The Captain sees a light

Captain Eadred was the only one of the four guards present who had previously descended into the crypt, but he was no less nervous than they. Perhaps a little more: he knew for how long the horror of the place would remain with a man after he had gone back up to the world again. For years afterwards he had dreamed of it.

As soon as he climbed down into the first chamber, Eadred noticed that there were no footprints in the dried mud on the floor, aside from the Baron’s own.

“Come with your torches!” the Baron said in a hoarse whisper to the other guards, who were on their way down the ladder.

“Hallo!” Eadred shouted.

“Hush!” the Baron hissed and smacked his arm. “Shall we wake the castle?”

“I only meant to alert the man!” Eadred protested.

“Hush!”

“I don’t hear anything,” Bran muttered.

“Hush!” the Baron hissed again. His eyes were wild.

Eadred now sorely regretted having followed his orders. Surely he should have woken Sir Osfrey – perhaps he could have talked sense into his lord. Even the little Queen might have served, if she could have seen how troubled the Baron appeared to be in his mind. If the Queen had commanded them to leave the chamber undisturbed, then they would have been obliged to follow her orders and not the Baron’s.

But it was too late. The Baron slammed his shoulder against the door to the great chamber and burst through.

He went in at once, leaving the guards and their torches behind.

“Follow,” Eadred commanded. For all their prior curiosity, his three men now looked as if they wished they were anywhere else.

The horror of the room was just as Eadred had remembered. There were the two great statues of lions. There was the grinning statue of a winged demon that tilted precariously on its pedestal, half-​​sunk into a pool of water. There was the stone table with its sphere of glass that still hung in the air all these years later.

The only thing that had changed was the bodies. The King had ordered the bodies removed before the crypt was closed, and they had been given Christian burials at last. But there were – God help them! – more bodies now: skeletons half-​​buried in the dried mud near the walls.

Eadred turned and whispered to his men, “They were probably completely covered by the mud the last time we were here. Probably flooded in here again and uncovered them. That’s all.”

His men all stared ahead with eyes so wide he could see the whites all around the irises. Eadred turned back to follow their gaze and saw the Baron crossing the floor to stand before the stone table and the sphere.

“Better not touch that!” Eadred warned. “We’re here to find that man!”

“There isn’t any man,” Cenric whimpered. “I don’t think there ever was.”

“He’s gone mad,” Bran whispered.

“My lord!” Eadred barked.

It was too late. The Baron had touched the sphere, and Eadred was blinded by a burst of blue light that felt like lightning shearing across his eyes.

The men howled and Eadred clawed at his face, but the Baron seemed unaffected by the light. He was raging: “Where is it? Where is it? You saw the light! Where is it? It was here!”

Eadred had seen the light, but he could only see a red glow now, as if he had stared too long at the sun.

It seemed that Cenric regained his sight first, for he began whimpering, “Oh, God! Oh, God! Look! Look!”

“What?” Eadred asked, squinting at the room. He could dimly make out the tall form of the Baron, but he only stood glowering at the table and the floating sphere.

“Look!” Cenric wailed. “That statue! Oh, God! Let’s go, Captain, let’s get out of here!”

Bran picked up the chorus. “Oh, God! Oh, God! Wasn’t there a statue there?”

Eadred looked to where the men were pointing. In the torchlight he could see a bare pedestal, tilting precariously, half-​​sunk in a pool of water.