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I speeded up and she kept pace, our footsteps ringing loudly now. We
passed the fourth opening. The fifth. . . . From somewhere, it seemed I
heard faint strains of music.
She glanced at me inquiringly when we neared the sixth passageway, but
I just kept going. It was the seventh that I wanted, and when we finally
came to it I turned, took a few paces, halted, and raised the lantern. We
stood before a big metal-bound door.
I took the key down from the hook on the wall to my right, inserting it
in the lock, turned it, withdrew it, and rehung it. Then I put my shoulder
against the door and pushed hard. There followed a long moment of
resistance, then slow movement accompanied shortly by a complaint from a
tight hinge. Frakir tightened upon my wrist, but I kept pushing till the
door was opened wide. Then I stood to the side and held it for Coral.
She moved a few steps past me into that strange chamber and halted. I
stepped away and let the door swing shut, then came up beside her.
"So that's it," she remarked.
Roughly elliptical, the intricately wound oval form of the Pattern
glowed blue-white within the floor. I set the lantern aside. It wasn't
really necessary, the glow from the Pattern providing more than sufficient
illumination. I stroked Frakir, calming her. A jet of sparks rose at the far
end of the great design, subsided quickly, occurred again nearer to us
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