Free Alexander, Lloyd - Vesper Holly 01 by The Illyrian Adventure Page B

his shortcuts were as short as he claimed. By midday, we had our first view of Lake Lara shining silver blue in a litde valley.
    "I can imagine water sprites living here. A perfect setting for them," said Vesper. "No wonder that Zentan prince in Matrona Mira's story was spellbound. But we'd better not let it happen to us."
    She pressed eagerly on, Nilo matching her pace. I caught up with them at the summit of a high, grassy mound. There, overlooking the lake, stood Vartan's Castle.
    "It's magnificent," Vesper said in a hushed voice.
    What I saw was a large heap of rubble.
    "Magnificent—if you look at it the way it must have been." Vesper began striding toward the ruins. "You have to rebuild it in your mind, Brinnie."
    Nilo and I followed as she scrambled over broken pillars that lay like stumps or fallen tree trunks. Vesper examined a fragment.
    "Marble? That's not local stone, is it? It must have been hauled—who knows how far?"
    Vesper went on enthusiastically, estimating the height of the pillars, where they had stood, and in effect, restoring the building in her imagination and making it take shape there before us.
    "But—it's not a castle. The pillars must have stood— there, to make a portico. These broken slabs were steps leading up to it. A fortress wouldn't have that kind of architecture. I think it must have been a temple."
    Vesper was correct. What had been the central portion was overgrown with myrtle and laurel; it seemed to have caved in on itself. But, as Vesper pointed out, it was a temple, far too elaborate to be a simple rustic shrine. The structure would have been rectangular, with pillars on all sides lo form graceful arcades.
    "What could have destroyed it?" said Vesper. "Damage like that—I'd say, an earthquake."
    Probably so. As I recalled my history, the region had suffered tremors at the same time as the catastrophic Lisbon earthquake of more than a hundred years ago. Illyrian folklore gave credit to Varian stirring in his sleep.
    "This is older than the Illyrtad, " Vesper went on. "From what I've studied about architecture, people didn't build like this in the twelfth century. It goes a lot farther back. Do you realize what that means.-* There was a civilization here long before Vartan. That's an important discovery in itself."
    It was regrettable, I said, that we had no time to investigate thoroughly. There might well be a substructure: the private quarters of the priesthood, storage chambers, perhaps a special sanctum forbidden to all but those initiated in the secret ritual. I should have bitten my tongue.
    "There's more belowground?" exclaimed Vesper. "How can we get in.**"
    We could not. The temple was in a state of collapse. Even if we found an entry, the structure had been weakened and might fall about our ears. For a safe and proper exploration, we required timbers, a framework, posts to shore up the excavation.
    "Still," said Vesper, "it can't hurt to look around."
    Disregarding my advice, she clambered over the ruins, poking here and there, scrabbling at loose rocks. Nilo caught her enthusiasm, and the pair set about probing every nook and cranny.
    Vesper finally sang out that she had found something.
    At the end of what had been the portico, a broken pillar lay across a gap in the flooring. She ran to the fringe of trees and soon came back, dragging a couple of long branches.
    "Come lend a hand, Brinnie."
    With Nilo's help, she began levering one end of the pillar while I prized up the other. The work put us all in a fine sweat, but we did at last roll aside the marble blockade. Vesper dropped to her knees and peered into a jagged opening a couple of feet across. She tossed a handful of rubble into the shaft.
    "I can't tell how far it goes, but it seems clear. Let's take a look."
    Nilo fetched a coil of rope and a lantern from his pack. I kept pointing out that we all had urgent business elsewhere, but Vesper's curiosity was aroused, and I finally gave in. The sooner she was