CHAPTER 17
Mount Dena, Zagros Mountains—October 17th, 1965
The mountain path grew steeper, and pretty soon disappeared altogether. What started out at dawn as a leisurely stroll had turned into a precarious scramble as they approached midday, and they were still half a day's climb from Dena's snow capped peaks.
Indy led the way as they scaled a narrow ridge, either side of the trio the deadly cliffside sliced down a few hundred feet to the forest canopy.
Indy glanced back, he saw Mutt offer out a hand to Talia, and watched as the good doctor shoved it away.
"I've got this, you just look after yourself. I don't want your clumsy ass pinballing us both off this thing."
She sure had spirit. Reminded him of a girl he once knew. What was it Marion had said? The Jones boys need someone who can keep them on their toes. His heart ached, but Indy couldn't suppress the smile that crossed his lips. Mutt—his ego still smarting—caught sight of Indy's grin.
"You got something to say, daddio?"
"Take it easy." Indy turned and carried on climbing. "Y'know, I was thinking about a time out in Nepal. Must be some thirty years ago now," Indy paused, had it really been that long? He grabbed an outcrop and hoisted himself up onto a ledge where he could catch his breath. "It was ten below freezing and me and your mom found ourselves stranded in the mountains in the dead of night."
"Mom was with you?" Mutt couldn't conceal his surprise, she'd never told him any stories about her life with Jones, not before he'd come along. Then he recalled something she had told him. "Hey, Nepal... didn't she used to run a bar out there or something?"
"That's right... I only visited the place once. Didn't think much of the clientele."
Mutt climbed up beside Indy, he couldn't remember the last time his dad had spoken to him about his adventures.
"Anyway, we'd had to make a quick get away—"
"Why?"
"We were in possession of something, and the Nazis were keen to get there hands on it."
"No shit!" Mutt couldn't help but smile.
Indy shrugged, "I guess some things never change." Indy got to his feet. "So, genius that I am, I drag us off into the mountains. Fritz had rounded up some local muscle, but we managed to give 'em the slip. But then a blizzard comes in, complete white out. We had no map, no compass, and we weren't exactly dressed for bravin' the elements."
"Jesus!" Mutt glanced to Talia as she pulled herself up alongside him.
Indy continued. "I thought we were toast. But luckily your mom was better prepared than me. She knew the mountains like the back of her hand, managed to get us to a deserted sherpa hut before the blood froze in our veins." Indy paused, his mind dancing in the past. "She saved my life," he looked to his son. "She was full of surprises."
Tears gathered in Mutt's eyes as they met Indy's. "Yeah, she sure was." Mutt smiled.
Talia watched, heartened that father and son were beginning to connect.
Indy turned his gaze to the mountain. They were over half way to the 4,000 ft summit, but the toughest leg of the journey still lay ahead of them. Nothing but frozen snow and lifeless grey rock rose up between them and Dena's foreboding peaks.
"We need to keep moving if we're gonna make it to the top before nightfall."
In truth they didn't need to make it quite to the top, Indy had watched the sunrise bleed through a crevice, about fifty feet shallower than the mountain's twin peaks. That was their destination. But the path was more treacherous than it had appeared from the relative comfort of the forest, and it would be suicide to try and scale this thing in darkness.
The thinning air took on an icy chill, but the vigorous ascent kept warm blood pumping through their veins. His heart was pounding and his leg and arm joints throbbing, but Indy kept on dragging himself skyward, managing to keep ahead of his younger companions.
As the sun began to dip in the west, they finally pulled themselves up into a narrow gully of dark stone. Here, their path levelled out, the pass was about two yards across at its widest point, Dena's icy peaks stretched up on either side.
Talia read aloud a passage from her notebook, her translation of Gilgamesh's thirteenth tablet. "The rising light of Shamash revealed the hidden path to the Palace of Ganzir," she looked to Indy. "This was the spot we saw the sun rise from."
Indy nodded. "If the Palace exists, the path should lead on from here." Indy studied the icy rock rising up on either side of the gully. "Presumably an entrance should take us into the mountain."
Mutt pushed past and worked his way along the pass, studying the frozen black walls. "So where is it?" Mutt kept moving, running his hands over the dark stone. "There should be a doorway or a cave or something, right?" The pass was some twenty yards long, and at the far end the mountain dropped away again, an icy gust whipped Mutt as he peered down over the precipice. He turned, looking up to his left, and then his right; Dena's twin summits towered on both sides, no sign of any crevice or entrance into the mountain. "There's nothing. It's a dead end."
