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I didn’t dare speak above more than a whisper. “Shouldn’t the city have put guards or something around the cemeteries?”
Ben nodded. “Yes. It’s rather strange that we didn’t see any.”
Phil skirted the edge of the path along which we traveled, and he froze with his eyes glued to one of the smaller mausoleums. “I think I found the answer to your question.”
“What do you see?” Hearth asked him.
Phil led us over to the mausoleum, the door of which was partially opened. He swung it open even farther and revealed a neat pile consisting of two guards. My heart skipped a beat until I realized they were still breathing.
Ben slipped past us and over to them where he knelt by their sides. He gave them a cursory look before he raised his eyes to us. “They’ve been knocked out with a blunt instrument, but they should be fine in a few hours.”
“How very convenient for us,” Impara mused.
Hearth nodded. “Too convenient. Now nothing can stop our entering the catacombs through the access most known by my father.”
“Then we must play by his game, at least for the moment,” Ben insisted as he stood. “Unless the good professor knows of a better route into those tunnels.”
Impara pursed his lips. “None that may not be unblocked or more dangerous. That’s why we always used this one. The others were even more unreliable.”
“Then we don’t have much choice,” Ben pointed out as he moved over to us. “So let’s get going.”
We continued on our way through the cemetery to the large mausoleum. I paused on the threshold and admired the artistry used to craft such a beautiful marble structure. Ben stopped at my side. “Is something the matter?”
I shrugged. “I was just trying to figure out the owner of this mausoleum. They must’ve really been interested in the catacombs to put a secret passage to it underneath their altar.”
Impara poked his nose into our conversation. “We must think of these scholarly ideas another time, Miss Millie.”
I smiled and nodded. “Sorry.”
The others waited for us at the altar, and Ben opened the secret passage.
“Wait a moment,” Hearth requested.
We turned to find him pinching the air above us, and I blinked at him. “What are you doing?”
He smiled as he continued his plucking. “Capturing sunspots. Rather than befuddle our vision, they will help lead us through the catacombs.” His hands begin to fill with little orbs of soft light, and in a few moments he closed his fingers about them. “Now let me lead the way and we shall navigate the tunnels without much issue.”
“So you hope. . .” Impara darkly muttered as Hearth climbed down the stairs.
All of us soon stood in the cramped interior of the musty catacombs, and Hearth released his little captives. The sunspots floated up and around us, and illuminated the passage with their gentle light. They were bright enough that I could read the tension in the faces of my companions.
“Now where do we go?” Hearth wondered.
Ben turned his attention to me. “We’ll travel to the intersection, but after that, we’ll have to rely on Millie.”
I shrugged. “I’ll try to lead the way, but if that skeleton doesn’t want to talk then we’ll probably end up meeting a brick wall.”
Ben grinned. “Then we’ll knock politely and ask entrance.”
We trudged down the moss-covered floor of the catacombs and past the musty faces of the shriveled dead. Phil kept close to Hearth and Impara brought up the rear. The manager wrinkled his nose at the corpses. “Lively place. Remind me to book you a tour here.”
Hearth chuckled. “I doubt we would find the important people down here such a receptive audience.”
In a short while we reached the intersection and the orbs floated around us in all four directions. I took a step to the left and squinted into the darkness.
“Do you sense anything?” Ben asked me.
I shook my head. “Not a thing.”
