Robert W. Walker (29 page)

Esruad
was not the only magician living at the temple by this time. There was a hierarchy of
leadership,
a council of members, and on large issues, no one man--not even
Esruad
--had complete say. The Etruscan temple was democratic, allowing conflicting views and much room for intrigue. While
Esruad
was busy with patients one morning on a sun-baked day in 793
b.c
., he felt the earth below the temple shudder. In fact, the earth below the entire city was shuddering like an earthquake. But it was no earthquake. It was
Ubbrroxx
, the ancient god of destruction and denial, somehow brought to the surface after eons of sleep. His power shook the temple so badly that the statue of
Eslia
toppled, crumbling about her fearsome-looking lion guard in the manner of cake. Men
Esruad
had known all his life had gone deaf and dumb, and they walked out to the desert where a gaping hole had broken open in the earth and they began to pray to the voice that they heard emanating from the pit; they forsook all else for the thing in the hole which wanted a temple built to worship it.

It also wanted the sacrifice of 500,000 humans. And so it built its army and
Esruad
hid in the temple and worked day and night at whatever alchemy he could devise to combat the monster until he realized he hadn't the power to defeat it, because it drew its power from the faith--or lack of faith--of the others. Everyone in the temple had gone by now, and
Esruad
stood alone--the only man immune to
Ubbrroxx's
sway. It sent others to drag
Esruad
down into the hole with it, to end his puny life, but for a time
Esruad
fought these off with magical weapons that he had devised that were effective against the human zombies.

Then
Esruad
lost the battle and was dragged to stand before
Ubbrroxx
, a sight that blinded
Esruad
there in the pit.
Ubbrroxx
ordered
Esruad
to build a temple that would serve as a place where men would worship only the god that fed on them, telling
Esruad
that when next he came, he would devour five million men, if his wishes were not met.

Esruad
agreed to build the temple, saying that he would build it as a great monument to the power of his god,
Ubbrroxx
. "I will make it easy for you,"
Ubbrroxx
had said to the Etruscan wizard. The demon then turned to stone before
Esruad
, who, sensing the
change,
felt around in the dark pit and touched the scalding stone that was left behind. It was a stone likeness of the hideous, enormous, two-headed demon that had spikes and scales over its body.

Esruad
gradually regained his sight, a gift from
Ubbrroxx
, his new god, he assumed. All of those men who had been used by the demon--some of them
Esruad's
former enemies in the temple--had fiendishly had a hand in feeding the monster its sacrifices. These men, from religious leaders to beggars, from merchants to midwives, were now clear-eyed and coming out of their forced condition of unknowing and uncaring; out of the fog to the terrible and shattering realization of what they had done and had been made to do.

Still, fear reigned. They feared
Ubbrroxx
and they fell to their knees at his stone self. It took another generation and much planning on
Esruad's
part to gather the courage and strength required to dare put his plan into operation, but he did it.
Ubbrroxx
wanted a temple built to surround his stone image. So be it.

But the temple was built in the form of a ship, and the ship, along with all of
Ubbroxx's
remains, was let loose from its gantry and out into the ocean.
Ubbrroxx
was taken to a land that was not populated and there buried with his ship beneath a restraining pyramid that covered him. The work took years upon years, but
Esruad
, using up all of his psychic energy, had read the meaning of the stone demon and it told him that the god inside must remain at rest, and he had convinced his nation of this.

With this done,
Esruad
had one final duty before he should pass away, before he should never see his sons and grandsons again. In his alchemist cell in the ruins of the old temple, he fashioned the molds with the help of a young and patient apprentice, a grandson who was very good with metals and stones. The boy had fashioned the molds precisely as
Esruad
had ordered, seven of them in all, to go with the nine smaller ones and the three larger ones. Using the magical numbers of the year when
Esruad
had come face-to-face with
Ubbrroxx
, 793, he now mixed the molten crystal and touch of desert earth over which the demon had stood, and he carefully filled the final molds with the steaming, thick soup. The demon-touched sand would ensure the success of his magic, he was sure...

The veterans of the evil time, those who fed
Ubbrroxx
blindly and without resistance, began dying away, and as each man, woman and child did so,
Esruad
visited their bedside like a doting priest giving last rites, but
Esruad's
rites were those of a powerful magical nature which called on the goddess
Eslia
to assist him in the deliverance of the souls of such men as himself--weak men who had fallen prey to fear, falling into the pit of the unfaithful. Where should such souls reside for the rest of eternity but inside the crystal skulls that would refract and reflect back their gross sins for all eternity? But more important, so that they might have one final chance at redemption by fighting
Ubbrroxx
the next time it rose against mankind.

