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Dervish and Meera are still laughing in the"Your face!" Dervish chortles at breakfast "Like every de for you!"

As I&039;ve noted before,while Dervish and Meera enjoy their little joke, only keep my head down and focus on my food Dervish doesn&039;t understand why I was so scared He doesn&039;t know that I saw him with the deer, that I suspect he&039;s a olf, that I&039; if I can buy silver bullets on eBay I doubt he&039;d be laughing if he did

The house toruns usually last forty-fivemission

I hurry down the stairs to the wine cellar Pause with my hand on the door In horror movies, monsters always lurk in the basement But this isn&039;t a movie I mustn&039;t succumb to fictional fears - not when I have very real fears to contend with

Creeping down the steps Leave the door open Checking my watch - seven minutes since Dervish left I&039;ll allow myself half an hour, not a second more

Pause at the bottom of the steps Dark and cool I shuffle forward and an overhead light winks on Studying the rows of wine racks I turn full circle My heart beats erratically My legs feel like they belong to an elephant - heavyyyyy The axe in ht of the cellar

I stalk the nearest aisle, studying the floor - stone slabs, different shapes, tightly ceether I pause occasionally, crouch and rap a slab with the base offor echoes

None Solid

Left at the end Exploring a second aisle, then a third, a fourth

No strange-looking slabs No echoes anywhere I rap The joining cement between the slabs unbroken No trace of a hidden door

Back where I started Twenty of the thirtywho can s to think I could be wrong about the cellar Perhaps the hidden entrance is in one of the ground floor rooive up yet

I scout the riers over the rough, dry stone, searching for cracks

A wine rack - ceiling-high,- covers one section of the wall My hopes rise - this could be blocking a secret passage! - but when I lift out a couple of bottles, all I see behind is more stone wall I re out of the ordinary is revealed

Two minutes left This is a waste I&039;ll focus on the rooeway is hidden behind one of Dervish&039;s many bookcases I&039;ll start in the ht dies unfinished As I&039; closer, I ht and squint for a better view

It&039;s a semi-circular stain, pale, easily h there aren&039;t many footprints in the cellar - Dervish keeps it really clean - this isn&039;t the first I&039;ve discovered What sets this one apart from the others is that it faces away from the wine rack, and the mark of the heel is hidden beneath the bottles

Gotcha!

Watching TV Nervous Waiting for Dervish to leave

There was no time to examine the wine rack Once I&039;d noted the print, I caht up and carefully closed the door behind me Dervish returned a few minutes later, but I was safe in my room by then, and had splashed ht red flush I&039;d worked up in the cellar

Dervish has spent most of the day since then in his study, as he often does, reading, ed for et back down the cellar Not being able to is drivinga close watch on the front door - don&039;t want Dervish slipping out unnoticed I even leave the toilet door open when I&039;m in there, so I&039;ll hear him if he comes down the stairs

So far, no joy But I&039;m patient He has to leave eventually He can&039;t stay cooped up here forever

Night falls Dervish still hasn&039;t ventured outside

Over a late dinner, I ask casually if he has any plans for the night

"Thought Isheepishly

"Are youMeera?"

"Maybe, maybe not With the unfathoreat attraction about drinking in the Vale?" I ask

"A pretty new barhs

"What&039;s her na anywhere with her?"

"She&039;s sloarive it another few nights If she hasn&039;t bitten by then, I&039;ll cut my losses, maybe take you and Bill-E out to see a film"

He makes it sound very casual, but I knohat he&039;s really doing - giving hihts, until the full moon has come and passed

Dervish leaves at 21:48 precisely He sticks his head in ly tellsabout the fact that he hasn&039;t changed his clothes, slipped on a nice pair of shoes, combed his hair or sprayed under his ars he would have done if he&039;d truly been going out on the pull

My uncle has a lot to learn about the art of espionage!

At the cellar door Hesitant I&039;d rather do this by daylight Going down this late at night, not knowing how long Dervish will be away or when to expect hi, when he goes for his daily jog and I have a guaranteed three-quarters of an hour to play with

But I&039;ve had alht snore throughand wake late, the opportunity rip on my axe Descent

The wall on either side of the rack is solid, but when I remove one of the bottles, reach in and rap on the &039;bricks&039; behind, there&039;s a dull echo Grunting, I grab hold of the edge of the rack and pull

It doesn&039;t budge

I exert o

Stepping back Analysing the problem Look closer at the wooden rack There&039;s a thin divide down the rab sections of the rack on either side of the divide and try prying thehtly - a few millimetres - then hold firm

Brute force isn&039;t the answer I&039;ure out how to use it