Indy glanced to the sun as it slipped below the western horizon. Maybe he'd been right. Maybe they were chasing a fairy tale after all. But something, a feeling in the pit of his stomach, told him this journey wasn't finished with yet. He reckoned King Gilgamesh still had a few surprises up his sleeve.
"Maybe the sunrise will show us the way?" Talia said, struggling to muster any hope. Wind howled ominously along the passage, the mountain air biting at the trio.
"The temperature's dropping," Indy tugged up his jacket collar, shielding his neck from the deadly chill. "We won't survive the night up here."
Mutt tossed down the rucksack in frustration. "Damn it!"
Indy's eyes were snared by the Sword of Irkalla, slipped into the back of the rucksack. Its lapis lazuli handle was protruding and Indy could see that the sword was faintly glowing, the golden light throbbing gently. That's it, Indy thought. The sword!
Indy snatched up the weapon. "The sword is the light of Shamash!"
Talia realised too. "Of course! The sword will show us the way!"
His eyes fixed on the blade, Indy steadily walked forward, toward Talia. The blade's glow dimmed. He turned and paced deeper into the gully, the blade's fire intensified with every step.
"It's a divining rod!" Talia could barely contain her excitement.
Brighter and brighter the blade burned, and when Indy was around half way along the pass the sword's glow flooded the gully with daylight. He took another step forward and the golden glow weakened. He stepped back again, and the radiance grew once more.
"This is the spot!"
Talia and Mutt hurried to Indy's side as he slowly moved the sword toward the mountain wall. The black ice melted away under the intensity of the light, revealing a circular pattern etched in the stone; the radiating sun of Shamash. The ancient symbol was around two feet across, in its centre a dark slit carved deep into the mountainside.
Indy glanced to his companions, trepidation and excitement pulsing through him in equal measure. He looked to the Sword of Irkalla and carefully turned the weapon so that the tip of its blade was pointing toward the slit. He took a deep breath, then plunged the sword into the cliff wall.
A deep guttural rumble from within the bowels of the mountain. The mountain shook; rocks and chunks of ice tumbled down into the gully. Indy let go of the sword and grabbed Talia and Mutt, yanking them from the path of the falling debris. The trio pinned themselves to the opposite side of the pass, shielded beneath a slender lip of stone. Only the handle of the sword protruded from the mountainside, and they watched as a molten glow emanated out from the sword, eating through the symbol of Shamash and spreading further and further until a circle of white-hot stone—a couple of yards across—smouldered in the cliffside. They had to shield their eyes from the searing heat as the wall heaved and crackled, then the fiery rocks began splintering and liquifying.
Indy's mind raced, desperately fishing for a scientific explanation, but what his eyes were witnessing defied logic and reason.
Molten rock creaked and bubbled, then the cliffside began to melt away. An entrance was revealed, a tunnel leading deep into darkness.
Seconds later, a metallic clang as the Sword of Irkalla hit the ground, the molten igneous rock instantly solidified into icy stone. The tunnel entrance and surrounding cliff face took on the appearance of a geological feature that had been formed eons—rather than seconds—earlier.
Silence hung for a moment. Words lacked the weight, the profundity to explain what they'd witnessed; but Mutt found a few.
"Holy shit! What the hell just happened?" Mutt didn't wait for a response and reached to pick up the sword; the same sword that seconds earlier had been hot enough to turn stone into lava. Indy tried to warn his son.
"Wait don't—"
But Mutt already had hold of the weapon.
"Don't worry, it's as cold as ice." He passed it to Indy. "See?"
Indy felt the sword's familiar, frigid kick. He regarded the blade, glowing gently in the twilight. He dared to run his finger along its edge. It drew blood.
Guided by the sword's light, Indy led the others along the narrow passage as they journeyed into the mountain gloom. The tunnel was just high enough for Indy to stand upright, and the walls and floor were roughly hewn. Still, digging a tunnel of this length would have been no small undertaking for Bronze Age Man. That's assuming it was created by Man at all.
They were moving down a shallow incline, and the curve of the tunnel meant that after fifty or so steps they'd lost sight of the entrance.
The tunnel widened out, the ceiling gradually sloped upward and after a couple of minutes walking, they found themselves moving through a cavernous chamber. The walls were smoother, and on them were etched simplistic drawings, charcoal sketches of a great city, and a King stood atop its high walls. There were more sketches of the King, battling a great army and others of him fighting monsters.
"Hey, it's the Bull... the Bull of Heaven!" Mutt moved towards a drawing of the King raising his ax to a fire-breathing bull descending from the sky. "Mom used to tell me this story when I was a kid." Mutt smiled, and Indy was struck with how much he resembled Marion; the slight dimples in his cheeks, his blue eyes wide and mischievous. He wanted to hold his son, to tell him he loved him, that he would keep him safe; always. But instead he nodded and said.
