Back in the mountain the heroes lay exhausted catching their breath in utter darkness of the passageway beyond the home of the witches. After a time they re-lit the torches to see that the passageway had a different look to the mine-like entrance they had come through before. It now resembled an eerie cave with stalactites and a twisting hallway. Many labyrinthine paths stretched out before them, some echoing with the drip of water, some ascending, some descending. 

Druis, taking in the scene, made these remarks, “My dear friends we have passed the test of the three witches. I am proud of the bravery and resolve you all showed. But do not rejoice too quickly for we now are in the underworld and there are many paths before us but only one of them is the correct one.” 

The men spent many hours there in the cold torchlight. They debated how to choose their path forward. Druis said several magical incantations but none revealed what to do. They tried to detect a breath of air or a glimmer of light in any of the tunnels but all had the same dark stillness.  The men ate their meager rations and huddled on the floor thinking of the above-ground world they had voluntarily left behind. 

“Surely we must choose whatever path leads upwards,” said Rodrick, “for we are deep under the mountain and must get to the surface.”

“Your reasoning is sound,” said Druis, “if this were a natural cave we should seek the highest routes and thus attempt to make the surface. But this is not a natural cave, this is the underworld itself. Here all those ghosts slain by the dragon will wander looking for a way out but not finding it.” 

“Are we ghosts then?” Asked Eckbert. “Are we the dragon’s victims too, having walked into one of his traps?” 

“Take heart Eckbert,” said Lord Andras, “We are not his victims. We were able to slip past the three fates and enter here long before our time. We will leave this cave again and enter the living world above. I promise it.” 

Then Sir Rodrick spoke, “If we cannot choose the upward path then let us take the downward path. We will go to the very bottom of the world. It is the last place I would want to venture and yet I feel that it is often that the quarry you seek is found in the last place you look.”

“Young Rodrick!” Druis laughed, “It seems you may be gaining some wisdom on this journey as well as courage. You may make a fine prince if ever you rescue the princess! But let us take this advice. It is the best I have heard yet. We shall choose the lowest path and perhaps when we have reached the very bottom we will then know the way up.” 

Although most of the men did not see this reasoning Lord Andras assented. They were apprehensive and Eckbert most of all found his courage and his trust in his companions deserting him.  Despite this the company began their journey downward. At each junction they chose the lowest path, sometimes they went steeply downward, sometimes gradually. They went down spiral staircases of rock, so old that it was difficult to tell if the origin was geological or cut by a stone mason. They waded through pools of black water and weaved through forests of stalactite. Always going downward deeper and deeper into the mountain.

The deepness of their position became a weight on their minds. Heavy they felt all the crushing earth above them. The dark stale air pressed in on every side of them. It seemed to fight back against the torchlight. They woke and slept several times and still continued on ever downward. They ate the last of their rations and were forced to drink water from the stagnant pools and dripping walls. 

Finally they noticed a change in the air. It seemed to become damp and moist and even fresh in a wet sort of way. A thick fog creeped into the cavern and each downward path they chose seemed to have a greater amount of fog blocking it up. Their torches were haloed in the foggy air and the men stayed close together to see one another. 

They began to hear things in the dark twisting tunnels on either side of them. Sounds like echoing voices far away. Just the mere hint of speech that seemed to disappear when one focused on it. 

The men were hungry and cold and very afraid and barely slept. Each one of the company was beginning to despair of ever reaching the surface again. They talked little but began muttering to themselves. Finally there came a time when they awoke to find one of their company missing. It was dear Eckbert who had first lost his nerve and deserted the party. He had apparently left while the other slept, and taken an upward path. This demoralized the party considerably and after the next stop two more of Lord Andras’s men had disappeared taking many torches with them. The men began to grumble and discuss who ought to be in charge. They were close to running out of torches and would soon be forced into utter darkness. 

“You have led us to our deaths!” One of the men finally said to Lord Andras, “I will follow you no longer!” Druis and Rodrick pleaded for him to stay but he left for an upward route taking three others with him. Only seven men then remained of the thirteen who had first entered the cave so long ago. The men got more and more irritable being deprived of food and sunlight, and each one began to despair in their heart. Only Lord Andras seemed to doggedly go on without complaint. Then a mutiny was formed and four men left with almost all of the torches. The tunnels seemed to get smaller sucking them in ever downward. It became apparent that they were going in a downward spiral and the path got steeper and steeper. 

The three remaining companions, Rodrick, Druis, and Lord Andras, were starving and delirious. They had been several weeks in the cave without sunlight. Their path had less and less options as it circled downward. They had not seen another corridor for some time and they lit their second to last torch. They trudged on utterly dejected and then they saw a stairway to their right. 

“Surely this is the way out!” Rodrick cried almost hysterically. 

“Surely we have reached the bottom!” Druis added.

Lord Andras rested a hand on each of their shoulders saying, “We have almost reached the bottom, you must not turn aside now.” 

A dark hatred came over Sir Rodrick’s countenance. His courage deserted him and he no longer felt like a man or a knight but like an animal in a cage. He no longer remembered the dragon or the noble quest but only his own misery. Druis too, delirious and struggling in his old age no longer felt the assurance of wisdom, only the need for escape and for personal safety and comfort. The two of them then turned their backs on Lord Andras and taking the last spare torch, they departed. Leaving Lord Andras behind with only his will and his courage.