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Torkan looked around in confusion, then at the distant fortress “Here? I thought the entrance was some kind of secret door in the fortress wall that we’d take a boat to We’re not even close to the wall yet”

“It wouldn’t be well hidden if was easy to find”

Torkan again looked at the pillar “Then that has to be the door knocker”

“In a way Press the swastika You’ll need to push hard”

Torkan shoved his fist against the symbol It sank into the pillar, and the four lion heads rose six inches from the top

Torkan turned to Mallik with a puzzled expression when nothing happened “Nohat?”

“Turn the lion heads a quarter turn clockwise”

Torkan did as instructed When they reached a quarter rotation, there was an audible click, and they sank back into the pillar

At the saan to recede In a few seconds, waterfalls were cascading over the top of two parallel stone walls that rose from the bottom, four feet apart on either side of the path An unseen hole was draining the trench between the te

Soon it was clear that the path didn’t continue to the opposite bank Instead, it led down to stairs that disappeared into a tunnel

“Come on,” Mallik said as he stepped onto the wet stairway “We’ll only have a minute when the water is coain, and the water flowing over the da quickly”

He continued down the steps, followed by Torkan, until he reached the bottoh a small foyer and then back up a few stairs to a corridor where a stone barrier was rising at the sa the foyer Soon the barrier would dovetail into a groove in the ceiling and seal off the corridor A pillar identical to the one outside stood next to thewall

“Is this how all the entrances work?” Torkan asked as the light froan to dim

“I don’t know,” Mallik replied, activating the light on his cell phone to use as a flashlight “In all h another entrance”

Torkan lit up his own phone, illu thousands of years of torch s, and they walked down the silent tunnel that seemed to stretch into infinity