Angel Assassins - Book 1 Lineage & Lies

Chapter 14 - The Search

Drago rolled up his cloak and placed it to one side. He pulled off his heavy smock and changed into a black jumper that Xavier had given him, it was tight and a little scratchy on his skin. His dark brown trousers would have to do as he didn't have anything else; as an apprentice on his first trip to earth, you travelled with what you had. 

After pushing the cloak and smock back into his pack, Drago went through the wood that Pian had collected. He found a piece of branch that wasn't too thick and was about two foot long, to use as a torch. He put another couple of logs on the fire to keep it going. 

He placed the end in the fire and waited for it to start to burn. He pulled it out satisfied that it was well alight. He spoke a couple of words over it that the Master had taught him, and the flame stopped moving but the light and heat remained. 

He surveyed the area and picked up his pack, slinging it over his shoulder. He gingerly felt the back of his neck, surprised that there wasn't any trace of the injury that had almost killed him. He faced the darkness ahead and set off in search of the caves end.

The darkness outside of his circle of light was oppressive. Drago felt like he had been walking for hours. He had left the light of the fire far behind and his torch gave him a view of about four feet in front, behind and to his sides. 

He had already found three dead ends where the cave had forked, for each fork that led to a dead end he marked it with the charcoaled end of the torch. He came to another fork.

'I wish I could just light this whole place'

He murmured to himself. He wondered if Pian and Xavier had already got back the make shift camp. He looked down the left hand fork and walked about thirty yards. The path came to an abrupt stop the clean rock wall towering above him. He marked the wall and huffed back to the fork and took the right hand path. 

The right path was much narrower than the other one. It was eight feet across and sheer on each side of him. He again he walked about thirty yards and the path came to another sheer wall of rock.

'Oh well, that was a waste of time'

He was not happy. He turned around and was about to take the long trudge back to the camp, when he heard a faint tapping sound. He stood very still, trying to discern where it was coming from. He approached the dead end wall and pressed his ear against it. The tapping was coming from the other side. 

He pushed against the wall. It was solid and very smooth. He ran his hands against the walls on his left and his right, they were perfectly smooth! He walked back out on the path towards the main cave. He felt the walls of the cave. They were rough and jagged. He went back to the left hand path and although it was a larger area, twenty foot across, it sides and facing walls were also perfectly smooth. 

He noticed something he had missed when he first entered the area. On the left hand side there was gully in the wall about eight feet wide and three feet deep. It was perfectly smooth and square. He looked down at the floor. It looked like it was made from four huge granite blocks; he could just about make out the join lines in the torch light. It dawned on him that both of these paths or what now seemed more like rooms were man made. 

He slapped himself on the forehead, feeling rather stupid that it had taken him so long to work it out. He reasoned that it must have been made for a purpose, but he couldn't think what?

'There must be a way out, you don't just make, what seems to be two perfectly square rooms at the end of a cave for no reason or way out.' He shook his head realising he was talking to himself.

He began to check the walls again for something out of place. He found nothing in the left hand room and walked back to have a look at the right hand room. He found nothing there out of the ordinary as well.