Chin Zhu dug furiously, reaching into his sack occasionally to drop a bean into the loosened soil. He filled the hole with dirt and tamped it down with his foot while continuing down the row. He was working in the failing light of late evening despite the ache in his knee. In fact, it was that ache that led to his urgency. It meant that the wet season was coming earlier this year than normal, and any seed not established by the time it came would float away when the floods came.
The rest of the village was out as well. Old wounds from the times of the Warring States were flaring up amongst the older men, and they all agreed, the rains would come soon.
Zhu stood up, stretching his aching back, when he happened to catch a star in the sky begin to move in a slow arc. A good omen. He paused in his work to watch it, then called out to the other villagers, working their own fields, but it turned out he hadn't needed to. The star moved slowly, but soon became as bright as the noon day sun. There was a loud explosion, and the star burst even brighter, then blasted down to crash into his neighbor's field near the tree line.
Earth blasted free, and the ground shook. Smoke rose in a great pillar, obscuring the view, and darkness reclaimed the night. Villagers were rushing toward the meteorite and shouting excitedly. Zhu dropped his bag of seed, and his adz, and started walking toward the pillar of smoke barely visible in the dark.
Then he saw something that made him run the other way. Fire. The fields had been allowed to grow fallow from the previous harvest, and dry grasses covered the ground. They were now catching fire from the heat of the impact, and spreading quickly. "Fire!" he yelled, running toward the well at the village center. He continued to yell as he ran, and the other villagers took up the cry.
Women were coming out of their houses, carrying buckets, and Zhu arrived to grab the first. He ran back, ignoring all pain, knowing that any hesitation could mean the loss of the village, or at least their livelihood. He must have sloshed half the water out of the bucket by the time he got to the fire, but he knew speed was more important than quantity. He threw the remaining water at the very edge of the fire, catching mostly unburnt grass, hoping to make sure it stayed unburnt. The important thing was to contain their losses.
One of the other villagers, a younger man by far than he, arrived next with his own bucket. Zhu pointed out a good spot to throw it, and the man followed his directions. Zhu then handed the man his bucket, and the man ran back to the village with both of them.
Another man was coming quickly, and Zhu could see the dark silhouettes of several more behind him. Zhu stayed to give direction, watching the fire carefully, and throwing dirt on it when no one was there with a bucket.
Before long, there was a bucket brigade set up, with each member of the village - men, women and even children, taking the bucket from the previous person and handing it on. Zhu stayed at the edge of the fire and threw bucket after bucket, handing them back to the line. It wasn't long before they got the better of the fire. They continued to throw buckets full of water at the rock in the center of the pit until steam stopped coming off of it. Finally, it was safe, and Zhu passed on the word to bring torches they could see by.
Once they'd gotten a few, the men of the village gathered around, and climbed down into the crater. The meteor was half submerged in water, and covered in mud, but all the men agreed that if one squinted, it looked remarkably like the upper torso and head of a woman.
In the morning hours before sunrise, Zhu was woken by the sounds of trumpets. "What is that, Zhangfu?" his wife asked fearfully.
"Rise and dress," Zhu commanded. "Only a member of the imperial court would be announced this way. We must be ready to serve them when they arrive. Start the fire, put on the kettle. Be ready to cook something if they wish."
Zhu threw on his simple farmer's pants and robe, then stepped outside and slipped into wooden-soled sandals. He unfurled a flag, and set it in the hole in his doorframe, made for it. The rest of the villagers were scurrying about, lighting torches, hanging flags, and clearing the dirt street for the visiting dignitaries. Surely they were here about the heavenly stone that fell to earth, but how did they know, or get here so soon?
The trumpets sounded again, and the villagers all lined up outside their houses, heads bowed. Zhu's wife joined him at his side. A regiment of thirty archers entered the village in two straight lines and passed on through. When they reached the far side, they spread out and circled the village. They were followed by the Imperial Guard, then an ornate palanquin carried aloft by eight burley men. The trumpeters followed the palanquin, and finally another troop of archers.
