“Not much further,” he called over his shoulder.

She paused to catch her breath. Gazing at the magnificent landscape, she realized she would never be able find her way back to civilization.

Lancelot held out his hand. As she took it, a bolt of energy surged through her.

Instantly her fatigue and trepidation disappeared. He pulled her up onto a rocky ledge, then pushed aside some juniper boughs, exposing a steep path. “This way.”

After climbing about thirty feet, they reached an opening between two tall stones.

“Hope you’re not claustrophobic.”

Removing his backpack and pushing it ahead of him, Lancelot crawled into the opening. Miranda followed. Darkness swallowed them. Her hands and knees slid along cool, smooth stone; her head brushed the top of the tunnel. She tried not to think about snakes, spiders, and other creepy-crawlies. Listening to Lancelot’s scuffling up ahead, she wondered again what had possessed her to undertake this insane odyssey. As the tunnel narrowed even more, she had the peculiar feeling of moving through a birth canal.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said, reading her mind.

He stopped crawling and a light flickered, silhouetting his form. Suddenly a brilliant flare burst like a comet in the darkness, revealing a space before them. Lancelot stood up and lit another torch.

Scurrying into the light, Miranda gasped as she emerged into a vast pyramid whose peak reached three stories above her head. Twelve wrought-iron lanterns hung on the walls. As Lancelot lit them, chasing the chill from the room, she noticed the massive crystals circling the space and glowing with an eerie illumination of their own. The entire chamber appeared to be shimmering.