“The next change will be on the stroke of midnight,”
Amartia informed them.
The children braced themselves but had no idea what they should be looking out for. In order to have a better view when the moment arrived, they positioned themselves one on each of the four sides of the artefact.
It started up again. Everything was shifting around but this time it was different. Muko, on the south side, shouted that the passage they'd come down was closing. Amartia called out that it wouldn't be long before the next change, which definitely put the wind up them. They looked at the pillars and at the machine but they couldn't see any new clues. They panicked and shouted louder and louder, trying to make themselves heard above the noise of the machine, until Muko yelled at them to be quiet. He went over to the pillar that had the symbol from the book, touched the carving, and everything stopped. There was a grave silence.
Silence expect for a very quiet ticking, like that of a clock. Muko tried to find where it was coming from. He put his ear to the wall, and the pillar. Feeling along the pillar, he put his hand on a loose stone. There was a loud CRACK and the courtyard floor in front of him split open to reveal a passageway with a