The whole procession stopped at a command from inside the palanquin. The guards gave a fierce cry, and stood at attention. Two of them left their position and came around to lower a staircase from the carriage. The silk curtains parted, and out stepped a tall man. His hair, pulled back in a high and tight silk wrapping, was streaked with white. He stopped at the first step and surveyed the village.
Zhu and the others bowed deeply at the sight of Li Si, chancellor to the emperor. They remained in this position as Chancellor Li walked the rest of the way down the steps. Two other men followed him out of the palanquin. The first was ancient, with a white beard that reached nearly to his feet. He chose his steps carefully as he walked, stooped over and clutching at his robes. His eyes could barely be seen behind his bushy white eyebrows, but suggested a serene smile. The second was young, and walked with proud bearing, clutching a tablet to his side. His robes, though clean and well kept, were not the finery of a dignitary. When he reached the ground, he turned his eyes to the heavens above, where the clouds had gathered round like a clenched fist.
The emperor's chancellor spoke in a loud, strong voice. "A rock from the heavens fell here," he said. He looked around at the villagers who were still bowing. He gave no command for them to stand. "Bring it here!" he commanded.
Zhu snapped to action. He stepped forward, and several of the others broke ranks as well. They had brought it into the village the night before and cleaned it off. The men gathered and ran off to collect the stone.
Yu grabbed Zhu by the sleeve and spoke in an urgent whisper. "What can we do? They mustn't see it!" Several of the others nodded in agreement.
"Don't you think I know that?" Zhu said. "I broke my best chisel trying to destroy it." A thought occurred to him. "Yu! Fetch some water from the well. Gao! Bring some lime from your field. It is closest. We'll fill it in with paste."
Both men headed off quickly, and joined the rest of them as they placed the stone on some burlap for carrying.
Zhu grabbed a handful of lime and dipped it quickly in the water, then smeared it onto the offensive stone. Most of it stuck, and it blended surprisingly well with the color of the stone. "It will have to do," he said.
The men each grabbed a corner of the burlap and hefted the stone into the air. They carried it back to the procession and laid it down on the dirt road. They stepped back, and bowed again deeply, saying nothing.
The young man with the tablet gasped when he saw it, and came close. He acted as though he wanted to touch it, but didn't dare to. The old man just laughed, a high merry laugh. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, nodding excitedly.
Li Si pushed between the two and regarded the rock. "Someone has been shaping the rock." He scanned the men who had carried it. "Step forward!"
Nobody stepped forward, and nobody made eye contact. Finally, Zhu stepped forward, coming to one knee and looking pointedly at the ground in front of the chancellor's feet. "By the heavens, no one shaped the rock. It fell like this, Great Master Li!" He returned to his original position.
Li Si regarded them silently for a while. "Xu Fu! Can this be true?"
The white haired man shuffled up to the stone and knocked at it with his cane. "It can be! Oh, yes it can! He modestly reminds sir that he predicted it!" He began laughing again, more subdued this time.
"Wang Changdong!" Li Si called loudly, watching Xu Fu with disapproval. A young man in simple robes stepped out of the palanquin, and rushed to Li Si's side, bowing. "Wang Changdong, does the heavenly stone still please you?"
With shaking hands, Changdong walked around the stone to view it from all angles. "It does, great master Li. It certainly does."
"Guards! Place it in a chest and take it with us," Li Si commanded.
Just then, the skies opened up, and a sheet of rain moved in, soaking them all. Li Si headed back to the stairs to avoid the worst of it. He stopped when he heard the young man with the tablet gasp. "Great master Li!" the man called out.
Li Si returned in a foul temper. "What is it?" he demanded.
"The stone!" the young man said, pointing.
Li Si looked at it again. The lime paste was washing away, revealing words carved upon the stone. He too gasped, not believing what he read.
"The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided," it read.
"Who shaped this stone?" Li Si demanded again. He whipped around to take in the whole of the village. "Who carved this message?" he yelled at the top of his voice.
The entire village remained bowed and silent.
A hand appeared at the curtains of the palanquin. "Li Si," called a voice.
A look of fright came over Master Li's face, and he rushed back to the staircase. He climbed it tentatively.
