by Jack Geurts
His body had turned laterally so his legs were out in front and now they were dropping down into the sand. Jasper clawed desperately at the landing, which was smooth and devoid of any trigger-stones. He found himself wishing there were at least a few, so he’d have something to grab, even if it meant an arrow through the arm or hand. At least that would keep him pinned to the spot instead of allowing him to get sucked down into the soupy quagmire. Drowning in liquid sand seemed a lot worse than a stab wound. After all, he had the glove to heal himself – it wouldn’t do much good if he was already dead.
Something caught Jasper’s eye and he looked up to see Dia hurtling towards him, flapping crazily. The Archaeopteryx hit the ground running, wings outstretched like a parachute on a fighter jet, but not slowing fast enough. He was heading straight for Jasper and the boy braced for impact, awaiting the collision that would send them both into the bog.
But it never happened.
Instead, Dia managed to pull up just short of him, lunging forward and latching onto the boy’s shirt with his long, clawed fingers. The talons dug into Jasper’s flesh and he let out a yell as the Archaeopteryx brought him to a skin-tearing halt.
Dia had his feet planted firmly on the landing and was pulling backwards with all his might, trying to haul Jasper out of the sand. As the boy scrambled to assist him, he couldn’t help but notice how unbelievably strong Dia was for his size, having roughly the proportions of a raven and yet able to arrest the fall of a sixteen-year-old boy.
He also couldn’t miss what appeared to be a smile in Dia’s eyes – not so much because he was happy that he’d saved the poor boy, but more because of the pain he’d inflicted by doing so. Presumably, his mouth was twisted into some malicious grin, but Jasper couldn’t see it beneath the muzzle.
Nevertheless, Dia continued to pull and Jasper did the same. They struggled together, boy and bird, but regardless of their joint effort, it was useless now – Jasper was submerged up to his waist in the quicksand and he could feel it sucking him under. Like a living, breathing thing eating him alive.
Panicking, he looked up for any sign of Io, but all he saw were a hundred Terracotta Warriors in a row, staring down at him. One of them wasn’t painted like the rest. This one was black and hooded, his hand beginning to glow red...
Just as Janus was about to shoot, a bolt of blue energy came out of nowhere and obliterated the Terracotta Warrior beside him. Janus and Jasper both looked over as Io emerged onto the pillar-top ceiling, running between the ceramic soldiers and the trail of fire behind them. A warrior princess silhouetted by the flames.
Janus teleported further away as she fired again, running after him. They proceeded this way along the left hand side of the courtyard, exchanging red and blue blasts, Io advancing and Janus retreating, both of them weaving between exploding clay figures, their battle scored by the sound of breaking plates.
All the while, Jasper was scrambling, trying to claw his way out of the sand with Dia doing as much as he could to help. But it was no good. He couldn’t fight the quicksand any more than he could resist the tidal pull of a rip at an ocean beach. His dad had always told him if he ever got caught in a rip to just let it take him – there was no point in fighting it. If he tried, he’d only tire himself out and drown. “Better to just let it take you,” he had said. “Instead of swimming straight in to shore, swim across and out of the rip. Then once you’re out of it, swim in.”
Jasper wasn’t sure why that piece of advice occurred to him now, or how it applied to his present situation. If he stopped fighting and just let it take him, the sand would simply swallow him up. There was no swimming across either. No escaping death this time. Not without Io to save him.
As his stomach went under and the quicksand began to lap at Dia’s wings, the bird instinctively removed his talons and staggered back. He stared at Jasper, and for the first time, the boy didn’t see hatred or suspicion, but concern – fear for the life of someone he had previously despised and whose death ought not have troubled him too much. But there it was – a moment of compassion.
The bird stood frozen, watching his companion sink further into the bog, helpless to do anything about it. Jasper helpless to save himself.
He couldn’t move his legs, his waist. He remembered being buried alive in Eridu and felt that same claustrophobia setting in now, that same powerlessness against a world that seemed bent on his demise. He felt the quicksand eating him, and somewhere in that storm of panic raging inside his head, he recalled how Io had gotten them out of it last time.
