Lisabeth squeezed close to the chief once more, but this time in silence. Anne-Christine and Govert Gosseling watched from their little horses as father and daughter hugged each other for minutes.
"Please do come in!" the chief at last invited Anne and Govert. The two left their horses which had already started to graze. "There's no need to undo your shoes", the host said. "These carpets can cope with a little sand".
Once inside, each of the three travellers took their own cushion to sit on and, together with Lisabeth's father, they formed a small circle around the sizzling hot water boiler.
"You look very tired", he began. "I'll pour some tea at once".
"That is most welcome", Govert answered, feeling relieved that, at least for a moment, the long journey, which had lasted for days, had come to an end.
Anne-Christine didn't know where to look first. She inspected the tent, which was richly decorated with carpets, all over. Lisabeth focussed her attention on the chief, who broke small parts of his tea tile, put them in the cups and then used the boiler's tap four times.
"Father", Lisabeth later said softly. "Here are my friends I just told you about: Anne-Christine van den Weezebeecke and Govert Gosseling".
"It's an honour meeting you", the chief said, looking each of them in the eyes, while serving their tea. "But where are your other two friends, who were here a few hours ago?"
"They left, just as I told you" Lisabeth said. "At least, I suppose so".
"How long ago was that, sir?" Gosseling curiously inquired.
The chief thought about it: "Not so long ago. I think I didn't sleep longer than an hour after that event".
"Ah, so you slept. Are you sure you didn't dream it?" Anne-Christine wondered.
"Who knows, but I'm certainly not dreaming now", the chief answered. "And I'll burn my fingers if you don't take this cup right away".
Anne-Christine accepted the tea and looked meaningfully at her fellow travellers.
"Have I really been here before?" Lisabeth asked.
"What a silly question", the chief answered. "Of course you were really here. The only differences are that you look more tired now and you had two other companions".
"Then it must be true after all", Anne-Christine and Gosseling said simultaneously.
"What must be true after all?", Lisabeth's father asked, who had chosen to sit close to his daughter, putting his arm around her.
"Unfortunately it is a bit too complicated to explain all in a few moments", Govert answered, now thinking he had an overview of the entire situation. "But one of the points is that Lisabeth led us to this place, ambitious as she was to repossess a Crystal Wine-set again, in order to make it vanish for ever. At the same time, she dreams that she is doing the same thing together with my son Alexej and Mary O'Lein, a captain of Her Majesty's fleet".
"Your other two friends, a moment ago", Lisabeth's father understood. "But that's no dream, as they were here not too long ago, as truly as you are sitting right in front of me now."
"Then we have to chase them as soon as possible!" Anne- Christine concluded. "Perhaps we still can catch up with them".
Lisabeth looked disappointed and moved even closer to the chief.
"Shall we do that, just the two of us then?" Gossling proposed, watching this scene. "Lisabeth may prefer to stay with her father".
"Oh no!" Lisabeth said decisively, moving out of her position.
"Do you perhaps know which direction they took?" Anne- Christine inquired.
The chief laughed: "I do know the direction, which is northbound. Lisabeth asked for the Gold and Silver Mines, but no-one here knows from which one your Wine-set originates. Perhaps your partners know it."
"And how many mines are there?" Gosseling asked.
"It's like a Swiss cheese", the chief answered honestly. "And it's dangerous as well. Some shafts are on the verge of collapse and, below the surface, there is a vast labyrinth in which you may get lost before you realize. You really must know what you're up to."
"We do know", Anne-Christine said.
"Then I wish you all the best. And Lisabeth, you will come back soon, won't you?"
"I promise", Lisabeth said, walking out of the tent after a brief kiss. She then jumped on her saddle and rushed away towards the north, without looking back.
It took some time before the others caught up with her, as Anne-Christine had to adapt her speed to Govert's who wasn't fast. They could still see tears in Lisabeth's eyes.
"As soon as possible after we have made the Crystal vanish, we'll return to your father", she soothed Lisabeth.
"Will we?" Lisabeth hopefully asked.
"Of course we will" Govert added.
Lisabeth absent-mindedly cleaned her nose with her sleeve.
"I had only a few belongings, some Mongolian coins and a travel icon. That's all I have and they told me virtually nothing about my past. But it was always clear to me that I had to travel to Upper Mongolia to find my father. And that I would recognise him by my travel icon. So at least that came true."