There followed a whispered conversation. Several tense minutes passed as the men in the village, still bowing nearly double, looked at each other in fright. Finally Master Li descended the staircase again. "Guards! Destroy the stone!"
The man in the plain robes ran to stand in front of the meteor. "Great Master Li! Please let me take it. The emperor's army will be imbued with the heavens' might! The rock itself and the message do not matter, it will be pulverized and all offense wiped out. Please let me take it!"
Master Li held up a hand to the guards and looked back toward the palanquin for a response. The emperor's hand re-emerged and waved them off. "Collect the stone," Master Li said to the guards.
He lifted his soaking robes and returned to the staircase. The others followed after him. He stopped at the top of the stairs and turned, regarding the villagers again. "Archers! Kill them all."
Zhu and the others who had collected the stone had known their fate from the moment it began raining. Most of the rest of the villagers panicked and ran, but they remained where they were, still bowing. Zhu looked up, his eyes finding his wife's. They were joined like that in the moment that the arrows struck.
The doors to the Tardis opened, and the Doctor stepped out, smiling broadly and taking in the view. Pandora followed, wearing a red silk, floral robe with gold trim, and carrying her box as usual. Her hair was done up in a tight bun, and she wore powdered makeup and red lipstick. "Obelix! Kom!" She waited for the dog to come trotting out, and closed the doors behind them.
They were in a pleasant, hilly region with wildflowers growing everywhere she looked. There was a light breeze that carried the faint smell of ocean, and helped to take the edge off the heat of the day.
Pandora looked around. There were no roads nearby, but there was a town in the distance in one direction. "So this is ancient China, huh? "What dynasty again?"
"The Qin Dynasty," he said excitedly.
"Right," she responded, rubbing her chin and considering making a joke of some sort. "And why here? Why now?"
"Come on, Pandora! Can't you smell the history?" the Doctor said. He took her by the hand and began walking briskly toward the settlement to the North. It's 210 B.C. The very first emperor of a unified China is on the throne. You probably know a lot of little things about China, but have no idea when they happened. You know the Great Wall? The Terracotta Warriors? Those were all this guy! Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Obsessed with immortality. He sent learned man to the length and breadth of China looking for an elixir of life. He poisoned himself to death taking mercury tablets, believing ironically that they would prolong his life. There's a lot of little things too, things you probably don't remember from history class. He unified the warring states, he standardized on weights and measures, he developed a style of writing they still use today, to some degree at least. He was an amazing person. It's one thing to read about it, and trust me, it's a whole 'nother thing to walk into his palace and shake his hand."
"Can't wait to do just that. Hey, does it say anything about his progressive attitude toward women's rights? Because I've kind of heard otherwise about the Chinese, traditionally."
"Are you kidding, Pandora? They are gonna love you. Do you realize no one in China will see a blonde again for another four hundred years? They'll probably write songs."
Pandora laughed. "Just keep that psychic paper handy in case I need to be a queen or something."
The Doctor patted his breast pocket.
The two of them got to the base of the hill and followed a couple wagon ruts that winded through the hills toward town. When they came around one last hill, the area opened up into a large valley. The town was there, if it could be called that. There was a square mile or more of tents and shanty houses, cheaply built and looking too old to stand. Two large structures loomed above the houses, much newer, and crafted with care. The imperial banner flew from the crest of both. The first was a palatial structure built of fresh wood and paper, with a bright red tiled roof. The second was more functional, with tall wooden walls and a flat roof. Smoke came from several spots around it. Guards stood outside a closed gate, and there were sounds of activity coming from within.
Beyond that, there was a great step pyramid. Lines of workers were carrying heavy loads both into and out of the pyramid.
"We've got to visit that before we leave," the Doctor said in awe. "No one's been in it since the emperor's death."
"How come I haven't heard about that?" Pandora asked in amazement. "That's got to be bigger than the one in Giza."
"Mostly because they buried it soon after. It wasn't discovered again until long after they came up with that 'Seven Wonders' nonsense.
"Why'd they bury it?" Pandora asked.
The Doctor smiled. "Keep it secret, keep looters out, maybe. No one knows for sure."