As the Terracotta Warriors exploded above him, her words echoed in his ears: “Use your glove. You have seen what it is capable of. Now see what you are capable of.”
Jasper looked at the glove on his right hand and it began to glow, as if smiling in recognition, waiting to be put to use.
Keeping his bare hand on the landing, Jasper turned his upper body around as far as his spine would let him and aimed his glove at the sand.
He closed his eyes and tried to channel his thoughts – tried to imagine blasting himself free like Io had done. He felt a surge of power through his arm, and opened his eyes just in time to see a bolt of green energy shoot out of his glove and into the sand. The Elemental seemed to spread through the quagmire before finally dissipating into nothing.
Instantly, it stopped sucking him down. Jasper touched the surface of the quicksand with his glove and was shocked to find it solid. It was still hard to move, being buried up to his ribs, so Jasper wriggled desperately, trying to get free.
Dia watched with disbelief as the boy hauled himself back out onto the platform. He only stepped in to help once Jasper was almost free, and as the bird reached forward with his wings to latch onto him again, the boy waved him off with a sudden panic, not wanting to be punctured a second time.
“No. I’m fine, I’m fine.”
The bird paused, not seeming to take offence, and Jasper sat there beside him for a moment, getting his breath back. Another ceramic explosion caused them both to look up.
Io and Janus were still fighting it out on the pillar tops. Janus was teleporting around the place, evading Io, but even Jasper could see that he was getting tired. Io would be able to close in on him soon, but Jasper wasn’t convinced that was a better situation for her to be in. Janus was clearly a formidable opponent – skilled at evading, but probably just as skilled in close combat.
In any case, Jasper knew he had to hurry.
He stood and tested the sand with his foot to make sure it hadn’t liquefied again since he got out. It was still firm and so he stepped down onto it, heading toward the centre of the palace. He’d only gone a short way before realising he was alone. He turned to see Dia still perched on the edge of the landing, staring down at the sand with uncertainty.
“It’s alright, Dia,” he said. “Come on.”
The Archaeopteryx didn’t move, not trusting him or the ground he was standing on.
“Look...” Jasper stomped the sand with his feet to prove it was hard. “It’s fine. Come on.”
Dia hesitated, then shuffled forward and extended his foot, tapping it down on the sand and withdrawing it immediately. Nothing happened. The bird looked up at Jasper, then back to the sand. He set his foot down on the sand and kept it there. Again, nothing happened.
A little more confident now, Dia proceeded to put some of his weight on the foot, surprised when it didn’t immediately sink below the surface. Eventually, the bird was sure enough to bring his other foot down, and he waddled over to join Jasper.
Together, they made their way quickly across the sand and came to the low wall separating the now-solid quagmire from the sea of mercury beyond.
Jasper readjusted his face-mask to make sure it was perfectly fitted, although he’d have known about it by now if he’d breathed in any of the fumes. His heart rate would have gone up and his blood pressure with it. He would be sweating profusely, and his mouth would be full of saliva.
Jasper realised with a smal
l pang of dread that he was experiencing the first three already – and, now that he was thinking about it, his mouth was starting to fill with saliva. He told himself he was just being paranoid, that he was imagining things. He was running for his life through a booby-trapped tomb, after all – wouldn’t it be stranger if he wasn’t sweating, if his heart wasn’t racing?
Jasper shook his head, trying to snap himself out of it. Between him and the silver sea stood a line of Terracotta Warriors on the low, rectangular wall. Their eyes were hollow, their faces blank – the faces of men who had died long ago, carved into wet clay and frozen in fire. It seemed to Jasper like those men had never died at all, but were simply suspended in time and likely to spring to life if he got too close. They stood as a warning for any who had come this far to go no further.
