by Brian Godawa
Antiochus and Balthazar now knew exactly how each of the imperial advisors were jockeying for influence with the royal family. The machinations of power were the same across all kingdoms, West and East.
CHAPTER 20
Antiochus awoke to a soft sound in his bedchamber. The light of an oil lamp fell across his face.
With lightning speed, he was up and out of bed with his short sword aimed in the direction of his intruder.
Mei Li gasped with fright, and almost dropped the lamp.
“How did you get in here?” he said.
“Secret tunnels. Built by the emperor so he could travel unseen between locations. His fear and madness is multiplying. He suspects everyone of conspiracy.”
He kept the sword to her throat. “I cannot say that I blame him.”
She said, “You have been led astray by the emperor.”
That was no surprise to him. But which lie was she referring to? She whispered with dread, “The bones you saw in the quarry were a decoy, to distract you from the truth that you came in search of. There are living dragons of Tianxia.”
Antiochus couldn’t believe what he had just heard. There are dragons in Tianxia?
He said, “You betrayed me. Why should I trust you?” The sword stayed firmly in the air.
“I did not betray you, Antiochus. I gave only enough information as was necessary to reassure him of my loyalty.”
He lowered his sword. “Why did he lie to me?”
“Our people trace our roots back to the Confusion of Tongues and the Great Dispersion.”
“We have a similar legend.”
She explained, “The exalted temple-tower of Babel was where the Dragon first sought to unite mankind under his reign. All under heaven. But Shang Di ruined his plans by confusing the languages of nations and dispersing them upon the earth. My people left and settled here. And that is why the emperor sent his soldiers to return to the tower and kidnap your magi. He thought they might hold the secrets of the original tower and with it, immortality.”
Antiochus said, “You say the Dragon is here.”
She said, “He is not as you think. His name is Yu Huang. He is known as the Jade Emperor, and he is worshipped by many of my people as the supreme head of the gods.”
“What does Shang Di think about that?” he remarked.
She said, “The Jade Emperor is a heavenly imposter. Because of the rebellion of Babel, Shang Di allotted all the nations under the authority of the lesser gods. Those who would not worship the creator would worship the host of heaven as idols, creatures like Yu Huang. He is the first of the Three Pure Ones.”
Antiochus could not help but think of his own national deities Marduk, Ea and Ishtar. “Who are the other two?”
She said, “Mere servants of the Dragon. The emperor is going to his tower to sacrifice to them tonight. I can take you there.”
“Why are you helping me?” His voice was still cold, untrusting.
She said, “I am the daughter of the high priest of Shang Di. The emperor took me by force as his concubine when the priests went into hiding.”
“So that is the cause of his hesitation to kill you,” said Antiochus.
“No one knows where the priests are,” she said. “I want to help you capture the Dragon because it will bring back the worship of Shang Di to my people. And it will save my father’s life.”
His heart pounded in his chest. His head was spinning with confusion. Could he trust this woman who had already betrayed him? She had done so for her own protection. Would she not be protecting her father and the other priests in the same way? Family was the very thing that betrayed him, that condemned him to this impossible quest.
On the other hand, she was his only chance.
He said, “We have to get Balthazar.”
• • • • •
Mei Li, Antiochus and Balthazar slipped out of the city’s gates through one of the tunnels that led to the river bank. They mounted a small cutout boat and made their way across the river to a horse stable. They rode at full gallop to the emperor’s temple-tower under a cloudy, moonless night.
They must have caught up with the emperor’s entourage taking the river, because they could see their lights encamped at the base of the tomb, and the lights of a party ascending the stairs to the top.
Mei Li whispered, “I know another way in.”
They slipped up to a non-descript area on the outskirts of the laborers’ city. A hundred feet away from their concealment, a guardhouse stood beside a small incline that led down into the earth.
Mei Li said, “That is an underground entrance that will lead us to the heart of the tomb.”
It looked quite a distance away from the ziggurat.
Balthazar said, “That is a long tunnel.”
There were about twenty guards.
Antiochus drew his sword. “Well, Balthazar, do you feel practiced and ready to take out some soldiers? I can’t do this alone.”
Balthazar pulled off his satchel that was slung around his back. He said, “We don’t have to. I have a better idea.”
The soldiers at the guardhouse were not all alert. Some stood about, others played a board game that required concentration.
But when the magician approached them from the darkness, a whistle brought them all to attention with weapons at the ready.
A guard announced, “Halt. This is a forbidden area under the emperor’s command.”
But the guard himself halted when he saw that the magician in a black leather outfit and cape was a woman. A beautiful woman with a scar down her face. Even with the scar, she was bewitching. It took no time before all the men stood around her, more like enchanted monkeys under a spell than armed guards protecting an imperial tunnel.
She said, “Forgive me, mighty warriors of the emperor, but I am an apprentice magician, still perfecting my craft. Would you mind if I practice for your eyes?”