They stood at the outskirts of the city, taking it all in, then Pandora headed toward the palace. "Where are you going?" the Doctor asked.
Pandora turned. "Is this a test or something? You said you wanted to see the emperor. He'll be in the palace, right?"
"I said he was an amazing person. We'll get to him later. The guy I want to see will be over there," he said pointing to the other large building. "I don't even know his name. History never thought to record it, but he's the guy. The artist, the architect. He designed the emperor's tomb. Rumor has it, it's got rivers of mercury, and the entire sky painted above. He also supervised the construction of the Terracotta Warriors. Anyone could have made a few molds and pumped out several thousand soldiers, but they all would have looked the same. This guy made each and every one of them different. Different facial features, different hairstyles, details in the armor. He customized the mix for the clay too. Even in your time, no one can replicate the recipe. Let's go find out who he is."
He headed off toward the low building, Obelix at his side, and Pandora following behind. He straightened up as he went, walking like he owned the place by the time he approached the guards. He held up his psychic paper to them. "Open for inspection," he commanded.
The guards eyes opened wide when they saw the paper, and they stood aside.
The Doctor remained where he was, but Pandora missed his cue and continued forward. He held out an arm to hold her back. "Well?" he said, looking back and forth between the guards.
One of them rushed to open the doors for them, nearly dropping his weapon in the process. The Doctor paid them no attention as they passed inside. Pandora hiked up her robes and got as close to the Doctor as she could. "What did the paper say?"
"No idea," the Doctor said out of the corner of his mouth.
They were in a room as large as a football pitch, and the sound inside was deafening. Tens of thousands of artists shouted back and forth as they worked in small groups, mixing clay, molding pieces, firing, assembling, painting. There were others forging actual weapons and working leather. Hammers clanged upon anvils and steam hissed as they quenched the bronze.
Taking up the majority of the room were thousands upon thousands of six foot tall clay soldiers, assembled and ready. Around the perimeter of the room, a thousand well-armed men stood at attention.
"They don't move a muscle. It's like an industrial Buckingham Palace," Pandora said loudly. "Can we look around?"
"That's what we're here for."
She weaved her way in between forging stations to approach the clay army. "They're all painted! They almost look alive. How come the ones I've always seen in pictures aren't painted?"
"It was twenty-two hundred years between when they were painted and anyone took pictures. Besides, they were buried all that time. When they were exposed to oxygen for the first time, it all flaked off."
Obelix began growling at one of the statues. "Ssh, Obelix. It's okay. They're not real." She turned back toward the Doctor. "Why were they buried?"
"Once again, nobody knows. They were supposed to go into the emperor's tomb."
"Which also got buried."
"Exactly. Now it's got your interest, eh?"
Pandora continued on through rank and file of spearman, swordsman and archer, all armed with real weapons. "There's a chariot!" she said.
The Doctor nodded. "Should be at least six of them, if memory serves. That's how many survived to modern times."
"Maybe there's a bunch that haven't been made yet. Did you think of that, Spaceman?"
"Nice try. We're in the final days of the Emperor's life. There was no point in building more once he died."
"Thought I had you there," she said. "Still, there's a lot of people working on all this with the emperor on his death bed."
"You know he's going to die, and I know he's going to die, but to everyone else here, he's going to achieve immortality. Come on. Let's go find the artist."
The Doctor turned left and went out to the ring of artists around the statues. "Excuse me," he said to the first one he came across. "Where is the artist?"
The man set down his paintbrush and turned toward him. "The artist?"
"Yes. The artist. The architect. The one who conceived and designed all this."
"You mean Master Wang?"
"Yes, of course I do. Who else would I be talking about?" While the man turned to look for Master Wang, the Doctor turned to Pandora and shrugged.
"There he is, speaking to Master Li."
"Master Li is here?"
"Yes. Of course. He and Master Xu are supervising everything leading up to the emperor's apotheosis."
"Ah. That makes sense then. Carry on." The man returned to the breast plate he was painting, and the Doctor, Pandora and Obelix went through the rows of artists toward Masters Wang and Li.
"What's an apotheosis?" Pandora asked.
