the single torch near the far end provided a dim, flickering light.

‘I don’t hear anything,’ Kalten whispered to Sparhawk.

‘People waiting in ambush don’t usually make noise, Kalten.’