They then rode silently over the endless land, covered with dry grass where the wind never stopped blowing.
"Lisabeth, do you have any idea where we must go?" Gosseling asked after an hour or so.
"The same idea as you have", her answer was. "We must head north, just like my father told us, and that's all I know."
"I can already see something which looks like the entry to a mine", Anne-Christine said, pointing towards a rather flat hill which stood out on the otherwise straight horizon.
"Then we'll go there," Govert decided. "Who knows, perhaps it's the right one."
"I expect what awaits us will be more complex though", Lisabeth said, very seriously. "Until now, everything that happened was like two steps forward and then one backward. I suppose it will be like that right until the very end."
"We'll see", Anne-Christine added non-committally.
After an hour, the three travellers halted their horses at the entrance of a shaft which sloped down into the ground. It looked as if it had once been a well-preserved mine, but now boulders scattered all around made it hard, if not impossible, to enter.
"Your father was quite right", Gosseling said. "This is not feasible and dangerous as well. Parts of the rest of the ceiling may collapse at any moment".
"And it isn't even the right mine", Anne-Christine said. "I don't feel anything, looking at this mountain".
"All right, then we'll travel on at once" Gosseling said, changing his position before spurring his horse to move on. "Further north?" he asked.
"Well, there's another entrance", Anne-Christine said, pointing at another hill, not far away.
"And yet another, over there", Lisabeth added. "And there!"
"Your father was more than right. This is not the way to solve this problem", Gosseling concluded, slowing his little horse. "We have to come up with a better idea. Lisa, could you perhaps sleep for a while and look where Mary and Alexej are at this moment?"
"I don't know", Lisabeth answered. "I'm rather tired, but I'm not in the mood for sleeping".
"Then there's only one way open", Anne-Christine said, taking both reins in one hand and using the other to open her blouse.
"Do I really have to, now?" Lisabeth asked, "I'm not up to it".
"Nor am I, to be honest, but it is for a good cause", Anne-Christine suggested.
"That is true", Lisabeth admitted. "It would be extremely useful if we knew Mary O'Lein's whereabouts. But I just don't want to sleep, nor to be romantic."
"There must be another solution somewhere", Govert guessed. "Lisa, how about a horse?"
Lisabeth's face turned red.
"Do you mean that I should do it with a horse, to know where the right gold mine is?"
"That's a pretty heavy request", Anne-Christine protested. "You can't ask that of Lisabeth, Govert". She looked with annoyance at scientists.
"It was just a possibility", he excused himself "I don't want to force anyone to do anything".
"Perhaps I should do it after all", Lisabeth said, pulling the reins and dismounting.
"You are a good rider", Mary O'Lein said somewhat later. "You sleep for hours on your horse without falling off".
Lisabeth opened her eyes and looked around. She saw that they were riding through a low lying plain on their way to a vast hilly part, with white sand which reflected the sun enough to hurt her eyes.
"Is it still a long way to go?" she asked.
"No, you can already see the entrance to the Muscovite Labyrinth", Mary O'Lein answered. "Look over there, it's right in front of us".
"Wake me up the moment we arrive," Lisabeth said, closing her eyes.
"And did you find out anything over there?" Anne-Christine asked, after having enjoyed watching the intimite act between Lisabeth and her horse, as Gosseling had, too. Lisabeth found it hard to recover her normal self.
"What an experience", she stuttered. "Just let me think for a while. It's not all that easy. Yeah.... there is a low- lying plain with an entrance at the end, in a long hill of bright white sand. It hurts your eyes when you see it", she recalled and then started to refresh herself with water from a soldier's bottle.
"That must be those hills over there", Anne-Cristine pointed. "They don't seem to me to be that far".
"Yes they are," Lisabeth confirmed, peering in the direction, indicated by Anne-Christine. "But a moment ago they were even closer".
Soon, they remounted and, not long after, rode into the low lying plain which Lisabeth had seen.
"They can't be that far ahead of us", Anne-Christine said. "Not more than an hour".
"I can see those white hills more clearly now, but not the entrance to the mine", Lisabeth said. "But I suppose that I shall see it in a short while".
"There is more than a single entrance", Anne-Christine said a few moments later. "I can already distinguish three of them".