"It means the emperor is going to become a god."
A chill ran down Pandora's spine. Until she met the Doctor, that would have just sounded like superstitious nonsense. Now she wasn't so sure. "Can he do that?"
The Doctor walked silently for a long while. "I don't know," he finally said. "Master Wang!" he said as he approached. He grabbed the man's hand and started shaking it vigorously. "I'm a huge fan of your work, if I could just tear you away from Master Li for a few moments, I'd love to ask you some questions." Master Wang look down at his hand in confusion, then over at Master Li.
Master Li straightened to his impressive full height. "And just who are you?" he demanded.
"I'm sorry, star-struck as I was, I forgot to mention." He let go of the man's hand finally, and dug his psychic paper out of his pocket. "I am the Doctor, and this, gentlemen, is Pandora!" he said with a flourish.
The men seemed to notice her for the first time. Their eyes widened, and Master Li snatched the paper from the Doctor's hand, examining it carefully. "It's genuine!" he said, holding it out toward the Doctor, but staring at Pandora.
She grimaced uncomfortably and held her box against her chest as they stared at her. Li Si walked around to look at her from behind. She could feel his breath on her neck as he examined her roots. He reached out to touch the silvery streak at her temple. Finally it was too much for her and she stepped backward, swatting at his hand. "Hands off, guv!"
His eyes widened even further at the unaccustomed disrespect, but he bowed and walked backward to rejoin Master Wang. "A thousand pardons, mistress. I couldn't believe…"
"Yes, well, forgive and forget," the Doctor said. "Perhaps there's something else you could be doing just now?"
Master Li bowed again. "I will inform the emperor of your arrival." He turned and hurried away.
"Now that we're alone, Master Wang, I'd like to know a bit more about how you came up with the idea for these figures," the Doctor said, putting an arm around him and leading him off toward a group of sculptors.
Pandora was about to follow, but Obelix was growling again. He was staring at one of the terracotta warriors. It was standing in its place at the end of one of the rows, but unlike all the others, it had its head turned to look to the side. Directly at her.
She walked slowly toward the statue. She hadn't noticed it before, but she had been looking at the whole group of them, and it seemed odd that this one hadn't stood out to her. Close up, she could see that not only was this the only one of the thousands nearby that was looking to the side, but the paint around its neck had flaked and broken off. The terracotta clay underneath was exposed, and there were chips of peach-colored paint on its shoulder. She leaned forward and blew. The bits of paint flew off the statue and settled to the ground behind it.
"Pandora," the Doctor called over the sounds of the workers.
She turned and headed back to meet him, summoning Obelix along the way.
"I want to come back and look at these again tonight. I couldn't properly scan that mixture with my sonic. They apparently had a problem with theft at some point, where workers were making off with statues, so now the army is guarded day and night. We'll need to get something from the Tardis."
Pandora was about to mention the one weird statue, but when she looked back at the army, she couldn't find it. They all seemed to be looking forward.
Pandora was sitting on her box, playing fetch with Obelix, when the Doctor returned. "A little additive for the guards' tea," he explained, swishing the contents of a stoppered flask.
"What's in it?" Pandora asked.
"Well, you know how tryptophan, like in turkey or warm milk makes you sleepy?" he asked.
"Yeah?"
"Well, it's nothing like that. But it does act on your brain, signaling it to sleep. Only this doesn't work gently and gradually," he said. "It will work fast, but not for long. A few minutes, tops." He put the flask in one of his pants pockets, bigger on the inside. Pandora stood, picked up her box, and matched his pace as he walked toward the build site.
"That's great, but even if you manage to get it into their tea, there are a thousand guards in there. If the first hundred start nodding off, they'll start to suspect the tea, won't they?"
The Doctor just winked at her, an action she could barely make out in the overcast night.
"The beauty is, they've got some sort of ceremony in the Tomb this evening. It will be just us, the ladies with the tea, and the sleeping guards."
"What are they doing?"
"No idea. Master Wang Changdong — write that name down for history, by the way — lost me at the point he said he and all the others would be there and not at the build site. He invited me, and I promised we'd come, but you know. Things happen."