Jasper ignored this warning and climbed up onto the wall between two soldiers, Dia hopping up alongside him. In front of them, the pool of mercury extended out to the mountainous island with the metal Marker at its centre. The Precursor pyramid was the same colour as the mercury and seemed to be a solidified extension of it, rising up out of the quicksilver as an iceberg rises out of the ocean. Jasper stared at the viscous substance, perfectly still and seeming more solid than liquid. He knelt down, picking up a loose bit of terracotta that had fallen from one of the soldiers over the past two thousand years and tossed it into the sea.
It landed on the mercury and stayed there. No ripples. No sound. No nothing. The glass-like surface gave way a little, dented by the piece of dried clay, but it did not sink.
Jasper had to remind himself that it was a liquid, and that he – a human being – was more than heavy enough to drop below the surface, despite the temptation to just start walking across. He pointed his glove at the mercury, not sure what would happen...
But as he fired a bolt of Elemental into the silvery fluid, nothing did.
As before, the glowing green substance spread through the mercury, but nothing seemed to change. He supposed the quicksand hadn’t really changed in appearance, either – it had just stopped sucking him down. Since he wasn’t half-submerged in the mercury, he couldn’t tell if there had been any shift in its makeup also.
Jasper picked up another piece of terracotta and cast it out over the sea. But instead of denting the mercury as before, this piece bounced a couple of times and slid to a halt.
The mercury was totally solid. Just like the quicksand.
Boy and bird exchanged a look, and Jasper was just about to test the surface with his foot, when he heard a yell and glanced up...
Io had been hit.
She began to fall...
Jasper’s blood turned to ice. “No...”
At the very last moment, she turned in mid-air and grabbed hold of the ledge. Her body swung wildly to the left with the momentum of falling, and for a second, Jasper worried that her grip wouldn’t hold...
But Io’s hand stuck to the ledge and she swung like a pendulum, then went still, dangling high above the ground.
She was just about to start climbing back up when Janus appeared over her. He stood there, savouring the victory, his gloved palm pointing down at Io and glowing red. Io stared up into his eyeless face, refusing to show how afraid she truly was – not wanting to give him the satisfaction.
Then, out of nowhere, a blast of green Elemental connected with Janus’ chest and sent him flying backwards into the darkness beyond the pillars.
Io looked back and saw Jasper standing there with his glove raised and the glow slowly fading from it. Putting aside her surprise, she clambered up onto the ledge and sat there, panting, a smile spreading across her face – half-relieved, half-impressed.
Jasper peered out into the darkness beyond the far row of pillars. Then he looked into the same darkness beyond the side rows. His eyes crawled over every inch of the courtyard, but he saw no sign of Janus anywhere. Had he killed him? Was he simply hiding?
If he had killed him, Jasper thought it would feel better than this. Maybe he needed to see Janus dead to feel properly avenged. Maybe it didn’t matter.
“Are you okay?” he called through his respirator.
“I am now,” Io replied.
Jasper felt a matching grin appear on his own face, then he turned his attention back to the Marker. He stepped out onto the solid mercury. It was harder than the sand, colder. So smooth and polished, he could see his reflection in it – the distorted mirror image walking upside down and staring back up at him. It was like looking into another world.
“Be careful,” Io called. “I will find a way down.”
She turned and went to do just that, while Jasper continued out over the sea toward the mountains. Dia waddled alongside him, eyes glued to his reflection and finding it utterly fascinating.
As they arrived at the shoreline of the man-made island, Jasper reached out to touch the nearest mountainside. He felt its rough surface beneath his bare palm and fingers, and was amazed by the almost photographic level of realism the ancient sculptor had achieved.
Next, Jasper planted a tentative foot on the island, looking around for any arrows pointed in his direction, listening for any loud thunks that would signal one was on its way. Nothing happened. All the crossbows, it seemed, were directed at the staircase. That meant they’d have a tough time getting back out, but for now, he considered the three of them safe.
If Janus was truly dead, he thought. And that was a big if.