Esruad's
grandson, sworn to perform the ceremony he had witnessed thousands of times over, now did so over the silent form of
Esruad
himself. The skull in the boy's hands lit with a shimmering, yellow-to-gold fire for a moment before it went dormant. He then solicitously placed the skull in the deep ruins of the temple.

Years upon years passed and the crystal stones were discovered and traded to kings and pharaohs for their amusement, little knowing that they housed the souls of men and magicians.

-17-

For Stroud, returning was like coming out of a black vortex that spun him around at a dizzying speed, but in an instant, he had returned to the others there in the tunnels. They'd made him as comfortable as possible, propping him against a wall, Kendra being solicitous over him, the concern creasing her face. Stroud began blinking and it drew them all around him. They were at exactly the place he had left them.

"How long have I been out?"

"Ten minutes, maybe less," Kendra said. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, fine ... and you? Wiz, Sam?"

"No problems."

Esruad
had selected his time wisely, Stroud thought as he stared at the outer hull of the ship, the belly of the beast, the temple that had become the demon.

"We've had a report from Nathan," said Kendra.

"Did you tell him about my condition?"

"We were afraid you'd slipped back into a coma, Abe," said Wiz. "We had to tell him."

"Well, radio him now; tell him I'm on my feet." With that, Stroud got to his feet, saying, "I'm really all right."

"We were worried," she said.

"Frightened," added Leonard.

"What's going on aboveground?" he asked, changing the subject, embarrassed over what must appear to the others as a weakness.

"Nathan says he can only stall so long before the military takes complete control."

Leonard added, "Those CBS and NBC film crews got the tunnel digging on tape, at least what they could make out of it--the slag heaps outside. At any rate, everyone up there is terrified, Abe ... everyone. And you can't blame them."

Stroud was impressed by the intricacies of the tunnels dug by hand by the legion of zombies.

Wiz raised Nathan, telling him that Stroud was fine, just a temporary thing, he called it. Stroud got on the line, using his
comlink
. "Commissioner, we're just penetrating the exterior of the ship now. We've run into ... obstacles."

"Understood, Stroud, and make it as fast as possible.
People up here getting real antsy."

"We expected obstacles," he said, "and we've gotten them."

"The tunnels?"

"Took us away from the ship.
Long arm of the beast within."

"So what does that make the ship itself?
The damned bowels?"

"Something
like
that."

"You're sure you all want to step into its gut?"

"Not a whole lot of choice, Commissioner. This ... this event is rather complicated, and you might say I had my ticket reserved about three thousand years ago."

Nathan chuckled nervously into the radio, not understanding the implications of Stroud's remarks. Static was beginning to break up the communication. Nathan said that he was pulling for them, and if Stroud made it back alive he'd buy him a New York pizza and a beer.

"You're on, sir. Just plea..."

"What's ... at?"

"...keep ... pack off for ... time we ... greed ...
pon
."

"Roger ...
til
dawn. Do every ... in my power."

"Thanks, Commissioner."

"You're
thank
... me? Stroud, e ... you're the bravest ... I ever met, or the ... idiotic ... goes for your traveling companions-
sss
-well ...
til
next ... Stroud,
over'n
..."

Kendra went about monitoring everyone's gauges and giving a full report. Everything was in working order, but they had only half the oxygen supply they had entered with. The physical turmoil and emotional stress had taken its toll. Leonard was looking very
weak,
and even Wiz sat in a depressed slump against the wall just staring at the hull of the ship that now confronted them.

Stroud was fatigued himself, and he did not find fault with the others. He wondered now if perhaps he should not have come alone, but the skull had said three good men with faith and courage
were
required. He had two men and a woman with him, but he wasn't at all sure of their faith, despite their obvious courage in coming so far with him.

"Once we're inside the ship, gentlemen," said Stroud calmly, "you can turn back at any time."

It was said with such simple sincerity that Kendra and the others just stared at him. Kendra glimpsed the old Stroud in him now, the man she had slept with.

"Is that what your skull tells you?" she asked.

"It is what my heart tells me."

"We just may take you up on that," said Leonard. "My own heart is flapping like a chicken trying to take flight." He tried a laugh but it became a cough.

"If that's the case, what're we sitting around here for?" said Wiz. "Not that I have any intention of leaving you here alone, Abe."

"You face no shame in turning back once we penetrate the hull. It's the reason I was so ... upset when you all ran from the first entranceway we found. So far, we've been playing the demon's game. Now we begin to play our chess pieces."

Kendra stared across at Stroud. He was once again distant, distracted. He was playing some kind of mental game with the demon of the ship. It was as if that byte of information had come straight from his mind to hers earlier when she had thought of it in exactly those terms. She wondered if she and the other two doctors weren't
Esruad's
pawns
in this bizarre war game.

"Yes, let's get on with it, Dr. Stroud," she said.