At first he thought he was not going to manage it, because he felt so ill that it was difficult to walk. Mr Hurst had talked about people cast into hell being made to wear iron cloaks, and Leo wondered if this had happened to him now. It seemed perfectly possible.
But somehow he got out to the big hall. It was in shadow, but it was not completely dark, and he could smell hot metal. Was that the old heat that Sophie had talked about? She and Susannah had thought the scent was from the Ovens. Leo was just thinking that rather than risk the Ovens he would go back to his bed, when there was a movement ahead of him. His heart bumped and the hot confusing mist swirled around him. He stood very still, then two figures walked in and out of the shadows, and Leo, fighting not to fall over, saw the unmistakable tumble of Sophie’s hair.
They half turned to look back at him, and one of them put up a hand to beckon him. They’re running away, thought Leo. They’re running away from the Todesengel. But they had beckoned to him to follow them, and he would have to try, so he took a deep breath and went across the hall and through the door after them.
The door opened easily, and on the other side were stone steps going down. There was a bad smell of damp and decay, but Leo, by now feeling dreadfully ill, managed to ignore it, and made his shaky way to the foot of the steps. Now there was a narrow stone passage. It was not absolutely dark because there were oil lamps fixed to the walls near the ceiling, which someone had lit. They were like huge swollen eyes staring down and Leo hated them. He began to walk along the passage, forcing himself not to look up at the bulgy eyes, willing the twins to appear. Once he thought he heard the whispery voice calling the children again, but then it faded and he thought he had been mistaken. He would probably reach the twins at any minute, although if they were running away, he was not sure if he would manage to go with them. And where would they go anyway?
The oil lamps flickered, blurring his vision and making him feel sick all over again, but he stood very still and eventually the sickness went away and the red mist melted a bit. Several doors opened off the passage – moving very cautiously, Leo opened them, because this would be exactly the kind of place the twins might be hiding. The rooms were all quite small and narrow, and they smelled dreadful. Leo thought it was not just damp and dirt – it was as if something very bad had happened in these rooms, and as if the badness was still here. But there was no sign of the twins.
The hot iron scent was stronger, and he could hear sounds as well now – hoarse gratings and clankings, as if some huge rusting machine was struggling into life. But nothing bad had happened to him yet and he had to find Sophie and Susannah, so he went a little further along. The shadows were thicker, but now they had crimson ragged edges, as if they had been dabbled in blood. Leo was careful not to tread in these shadows.
The oil flares flickered, and Leo saw the twins again – they were a little way ahead of him, moving away from him. He went towards them, but his head seemed to be opening and closing, and the passage was becoming endless, stretching out and distorting, like the dark passages in nightmares did. Each time he thought he was catching the twins up, they seemed to whisk away.
Then, quite suddenly, Leo was directly in front of a black door, with thick bands of iron across it. He stood still, staring at it. It was a dreadful door, an old, old door, and the iron pieces might be to shut people out. Or – and this was a really dreadful thought – they might be to shut people in.