"It's the story of King Gilgamesh."
Talia looked closely at the drawings. "The strokes are crude and unskilled, and they're much more recent than the shamanic cave art of Lascaux. What purpose could these drawings serve?"
Indy didn't have an answer. Then, Mutt let out a panicked cry as the light of the sword fell upon two great stone beasts; grotesque human features on huge scorpion-like bodies. Their faces contorted in rage, their tails arching over their heads, poised for the kill.
"Scorpions!" Mutt spat out the word. "I fucking hate scorpions!"
Indy walked up to the statues, which stood over ten feet tall. "Relax, I don't think these two are going anywhere."
"The Gilgamesh legend talks of him encountering two scorpion people," Talia continued. "A male and a female. Their appearance so terrible, one glance could render a mortal man dead."
Mutt tried to shrug off his fear. "Really? I mean they're not that ugly."
Talia took the sword from Indy and studied the monsters more closely. "Gilgamesh had to prove himself in order to get passed them." She looked back to the cave art. "Perhaps that explains the drawings! Gilgamesh told them his story, tried to convince them he was worthy." Talia could barely comprehend the significance of their find. "These sketches might have been drawn by Gilgamesh himself!"
"But wait, I don't get it," Mutt went on. "I mean, these things are just statues, right? Why couldn't he just walk around 'em?"
Talia held the sword up to the face of the uglier of the two creatures, presumably the male. The golden light illuminated flared nostrils and fanged teeth, eyes bulging in fury. The statue was so lifelike, the carving so detailed; nothing like the rough, almost caricature-style of early Sumerian art. A realisation gripped her.
"Maybe they weren't always quite so...immobile."
"What are you saying?" Mutt snorted. "You think these things used to be...alive?! That something turned them into stone?!"
Talia glanced to Indy, they both had the same thought, their gaze drawn to the sword. A second later Mutt caught up with their thinking.
"The sword, you think the sword did this?!"
A question neither Indy nor Talia dared answer. Indy held out his hand and Talia carefully passed him the blade. He pointed the sword past the statues; its light illuminated twenty or so feet of chamber which then stretched off into darkness.
"C'mon, let's leave these two in peace."
They continued down the passageway. Indy walked a pace or two ahead, and Mutt leant in close to Talia, trying to stay out of earshot of his dad.
"I'm not easily spooked, y'know. I just let my guard down for a second back there."
Talia smiled reassuringly. But Indy had heard him.
"I'm sure Doctor Wells understands," Indy said teasingly. "Besides, after what happened in South America, and considering where one of them stung you, it's no surprise you're scared of scorpions."
Mutt smirked defensively. "I'm not scared of 'em!"
Talia smiled, her curiosity peaked. "Where exactly did one of them sting you?"
Mutt ignored the question. "Really, I'm not scared!"
"Relax, Junior," Indy called back. "Sooner or later, everyone has to face their..." Indy stopped in his tracks, and when he finished the sentence his voice was laced with dread "... fears!"
Mutt and Talia arrived alongside him; ahead their path was a squirming carpet of vipers. The venom spitting snakes writhed among the bones and carcasses of the ill-fated rodents and small animals they'd dragged down to their subterranean lair. Indy's heart raced, he could feel cold sweat gathering on the back of his neck; his palms were tacky, his hands shaky. He jumped when Mutt's hand landed firmly on his shoulder.
"You were saying, old man?"
The serpents snapped and hissed at each other, Indy watched as a larger snake turned to cannibalism and effortlessly consumed one of her smaller companions.
The vipers then caught sight of the trio and began to slither at speed towards the promise of a veritable banquet.
"Oh shit!" Mutt summed up the situation perfectly. They started to back away from the encroaching beasts.
"Look!" Talia cried "There's more!"
Indy glanced around, the snakes were closing in on all sides. Indy pointed the sword toward the first snake that came within venom-spitting distance, and it backed away. But the vipers had them surrounded, and the sword's light wasn't proving enough of a deterrent.
A viper hissed, flared its poison-dripping fangs and lunged for Talia's leg—Indy jabbed the serpent with the sword before it could make contact with her skin; a golden bolt of lightening crackled through the snake, frying it from the inside-out. The beast squealed in agony and exploded, sending clumps of singed, scaly flesh flying through the chamber.
Indy grinned in disbelief. He jabbed the sword at another snake, and then another—each time the golden electricity zipped through the serpent, resulting in a shrieking, gory eruption. Indy jabbed at a viper that was entangled among other snakes; the lightening bolt shot through all the connected snakes and clumps of charred flesh spattered the chamber walls.