"Aha. And why are you so curious about the composition of clay that you'd want to miss a mysterious ceremony in a tomb no one has seen in two thousand years?"
"Oh, the tomb will still be there tomorrow," he said.
Pandora regarded him skeptically, waiting for more.
The Doctor sighed. "Because I think it's connected. That particular mixture, never duplicated, might answer all the questions: Why did they bury the Warriors? Why didn't they go into the tomb like was obviously intended? Why did the tomb itself get buried? Did the emperor even get put to rest inside it? And most curious of all is the question nobody ever seems to ask."
"What is that?"
"Why did a man, so obsessed with his own immortality, even bother building a tomb?"
Pandora stopped, a stunned look on her face. "Oh yeah! Why didn't I think of that?"
"Because to you, this is all mumbo jumbo. It'll never work, and the emperor is going to die. Of course he'll need a tomb. And the more important the person, the bigger the tomb should be, right? But he didn't think so. So why did he build it? He barely scraped together a country! Why risk bankrupting it immediately? Especially if he never intends to use it."
Pandora hurried to catch up. "And you think the composition of some clay is going to answer all that?"
"Master Wang is adding to each of the sculptures a bit of rock that he's grinding up. He calls it his 'heavenly stone'. He claims it fell from the sky. The only problem is it's impossible."
"Why is that impossible?" Pandora asked.
"Ah, here's the tea lady," the Doctor said.
Pandora looked up to see a woman coming toward them out of the darkness. She had a wooden yoke over her shoulders, and suspended from each side was an enormous tin jug. She also balanced a tray on her head that was heavily loaded with tea cups. She stopped as the Doctor and Pandora approached. She set the jugs down and bowed deeply toward them, keeping the tray of cups carefully balanced. "Are you going to the ceremony?" she asked.
"Yes. We were just on our way there. Which direction is it again?"
She turned slowly to point behind her. In the distance, there were a trail of torches, leading up the hill. "In the emperor's monument, just up there," she said.
While her back was turned, the Doctor pulled out the flask, unstoppered it, poured half its content into each of the jugs, resealed it, and got it back in his pocket. "Thank you, dear lady. I would be honored if I could return the favor and help you with your burden before we go. Could we help you deliver the tea?"
She smiled and bowed again. "No, Master Doctor, it would shame me to give my burden to you." She stood back up, lifting the jugs off the ground.
"Just Doctor, if you please. And the shame would be mine if I allowed my shoulders to rest while yours strained as they do."
"But it is my job and my duty to carry the tea to the guards, that they might be ever watchful over the emperor's warriors."
"Ah, and so you shall carry the tea, while I carry your burden." He got his shoulders under the yoke and lifted it off her smaller frame before she could argue. Then he took a ladle from one of the jugs and handed it to the woman. "Your tea, madam," he said.
She blushed and accepted it from him, bowing again without disturbing the cups. She turned and lead the way along the path to the work site. She stopped for the guards at the door, deftly removing two cups from the stacks above her head. She held the cups in her splayed fingers, and poured tea from the ladle into each, then gave them to the men, who accepted them wordlessly. They opened the doors and the three of them entered, Obelix following after Pandora.
There were fewer guards there than had been during the day, but they still numbered in the hundreds. The tea lady repeated the process for each of the guards, moving efficiently from man to man. In all, the process took well over an hour. Pandora was getting nervous, first that the Doctor's additive would start to take effect any moment, then later, that it wasn't going to work at all.
"Doctor," she whispered meaningfully.
"Have faith," he whispered back.
They finished up with the last few guards, and the first several still showed no signs of sleep. Quite the opposite, in fact, they seemed more alert now than when they had entered.
"And this will keep them up all night?" the Doctor asked.
The tea lady laughed. "No, Master Doctor, just a few hours. I will bring them more tea when the candle burns down."
"Just Doctor," he reminded her. "Then you need something to keep you up as well." He reached for three more cups and poured tea for himself, the tea lady and for Pandora. He handed them around and raised his in the air. "To an important job, serving the emperor."
