“It is.” He smiled at her.
“You are a criminal, Maxwell Barrett.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
He chuckled, but continued working on the lock. “Do you have a better idea?”
“No, I do not. But don’t you think someone might see us?” she asked.
“I doubt it. We are in an alleyway, and most of the shops have closed for the evening.”
“Probably,” she muttered. “Very comforting.” She continued to pace the porch and look out at the alleyway, checking for passersby.
The lock gave way, and he was able to open the front door, though not all the way. Something blocked the door from the other side. With difficulty, each of them squeezed inside. A curio cabinet partially obstructed the door.
“Obviously they don’t want people inside,” Sabine said.
Max closed the door behind them. “Stay close,” he said.
Ancient and Unique appeared to be an appropriate name for the store, Max thought, as they made their way through the front room. Every odd thing one could imagine filled every open space available. There was an entire shelf on one wall that appeared to be filled with different types of potions and restorative cures or some such nonsense, then a corner with an array of odd musical instruments. Another shelf housed navigational tools, including several different sizes of compasses. Copper pots and clay pottery cluttered a bottom shelf.
They moved through the room and toward the back of the house. Each room was much of the same, filled to the brim with one oddity after another. Finally, they came to a staircase at the very back of the building that went downward. Two of the wooden stairs were missing completely, so Max had to assist Sabine down to the bottom.
“Do you think it’s merely a storeroom?” Sabine asked. “Should we search through all of the items in the shop to see if we can find something hidden there?”
“I say we search the building first, see if we can find a chamber down below,” Max said. “If nothing comes of that, we can dig through all of these treasures. Though I’m not certain we’d find anything of worth. There’s nothing bath-related in all that stuff.”
“Perhaps we’d find a bathing tub,” Sabine suggested. “Though I’m not sure how that would help. Perhaps we could drown the Chosen One.”
Max stopped walking. “Sabine, did you just make a joke?”
“Shut up.” She punched his arm. Then they kept moving.
They reached the storeroom, but there was something different about it. For one thing, it was made entirely of stone, and for another, there was nothing stored inside. All of the rooms above were packed to the ceiling and yet this, a room typically designed for storage, was completely empty.
Dampness seeped up from the floor, chilling the room. It smelled musty and stale. The walls were nearly bare except for an old bulletin advertising a Shakespearean play. Max walked the length of the room, running his hand over the wall as he did.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Looking for a lever or hidden notch that will open the chamber,” he explained. He kept moving. The stones beneath his fingertips were smooth and cold, but nothing out of the ordinary.
He came to the last corner, and as he slid his hand over the stone, he realized he’d found a gap. “It is an optical illusion,” he told Sabine. “Look, it’s painted to appear to be another corner to form a perfectly square room.”
She walked over and leaned to see the area behind his arm. “That’s a hallway. A long and narrow one, but a hallway nonetheless.” She smiled broadly.
“Shall we?” Max asked. He held his hand out to Sabine and she followed.
They continued moving through the underground tunnel, unsure of where they would end up. Max hoped he was correct in deciphering the riddle, and that they hadn’t simply stumbled upon a very strange house.
They came to another set of stairs leading farther downward, though these were made of stone. It was not a long staircase, but it wound to their right until they were deposited into a large rectangular room. Columned archways lined the perimeter of a spacious pool, just like those in Bath.
“You were right,” Sabine said, wonder filling her voice.
“It would appear so. But you don’t have to sound quite so surprised.”
The sunken pool was empty, the spring that fed the bath having long since dried up. Some statues remained intact, although a few had begun to crumble. Along one side of the pool were four stone women, naked from the waist up, leaning forward and pouring water from large amphoras into the bath. At the height of this Roman bath’s day, it would have been luxurious and decadent to have water fall into the pool in such a manner. Quite sophisticated engineering as well.
“It’s beautiful,” Sabine said. She stepped around him, walking through the archway and near the edge of the pool. “The dove? Where would they hide it?” she whispered. She made her way over to the steps that led into what would once have been a refreshing pool of water.
“Search all around,” he said. “It looks as if we have a large area to cover.” His voice echoed in the solid stone surroundings.