Chapter 37
The circular platform was equidistant from the cavern walls in every direction. Ben and Maya climbed its three steps to look around, and they could see the mouths of several unexplored cave passages. The stone at the top of the platform appeared to be some sort of altar carved out of the mountain itself. The grey rock had neither cracks running through it nor moss growing over it, but was shiny and smooth as a mirror. The translucent globe floated just a few centimetres above the surface of the table, and from up close it was obvious that the light came not from this itself, but from the tens of thousands of golden spheres inside it.
“It’s beautiful!” Maya whispered.
“And dangerous,” Ben warned.
Maya leaned closer to the globe, and her whole face shone in the golden light. I