Walking around the island, Jasper found the mouth of one of the mercury rivers – solid as if frozen over during winter. He proceeded along it like a giant in some fairy tale, many of the peaks below his eye level, some of them above.
The steel-hard river wound its way through valleys, around mountainsides, crossing over other rivers, until eventually, it spilled out into a giant pool of solid mercury at the centre of the island, and out of this pool rose the Marker.
He noticed several other rivers also emptying into this lake, and imagined a time when the pumps and mechanisms were still working that allowed these rivers to flow. He imagined the mercury lapping against the pyramid, the rivers coursing gently, the sea churning. The crossbows might still work, but this particular mechanism had long since broken down.
Jasper and Dia traversed the lake until they were standing right before the pyramid. Dia hung back a little, remembering how the last Marker had exploded and not too keen to be nearby when this one did the same. Jasper, on the other hand, simply admired the thing.
As he was busy doing so, he heard footsteps on the opposite side, getting louder, getting closer...
For a tense moment, he thought it might be Janus, but then Io came around the edge of the Marker into view. She had found a way down and walked out across the solid quicksand and mercury, along one of the rivers to the lake – a vast, cosmic journey from the heavens, through the desert and the sea and the mountains, all in a matter of minutes.
She tapped the hard surface of the mercury with her foot and nodded approvingly. “I told you you could do it.”
He smiled at her, she at him – both glad the other was alright.
Dia, for his part, was over the moon. He waddled over to Io as fast as his little legs would carry him, and Io crouched down as the bird leapt up onto her chest and nestled against her. She beamed, stroking Dia’s feathers, speaking to him in her native tongue.
Jasper, of course, had no idea what she was saying, but Io seemed to be reassuring the bird that she was okay, that she was proud of him for being so brave, that everything was going to be alright.
Jasper smiled as he watched the reunion take place, not only because Io was so clearly overjoyed with her companion’s safe return, but because Dia was also – his eyes closed and purring softly. Something about the bird had changed in their passage through the tomb, something in his attitude toward Jasper, or in Jasper’s attitude toward him. Whatever it was – suddenly, he didn’t seem so hostile any more.
When Io finally stood, placing the bird gently back on
the ground despite his obvious desire to remain attached, Jasper walked over to them.
“Is he dead?”
Io looked back to the far row of pillars where Janus had fallen. “I do not know. I did not hear him hit the ground. Did you?”
Jasper shook his head, sensing in Io the same disappointment of not knowing, the same desire to see proof. He could tell that she was grateful to him for saving her life, but there was something about her manner that told him she was also a little angry.
Maybe he had robbed her of her chance for vengeance – which predated his own cause – and he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. He wondered how he’d feel if Io managed to kill Janus instead of himself. Would he be any less satisfied if he wasn’t the one to take Janus’ life, if Io had done so instead?
Surely, he couldn’t begrudge her what he sought himself, and it just then occurred to him that only one of them would succeed in avenging their family, while the other would be left wanting. But did it really matter who carried out the act, as long as the act was carried out?
Jasper didn’t know.
After a moment, they both turned their attention to the Marker. Its huge, gleaming walls rose up to a point at the very centre of the cavern, directly beneath the constellation of glowing stars. Jasper stepped forward, staring at this monument that had been left by Io’s ancestors ten thousand years ago, moved by the Chinese over two thousand years ago, and here it had stood ever since.
He reached out his bare hand and laid it on the Marker’s metal flank. Once again, the tip began to glow blue, but brighter this time. Much brighter. As he correctly assumed, the thing being indoors was the key. But it wasn’t just the tip that was glowing. It was the stars, even more so than before. The pyramid’s blue light was projected upwards onto the stars’ reflective surfaces, and glowing lines ran between them on the ceiling of the cave.
Jasper and Io looked up in wonder, seeing the constellation now not as some random assortment of heavenly bodies as they would be in the night sky, but strategically placed so they matched up with the shapes projected by the Marker. A sort of ‘connect-the-dots’ with the dots added later.