Some of them nodded their heads and shrugged with resignation. The only sensible one in the lot, an aged captain, spoke up, “You may perform a trick or two, and then be gone with you.”
The spell that Balthazar had cast from hiding was only working on the younger men with their interest in the beautiful young specimen before them. The older captain must have been a eunuch.
She had to get behind the soldiers so her back would be to the tunnel entrance. But most of the men were in a semi-circle right in her way.
She said to the gawking guards, “First, I will need someone to put under a spell. Would any of you volunteer to help me?”
Most of the soldiers raised their hands, eagerly seeking to be chosen. She chose the least intimidating one, a small chubby guard who looked as if he should have been a baker. She waved him to come near with a seductive look.
The doughy soldier glanced around proudly at the others and stepped forward. He stood transfixed by her look. She told him to close his eyes and placed her hand on his face. She could feel the poor soul shiver beneath her touch.
She blew some dust in his face. She grasped a green amulet around her neck and offered an incantation. She then said to the soldiers, “What animal would you like him to transform into?”
The soldiers shouted out several animals like donkeys, mice and pigs. She said, “I have an idea. Since this is the year of the rooster in our zodiac, then let us make him a rooster.” The men agreed.
She whispered into his ear.
The doughy guard started to stamp his feet, arch his back and lift up his head. He then strutted around rooster-like to the men’s great amusement.
They were diverted with their laughter as she told him, “Look, there goes a hen!” She pointed out into the dark. He crowed like a cock and strutted off into the darkness after the imaginary female.
Again, the soldiers laughed.
But the old captain was not laughing. He watched Mei Li with the eye of a hawk. He was suspicious. He stepped out front and ordered some soldiers to go retrieve the enchanted chubby rooster.
He said to Mei Li, “Of what use is such silliness to the emperor’s magicians? He seeks immortality, not parlor games.”
“My dear Captain,” she replied, “you are correct.” She stealthily slipped her hands in and out of her pockets. “The emperor needs serious magicians, and I take that seriously.”
She slapped her gloves together and small explosions of fire burned in her hands. The soldiers’ amusement turned to awe.
She walked toward them holding her fiery hands out, flames burning like she was the goddess of the underworld. “Would anyone like to hold onto this fire for me?”
The captain backed away. As she walked forward, the soldiers parted.
“Pity. All good magicians need assistants.”
Her back was now to the tunnel entrance down the ridge behind her. She rubbed her hands together and the fire went out, leaving her hands smoking. Some of the soldiers clapped. The Captain was having none of it. He advanced toward Mei Li.
Mei Li then drew out a small sphere from her bag and said, “I will not take any more of your precious time this evening, dear imperial soldiers. I bid you farewell.”
She dropped the small sphere to the ground and a large flash exploded, blinding their eyes momentarily. A huge puff of smoke followed the flash.
When it dissipated, she was gone. And the soldiers clapped again with amazement.
The Captain said, “You fools.” He marched up to where she had been. He looked down at the entrance of the tunnel not far away with an angry frown. “You five, come with me.”
They filed down to the tunnel entrance with pikes and swords ready, expecting to find their enchantress trying to get in.
But no one was around. The large gates were locked.
The Captain looked around with a torch. No sign of the female magician. He tried the gates again. They were securely locked. He led the soldiers back to their guardhouse. “No more foolishness this evening. We have a responsibility to the emperor.”
Behind the locked gates of the tunnel, Mei Li hid with Balthazar and Antiochus until they heard them leave. Balthazar secreted the small metal tool he used to pick the lock.
“Well done,” whispered Balthazar. “You had them licking your palm like hungry dogs.”
Mei Li said, “Men are simple. Easy to distract.”
She gave a naughty look to Antiochus, who said to Balthazar, “Just don’t let her have any more of that magic dust.”
Balthazar used some of his materials to light a torch.
When they turned around to make their way through the tunnel, the men stood still in astonishment.
Before them were ten parallel tunnels, separated by a few feet each, all running in the same direction toward the emperor’s tomb. And in each one of the ten tunnels stood rows and rows of soldiers. Thousands of them, four wide and lining up deep into the tunnels before them.
But they were not living soldiers, they were clay statues. Hardened ceramic in the fires of an oven. Larger than life at about six feet tall each, standing in position facing the entrance with weapons in hand. There were even horses and chariots. They were laid out in proper military formation with their plate armor, hair knotted to the right on the tops of their heads.
But whereas in real life, the soldiers wore leather and plain colored outfits, these were painted with bright colors, covered in shiny lacquer. Purples, greens, blues and reds.
“What is this?” said Antiochus.
“It is the emperor’s spirit army,” she said, “prepared to protect him after he dies and is buried in his tomb.”
“How many are there?” said Balthazar.
“Tens of thousands. They fill the tunnels. There are several of these pits around the tomb. The emperor wanted to replicate his entire army. He has been making them for many years.”
Royalty in every nation tended to be buried with possessions and wealth in preparation for the afterlife, but Antiochus had never heard anything of this magnitude. Not even in the pyramid tombs of the great Pharaohs of Egypt.