"C'mon, let's move!" Indy cried, and led the way as they hurried through the writhing chamber. He jabbed the sword repeatedly at the entwined beasts; snakes exploded all around them like gore-stuffed landmines. The trio shielded themselves the best they could from the guts and fragments of bone raining down, and dashed into a smaller—thankfully snake-free—passageway.
As they caught their breath, Indy passed Talia his canteen. She took a healthy gulp, before pouring water into her hands and washing the blood from her face. She handed the canister to Mutt, who did likewise.
"This sword... I mean, wow!" Mutt continued. "I wonder what else it can do?"
"I'm not sure I wanna find out." Indy gently tossed the sword in his palm, gauging its weight. "It feels like it's getting heavier, somehow, the further we go into the mountain."
Talia nodded. "Its power, it must be increasing."
"Maybe," Indy said. "Or maybe its fatigue and the darkness playing tricks with out heads."
Mutt looked back to the blood drenched carnage in the adjoining chamber. "Some trick!"
Indy sighed, then smiled. He turned and took a long breath. "Let's see what else this place has got in store."
The three adventurers moved cautiously along the passageway, the light of Shamash leading them ever deeper into the mountain gloom. After a few hundred yards their path ran into a natural fissure, a long meandering crack within the mountain, just a few feet wide.
The dank, musty air clung to their throats and nostrils. Indy shone the sword's light upwards, the walls on both sides disappeared high up into the blackness. The ground became ever more uneven, and soon they were scrabbling through shallow pools of water. Mutt stumbled, his hand slipping through brown slime mould as he steadied himself on the wall.
"That's just great!" He wiped the gunge on his pants.
It was hard to keep track of the distance they'd covered, but Indy reckoned they must've been at least a mile from the entrance, and still the path led on into ever more darkness.
Maybe they'd managed to veer off track somehow, though Indy was certain he hadn't missed any turnings or other tunnels running from the main path. Maybe this was all a wild goose chase, a practical joke set up by Gilgamesh five millennia ago. Then...
"Look, daylight!" Talia exclaimed. Up ahead, their path curved to the right and, sure enough, what appeared to be the distant glow of sunlight was bleeding across the rocks.
"No, it can't be?" Mutt cried. "It was dusk when we entered this place—there's no way we've been down here for twelve hours, have we?"
Indy sighed "Like I said, the darkness can play tricks." He placed a hand reassuringly on his son's shoulder.
They hurried toward the distant glare, and as they turned a corner their squinting eyes beheld a towering sliver of golden light; sunshine was pouring into the mountain. The path was taking them back out onto the mountainside.
"This doesn't make any sense..." Mutt looked to Indy. "The Palace, the legend, it has to be true!"
"Let's take a closer look." Indy walked ahead, and the others quickly followed.
Shielding their eyes from the glare, they emerged from the narrow mountain fissure; but their path hadn't led them outside. Instead, they entered a vast underground cavern, the walls twinkling with innumerable golden lights. A glorious, breathtaking sight.
"What is it?" Mutt was aghast.
"I dunno..." An awestruck smile spread across Indy's face. "Some sort of metallic element in the rocks." He paced further into the cavern as his eyes adjusted to the brightness. "I've seen fluorescent minerals before, but nothing that's actually able to emit light like this! It's just... spectacular!" Indy held up the sword, its golden glow similar to the sparkling metal in the rocks.
"Of course! This metalis the missing element in the sword's alloy!" Talia was beaming, she turned wide-eyed to Indy, then gazed back up at the ethereal beauty of the lights. "This is what gives the sword its power!"
Bathed in the angelic glow, with the light's heat gently warming his skin, Indy felt re-energised. He felt at peace. He closed his eyes. For how long, he wasn't sure. Then he heard his son's voice.
"Hey, look! A doorway!" Mutt was pointing across the expansive cavern to an elaborate archway carved into the wall. They approached the entrance, the doorway's surround was decorated with a repeating symbol; an eight pointed star with an eye in the centre.
"It's the sign of Ereshkigal," there was an uneasiness in Talia's voice. "Goddess of the Underworld."
"I suppose that's her?" Mutt looked up to the archway's keystone, where a carving of a gaunt, wraithlike female face stared down at them. "She looks like quite a girl."
Above the archway, cuneiform indentations had been cut into the rock. Indy began to translate, but he was far from fluent in this ancient language. "To... Ganzir... Palace... of... Queen... Ereshkigal. Gateway... to..."
"Gateway to Irkalla." Talia looked to Indy. "And the land of no return."
Indy sighed, tugged down the brim of his fedora and looked through the doorway. He could see a few stairs leading steeply downwards, after which an oppressive darkness hung thick and murky.
"OK then. Down we go."