Behind him, the knights of Team Grail were tethered together, mountaineer-style, with a single rope. Artie was first, then Kay, Bedevere, Thumb, Bercilak, and, finally, Numinae. “Who knows what we’ll find in there,” Artie had warned as he looped the climbing rope around each of them. “If it’s like last time, we’ll just drift along until we get to the end. We might not be able to hear each other, either. . . .” When they were ready, Artie slipped the key into his shirt. He pointed Excalibur at the portal, and a howling breeze swirled around the room. A strand of Excalibur’s darkness shot from the blade and connected with the abyssal spot. This was black and empty, but then it flashed white, blinding Artie and his knights. They were lifted from the ground, the rope straightening as the knots tightened into unworkable clumps, and were pulled magically into the King’s Gate. For an indeterminate amount of time nothing happened. They could see their own bodies and a foot of rope in either direction, but past that it faded into nothing.