They could hear loud drums and chanting coming from outside. The ceremony at the Tomb had started. They all lifted their cups to their lips.
The Doctor put a hand over Pandora's cup, keeping her from drinking, just as the tea lady had hers. She looked at him oddly, then the Doctor pulled out his sonic. He waited a few moments and activated it. All the guards, and the tea lady, dropped to the ground.
"Now to see to that recipe." He shrugged off the yoke and ran toward one of the corners of the massive room.
Pandora ran after him. "You want to tell me now, why the meteor is impossible?"
He looked over his shoulder with an amused smile. "Because this one is made of stone. The ones that survive intact are made of metal. The stone ones become a fine spray of dust if they survive long enough to slam into the Earth."
"And this one?"
"Well look at it," the Doctor said, coming to a halt. In front of him was a rock about the size of her head that looked like white marble. There were a number of huge bronze hammers laying next to it, and white powder filled several bowls nearby.
"So, not dust then."
"No." The Doctor scanned it with his sonic. "It did come from space though… It's just that — No!" He spun around, a look of horror on his face. He was looking past her, so Pandora turned as well.
The Terracotta warriors had turned in place and were all facing them now. Pandora jumped, and Obelix growled.
"The rock survived because it wasn't a rock. It was alive! And these guards were watching the Warriors day and night until I put them to sleep. That was a stupid idea in hindsight."
"Did those statues just move?" Pandora asked.
"Yes, they did. But they can't do it again while you're looking at them. So don't look away, even for a moment. Don't even blink."
"Don't blink? How do you not blink? Maybe if I were prepared —." Her eyes were tearing up already.
A gust of wind blew through the room, and the oil lamps that were lighting it sputtered. Even worse, Pandora could no longer keep her eyes open. She blinked. When she opened her eyes again, the Terracotta Army had moved several feet closer. Spearmen were at the front with their spears lowered. Archers held crossbows trained on them. The horse-drawn chariots were frozen in mid charge.
"Around the side, move quickly, and don't take your eyes off them." The Doctor hurried her to the right and followed along.
A second breeze came through and the lamps guttered again, nearly going out entirely. When they came back, the soldiers had moved again, cutting off their exit to the right.
"Grab a hammer! We can smash a few timbers and get out the side."
"Doctor, those hammers are massive! I couldn't swing one on a good day, not to mention without looking!"
"Fine. You keep looking, I'll do the hammering."
The gas lamps blew nearly out. When they came back, Pandora and the Doctor were surrounded. Spearmen were all around them, and they stood back to back, trying to keep an eye on the entire army. "Doctor!" Pandora yelled, close to panic.
The Doctor was startled to find an officer of the Terracotta Army standing directly in front of him with its arm outstretched. In its hand it held a paper scroll. For a moment, the Doctor and the officer stood face to face, with only the sounds of drums and chanting between them.
He pushed on Pandora's back. "Squeeze between them. Now, while they're facing each other." He moved slowly backward, and the gas lamps went out again.
When they came back on this time, the officer had moved forward again, holding the scroll out in the Doctor's face. "Doctor!" Pandora screamed from behind him. The Doctor spun around to see several of the soldiers holding Pandora by the arms. Several others had spears thrusting toward her chest and throat.
"Don't. Blink," the Doctor said, then turned and cautiously pulled the scroll from the officer's hand. He unrolled the scroll and read it.
"Help us Doctor. The ancient predator has returned. You must stop it. You are our only hope," it read.
"What?" the Doctor said, looking over the top of the scroll.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a disturbance. Something was floating slowly through the air. It was too small to see, but it bent the light around it so that it looked like everything behind it was stretched toward a central point. It moved through the room, randomly at first, then, as if with a purpose, it moved straight toward the closest terracotta soldier. The moment the disturbance overlapped the soldier, it was stretched toward it and got sucked into the tiny dot. The dot moved onto a second, then a third soldier and repeated the process.
At that moment, the drumming and chanting stopped. The disturbance flashed white and disappeared.
"Not possible," the Doctor said, staring at the spot where the disturbance had just been.
The gas lamps flickered again and went out. When the lights came up again, the entire army had returned to its original position.