Mei Li said, “He believes that the afterlife would require bolder soldiers for protection than in our world, so he made them larger than life and more colorful.”
The purpose of such creations was rooted in the chthonic theology of the dead. Burying the real bodies of dead soldiers with the hopes of them protecting the emperor would be futile, for they would be dead and would rot into useless bones. But ceramic images of soldiers would be permanently available resources to the spirit world.
Mei Li said, “Come, we have a long way to the emperor’s tower.”
They could barely make it past the four-wide ceramic statues.
As they passed them, Balthazar noticed that the soldiers were not mass produced as from a template, but rather each soldier was a unique individual with a unique face.
How godlike this emperor thought himself to be.
CHAPTER 21
Huang Di left his retinue of servants at the entrance to the white temple at the top of his tomb-tower five hundred feet above the sprawling laborer’s city. He took the live goat from the priest and carried it alone in his arms into the temple.
A horned altar of stone stood in the center of the sparse functional sanctuary. There was no roof on the structure. Huang Di could see the clouds had dissipated so the moon and stars shone in the sky above. This was good.
He laid the squirming goat upon the altar and prayed silently. Then he held it firmly, took out a sacrificial dagger, and cut its throat. It made guttural gurgling sounds as it died.
He loved to see the life bleed out of creatures. The breath of life was the mysterious signature of creation by the gods. To cut, strangle or suffocate that life out of a victim was the ultimate expression of control over another being. It made him feel divine.
He let the blood of the sacrifice flow down the altar channels into the floor below, where it would drip down into the interior of the tower.
After most of the blood had poured out, he planted his feet and pushed on the altar. It was large and made of stone, but was on a leverage system that allowed him to move it without much strain. It moved like the handle of a door. A very big door.
The sound of grinding stone could be heard as the floor itself began to move.
He picked up the sacrifice in his arms and walked over to the edge of the sanctuary, grabbing one of the torches on the wall. He waited as the entire center floor dropped several feet and slid over, creating a huge opening into a hollow. In that opening were gigantic mirror devices that seemed to catch the rays of the moon and point them downward into the bowels of the tomb below.
He found a small brick stairwell and descended into the hidden interior.
• • • • •
Mei Li led Antiochus and Balthazar out of the secret tunnel entrance into the southern end of the tomb. The ziggurat interior was a vast hollow space filled with a forest jungle of trees and foliage.
Balthazar was in awe. “He has recreated a garden of the gods.”
Antiochus mocked, “A paradise for a tomb.”
Mei Li whispered back, “It is a replica of Tianxia.”
She pointed above them to the sloped roof filled with sparkling stars like a night sky. She explained that those were large gems embedded into the brick. They were sparkling from the light that came from a large opening in the top of the tomb. Gigantic mirrors reflected the moon above down into the chamber below. A small solitary figure with a torch descended steps along the inside wall.
Mei Li whispered, “That is the emperor. He is headed to the center where the throne of the Dragon resides.”
As they moved forward through the foliage, they came upon a river of liquid that flowed through the jungle. Balthazar knelt down for a closer look.
“This is quicksilver.”
Antiochus said, “A river of immortality?”
Balthazar said darkly, “Do not touch it or you will die.”
Mei Li said, “We must be silent.”
They made their way quiet
ly over a small bridge and into the brush.
• • • • •
Huang Di approached the central platform in the midst of the garden. It was on a raised high place with steps leading up to a horned altar in the center. He made it up the ten foot tall platform and approached the altar with the body of the goat he had brought with him. The blood from the sanctuary above had already dripped down from above and splattered on the altar before him.
Antiochus, Balthazar and Mei Li watched silently from the foliage at the perimeter of the clearing. They saw the emperor kneel down and bow his head.
The sound of splashing drew their attention to the river of quicksilver passing near their hiding place and the altar.
They saw something swimming in the metallic liquid. It was a large serpent of some kind, its scaled back rising above and sinking below the surface as it approached the altar area.
Then the creature climbed out of the river and they could see it was ten feet long. But rather than the shape of something like the bones they saw in the ravine, this was more like a long snake with small legs at the far ends of its body. It had a reptilian head, but its body was not rugged muscles and bones, it was more fluid like water. It moved with mystical smoothness, like a phantom through the air. Antiochus knew that before his eyes stood the evidence his skeptical mind had required of him. This was indeed a living, breathing Dragon.
It made its way up the platform to the altar. When it reached the top, it changed. It twisted in on itself and transformed its shape before their eyes into a humanoid figure about eight feet tall in strange royal garb and cape.
Balthazar recognized it. It was a creature that reminded him of the living presence of Marduk in his own temple at Babylon. Not the same being, but the same kind of being. Subtle scales, reptilian eyes of lapis lazuli, a subtle bronze shimmering to its skin.
It was a Shining One.
And just like Marduk, it took the goat and sank its teeth into the animal to suck whatever blood was left in it.