"I hope that all of them will lead to our goal", Gosseling wished loudly, adding in a softer voice: "For, honestly speaking, I'm a bit too old for this kind of adventure.".
The day wasn't lucky for Govert Gosseling. None of the entrances seemed to be the right one; Anne-Christine, too was convinced that none of them was the proper entrance.
"This is gold mine number so-and-so", Gosseling sighed as they approached yet another entrance. "Lisabeth, this is searching for a needle in a haystack!"
"This is our mine", Anne-Christine said at last, ignoring his lamentations. "I can feel that this is the right mine. This is where the Muscovite Crystal comes from".
"I'm not convinced. It is a mine like any other. There's no difference whatsoever", Gosseling said firmly. "It is just another old mine to which no-one has paid any attention for ages."
"Perhaps that's just why", Lisabeth guessed. "The Crystal is also very old and I hope that we shall still be in time".
"In time for what exactly?" Anne-Christine wondered.
"In time to see the Muscovite Crystal vanish for ever", she responded. "That's why we are here, aren't we? That's why we crossed half the globe, a couple of times?"
"It's all right, I was only joking", Anne-Christine said, with a twinkle in her eye. She didn't dismount but led her horse carefully into the tunnel, followed by Lisabeth and Govert. They only just managed to get through as the animals found it difficult to find their way amid the piles of fine sand, blocking the passage on either side. At first, the shaft wasn't really dark and they managed to see the obstacles in time, but only for a while.
"The soil is getting flatter", Gosseling remarked eventually.
"That's just what I intended to say", Lisabeth said. "And it looks as if the walls are getting flatter too."
"It is the right mine", Anne-Christine explained in a few words.
"Did you see any other side shafts yet?" Govert asked.
"No, not at all, but I really can't see anything, except for the entrance behind us and the exit in front of us", Lisabeth answered.
"That's probably not an exit" the scientist predicted in an echoing voice. "That tiny little light is fleeing in front of us all the time and we'll probably neaver reach it, even if we stay in our saddle for a number of days."
"It is the right mine", Anne-Christine repeated.
"And do you know what that little light is then, egghead?" Lisabeth asked. "I agree with Govert. That bright spot doesn't seem to come any closer".
The uneventful journey through the tunnel seemed to last for hours. The point of departure got smaller and smaller and the exit didn't seem to come much closer.
At a certain moment, Gosseling had enough of it: "You can go on if you want to. I'm fed up. You can catch me up when everything has reached its happy ending. We already travelled thousands of miles without anything which looks like Crystal in our hands. Perhaps the Crystal was already destroyed months ago inside the Crystal Castle. Possibly Lisabeth is nothing but a dreamer. I've really had enough of it."
"No Govert, you can't do that. Until now we did everything together and you'll join us, even if we have to carry you", Lisabeth said firmly. "You can't leave us alone in sight of the harbour. Indeed we've had nothing in our hands for a long time, but I'm convinced that everything will turn out fine and I'll do everything in my power to realise that as I'm starting to get fed up, too."
She set her teeth and Govert and Anne-Christine could both hear her grumbling while she dearly hoped that they would reach the end of the tunnel rather soon.
"It isn't an exit, but a start of something new", Anne- Christine exclaimed, having made good use of her visionary powers. "As we are standing still, I can see much better what it is".
"So, that worked once again", Lisabeth said, feeling relieved. "A nice little trick, which I learned on the Stormy. Come on, Govert, just a few steps and then we'll be at the start of something new."
"Most comforting news", Gosseling mocked, but he couldn't suppress his amazement when, after some time, he started to realize what was awaiting him. At the end of the tunnel the light became dazzling, light reflected by an infinite number of reflecting facets, which together formed a vast labyrinth. The horses couldn't advance any further because they slipped on the shiny floor of the tunnel.
The three travellers dismounted and knotted the reins together, to enter the labyrinth on foot. Lisabeth checked carefully to see if she still wore her soldier's bottle at her waist belt.
"Is this natural or man-made?" he scientist wondered, inspecting the walls both visually and with his hands. "And what is the source of all that light?"
"That's hard to say", Lisabeth answered, she also overwhelmed by the spectacular view. "It looks like ordinary sunlight to me, but then reflected millions and millions of times. Perhaps this light is trapped in a reflecting merry-go- round for ages without ever losing its power. Who can say?"
"You really can easily get lost in here", Gosseling said in surprise. "This certainly is a mirror palace from which we won't ever be able to find our way back if we don't keep in mind how we walked in."
He took a little notebook from his pocket and held it ready to note the number of steps.
"Where are we heading?" he asked, with his pencil already on the paper. But Anne-Christine had already taken a few steps on the shiny floor without listening to the discussion between her friends.
"Anne, just wait!" Lisabeth cried, rather scared. "You may never leave this place if we don't note carefully how you came in. And we have to stay very close together".
She touched the walls in which she could see endless repetitions of herself and her friends. Anne-Christine slowed her pace to enable Govert and Lisabeth to catch up with her.
"Ten!" Govert said, scribbling down the number. "Which way now, Anne?"
"To the right", she said, without a shadow of doubt in her voice.
"It seems as if Anne knows what to do, doesn't it?" Govert asked Lisabeth.
"Or she is just pretending", she answered.
"To the left", Anne-Christine then said, hardly audibly, and so they walked deeper and deeper into the reflecting labyrinth.
"Not so fast!" Gosseling cried. "We'll be completely lost if I forget just one turn!"
After three densily-filled pages of notes, Anne-Christine suddenly halted.
"Here it is", she stated.
"Here is what?" Gosseling asked. "I can't see anything more than I could twenty corridors and three stairs ago. I feel we've turned in circles thirty times and we must have been here at least three times before."
"Still, it is here", Anne-Christine said, sure of herself, inspecting the infinite number of reflections of herself and her companions. Govert and Lisabeth did the same, hoping to find a clue to indicate that this indeed was the right spot to make the Muscovite Crystal vanish. But there was no way of proving that this place was any more special than any other place in the Labyrinth. The only certainty they had was Anne-Christine's rock-solid belief that there was no better place on Earth to witness the disappearance of the Muscovite Crystal, and neither Lisabeth nor Govert Gosseling dared to doubt her conclusion.
"Should Mary O'Lein and Govert be here too?" Lisabeth wondered after a while with an echo in her voice.
"If your theory is correct and Anne has indeed led us to the right spot, then they must be here too, if we aren't too early or too late for them." Govert answered.
"Perhaps they simply put the Crystal on the floor and left", Lisabeth suggested, inspecting the floor around her feet for any traces of such an event. Her heart suddenly beat faster when she saw her own reflection in the floor. In a split second, she also inspected Govert's and Anne- Christines's mirrored images and was immediately convinced that this was the place where the Muscovite Crystal was going to disappear for ever. Without hesitating, she unlocked her soldier's bottle and unscrewed the cap. For a brief moment, she looked right into the eyes of her mirrored counterpart image, who had also uncorked her rum bottle and held it ready to empty it.
She then poured a clattering stream of Crystal from her bottle. It whirled to the floor with a sound that made her think of Stormy's spray water, which had accompanied her for so long and which she could recognise amid thousands of other sounds.
"Peace of mind,.... at last!" she sighed when both bottles were completely empty. But she knew she was wrong, when she became aware that, in this environment, the remains of the Crystal were no longer able to hold together the innumerable images which had been stocked in them throughout the ages.
"What peace?" Gosseling asked in sheer anguish, quickly seeing the images of his companions dissolve into fountans of colourful and alienating strange events, which surrounded him a thousandfold, depriving him of all sense of orientation. At the last moment, he successfully grabbed Anne-Christine's hand.
"Unbelievable! And it was you who triggered that, Lisabeth?" he asked in utmost astonishment, feeling that he was spinning around in all centuries at once, while whitnessing this breathtaking spectacle.
"I don't know. At a rather early stage, I stopped wondering what is real and what isn't and that has given us the only possible exit out of this weird adventure", she replied from behind the Northern Light, which hid her at that moment. "Someone brought back the Crystal to its Labyrinth and I have no intention whatsoever to find out who it was. Nor am I going to try to take it out once more", she called joyfully, feeling proud of the work she had done.
"Nor do I. I want to go home and become a very ordinary girl for the rest of my life", Anne-Christine van den Weezebeecke said in a remarkably quiet voice. She then took Lisabeth and Govert firmly by the arm and, without looking back, led them through the ever-exploding fountains of all possible colours and through many rolling waves full of events to the exit of the Labyrinth of the Muscovite Crystal, which they could hear collapsing behind them with a soft jingling sound.